7 Year Itch

As of August 26, Jodi and I have been married for 7 years. It's been great. Here are some highlights:

1. August 26, 2000. Jodi and I had sex for the first time. It was really fun and we decided to try it a few other times since.

2. Sept. 23, 2005. We had Mo. She is great. It has been fun being parents. It has changed our relationship but for the better. we both enjoy watching each other grow and develop as a parent.

3. May 12, 2007. We had Gretta. She is great too. She smiles a lot and poops less than Mo did. What a combo.

4. We have fought a lot. Jodi and I fight a lot. If you have spent any time with us, you know that. We piss off our friends often when we bicker in front of them. We don't know any other way to live though. I think the older we get the healthier our view on disagreements and how we handle them. We are both pretty sensitive and hurt each other's feelings often. but then we try out #1 again. Just kidding. i think we both have a pretty good handle on when we have offended the other and make ammends when we do. Thaks years of therapy!

5. Some of my favortie memories with Jodi are camping memories. I knew I found a great lady when she wanted to camp with me a lot before we got married. I think she just wanted to make out most of the time though. She is a good kisser!

6. Spiritual Journeys. Jodi and I have been through a lot together in this area. We both started out pretty screwed up by Fundamentalism and have now figured most everything out. Just kidding. We are still screwed up, but think that we have a healthier view of God than we did 7 years ago. This gets carried over into our daily living and how we view the world and how we parent. Thanks Brian McLaren, Mike Yacconelli, Rob Bell, Donald Miller, Josh and Kim Baron, Larry Bryans, Jim and Joan DeGraaf, Ed and Nancy Baron, Mike Fedewa, Karl Numinen, Allendale Friends, Erik and Beth Racine, RBC Friends, WW peeps, well, I guess pretty much everybody I have ever interacted with.

So, the bottom line is that we are happy. I think that's important. It's still hard to put up with each others' bullshit, but we do. And it's good. Thanks be to God for Jodi Baron.

The Bourne Ultimatum

I just saw this movie. I am constantly looking for ways to point out perceived injustice within the Church. Here are a few thoughts about how I am Jason Bourne. If you haven

t seen the movie and want to, (I highly recomend the moovie by the way) then stop reading. I am going to give away the whole thing.

Remember near the end when he finds out that he "chose" his position as spy and unquestioning patriot? Well, anytime I hear the word choice, I don't start thinking about abortion, I start to think about intellectual evangelism and a bastardized version of the gospel. So... here is an unfair critique of modern evangelism and how I believe it has been misused and how heavy handed the Church has been with it's new believers.

The doctor in the movie reveals to Jason Bourne that he was the one who chose his life. He "signed on for this". The doctor readily admits that the new recruit (Bourne) was trained to not think but to simply follow orders. But Bourne was never really given the full story. I have 2 points about this:

1. I think that Fundamentalism is a lot like the doctor in terms of following orders. Once a new Christian "signs on", the culture does not allow for the questioning of it's beliefs and practices. Any perceived questioning or doubt is chalked up to the believers lack of faith and ineptitude. This creates a culture of needing to know you are right (and saved). This is what cause many to "learn" the gospel presentation and find a way that nobody can argue with. A way to rationalize God and to understand him logically. This arrogance is not only bad theology, but a foul odor that taints the air and keeps many from the pleasant aroma of the full gospel. It actually repels people from Christ. Bourne starts out wanting to serve his country at all costs: a noble act. He ends up doing much more harm and actually taking the lives of those he has promised to serve and protect.

2. An intellectual understanding of the gospel is no good news. When we present an easy to explain and easy to understand gospel we erase years of Christs' teachings. The gospel took Jesus 33 (give or take) years to explain and those closest never fully understood him. It is presumptuous for us to think we can explain it in a booklet or over a coke and french fries. A gospel that so many died for should not be delivered in snip-its or bullet points. It must be chewed and digested and vomitted and re-ingested, and deficated and studied and handled and stomped on and burned and used as fertilizer and experimented with and grown and then eaten again. It must be experienced on a daly basis in community and it must be desecrated and made to be displayed beautifully and...

I am not happy with this post. I am pretty scatter brained right now. Let me know if you can ore something good from this mess eh.

I Am Re-Learning to Read Good

I started reading again. I haven't read in a long time. I'm not totally sure why. Sometimes when I read, I feel crazy. When I read really good books that inspire me to do things I think are noble and right, I feel crazy. It makes me want to abandon everything i have planned and follow my youthful idealism.

So... I'm readin the Irrisistable Revolution by Shaine Claiborne. It is very good. I feel very crazy. And I want to abandon my plans. Sort of. I still plan on attending seminary next fall, but I think what I plan to do after that is changing again. I think I like living in the city. I like living in the rough part of the city. I like to dream with Jodi about how we can love people and help them. I like to bring salsa andsalmon and hot peppers over to them and see their faces.

We have made some other life-style choices that will help us on our quest to become more active in social justice issues in our community. I'll write more about it next week after we see if we can do it.

"How can they learn to read if they can't even fit in the building?"

Jesus... Just in Case.

So... this is weird. Jodi and I went and got a drink tonight at a pub in our neighborhood. Our awesome friend Rachelle listened for crying babies so we could go. Some interesting things.

1. It was Open Mic Night. The girl that was on when we got there was great. She had a beautiful voice but could have used a bit more guitar practice. She sang some Dylan as well as other stuff. Very nice.

2. The next guy played harmonica with her and harmonized with her. It was also very nice. he sang some Dylan, Dead, Merl Haggard, and I think some of his own stuff. He sang a song called, "Jesus, Just in Case". I couldn't hear the vocals very well, but knew what he was getting at.

I'm now going to rant about American Evangelicalism. What this guy knew about Jesus was that he could be helpful if there was a chance that God sent people to hell. If this is how others view Christianity, the Church is in jeopardy. If this is how others view our Christ, then we have done a piss poor job of portraying him. I hope someday the singer writes a song called, "Jesus... because his followers don't know what the hell they're doing". That would be more accurate I think.

3. A man showed up after that with a Big Lebowski T-shirt on. I bought him a White Russian as is customary in our tradition and waited for him to come over to talk. Nobody can argue with the fact that the BL is the best movie of all time. We talked about the Achievers and about the music on the sound track and about how smart we are for recognizing what a great movie it is. He was from Boston and traveling across the country. Nice man. His name was "Mando". If you haven't seen the movie, you may not read my blog again until you have seen it.


"Nobody F@&ks with Da Jesus" -- That's ironic. The first guy sang about Jesus and Mando loved the movie with this quote. Coincidence? I think not. The Lord is Moving in mysterious ways.

I Hate Catholics

Check out this News article from CNN.
Click here dippy.

I am constantly amazed at the anti-Catholic sentiments in this country. In the past couple years I have experienced first hand evangelical Christians renouncing the Catholic faith and it's members. It has happened so often that I probably shouldn't be surprised anymore.

I differ with some of Catholic doctrine and won't see eye to eye on a lot that the new Pope has to say, but I consider the Catholic Church a beautiful and important part of the body of Christ. I'd like to highlight a few encounters with Catholic Hatred in the local circles that I've milled around in.

1. During the '04 election, I was discussing presidential hopefulls with some RBC students in a public area of the college. The college had sent around some "unbiased" voting info for all of its students to peruse. It was mostly, "Bush could be Messiah returning. I hope you're ready." and "Kerry is the anti-Christ. If you vote for him, you will turn gay and have to have an abortion" type things. The brochure also had on it what church the hopefulls were a part of. Under Kerry it had "He has flip-flopped on this issue too. He is part of the Church of Satan but is also a nominal catholic". (It didn't really say that). Under Bush, it mentioned that he was Methodist. I said out loud, "Oh boy!!! Bush is a Methodist. I can't vote for him." I was joking. I really couldn't vote for him, but not because he was Methodist. Just as I said that, the Dean's secretary walked by, heard me and said, "At least he's not catholic!". I didn't know how to respond.

2. Jodi and I were looking for a church in our neighborhood. I hate the baptist church and all baptists, but the only church around that wasn't catholic was a baptist church. So, we went. The pastor fromt he pulpit mentioned how their organist was catholic all her life but once she started to play the organ at the Baptist church, she heard the gospel for the first time and got saved. He then went on to make some other disparaging remarks regarding the CC. Later he came a callin' to our house and I asked him about his remarks. he drew out the difference between orthodox doctrine and catholic doctrine and how we just need to help the catholics be smarter and resist the devil. We told him he didn't need to come a callin' again and that we wouldn't be coming back.

3. At work, we take the kids to Kentwood Community Church. It is very vissually stimulating. There are a lot of lights and loud music and the worship leader is very smiley and fun. The people realy close their eyes hard when they pray. Nothing wrong with any of that. There was a testimony time one day and this guy came up and testified about how he got out of the trap of catholicism and how he praises God for KCC. I think people may have actually clapped. My friend, Luke, who is catholic didn't clap. I think it made him feel sad or another emotion on that end of the spectrum.

Did you go to CNN and read that article? I think that even though the man apologized for the remark, it will probably help the Huckabee camp. Being Catholic is a dirty secret I think if you are a Republican. But I don't get why. The Catholic Church is very conservative on issues that are important to Republicans: abortion, stem cell, and homosexuality. I guess as we're getting things hashed out for the primaries, this kind of thing will happen on both sides of the aisle. But I don't have to like it.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

(This is a picture of me in Canada on my fishing trip last year.)


1. Jodi. We were both in really good moods yesterday. It's always nice when that happens and everybody is friendly like. The day before I was in a bad mood. I think because I've had a crazy busy week. But I have a 5 day weekend coming up.





2. The girlies. Mo is great. She has been pretending a lot lately. ONe day she pretended to be crying over and over again. She'd burry her face in her hands and lay down on the bed and whimper. We would say, "Oh! Look mama. Momo is sad!" And then she would turn towards us giggling. We'say, "Oh, she was just faking!". Then she would do it again. She did this for 10 minutes. Gretta has been sleeping great. Jodi puts her to bed at about 9is and then I think she sleeps mostly through the night. Is this accurate Jodi?





3. Canada Fishing. I have 4 of my friends commited to going. I


am so excited, that i made up the menu yesterday. The trip is 4 months away.





4. Baseball. Tonight I took 3 kids to a Whitecaps game. It was very fun and we had great seats. Monday I'll take 2 kids to go see the Tigers. I can't wait. I haven't seen the Tiger's since I was a boy.





5. Erik. I think my friend Erik may come visit. He lives in Chicago. We will go fishing if he comes.





6. Working on the house. If Erik doesn't come, I'm going to get a lot done on my house. I don't get in these moods often, so I need to get a crap-load done. I'll keep you informed.