So I’m gonna be a dad.  Strange.  I know I’m 27 years old, madly in love with my wife, have always wanted kids, and all that stuff.  But now that it’s happening, it’s pretty weird.  We went window shopping at Babies R Us today.  Again…weird.  I felt totally out of place in there.  Like I kept thinking all the other people were watching us.  They all have a strong handle on things…baby’s are born, fed, changed, transported, played with, and rocked to sleep in these other people’s lives like its normal.  But us?  Nope, not normal.  More like overwhelming.

I’m glad I have Ali who is a great resource for all my stupid questions.  Today I acquired quite a foundational baby stuff vocabulary.  Bouncer, swing, stroller, booster seat, high chair, car carrier, and those weird European things that are made out of the same things Cheese Heads are made of and conform to the baby’s butt and their little legs stick out the front, are all things babies sit in.  It begs the question…How many things do babies really need to sit in?

But don’t get me wrong.  I’m more excited to be a dad than most anything I can remember.  It’s gonna be a crazy ride. 

Puerto Rico was fantastic!  Warm weather, sleeping lots, and adventures too many to count!  What’s really cool is that God showed up in so many cool and unexpected ways during our trip.  Did you know a crescent moon in that region of the world curls up from the bottom instead of from the side?…It’s like the moon is smiling at you.

Here are some pictures.  Click on the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114607&l=c521a&id=610585156

You decide! Respond by posting a comment below and help determine what Darrin and Ali do for fun on vacation. The option with the most votes will be a part of their adventure, and be recorded digitally and shared later.

a. build a sand castle in the shape of wisconsin

b. stargaze on the roof of their rental car

c. try strange fruit

d. find a rain forest dwelling animal, pretend it has a human-like personality, form a relationship, and invite it back to minnesota

I just spent a weekend with my youth group at an event called Urban Immersion. It was a meaningful weekend to say the least. For now, all the written reflection I might be able to muster is to share the following with you:

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

“But the whole point of the fairy tale of the Gospel is, of course, that he is the king in spite of everything. The frog turns out to be the prince, the ugly duckling the swan, the little gray man who asks for bread the great magician with the power of life and death in his hands, and though the steadfast tin soldier falls into the flames, his love turns out to be fireproof. There is no less danger and darkness in the Gospel than there is in the Brothers Grimm, but beyond and above all there is the joy of it, this tale of a light breaking into the world that not even darkness can overcome.”

-Frederick Buechner

I don’t make it a habit to take pictures of unassuming strangers in public places.  But when the Great I Am is a few feet away, it isn’t a hard decision.  Is it weird that I felt an urge to go up and give him a hug?

60 degrees means youth group goes outside! I’ve been waiting all winter long (and I emphasize “long”) to be able to run around outside. We play games each week at youth group and in the cold months, we’re inside in our small cramped fellowship space. But tonight we busted out the orange field cones and ran around in the grass.

The change in seasons are a beautiful thing. The Midwest is awesome that way. The appreciation that awakened Minnesotan hibernators have for Spring’s eventual warmth is, I think, a bit like falling in love. It’s fresh and exciting and way better than you remember it being the last time. Seasons are a reminder to me that God uses change in our lives to teach us some important stuff. My life has seemed to be a swirling ball of transition over the past several years. And I somehow know that God is in the middle of it all.

May we embrace the unfolding Spring in our lives.

Thanks for following the yellow brick road to this new blog. Okay, so it’s not really a new blog. You’ll see all my old posts and comments are all here. Just a new host. Good bye Blogspot, hello WordPress.

Day 2 of Shift 08 has been amazing! I’ve been pondering the Lord’s Prayer today. Speaker Brian McLaren observed yesterday that the prayer underscores the pervasiveness and imminence of the Kingdom of God. “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Tonight we were treated to an acoustic set and Q and A sort of ‘living room’ session with the band Switchfoot. A song that front man Jon Foreman sang, called “Your Love is Strong,” sets the prayer to music in a fresh way. I thought it was awesome!

“Heavenly Father, you always amaze me
Let your kingdom come in my world and in my life
You give me the food I need to live through the day
And forgive me as I forgive the people that wronged me
Lead me far from temptation
Deliver me from the evil one”

So I’m here at Shift 08, the Student Ministries Conference at Willow Creek in South Barrington, IL. It’s been a full–and wonderful–first day. Experiencing three great large group sessions and some great time with the people who came with me (some of the best youth volunteers in the world) has been awesome! So many moments stick out in my mind as I sit here in my hotel room, reflecting. One cool experience was listening to Brian McLaren this morning. He gave a sort of macro-level perspective of the most urgent global crises…and it’s already been a messy, wonderful, impossible journey to try to mentally unpack it all and think about how to apply it to my ministry with students. So, I think I’ll go sit in the hot tub and let these thoughts move around my head some more.
Below is a video clip from the session today with McLaren. Food for thought for you.