Umbrellas do not belong on the street during snowy weather.

Snowy weather is why God gave us the brilliant fashion accessory – the scarf!  Resist the temptation to use an umbrella this season.  Instead bundle up and enjoy the snow!

You know one reason why we shouldn’t use umbrellas in snowy weather?  Try catching a snowflake underneath an umbrella!  Pretty hard, isn’t it?

Enjoy the snow, New York.  It’s a great early Christmas present to all New Yorkers!

These are words that have become a part of my vocabulary and a part of my streaming consciousness over the past several weeks.  While unpleasant for many due to economic constraints, this past year has been the catalyst that’s reignited forgotten dreams and has brought about the desire to make changes that are more attuned to God’s dream for the lives of many people I know around the world.

I too have found myself on this path, going back to school, and am incredibly humbled to share my journey with others and vice-versa.  It is sometimes hard for me to explain in my own walk when moments of unexplainable ‘tough’ periods crop up.  For those on a possibly similar path, I’d like to share some encouragement from a favorite author of mine, Erwin McManus:

“I lament that it has become an accepted part of pop theology that the safest place to be is in the center of the will of God…  Whatever the motivation, the result has brought more damage than good.

The center of God’s will is not a safe place, but the most dangerous place in the world.  To live outside God’s will puts us in danger, but to live in His will makes us dangerous.  God moves with intentionality and power.  When we begin to seize our divine moments, we do not begin to live risk-free, but instead become free to risk.

Erwin McManus, Chasing Daylight (page 151)”

We are forging a new life, something we know to be unique to who we are and who God wants us to be.  To my brothers and sisters on God’s journey: Stay strong, you’re not alone.

Much Love.

I wrote: One of few constants in the world is change. I’m beginning to see this as a *great* thing!

I wanted to expound on this ~140 character tweet and give some nuggets of thought behind it, if merely for the fact that I think this is some good stuff that’s taken me some time to figure out, am still figuring out, and is definitely worth sharing!

I really do think change is a great thing.  However, for me, change is not easy.  I feel, sometimes, it is painfully hard and I don’t like it.  A lot.

The change I’m referring to is not the ‘small stuff’ but the big life changes we all experience and grow from as a result.  The type of change that God instills in our lives and pushes us to figure out who He wants us to be.  This type of change is hard, difficult, and is easily pushed aside for the status quo.

Through a lot of prayer, meditation, and counsel I am beginning to see benefits, at least in my own life, that change has brought, is bringing, and can bring if I embrace it:

• I do not like the status quo.  Not just in my personal life but all around me, within certain thresholds.  Even if I don’t show it all of the time.  Even though there are constants in life and in the world, I treat too many other things as the status quo when they shouldn’t be.  Change or a more ‘evolving’ way of living is the only way to break the status quo.  However, lets not get too much of a post-modern thought process underway…
• I’m at my best when I’m being stretched.  Change is bringing new variables into my life that is forcing me to stretch my knowledge and understanding of what I know and how I react.  I’m learning new things about myself, life, and the world I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.
• Living a constant life takes what fun we have on Earth and turns it into a more mundane way of living.  If you’ve seen Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell you know where I’m coming from with this.

I hope you guys enjoyed these thoughts; at the very least, though, this is a plug to get you to follow me on twitter or to friend me Facebook if you haven’t already!

I don’t why but this might possibly the single weirdest thing that has ever happened in my life.  I have never had this happen before.

I mean, I’ve had good friends point these things out to me – sometimes in jest, sometimes in frank seriousness – but never has it been two random strangers adding it to the conversation like that.

Wow – I guess you really never know what you’re going to get in New York City (and that’s probably why I love the City so much!)…

Very Weird.

The Four Year Journey
By Tim Bogus

He was an average kid two years ago,
An eager junior, ready to leave.
He had many problems, he wished for one thing:
He wished he really could ask Jeeves.

Loaded with ‘corn’ and ‘cheese’ for sure, but I love what my creative writing teacher had to say, complete in red ink:

“Please . . .   NO . . .”

This poem, albeit the last one I wrote for the class, was definitely not the crowning achievement in that creative writing class.  I’m going to share some other retro poems with you over the next few days and I hope you enjoy them.

Oh – if there’s enough of a popular demand I’ll post the rest of The Four Year Journey. Leave a comment if you want to see the rest of it but like I said it’s good, but definitely nowhere near a crowning achievement – they call it a class for a reason!

Each time I go to my hometown in Indiana I’m often asked in one way or another why I live in New York City because the pervasive reality of New York City is that not every type of person would like to live in the City because of the hassles and the questions are numerous as to why I live in New York City.

Oddly enough, I struggle to describe the reason I live New York, in coherent manner, not because of a lack of endearment for the City but because of a lack of words that can correctly embody the sentiment I carry of the opportunities and hope that this City has given to my life and can give to so many.

After four years, almost to the day, I think I may have finally found something that gets closer to what I mean to say each time when I ramble on:

“New York is not a static thing – It’s not ‘New York is…,’ it’s ‘New York is becoming…‘”

Kenneth T. Jackson – Historian
The American Experience: New York, Episode Four

For me, New York is where the opportunity is.  Due to the transient nature it is also the most exciting because once you’ve in New York you’ll always take a little bit of that back with you.

This is why I love New York.

Have a great Fourth of July everybody – Don’t blow yourselves up!

Before you question someone’s attitude,  first question your own attitude.

If we did this, I think we’d surprised by what we find…

Over the past couple of weeks my friend, Brian Moll, who’s the lead pastor at FF, has started this series by delving into intimacy and relationships (among other topics) pulling context from the Old Testament and relating to and incorporating teachings from the New Testament.

While a lot of profound of thoughts have been presented and I’d encourage you to head over to the church’s website and checkout the vod/podcasts, I’ve had a lot of thoughts swirly around my head in regards to my own relational condition.

The one thought that keeps coming up but that I keep fighting is that I don’t have this thing (meaning relationships) figured out and never will.  Deep down, there is a part of me that wants to master friendship and perfect the art form of relationships and I see this as a black and white situation rather than in shades of gray that it really is.  At the end of the day I’m yet a novice in the world of friendships and relationships, continually learning and honing.

I’m at a place where I’m having to (painfully) admit this to myself.

You may wonder why I’m sharing this with you.  Often times, I think all of us, either in practicality or in our spirituality, at one time or another think we’ve mastered a skill or honed an ability to the point and we forget to take care of it and keep it tuned.

I’ve come a long way from my early college days – six years ago – of being jokingly called an ‘anti-social butterfly’ but just because I’ve made great leaps and bounds (in my opinion) shouldn’t mean that I should want to accept the status quo and say that there aren’t areas of my social fiber I wouldn’t like to change.

I believe that while we can never master the friendships or relationships in our life it doesn’t mean we should stop trying.  Not everything will work to your or my advantage but the human condition provide an infinite opportunity for improving one’s personal and relational life.  This is something I’ve realized I need to take advantage more of in my own life.

Take a look over the list below and shoot me an email or post in the comments below if you’re interested! A lot of these books would be good for teaching someone who needs to learn the basics!

I’ll have more books when I go home and clean my room at parent’s house in July – so stay tuned!

• Web Security for Network and System Administrators – 5 Discs (Red Hat Linux 5.0)
• Murach’s ASP.NET – web programming with VB.NET
• Access 2002 – Complete Concepts and Techniques
• Introduction to Java Programming (covers Java 1.5)
  - basic theory; old concepts but probably still good for a beginner
• Concepts of Database Management
• Programming in Visual Basic .NET – 1 disc, which I believe is VB.NET
• Flash MX – Graphics, Animation & Interactivity – with learning CD
• Creating Web Pages with HTML and Dynamic HTML – great learning guide

• Arguing Through Literature – A Thematic Anthology and Guide to Academic Writing
• World History – Volume II – Since 11550: The Age of Global Integration

* I’ll be offering these for free – so grab them while they’re hot! I’ll be in Indiana in July if you want to grab them from me then – let me know ahead of time!