Living the dream...

Last week I wrote about how Scott Williams was the man of my dream. Today I want to talk about a series of dreams I had about three years ago.

To give a little background, before all this started, I NEVER dreamed about people I knew. At all. In the two years prior to this, I'd had MAYBE three dreams about people I knew. That's it. So what happened next was a total outlier.

It all started one night when I had a dream about a friend of mine (we weren't that close of friends). I'll call her Courtney (to protect the innocent and stuff). In this dream, Courtney cussed like a sailor, which is rather funny because she never talks like that.

Well, it just so happened that I saw her the night after I dreamed about her. The dream was random enough that I told her about it. She was like, "I don't like that Courtney!" And I told her, "I don't like that Courtney either!" And that was it.

Until I had another dream about her the next night. And the next. So in three nights, I had as many dreams about one person than I'd had about all the people I knew in the previous two years.

At this point, I think I should probably clarify that I didn't like this girl. You know, like like. I mean, I liked her like Kevin liked Paul, but not like Kevin liked Winnie. I mean, that would kind of make sense to dream about a girl you liked (of course, I'd never dreamed about any of the girls I actually did like...), but that wasn't the case with Courtney.

Anyway, during this time, God sort of gave me a burden to talk to Courtney about something in her life. So I'd see her some crowded place and see if she wanted to get together and get ice cream or something during the week (okay, basically, I asked her on a date, I see now, but I wasn't thinking of it as a date at the time). We'd make specific plans, and then I'd call her, and she wouldn't answer her phone (the truth is, she never answered he phone for anyone. not me, not her best friends, not her sister. And she didn't check her voicemails either, so that would have been worthless.). So I'd see her a couple of weeks later and ask if she wanted to get together some time during the week, and she would recommend specific plans, and then when I'd call her at the planned time, she wouldn't answer.

Now, when people aren't reliable like that, it absolutely drives me nuts! I hate it when people don't call me back! So I was pretty fed up with Courtney. The final time she didn't follow through on our plans, I got so frustrated that I actually took her number out of my phone! I wasn't going to call her again and get angry when she didn't answer. I was done with her.

Until the next day...

I'll pick the story back up tomorrow.

P.S. - Danica McKeller gets 50 bonus points in my book for writing a book called "Math Doesn't Suck".

I hate Godtube

Michael Lukaszewski made a post today about an article (in which he was quoted) concerning YouTube vs. GodTube.

Can I just say that I hate GodTube? Maybe that's too strong, but I really do. I hate separating Christianity from the real world.

The reasoning behind using GodTube, for many people, apparently, is to avoid the "bad stuff" that appears on YouTube.

You know what? The world is full of "bad stuff." Christianity ought to be a light amidst the "bad stuff." But instead, in our self-righteousness, we separate ourselves from the "bad stuff." It makes me sick.

Maybe, instead of avoiding the risk of someone who watches a Christian video on YouTube seeing something "inappropriate," we should run the risk of someone who's watching "inappropriate" videos on YouTube stumbling across something about Jesus or the Church.

We're called to be a city on a hill. A lamp that shines bright. But instead we cloak ourselves to "protect" ourselves while those we protect ourselves from go to Hell!

I work with about 100 frac hands day-in and day-out. Maybe (maybe!) three of them know Christ. And these guys are crude. It's the oilfield. One of the most notoriously crude industries there is. And I love it. By being open about my relationship with Jesus, by engaging people who don't talk and act "appropriately," I've been able to share the light with people who otherwise would have no connection to Christ.

No, we shouldn't engage in "inappropriateness" ourselves. But Christians who run and hide from the world's "inappropriateness" make me absolutely sick.

What do you think on YouTube vs. GodTube?

The Man of My Dreams

Yes. Scott Williams is the man of my dreams. Well, at least, he was the man of my dream.

I've never met Scott face-to-face, but last night I dreamt that I did. Interestingly enough, in my dream, Scott was about 5'2". And his wife was white (they're both black).

So the whole thing was pretty weird.

I wonder about dreams some times. Do they mean something? Do they ALL mean something? Do any of them mean something?

I think they do sometimes. I had a pretty crazy series of dreams about 2-3 years ago, all about the same person, so I definitely think God communicates to us through dreams. I just don't know how often. I'll write about it later this week.

The people I work with...

I just heard a guy talking about his new phone... it went a little something like this:

"My daughter (she's 18) got one of those blueberries or blackberries or whatever the F they are, so she gave me this (showing his Razor).

"I started looking around all some of this music she has on here, some of these songs, ever other word's a cuss word (in a complaining voice).

"What is up with that S?"

Can't you really complain about the language in a song if you sandwich that sentence between an F-bomb and an S-bomb?

Apparently so.

My iPod is full!

When I bought my iPod (used) two years ago, I thought the thing was WAY too big for my purposes (and it's only one of those old-school 20 GB ones).

Yeah.. I have 192.7 MB left on it. This is a problem. I'm either going to have to take some stuff off of it, or get a new one...

hmmm...

such a dilemma...

The best laid plans...

So I'm sitting out here on a frac job right now. It's about 24°. It was down in the teens earlier. We were supposed to do two stages (each stage is supposed to take about 3.5 hours, with about 3 hours between stages) yesterday, two stages today, and finish up with one stage on Friday. Well, yesterday the cold weather caused the diesel to gel up on one of our main pieces of equipment. We didn't get started until 12:20 PM (over 5 hours late). Therefore, we only finished one stage yesterday. Today, water transfer's (a third party that transfers water from a pond to some tanks that we pump out of) lines are frozen. So far we're two hours late because of them. Who knows how much longer it will be.

We finally got started a couple of hours late, and this job is going to take about an hour longer than designed. Hopefully the next three stages will treat better, or who knows how long we'll be out here.

I've always been real bad about trying to plan WAY too much. I used to plan out time to be spontaneous. (Does it really count as spontaneous if it's planned spontaneity?) This job has ruined my ability to plan. It's been great.

James tells us about how we should plan our lives. I used to plan the when, the where, the how long, the what down to a T in my life. James warns us to instead listen for the Lord's will and "do this or that." This job was

I'm not saying we shouldn't ever plan for anything, but I think there's danger in planning too much. When we spend a lot of energy in making our plans, we can often tune out to hearing the Lord's plans - especially if he calls an audible.

This job has taught me the difference between planning for and preparing for. I can't really plan for anything in this job, but I have to prepare for just about anything.

How does the difference between planning for and preparing for present itself in your life?

What is a Ham Fighter?

I get asked the question a lot: what is a Ham Fighter?

Well, really, there's no such thing. The name comes from the Japanese baseball team, the Nippon Ham Fighters. The thing is, almost no one in America has ever heard of the city of Nippon Ham, so they assume that "Nippon" is the city and "Ham Fighters" is the mascot.

Not quite.

Too many times what the truth is isn't what people perceive as the truth. David Kinnamon says in his book, UnChristian:

Only one-third of young outsiders believe that Christians genuinely care about them (34 percent). And most Christians are oblivious to these perceptions—64 percent of Christians said they believe that outsiders would perceive their efforts as genuine.

While our outreach to those outside Christianity may be out of genuine concern for them, most often, those same people we are trying to reach don't feel that we are genuine. Just like with Nippon Ham, most people don't understand the truth behind the team's name, so to them, "Ham Fighters" becomes the truth.

With the Fighters though, the difference between reality and perception is the difference between a boring name and a funny name. When it comes to Christians' outreach toward outsiders, the difference is heaven and hell. Because, unfortunately, most people's biggest obstacle to Christianity is Christians. And when we appear ingenuine [sic - can I sic myself?], it make Christianity appear ungenuine [sic - apparently so, since I'm doing it].

How can we community with clarity genuine concern for outsiders to Christianity?