A wind in my hair week: Part II

... continued.

4) My wife's birthday is just a couple of days before mine. Normally we celebrate them together... but I suspected that wasn't going to work well this year. So I put together a couple of gifts for her and took her out for dinner. (this is becoming an expensive month as you will see) We had a wonderful time and a nice restaurant near our town that I knew she had wanted to visit. She also liked her gift... I bought her a gift certificate for an experience rather than a thing.

As it turns out: 5) my birthday was last Saturday. I turned 30. (suddenly I miss having a reliable 2 in my age). She had opted to give me an experience for my birthday too.

I knew no information about what she had planned... except I know her well enough that I knew there was a plan.
On my birthday, we woke up early (the baby wakes us up) and wandered over to the airport to see a bunch of hot airballoons take off together. And then had breakfast at some friends' house this is on the taxiway at the airport. A little later, my wife, my friend (who mysteriously showed up) drove up the highway and out into country. I noticed we were following the "grape stomping" festival signs... part of me was a little worried... "happy birthday... take off your shoes!" When they were confused about where we were going... everything came clear in a moment. My friend in the back seat suddenly said "I don't think we need the map any more". I looked up to see 4 parachutes sinking behind the trees ahead of us. That's what I was going to do!
It's a place called "Skydive Oregon". Well... I'm sure you all know about skydiving... pretty standard stuff. a) sign 7 pgs front/back of "Neither I nor my cousin's aunt's neighbor's parakeet will sue you when I die." b) sit through a 3 min how-to-not-die presentation. c) Put on the funny looking jump suit and beany helmet. d) Tell my wife that she should remarry if I don't make it, and to forgive herself since it was her idea. e) cram into a plane with 12 really strange people. f) fly to ~2 miles straight up. g) be strapped to some stranger who hopefully doesn't want to die either. h) fall out of a plane 1/2 way through the ride. Strangely, I wasn't afraid. I wasn't scared... but it was windy. We fell for about a minute... the earth got significantly closer during that short time. Then straps around my legs went tight (I'm so glad they were on correctly) and everything went quiet. What a cool experience to be floating slowly in silence so far up in the air. The guy I jumped with (Justin) handed me the control cords (for lack of a formal term) and let me fly for a while... very cool. The only time I felt like I was really falling fast was the last 50 feet or so... yikes! We're falling! However, I performed a picturesque landing on my butt... with good coaching of course. But wait there's more! After the "jump" I was met by a good friend that I don't get to see often enough. My wife had arranged for him to meet us.
How's that for a cool birthday? Well, back to real life...
That evening, I headed over to some friend's house to help work on their pool... it seems the "liner and slipped." Not a good thing. It's a good thing there are friends like me that are willing show up (on his birthday) to help out..... by being surprised by a birthday luau party. My wife had sent out invitations to everyone in the area that I know. She got help from several people, and put together an awesome party! I was completely taken off guard! I wasn't expecting it at all. We partied late into the evening. That was a pretty dang cool birthday!

Sunday, I got up and made it to worship practice at 9am and lead worship for the morning service. The band really played well together (a wonderful experience) and it felt like God met us that morning. It is exciting when God shows up... because it's an element that organization or musicianship cannot manipulate. God does what God wills.

I had to leave out of lot of cool things to make this as short as it is!

So now I'm back to work... doing my current job, and my old job. And I've got to be a presenter in front of a legislative commission next week. I like speaking to groups, but this is still something new to me. I'm a little nervous about it. I guess I feel like the stakes could be pretty high not only for me as an individual, but also for my office and my boss. I really want it to come off right... but it's been hard to shake the "you are a loser" feelings today. (there's a lesson for you... really awesome birthdays with lots of people showing that they care does not make you immune to feeling like a loser.)

Other items for the record: (this is not for entertainment purposes.. so don't try to be entertained by this part)
I'm working towards establishing a Thursday evening worship time. (I expect to help it grow over the next couple of months maybe)
The Lioness and I spent last night and all day today at a regional conference for the leadership people in our denomination. (I'm still pretty new to the organizational dimension of christianity) It was a pretty good thing. (I had to leave for a while to attend a meeting at work though)

All right. That seems like a sufficiently extended telling of this recent season! (if you find this part entertaining... That's ok. Though I might not trust your movie recommendations in the future if you consider this part entertainment)

A wind in my hair week: Part I

Ok. Here's how it goes.
1) My coworker gives her two week notice. The first of the two weeks, She (and most of the Building) is gone for a conference in Portland with VIPs from across the country. I spent the week holding down the fort so to speak.
I take 1/2 of that Friday off in order to get ready for a weekend men's retreat with a bunch of guys from my church. (think ~400 guys at a huge camp in a beautiful forest)
2) I and my group of guys show up late-ish on Friday evening. Dinner. Worship. 1st session. The speaker is Phil Downer. He's a great communicator... pretty direct. Six guys sleep in a tent together... it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. We all walked into that situation knowing that about 50% of the inhabitants snore loud enough that we wouldn't be hearing the generators that the old guys use to stay warm in their RVs at night. (If you're one of the old guys and happen to read this... I'm talking about the other old guys... not you)
Over all, it was a pretty good weekend. Lots of quick meetings with guys that I'm trying to plan things with, but never see... and a few good conversations with guys in other churches that I've missed... Like Happy the logger (yes, that's his real name).
I stopped by the prayer tent for the first time. I didn't have a specific agenda... I just wanted to see what God might say. I wandered up to the tent after hearing a friend tell me about a pretty exciting experience there (it is now ~10:45pm)... there's a line. When I finally get to the front, I sit down in a chair in front of three other guys. The middle was asks, "what's your name". After I told them my name they just stopped and waited to see what God might say. When they did speak, they all spoke out things that I'd felt pretty clearly. It was a good time of confirmation.
I really can't do justice to the "retreat" experience here... so I'll just move on.
It was wonderful to get home to my wife (who doesn't snore) and my little girl (who snores a little but at 4 months... everything is cute).
3) I spend Monday and Tuesday trying to learn everything from my coworker about how she had changed things since I had been in that position. On Tuesday, I gave her a hug and said good bye. Now, I'm on my own in the office. I will be for at least another month.

Rest

I speak of rest because it is one that God has been reminding me about recently. Of course, the reason (as is usually the reason for God telling someone something) is that because I don't have enough of it in my life.
There's a guy. His name Graham Cooke. He wrote a really chunky book called "Divine Confrontation"... I couldn't read it the first time I tried. There was too much to absorb.... too much to process. Either way, the Lioness and I went to hear him speak since he happened to be speaking at a conference less than an hour away from our house. He talked about how God told him to rest and that he's been intensely productive since then. (well, he wrote several chunky books I guess)
I've been trying rest a little more during the everyday. hey, I'm not using my legs right now... why are they tense? "relax legs... give it a break". It leaves me wondering how much energy and effort I spend every day, or even every minute on sub-conscious things that don't benefit me at all. I clench my teeth a lot I know.
There's lots happening, I won't try to do it justice. The baby is wonderful and doing wonderful things. The Lioness just got the coffee machine ready to make coffee for me to take to work in the morning... its those sorts of thoughtful things that tell me that she loves me for real. Now I need to go do a million other things before I go to sleep.... like.. wash the car... and build a fence... and play a computer game... no.. no.. not really.