Do This:
Yet another reason why Gmail is (Tami's) second-most favorite inanimate item after milk:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/2-hidden-ways-to-get-more-from-your.html
I just can't get over something- I frequently listen to podcasts at work of sermons from my pastor and last week I started listening to the series he preached on Ruth.
One of the things that I just can't get out of my head is where Ruth ends up in the field of a kinsman redeemer- one of the only men who could marry her and restore their family, quite the equivalent of finding the back of your earring that fell out yesterday and you have to go everywhere you went and hope it's still there. As most may know, Ruth ends up being (I believe) grandmother to David, but far more important is the fact that she was in the direct lineage of Jesus Christ... I'd say that is the equivalent of amazing.
Pastor Mark pointed out is how the Lord is so intimately involved in every detail of our lives. What is beautiful about this is that he used the language of the Bible to really emphasize this- it just so happened was a phrase that he used again and again.
I love this, because things in my life seem so utterly random, and often come from heartache or at least adversity. I did TFA largely in part because I was deeply hurt by a church and needed a fresh start. I met Jason as a result of not getting a job that I was supposed to have. Jas and I are going to an amazing church because the Lord used problems at our previous church to reach out to Him. Some of the most tangible growth in our life as a married couple has grown out of a heartbreaking family situation where we were completely... well, wronged.
This all seems so coincidental, mere happenstance, and yet the hand of God never ceases to amaze me- it just so happened that I was hurt, that I was rejected, that I was robbed spiritually by weak leaders. It just so happened that the Lord turned what man intended for evil (whether it was under a cloak of spirituality that even the perpetrator fell for) into being useful for good. It just so happened that the Lord has used my own sins and errors and used them for good. I will never get over this- the Lord, Jesus Christ, is far more powerful and able than I will ever begin to understand, and He alone is worthy of my worship.
I don't need to whine about a job I don't like, a relationship I'd rather not deal with, a material possession that isn't up to what I think I deserve. Instead, I can see that every circumstance is always part of a "it just so happened" that the Lord always uses to make me more into the woman He intends for me to be. I can say nothing other than a humble HALLELUJAH to that.
-Tami
... into the fire [Sunny Came Home, Shawn Colvin]
I would just like to say that burning down your house is more than a few small repairs, and in that same vein, to call it coming home with a vengeance is quite the understatement.
Only Becca P. will likely have any idea what I am talking about.
In other news, I really think today should be Thursday. My mind and body both think it's Thursday. To be quite frank, I was rather pissed off when I suddenly realized that it's only Wednesday.
Meh.
There really isn't a lot of purpose to this post, other than to say that Jason and I are well, and that we're just really busy. Because I like these things, let me share with you our normal week.
Monday: Up at 6:30 (Ok, I hit snooze from like 5:52 until 6:45. Bite me.), shower, quiet time, grab a bite to eat in truck, Jas drops me off at work. Work 8-5. Jas picks me up, we go straight to the gym, and usually get home between 7:30-8, depending on traffic, how full the gym was, etc. Monday's at the gym are always busy. Then we eat a salad (usually spinach and salmon, with various additives), do our Community Group Bible study together, read our Community Group book, pray together between 9:45 and 10, and try really hard to be in bed with the lights out at 10:15. Monday nights, btw, are no TV night. It's rather wonderful. This means that we watch American Gladiators later in the week, but next week is the finale so that's happy- less TV!
Tuesday: Same deal with getting up and work. Then, after work, we get home around 5:30, eat a quick dinner (usually something like stir fry that's all ready to just be cooked up real quick), and leave for Community Group (basically, the small groups at Mars Hill, our church) at about 6:40. We usually get home around 9. Then I try to squeeze in watching The Biggest Loser and American Idol before 10 as much as I can. This means that we usually get to bed around 11. Sometimes J watches the shows with me, and sometimes he putzes around on the internet under the premise that he's blogging. We pray and then it's sleepy time.
Wednesday: Wednesday is, for all intent and purpose, the same as Tuesday, except that we have Gospel Class at the Ballard campus of Mars Hill. This means we have to leave around 6:15 because it's in inner Seattle and we live in the suburban sprawl that is Bothelliarmus. We tend to get home close to 9, and I watch American Idol and I work on making J watch with me :)
Thursday: Pretty much the same as Monday, except that after the gym we get home, scarf down our salads, and then jet back out at about 8 to go watch Survivor and LOST with friends from our Young Married's group. We usually get home around 10:30 from that, and pretty much go right to bed.
Friday: Getting up and going to work is the same as every other day, and then once we get home around 5:30 it just depends on the week. On the first and third Friday of each month we have our Young Married's Bible Study. It's technically supposed to be a group from our old church, but over half of the couples don't go to that church, either, so it's just more of a bunch of people who love Jesus and one another. It's grand. On the non-YM's weeks, it's a blessed night off. We usually veg on the couch on those weeks, grateful that we got through another busy week, and grateful to just be together, resting. These nights tend to include lots of Law and Order- both the original and SVU. Oh, and Celebrity Apprentice, because it rocks. We still aim to get to bed by about 11-ish.
Saturday: We try to get up by about 8. J is better at this... I tend toward 9, and if we stayed up too late on Friday, then closer to 10. Jas works lunch shift delivering food, so he tries to go to the gym to swim in the morning beforehand (his shift starts toward 11, but varies), and I usually do a DVD at home to get in a solid cardio workout. He usually doesn't get home until about 3, sometimes 4, so I try to clean the apartment. If I'm lazy then I just veg on the couch and catch up on shows from the week that we didn't have time to watch that J doesn't care about (think ANTM). I try to be good about not doing that, though. Once J gets home, we usually leave again by 6 at the latest to go shopping at Trader Joe's for the weeks grocery run, and then Saturday night is date night. If money flow is decent, we might go out, but we usually tend to make a yummy (healthy) dinner and do a Netflix. Once again, the aim for bed is 11, but tends toward midnight on Saturdays.
Sunday: We just recently decided to start attending the 9am service at church, which means we have to be up and showered and out the door by 8:15. This weekend, however, we are starting to serve as greeters, and for that we have to be there at 8:20 to pray first, so we need to leave by 7:40. YUCK. Greeting is every other week, so that's nice. We were going to the 11, but J loves getting out of church at 10:30. After church, we stop at Costco and get a rotisserie chicken and usually milk :) Then we go home, eat the drumsticks off the chicken for lunch (and J eats the wings because he LOVES them), and then I use the breast to make a chicken salad that then becomes our pre-workout meals that we eat on Mon & Thurs around 5 so that we don't pass out during our workout. I should put the general recipe on my foode blog because it's yummy and healthy. Maybe sometime :) Anyway, usually we would watch football... my life is now empty and I dunno what we'll do on those afternoons. Maybe play board games, or if it's not raining, we'll go for a walk.
[Insert: That's right, it rains in Seattle CONSTANTLY. It sucks. So don't move here. Ever. Does that scare you away? I hope so. And please tell all your friends, especially if they are from out of state.]
Jas just recently decided to work his food delivery job on Sunday evenings to help out a little financially, so that will likely be from 4-9 most Sundays. I'm not sure what I'll do. Probably get meals all prepped for quick cooking for the week. And watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition b/c I LOVE it!! Then we'll go to bed around 10 and Monday it will start all over.
I told you we are busy. And for Jas, until May, he does all of his pools during the first week of the month, and then after that he cleans his weekly units on Thursdays and does lunch shifts delivering food all of the other days. On those days he goes to Starbucks to read after he drops me off at work, does his lunch shift, then either cleans a few leftover pools he didn't didn't get to in the first month, or goes home, ostensibly to clean up a little and get in some blogging. Usually this means he reads about politics for hours on end until it's time to come pick me up.
Whew! That's our life. Ugh. It makes me tired just to write about it. I'm sure others are just as, if not more, busy. But now you know :)
PS We can't wait for The Office to come back, and possibly Heroes. Plus, I miss Grey's Anatomy. Not like a heck ton, but I do miss it.
Tami: Ooooh! I LOVE this song!!
Jason: I don't.
Tami: It's awesome!! Have you ever listened to the lyrics in the chorus?
Jason: Uh, no. But there's something about shooting someone dead.
Tami: Exactly! It kicks so much ass!!
Jason: Uh, you're white.
Hello all! It's Jason posting, at long last. Albeit, I do so only to announce official news that Tami and I have decided to become members of Mars Hill Church, and as such leave Crosspointe. For the sake of not typing out a detailed explanation twice, what follows is a message we sent to friends and family explaining our decision.
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Beloved Friends,
After a grueling and heartbreaking process of soul-searching, prayer, and God's clear call being communicated to us, we have decided to leave Crosspointe Church and to join Mars Hill Church in Seattle. While we don't subscribe to the notion that you can never be called away from a church, we want to make it clear that the reason for our departure can be found in the stated and well-practiced mission of Mars Hill, rather than in any particular fault Crosspointe Church may have.
Tami and I are both first-generation Christians. What weighs on our hearts the most as a married couple is our responsibility to raise children in the warmth of God's grace and love, something we unfortunately never knew in our childhoods. When we reflect on the picture of Christ our lives will project to our children one day, as well as on our family members and friends who don't know Christ, we simply cannot settle for anything less than the fullness of what God has for us. As such, we are very happy to have found Mars Hill Church to be a place where the Bible is taught in a real, raw, and sometimes even brutal fashion - even more importantly, in a way that changes lives.
Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill is not only a dynamic (and hilarious!) Bible teacher, but a humble servant of Christ who is very specifically open about his own struggles with sin and how much he has grown during the process of founding a church that now finds itself being among the most influential in the country. And most importantly, he pulls no punches on the pulpit. "I speak hard words to produce soft people; soft words produce hard people" is something you can often catch Mark saying, and it's refreshing, although not always comfortable. Mars Hill is a place that puts a premium not on comfort, but on sound doctrine and solid bible teaching and pairs it with practicing community with fellow Christians in a way that values accountable, iron-sharpens-iron relationships. We are at such a fragile state in our spiritual lives, being a newlywed couple, and we cannot help but be drawn to an environment where Jesus can truly empty us of all that hinders and fill us with the Spirit more abundantly than we've previously experienced.
Specifically, Mars Hill is a place that concerns itself with the vitality of marriages, and focuses on a biblical, complementarian view of gender roles in marriage. Under this new teaching, I will be challenged to love my wonderful wife as Christ loves the church, and Tami will be challenged to respect me and encourage me to lead our family as a godly man. We simply cannot resist God's call towards a church body that will dare us to reach for His best in our marriage.
We are also irresistibly drawn to the missional aspect of Mars Hill Church. It is truly a miracle that this church has been so successful in a place like Seattle, bringing to Christ people most would write off as unreachable. Seattle is a place that's just as Godless as communist China, yet nobody ever speaks of taking a mission trip to Pioneer Square! We are happy to have found a church that makes outreach inextricably linked with its church structure and never seeks to serve itself first.
It must be said that our ties to the youth ministry at Crosspointe is what made our decision so difficult. We love every last one of the students we've been privileged to serve, and it breaks our hearts to know that God has called us away from such a great group of people. We have really enjoyed getting to know all the students and staff, and while we cherish every moment we've had to both challenge others and to be challenged in the race we run for Jesus, it grieves us to be called away after such a short time.
Furthermore, we love Crosspointe Church! We love Pastor Rick, and it was an honor to have him officiate our marriage. And through Crosspointe we've come to know several wonderful people that we will truly miss. Know that we didn't take this lightly, and know that we tried as hard as we could to attain peace while staying at Crosspointe and ignoring God's pull on our hearts. Yet, even though it's been heartbreaking, we do have the peace from God we'd been looking for after deciding to join Mars Hill.
As we will keep Crosspointe and you all as individuals in our prayers, we would ask for your prayers as well. And we would encourage you all to believe in Crosspointe with all your hearts as He moves you to. Just because we found certain things lacking doesn't mean they don't exist or couldn't exist. It all starts with your relationship with Christ and how you relate to each other. Tami and I are learning to be the church we wish to see, and we would encourage you all to do the same.
We love you all and thank you for allowing us to be part of your lives.
In Christ,
Jason and Tami
