One Step Closer

Today I was offered a position at the Flagship REI store in Downtown Denver. I'm excited! After a group interview last Monday, I was "befuzzled" at how the management would make a decision to hire any of the 9 of us in that room. There were 4 more group interviews after the one I was in (that's about 5o people interviews for limited positions)! I felt pretty confident going into the interview since I had stopped in to the store two times prior to the interview and spoke with two different managers. When the I got the phone call almost 2 weeks ago now asking me to come in for the interview, the HR person on the phone said she had already heard so much about me. I guess more than 600 people applied for the openings that were posted!

I plan to stick with the company for some time so I can move up and make a little more money than a sales specialist position. The hard part may be saving my money and not spending it on the gear we get at a discounted price. I'd like to be in some sort of a management or supervisor position within the first year. Ambitious? Maybe not enough... I will also probably have to work a second job just to provide enough income for Annie and I to live off of so she can apply her income to her school bills! Woohoo! Our plan of action with our limited money is: give (tithe), pay (bills), save (pinch), and then play (hike 14ers and kayak and concerts and restaurants and Rockies, and Nuggets, and Broncos and rock climb, and visit home, and frontier days, and happy hour, and water world, and Elitches, and museums and...). So we'll see how that goes. No debt is not the goal - Its our standard.

So there's a bit about the future work force and finally an answer to the big question of "Where will Cash work once he's married?"

Denver Bound

Today I find myself at the REI Starbucks doing some more job hunting. So far I have decided not to take jobs at Patagonia and Starbucks for the hope of better paying jobs. I am waiting to hear back from REI in the next 48 hours. A sales position in the Camping/Hiking Dept. would be great and the opportunity for advancement seems reasonable. The community here would rock. AND, Annie and I would be living across the Platte River Park from the store. I also have resumes and applications out there for the following businesses:

-City of Denver (Park Ranger)

-Home Depot (Garden Center)

-Sales (Conglomerate of Craigslist findings in Downtown)

-Landscaping business for upscale houses and communities

-Urban Mattress (another sales position with the prospect of opening my own store in 2 years)

Annie and I will be living at the Skye 2905 apartment complex. We are excited about living here and having a view of the mountains and city.

I have a few connections to get plugged into churches in the city. Here are some of the churches we will visit: Denver Community Church, Bloom, and Fellowship Church. Through a community of people who approach life through the freedom, joy, love, peace, kindness, and journey provided Jesus, we hope to blend in for a while and become involved in missions (both to the city and overseas) over the next few years.

So there is life today. Will I be in Denver next week beginning work? We shall see...

The Village Elder

This is a great sermon on "Aging." Rob Bell delivers this message with such practicality. What he is weaving into the fabric of his congregation through this message needs to be heard by many. Check it out. "The Village Elder" by Rob Bell

At the appropriate place, pause the message and click here to watch the video they saw in church - Johnny Cash - "Hurt"

Movies to Watch with Annie...

For several months now I have been meaning to make a list of movies Annie and I can watch together on those rainy days in our future. We probably won't have a TV, or atleast cable, so I figured I'd make an evolving list of movies we should watch sometime. We have already knocked one off the list up here in Alaska on a rainy day--Hitch. It was a movie I had seen, but Annie hadn't. We both gave it a classic two thumbs up. So, without further adieu, may the list evolve...

• Breakfast at Tiffany's
• Star Wars (All of them)
• Spaceballs
• Braveheart
• Nacho Libre (we didn't make it through it last time...)
• Grizzly Man
• Gone with the Wind
• Sleepless in Seattle
• Airplane
• What the Bleep Do We Know

Grace and Peace

Grace and Peace (Philippians 1:1-2)

charis not chairein. Grace to you not the typical greetings to you

Grace = Joy, pleasure, gratification, favor, acceptance. A favor done without expectation of return. Every kind of good to you. We have been given a gift with no expectation of return.

Grace and peace to you. We need it. We need people to speak it to us, we need to speak it to others.

Paul is intentional to take a standard greko-roman letter greeting and turn it into a peculiar spin of the Gospel. Gordon Fee said this, “Here is a marvelous example of Paul’s ‘turning into gospel’ everything he sets his hands to.” “Very likely there is significance to this order: the grace of God and Christ what is given to God’s people; peace is what results from such a gift. Hence, “grace to you--and peace.”

Ireighnae (Peace) = wholeness or well-being

When Grace and peace are present we live in the bounty of God’s love--in the Spirit.

Gal. 5 Fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. every use in scripture but one means peace to you TODAY. Only once is it used in the future tense.

What if we started every conversation with “Grace and Peace.” What if before all precepts and differences, we were in the mindset of “grace and peace.” What if we were so rooted in grace and peace that we could forgive people who have driven nails into our hands and feet? Grace and peace helps us ask, “Do I wish upon this person, or even myself, joy? Pleasure? Gratification? Favor? Acceptance?”

Can I speak grace and peace? Can expect it from you? What would it look like if a whole community of people practiced grace and peace -- All the hurt, all the shame, all the things we’ve done in the past that we are not proud of, all of our enemies, and all the people who get under our skin. What if before we slandered and gossiped, we lived grace and peace.

In Between Songs

While riding with my parents to Lincoln for Amelia’s birthday, I realized I wasn’t sure if I could relate more with the (horizontal) song, “Fix You” by Coldplay or rely more on this (vertical) song by Kim Walker...

There is no love sweeter than the love you pour on me

There is no song sweeter than the song you sing to me

There is no place that I would rather be

Than here at your feet laying down everything

All to You, I surrender

Everything, every part of me

All to You I surrender all of my dreams, all of me

If worship is like perfume I’ll pour mine out on you

For there is none as deserving of my love like you

So take my hand and draw me into you

I want to be swept away lost in love for you

All to you, I surrender

Everything every part of me

All to you I surrender all of my dreams all of me

All to you, I surrender everything every part of me

All to you, I surrender all of my dreams all of me

I surrender...cause I trust you God

I surrender...cause my hope is you

I surrender...I place all my trust...

I surrender to you God cause your ways are far above mine

No turning back, I’ve made up my mind

I’m giving all of my life this time.

Your love makes it worth it, your love makes it worth it all...

What does it mean for me to trust God with area’s of my life that have no tangibles? Such as relationships. This is what I currently find myself asking. Just coming out of one relationship and trying to move on with healing. Wondering about how long it will take for me to be emotionally healthy or if I am there now?

It seems, in romantic relationships, there is not a tangible process I can enter into to help me move out of one relationship and into another. The only step I can think of would be labeled, “time.” It just takes time to move out of one and on with another. Everyday I feel the longing for this relationship in my life and yet I feel like God has me in a holding place. I’m not far enough removed from my last relationship but don’t know if spending time with another interest is a healthy or foolish decision.

What does surrender in this area look like?

There are so many areas in life that we have no tangible steps to take to just “fix” our problem. I find myself objectifying and rationalizing love--both the love that I receive and the love that I give, and the love that I long for. It’s so hard to trust God and just wait for the person who I will be with for the rest of my life. I have to be ok with not having answers. I have to be ok with being too cautious, and at the same time I have to be ok with taking risks. Do I step out and get to know another person while keeping proper and balanced boundaries to protect each of our hearts? Is it even possible to get to know someone without becoming too attached?...or is that the point?

If I just act on how I feel God is moving me, that would change by the day, if not by the hour. Sometimes I feel really confident that I can wisely take a step in one direction, while the next day I am super insecure about my choices and I just want to revert back to what is comfortable and what I know (maybe that old relationship?).

So I ask, what does it mean to trust or surrender to God?

A Place in the Sun

I stepped away from home for a few days this winter and made a quick flight to Phoenix to visit some friends and spend a day with Jaclyn. When I bought the airline tickets I was not sure how my heart would respond to being back in the dessert after the kind of fall I had in Nebraska. My heart has been longing to be back in PHX for the spring because I love Arizona in March. No better city to live in for the month of March with the smell of orange blossoms in the air, spring training baseball, ultimate frisbee, cool (not hot) pools, and 80 degree temperatures around the clock. No better place in March. I had to go, but I almost didn't. Now, I am glad I did.

The weekend began as every other weekend on Friday evening when I flew in. My friend Brad picked me up and we drove to the REI garage sale where we met Tyler and camped on the sidewalk for the evening. We had a great time and met some cool people. Saturday morning after the garage sale, I met Emily and Herb for lunch downtown. We ate at the Farmer's Market and found a great new coffee shop. I began my Sunday lent celebration a day early and had a small, double, two raw sugar breve. Yumm! Then, after saying goodbye to Herb, Em dropped me off at Brad's place and Tyler joined us in a great conversation about altruism and what the gospel of Jesus really is and can be. We asked many question. I'm not sure we found answers to all the questions we raised but we definitely found solutions. It all usually boils down to a four letter word--love. And that's what those two are doing in with their neighborhood on the west side of the city. I was able to see first hand what was going on with their neighborhood as I helped bring ladders and paint back to storage from a mural they were working on. Kids with mohawks and (gasp) tattoos and piercings working together to paint the gospel on the side of a building.

Let me explain the mural. It begins on the left with a golden road coming out of the mountains, passing the Statue of Liberty and then intertwining with the buildings of PHX. Some of these buildings morph into books with the bottom book labeled "knowledge." There is a pad lock and chain around the city, implicating the city is locked up. On the golden road, back to the left now, are hundreds of people, immigrants walking towards the city from the mountains. Approaching the city near the road stands a church building with many people outside of it waving their arms for the immigrants to come join them inside the church. What it means to me is that the church has it's arms open to all people. The church knows no walls or boundaries...or atleast it's not supposed to. We are called by Jesus to love all people regardless.

Before riding the lightrail from downtown to Mesa to meet Jaclyn, I went to a culture group leaders meeting with Brad. I thought I'd be able to see some old Poiema friends. I had a few nice conversations and even talked with pastor John's wife, Deborah, for a bit. It was good to catch up with those friends that I hadn't seen for so long. Once Jaclyn picked me up, we went out for Sushi at RA. Another Yumm...Spicy Tuna!

On Sunday morning Jaclyn and I ran a 5k. We ran 7/8 of it together and then she left me at the end, but I caught her in the last 100 yards (how far behind I was too) and she beat me by just one second. I ran it in 29:31. We each finished first in our 5 year age group! ...4 in Jac's and one other person in mine. Yeah, I'm that good!

After the race we grabbed breakfast with Emily. She made us a wonderful Egg, Turkey, Spinach, Tomato, Mango, Craisan, and "Bobba-Ganush" hummus omelet wrap. Then we went back to Vern and Melinda's and sat in the community pool hot-tub on a rainy cold afternoon. I bought some grapefruit (8 for $1), and some jalapeno jelly at the Ranch Market. Later that evening Jac and I went to my old Starbucks and had coffee and the best conversation. Just talking about life, love and the details in between. I love that I can do that with her and Julia now. One day, Jared will be there too...not to mention the nephews and nieces.

In the end, it was a much need trip back to the desert to heal and reconnect. I did just that. And I was able to encourage others along the way and make some new friends.