June 1 – June 7

Not a whole lot happened this week, should be a shorter post, but we’ll see what happens :

Church – the message this week was more like a family meeting, lettign the congregation know about a few things in the future of the church. Matt Williams recapped a 3 – year project that was coming to a close, and gave us a challenge on giving. This always seems to be a tuff area for me, mainly because I’m still a just-out-of-college guy who basically lives paycheck to paycheck trying to save for my move and paying off a couple bills. But Matt made one statment that reall stuck out ot me – He said everytime you step into a church, someone has sacrificed for you to be there. Someone has given of themselves so you could have a spot to worship. He said not to take that for granted, not to think it’s someone else’s responsibility to provide while you’re an exception. You put yourself in that role. You make a sacrifice for someone else. On top of that challenge, we also had communion, which is always a powerful time of reflection.

Me – This week was another packed work week. I did get 1 day of Thurs for Gee’s (my bro) graduation. My Aunt Cindy and Uncle Hal were down to visit for that, so we got to spend some enjoyable time with them. We’ll see them and the rest of the family again on our family vacation – probably my last for a while – in 2 weeks. Sunday after church I hit up the pool for the 1st time this year with some friends. My body is basically set-up to burn once andthen be good for the rest of the summer, with semi-consistent sun exposure. So I decide to lay out/swim for like 3 1/2 hours with no sun screen. Man did I pay for that one.

Sports – In the hockey world, the penguins are hanging in there against the Red Wings. After being down 2-0, the Pens took games 3 and 4 at home, evening the series to 2 games a piece. However, game 5 was a total slaughter withthe pens losing another game in Det 5-0. Fleury was pulled from goal half way through the 2nd period. Since I’m writing this late, I already watched game 6 and can proudly say the Penguins bounced back, winning another home game to even the series and force a game 7 in Detroit Fri night. Should be a great game, though the pens have played awful in Detroit the past 2 cup finals. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and especially Marc-Andre Fleury will need to be spectacular for the Pens to have a chance.

                In the NBA im currently pulling for the Lakers to beat the Magic in the finals, for 3 reasons – 1. I have always loved watching Kobe and still believe he is the best player out there. 2. The Magic knocked off my Celtics 3. Im moving to LA so I better have a little appreciation for some of their teams, even though I wont reallyh be a fan of any of them. Currently the Lakers are up 2-1 in the series, winning the 1st 2 games at home and losing last night’s away game by a slim margin. My call – Lakers in 5, though if it went 6, they could take the title at home. Either way, it wont go 7 and the lakers will take it.

             In baseball, the Red Sox continue to play decent enough to contend for their division lead, and continue to play well against the Yanks.

TV – nothing

Movies – saw 2 movies this week

                Up! – I saw this film based on several friends, with similar taste in movies, telling me it was great, and because Pixar’s films are about 3 billion times better than any other animated movies.  Up did turn out ot be great. Very cool story, very funny of course, and just a really well written script – anyone of any age should enjoy.

       The Hangover – us guys had been looking forward to this movie for awhile. A great guy movie about a roadtrip and bachelor party that got a little out of hand. This movie I cant recommend for all ages/genders like I did for Up, and thoug there were a couple scenes that were uneccessary, the movie was really funny and kept your attention with ease.

thats about it, we’ll see ya

Memorial Day Week – May 24 – 31

This week includes an extra Sunday due to me falling behind 2 weeks ago, so we should be all caught up now, anyways – here’s what went down :

Church – double the preaching recap for this week –

              May 24th’s service covered Ecclesiastes 9-10. Matt Williams began by skipping the 1st ten verses and going over the next 1 1/2 chapters, which deal with random wisdom concepts. He saved the 1st ten verses for last becuase they sum up and build a framework into which these concepts fit. The over-arching principle in 9:1-10 is that all the wisdom in the world doesn’t guarantee a person ANYTHING. People who worship God dont always get what they want or noone would be worshipping Him, only themselves and their desires. People on bost sides of the faith spectrum must win and lose. Enjoy the simple things in life God has given to you. Dont demand too much from life and especially God. What He puts in your life reveals what you really value and lean on.

              Today’s (May 31) sermon was the final message in our series on Ecclesiates. It has been an awesome study and a real agent in re-focusing on the meaning of life. We looked at the final 2 chapters, 11-12. Solomon’s main point in the book is that we try to wrap our hearts around things (idolatry), all of which we’ll be seperated from by death. You aren’t given 2 lives. You dont get one life to do everything YOU want to do and one life to reconcile the 1st life and do GOD’S bidding. There’s simply planting when you’re young and harvesting when you’re old. Everything is meaningless, but not necessarily bad. God does give us things to enjoy in life, but once again it’s the WEIGHT eyou put on those things that’s crucial. Solomon spends the entire book telling us what is meaningless, fading, and vain. In the last 2 verses of the book he sums up what is meaningFUL – to fear and to obey God. He is our judge, meaning we’re not the captains of our souls. You can’t find meanign without God. HE is thwe greater reality and context that necessary to makes sense out of this life. We must have something OUTSIDE oursleves to guide and judge us. The end of the book doesn’t leave uswith a sense of accomplishment, but with an urge to find and do something more. Matt then took us to Matthew 7 : 21-27 where Jesus designated Himself as our authority/judge. He makes the point that what you SAY isn’t always tied to your heart, but what you DO always is. The approaching storm talked about here is God’s judgement. The tragedy is in living a good life, sans the relationship Jesus wants with us. We’re not signing a heavenly insurance agreement, we’re signing our lives over to something better,greater,higher.

Sports –

                             The Penguins successfully swept the Carolina Hurricanes to make it back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the 2nd year in a row. They once again face the Detroit Red Wings. This is the 1st rematch of the finals in 25 years. Sad to say the Penguins find themselves currently down 2-0. Though keeping up with the Wings on shots and chances, the difference makes so far has to have been Chris Osgood. The Pens simply can’t get anything by the dude, despite playing really well. There have been some reallt lame/ fluke -ish goals scored by the Wings, but I’m not trying to make excuses – they’rea great team.

                     The Red Sox are continuing to be mediocre, probably winning half the games they played this week. Luckily, most of the teams in their division are, at best, playing mediocre right now as well, so the remain a game or less behind the division leading Yankees.

Movies –

             Only one movie to report on this week -Terminator:Salvation – decent movie, good action, usually like Christian Bale, but overall I didn’t really enoy the film. If you know anything about the story in the Terminator series, this movie was fairly unecessary to the storyline and merely acted as a setup for what will surely be another sequel. On another note – I really wanna see the nex Pixar film Up! , it looks really good and reviews/friends say the same.

Finally, on the subject of MYSELF, that sounds conceited, everythign is going well. Work this week was crazier than ever. I put in like 45 hours in only 4 days of work. It was nice having Memorial Day off. Me and some friend went up to Dupont Falls with their dogs and went hiking. It was a good day outdoors followed by a solid cookout. Sat night I got to hear Tad’s band Facing Yesterday in concert again, which was pretty cool. Other than that I cant think of a whole lot that happened other than the typical hanging out, but I worked a lot this week like I said earlier so there wasn’t even as much of that as normal. This next weeking I’m hoping to try and ease back into my workout/running sched. It was thrown off there for a few weeks but NEEDS to continue. Im also thinking about doing a week of fasting/dieting – eating only fruit/veggies/yogurt, and drinking only water a 100 % fruit juice. I guess the goal is to help clean out my intestense. I talked to a friend/co-worker about this friday, and apparently doing things like that can help your intestense and boost your health and metabolism. Sounds like it’s worth a try, huh? We’ll see.