The Blog: Laments From La Mancha

Looking for a new church isn’t as easy as it sounds.

When you live in a place like Fort Wayne (also known as the City of Churches, well that and car dealerships and strip clubs), you can find one on every corner. So its not like its really conducive just to walk into some place and say, “Hello, we’re Bob and Michelle and we’re looking for a new church.”

So I’ve been trying to do a lot of research and see what I can come up with. I found a place online http://www.fwchuches.com that lists a HOST of churches by denomination. The problem that I am finding is that it’s a lot out dated.

I’ve got 5 on my list right now and it might grow or shrink depending on how things go.

Right now I’m looking at:

Broadway Christian Church – http://www.broadwaychristian.org/
Church of the Lamb – http://www.churchofthelamb.com
The Chapel – http://www.thechapel.net
The Calvary Chapel of Fort Wayne – http://calvarychapel.com/fortwayne/
Christ Hope Ministries & Church – Jerry Paul, hmm, a website would be nice.

There are a few more that I am considering, but one step at a time.

As a side note, if you’re currently ministering in a church, man, make sure your choice has a website and that you are linked on any sort of local resource that a person might have. List your URL in the phone book, wherever. It really allows someone to get an idea of what your church is like before they go there.

But make sure its good. It could make or break you. List clearly what you believe. If would be helpful to know how I should dress as well since I don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe even be able to schedule a meeting with the minister before hand.

Who knows, but its interested to be on this side of things. I’ll keep you posted as we go.

When it comes to T.V. watching I’m mostly a reality kind of guy. Survivor is my number 1 choice, Amazing Race would be second, and then I love all those campy rips off on VH1 and stuff like that.

Recently though I’ve been getting into more serial type shows that have a real story line that is carried from episode to episode. You’ve all heard of my praises for Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and now I’m totally digging Battlestar Galactica.

But despite my love for all those shows, none has captured and held me attention as much as ABC’s Lost.

I know, I know, I’ve mentioned this before, but I cannot stop thinking about that stupid show. There are so many things going on that it’s almost hard to keep track of them all. But the moment the guy on the beach got sucked into the jet engine, I was hooked. I love how each episode is layed out. The drama, the humanity. Wow, what a great little show.

For anyone living on MARS that has no idea what this show is about, here’s the general over-view:

The religious undertones in this series are unmistakable. I have to believe because of the quality of writing in this series that it is all very intentional. Which makes me wonder how much of the show is intentional?

Is Locke named Locke for a reason? Maybe a John Locke?

There are some who believe that all in the series are really dead, LOST if you will. That the island upon which they find themselves is really a physical manifestation of sorts of purgatory and each survivor must work out the sins of their past.

If you haven’t caught this yet, you need to. Find some junkie (such as myself) who has all the episodes download and beg them to loan them to you. Offer to buy them blank DVDs if they’ll send them to you, whatever it takes, but you need to take a look at this series.

Or, if you rather you can wait until August of 2005 for the series to hit DVD or mid-summer reruns.

There are many great sites out there that have lots of info on this series. Take a look and give it a try. My personal favorite: http://www.lost-tv.com

Enjoy.

It’s funny how the little things in life can destroy the very fabric of our society.

Let’s look a moment shall we at the violent act of Jaywalking.

Oh sure it seems harmless on the outside; I mean what can be so detrimental about the simple act of walking across the street? Why should any government agency be able to determine when and where I can cross the road? Why did the chicken cross the road? I’ll tell you; it was to protest the tyranny of an unjust political system that would seek to oppress the trodden. Pedestrians should have the right of way any time, day or place!

Or so it would appear on the outside.

On the outside it seems to be an expression of freedom, an exercise of a right as sacred as voting. However on closer inspection one finds that therein lies a heart of darkness; something seriously more sinister.

Jaywalking is not a harmless thumbing of the nose at authority, rather it is a subtle knife cutting away the fragile threads of community.

See when you jaywalk what you are really doing is saying, “Look, I’m way to important to be bothered by the rules of your society. My now needs are more pressing than anything else you might be doing. I do not care that you are driving down the road at excessive speeds, I’m merely going to leap out in front of you forcing you to break and wait while I cross the street at my leisure. POSH to you and everyone else.”

Jaywalking is a selfish act. It’s not rebellion against the powers that be, it’s a big kick in the balls to community. Yes its inconvenient to have to cross at designated times and places, but in the long run it’s for your own safety as well as for the safety of those who are driving. The only way for society to function is if we agree to act in harmony; jaywalking is nothing more than destructive discord seeking to ruin the melody that we all sing.

Friends, help save our society and end the plague of anarchy that is spreading through out our nation. Remember, only you can prevent jaywalking.

January has been a month of switching.

I’m not sure how it happened, but I think I’ve switched pretty every a person can switch in the past few weeks.

I’ve switched my car insurance from Geico to Progressive. It ended up being cheaper to insure three cars and 4 times the insurance than the 2 cars I was insuring with Geico. Go figure?

I’ve switched my cell phone and wireless carrier from T-Mobile to Cingular. This process was actually interesting. For anyone who’s called me on my cell phone while I was at home, you spent most of your time saying, “I’m sorry, I missed that.” The reception was horrible and after 3 years, I’d had enough (you can tell for the most part I am a tolerant person).

Since I’m a person easily sucked in by clever advertisements, I was all about having more bars in more places (come to find out, that didn’t mean what I originally thought and Cingular really isn’t owned by Anheuser-Bush). However, I was really attracted to the idea of roll-over minutes as sometimes I do go over the 850 that I’m allotted. But just to make things REALLY interesting I decided to order my service and phones online via one of those cellular stores: http://www.cellularchoices.net.

To say the least it was an interesting experience.

Now in theory when all is said in done, I will have received my phones for free and made an additional $150 ($50 for 3 phones, Michelle, Kara and myself). The catch is you don’t get your rebates for 7 months, and you have to pay the cost up front. This turned out not to be a big deal because I paid the same price I would have if I had gone to the store to get them. To boot they included free car chargers which saved me some cash. So even if for some reason I don’t get the rebates, I’m still coming out ahead. I did call first to make sure the phones were new and not reconditioned and as far as I can tell, yes, they are new.

So far I’m happy with Cingular. There was a chance I wasn’t going to get my phones until Monday (which totally blew since my service switched on Friday), but the lady reset all the passwords on all the accounts and helped me setup voicemails and call forwarding. At first glance, customer service is looking good.

The fun part is that I got this snazzy Motorola V551 video/camera phone to play with. I had considered going for the V220 as I could find skins and face plates more readily, but I was able to find some online for the V551 that did the entire phone (without putting stickers on it), now all I have to do is figured out how to remove this rubber plugs so I can use me snazzy new T6 screwdriver to take this thing apart.

Moving from regular to decaf (though I don’t drink coffee), cola to diet

Switching, switching, switching.

Ah, but change is good. I didn’t say it was easy, but good in the long run.

Well, I’m off to go find some new churches to attend. You all have fun.

It was Cassius Clay who first shouted, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

Ah, to be graceful and powerful at the same time; to move like molten silver and strike like a stinger missile.

There is a rare balance that we all seek to achieve in our lives where our mind, body, and soul are aligned in perfect harmony. We move, think and act with all of our power centers firing in unison. We feel almost transcendent. There is clarity in our thoughts and we feel great.

My first year of traveling for Great Lakes Christian College was spent in this state. I was physically, mentally, and spiritually at the top of my game. I can almost pinpoint the apex of my spiritual state.

Damien Rice later sang, “It’s easy to fall when you float like a cannonball.”

Lately that’s more of what I feel like. Disjointed. Clumsy. Awkward. Heck, I probably even look more like a cannonball than I used to.

This year really has been a focus of new beginnings before; striving to bring all those things that have been in such disarray for so long into alignment. I’ve spent the past few months bracing for impact, waiting for the moment when I’m going to crash.

Something has got to give. If things don’t change, then something is going to break.

When so many depend on you, you have to step up and take responsibility. I can make excuses until I’m blue in the face, but in the end, the choice is always mine.

So I’m making that decision; to take control of my body, to take control of my mind, and to take control of my spirit. Discipline is not easy, but if I am going to who God has called me to be, then I have to make that daily choice to align all the parts of me into what it needs to be.

Butterfly or cannonball? I’m going to aim for the butterfly.