a photo-bloggertunity/tcp update

today is a day that i have been waiting for for years, unknowingly, of course. i never considered the signing of a lease on a building when i first thought of wanting to open up a coffee shop many years ago. i liked coffee. i knew many other people who liked coffee. and i could make it good. i thought that was all that was needed. surely, my reputation would precede me.

but today we signed the lease. and here i am realizing that my smile and charm that got me through so many years of school no longer have that power, and that every minute of my life is now dedicated to the success of a ministry which ultimately does fall in Gods hands. but enough worry. that begins tomorrow since today is my "day off". we signed the lease. its done. here it is.

the wonder years

i downloaded the first season. this show is my childhood. as i watch it i do not see kevin arnold but rather myself. it helps that i looked just like him when i was his age and watching the tv screen is like looking at myself, in the sixties, but nonetheless, i relate.

so i watched the first episode and remembered how great that show really was. there are times you watch something from your childhood, smurfs, for example, and even though youll still love it, you realize that it was terrible. not so with the wonder years.

so i leave you with a thought from the final scene of the pilot episode. straight from january 31, 1988:
"it was the first kiss for both of us. we never really talked about it afterward. but i think about the events of that day again and again and somehow i know that winnie does too. and then theres some blowhard starts talking about the anonymity of the suburbs or the mindlessness of the tv generation, because we know that inside each one of those identical boxes with its dodge parked out front and its white bread on the table and its tv set glowing blue with the falling dusk there were people with stories. there were families bound together in pain and struggle and love. there were moments that made us cry with laughter. and there were moments, like that one, of sorrow and wonder."

now these are real men.

You can lead a horse to water. Jack Bauer can make him drink.

- If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

- If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.

- Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.

- Every time you masturbate Jack Bauer kills a terrorist. Not because you masturbated, but because that is how often he kills terrorists.

- Osama bin Laden's recent proposal for truce is a direct result of him finding out that Jack Bauer is, in fact, still alive.

- Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

- Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.

- 1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

- Jack Bauer killed 93 people in just 4 days. Wait, that is a real fact.

- Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

- Jack Bauer let the dogs out.

- Superman wears Jack Bauer pyjamas.

- Jack Bauer's favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but just because it sounds like violent.

- If Jack and MacGyver were locked in a room together, Jack would make a bomb out of MacGyver and get out.

- Jack Bauer played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.

- Lets get one thing straight, the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

- Jack Bauer got Hellen Keller to talk.

- When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer fucking hates lemonade.

- When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jack Bauer jumps out.

- Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.

- The quickest way to a man's heart is through Jack Bauer's gun.

- Jack Bauer can get McDonald's breakfast after 10:30.

- Jack Bauer is the leading cause of death in Middle Eastern men.

- People with amnesia still remember Jack Bauer.

- It would only take 1 bullet for Jack Bauer to kill 50 Cent.

- Jack Bauer once won a game of Connect 4 in 3 moves.

- Jack Bauer has been to Mars. That's why theres no life on Mars.

- When the boogie man goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Jack Bauer

- Simon Says should be renamed to Jack Bauer Says because if Jack Bauer says something then you better fucking do it.

and now for some Chuck Norris-isms.

Midtown should have an "e"

a few thoughts. a coffee shop that claims to sell Cuban coffee should a) have Cuban coffee and b) have coffee that does not taste like a piece of charcoal went swimming in some sugar. the Coffee Pub will solve this tragic problem.

Midtown(e): Watermark's new home; our offices are moving; the Coffee Pub is opening; the church is moving. We are "moving into the neighborhood" as "the Message" puts it. We are having a party in a Midtown(e) park on Saturday. In short, we have found our identity. We have identified our community. And now we are one step closer to reaching one of our goals to be a good neighbor and force for good in our neighborhood.

God is taking control of situations, even when we at Watermark drop the ball. Most of the things falling into place have not been results of our diligence, but rather gifts of unexpected encouragement.

Keep praying. We need major amounts of help.

the lion

Last week I soared. I was relaxed. Things went smoothly. I felt connected to people that I had been feeling distance. Through it all God spoke. What took longest for me to grasp was the balance of life and death. On Tuesday, my friend Beth's grandfather passed away. That same day my small group happened to watch a video sermon talking about mourning and grieving a loss. The result was that a group of guys, who for a few weeks had seemed to be goofing off more than growing closer in spirit, began to open up. We began to look inside ourselves. We began to look inside each other.

In this video, the teacher spoke of a Jewish tradition called "sitting shiva", where friends and family come to visit the person who is grieving and do not say a word. They sit on the floor and are just there. They are there with their friend. No one speaks. When the person they are visiting decides that they want to speak then the others can join in. I thought that was a beautiful idea.

The same day I got a phone call. A close friend of mine called me to tell me that he and his wife are having a baby. This is at the same time that at least 3 other friends of mine are also pregnant.

In one day my mind tried to wrap itself around birth and death. At the same time that one of my friends is dealing with loss, others are dealing with life.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and while people are making their plans, I wonder how this day will look in my future. I hope that God has something planned. I hope that I will experience birth in my future.

You too can make a difference.

well worded Bono. well worded.

its an apple world.

From now on this is my little funky machine.

coffee pub update

Today we are officially incorporated!

In the Bible people celebrated and today I think it is appropriate for the Watermark family to celebrate.

the fight over who gets gay

In a recent article by Brian McLaren, he attempts to deal with an issue which the topic alone immediately draws opinion. Subject matter: homosexuality. My question is, however, is that what his article was about? No. It wasn't. Unfortunately, too many people responded to the article as if B-Mac were making some outrageous claim. It is in the humble opinion of this writer that a closer read should be had in regards to the article.

B-Mac's words articulate a very real and necessary attitude check from the Christian community. Specifically, as a follower of Jesus, as people who are to be in tune with compassion, love, forgiveness, caring, understanding, and hope, you know, the "good news", we need to learn that there are always questions behind the questions people ask. When the Pharisee's tried to corner Jesus and ask him hardline questions, his most common response was another question. If Jesus is more about getting to the heart of the matter, than quickly brushing over issues, shouldn't we then be also? Jesus doesn't want us to do the right thing because if we don't we will burn in eternal damnation. Jesus wants our hearts.

I went to the theater to see Brokeback Mountain. Leaving that theater, my thoughts were not on what an immoral world we live in. My thoughts were on the struggles and hurt feelings and need to be loved by everybody in our world, including people of a homosexual orientation.

It is hard to be a single guy in his mid-twenties who desires more than anything to be in love and have a future with my wife, and thoughts of children, and the pain seems even more unbearable to believe that there are people out there that not only feel that same longing to be loved and needed, but to have to repress it. As followers of Christ, we need to see the needs behind the issues. We need to stop trying to fix people and we need to learn the listen to the heartjoys and the heartaches of our brothers and sisters, whether we share the same faith or not, because the truth is, that whether they acknowledge Christ as the one source of salvation or not, they were still created by God and in His image, and we might find that we share more in common than we've wanted to admit all along..