Day 2: What I learned about California and Myself

The 4 X 4: What has four pieces of cheese and four pieces of fresh grilled beef? The 4X4 (animal style, of course) at Inn-N-Out Burger. I realized that if I want to be alive for my daughter’s 5th birthday I better limit myself to one of these every 5 years.

These guys should be paying me for advertisement…

I also learned that if you’re really excited to take pictures of your road trip, you should charge the battery. Therefore, loyal viewer, here’s what you get:

Here’s what I learned about California:

• I never want to live here. However, I said that about Texas once….
• If all of California just fell off into the Pacific Ocean, we’d solve the “Global Warming” Crisis. Al Gore, you’re welcome.
• Why all the exits in California aren’t numbered is a mystery to me….
• Mt. Shasta is amazing, even when covered in clouds.
• Shouldn’t a state this big be cut in two? It would make me feel better about myself…
  

  Roseburg, OR to Barstow, CA. Day 2, I have loved you like you loved me.

Day 1: The journey begins

This evening my family left Corvallis, OR on our trip to move to Dallas, TX. We were originally going to move on Tuesday morning but came to this realization: The movers took all our stuff, so we have to get a hotel. We might as well drive a few hours and get a head start on our travels.

So we drove a little further south to Roseburg. Against the best wishes of Google Maps and Mapquest, we decided to take the California route. Which adds….. 2 hours to the total trip (according to the map gurus). Why, you may ask, did we take the Cali route? Because of this:

If you don’t know what this is, then we’re probably not friends…

From the Sleep Inn in Roseburg… Goodnight and Good Luck.

Five Dollar Foot-Long and Revival

Five.

Five Dollar.

Five Dollar Foot-long!

So the moving guys have been working hard for about 3-4 hours and they’re very close to being done. Because it was lunch time, I offered to get them some sandwiches from Subway. They were most appreciative. But mainly I was trying to say, “Here’s a sandwich, now don’t mess with my stuff!”

On an unrelated note (or is it….), I was reading a blog this morning and came across this quote:

“6. If the churches in the Buckhead community would spend more time together outside the walls of the buildings…Dare I say it…Revival could take place in our community.”

Revival will happen because we find ways for Christians to start spending even more time around each other?  I mean, I honestly wish it were true. I wish all Christians would work together for the Kingdom. But what difference does it make in Buckhead or any community if, instead of 1 church full of Christians is doing Christian-type stuff together, 4 churches are doing Christian-type stuff together? I realize this isn’t what Los had in mind when he wrote this, but I think it’s a part of the “unity” issue that needs to be addressed.

A big part of the purpose for community is dependency and getting over our self-reliance. If that’s not happening in our individual churches, why would it happen when we all got together? Oh, and this too… if the majority of Church A’s plan is to attract and keep Christians and Church B’s plan is similar, on a philosophical level they can’t actually “play” together fairly. Until the driving force of every church involved is being the church and not going to church or growing their church, then we’re blowing smoke and having spitting contests…

Oh, Brother

What am I getting myself into?

A long, short journey

Today was a big day.

At the end of the service at Grant Avenue Baptist Church this morning I stood up and read a letter.

A resignation letter.

Today it became official news that I’m leaving Corvallis soon to take a ministry job closer to the place of my birth. Not incredibly close, but close enough. More details to come, but for now I’ll just say that it was a really hard decision but God is bigger than our preferences and we’re excited to be taking on a great challenge in the future.