Happy Birthday to me...

I have been told recently that it is difficult to take me seriously when I am attempting to have a theological talk with friends while sitting in a bar wearing a small red plastic fireman's hat on backward. I just don't understand....

I guess it has been a long time since I have taken anytime to sit down and write. I have had a lot of different ideas going through my head the last few weeks. I have tried to sit down a few times to try and put those thoughts down on paper, but I just haven't been able to get everything down in a period of time that I can actually sit down and type. My thoughts the past couple of days have centered on the topics of sin and worship.

On the sin front, the question was "What specifically is sin". I was writing a paper on Saint Augustine's Confessions and I was supposed to be writing about his view on sin, but as I was struggling to put the words to his definition I was wrestling with thoughts of if I agreed with him or not. For the moment at least, I think I do agree with him when he say's that sin is not really based on the action, but the intent of the action. If the intent is to please God, and the action is indeed pleasing, then it is not sin. If the action is good, but the intention is not to please God, well then that would be sinful. It's a hard line definition of Sin, but if you agree with the Westminster Catechisms definitions on the chief end of man being to glorify God, then if you are not doing that, wouldn't it be sin?

I don't know if I'm any closer to answering my second question, but at least it's not haunting me at the moment, and I really don't think there is just one answer. My question has been how to do worship in a way that has meaning for families of multiple generations and worship styles. Worship is by definition a chance to interact with God. A chance not to just watch a service, but to take part in the worship, to speak, glorify, listen to, and embrace God. The problem is that I communicate in a way that is very much different then a woman in her retirement years, or a middle age steel worker with a family to raise. How do you structure a worship service that has meaning for everybody in a family, so the whole family can worship in meaning together? I hate seeing so many churches, using so many resources just to split families into separate groups every week.

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...ect. I'm actually updating this from a hotel lobby in Chicago right now. I have been dating a very sweet girl for the past month or so and she treated me to a very cool birthday today (or yesterday depending how you want to look at it). We drove up to Chicago today and she took me to the Medieval Times. This is a unique version of a medieval dinner theater. We were treated to a very well choreographed tournament of knights, while eating an entire dinner without silverware. It was a very cool time. I'm updating tonight from the lobby of a local Hotel where we got rooms. Thursday night I celebrated with a lot of other friends from seminary. I was supposed to go out to dinner, but wasn't able to make it when I figured out at the last minute that I had to work. I missed that, but I did have everybody over to my house for poker after I got off work. We had about 14 people hanging out playing cards at my place till about midnight that night.

That's the second time in as many weeks that we did something like that in a large group. The fireman conversation came when a similar size group of us drove out to Galena, Illinois where the spouse of one of my friends worked. It was definitely a time to remember.

Last week was reading week at the school, which meant no classes. It was a much needed time to get caught up on all the reading that I was way behind on. I'm still not completely caught up, but I'm in better shape. The week went to quickly though, as I had a few papers due this week, as well as a grueling midterm exam for church history. I think I did well, but I'm glad it's over.

All in all, life has been very good to me and I thank God everyday. I found out this week that Group laid off another 22 people recently just a year after I was let go. A year ago I though that I could never be in a better place then were I was there, but God has a way of surprising us. I do ask that you keep those people that lost their jobs in your prayers though as many were friends of mine. As I keep finding out; prayers are truly a blessing.