Out of Breath

My friend Brandon approached me this morning and asked if I’d like to start training with him for the Bolder, Boulder. It is a 10k race held in May in Boulder. We are going to start running before work 3 days a week and cycling more. I have never competed in anything like this, so I am excited to see what I am capable of. Plus it is a good motivator to take my “healthy lifestyle” to the next level.

Rock+Roll

-Josh

Man Loses 400+lbs

This is ridiculous:


http://www.hemmy.net/2007/07/02/david-smith-amazing-weight-lost-story/

who's in charge in here?

What a lovely weekend.

It included:

-Vegetarian Tamales
-Dancing to “American Girl” by Tom Petty
-Watching random indie movies on my couch with Renee
-Jamming with Christine, me on acoustic, her on violin. We are going to learn “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show…haha
-Playing music for church
-Small group

Water fountain talk

Yesterday at work, a guy called me "Henry". How is that even close to my real name? I understand if he called me Jason or John, but Henry? Srsly.

We have our big all employee meeting at the Denver Performing Arts Center today from noon to 7pm. We were supposed to dress up for it, so I look like a sexy beast. I will take a picture, don't worry.

song

I wrote this poem/song about Russia, and for some reason it came out really negative. Anyway, I still kind of like it, and have some ideas for melodies and such:

The sun’s going down on a football field,
The kiosk will show it’s back to the moon.
All night there will be a beautiful lady,
Selling some gum and some booze.
With her pale white skin,
She smoke once again,
And let the embers burn down to her lips

There’s peace on the streets tonight,
The kids huffing gas will be alright,
I know times are tough,
And this world seems rough,
But everything will be complete

All the smoke billows up in this 4 by 4 room,
Up through the air to the trolley bus lines,
At home there’s a hopeless man,
With some gum in his pocket, and booze in his hand.
With his cracked, dry skin,
He’ll die once again,
And follow the ghost of his wife.

Is this a good mixtape for a pretty little lady???

Tears for Fears – Head Over Heals
Wilco – Impossible Germany
The Album Leaf – Fear of Flying
Band of Horses – No One’s Gonna Love You
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Devil’s Waitin’
Asubi Seksu – New Years
Derek Webb – The Very End
Dr. Dog – (forgot the title)
Hammock – Raising Your Voice…Trying to Stop an Echo
Iron & Wine – White Tooth Man
Jade Day – Small Reality
Jens Leckman – Black Cab
Patty Griffen – Heavenly Day
Radiohead – Nude
Ryan Adams – Come Pick Me Up
Travis – 3 Times and You Lose
Rosie Thomas – The One I Love (R.E.M. cover)
Bob Dylan – Visions of Johana

Drunk History

this is amazing:

Interesting entry..

Here is a post that Adam made on hxc. I thought it was worth sharing on my blog, it is a very interesting read:

I'm of the opinion that religious devotion can be categorised neither as belief nor as knowledge.

Knowledge implies the definite, verifiable, and universally observable interpretation of reality within empirical parameters. I gain knowledge of a physical phenomenon from testing it under laboratory conditions, repeating the results, verifying them in the eyes of others, and gaining some agreeable conclusions which fit the data. It doesn't even need to be that complex, if I can see along with five other people that a tree stands direction in front of me, then I know that a tree is there. Knowledge is the certain awareness of objective reality as it is observed and agreed upon by humanity.

Belief, conversely, describes the act of subscribing to a possibility and treating it as a probability. "I believe that the States will invade Iran this year," for example. I could "believe" in the Loch Ness monster, but how does that affect my existence? How does it impact my everyday living? How does it inform the decisions I make? Belief is merely a conclusion based on personal interpretations of data. In this manner, people "believe" in God, but that doesn't necessarily mean it matters one way or the other to their general existence.

Religious devotion is neither belief nor knowledge. It is faith. Faith can never be knowledge in that it is both objective and subjective, and not exclusively one or the other. The act of having faith is objective, and the source of that faith is perceived through subjective interpretation. Faith, then, is based upon personal experience. This is not knowledge, which describes reality inasmuch as it is directly experienced within our realm of immediate perception (via the five senses), nor is it belief, which is a personal conclusion based on personal views of evidence. This may make it sound as though faith is somewhere between belief and knowledge, when in fact it transcends the two. Knowledge and belief are our ways of making sense of the reality we directly perceive, whereas faith is concerned with the entirety of reality, both seen and unseen. Faith sees the interconnected nature of the subjective and the objective, and how they inform each other. Faith is not a dormant belief, but impacts a person's existence on every level.

In this regard, agnosticism is the most rational and "scientific" viewpoint. Science and other empirical forms of study do not acknowledge the intervention of a deity, but neither do they discount such a thing. It's simply not in their function to do either, but rather to examine and investigate the laws of nature as they are.

Atheism, on the other hand, exists in my mind as an affirmative belief. If one considers themselves an atheist, then they are essentially declaring that all we can directly perceive is all that can possibly exist. Everything we behold with our five senses, in some way or other, essentially defines the sum of objective reality. When it comes down to it, our concept of "God" is our own way of subjectively relating to the unseen objective state of all existence. We use anthropomorphic terms to describe Him (such as that, for example), but that is essentially what God is. It is fundamentally useless to describe God as a singular "being" in the traditional sense of the term, and much more fertile to behold Him as the source, the ground of being itself. The Christian doctrine of Trinity is especially vital in this regard, to describe the way in which God (Reality) relates to us as human beings, by serving as an eternal community Himself. We are made in the image of community, for the purpose of community.

So, in my mind:

Faith: The state of being in relationship with God/Reality.
Agnosticism: The unawareness of God, with the acceptance that we do not behold all of objective reality.
Atheism: The unawareness of God, with the fervent belief that humanity beholds all of objective reality.

Ecumenical

I was just having a conversation with my friend Adam regarding disagreements within the church. What sprung the dialog was a conversation I had with someone a few weeks back. They implied to me that Brian McLaren is a “heretic” and “the enemy”.

To me, it’s really fascinating that people can carry this staunch I’m right, you are wrong attitude. It actually makes me a bit self-observant and I wonder what positions in life I take that way. It is a tough pill to swallow when you are trying to make an honest attempt at being open to new ideas and progressive in your faith, and someone pounds down the “iron fist of truth” on you.

So what does this word “ecumenical” mean? I’ll be honest; I didn’t know when I was talking with Adam. I looked it up:

1. general; universal.
2. pertaining to the whole Christian church.
3. promoting or fostering Christian unity throughout the world.

To me, that means when I am speaking with my parents and I disagree with them on some theological point, I am still respectful of them and under the understanding that they are along for the same journey I am. Or when my pastor says a point that I don’t fully agree with, I have to realize that he still loves Jesus just as much as I do and strives to be like him under his own understanding.

Christianity is a beautiful thing, but when we try to humanize it and make our own understanding absolute, it can get ugly pretty fast.

I have no clue why, but the subject of leadership has really been heavy on my mind lately. I read Mark’s blog about relevancy and progression this morning and it kind of sprung me further into self-reflection. I don’t really feel relevant in life anymore. I don’t know if it’s my own mental block or if I am created this way, but I don’t feel like a leader. I feel like a follower, and that the majority of my friends don’t see me as any kind of influence on their lives.

I don’t say to sound whiney or to seek attention, I just think it’s the culture I have created around my life. It’s funny though, because I even notice it in new relationships I have made. People who don’t even know me or my past gravitate to me differently then they would to others.

The only reason I bring this up is that I really feel like I need to seek God and spend some time alone praying about why I am really here. I know that God has a very specific calling on my life; I just don’t know what it is. Lately I have been feeling like a useless blob.

On Saturday night, I went to “The Boulder Church” with my friend’s Brandon and Chad. It was a really cool experience. The church is more of a bible study or conversational format. It was approximately 15 adults in various walks of their lives talking about God and trying to figure out how He relates to our lives. It was very refreshing, and the dialog was completely open.

The subject of the night was “Is God Fair?”. My immediate reaction, as was most, was of course He is. We began to dissect what the word “fair” meant, and in what context (eternal, on earth, etc). It was a really interesting conversation, and there are some brilliant minds in that group. For the most part, I just sat back and listened.

I Don't Feel Any Different

I have to say it was a great holiday break. I drove back to Wisconsin with my friends Zack and Lauren. I spent Christmas week with my parents and my brother, Jon. We had a really relaxing week and I got some very needed quality time with all of them. I also got to see some old friends from the dairy state as well. We didn’t hit any weather going there or back which was great.

For New Years, I spent the evening with some of my closest friends in the world. We had a really lovely evening of just hanging out and enjoying each other. Oh….and a lot of Guitar Hero III! Haha.

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks: