10 page paper for seminary. Check.
6 Bible Studies for Simply written. Check.
Summer Calendars designed and printed. Check.
Final finished for seminary. Check.
T-shirt design finished and turned in. Check.
Kids out of school and parties and stuff all done. Check.

the list could go on… but I’m DONE. I finally can blog again.

1. SHADES.
   Shannon and I went here for our anniversary dinner last year. But, while in Palm Springs recently I had a lovely pile of bread pudding. Linda said it was amazing at Shades. Way better than the pile I had on my plate and there it came with yogurt and fruit and granola. So I went to go check out breakfast. It was great. Linda was right. Except it should be called a “bread brick” cuz it sat like one in my gut all day. I didn’t eat til dinner. The pictures look like we’re not happy. But I think we’re just focused on eating. Yum.. however the one draw back was the 4- twenty somethings who sat next to us having a conversation about their drunken sexual escapades and us trying to talk louder and often enough so that our kids would miss it. Welcome to OB.
2. DOG BEACH:
   The only beach you can take your dog to is here in OB. I’ve wanted to go for quite some time. I was glad I went. The kids had fun. There were tons of dogs there. So many that we decided that next time we need to put a flag on ours so we can sort him out. After a while, every black dog looks the same. I was a little leery, but it was surprising clean. It didn’t smell weird. Not one dog fight. My kids played in the water and so did Zeus, our dog. Everyone had a great time. We said we’d do it again. Only one warning. Don’t touch the sea weed piles. The dogs pee all over them.

here’s the pics.

I’ve been thinking.

About my job as youth pastor and my life as a Jesus follower.

A lot.

I still struggle with my value and worth and ability to build something that builds someone that God is proud to call his own.

I get glimpses where I think we’re doing that.

I have other days where I wonder.

Right now. 2 school years here are under my belt.

As I enter this summer. Here’s what I think:

• year one was about discovering my job in a new context. I felt like a worker.

• year two was a lot of doing my job. I felt like a manager.

• year three is going to be about re-thinking and re-writing my job. I think some changes are coming as to how and when and where and what I do in youth ministry. I pray that those are Kingdom focused and Jesus led. I also pray they will be joy-filled, passionate, visionary, and gutsy. I want to feel like a dreamer. That’s really who I am.

Hold on kids. I think we might go for a ride.

Well, per my previous post I’ve been working on giving a rip about problems that are technically not mine. Here’s a list of experiences as of late.

• ROADSIDE BREAKDOWN: I saw a couple who were broken down on the side of the road. I saw them on our way home from Palm Springs. I was in the fast lane as I past them up. By the time I got all the way over to help, they were so far back that I’d have to get off the freeway, turn around to go back, get back on the freeway, and comeback and help. My wife said “I didn’t have to save the world.” We kept driving. I hope they’re not still there. Evidently it was not my problem.

• HOMELESS GUY: last Friday I was driving back to church with a truck load of stuff and there was a homeless guy with a sign that said he was hungry. There was an In-N-Out burger joint on the corner 500 yards from where he was. I thought about stopping and buying him lunch and bringing it back to him. But, the dude looked pretty well fed, so I kept going. Not my problem either. I suck.

• OUT OF GAS: Yesterday, I was meeting with Kyle, a former student of mine who just graduated from Azusa and is headed into full time youth ministry. I haven’t seen him in over a year, so it was good to get caught up at Starbucks. As our conversation was ending, there was a college age young man who walked up and asked us for money cuz his car ran out of gas and he said his “card didn’t work” and the gas station wanted to charge him to borrow/buy a can to fill it up. I said that we’d help him push his car. So, we pushed his SUV out of the parking lot he had rolled into on funes and then 2 blocks to the nearest gas station. Then I bought him $10 worth of gas. Maybe I got taken. Maybe I was living like Jesus. Either way, his problem became our problem.

• LOST DOG: This morning, I came home from dropping my kids off at school to find a lost dog on my front yard. A big ol german shepherd with a collar and no tags. I let him in my backyard and babydog sat him. I called and then waited until the animal shelter came to get him. I couldn’t keep 2 dogs (ours and the new homeless one). So, I’m hoping that his owners call the shelter and reclaim him. If not, they said he’d be fine cuz he’ll go to the “abandoned german shepherd lover” people. I decided this was my problem.

• SICK TEACHER: Today Shannon went to volunteer at school in our kids classroom and got pulled out of class to be a sub for the day due to teacher who had become sick. This was her chance to say, “not my problem”. But in order for her to help, I had to pick up some minor Dad duties. So it became “our problem”. Becky then agreed to watch Jake so I could go to work the last hour before Shannon got out of school with our boys. Wow- it takes 3 adults to relieve one sick teacher. Amazing. It was our problem today.

• OFFICE FREEZER: not sure why, but when I get coffee in our office, sometimes I open the freezer next to it. I never actually have anything in the freezer. I never even take anything out of the freezer. Someone has had a half gallon of ice cream in there for months that I think I should steal. But it’s still there. Today, I got my java and opened the freezer by habit and inside there was a diet pepsi someone had placed in there. It had EXPLODED all over the freezer like a diet pepsi bomb. It is now solidly frozen all over the place and the freezer will have to be unplugged, thawed, and then cleaned to solve the problem. I quietly close the freezer and walked away as if it was NOT my problem. I’ll probably be struck by lightening soon.

Guess I have a ways to go. 3 out of 6. 50%. Bummer. I really do have a problem.

I have ZERO time to be blogging much less watching videos and yet today, of all days, I have friends sending me these two hysterical clips.

THIS ONE INSPIRES ME AND TREVOR SAYS IT MAKES HIM THINK OF ME. Personally, it makes me think of Pat Moore who likes to quote Red Green, “If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”

AND THIS ONE SHOULDN’T INSPIRE ME, BUT IT DOES. GOD BLESS HIGH SCHOOL KIDS WHO FIND THIS STUFF AND SEND IT MY WAY. THANKS AJ.