How Bush Celebrated Memorial Day . . .

Thanks AP for the pic.

A Scary Confession

I cringe at the thought of church. That’s a scary confession for me to make. Scary because of what some of you might think of me even though I was honest enough to admit it. Many of these feelings are new to me. I just started unreservedly evaluating “church” in the last two years or so.

I have always found myself smack dab in the middle of a church that boasts of its unique friendliness, but I am felling far less than friendly towards church lately . . . and it hurts. The problem is that most any church I attend would in all likelihood fall short of my standard.

In reality a good portion of the things that set me off are things that I need to get over. However there is an even larger portion of things that can’t or more accurately shouldn’t be overlooked any longer.

This isn’t a tangent to devalue or even affirm your perspective of your church or church in general but to share my own. Not that I’m uninterested in your perspective but that this for me isn’t a soap box or a manner to persuade.

Another Angle

Let me give you some hope. Hope in me and hope in the church.

I am learning that church is Christ’s body and Christ’s body is his followers. In that sense of the word I am falling more deeply in love than ever with the church.

Special relationships are flourishing because of the common core we share which is Christ. We have begun to dream together about how we can take part in God’s kingdom. We spend time talking, laughing, eating, playing and praying.

I am learning that this too is church . . . and it feels great.

The Root of My Problem

To no one’s surprise I blame Satan. Is this a copout to you? Not to me. I think Satan expends a lot of energy trying to distort, dilute, and destroy the church.

He does so by challenging the good in us and highlighting the bad. We have let him get away with it to easily.

How I Can Fight Back

Dry it up! Quit my belly aching and be joyful, constructive, and optimistic.

Pray! Pray for the unity of believers that we might see the good in each other and strive for our full potential.

Get Out of the Rut! Pry off the shackles of traditions and paganism and live more fully. We've gotten lazy, uncreative, and boring. It’s time for this “body” to get in better shape. Get out of the Lazy Boy and go for a jog. Heck, even a road trip! Live a little!

Bucket List

From Wes:

On Wednesday I caught the Champions League final with my brother. Manchester United won by the way (It’s a big deal to the rest of the world). We were talking about our futures, and I mentioned to him that the 2014 World Cup is to be held in Brasil while we are living and working in Chile and that if he can he should visit. He got so pumped and was all like, “I’m there!” He said, “No, seriously, it’s on my bucket list”, which is when I asked him if he had seen the movie. He hasn’t.

He was so excited about the possibility of catching a World Cup game together that he immediately whipped out his cell phone calculator and started estimating what it might cost to pull it off. I loved it.

All this got me thinking. “Do I have a bucket list?” Not that it matters a whole lot because Jesus can come or God take me home whenever he wants and I won’t feel like I got gypped. Nevertheless, here are some of the biggies on my still growing Bucket List, all of which shall be done or accomplished with Ellen at my side.


Wesley’s Bucket List

1. Live in another country.
2. Become fluent in Spanish.
3. Attend a World Cup match in person.
4. Tour Europe.
5. Be a faithful follower of Christ.

So how about you? What do you want to do before you kick the bucket?

Off Center

From Wes:

Tomorrow is Ellen’s graduation. She is finishing her master’s degree in Speech Pathology. I am very proud of her for her academic accomplishments and maybe more so her perseverance.

This is just one of the many life changes that we have been on the brink of or have already undergone recently, each of which are exciting and have long been anticipated. You might be anticipating a “but” fast approaching, and I suspect in this post I can’t entirely avoid its use. Between changing positions at work, applying and beginning graduate school myself, Ellen’s graduation, her job hunt, a new season in our missions training, moving, etc., I am running out of steam and maybe even thankfulness.

At least life isn’t dull for us right now, right?

Would you pray that we would do better with maintaining our center? It’s easy to loose sight and faith in life when so many distractions are bombarding us. Pray that ours, our sight and faith, well be renewed in Christ Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit.

Speed Demons

From Wes:

Within the span of two weeks Ellen and I both have received our first ever speeding tickets. Can you believe this!? Now that I ask I recognize that many of you are actually likely surprised that this hasn’t happened before or even more regularly.

When Bo, the gentleman who served me my first ticket, pulled me over and leaned down outside the front passenger window, and said, “License and registration, please.” I knew I was hopeless. Things got even more hopeless when he said that he had clocked me at 80 mph, and I responded in disbelief, “80!” The surprised and contradictory tone that continued didn’t help either, “I had my cruise control set on 76!” I recognize that this shameless response only affirmed my guilt since the speed limit is 70.

Then this morning, Ellen called to tell me that she too had been handed hers while traveling back from Ft. Worth. Interestingly enough she was also cruising at 76 (I won’t include here that this was a 60 mph zone).

So . . . we will be scheduling a special date to celebrate this momentous occasion together by attending Defensive Driving.

Table for two!

Scholes' Scintillating Strike

This amazing strike from Manchester United's veteran midfielder, Paul Scholes, added the only aggregate that mattered to the teams tally and helped them progress to the final of club soccer's most highly esteemed tournament, the Champions League.

They will face fellow English club, Chelsea, in Moscow. It is the first all English championship in the tournaments history.

Interesting thing is, these two teams are also battling it out in the English Premier League which concludes soon. What a dream come true it would be for Manchester to walk away from this 2007-2008 season with both trophies.

Go Reds!

*My apologies if you have little interest in my futbol team*

**Yes, I do know what the word scintillating means**

-Wes