Cloud Surfer

Sarah Palin

2008-09-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

First I'll say this. It is an exciting time that we are in that no matter which party wins the presidency it will be historic. Either our first black man in the white house or our first women. Either way it's amazing and exhilarating.

I'll also say this, either way I think it's cool. I believe McCain is a decent guy. I don't agree with some of his policies but I don't agree with some of Obama's either.

I think it's interesting that the things that make Sarah Palin such a great candidate for the Vice Presidential candidacy for the Republican party are that she is a maverick, she stood up to the Republican party, she stood up to big oil. Usually when that happens you are called a Democrat. I love the praise for her for disagreeing with her own party. "Hey, Palin is great she doesn't agree with us!" But I hear she is a "real" conservative as well because she takes money away from programs like shelters for teen moms to have their babies in...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html?hpid=artslot

I guess her daughter won't be needing that shelter because she will be well taken care of by her her.

I do respect her for having her baby. I just wish she was going to raise it. Ironically the complaint I hear every day as a teacher is that parents aren't raising their kids, the system is. Well I guess it's ok for a system to raise your kids when you can afford to pay for the system.

I Just Woke Up

2008-08-06T07:30:00.001-07:00

I wish that were metaphorical for my spiritual awareness but it's not, it's literal. I just got out of bed. 2 more weeks of summer and then back to school. :(

Tidbits of what I'm learning this summer. I've been reading Shane Claiborne's Jesus for President book and he's such a wussy and I want to be like him and in turn more like Jesus.

Newest thoughts on prayer, sweating and crying

2008-03-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

So a lot has happened since the last time I have really written in my blog.
I have been from Daytona Beach to Southern California. I've started my disc golf season and I'm in the middle of getting my masters degree. I've seen friends healed of paralysis, Sherry's shoulder healed, bought a new macbook and then told by my boss he was going to buy me a macbook pro. All random and unpredictable.

I've been thinking a lot about what we do as Christians and what we don't do. When life/God presents us with a challenge do we stand up and take it? Should we stand up and take it? When life/God presents us with opportunities that are risky, should we enter in even if we are going to look dumb or risk relationships or lose money?

There are things I would love to do if I could but I can't because [fill in your/my excuse here].

I am amazed that when the decisions I've made, that I've prayed over and sweat over and even cried over are in there worked out stage and all I need to do is settle in and do whatever it was I decided to do, a whole new set of decisions pop up and I need to start praying and sweating and crying all over again. I feel like I'm in a constant state of flux. Never really settled, never really stopping, never really in a place where I have finished the things I decided to do in the first place. Nothing has come to it's true completion and so it seems as if I am just piling. Piling up more stuff to worry about, more things to do "for God", more situations to handle, more relational fires to put out, more hard choices that take up my mental energy.

Sometimes I wish it were easier, sometimes I wish I was taller, sometimes I feel like I have my shit together, sometimes I really realize that God is in control and He's teaching me how to be a grown up.

Jamie Gillentine's Sermon

2008-02-28T00:33:00.001-08:00

Winter Bites!

2008-02-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

I'm so cold that the phrase burned out needs to be changed to iced out.

Ramblings and learnings

2008-01-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

So I've been thinking a lot about faith and sin and service and leadership . I'm just not sure if we are all going to agree on everything, big or small. I do know this though, I will never break off fellowship or friendship with anyone for ideology or theology or a philosophical differences of opinion. I argue with my friends about life and love and politics and Jesus and [fill in the blank] and we have all got to this point in our road for specific reasons. I've been a Christian for over 20 years. I don't take any opinion or belief I have lightly. I also don't take any of my OPINIONS to seriously either. Not one belief is more important than a person. I disagree with everyone about something. Some big things and some small things. If I were to flush out EVERY issue we would disagree about fundamental values, how to raise kids, how to fight fair with our spouse, how to be a "good" Christian. We can find differences, but are those differences going to define me? Sometimes we take out our sword and we start chopping ears off. I don't know when it's time to chop ears off but it seems like Jesus was never about chopping ears off. bss [big sad sigh!]

2008-01-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

The Caucus Is Over!

2008-01-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

Interesting experience to say the least.

I feel bad for the underdog candidates on the Dem side because if we would have done a straw pole Biden and Richardson and maybe even Dodd would have had a bigger piece of the pie. The way it works for Dems is we litterally stand in the corner of our candidate and if we have 15% of the room our candidate is viable. Viable means we get a delegate. Our presinct got 5 Deligates to split bteweenthe whole room. We had 222 people total in the room and we needed 34 people to make Biden viable. We only had 27 and nobody was moving. There were like 5 undecided and the Hillary people were giving them the crazy eye and hitting them with signs so I wasn't going over there. Biden actually had an OK percentage of the room but because we had to stand were someone was viable we had to move. So, in the media it looked like the underdogs didn't have the support that they really did. Oh well, either way Hillary didn't win and I feel ok about that.

By the way my Republican bretheren, Pat Robertson won Iowa when he was runnnig for president. So don't get that Oval office chair form fitted to Huckabee's butt just yet. John McCain won New Hampshire in 2004 so maybe he will again. And could someone please tell Thompson to put his bags away.

Did I mention how crazy Hillary's people were? They scared me.

Obama/Biden
Obama/McCain
Obama/ ?????

Raucous Caucus Robots?

2008-01-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

So tonight we Caucus! Never Caucused before. I wonder what it will be like?
I'm caucusing for Joe Biden. I've met him. I like him and I kinda trust him.
I don't really trust any of them, but Joe seems very real and down to earth. He's smart and has plenty of experience [which is a nice way to say he's been in politics for a long time.] I don't like his voting record on abortion but on mostly everything else I can't complain. I think he can get us out of Iraq with us looking OK and with Iraq in the best shape.
I'm really looking forward to this all being over just to see who running mates are and who both sides end up with as there candidates. I really wish there could be a bi-partisan ticket like Biden-McCain or Obama-Huckabee. I think that would really cause the nation to scratch their heads for a moment and not just be so quick to demonize the other guy.
If you take Hillary and Giuliani out of the mix there really isn't anyone else that is that offensive. They are all [except those two] palatable.
The iorony behind this blog is that Hillary-Giulliani is a very likely ticket and everything I just said goes right out the window.

Jeremy's Vespa

2007-12-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day--enough.

2007-12-25T13:10:00.000-08:00

So we opened gifts and I must say that I am amazed at the wonder in Max and Ezra's minds when they open the first couple of gifts. In the beginning they were so excited and saying things like "gummy bears!! it's what I always wanted". Then by the end Max is saying are there anymore? Where are the rest of them? I know he is satisfied. I think he just became expectant within the 20 minutes of opening stuff. Not to get too deep but I think that's how I've become about God's grace. At first I was like woohoo! He loves me. But about 12 minutes later I was sinning again and I was like, He'll forgive me [more presents] and then I was like oh yeah, God where is Your spirit to comfort me in my grief and pain that I've brought on myself?

I have nothing to complain about. I got enough. I have no needs that haven't been met a hundred times more than my true need. Man, do we have it good. No matter what pain or grief we are going through it's so relative to the rest of the world, to the slums of Calcutta to the bunkers in Afghanistan, to the Cross of Christ. Man do I have it good. I guess I'm going on and on just to say I am thankful. I am thankful for my God and His grace and my great wife and my great kids and my family and my church and my house and my cars and my educational system and my toys and my computers and my job and my friends, near and far, and my piles of clothes and my food and disc golf and my TVs and heat and air conditioning and everything that comes with winning the "born in the right place" lottery [in a free country with hospitals and ambulances and clean water] and winning the genetic lottery [being born healthy, short, but healthy]. I'm not asking to be Job, and I know there is better stuff out there than what I got. I could upgrade everything but my wife and kids. But why? Why do I covet? Why can't I just stop and appreciate what I am holding?

What I got, it's enough.

e·nough [i-nuhf]
–adjective
1. adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the purpose or to satisfy desire.
–pronoun
2. an adequate quantity or number; sufficiency.
–adverb
3. in a quantity or degree that answers a purpose or satisfies a need or desire; sufficiently.
4. fully or quite.

Christmas is Here!

2007-12-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day;
To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.

Blessings of comfort and joy!

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/g/o/godrest.htm

Sarcasm

2007-12-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

If I pick on you to your face, I'm kidding.

Self Rightious - Holier than Thou!

2007-12-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

The older I get the more I realize that people don't like it when someone (me) speaks passionately unless they agree with me or are intellectually stimulated by the conversation and then can speak just as passionate around me. Passion is seen as self righteous and "holier than though". Passion threatens sensibilities and courtesies. Passion ruffles the feathers of "playing nice". When I speak from my heart I do it in a way that is persuasive. So I think that comes off as arrogant. That's not my intention but I guess that's the price I pay for saying what I think. I see passion as vulnerable and transparent. I think humility has been misconstrued for ambiguity. It's like not having an opinion is standing in an intellectual safe zone. “I don't know" equals intellectual culpabilitylessness. ( I made that word up :) I had a discussion with a friend about TORTURE and I think as Christians I can never endorse, condone or justify torture. That is my opinion and I will defend my opinion because I believe it. I am sure there is some scenario where I would fold and say "rip his fingernails out!" But as a general rule torture (including waterboarding) would be unacceptable. Can anyone imagine Jesus violently interrogating even Pontius Pilate? I am not above being argued out of a point or even better, argued closer to a compromise. But, I believe something because I have thought about it and pondered it and wrestled with it and rolled it over in my brain. Like making tin can ice cream, I've kicked it around for a while. If I sound like I am making a stronger argument, people, a lot of the time, assume I am judging them for their belief or I am critical of their stance and therefore calling them less of a Christian.

Because I think I'm RIGHT doesn't mean I think I am RIGHTEOUS.

I have no corner on holy or righteous or better than. I have a bag of opinions that I try to line up with my world view and what I think God is about and that's it. If your bag looks different than mine then that makes the discussion just that much more interesting.
If I don't or can't understand how your opinion about something does or doesn't line up with Jesus than so be it. There is no judgment there. If I'm telling you I think you are wrong then that is my thought not God's. Only God knows truth and right and wrong and what those really are.

Because I think I'm RIGHT doesn't mean I think I am RIGHTEOUS.

I have no corner on holy or righteous or better than. I have a bag of opinions that I try to line up with my world view and what I think God is about and that's it. If your bag looks different than mine then that makes the discussion just that much more interesting.
If I don't or can't understand how your opinion about something does or doesn't line up with Jesus than so be it. There is no judgment there. If I'm telling you I think you are wrong then that is my thought not God's. Only God knows truth and right and wrong and what those really are.

Christmas

2007-11-28T17:02:00.001-08:00

Christmas

Torn between the hype and the holy.
Signs up, lights lit, stores gearing up way too early.
8 pounds 7 ounce baby Jesus commercialized and pimped. My heart breaks.
I love getting gifts. I love giving gifts
I love the looks on the faces of my boys as they see the bounty of wrapped boxes on Christmas morning.
I even love them asking me every day in December, "can we open a gift today dad? Just one, I promise we won't ask any more????"
How many of us did that?
How much anticipation did we have for that Christmas morning?
The excitement generated might have been a social experiment created by the axis of commercial, Sears Roebuck and Coca-Cola, but here we are.
In this time, in this place, in this buy on-line age where I can get all my shopping done at 3 in the morning on a Sunday with a click of the mouse. Or I guess several clicks.
But the gift. The original gift.
Can you imagine if we didn't get that gift or if we didn't receive that gift?
That 8 pound 7 ounce baby Jesus. How blessed are we that God has given us this grace.
How "lucky" are we that God decided to give us this second or third or billionth chance.
I don't know if we are celebrating the gift that God gave us rightly.
I don't think we are really.
But how happy am I that God bid on that item on eBay (me) and when he put in the amount he was bidding there wasn't a limit. He bid [His Son].
I know I am mixing the sublime with the holy a bit here but he paid for me and my sins with his son.
Christmas traditions are definitely screwy right now. It's hard to remember if my Christmas traditions are mine, the Brady's or the Huxtables.
It doesn't really matter though I guess cus I am going to spend this Christmas.
Spend my money.
Spend my time.
Spend my energy on the right things and the wrong too maybe.
And I'll spend my generosity.
The first Christmas was God blessing the world with a gift
[life in Him more fully]
Christmas is still about that gift but this Christmas we get to bless as partners.
The irony is I'm going to have to use the hype and make it holy.
Even with my kids. Not cheesy or greedy but HOLY.
What other time [other than Halloween when everybody actually comes to my door asking me to bless them]
are the doors, the homes or the hands of the world so wide open ready to receive a gift?

The Beginning

2007-11-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... a little while after that I got around to put together this blog.

I guess I'll start out political because if I'm going to go there [which I am] I may as well just get there sooner rather than later.

Giuliani... really? that's your choice my republican brothers and sisters? After 30 years of pounding Roe v Wade how is Giuliani even in the conversation of winning the republican ticket? It saddens me that electability is more important than your stance on LIFE. All the criticism I've gotten over the years for voting democrat [I'm VERY Pro-Life] on that issue alone and now because there isn't anyone else that's electable, people are folding over like a book of matches for this guy.

I still vote Dem even though they are pro choice becasue the republicans haven't done anything to change it any ways, nor do they want to. I say they really don't want to because they had chances and nothing has really changed.

Furthermore, whenever I bring up the fact that I vote Democrat for social issues like welfare [taking care of the poor] health care [taking care of our kids] environment [tending our garden] my Christian brethren always remind me that those issues are not our governments to solve they are the church's. Well, if "GOD" stuff is the business of just the church's then why is the Christian right always trying to elect a Christian [Giuliani aside of course].

What are the conservative issues Christian stand on that are not financially motivated? It's not Pro-Life anymore. I guess I'm a little confused now what makes Christians Republicans?
What issues on the Republican Agenda are inherently Christian???? Again, abortion doesn't count anymore [Giuliani].

Perfect world => Obama/Huckabee 08