Good things

Sometimes I suck at being thankful.

Oh, I've got a good excuse lots of times... the last several months have not been anybody's idea of a normal first few months of marriage. Since Sarah's been sick for pretty much the length of our marriage -- if you're someone who doesn't know about that and wants to, feel free to e-mail me -- we've not been able to do half of the things we thought we would do together, and we're having to learn to live with her depleted energy supply. My schedule at work is, to put it politely, not ideal this quarter - think "away from the house from 7 AM to 11 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays." And we changed churches in July - this is certainly not a bad thing, and we're excited about our opportunity at First Baptist (I'm the main worship leader for the Gathering, the contemporary worship service there). But it also means that we've seen much less of the people from Northeast who were our community there. Add in a few other events like our car being broken into and the death of a friend who was like a second mother to Sarah, and, honestly, we've been asking God what exactly we ought to be learning from all of this.

Sometimes I get a little frustrated with myself - I know that my problems, compared to many others, are not huge. On the other hand, everyone has their own set of troubles, and they are very real - as Anne Lamott says, "Still, at some point maybe you have to stand up to anyone who is trying to disgrace you for being upset with your broken leg when they know someone dying of cancer. "

But in planning for worship this week, I was going over the scripture with Wallace (my good friend and one of the pastors at FBC) - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-14. I was reminded that being thankful in the midst of persecution, keeping the faith in hard times, is a very good thing. I know myself well enough to know that I can't do it well, but I do have a lot to grin about...

So, some good things:

• The Boston Red Sox won the World Series (Hey, don't call me a bandwagon-jumper... I just like a good story with a happy ending).
• I've won $6 in Best Buy bucks playing the Monopoly game at McDonald's. (Maybe that's not a good thing... moving on...)
• I have a wife who makes my lunches most days, loves Jesus, and for some reason is committed to staying with me forever, even if it's not always fun. And I get to sing with her.
• We live in a little house that has nice things (mostly - well, ok, all - Sarah's) and has a little pond in the back (even if the pond is about 3 inches deep and home to several million loud water fowl).
• We have a cute little dog who only poops on the floor once in a while.
• The fall air is crisp and smells wonderful.
• I had time with my brother, Adam, last weekend, and our friend Joel Conrad the weekend before.
• Adam taught us how to play Texas Hold' Em (hey, we don't have ESPN, so I never got to watch celebrities play it).
• The kindergarten name-calling session masquerading as a presidential election will be over soon.
• Kansas is ranked #1 in the pre-season Coaches' Poll!
• I've been listening to Over the Rhine's live album that is basically the same amazing show that Sarah and I saw on our first official date.
• We're going to a murder mystery game thingy hosted by our friends Sam and Jen on Halloween night.
• I don't have to go to work tomorrow.
• For some reason, the author of this whole crazy story keeps giving me sixth and seventh and 3,000th chances.

Weekend Update

Had a good weekend... Friday, we took a walk at Eagle Creek (a local reservoir), and let Bristow sniff around and explore nature a little bit. This picture is from that outing. That night we went to the World Swimming Championships (short course) here in Indy. Lots of Olympic names were there - pretty cool to see them swim in person. They really are fast. Michael Phelps was there, but injured, so he didn't swim.

Saturday we finished off the last DVD of season 3 of Alias, which means we have to wait until January for a new episode. Sad that I'm upset about that, huh? I swore I wouldn't get into that show, but I guess snagging Sarah meant I had no choice.

Church Sunday morning was good, and we had a good lunch visit afterwards with a couple from the church, the Justices. Then we left for Brown County State Park, which is about an hour and a half south of Indy, and is a beautiful wooded area with lots of hiking trails and camping. The leaves are only now just starting to turn, so I'd love to go back in a week or two, if time permits. There are some overlooks in the park where all you can see are leaves and the sky - it's wonderful. We camped Sunday night, and even slept a bit, even though we had a puppy who was trying to make sense of a new place and even though we forgot the pump for the air mattress. I'm a little stiff, but it was fun. We hiked a bit in the morning, and stopped at a local winery on the way home. I'd never actually been to a winery to do a wine tasting, but this place was really good. They made some very good fruity wines... I don't normally like that kind of thing (I tend to like reds like shiraz, pinot noir, chianti, etc.), but these were not too overbearingly sweet - just nice and light.

So, now it's back to work, which reminds me - I should be working, not blogging!

Use of language in worship leading

Here is a link to an interesting discussion I engaged in with another person involved in leading corporate worship. The inital article is a little long, but it's worth reading if you're into this kind of thing!

And now the last installment (for now) of my visual trip through the last 6 months... this is Sarah and I in Halifax, Nova Scotia a couple weeks ago. This was a stop on our CRUISE... a much needed vacation. 

And the newlyweds with my side of the family... 

My brother giving a toast... 

Here's kind of an artsy one... 

And here are a couple from March 27, 2004 - Wedding Day. 

And here's one more from Encounter... 

Here's another shot from Encounter - my good friend Joel is playing guitar at the left there. 

As a quick way to catch up on a few things, here are some pictures. This one's from Encounter, the national youth gathering for which I got to lead worship. Sarah says I'm hot in this picture (not that I'm bragging)...

 

Starting again

Well... I suppose sufficient time has passed that any of you who used to read my blog don't anymore! But I just might be ready to write again. Maybe some of you will find your way back here.

If any of you have been checking once in a while to see if lightning struck and I posted an entry, all you've seen for months is a joyful announcement of my engagement. Well, the Day came (quickly), and since March 27, Sarah and I have been married. Yep, that's already over 6 months ago.

I've learned from a fits-and-starts journaling habit that it's impossible and silly to try to thoroughly catch up on six months of life in one sitting, so I'm not going to attempt it here. But life has definitely changed a lot, to the extent that reading through my previous entries in this space seems a bit like visiting an old neighborhood where I used to live. The biggest difference that's striking me is that my thoughts now travel so much more in the realm of "us," and so much less in the realm of "me." Don't get me wrong - I can be as self-centered as ever, but waking up next to someone every morning is a great reminder that I'm not just "Me" anymore... in fact, as of this past Friday, it's "the three of us" - Mike, Sarah, and Bristow, our new puppy. Sharing your life. It's wonderful, but at the same time hard to learn. I think Sarah and I are both trying to figure out for sure what that means. I suppose that's true for most newlyweds.

A lot of the previous musings in this space were born out of at least a mild loneliness, and a longing to share my life with people... well, many of my deepest thoughts now fittingly belong solely to Sarah and I, and this space probably won't and can't be the type of dumping ground that it used to be for my inner monologue. But another thing I've learned in marriage so far is that no matter how close you are to your spouse, it's not enough. First of all, we can't replace for each other the need for intimacy with God that every human shares - although we've tried. But beyond that, even though I appropriately want to devote a majority of my relational energy to our marriage, we also still will crave connection with other people, and that's completely healthy, both for me as an individual and for our marriage.

So I don't know exactly what this space will hold, but I realize that a part of me is longing to engage in some conversations with... well... whoever is interested(!) about the things that are important to me. Maybe I want to try to rediscover, in the midst of a crazy new old life, what is important to me. So I don't know if anyone's out there anymore, but I'm going to try not to keep silent.