Sometimes I have these seasons that require me to get graphically creative every day for a period of time.  These past few months have been that way, designing newsletters, logos, websites, flyers, etc.  While it was still feeling fresh I jumped on the chance to redesign misterlib.com, so if you read this through an RSS reader, you should check it out.  I’ve also really wanted to use the Pixelate>Color Halftone effect, so I took a pic at the Brooklyn Bridge and grey scaled it, messed with the contrast and applied the filter.  Good times.  It took about 3 hours last night, and I am excited that I can get this kind of a change in 3 hours time.  We live in good times.

We want to show you how the wizard is growing, so here are pictures from the first four months:

Month 1:	Month 2:
Month 3:	Month 4:

Although this book is a lot of theory thus far (70 pages in), and one of the broadest scopes I’ve read on movements like the emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic streams of the church.  It’s a lot of material, but this point, which affects us all, is new to me.  It truly illuminates some of the things that we are blind to as a pop-media driven culture:

Not only does this imperial global economy claim to define what is ultimate, I believe it is increasingly colonizing the imaginations of peoples all over our planet to buy in to its notions of what constitutes the good life and better future.  No wonder that many of Islamic faith are concerned.  And we should be too.

While our Christian faith fully embraces the material and economic world, we know that for those working from a Christian worldview, the ultimate is never defined primarily in economic terms.  We affirm that the ultimate will only be found in a different reality and a different dream for the global future, defined by the restoration of our relationship to the creator God.  It is a dream in which he ultimate is found in seeing broken lives restored.  It is a dream in which justice finally comes for the poor, wholeness for God’s good creation and shalom for the nations.

The New Conspirators: Creating The Future One Mustard Seed At A Time by Tom Swine (pg. 69)

On Friday night, I found myself in my back yard, tackling the monster that my lawn had become.  Of course I had left my headphones at theAXIOM, so there ended up being a lot of thinking while I was out there.  It had been a couple of months since I last mowed it,and the grass was at least four feet tall.  I thought a lot about how I hate to mow my lawn.  I don’t like yard work at all.  I’d rather be inside with the AC and a computer.  That’s when I made this connection.

Some people have beautiful yards.  I don’t.  It doesn’t bother me that it’s not manicured.  It bugs other people.  There are people that can’t think about anything else when they know that they need to get to something in their yard.  It even bugs these people that my yard is in such disarray.  Again, it doesn’t really get to me.  However, I am the same way, but with different things.  The thing that bugs me the most is the way people treat their computers.  They invest a chunk of change in a computer, and they never attempt to learn about the OS they are using or how they should keep it tidy.  There is nothing more obnoxious then when I sit down at someone else’s computer and there are at least 20 icons on the desktop for things they will never click on, there are 4 search bars in the IE6 that they are using, and their dock or their start menu is the size of a county library.  I feel like I need to teach them, help them, and redeem them from the doom they have allowed themselves to encounter.

I wonder why we’re wired to be a little bit obsessive.  And in that, help point other people to what we are obsessing over.  Maybe sometimes the obsession is a little misdirected.  It usually is.

My friend Jason Merino is going back to San Diego this weekend to finish his college degree.  He has one class left.  Something to do with Greek.  We hung out quite a bit this summer, and we had some really good talks.  There weren’t many ends of discussions or neat conclusions, but good convo none the less.  He posted a challenge that I am going to attempt and see where it takes me.  You can read about the challenge here.  It is more or less 77 days without buying things we don’t need.

I’m going to write down everything that I buy, trying as hard as I can to really think about whether or not I need it.  Then see where it leads me.  It will end on Oct. 31st.  This might be really, really hard.  That’s two reallys.  You should really read the challenge to see the why behind it all.  And yes, I’m the other character, the one with the Jetta.

We’ve had some requests for more sonogram photos, so I’ve put up more of those at the end of this post.  Also, the hilarity that was telling my family is now on youtube and right here for your viewing pleasure.

p.s.  i love imovie 08.

We started serving dinner on Thursday nights at the oroville rescue mission.  I know that when setting it up, the idea was to be consistent, but summer is the opposite of consistent (hot? no. sporadic.) tonight was the first night i got to go serve, and i have to say that it was awkward.  i like the idea of service, but i don’t live it.  i start to feel like the people there think that i think i am better than them, and that is probably because deep down, i lie to myself and tell myself things like that.

after we served them i sat down at a table with 3 guys.  one of them had a ninja monkey shirt (which was pretty cool), one of them had a broken tooth that he kept accidentally almost knocking out, and the other was named Blind Bob.  he was the oldest guy and he didn’t eat very much.  i didn’t know what to say or how to help them.  i felt helpless.

also, (i almost didn’t write this thought) i didn’t eat.  i don’t know why.  i actually lied and said i had already eaten.  i feel really bad and don’t even know what led me to lie in the split second question of ‘do you want to eat?’  i did.  i was hungry.  but i lied instead.  what is wrong with me?

today rhonda and i went to the hospital.  rhonda drank 32 ounces of water to make sure her bladder was full.  she thought i should have to drink more water as well because then i would feel like i was more a part of it.  anyway, she had to pee real bad.  and then we had our first ultrasound.  that’s right.  i’m gonna be a dad.  on february 3rd (ish).  oh.  and we affectionately refer to our child as the wizard.  it currently makes rhonda hungry and tired.  the wizard is also a thumb sucker.  it is 2 inches from crown to rump and .25 inches across the palm of it’s hand. we are the most excited.

I have to say that I am excited for 2 reasons. One is that I am going to Catalyst for the first time. I’ve wanted to go for a few years now, and I have finally decided to make it out to the east coast in October.  I am also really excited because Eric, my bro, is coming with me.  We’ve never really taken a trip together, so it should be good times.  The speakers I am most stoked for are:

• Andy Stanley - Environments.  The idea alone has redefined ministry for me.
• Craig Groschel - One of the most creative, out of the box thinkers I’ve found.
• Seth Godin - The Dip changed how I view life, and I wouldn’t be where I am without getting out of the cul-de-sac I was in.
• William Paul Young - Haven’t read The Shack, but enough people won’t shut up about it that I am now excited to hear this guy speak.
• Tim Collins - Good to Great, again, I haven’t read it, but everyone is raving mad about it. (mad in a good way)

We also registered for the labs, and there are a couple names that I have to drop here:

• Perry Noble - I really can’t get enough of this guy’s passion and transparency.
• Mark Batterson - Best book title ever.  His vision for DC is amazing.  God sized.
• Reggie McNeal - His six questions have been formational in our church, and he talks so fast when he gets excited that I can’t help but get excited.  Missional Community.  Good stuff.

It’s still a ways off, but I am so excited.

I was thinking a lot during my trip to Mexico about the Great Commission.  It is usually lumped into missions commissioning services.  Something along the lines or, “And Jesus himself said that we are to go into all the world.  So we commission you to go to Mexico.”  At some point I asked myself why in the world they don’t mention the second part.  The part where we are called to make disciples of all men.  It really started to get to me.  It was like they hadn’t quite figured out how youth mission trips to Mexico fit into the Great Commission, so they use it as much as makes them comfortable, but recognize that the long term effects of short term missions can be minimal.  I know it may sound harsh, but those are thoughts I had that led me to thinking about what it means to make disciples of all men.  I think it would be at least somewhat valuable to look at how Jesus made disciples.  Sometimes we get the wrong picture and it ends up looking like this:  (thanks to vintage21.com for this excellent video)

I thought a lot about what Jesus did, and I don’t want to reduce it too much, but I probably have.  Essentially, he did the right thing, and he invited other people to live with him.  Then, he just kept doing the right thing.  When people needed correction he corrected, but it wasn’t really as important as doing the right thing.  When they asked questions, he told stories.  When he had to, he used words like “Get behind me Satan.”  That was just that once though.  I think it is often debated what it means to make disciples, and it is better to be debated than to try to make them the way that jesus did in the video.  Perry Noble just posted a blog about this very thing, and I think he has at the very least a solid direction.  I love that they are doing everything they can to make disciples.  That’s way better than just whole heartedly embracing the first part of the Great Commission.