So Much To Say

The last month has been so busy with starting our new jobs as teachers. Here's a list of some of the many things that has happened in that time:

- I changed the headlight in our car.
- We got our fish Zebedee back after 16 months without him and his tank.
- We started our job as teachers at our church.
- We survived the first two days of school without the majority of our curricula, which was hungup in the mail.
- I played a game of soccer with some Mexican-Americans who I could occasionally keep up with.
- I led the book club of "One fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" with the 1st and 2nd Graders.
- I cleaned up human feces on my hands and knees.
- We saw a prescreening of "The Exodus Conspiracy," a film about archeological evidence for the Exodus and the conspiracy to cover it up.

There's been a lot more, but there's a quick update.

You Are What You Believe

What if people actually believed what they thought they believed?

What I mean is, what if people were effected by the things they give acknowledgment to as true? What if people actually lived like the Bible verses they've memorized? What if people actually believed that prayer of a righteous man is effective? What if people believed that Biblical commands were attainable?

How then would people live?

Ethical Dilemma

I was in an interesting situation the other day.

I am a Packers fan. I live in Viking country. This can be difficult at times (well, except for the fact that the Packers tend to beat the Vikings even during the worst of seasons).

So, some friends of ours asked us to go to the Preseason opener for the Vikings, in which they were playing the Rams. They were free tickets, but it was to see the Vikings. Fourteenth row, corner of the endzone. Free ride, free parking, but it was to see the Vikings. Have never been to an NFL game before, and not likely in the near future, but it was to see the Vikings.

So, we went. Hey, it was free. It was fun to go to a game in general. It was fun to hang out with friends. It was fun to see former Packers like Darren Sharper and Ryan Longwell. It was fun to see Vikings' 1st round pick Adrian Peterson rush for a couple of first downs. It was . . . fun.

So, does this make me a bad person? What about loyalty? What about team pride? I even stood up to cheer for the Vikings on an 80 yard interception run for a touchdown. I'll argue that I stood up to cheer for a good play.

On a side note, one play was reminiscent of the famous Packer play - the Rams threw the ball, it somehow bounced off of a Viking arm on the ground and up into the hands of the Ram receiver when the play was whistled dead as he proceeded to run into the endzone. Rams challenged, won the challenge, but were given the ball at the spot of the catch, not the touchdown it would have been.

I Feel Bad For Smokers.

I really do. If I were a smoker, I would be incredibly upset that there are fewer and fewer places that I can smoke.

However, as someone who doesn't smoke, I am glad that I can breathe. I believe John Locke put it something like: "My right to swing my fist ends at my neighbor's nose." Well, my neighbors' rights to smoke on their porch should end at my right to not have to sleep with the air condition running simply because I can't sleep in second-hand smoke. It was literally 5 minutes after I opened the windows that my neighbors started smoking on their porch. And now I'm writing instead of going to bed so I can wait until the smoke dissipates in our apartment.

P.S. Insult to injury is that Thomas Jefferson, who wasn't as innovative as we give him credit for, stole the idea of "life, liberty, and property" from Locke, a British political philosopher. It would be interesting to read colonial history from a British textbook.

3 Days and 4 Hours

That's the age of the youngest child I have ever held in my life. Our friends Nate and Natalie just had a son, Eli Andrew, on Friday. We made them a meal and brought it over to them with no expectation of staying more than a minute. We were quickly invited in and handed Eli. We ended up staying an hour, holding Eli about a third of the time and playing with Abby, their 3 1/2 year old daughter, about a third of the time.

Top 5 Things I Didn't Expect About A Newborn:
5. He was incredibly strong. It was hard to pry his fingers apart or stretch his arm out.
4. He was much warmer than I expected. Not hot, but warmer than I expected.
3. His pinky toes curled in. I always looked at the slight curl inward of my pinky toes and thought it was related to wearing shoes or socks or something.
2. I was supposed to wake him up and keep him awake while holding him. I guess I always ne that newborns have horrible sleeping cycles and wake up the parents at horrible times, but I hadn't realized that this could be thwarted by trying to keep the child awake during the day. Makes sense. I failed.
1. His body was way more resiliant than I anticipated. My largest concern about holding a newborn (this was the first) is the His-neck-could-snap-and-fall-off idea. While his neck was fragile, he was more flexible and strong than, I guess, jellyfish-like.

Newborns are so much cooler now that I know their not jellyfish.

6 Degrees From Me To Me

I've been in awe recently at how many people I know that know people I know. For instance:

Me-Bethel-Church-Bethel-Me:
I worked with Linnea (Friberg) Quam my senior year at Bethel on my RA staff.
Linnea lived with Karen Thomas near Bethel for a while.
Karen Thomas is a part of the Young Adult Ministry of which I am a part.
Karen is also friends with Bekah States from the Young Adult Ministry.
Bekah lives with Erin Kelly right now.
Erin Kelly was also on the RA staff with Linnea and I.

Me-Spransys-ETWC-Source-Me/Me-MadCity-Church-Me:
I know Linnea Spransy from Westbrook.
I know Joe Steinke from worship times at the Spransy household.
I am a fan of Enter The Worship Circle music and writings.
Linnea Spransy, Joe Steinke, and some members of ETWC are putting on a worship-y conference in the Twin Cities through Source Ministries.
Our friends Todd and Libbie (Kent) Anderson have worked with Source.
Also, some of the staff of MadCity Church (which may have included Joe Steinke) have come to conferences that our current church puts on in the Twin cities.

Me-Katy-Sojourn-MadCity-Me:
Katy regularly went to the Sojourn worship service at her home church near Chicago.
At Sojourn, they did the song, "Riding the Wings of Music."
"Riding the Wings of Music" comes from a cd that the members of Sojourn got from MadCity church.
I know a number of people involved with leadership and worship leading at MadCity from Westbrook.

"Welcome to Caribou . . ."

". . . Could you hold on while I go cry in a corner?"

Today, I worked a partial shift at a different store. This other store has a drive-thru, which our store does not have. When I showed up to take over for another person from my store working at this other store, I realized that she was working the drive-thru. There were three people working when I came on, but two were leaving. It was very busy. So, not only did I have to learn drive-thru very quickly, I had to adjust to a totally different set-up behind the counter, and there was a line of people at the drive-thru. Prayerfully, after a half-hour, things died down and I just had to finish out the short shift. The two shifts I've worked at other stores makes me appreciate my own store that much more.

But it seems to mainly be a matter of habits. When I work at other stores, they mention how they like working at their stores more than other stores. The only plus to working at one of the stores is the large amount of tips. But I would rather work more confidently in my own store making slightly less tips and being comfortable.