Dreams Unlocked

Fasting is a spiritual discipline where you abstain from food for a period of time in order to pray and deepen your relationship with God. It is practiced in many religions. I fasted lunch and supper today. I was going to fast breakfast as well, but only had a few hours sleep last night, and so decided I needed something to make it through the day. I'd like to be able to fast one day a week, but it's kinda hard because so many of my meetings take place over lunch. And also, I really like to eat. Fasting is very difficult, but it is good. It is hard to explain the effects if you've never done it before. Some days when I fast, I really experience a real spiritual high. Other times I end the day angry and hungry. But fasting opens up spaces inside you. For example, if I feel angry at the end of a day of fasting, then there is a reason for the anger, apart from just lack of food. And then I need to explore the root of that anger. Halloween - this was the first time Adam got to ...

Guess What? You're free... now find another acting job. If you haven't discovered this web-site, you really need to. It always cracks me up. It should be actually Stuff yuppies like - I know many Asians that like the stuff listed on this site. The one on Hummus today was awesome: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/10/27/112-hummus/ Is anyone else watching Heroes this season? I have totally given up trying to follow this convoluted show which seems to be making less sense every week. Also - Prison Break, which should really be renamed "A Bunch of Random Guys Try to Figure out Something About a Powerful Company While The Company Is Trying To Kill Them". Look - they got out of prison in the first season!!! The show was over back them. Now, they're just trying to milk it for what it's worth. Good thing Cops and Intervention are still on.

Leadership Team with Alan Hirsch So much has happened since the last post. Saw Neil Young last Thursday - Wow. Seeing Neil Young was unbelievable. When he played "Heart of Gold", I nudged my friend and said: "We are seeing Neil Young play Heart of Gold!!!!" The guy is simply a living legend. Very few artists share his rarefied space: Bob Dylan.... and who else - Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison? His influence spans U2 to Radiohead to grunge. The next day I left for the NOVA conference in Kelowna, hosted by Willow Creek Canada. Speakers included Donald Miller, Erwin McManus and Alan Hirsch. I went with 8 other people from our leadership team. It was a pretty good conference, but I find as I get older I am less inclined to attend conference. I have been to several large ones with really big "names" in Christian leadership. The thing is that I read a lot, and will know most of the stories that the speakers are going to share. Many of these conferences tend to be q...

I am currently reading "The Politics of Jesus" by Mennonite theologian, John Howard Yoder. This book was written in 1972, but it is as relevant now as ever. In an age where varying political parties attempt to co-opt Jesus for their own ends, the church is left to decide what side of the culture war it will be on. Or, the church beats a hasty retreat and creates a parallel culture where we can feel safe and secure and our kids will grow up believing that Adam and Eve played with dinosaurs. Enter Yoder. "The Kingdom of God is a social order and not a hidden one. It is not a universal catastrophe independent of the will of human beings; it is that concrete jubilitary obedience in pardon and repentance, the possibility of which is proclaimed beginning right now, opening up the real accessibility of a new order in which grace and justice are linked, which people have only to accept." - p.105 Christianity needs to get beyond a "free ticket to heaven when you die...

Neil Young If you are on Facebook and we are friends, you will notice that I have been updating my status all day with Neil Young quotes. That's because Old Shakey is coming to town, and me and my buddy Joey are going to see him! The show is tomorrow night, and I can't wait. I got into Young a bit more recently and really like him. I have After the Gold Rush, Freedom, Greatest Hits, Prairie Wind, Harvest Moon and Live at Massey Hall. I also have bought songs from other albums such as: Chrome Dreams II, Decade, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Old Ways, Ragged Glory, Rust Never Sleeps and Weld. He is similar to Dylan in many ways, in fact the Sun ran a story comparing the two, because Dylan plays this Friday and there are whispers that he may join Young on stage tomorrow night. The only way it could be better is if Johnny Cash strolled on stage too. Our leadership team from church is going to a conference this week-end in Kelowna. I'll be blogging from there - I think I get...

Ambulances full of sick people. This morning Felicia hosted a woman's group meeting from the church. From all accounts, it was a success. I took Adam and Sophia for the morning. We went to visit a member of our church who is in hospital. As we were walking towards the hospital, it happened again! Adam let his world-view slip out! It was a beautiful warm sunny day, and I said to Adam, "Isn't it an amazingly beautiful morning!" To which Adam, replied, "But, those ambulances are full of sick people." I can't get enough of this kid!

Felicia received a bonus check from work, after she quit her full time line. It was an accumulation of all her unbanked vacation days. So, because she's so nice, she said we could go clothes shopping. She felt she needed more dressy clothes for Sunday mornings as the pastor's wife and all. So, I was pretty excited. An excursion to a suburban shopping mall really gets my heart pumping. After a healthy meal of Arby's roast beef, we ventured on. And here's the thing.... clothes are really different now. I wanted a sort of casual button up shirt - either white or grey. I thought Gap was my best bet. But, it appeared a small explosion had blown up at the back of the store - there were shirts helter skelter. The overly zealous manager looked for an oxford button down, but came up empty handed. He tried to sell me a pink one - I gripped the stroller a little tighter in an effort to assert my heterosexuality. All I got at the Gap was a white t-shirt - wow. Then I went to 4 more...

Adam walks the line. I need to keep a record of all the interesting things that Adam has said in his 4 years thus far on Earth. Here's a sampling: One time Sophia was crying and my Mom was saying "It's ok, its ok its ok". To which Adam responded, "It's not ok, its not ok, its not ok. " Later my Mom told Adam that on the beach we can collect shells, which is very exciting! Again, he responds with "But, some of the shells are broken." One day I picked Adam up at school. It was a beautiful sunny day. I told Adam, "Isn't it a beautiful day!!!" He said, "But, the wind still blows the trees." And then this morning may have been the pinnacle in his pithy statements. Every morning Adam crawls into our bed and hangs out for a bit. He crawled into bed at some point in the night last night, I never heard him. This morning at about 7 AM, we had the following conversation: "Dad" "Yeah" "I have to tell you som...

I have discovered a whole world of music out there: the blues and soul music. People like Pee Wee Crayton, Al Green, Charlie Parker and Red Prysock. I really really like the old Delta blues from the 30's and 40's. Their influence is most pronounced on bands like White Stripes and The Black Keys. And, we probably wouldn't have Zeppelin w.out th elbues. There's something just so REAL about these artists, that over-dubbed Britneys cannot reproduce. Listening to Pee Wee Crayton right now - Early Hour Blues. I ran into a faithful blog reader over the weekend, who felt it was a bist surreal actually talking to me in person, as he follows my life on-line daily. Thanksgiving week-end has come and gone. We got together with some family for dinner last night in Langley. Had some great turkey dinner. Felicia is working tonight and Sophia simply won't sleep. She's been crying and screaming for the past half hour. I took her out for a bit, but I'm hoping she'll settl...

The Ninans on ice. This blogging thing seems to have been on a perpetual pause. I normally blog late at night, reflecting on the day that has just ended. Recently I have been dead tired at night and have been dragging myself to bed, instead of wandering downstairs to the lap-top. maybe I should take my lap-top upstairs and blog from up there. Anyhow - it is noon on Saturday of Thanksgiving week-end. And I am blogging. I heard Walter Brueggeman speak on Wednesday night - the guy was unreal. It was basically like listening to a modern day prophet. I need to get the audio downloads of his other messages. Brueggeman is liberal on things like inerrancy and some aspects fo sexuality. But, he is more perceptive and insightful then most Old Testament evangelical theologians that I have read. Read him. Other than that, things are pretty swimming. Exodus is rolling along nicely. Various other groups are beginning to emerge from within our church: young adults, moms groups, a couple new home grou...

Dealing with suburban isolation This afternoon we headed downtown on a lark. Felicia took the kids to science world and I was dropped off at one of my favorite pubs: The Irish Heather in Gastown, which is quite a bit more upscale since it moved into new digs across the street, making me wonder if it is still my fave. What I liked about it before is it was a bit grubby, similar to some of the pubs I've been to in Dublin. I ran into one of my mentors: Brian Buhler. Brian is a local pastor who is one of the best preachers I have ever heard. I have known Brian since I was a Bible school student in 1993 - wow, 15 years! Brian was there with his wife and son. I joined them briefly and caught up a bit. I also worked on my sermon in the pub. Brian asked if I needed my "urban fix". I hadn't thought of it like that before. We came downtown for the kids, and also to check out a new Izakaya called Gyoza King. Coming downtown after being away for a month, I felt my heart beat a li...

This Sunday I am preaching on Exodus 2:15b-4. The passage includes the following text which I need to figure out a way to interpret and apply to life in 2008: 24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.) Pray for me.

The above picture is a typical picture of me at work. This is my home office, which is quite nice, although lacking the stellar view from our downtown apartment. I have a window to the left, where I see maybe 3-4 people strolling by, and a few SUV's driven by hockey moms who themselves seem to be driven by something else entirely. I often dress like this as well - a t-shirt and shorts or jeans. Unless I have a meeting, then I'll spruce things up with a collared shirt and socks! 3 AM - Can't sleep. Awoken by a disturbing dream where I become best friends with the mom from the series "Little People in Big World" or whatever that show is called about 2 little people and their kids living on a farm in Oregon. The dad got busted for a DUI last year, which is more than scary. More thoughts on Palin: Gawker magazine is running daily clips of Palin's interviews with Katie Couric. Here's the thing: Palin seems completely incapable of being able to answer direct que...