Student Impact - Sandblast 2007

Here are the highlight videos from our high school summer camp that took place July 6-9, 2007...enjoy!

for my music friends...

here are some links to some youtube videos from willow creek. there are three service preludes, all written and arranged by willow artists, and there's one message clip by bill hybels. there's a lot of talent around this place, i hope you enjoy!

music...
Willow Creek Prelude w/ Gene Carcia (latin feel)

Willow Creek Prelude by Dave Garza

Willow Creek Prelude w/ Chris Siebold (May 9, 2007)

message...
Bill Hybels message excerpts (June 3, 2007)

today I read a book and saw a movie

it's not often that i read a book cover to cover in a given day. i can count on one hand how many times that has happened.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - i read this book by Malcolm Gladwell today. it's a fascinating book about the nature of social epidemics. Gladwell offers various examples to illustrate his findings ranging from health epidemics to product/sales epidemics. As a student of theology and church leadership, i find it intriguing to consider this epidemiology as it relates to church stuff.

Amazing Grace - after finishing the tipping point, i had the opportunity to see a screening of the new biographical movie about the abolitionist William Wilberforce. The movie highlights how, as a Member of Parliament, Wilberforce navigated the world of 18th Century backroom politics to end the slave trade in the British Empire. Wilberforce demonstrates perhaps the healthiest way in which one's religion and involvement in politics should converge. The movie opens to audiences this Friday, February 23rd. here's a link:


...goodnight...

FINALLY

today is the first day in three weeks that the temperature rose above the freezing mark...THREE WEEKS! at the coldest, lows were around -11 with wind chills exceeding -30. that's probably nothing for some folks, but for a kid from NC, that's almost unbearable, but i survived.

today the high is supposed be around 38...i just might wear shorts and a t-shirt.

marking a moment

today...i've been on this earth for 3 full decades...and that's something to be excited about :)

check it out...

...i'm just sayin'...this is awesome.

winter is here

i woke up this morning to a lot of snow - forecast: 6-10"; actual: 12-14" (don't believe me?...look at the pics)

this is the table on the back deck...

before...

...after...

...pile of snow...

...ahhhh, hot tea :)
i love the snow...i'm not as excited about shoveling it.

grateful!

thanksgiving trip

i just returned from a 12 day trip with 6 other guys. this was a time of fun, encouragement, and enrichment. here's a photo that captures the spirit of the trip...

i'm exhausted from the trip, bu so incredibly thankful to those that made it possible for me to go!

"nuclear man"

[examine the above picture...drawn by my brother john btw]

Do you notice the man sitting beneath the "tree"? he sits contently under the shade of this tree, the seed of which was planted by him. the tree has matured, firmly rooted, yielding much fruit. the tree provides shelter and food in abundance. a blessing?

the roots draw nourishment without discretion, often siphoning resources from the 2nd and 3rd world, depleting and destroying life in places out of sight and surely out of mind.

if you notice, the "tree" looks eerily like a nuclear explosion, the fallout of which is yet to be felt. this explosion and pending doom and destruction is the delayed effect of the man's well-intentioned efforts to sow a good seed, to seek his own welfare.

he will reap what he has sown, that's just the way things are

when i first looked at this picture by my brother, i was curiously captivated and have since failed to forget it. i almost immediately was reminded of the The Wounded Healer, a thin book by Henri Nouwen who refers to a subject as "nuclear man" and discusses the predicament of modern man. these thoughts were reignited by a recent post on a website i read occasionally, www.opensourcetheology.net. in one of the responses was the following quote:

"many of us [myself included] still contribute to the problem! Above all, we can’t “set ourselves apart” by breaking away. The church must suffer with the world, acknowledging that we’re a part of the problem and will face the same consequences for our negligence as everyone else. As Lynn White argued in his touchstone essay, “The Historic Roots of our Ecologic Crisis,” Christianity is a prime contributor to the problem, but the church must be a part of the solution.

it's a complicated world we live in and we would do well to deeply consider the implications and ramifications or our every decision and action.

for some reason, i think of Adam & Eve in the garden, staring at a piece of fruit that was (1) good for food, (2) was pleasing to the eye, and (3) was to be desired to make one wise (Genesis 3:6). so many "trees" in our lives look the same. just because a "tree" yields fruit, doesn't mean it's good for us or anyone else...some fruit might eventually kill us. we must be wise...huh, but then again, where does that wisdom come from...a tree?