I Stand Corrected...

Sometimes, I really don't mind being wrong:

SIU 69 OSU 53

Up next: Arizona State in Tempe. Too bad this game is on at midnight ET tomorrow night. I am getting way too old to stay up for that...

First Impressions...

So, the night is halfway over and I managed to watch Mount Saint Mary's (again, an unfortunate name) win as well as the 11 minutes of meaningful American Idol coverage - thanks to my amazing remote control skills. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to play my favorite childhood game with the performers tonight: first impressions. You know that game - you say the first thing that comes to mind when you hear or see something. Here are my first impressions from tonights Idol performances:

Amanda: reminds me of a female Meatloaf.
Kristy Lee: a young Sarah Evans; both should quit singing.
David A: a nervous schoolboy serenading his prom date
Michael: Bono, but Michael can actually sing
Brooke: amazing singer, needs to flash the peace sign more often
David C: the world doesn't need another Eddie Vedder; thanks for trying, though
Carly: really bad Irish piano bar singer
Jason: awkward and phony; should be wearing a polyester suit and selling used scooters
Syesha: for the love of everything, please QUIT WHINING! sounds like a sick cat in heat
Chikezie: smooth; what it would be like if Emmit Smith could sing
Ramiele: boring; personality of a sock puppet; will have a nice career singing at senior citizen birthday parties

Alright. That was fun. Back to the Saluki game - they are up seven at half-time.

Empty Promises and the NIT

I could take a moment and talk about how I have meant to post more but haven't and whine about how busy we have been and BLAH BLAH BLAH...but I won't. But I am back (seriously...I am)!

I am really torn about what to watch on TV tonight. Here are my options:

1) American Idol - I mean, come on, besides "Dancing with the Stars" how many other shows actually have 11 minutes of actual meaningful television in a ninety minute time slot? This is quite a compelling option...

2) Coppin State vs. Mount Saint Mary's in the NCAA tourney play-in game. This game has so much going for it - a below .500 team playing for a chance to get slaughtered by UNC and a team with a most unfortunate school name going head to head in the most meaningless game of the year. Also quite compelling...

3) My own Southern Illinois Salukis playing a first round game at home against Oklahoma State on ESPN2 in the first round of the NIT (i.e. Not-good-enough-to-be In (the real) Tournament). You would think I was excited, right? No! I want the bleeding to stop and we're going without our starting point guard who has a stress fracture in his leg. My guess is the first team to 40 points wins. My prediction: OSU 44 SIU 41 in 2OT. This is about as compelling as watching the latest Alyssa Milano Lifetime channel movie. I will only watch this intently if I can secure some Newcastle.

Writing all of that reminds me how much I love Spring break. It's nice to not have class and so many other things on my mind that I can actually deliberate what I want to watch on TV. The glass is half full indeed...

The numbers game...

I have had quite a bit of numbers floating around in my head lately due to various circumstances...let me explain:

0 - the number of times I have reviewed my Hebrew Grammar from the fall semester. Our professor is giving us a quiz on our return in February to see if we have kept up with it. Oops.

6.022x10^23 - if you know what this number is off the top of your head than you are as big of a dork as I am...

7 - the number of chapters it took me to read before I actually "liked" Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz". (Note: "liked" does not imply agreement or endorsement".

13 - thirteen points, that is - the numbers of points the Salukis managed to score in the first half of their b-ball game with Illinois State over the weekend. Are you kidding me?! Thirteen! The middle school team I played on in 1986 could have scored more points than that in twenty mintues! Are you kidding me?!

15 - the number of Westminster Shorter Catechism questions I have memorized. I have a long way to go...

18.50 - the price of a one hundred page paperback book I had to buy for my upcoming "Christianity in the Postmodern World" class.

45 - the number of points the Salukis scored in the first half of their b-ball game with Bradley on Tuesday night...hello Dr. Jeckyl, meet Mr. Hyde...unbelievable

1,000 - the number of times I have gotten tired of the phrase "emergent conversation" instead of "emerging church/movement"

Half way there...

I reached a personal milestone this past December and it wasn't 3 months without a blog post. Rather, it was the halfway mark of my race to the finish line of seminary. One and a half years down, one and a half to go. Part of me feels as if this journey has flown by faster than Sanjaya's singing career; the other part feels as if it has progressed as slow as the Miami Dolphin's winning percentage. (I must get some points for those comparisons, right?) But, either way, I can stand here and definitely say I haven't made it this far on my own strength alone. God has definitely carried me along.

The question I get asked the most by people about seminary is, "What have you learned?" Surely no one really wants the complete answer to that question and it is nearly impossible to reduce down to one sentence. The best answer I can ever seem to come up with is that, "I cannot do it on my own." A simple, yet profound answer.

But I have learned some interesting things. I now know what a 'jot' and 'tittle' are and I can put the Pauline epistles in chronological order. I also know what an amaenuensis is and how papal authority developed in the early church. I've learned two more alphabets and I finally know the difference between modernism and postmodernism. I have also learned the art of making awesome memory clues for cramming for tests.

Even more - I think I know Jesus a little better too!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

We are still alive! We know that it has been almost three months since we updated this thing, but here we are kicking off the new year with an attempt to keep one of our resolutions. We're not promising anything, but hopefully (hmmm hmmm - DAN!) this will be updated often.

We rocked out the new year in the car while driving back from Meg's family's Christmas/New Year celebration...which, as always, was a real good time! On our way back to Dan's parents, driving west on I-70 we were treated to a nice (no, really) fireworks display somewhere around farmer Bubba's corn field in Greenville, Il. It was a great way to bring in the new year and hopefully Bubba and/or his 13 children of the corn were not injured or permanently blinded.

We hope all of you have a blessed new year and hopefully you will check back as often as we post!

October 4, 2003...

It has been four years since we entered into the covenant of marriage and it would be a huge understatement to say that it has been a tremendous blessing to both of us. We thank God for every day that he gives us to share together and we delight in the joy of being husband and wife, best friends, and partners in sanctification. Living in a world that continues to denigrate this sacred union, we are honored to be witnesses for God's glory and his plan for a man and woman in marriage.

We plan to celebrate by taking a trip this weekend to western Virginia and enjoying time together relaxing and reflecting on God's goodness. It's been a while since we got away as just the two of us so we are really looking forward to it!