Picking Up Steam

[Mutemath]

This past week was pretty packed full of excitement. Wednesday night, Mike, Aaron, and I went to a Mutemath show at the Ogden Theater downtown. Here is a video I took of their hit song "Typical."

I spent much of my work week last week training for my CDL test tomorrow morning. Having my CDL will allow me to drive a school bus for work to help transport students.

If you haven't had your head buried a hole this weekend, you've probably heard news about the "balloon kid." Yup, that's Colorado for you. The family involved in the "hoax" as it's now being called lives about an hour north of Denver.

In recent reading, I was directed to this article online. It's written by one of my favorite song writers, Jon Foreman, and addresses the craziness of America and our heroic treatment of celebrities who are anything but heroic. Here is a paragraph from the article.

Let's face it. Mother Teresa doesn't look that good in a negligee. And Team Hoyt won't sell beer commercials to the networks. But when the ball players and the supermodels end up in rehab, we end up asking esoteric questions about what makes a hero. In the movies the good looking actor who gets the girl is easy to point to. But after he gets the girl, then the house, and then a few kids and then a divorce and then another girl. Then what? After all of the special effects are gone, we're left with an aging mortal who looks a bit awkward on the talk shows. Perhaps we've set our goals too low. Or perhaps we've got it backwards. (read more)

Friday night Mike, Greg, and I attended an all-night (10 p.m. - 6 a.m.) prayer meeting at church. We attended the 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. shift. I was later told that 50% of the church participated in the event. That's great participation for an event like that. These prayer nights occur quarterly at Cornerstone. We spent time singing together, praying together, praying alone, discussing Scripture, and distributing care packages to the homeless people in the community.

Church has continued to make me uncomfortable, in a good way. There has been a steady increase in homeless people attending the church. As one raised in a comfortable setting, this is an unusual experience for me. In fact, one guy has been sleeping in his car outside the church for weeks and that's how he learned of Providence Bible Church. Another guy parked his shopping cart in front of the church today and attended the service. It challenges me to see our pastor put his arm around a first-time visitor homeless guy after hearing him share a testimony about how he has had AIDS for 23 years (as a result of a life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll) and pray for him in front of the congregation.

After church, a group of us walked to the 16th Street Mall downtown for lunch. I met a lot of new people today and am looking forward to attending membership classes at the end of the month and possibly getting involved in the music ministry.

That should be enough for now.

P.S. Hawkeyes are 7-0 and Churchill is recording 2 music videos for Comcast on Tuesday.