I finally got a Real Blog

haha, I made the switch to Wordpress. Please update your links to:

joshmickelson.wordpress.com

And Please blogroll me if you haven't!

New Tattoo!

I got this done from Colin over at Faith Tattoo. Go see him if you want some work done!

Bad Day

So last night I went to the Emergency Room on 18th and Gilpin. Weird. I have never had a medical emergency in my life where I didn’t just wait for a doctor’s appointment (ok, ok, except for when I lost my finger).

I have had a stomachache all week, which I have been able to deal with just fine. Well last night around 7:30pm, I start getting these cramps below my stomach in my intestine area. They were horrible. I can honestly say I have never felt anything like that before. It was like someone had a knife in my abdomen and was twisting it around. Being the stubborn male that I am, I thought, “Ok, it will pass, just ride it out”. I laid on my couch another 15 minutes then ran to the bathroom and had a bowel movement, and realized it was full of blood (sorry for being graphic). That was my queue to head right on over to the hospital.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but I am fine. After numerous tests it turns out my intestines were just inflamed and causing the sharp pains. The blood was actually a result of taking too much peptol bismal and wasn’t actually blood. All is well, and I already feel much better today. I have some medicine and have to adhere to a specific “bland” diet for the next couple of days.

All is well.

Hello, Dear Wind.

I went of to the Traylor’s house for dinner last night. Jon and Crystal are back in town for a few months to secure Jon’s visa status here in America. I am excited about this because they really are nice genuine people with a great outlook on life. Rock and roll!





Ps - I started a poem last night that I really like so far.

Blistered Avalon

Okay, I am going to apologize in advance for this post, it’s going to be all over the place and random.

First off, I read this article and thought it was crazy:

Scientists are developing a male birth control pill


This weekend, I went climbing again and a guy gave our group some pointers. I thought that was very nice of him. He was especially encouraging to me since I am a big guy. He told me that climbing is almost all technique. He said that there are pro-climbers who can barely do a pull-up.

Cityprayer on Saturday morning went really well. Our little youth band is extremely tight and we get the job done. I am excited to see where that goes. Mark did a great job leading on Sunday and Saturday.

I went to the BoulderChurch bible study on Saturday night. We talked about guilt brought from Religion and burdens associated with it. I really enjoy that bible study; it’s a little challenging because there isn’t a lot of common ground. So we didn’t really even get past how we definite guilt and whether or not it’s a good thing/natural.

Lastly, I am officially deeming this week my “Cleansing Week”. I am going to get my diet back on track, not watch any television and work on quitting some other unhealthy habits. I feel inhibited physically and spiritually, and I am ready to get back on path. Pray for me if you are into that. I feel very confused about my direction and identity lately. I really think it’s a good thing, and I am excited to push through this awkward time.

Yes!

Last night was my first experience at Casabonita. I have lived in Denver for 6 years now, and never had the pleasure of partaking in this fine establishment. If you have never been, let me list some of the things you are missing out on:

-Cave Divers in Corona shorts
-Cheese enchiladas that are $12, but taste like the AIDS virus
-Instant diarrhea
-Exploring the caverns
-Gorillas
-Some random girl trying to sell me an energy drink from her car as we left
-Awesome trinkets in the gift shop
-Being corrected by the Police officer for “exploring” a little too much…hah
-Getting the feeling that every single employee there sleeps with every other employee on top of the food you are eating, and then makes fun of you as you ingest.
-Flattened pennies

I hope after reading that, you are jealous and want to uncover the many mysteries of Casabonita!

I'll Meet You in the Ground

I hopped in bed at about 9 last night and continued reading On the Road for about an hour and a half. That book is so incredibly easy to read. It’s like the pages turn themselves as you are reading about Sal’s journeys.

After reading, I thought of a cool idea. I am going to start a poem in my new my moleskin where I only write one line a day. I’m sure by the end of the poem it’s not going to make a whole lot of sense, but I feel like I have one sentence that describes my thoughts every day. We’ll see how it turns out.

I notice that when I force myself to write and process my thoughts, everything seems much clearer. Obviously, blogging is a great outlet, but I think it’s also important to have a personal journal where you can write whatever you want with no censorship.

Anyway, thanks to Mark and Judi for the nice pen and moleskin, and to Bone for the sweet lighter so I can smoke my pipe as I write ;)

There is hope for me yet!!!

Thanks Mel for the article:


(CBS) Imagine re-growing a severed fingertip, or creating an organ in the lab that can be transplanted into a patient without risk of rejection. It sounds like science fiction, but it's not. It's the burgeoning field of regenerative medicine, in which scientists are learning to harness the body's own power to regenerate itself, with astonishing results. Correspondent Wyatt Andrews brings you to the scientific frontier.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three years ago, Lee Spievack sliced off the tip of his finger in the propeller of a hobby shop airplane.

What happened next, Andrews reports, propelled him into the future of medicine. Spievack's brother, Alan, a medical research scientist, sent him a special powder and told him to sprinkle it on the wound.

"I powdered it on until it was covered," Spievack recalled.

To his astonishment, every bit of his fingertip grew back.

"Your finger grew back," Andrews asked Spievack, "flesh, blood, vessels and nail?"

"Four weeks," he answered.

Andrews spoke to Dr. Steven Badylak of the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine and asked if that powder was the reason behind Spievack's new finger tip.

"Yes, it is," Badylak explained. "We took this and turned it into a powdered form."

That powder is a substance made from pig bladders called extracellular matrix. It is a mix of protein and connective tissue surgeons often use to repair tendons and it holds some of the secrets behind the emerging new science of regenerative medicine.

"It tells the body, start that process of tissue regrowth," said Badylak.

Badlayk is one of the many scientists who now believe every tissue in the body has cells which are capable of regeneration. All scientists have to do is find enough of those cells and "direct" them to grow.

"Somehow the matrix summons the cells and tell them what to do," Badylak explained. "It helps instruct them in terms of where they need to go, how they need to differentiate - should I become a blood vessel, a nerve, a muscle cell or whatever."

If this helped Spievack's finger regrow, Badylak says, at least in theory, you should be able to grow a whole limb.

Advances That Go Beyond Theory

In his lab at Wake Forest University, a lab he calls a medical factory, Dr. Anthony Atala is growing body parts.

Atala and his team have built, from the cell level up, 18 different types of tissue so far, including muscle tissue, whole organs and the pulsing heart valve of a sheep.

"And is it growing?" Andrews asked.

"Absolutely," Atala said, showing him, "All this white material is new tissue."

"When people ask me 'what do you do,' we grow tissues and organs," he said. "We are making body parts that we can implant right back into patients."

It's very much the future, but it's today. We are doing this today.

Dr. Patrick ShenotDr. Atala, one of the pioneers of regeneration, believes every type of tissue already has cells ready to regenerate if only researchers can prod them into action. Sometimes that prodding can look like science fiction.

Emerging from an everyday ink jet printer is the heart of a mouse. Mouse heart cells go into the ink cartridge and are then sprayed down in a heart shaped pattern layer by layer.

Dr. Atala believes it's a matter of time before someone grows a human heart.

"The cells have all the genetic information necessary to make new tissue," Atala explained. "That's what they are programmed to do. So your heart cells are programmed to make more heart tissue, your bladder cells are programmed to make more bladder cells."

Atala's work with human bladder cells has pushed regenerative medicine to a transformational breakthrough.

In this clinical trial at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, Dr. Patrick Shenot is performing a bladder transplant with an organ built with this patient's own cells. In a process developed by Dr. Atala, the patient's cells were grown in a lab, and then seeded on a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold.

Eight weeks later, with the scaffold now infused with millions of regrown cells, it is transplanted into the patient. When the scaffold dissolves, Dr. Shenot says what's left will be a new, functioning organ.

"The cells will differentiate into the two major cells in the bladder wall, the muscle cells and the lining cells," he explained. "It's very much the future, but it's today. We are doing this today."

Repairing The Wounded

Today, one of the biggest believers in regeneration is the United States military, which is especially interested in the matrix that regrew Lee Spievack's finger.

The Army, working in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh, is about to use that matrix on the amputated fingers of soldiers home from the war.

Dr. Steven Wolf, at the Army Institute of Surgical Research, says the military has invested millions of dollars in regenerative research, hoping to re-grow limbs, lost muscle, even burned skin.

"And it's hard to ignore this guys missing half his skin, this guy's missing his leg," Wolf said. "You start asking the question, is there somebody out there with the technology that can do this for us?"

"You mean regrow the tissue?" Andrews asked.

"The answer," Wolf said, "is maybe."

At the burn unit at the Brooke Army Medical center, the very idea of regeneration brings a glimmer of hope.

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Henline was the only survivor of an IED attack on his Humvee north of Baghdad.

"It's a great idea," Henline said, talking with Andrews about the military's investment into the new technology. "If they can come up with something that's less painful and can heal it with natural growth, without all this scarring, it's definitely something to check into."

Regeneration Race Goes Global

Several different technologies for harnessing regeneration are now in clinical trials around the world. One machine, being tested in Germany, sprays a burn patient's own cells onto a burn, signaling the skin to re-grow.

Badylak is about to implant matrix material - shaped like an esophagus - into patients with throat cancer.

"We fully expect that this material will cause the body to re-form normal esophageal tissue," Badylak said.

And in a clinical trial at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, patient Mary Beth Babo is getting her own adult stem cells injected into her heart, in hopes of growing new arteries. Her surgeon is Dr. Joon Lee.

"It's what we consider the Holy Grail of our field for coronary heart disease," Lee said.

The Holy Grail, because if stem cells can re-grow arteries, there's less need for surgery.

"It's a big difference from open heart surgery to this," said Babo. "If people don't have to go through that, this would be the way to go ... if it works."

The Business Of Regeneration

Corporate America, meanwhile, already believes regeneration will work. Investment capital has been pouring in to commercialize and mass produce custom-made body parts.

The Tengion Company has bought the license, built the factory, and is already making those bladders developed at Wake Forest that we told you about earlier.

"We're actually building a very real business around a very real and compelling patient need," said Dr. Steven Nichtberger, Tengion's CEO.

Tengion believes regeneration will soon revolutionize transplant medicine. Transplant patients, instead of waiting years for a donated organ, will ship cells off to a lab and wait a few weeks to have their own re-grown.

"I look at the patients who are on the waitlist for transplant," said Nichtberger. "I look at the opportunity we have to build bladders, to build vessels, to build kidneys. In regenerative medicine, I think it is similar to the semi-conductor industry of the 1980s, you don't know where it's going to go, but you know it's big."

morbid

Easter

I have non-Christian friends that hassle me for celebrating Easter. They think I am clueles to all of the pagan incorporations the holiday has. My rebuttal is, "who cares?". I take Easter, and the time leading up to it, to remember the death of Jesus and the great sacrifice He made.

Anyway, here is a really cool article I read on Jesus Manifesto. Thanks Adam for the link:

The Scandal of Easter
Written by Mark Van Steenwyk : March 18, 2008
Easter is coming. On Sunday, we remember the day that our Lord wrested free from the confines of the grave. It is the day when the final Enemy, death began its own march to the grave.

Holy Week is an odd time of year. My family didn’t celebrate Holy Week. To me, it was simply a day of pastel marshmallow bunnies and birds (I think Peeps taste nasty) , colored hard-boiled eggs, and jelly beans. Nothing more. Pretty lame as far as holidays go. The only one in my family who really liked Easter was my sister Chantel, but only because she loved coloring the eggs so much.

As I got older, I began to notice peculiar things about the season leading up to Easter. I noticed that on some Wednesday about a month before Easter, people got smudges of ash placed upon their foreheads. Vaguely, I knew that the ash thing had something to do with Easter. And I think I knew that Easter had to do with the day that Jesus went up into heaven or something.

I embraced Christianity in my teens. I had the weepy camp experience and got really involved in church. My faith meant a lot to me. And I really really loved Jesus. My family wasn’t really into Jesus and church at the time, so I felt like it was MY thing. That made it all the more special to me. Around that time I realized that the smudgy ash day was Ash Wednesday. Our church didn’t celebrate that stuff because we believed it was dead religion. But I secretly thought it was kinda cool. I also learned that Holy Week was kind of a big deal. Especially Good Friday, which was about how Jesus died. Lutherans and Catholics had other special days during the week, but we charismatics and Pentecostals and low church evangelicals really only focused on two days: Good Friday and Easter. Cross and Resurrection. They were all that mattered.

It was on the Cross, you see, that Jesus took all of our sins upon himself and then died. He took our just punishment. And on Easter Jesus rose from the dead–a sign that his sacrifice was accepted by God. And it showed that Jesus is more powerful than sin and death. If we believe that he died on the Cross for our own sins, we too can be resurrected some day.

The nice thing about all of this is that God takes me just as I am, right? Once I trust in his sacrifice on my behalf, I can trust that, some day, I will join him in Heaven. Right? That is what Easter is all about. It is about me being accepted as I am. What I do with the rest of my life matters…but not as much as the joyful recognition that my afterlife is secured.

Easter is that day when you appear
Sweet Jesus
To whisper sweet nothings into my ear
Sweet Jesus
And to forgive my sins, my dear
Sweet Jesus
Like drinking too much beer
Being insincere
And forgetting you all year
Sweet Jesus

Show me the path
Sweet Jesus
Away from God’s wrath
Sweet Jesus
Give my soul a bath
Sweet Jesus
So that I can laugh
For all the junk I hath
From plying $atan’s math
Sweet Jesus

You make me white as snow
Sweet Jesus
So merrily I go
Sweet Jesus
To maintain the status quo
Sweet Jesus
Like keeping down the low
Having too much dough
Or killing all my foes
Sweet Jesus

The scandal of Easter is that it has been used to reinforce the status quo. Instead of seeing the Cross and Resurrection as a death to the old way and the opening of a new way, it is tempting to see them mechanistically. If we believe, our slate is cleaned. And we can continue on as though nothing has ever happened.

And so, because of Jesus’ death, I don’t have to change my life. I’m not responsible for changing the corrupt systems that I’ve inherited. I don’t have to worry about the poor. I don’t need to DO anything. Jesus took care of all that on the Cross. And when he rose from the dead, he made it possible for me to go to the Kingdom of God when I die.

This way of seeing Easter permeates the Western understanding of Christianity. But is this how Jesus understood his death? As he gathered disciples and set his face towards Jerusalem, he called his followers to take their cross and follow him. In his final week, he cleanses the Temple, speaks against the teachers of the Law, and predicts the destruction of the Temple.

His death was an act of judgment against a corrupt system. And in his resurrection, ascension, and pouring out of the Spirit, a new way is opened up for us to speak prophetically to the domination system (the global web of institutions and governments in the hands of the few that oppress the many), resist the powers, and live in the Kingdom. Here. Now.

I don’t mean to diminish the reconciling work of Jesus on the Cross. By no means. Nor am I advocating that God will only forgive you if you do stuff for him. I am merely suggesting that we need to drop our transactional understanding of the Gospel. To follow Jesus is to walk in his way. His death and resurrection opens up for us a new way. We, filled by the Spirit, are called to live and move in the way of Jesus. Let us remember Jesus’ death and resurrection by taking up our cross and experiencing a new way of life.

The testosterone is pumping at Mark's house tonight. Six hairy men are playing Rock Band and being loud. It's hard to believe that literally 5 hours ago, Mark was sitting up here in his PJs watching "Titanic".

HB JOSH

I got the best birthday gift ever – I found out that I am Dog the Bounty Hunter’s account representative for his yellow page listing. I left him a voicemail yesterday. Too bad he is racist and stuff…

Ava Adore

And I'll pull your crooked teeth
You'll be perfect just like me
You'll be a lover in my bed
And a gun to my head
We must never be apart
We must never be apart

There's No Point Trying to Fight it

Last night Brandon and I took his co-worker friend, Paola, out around Denver. Paola is from Mexico and is just visiting here this week for some work training. It was really fun to walk around downtown and look at your city from a visitor’s standpoint. I drive by some of these landmarks everyday and don’t even give them two thoughts. We really do live in a beautiful city. I also decided that I need to marry a foreign girl because their accents are so damn cute! Paola was trying to say that our pizza is “better” here in America, but it came out as “Bear pizza in America”. We gracefully informed her that we do not serve bear meat on pizzas here (lol).

I think I drank too much coffee, because on the ride from dropping off Paola,  I puked…haha. I don’t even know why, my stomach just felt gnarly, so I asked Brandon to pull over and got sick on someone’s lawn. It was pretty classy. The good news is, I felt like a million bucks after all that coffee was out of my stomach.

Today was my first day back at riding my bike to work. It felt good, and I arrived to the office with a lot of energy. On the light-rail, I continued reading On The Road. Reading it made me want to pop my thumb out and hitchhike to San Francisco.

Sidenote: The new Ours album is released today. Do yourself a favor and pick it up. It is really incredible.

Make that Wall Your Biotch, Chris!

I have been climbing/bouldering fairly consistently for the last month or so. It has been a really great workout and the sense of accomplishment you feel when you make it through a problem is like no other. Last night, a few friends and myself went to Paradise Rock on 62^nd/Washington. This gym is home to a few pro-climbers and is pretty impressive. We decided to go the cheap route and do bouldering instead of rope-climbing. I must say, it was the most challenging spots I have ever been to. None of us were able to finish even one problem. Nevertheless, it kicked my butt and I feel nice and sore today! My hands are calloused and my shoulders are destroyed, but it’s a good pain!

Anyway, I said all that to say, you (the reader) should come climbing with me. Such a fun buddy sport!

I hope this sticks.

Abby and I decided that we are going to start our very own e-book club haha. We are going to mutually read an article, short story or book each week and discuss it on Fridays. I am excited because this will be motivation for me to turn the T.V. off and actually use my mind when I am at home. This week’s discussion will be on:

Christopher’s Article about post-Collegiate life

Kafka’s “Hunger Artist”

I think I would totally do this

Get Malaria for $4000


It's in Seattle, Do it Abby!

One of the best blogs I've read in a while:

Stuff White People Like

Go Now in the Light of Your God

Did your mother ever say "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all"? My mom sure did. I was thinking about that phrase the other day, and decided that I should give it a shot. I have been trying to make an attempt at letting only love come out of my mouth. Unfortunately, I have been failing miserably. Even this morning, I was on my way in to work and someone cut me off, so I immediately thought out loud "What the hell is this douche bag's problem?". Not a very loving thing to say I suppose. I think it's going to be a process though, I am becoming more aware of the things I say and trying to make adjustments. It's not even a matter of my Christian belief-system, I just want my mark left on this world to be that of love. It's so easy to make jokes at other's expense, or vent out frustration by making biting remarks. It seems like the real challenge in life is controlling your tongue. I am not saying that one should be dishonest with themselves, and bottle up anger, sadness or whatever emotion you are feeling. I just think it's important to have control over the way that is exposed in your life. Anyway, hopefully this blog doesn't sounds pompous or conceded, I just wanted to make my new resolution somewhat public so my friends can hold me accountable. LOVE YA'LL

lol

Forcing Love

He has spoken

[10:05] Jonas: eff bloggginggggggggggggg
[10:05] Madison Prep: yea but your blogs are always good to read
[10:05] Madison Prep: so keep it up biotch
[10:06] Jonas: my blog is for fun not to earn your political vote whore!
[10:12] Madison Prep: ead
[10:12] Madison Prep: there are no politics
[10:12] Madison Prep: you are the don
[10:12] Madison Prep: and that's that.
[10:12] Jonas: fair

03.01.2008

Me eyes opened as the sound of the radio pierced my ears. There was a smile on my face because I knew the day stored something great for me and my friends. I crawled out of bed and made some unintelligible noise directed at Chris who was reading a magazine on my couch. After showering and getting ready for the day, we biked over to Brandon’s house where he offered us bagels and orange juice. We ate the oily bread and talked about our lives.

From there, we piled into Chris’ flesh colored pick-up truck, affectionately called “the peen-mobile”. This is a 1980s Japanese vehicle that is not made for three people to occupy. Brandon sat in the middle on the way there, and I on the way back. Let me just say, 4^th gear is no fun. Anyway, we made it to “The Spot” in Boulder after the snug ride. Our bikes were piled up in the back. We walked into the building, strapped on our climbing shoes and started working through some “problems” as the bouldering nerds like to call it. It was such a different experience from my first time climbing. You don’t realize how much you rely on ropes until they are taken away. Despite the ground being padded, eighteen feet is a long way down. After two hours of destroying our backs and forearms, we headed out.

As the “peen-mobile” pulled up to Tim’s house, he was sitting on his porch studying and drinking some scotch. We joined him for a cigar and a glass. The smoke billowed through our beards and hair as we talked about heaven, hell, hiking and Tim’s recently deceased landlord. Afterwards, we ditched the peen and hopped on our bikes. I couldn’t help but notice how much nicer drivers are to cyclists in Boulder. We weaved in and out of lanes until our path ended at “The Mountain Sun”. There we shared a pint and some of the best fries my mouth has ever encountered.

With no specific plan or destination we embarked on a long bike ride through Boulder (after a quick stint at the bike shop for some new cages). There we rode, three in a row, making our way through the crowds of runners and roadies. I felt so graceful and so awkward all at once. The air outside was fresh and clean. My palms were aching from the leaning of my weight on them. Driving through the park as the hippies banged on their djembes and other hand drums, I felt a release. Through the sweat my body poured out the stress of my life and the thoughts that consume me.

That night, we sat around in Tim and Jaime’s living room and discussed the important stuff, like love and God. I didn’t really get any answers, but it felt good to be a part of a community. I am truly grateful for the relationships I have in my life through church and life. Days like these make me feel honored to be alive.

Star Wars Love

Sanctified By Glory and Fire

I have been struggling lately in the issue of God’s wrath versus God’s Grace. They are both very evident in both the New and the Old Testament. It talks in Revelations about how the earth is going to see a wrath from God that has never been seen before, but it also says in Colossians that every one of our sins was nailed to the cross with Jesus and we have atonement for said sins.

I look at it like a father who loves his children, but still holds them accountable for their actions. Obviously a fair father wouldn’t just let their kid be disrespectful to his/her mother, or get away with stealing from the local gas station. Does he still love that child when it’s all said and done? Of course! Correction still has to happen, however. This is the balance of life I think, learning from correction and learning from forgiveness. I was listening to a song by Delirious last night and one of the lyrics was “Sanctified by glory and fire”, we are atoned by the glory of his love and the fire of his correction.

I will be honest, I still struggle with the idea of how his forgiveness/wrath is played out. Does Adolf Hitler face judgment for the millions of lives he was responsible for taking? Or were his sins nailed to Jesus’ hands just like mine? It is confusing stuff. I am reminded of the story of Jonah. Jonah refused to obey God and deliver his message to this city, so God had him swallowed by a whale. In three days, the whale spit him out, and as he was sitting on the beach God, in essence said, “I am going to give you another chance, go give the same message to this other city.” Jonah obeyed, and gave this intense message about how God was going to destroy their city in 40 days because of their lifestyles. The city fixed their lifestyles and the bible says that God’s wrath passed over them. In effect, this really encompasses what I am wrestling with in my head. His wrath is evident and real, but the choice is in our hands. In effect, he gave both the city AND Jonah another chance at it. Jonah could have given up on his Lord and walked away from that whale with his tail between his legs, but he chose to correct himself.

Anyway, I am not even close to having stuff figured out, I just heard a message last night on the subject and it’s been going around in my head all day. It’s good for me though, because I feel like God is bringing correction in my life that is necessary. It’s too easy to just keep going through life, taking the easy route. I feel like true liberty comes from accepting that what needs to change, and not taking it lightly…oh and feeding the poor ;-)

s

How do these exist and I don't own them?

The Lady Will Have Something of Equal or Lesser Value

How is it that Chipotle is capable of making you so happy or so sad? It really is the best value in the modern day restaurant industry. You get a burrito filled with Grade-A products, excellent hot sauce and it’s the size of a small baby. The endorphins pump through my head like a little boy who got his hands on a B.B Gun when I eat it.

That said, when you get a bad burrito, it feels like you have just been shot. Today was free-burrito day for Dex employees. It was a promotion our local Chipotle was doing for us to improve their customer base. I decided to be a nice guy and grab a burrito for one of our receptionists since he wasn’t able to leave. Now, I am going to go over what I normally get, and what he ordered.

My typical burrito:
-Chicken
-Hot Sauce
-Green Chile
-Sour Cream
-Cheese
-No Beans

My co-worker’s burrito:
-Chicken
-Black Beans
-Corn
-Sour Cream

Obviously, my burrito is the superior product. However, the employee accidentally mislabeled our burritos. So as I bit into that hunk of Mexican glory, I was disappointed to taste the blandest piece of nothingness ever. It was awful. Now don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for the free burrito, and I will continue patronizing Chipotle. I just wanted to point out how much of a let-down it is to get not get your order.

I would marry Chipotle if it was a hot-lady.

Nothing like putting things into perspective...

I will Marry This Woman

American Christianity

I just read this on a blog this morning, and thought I'd share, some of it seems a little pretentious, but overall, a good read:


"Christians traditionally have been worried about getting Jesus wrong. American Christians are not so worried. There isn't the sense that this is a life-and-death matter, that you don't mess with divinity. There's a freedom and even a playfulness that Americans have...the flexibility of the American Jesus is unprecedented. There's a Gumbylike quality to Jesus in the United States. Even turning Jesus into a pal among born-again Christians—that kind of chutzpah is unknown historically." -Stephen Prothero, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a Cultural Icon

I recently gave a series of messages where I attempted to answer this question: What does it mean to be a Christian? I talked about the Christian as the convert, the believer and the disciple. Those messages are available as archived audio at the Word of Life site.

What I said in those messages was a general treatment of the subject dealing with broad truths pertaining to what it means to be a Christian irrespective of time or place. But as we actually attempt to live out a Christian life we don't do it in a vacuum, but in specific times and cultures, and each age and culture presents its own particular challenges to living the Christian life, whether it's as a 4th century Roman, a 7th century Byzantine, a 13th century Italian, a 17th century Russian, or a 21st century American. So let me share a few thoughts that are pertinent to what it means to be a Christian in the specific context of contemporary American life.

These thoughts have been formed as I have traveled among churches and Christians around the world for many years and have thus been able to gain something of a global perspective on American Christianity. And I have developed these thoughts, not just through travel and my own thinking, but through a dozen or so serious conversations over the past two years with European, Australian, Russian and Indian Christian leaders on the topic of "American Christianity." Here are my thoughts:

Consumerism is the drug in the American culture that we eat, drink and breathe.
There's no avoiding this. And if we are serious about living authentic Christian lives we must acknowledge the elephant in the room...or shall I say the Leviathan in the mall. At its heart the American Dream is a consumerist dream -- the dream of owning and acquiring certain things as the presumed way to happiness. Of course this flies in the face of the most basic truths taught in the Old and New Testaments regarding morality, values, how we should live, and what will ultimately make us happy. If we make the mistake of twisting the gospel into an endorsement of our cultural assumptions we have committed a grievous error that will distort the gospel as severely as did medieval superstition. It takes a concerted effort on the part of the American Christian not to be seduced by the ubiquitous lure of consumerism. It takes real conviction not to allow Christianity to be commandeered into a spiritual means to a materialist end. Consumerism is our antichrist, our beast, our false prophet and it takes tremendous moral and spiritual courage to oppose it.

America is a great nation and great nations tend to get confused about God.
It was Dostoevsky in his spiritual/political novel, Demons, that helped me to first see this. Dostoevsky (in the voice of various characters) explains that every great nation must believe that God is their God -- that they have God on their side. The necessary sacrifices for continued greatness required of citizens by empires, especially as it pertains to war, can scarcely be made unless the name of God can be invoked as their God -- whether that makes God Greek or Roman or French or English or Russian or German or American. Great nations inevitably make a proprietary claim upon God. They make him their God so that God's chief duty is to maintain the interests of the nation. Of course this immediately appears as preposterous, unless it's your nation we're talking about. America is just as susceptible to this kind of delusional thinking regarding God as the other great nations that have gone before us. On a related note: American Christians tend to think, if not actually, then emotionally, of America as a kind of Israel. So that the prophets' messages to Israel in the Old Testament are generally applicable to America. But I would suggest that America is more analogous to the Roman empire in Paul's day than the kingdom of Israel in Jeremiah's day. The inheritor of Israel's vocation as stewards of God's kingdom is the church, not any political state. I remember the time that an important European pastor asked me not to teach on the kingdom of God, because, as he said, "You American Christians all think America is the kingdom of God." Though I protested that I did not think this, I understand how he arrived at that opinion.

Political partisanship has stolen the prophetic voice of the American church.
I recently had a lengthy discussion with several Australian Christian leaders who had just returned from a conference where the topic was how the Australian church could best position itself to speak into the politics of the nation. They concluded that the model of the American religious right was a perfect example of what not to do. The mistake the American evangelical church has made is not in being involved politically, but in becoming openly partisan with one political party. The end result of that action is to steal our prophetic voice. One party presumes our loyalty as their de facto religious wing, while the other presumes our hostility and regards us an enemy. Consequently neither party trembles at our voice or seriously questions among themselves, "but what will the church say?" When the church as an entity becomes a lapel pin wearing partisan of any particular political party it sacrifices its prophetic mantle. The church has a dismal historic record when it comes to its use of political power. God has given the sword of political authority to the state, but the keys of spiritual authority to the church. We should be very wary of trading our spiritual keys for the political sword.

Making Christianity popular in America is not the same thing as making Christians out of Americans.
We Americans are easily impressed by all things big and successful. We find it almost impossible to gainsay that which has massive popular endorsement. So the assumption is that if a particular message can fill churches and arenas and propel books onto bestseller lists, then it must be a good thing. But there is always the danger that we are using Christianity to endorse the cultural assumptions of the age by simply creating a Christianized version of what is already popular, instead of engaging in the more difficult work of transforming the culture through the rigors of a costly and demanding Christianity. Jesus was quite willing to sacrifice popularity for the sake of genuine discipleship -- we must be willing to do the same. The metanarrative of the gospel is, in fact, quite different than the metanarrative of American dream -- though as it is often told in popular American Christianity you may not know it. Vigorous Christianity has always been a subversive and transcendent counterculture movement.

It is still the American scene in the drama of world history and the opportunity begs for authentic Christianity to take the stage.
China and India are waiting in the wings, but it is still America's hour to shine on the world's stage. That means that what the American church does, for good or bad, is amplified around the globe. Just as Paul's letter to the Romans in the 1st century takes center stage in the New Testament epistles, so the "American Epistle" will have tremendous influence upon the global church in the first part of the 21st century. I still have great hope for the American church. We have our problems and our blind spots, but I am hopeful as I see these issues being increasingly acknowledged and courageously addressed by a new generation of Christian leaders. I pray that God will give grace to the American church to model a more costly, and thus a more authentic Christianity to the global Body of Christ over the next few decades.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts regarding being a Christian in America.

BZ

PS

Heavenly Day

I have a lot to do today at work; however I couldn’t help but make a blog entry.

Last week I spend a lot of time daydreaming about my childhood. Going up to my uncle’s cabin and fishing for walleye until the night was old, cuddling up to my mom as my father spoke to his congregation, having this confidence in my heart that I knew exactly where I was heading and precisely what I wanted to do. There is this certain clarity/joy that seems to only emit from childhood. I am not sure if I can ever get back to that place, but it would be nice to be so in touch with myself again.

That said, I can’t complain. I am happy with whom I am today, and maybe when I am 40, I will envy this time in my life. I really think that any point in your life can be the “golden years” if your attitude is right. God has placed so many little wonders and beauties all around us.

Anyway, I had a nice week and weekend. Last night, we just sat around, played guitar and sang with the “Remedy” group after our small group. It was oddly relaxing. I felt like I could just sit there forever and sing until I had no more sound in my lungs. My good friend, Brandon got back into town on Saturday. We went up to Boulder and attended “Boulder Church”. It was a good evening and I really feel like I take a lot from that group. I am glad Brandon is back, I needed a bike riding partner again, haha.

Ps. I got this song off Abby’s blog, I just listened to it 4 times in a row. Enjoy:

Christopher Walken for President

For Mark...haha

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: