Wednesday, January 10, 2007 

another long post...

I know, I know. If I would blog more often, the posts wouldn't have to be so long. One of my friends called me (and her husband) out on our blogging, saying that we're trying to find community here because we don't have enough of it in the real world. It is possible that she's right. It is also possible that she's just jealous. Yep, that's it.

Oh, before I go, I should refer you over to the Mission Bay Community Church (MBCC) blog. For those of you that don't know. MBCC is my internship church. I have posted a couple of times over there. The last one on "faith and addiciton" has started a bit of conversation.

Let's see, where to start...

The Steelers ended their season at 8-8. They were a game away from making the playoffs. Oh well. It is also weird that Bill Cowher has retired. He has been the coach of the Steelers as long as I have been a football fan (which I guess is now fifteen years). The jowl will be missed. I'm hoping for a Chargers/Saints Super Bowl. I'd root for the Chargers, but I either team winning would be a great story.

I received the following things for Christmas: a beautiful watch from my beautiful wife, an ipod nano from my sister (yea!), season three of "Family Guy"and best of all a shoulder dolly from my mother in law so that I don't hurt my back as I'm moving stuff out of my apartment. Hilarious! My in-laws throw not so subtle hints that they are excited for Marnie and I to move back to the 'burgh. Which is fine because we're excited to move back. Have you ever gotten a shoulder dolly for Christmas? I bet not.

The trip home for the holidays had its share of ups and downs. We flew into Pittsburgh on Christmas day. It was sad to see how many other people were flying that day. It just seems wrong. When I summarize the trip for people, I tell them we drove and ate. Obviously, that is an oversimplification, but we ate a ton and it seemed like as soon as we finished eating, we were driving to another place to eat. (That's not a complaint) I got to catch up with alot of friends. The weather in Pgh was still better than the weather in Nor-Cal.

Unfortunately, my family was a bit of a downer. There is a lot of stress between my folks and my siblings and there were moments where folks were hard to be around. I had a moment or two of asking myself if this what I am moving back to Pittsburgh for. In some strange way it is. While it was hard to be with my family in this time of high stress, it is harder to be far away from them and feel totally helpless. When I move back I'll still be helpless, but I'll be close.

On a lighter note, I have restarted a workout program for the new year. The last two times that I have gone home, I have gotten on the scale and discovered that I had reached record weights for myself. I know it is weird for people when I say I feel fat. I am only fat by the standard in my head, but that is the standard that screams the loudest.

I've been thinking alot lately about sanctification. It is an idea that is really only talked about in an academic sense at my seminary. I think sometimes our notions of grace stop us from doing that work that will allow us to be continually formed into the image of Christ. As I'm thinking about things I want to do this year, one of the major ones is to refocus on living a holier life.

Along with that has been an awareness that I have gotten through most of seminary with little to no accountability. I think part of living a holier life is having folks in your life who will call you out when you aren't living up to your spiritual potential and will do so in a loving way. I've been trying to identify some of those folks in my life and I think that will be beneficial for me as I finish up this last semester.

...my last semester. Praise be to God!