Last Hope House Shift

Yesterday was my last shift at the Hope House, a correctional facility in Coralville. I will start next week with Veritas Church full time.

While I would say that working nearly two years in corrections has been a much better education than 3.5 years at Iowa State, I’m really glad to be getting out of it.

Reason being, simply, that I can’t think of a less rewarding line of work.

The thing is, 95% of the time, supervising residents from behind a desk is the easiest job in the world. It’s like being a lifeguard, except instead of yelling at kids to stop doing dumb things you are yelling at adults … and you don’t have to worry about getting too much sun.

It’s not that the job is unimportant; it’s that there is no difficulty in it.

It’s quite backwards, really. You would think that a job that requires you to do basically nothing all day (but surf the internet) would be a dream job.

The thing is, it wasn’t. There’s something about facing trials, difficulties, stress, and adversity that just make life worth living (James 1:2-4). I’m not saying we should go out of our way recklessly looking for trouble, but we shouldn’t live our lives trying to avoid it either.

“If there was a choice – and he suspected there was – a choice between, on one hand, the heights and the depths and, on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he, for one, here and now chose the heights and the depths.

Since then the years had gone by, and he – had he not had what he he chose that day in the meadow? He had had the love. And the joy – what joy it had been! And the sorrow. He had had – was having – all the sorrow there was. And yet, the joy was worth the pain. Even now he reaffirmed that long-past choice.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p. 18

Full time ministry, here we come!

Talented friends

I love these guys … hope this video gets a trillion hits.

Married Bliss

I don’t usually post pictures, but I think this qualifies as a special occasion. Big thanks to Garrett Hufford for some excellent (and very reasonably priced) photography!

http://garretthuffordstudios.wordpress.com/g

(my family posing under giant flowers for a new Dr. Seuss book)

As for actual life after marriage…

Deanna and I are beginning our “happily ever after” in a tiny apartment right in downtown Iowa City. We live on the third floor above a fine dining restaurant, a body piercing studio, a local clothing store, a liquor store, a fine art studio, and a cheap Chinese diner called “Chilly Yummy” that we’ve witnessed turn into a gothic dance club at night (no joke). I don’t know who is in charge of city planning here, but somehow it all seems perfectly normal compared to coming home after work to a wife.

What a blessing!

Thank God our wedding was about so much more than just one day, but about all the days afterwards which have been so much more fulfilling.

The Serious Post on Marriage

I was at a local downtown concert a few weeks ago with an older friend of mine who is married. It was a very “relevant” concert, and all of the cool kids were there. My older friend said something along the lines of, “I’d rather be home with my wife, but I’ve got too much pride to admit that I don’t belong here anymore.

The key word he said was rather. He didn’t say, “I should be home with my wife,” he said, “I’d rather be home.”

There’s a big difference.

A few years ago I made a mental commitment to myself. As I saw my friends get sucked away from the things that I thought mattered towards girlfriends and marriage, I told myself that I would never let myself become irrelevant. In other words, even if I got married, it wouldn’t change anything about me.

I’m here to say that I’m breaking that commitment.

Before I started dating Deanna, I had a good friend wisely instruct me, “Be sure to let her change you.”

And change me she has. I feel wiser, older, happier, more dependable, more consistent, and with a deeper understanding of Christ’s love because of her. Call that gushy if you want, but I’ll stand by it.

I’m coming to the realization that if I never go to another concert, never go to another football game, never record another album, never buy another guitar, never smoke hookah again, and never play another video game, I’ll be ok.

Much more than ok, honestly. I’ll be married.

… When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had … (Matthew 13:46)

 

I’m wide awake! It’s midnight!

The Hope House has decided to change my schedule around for my last month of work, meaning that tonight is my last overnight shift. Hopefully ever.

 

To celebrate, I decided to compile a list of things I’m not going to miss about weekend overnights:

 

1. Fighting off the “I hate everyone because I’m tired” attitude at church after working an overnight.
2. Choosing which social activities you have to miss because you have to schedule time to sleep.
3. Experiencing football season through Chris Berman’s “Fastest 3 Minutes” rather than actually watching the games.
4. Being unable to differientiate between hunger and wierd stomach aches at 5am, and usually guessing wrong.
5. Never enjoying a drink with friends on the weekends (except maybe a Mountain Dew), and feeling like an alcoholic when you try and encourage people to share one with you on Monday night.
6. Feeling like a bum Monday through Friday while everyone else works, and your other job duties include “thinking up songs to play,” “checking your email,” “playing guitar,” and “having lunch with people.” http://jamesfromames.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/perceptions-of-worship-leading/
7. Trying to say something half-way meaningful during Monday morning staff meeting, and usually just making everyone laugh. 
8. Having your internal body clock perpetually set to “I have no idea what’s going on.”
9. Knowing that a large coffee from any gas station costs exactly $1.59 after tax, and that the hazelnut, mocha, vanilla, banana, and pumpkin flavoring options are all equally mediocre.
10. Having the head pastor tell you that it doesn’t even bother him when he notices you sleeping during his message.

Engagement is fun

Marriage is a very, very serious thing.
 
Two weeks from today, I will be a married man. I’ll probably write a more serious post on that later, because marriage is a really really really big deal, but that will not be this post.
 
This post will be fun, and people who are engaged need to have fun. If you’ve ever been engaged, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
 
When you get engaged, you decide that you should probably know a little bit more about marriage. Most people around you support your decision (especially if they are married) and agree with you that you are clueless and need help. You are given books on marriage, and you decide to read them with your fiance.
 
The books and the people tell you that marriage is hard. They tell you that having a successful marriage is harder than making bricks without straw. They tell you that loving another person is like going to war, which makes you think of the time when your little brother knocked over your lego tower “on purpose” and your mom told you that you still had to love him. Your fiance doesn’t like this analogy of war because you don’t have war-like problems yet, and you don’t like comparing her to your brother, so you don’t finish the book.
 
You are also given books on sex, but you are told not to read them just yet, because your mind will take you places that your body isn’t quite allowed to go. Some people tell you not to read those books and that it will all “work itself out.” Other people tell you that these books are second only to the Bible in their importance.
 
You talk it over with your fiance about whether or not to read these books. You start reading, but not so much as a result of an actual decision to read them as much pure curiousity. You find yourself speeding across the pages, and feeling a strange sense of both enlightenment and embarassment. You hide the book as if it were a dirty magazine, and hope that none of your roommates walk in on you while you read it, even though the chapter you just read quoted several Bible verses.
 
You start talking with your parents about your life more regularly than you did when you were living under their roof. You talk and try to balance their wishes and plans alongside your fiance’s parents, who were total stangers to you a year ago but who you will soon refer to as “mom and dad” too. You are constantly reminded that “it’s your wedding, and you can do whatever you want,” but all you really want is for both moms and dads to be happy. You also want everyone else to be happy, and you see that oftentimes one person’s happiness comes at another’s expense. Or, you can try and make both people happy at the expense of your wallet. 
 
You want to be responsible and make a budget, but you quickly realize that your budget was impossible because you had never planned a wedding before. You might as well have been making a budget for sending a man to Mars or filming Transformers 5. You throw idealistic numbers into a google spreadsheet, and then show up to meet with the florist from hy-vee feeling a little like the guy rolling dice at the casino, hoping for lucky numbers.
 
You want to have a small wedding. Then you realize that you have to invite certian close friends. Then you realize that if you invite those close friends, you should probably invite other friends, who are also friends with your close friends. Then you realize that your parents want to invite their friends. Then you realize you’re planning a big wedding. You mail out invites, and start seeing and thinking about people who you realize you forgot. You send out more invites. Then you realize you’ve forgotten to invite your friend from Pennsylvania who had you in their wedding party several years ago. You invite people from your Bible study group, just because they’re in your Bible study group, and then those people stop coming to Bible study. You send them an invitation anyway and wonder if they will think that their invitation is a form of missions outreach.
 
Engagement is a wonderful time. So wonderful, in fact, that I wouldn’t want it to last another day longer than it has to.

True Perfection

Yesterday, a formerly mediocre pitcher from the Chicago White Sox, Philip Humber, pitched a perfect game. He is only the 21st player in baseball history to do so.

 

A perfect game means no batter from the opposing team makes it to first base for any reason, whether it be a walk, hit, or error. No pitcher has ever thrown more than one perfect game in their career.

 

I love this quote from Humber, near the end of his interview with ESPN: (http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7841218/mlb-humber-perfect-surprise)

“My identity was as a baseball player,” he said. “How I evaluated myself was my stat line. If my stat line was great I felt good about myself. If it wasn’t then I didn’t feel so good. It took me a long time to figure it isn’t about me, or us. Whatever we do, we should be doing to glorify God. I’m not saying I’ll always be successful for that attitude or always have a good game, but I will be a more joyful person.”

Adoleo Spring Concert

May 1, 2012. 8pm at the Englert Theater.

We’ve got some good new stuff we’ve been working on this semester, and hope you can join us!

Dream Job

Starting June 1, I will be a full-time staff member for Veritas Church. I will be the music/technical director.

 

Basically, I will be working my dream job. I wanted to post this yesterday, but since it was April Fools Day, I decided to wait.

 

I’ve never worked the same job for longer than a year, but this is one that I think I could hold the rest of my life … or at least for a long time.

 

With this development and the crazy fact that I will be getting married in just a little over a month, I’ve done some reflecting. Now that I feel like a have a definite direction for my life, I’ve decided to make a list of short and long term goals.

 

I want to treat my job like a profession, becoming the best worship director that I’m capable of being. After all, we are called to “work as if for the Lord.” I suppose that command definitely applies to one who is employed by His church!

 

Short-Term Goals (1 year)

• Learn how to do the job of every Sunday morning and Tuesday night volunteer. (Lights/Sound/Lyrics)
• Put considerable effort and energy into every Sunday and Tuesday service.
• Get to know every church volunteer and help them see how important and valuable their work is (1 Corinthians 12:21-26)
• Raise up at least one more sound guy and at least one more worship leader (2 Timothy 2:2)
• Start a “semi-professional” blog, sharing my experiences and contributing to the modern worship leading blog community.

Long–Term Goals (2-10 years)

• Learn how to read sheet music for piano
• Produce an Adoleo album that I can be really proud of
• Learn how to play violin
• Learn how to play the flute
• Learn everything there is to know about producing live sound
• Experiment with incorporating a choir into Sunday morning worship
• Make friends with worship leaders in other churches

Bucket List Goals

• Learn to play the drums
• Write a book on worship songwriting and get published
• Lead a multi-racial gospel music team
• Write a musical

 

Does it feel warmer than usual outside?

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/a-republican-meteorologist-tries-to-remove-liberal-label-from-climate-concern/

“I’m no meteorological martyr or Paul Revere – but I’ve seen enough evidence to make a call on this one. It’s either the greatest scientific hoax ever perpetrated on the people of Earth or the climate scientists are correct. Call me crazy but I think it’s possible to lean to the right, and still care about the environment and sound science.” – Shawn Lawrence Otto