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 »

Been blogging in my head…

March 13, 2008

…and now I’m making time to write it down.

When I read on Saturday that President Bush had vetoed the anti-torture bill passed by Congress, I about blew a gasket. Here’s the thing: we can disagree politically, we can disagree about what’s best to do in a world of terrorism. We can all be followers of Jesus and disagree on lots of things. But when it comes to what our basis for morality ought to be, what the basis for our decision is, our process for deciding what is right, there ought to be a lot less that separates us. And I see a Grand Canyon-size gulf between myself and George Bush.

If your morality is such that you decide some things are ok because of the result they bring, then in my opinion, your morality is not one that is centered on the teachings of Christ. Your morality has you at the center. Everything centers on your view of what the best results are in the world. Our president calls himself an Evangelical, but his reasons for vetoing the bill placed on his desk betray him to be an Evangelical without a Christ center on his moral compass.

But Peggy said this much better than I did already, while I was blogging the above in my head.

Last Sunday, we had a business meeting where God’s Spirit was wonderfully present in our meeting (see AJ for more). My message Sunday morning (I’ve not spoken for four weeks, and I won’t this coming Sunday either) was a call to our community to participate in a corporate fast this summer, a fast from all our religious activity except our gatherings for worship. You can read it here.

Posted in Uncategorized 2 Comments »

Humor doesn’t always help

March 7, 2008

There are times when the best thing to help me get over a horrible or embarrassing experience is to attempt comedy in a blog post. Sometimes, it’s a therapeutic balm to my soul. But I’ve been trying, in my head, to write the salvific post I could really use for over 24 hours now, and it just ain’t happening.

First, the good stuff. For Hayley’s 11th birthday, we went to Black Butte in Central Oregon as a family to celebrate and relax, a two night mini-vacation in her honor. With the massive exception of the horrible and embarrassing experience, we had a great time; she said it was her best birthday ever. I took the older two girls skiing yesterday at Hoodoo, and they were awesome! It was only Hayley’s second time, and we went all the way to the top of the mountain and made it down alive every time.

Here are the two openings I brainstormed for the funny, redeeming blog posts that I’m still too melancholy to write:

I’ve knocked over two stop signs in my life with a car. Unfortunately, the second one was yesterday.

Please don’t ask about either one. When I’m sufficiently recovered, I might write about one or both. Here’s the second opening:

If we ever go to ski at Hoodoo again, I don’t think I should drive. I didn’t think I could have a worse car experience than the last time we went there, but rendering your in-laws only vehicle undriveable is definitely worse.

And that’s the most I can manage to write, except to say that everyone is completely uninjured (except for my pride) and we got home safely and the car is being fixed in Sisters, Oregon. I’m going to bed now, wishing I could crawl under a rock and not have to explain this over and over again over the next few weeks. Elaine (who is a saint) tells me that one day we will laugh about this, but I’m not sure I believe her yet.

Posted in family 6 Comments »

Life focus reminder

March 5, 2008

He plucks the world out of our hearts, loosing the chains of attachment. And he hurls the world into our hearts, where we and he together carry it in infinitely tender love.

For several years, these sentences greeted me from the door of my office each morning in Boise, words written by Thomas Kelly in “A Testament of Devotion.” This is what I want. This is how I want God to shape me.

I have so many things that need to be plucked, so many chains of attachment: desires for things, for significance, for others’ approval. I want God to pluck out and break the bonds of these things that show how the world has shaped me more than God. But I don’t want only retreat, only cleansing, only separation. I want God’s infinitely tender and never-ending love for each person and part of creation to be hurled inside me, living and breathing in me. I want my following of Jesus to lead not to withdrawal into supposed safety from an awful world, but rather to joining the Spirit in the trenches to transform it.

Posted in church thoughts 2 Comments »

Aubrey’s ride

March 1, 2008

Being sick meant this week has been extremely busy, trying to catch up. But when I get to the weekend, I know how to have a good time!

Last night, friends invited Elaine and me to go see Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” at the Portland Center Stage. We literally had front row, center tickets; it was amazing to see a well-done play that close! Anyway, when it was over, the rear left tire on our Prius was flat as a pancake. A big nail was the culprit, but it showed how poorly our tires had worn. So today Aubrey and I got them replaced. At Les Schwab. And we were there for two and a half hours. Two and a half HOOOOOOUUUUUUURRRRRRRSSSSS! I mean sure, they have free popcorn, but come on; Aubrey’s five and a half.

She did much better than could be expected, actually.

Now, to make this story complete, I have to tell you about when we bought a used Toyota Echo a year and a half ago, the car I usually drive. The people we bought it from had put on these super dark windows and hot looking wheels, and people teased me quite a bit, saying it looked like a pimpmobile. I’m still wounded over that. It hurts on the inside, hurts real bad. But I’m strong.

At Les Schwab, they have this computer where you load in your car from their database, and then you can click on all kinds of different wheels and tires and color and you can lower your ride and see how awesomely cool it can become. So Aubrey killed a half hour or so doing that, and let me tell you people, SHE knows how to make a car look hot!

Posted in family 6 Comments »