Adulthood

June 2, 2008

18 years ago, on an overcast Oregon day, my best friend and I promised to love each other…and asked for Divine assistance to accomplish it. Which means, I guess, that our marriage is officially an adult today. And it feels that way. These last two years, and especially the last few months, have felt like we’ve added maturity and stability to our commitment to each other.

I’ve always told her I look forward to growing old with her; now I’m looking forward to when our marriage is old enough to get the application to AARP, and hopefully even when our marriage is old enough to take social security! That’ll put the two of us at 89 or so.

I love you, Elaine!

Posted in family 3 Comments »

Bloop Single

May 31, 2008

I’ve been thinking about slumps. Former baseball players do that occasionally.

There are different kinds of slumps. Some are like what I had last week in our first night of softball, a doubleheader where I got up 10 times, and absolutely crushed the ball on 9 of them. I was line-driving it everywhere, frozen ropes as my coach used to call them.

I got on base one time.

Some slumps are worse than that, the kind where you can’t touch anything, you just ain’t seein’ it. It’s a crazy game, one where hitting horribly and hitting incredibly can have the same exasperating result: nothing. Whichever kind of slump you are in, you just long for something, anything, to break you out of it. You’re looking for that ugly, desperation, bloop single that barely gets over the 2nd baseman’s head, and you hope it will make the nasty slump come to an end.

I’ve been wondering what kind of post will be the bloop single to break me out of my blogging slump…and as always, I’m surprised at what does it.

MY CLACKAMAS CAVALIERS ARE BASEBALL 6A STATE CHAMPIONS!!!

Yes, friends, my alma mater beat Liz’s alma mater 3-1 today down in Salem to take home the school’s first state championship in any boys’ sport. 22 years ago, when I was wearing #4 and playing third base, everybody would have guessed basketball would be our best shot at a state championship; we were never very good on the diamond. But 22 years is a long time, and there was a lot of red and black in the Keizer Volcanoes stadium today to watch.

Yes, I went. For part of it. Elaine thought I was crazy.

I missed the dramatic ending, because I had a prior commitment at church to honor our graduating high school seniors…that really was more important. But I saw two great pitchers today, Nick Struck for Clackamas and Ryan Gorton for Tigard. Struck threw a great game, with Tigard manufacturing their only run on two questionable calls and a single. Gorton was even better; he threw a perfect game through 5 innings; a perfect game. The Cavs couldn’t touch him. I was driving back to Newberg for the top of the 6th. Cavs finally got a single; moved him around to third on two ground balls; then, a fly ball to right center that should have ended the inning.

The guy missed it. E-9 in the scorebooks, and the game is tied. Next hitter launches a two run home run over the right field fence, and the Cavs have a championship!

I was hoping to see my high school coach, but no such luck; he’s been gone over a decade, and didn’t show up for the game that I could see. It was fun to see how some things change, while others are the same. My brain still thinks though every pitch and situation, just like it used to. But I can’t imagine that many of my friends coming to watch me play! And, I’m amazed at the dollars in uniforms now. Both teams had warm up jerseys as well as home and away game jerseys, coats, and at least two different styles of hats. Here’s a few shots I took at the game…

Assistant Coach John Arntson

Nick Struck:

Hopefully this is my bloop single that breaks the slump!

Posted in high school, this blog/blogging 5 Comments »

Timely help

April 24, 2008

“It’s easy to say ‘Jesus is my Savior.’ But sometimes people’s approval is my functional Savior.”

Bob Hyatt has been speaking to us at our Yearly Meeting’s pastors’ conference, and he’s been quite helpful to me. Last night, he kept reminding us the good news of the gospel: God’s grace through Jesus gives us our identity, our hope, our salvation, everything. We’re so tempted to let other things become our identity, our hope, our salvation. I’ve got several functional Saviors that need to be crucified and not resurrected.

Posted in church thoughts, finding myself 1 Comment »

Thrilled

April 18, 2008

We had a great time celebrating my birthday in downtown Portland–several hours in Powell’s Books, dinner at Noodles and Company, and then dessert at Sweet Masterpiece.

EVERYONE just LOVED celebrating with me:

Somebody was in a mood. Maybe this had something to do with it:

Posted in family 2 Comments »

Mission accomplished

April 18, 2008

1 hour, 44 minutes, and 54 seconds. I did it. 40 laps on my 40th birthday. And, since I ran in lane 4, I actually ran 10.5 miles, so I hit 10 minutes a mile almost exactly. Not nearly as fast as I wanted; but, considering a week ago I didn’t think I could finish, and considering I haven’t run longer than 40 minutes for 5 weeks due to sickness and my leg, I’m giving myself credit. I ran 3 miles farther than I ever have in my life, and I accomplished my goal.

Elaine took this picture about half way through the journey. Since I was running a lap for every year, I was saying to myself things like, “I’m 16 now. It’s 1984″. After Elaine took the picture, she joined me for a mile, and she had perfect timing: we ran together for the first 4 years of our marriage.

The last two miles really hurt, and that’s when my time got pathetic. But hey, mission accomplished, now to Portland with my family!

Posted in family, finding myself 9 Comments »

Uploading past messages

April 17, 2008

I’ve gotten behind on posting what I’ve been speaking in worship lately.

For Easter, I wanted to clearly present the good news of Jesus, that it is for everyone without boundaries. I also wanted to expand our understanding of the good news to include more than forgiveness, but also the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. I used Acts 10: 34-46. You can read that here, if you wish.

Back in January, I decided to continue the “Are we really going to talk about…?” series by dealing with the Atonement right after Easter. How we define what happens in restoring our relationship with God is fundamental to our belief system about God and the world, but we rarely unpack it carefully. Steve Sherwood is a part of our church, a long time Young Life worker, and a professor at George Fox University. He’s pursing a doctoral degree, and his emphasis of study is the Atonement; I knew I wanted him to share the message with me. We realized as we worked on it, that there was more than one message could address. So, on March 30, I gave the intro/overview: “What do the cross and resurrection do for us?” It was right in the middle of the worst of my illness, so I didn’t feel like I got it down as I would have liked. You might want to listen to the podcast instead; I changed the opening and several other things when I spoke; click on March 30.

When Steve and I shared the message on April 6, we did “Are we really going to talk about the Atonement?” Steve took the lion’s share of the day, and he did an amazing job. I told him that it was humbling and moving to watch someone do part of what they were created to do. He did a masterful job with the bible texts (using Hosea and the Prodigal Son to explicate the cross), and his theology and use of the Old Testament was articulate and solid. But what stands out is that he really wants people to live and breathe in a relationship with God through Jesus. I don’t have any printed material from the day, but you can listen here; click April 6. You can also see the basic gist of what he said here…Steve won a contest looking for new expressions of the Atonement.

This past Sunday, the theme was “Are we really going to talk about poverty?” I have a passion and desire to keep Christian churches from narrowing the gospel to only salvation, so this was close to the core for me.

Posted in NFC, worship & messages 1 Comment »

Catching up

April 15, 2008

So, I feel like I need to give a refund of everything you’ve ever paid as a reader of my blog. Your satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back, you know…but please don’t tell me if you are satisfied when the blog goes silent. I don’t want to know.

Easter dawned with hope, the beginning of spring vacation. I envisioned one-on-one dates with each daughter and Elaine, family time, a light work week. But we were hit with sickness, Aubrey and me the worst. It was long, nasty, and brutal. So the visions turned into mirages, and the blog went silent. I’ve been relatively healthy for a little over a week, but digging out at work has meant neglect-o-blog-itis.

Much to catch you up on, of course, as I’m sure you are dying to know the minutia of my life. Due to the sickness and much pain in my calf and shins, the training for the big 40th birthday run has taken a hit. I’m still going to try and do it, but my leg may not let me. Nothing like setting a goal to not feel so old, and having the goal painfully remind you how old your body truly is. Not to mention the way it reveals a warped personality that borders on mental illness. Elaine quite reasonably suggested tonight that I could very easily try to do the run in May. I looked at her as if she were insane; I literally could not comprehend NOT trying to achieve this ridiculous goal that no one cares about except me. And that says more about me than I care to delve into at the current time.

Unlike her aging, limping father, Talli is off and running well early in this new track season. Her first meet was last Thursday, and she had a good case of the nerves, as did her good friend and partner in crime, Savannah:

As they anxiously awaited the start of the 1500, Talli’s favorite event, one of the girls from the other team said, “Sorry to say this, but we’re going to win. There’s four of us and only two of you.” Because that’s how track works, you know. It’s not about how fast you are, but about the numbers. Talli started to breathe easier, and when Savannah asked their best time, the answer was almost a minute and a half slower than Talli’s best last year.

They started slow. Let me re-phrase that. They started SSSSSSSS——–LLLLLLLLLLLLL———–OOOOOOOOO————-WWWWWWWWWWW. Their first lap came in at 99 seconds, about 10 to 15 seconds slower than Talli usually did last year. There was never a doubt that Talli was going to win the race, and her last two laps she looked so smooth and strong, I knew this year is going to be good for her. She won by a huge margin, with Savannah in second:

I’m really learning to enjoy track, and I especially love the group of friends Talli has. They are great people, and three of the best run with Talli on the 4 x 400 relay. I got this picture of them right before the race, and I love it:

I suppose nobody except my parents (hi mom! hi dad!) really enjoy reading about me gushing about my kids, but hey, like I said, ask for your money back. It’s my blog, I can do what I want. Talli’s going to get some more blog time here, simply because there’ve been lots of cool things going on for her. And just to be publicly on the record, I love all my kids very much, and this is in no way me picking favorites with my kids. Ok? Got it? Good.

So the track meet was Thursday, and she won the 1500 and the 800 and they came in second in the relay. Then on Friday, she went to a festival with the Advanced Jazz Band from her school. She had a trumpet solo, and the clinician told her she did a great job. This all came in the midst of state testing and extra homework; we’ve not seen her quite so exhausted as she was Friday night.

When I was younger, I didn’t dream much about being a parent. But I suppose when I did, I pictured something like what happened on Sunday afternoon. Talli and Stevie planned a huge water fight at our house. They spent hours planning and calling people and filling up water balloons and buckets and collecting squirt guns, all the while trying to coerce me into joining them. They included all the younger kids in the neighborhood, including Hayley and Aubrey. I ended up running around our back field hucking water balloons with 14 middle school and elementary girls (me and poor Jacob were the only males in sight). We were in teams, but somehow my team turned into a bunch of Benedict Arnold traitors, and every single person on that field doused me at some point.

I have to say, it’s the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. It’s the kind of dad I wish I could be more often, laughing and teasing and getting ganged up on. I like knowing my kids’ friends. I thanked Talli for giving me a dad moment I’ve dreamed about for a long time. I just never dreamed that I’d be this tired and sore…

Posted in family, this blog/blogging 6 Comments »

Life

March 23, 2008

This morning, with the first light of dawn cracking the sky, I tried to picture an earthquake; tried to imagine a stone rolled back, the tear-stained faces of women whose unhoped for dream had already come true. I couldn’t really do it. But I’m immensely grateful for God’s limitless power and love. And I want that power and love to live in and through me to a greater and greater extent.

Happy Easter! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.

Posted in bible/theology 1 Comment »

Basketball!

March 19, 2008

Tomorrow begins march madness, one of my favorite fun times of the year! Read past stuff here…and if you’re interested in joining (before 8 am PDT Thursday morning) here’s the scoop:

STEP 1: Click this link to go directly to my group.

You can enter your member name and password if you already have a free account at ESPN, or create an account (if you create a new one, uncheck all the boxes so you don’t get a bunch of e-mail).

After you’ve logged in or created an entry, you enter the password for the group, which is “twelve” (without the quotes). Then you’re in!

STEP 2: Pick who you think will win all the games. After you pick your teams, you don’t have to do anything else; just enjoy the games for 3 weeks! To pick your teams or follow the progress throughout the tournament, use the following link:

Game Front: http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/frontpage
Group: Gregg’s Group XII
Password: twelve

For inspiration and laudation, I hereby post the March Madness Hall of Fame:

Imagine…join this year, and your name could end up in the hall of fame!

(The honorable mention goes way back before ESPN hosted this thing. I had another scoring method that gave you bonus points for picking upsets, and Doug and Diane won under that scoring method.)

So, I let you dream of the day when your name might be etched into this hall of fame.

Posted in march madness 3 Comments »

High School Orientation

March 13, 2008

Fourteen years ago, pregnant with our first child, Elaine and I began a birthing class at the old Newberg Hospital. Our friends Shawn and Katrina joined us in the same group, and what a group it was. There was the romance novel writer and her husband, another couple from our church, another couple with more years between them than Elaine and I had yet travelled the sun (and who split up within six months of the birth of their baby.)

There were several unique things about our group; at 26, Elaine and I were some of the youngest in the group. Most of the classes had much younger folks, the nurses said. And my goodness, did we bond. We had a lot of fun, starting when we toured the hospital and two of the moms started joking about hooking up the painkillers and the epidurals right in the middle of the 2nd trimester.

We had birthing class reunions. I am not making this up. We actually ended up meeting more times after our children were all born than we did in the actual birth class sessions. We had a six month reunion, birthday parties, Christmas parties…if I hadn’t been a part of it myself, I would think somebody was making the whole thing up. The romance novelist ended up writing a book based on our class; embellished, of course. I never read the book, so I don’t know how my character turned out. I hope I ended up the comic relief.

Here’s a picture to show you I am not making this up, taken at the 2 year old birthday party:

So last night, 14 years later, I sat in the same room with 4 of the moms and kids from this birthing class. It was the Newberg High School gymnasium, and we were all there for high school orientation for our almost grown up babies. When you add Talli into the equation, the five on the left side of the picture above were all there. (She’s the third from the left, and of course she was Natalie back then…)

Let me take a deep breath and write that again: I was at a high school orientation for my daughter.

It’s a shocking reminder that the years are flying by; but I’m glad for this community I live in. Shawn and Katrina are moving back to Newberg, which means that including their son and Talli, 6 of the kids from our birthing class will matriculate as freshman. That’s a stability of place that you don’t very often see, and one of the unique things I like about living here.

Posted in family 3 Comments »