Dreams Unlocked

I left a bag of opened peanut M&M's on our coffee table last night. I was eating them while sleeping through the movie "Hollywoodland". Adam discovered them this morning while Felicia and I were still in bed. He ate some, walked into our room and threw up on our bed. Later he ate some french toast and threw up on himself. Still later Felicia gave him some banana muffins (you would have figured she should keep his stomach empty), and he threw up on himself. We drugged him up with benadryl and gravol. He went to bed and threw up in the bed. Oh, yeah the left side of his face has ballooned up into a cartoon caricature of the right side. He is sleeping now. We thought of taking him to the hospital, but figured the doctor would say something brilliant like, "I think he's allergic to peanuts." He would then prescribe some ointment that we already have. The boy is resting, Felicia is cleaning and I am parsing Greek verbs from Ephesians 2. (several hours later) ...

I played squash today. This is the first time in years. I used to play in high-school with my Dad and my friend Mark. There actually used to be courts in the basement of University Hospital. They were way way back in the bowels of the basement. You had to go through several empty hallways and past a bunch of storage areas before you came to them - it was so trippy playing in there. I also used to play at the YMCA in Saskatoon. Today I played with Juan at Dunbar Community Center. It's super cheap there, Came home and hammered out some admin stuff. I have a couple of weddings that I am performing - been prepping some pre-marital stuff for that. Have started incorporating meditation and silence in my prayer time recently - I would challenge you all to have 5 minutes of silence everyday - just to listen to God - it could very well change your life.

Today Felicia had an ultrasound. It was amazing. The inner universe of the womb on display for us. And....we know what we're having. If you want to know - just ask. Looks like a hectic week up ahead. I am out every night Wed-Sunday. Wednesday - Bible Study Thursday - Missional Training Network Friday - Pre-Marital Counselling Saturday - amazing Grace movie with group from first@night Sunday - Palm Sunday (I'm preaching) Pray for me. Also - I am in the print issue of this newspaper . (This month.)

A friend of mine preached his last sermon at a church he had been sr. pastor of for 17 years. It was pretty emotional, but there was a strong exhortation at the end to hold onto truth, listen to authority and pass the faith on to the next generation. Then we ran errands in the afternoon. A Starbucks on Seymour has a manager whose name is Asha - Asha is my sister's name. I asked the barista if the manager was in and that my sister shared the same name. She said - she's in - do you want to talk to her? I said, no - what would I say? Nice name? Came back - prepped for tonight. Tonight was one of the best services we have had. I really felt the Spirit in worship and as I preached. God is so good - He never lets us down. Been thinking of getting down to do some writing. Lauren Winner is coming to Regent to teach a class on writing - I'm tempted to take it - I am reading Real Sex by here right now - she is a truly gifted writer - I highly recommend her. Waiting for my folks to co...

Went to Regent Library yesterday to get some Ephesians commentaries. Took Adam with me. He ran through the aisles and hid here and there. He found this huge bright yellow book entitled "Christ and the Cynics" - it looks like someone's masters or doctoral dissertation. I opened it up and it had typewriter font, which is usually indicative of it being a dissertation. Adam insisted on getting this book for Mom. So along with my books we got this huge yellow book written by some grad student somewhere about Christ's interaction w. 1st Century Cynics. Good read. I was out running some errands today. The weather has just been nasty and it finally happened - the wind caught my umbrella and it hit me in the head. My own umbrella attacked me. Worked on my sermon for most of the day. Eph. 2:1-10.

Caught between the lights. I know someone who is dying of cancer. I mean... really dying - like weeks or months to live. His wife was one of my professors in seminary. His kids were in the youth group that I used to work at. I like his kids a lot. Both his sons are graduating this year - one from high-school, and another from University. His only wish is that he gets to see them both graduate before he dies. Man - that sucks. It makes me overwhelemed with sorrow whenever I think about it. And the thing is - this man is so nice. He is kind and gentle and humble like no one else I have ever known. And... he's going to die.... soon. WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY The question erupts from wherenver I keep it buried. Flashbacks to when Stan Grenz died. But I'm just the latest in a long line of people who wrestle with this question - just read Psalm 73 and Job. And many many more will ask it after I'm long gone. And the thing is we will never get adequate answers in this...

Today Charity Hayashi and Felicia went for lunch. Which meant Josh and their 9 mth. old son Everett came over here to hang out. Which meant Adam and I had all kinds of fun. Adam treated Everett very well although he kept calling him little sister. Everett is quite cute, and sort of dragged himself around in pursuit of Adam. Check Everett out here . It was good to catch up with Josh. Josh has a great heart for ministry. John Santic has an excellent post here on christian consumerism. good job John. Hits the nail on the head and pictures too! There is a tailor in Yaletown. I find it so odd that we still have tailors - I often associate them with candle stick makers or cobblers. But anyways they're handy for hemming jeans that are too long. It is run by this Eastern European woman who seems incapable of smiling. I bought a pair of jeans in Oregon that are too long. So I went in there. There was a male tailor in there today. He looked really sad. I'm sure if I had looked closer I ...

This morning we went to Grandview Calvary Baptist Church . This is a church we attend from time to time. I usually don't go anywhere in the mornings - I am usually prepping for the evening, and just find it a bit tiring to try to do too much when I have to preach. At Grandview, they held a special part of the service where they remembered children who had died before they were born, either through miscarriage or abortion. Parents of children who had died were invited to come to the front and share the names of those who had died. They then dropped flower petals into basins of water. Then they could take a rock, wrap a ribbon around it and lay it before a cross. It was one of the most moving things I have ever seen. One couple had lost 5 children in 2 years. How does one cope? The church took a risk in doing this, but it was worth it. It was an amazing service. A lot of people have not heard of Grandview - but I think it represents both the emergent and missional streams of the chu...

Psalm 1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish. "Our soul is like an inner stream of water, which gives strength, direction and harmony to every other elemant of our life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and exhuberant in all we do, because our soul itself is then pro...

These are my 2 favorite pics that I took yesterday. More here . Last night on Cannon Beach. This is a perfect spot for a holiday - beautiful natural surroundings, a fire place for cozy nights and not too many people around. The advantage of having a suite is that we did not have to eat out once! We cooked all our meals at home! Which saves us money - which is good when you are a pastor! It has been good to have this quiet time to reflect and pray with Felicia. As some of you know, we have been trying to decide what path our lives will take - after June I have no guaranteed income. We need to decide whether to continue to pursue the church plant in Yaletown - we have a lot of support from the core team that wants to plant with us. But to be honest, we've been doing this for almost 2 years with very little fruit. This makes it hard sometimes to stay motivated. Anyways, we had a good chat this afternoon while walking on the beach, which I think sheds a bit more clarity on our future....

Finished Velvet Elvis today - some good insights, but not life changing. I like Rob Bell's honesty and the vantage point form which he speaks. Today we went for a drive along the coast. I am just stunned by the natural beauty of this state. The town we are in is called Cannon Beach. It is basically a tourist town. I can't tell what any other industries are here. Tons of galleries - reminds me of Carmel California which has a lot of small art galleries - also a part of San Diego, that is also near the water. Why do artists migrate to the water - inspiration? Jordon has a good post about global warming. Actually I like the back and forth debate in the comments section. I was also affected by the movie An Inconvenient Truth - I thought it was very well done. Felicia and I have not owned a car for a year and a half. We recently bought a small SUV, which I concede is not very environmentally friendly, but we needed the space to cart the kid(s) around. We still use public transport o...

More Oregon pics here . Thanks to Nick for that outlet mall info. We knew that there was a good one near Portland, but forgot the name and location. We went to a pretty small one in Seaside. They had a Christian store where I bought the Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham, Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell (finally!) and Renewing the Center by Stan Grenz. They had another book store which seemed to carry books that have never sold anywhere else in the world. I didn't recognize a single title! We bought Adam some clothes from Osh Kosh B'Gosh. There is a store in the States, whose name always makes me chuckle: Dress Barn I don't imagine most women think of a Barn when they are deciding on what dress they are going to wear. "Where's my dress?" "Have you looked in the barn, honey? I think it was beside that bale of hay and the steel milk cannister." Reminds me of another sartorial center: Suit Warehouse. Rob Bell Rob Bell is the pastor of a church in Grand Rapids...

Cannon Beach We got into Portland last night. We went to an amazing book store called " Powells " - It is HUGE. This morning we went to Imago Dei - an emergent church.It grew from 20 to 1200 in 7 years. We have 1180 to go, 1179 after April. I met with a couple of the pastors who were very nice and supportive. They have an amazing children's program. All the kids are photographed, are given a laminated badge that scans then into the computer. In order to pick them up , you have to be scanned in w. your matching badge. Then we did some shopping - Portland has no sales tax. There was a big sale on Gap Red products so we bought a bunch of them. Then we went to Safeway to get some groceries. We went 30 minutes out of our way so I could get Krispy Kreme to guarantee I never ever ever reach my target weight - which I think I will reach half way through my cremation. We are now in a beautiful cabin right on the beach at Cannon beach. It is a 1 bedroom suite w, a fireplace and ful...

Felicia and I finally saw Babel tonight - What a colossal waste of time. It had its moments, but the pace was so slow. There was a few stand out performances - especially from Adriana Barraza. Brad Pitt also showed us he can act, hearkening back to such performances as in 12 Monkeys and Snatch. Driving - I drove to interns last night out in Surrey, and was reminded of why I hate driving. I got completely lost, both going there and coming back. Got to catch up with Dr. Loeppky and his lovely wife Carla last night. We went to a local pub and chatted about old times. I just finished reading Hebrews in my devotions today - I took a class in Bible school - I would love to take another class at a graduate level. It is basically about the supremacy of Christ. Last night we had a discussion about the low level of discipleship and commitment preached in contemporary North American evangelicalism. I made the comment that if we have been preaching a "Christianity lite" for the past 30 y...

Well, I am happily working away on my snappy little black Mac book. What a sweet little machine. I have a goal to keep my desktop and document folder a lot neater. On my ibook I probably have at least 30 items on my desktop, which I have not filed away. This morning I spent some time editing down the changes at first@night. It looks pretty good. I had lunch with Sam Chaise today. Sam is an old old friend - I've known him since I was a little kid. He is a pastor in New West, and the president of our denomination. We had lunch at a place I am not usually used to going - the Pan Pacific at Canada Place. It's a beautiful spot overlooking the water and the North Shore Mountains. They have a 22$ burger on the menu! Loaded up with short ribs and foie gras!!! Hilarious. This evening I saw "Letters from Iwo Jima" - Man what an amazing film - I highly recommend it. I think Clint Eastwood just might be the greatest living American director today. I know - Scorsese and Coppola an...

Yaletown at night. I have been unhappy in the way I blog. Basically I would wait until 10 or 11 at night, and I would start typing - mostly reflections on my day, or what is happening in my ministry, or any recent articles I had read or written. This is my new strategy - Since a lot of my time is spent changing the world by banging on the keys of my Macbook, I will contribute to my blog throughout the day. At the end of the day I will edit it into some sort of cohesive whole. So here goes: Bono is in the news: here and here . The second article is more about the RED campaign. The writer is critical because it is estimated that only 18 million$ has been raised towards AIDS in Africa. This is in light of the mult-millions spent in marketing by the Gap and Motorola and other companies. I am the furthest thing from an ad wiz, but I think we have to look deeper then just dollers and sense here. The RED campaign has continued the effort to bring the AIDS crisis into the mainstream conversat...

I bought a new laptop, but I am having difficulty transferring files from one to the other. It is a new apple - I bought it on-line. I am convinced that Apple stores have the absolutely worst customer service on the planet. There is one around the corner from our place. I am completely ignored everytime I go in there. We tried going to another store on Broadway - there was 5 employess who were all busy gazing into space. I left and ordered it on-line. I also got a mighty mouse, which I do not like. Felicia can use it instead of me. I finished reading "Purpose Driven Church" by Rick Warren. When he was planting his church in Saddleback, he sent out a letter to the community inviting them to the church - 250 people showed up! That would never happen here. I would bet that not a single person would show up if I mailed all of Yaletown. I think the reasons are cultural - people in America are still conversant w. the idea of attending church - as such a large number of population a...

I was at this emergent/missional conference at Trinity Western in Langley today. Eddie Gibbs was speaking - He was great. Eddie is the foremost academic who has studied the emergent church. The southside interns group had lunch with Eddie and had a spirited talk about where the emergent church is headed. All in all, it was a great set of meetings. My one critique was that it was extremely academic. They should have probably had some practitioners come and speak as well. It would have been good to have had some case studies to interact around as well. I've recently been thinking of writing a book. Some title ideas: "How to grow a church to 20". "How to keep on going when nobody likes you." Oldman had asked whether I would still believe that Jesus was divine, if it was proved that he had been married, had a child and died. I really don't know what I would believe. I mean I would have to believe the facts, if they were proven to be true. But I think it would ta...

I normally blog late at night, reflecting on my day or on news stories. But I am currently re-reading "Renovation of the Heart" by Dallas Willard. I stumbled across this quote by Nouwen that I had to put up on here. Enjoy: "Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the Beloved. Being Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence." Willard comments: "Self-rejection is, ultimatley, our soul's reproach to God, deriving from false images of himself and his world."