Just a face in the million(s?)...my inauguration experience

the day was filled with a lot of excitement, energy, joy, politeness, and (in danger of being cliche) hope. here is the rundown (with help from my twitter updates):

• 6am: pressed the snooze (repeated this action a few times)
• 6:27am: got up, showered, layered, skipped breakfast (bad idea)
• 7:09am: got in the honda with Chad and hit 295 to go to greenbelt (metro stop)
• 8:03am: got in line at greenbelt with pre paid ticket (thanks, chad...pic below)
• 8:25am: boarded metro (sardines in a can) and was planning to get off at L'Enfant Plaza...found out it was closed...replanned to disembark at ChinaTown/ Gallery
• 9:33am: got off the Green line and walked with EVERYONE out of the station (VERY SLOWLY)...headed to national mall and stopped at street vendor to get teriyaki on a stick...WOW GREAT chicken i love street food vendors...got a coke (it actually got colder as i drank it)...kept walking down to 18th st and then north (? i think?) to the mall...what a great moment when we saw the mall!
  
• 10:32am: Arrived on the mall. No security checkpoint. Quite a few "haters" with bullhorns and ridiculous signage letting everyone in sight know they were going to hell...but hey, here's the thing: this is freedom! even though i dont like it they have the right to do that and it is great...b/c the people around have the right to respond (and boy, did they)
• 10:32-11:40am: Mall Experience. Ok, here's the deal: we walked and got as close to the capitol as we could...we got to the washington monument (on the left if you are looking at the capitol)...about 50 yards from the flags (right at the first elevation). everyone in attendance was so cool. i love talking to pepople in crowds. i laughed a lot. had a very funny conversation with a few college students about how the first lady's prefer to all be called LadyBird after one kid mistook Rosalynn Carter as "LadyBird" Carter...it was funny in the moment. Then, one guy started yelling at these three twenty somethings because his mother couldnt see after they stood in front of her. but here's the thing: she was sitting down while the million or so people around her were standing. Moron. But I sincerely accept his "moron-ness"...We all watched on the big screen as the dignitaries entered...several cheers and several jeers.
• 11:40-noon(ish): big boos when bush and cheney showed up. big cheers when obamas and biden showed up. big cheers for Aretha and (oddly enough) several boos for Rick Warren (confused me...but from what I gathered, his stance on abortion and homosexuality is what people really hated). During his prayer though, there were a couple great moments: when he named the obama children, the crowd cracked up laughing (loud) at how he said "Sasha"...watch it on youtube here (scroll to 3:40-3:44...he just said it funny)...but the great moment was when Rick Warren began praying the lord's Prayer...and EVERYONE (around us anyway) recited it along with him. WHAT A GREAT MOMENT...one that made me very emotional (among other moments during the day)...
• Aretha and String performances: didnt hear them well at all...
  
• Obama swearing in and speech: ok, everything was on a delay (audio) out in the mall...BUT...when he was sworn in, i was very proud of my country, and of how far we have come. I think Obama's speech was THE best inauguration speech I have heard. CNN and several other media outlets didnt like it, but it inspired me...several phrases (unclench your fist, shake off the dust, when i was a child...) really surprised and challenged me. i was encouraged and inspired...and i will admit it, i cried a couple of times. it was such a surreal moment in the crowd listening, hoping, believing, and being inspired that we can be empowered to do something great. i really hope this lasts. after the speech, everyone (EVERYONE) clocked out and started to leave...
• 12:53pm: started walking away in a general exit direction (pic left)... however, we were moving towrd the porta potties...this cause dus to get out of the general movement toward the ONE exit we could reach...this caused us to stand together for a long time and not move for about 15-20 mins. then...
• 1:27pm: i lost chad. we decided to call and meet at the most visible landmark on the way out...the crazy christian bullhorn guys
• 1:29pm: chad and i were reunited at the bullhorn guys, and i made chad take a picture of me and the loudest one around (left)
• 1:30pm-2:28pm: we walked up 18th st (ave?) shoulder to shoulder pretty slowly...tried to find shortcuts with no luck around police barriers...flagged down a cop to help a woman who was passing out (she had family with her we didnt just leave her) and THEN i spotted heaven close to K st...
• 2:29pm: lite white berry and a doughnut at CARIBOU COFFEE (big hint: if you EVER want to get me a gift, a CARIBOU gift card is the way to go...or take me there and hang out with me i would like that more)...and we walked NORTH to the Metro after standing at the parade route debating whether to stay for the parade or not...so we boarded the orange/blue line at Farragut (sp?) around
  
• 2:42pm: packed into an overcrowded train (you didnt have to hold on because the crowd around you held you up)...and made the decision to take it to pentagon city (b/c so many stations (like L'enfant) were (supposedly) closed
• 2:45-3:46pm: caught te yellow line and went north to the green line and ended up where we started at greenbelt...had some great convos with people on the way...one couple i talked to couldnt get to the mall so they ducked into an embassy suites and watched it on tv...we laughed a lot...they were form cali...another guy i talked to lives in western baltimore...moved there from new orleans 13yrs ago...cool dude
• 3:47pm: got back to greenbelt and loaded my tired self in the car and drove home (via 95 this time)
  

the day and the moment were great. i am so glad i went. forgive the typos...i dont wanna edit.
taking risks,
n

Discovering Love From a Sponge Bath

Love. As a middle school student, I knew everything about love. In high school, I became even more of a genius. By the time I graduated college, I realized I had no idea what love meant at all; I just knew it when I saw fragments here and there. When I got married, I discovered it a little bit more (and I learned how to empty a dishwasher without being begged to do so, but not without a fight). Today, love is measured in our culture with a ridiculous scale that is mixed with emotion, pleasure, and pain. Any top ten song can tell you about love (from what I have heard of these songs, it has something to do with a lockdown and just dancing so you can shake it...no lie).

So with all this noise, let’s throw in Jesus: a Jewish man who worked with wood and became a traveling teacher of God thoughts. A man who, without the whole deity thing, would be a very odd source of wisdom. And now, with culture, religion, life history, and my own two cents, this one word (or emotion, fact, currency, choice, etc.) should be easy to define. After all, I have a bountiful buffet of things to define it with...

If I have developed from one truth since middle school, it is that my life is complete when defined through Christ (Colossians 2:6). And with this life, love therefore needs the opinion, no, the true definition from Christ.

I love what John says about Jesus in the thirteenth chapter (John 13:1): “he (Jesus) now showed them (his proteges) the full extent of his love.” At this point, Jesus takes a towel, and does the dirtiest job in the house: he gives everyone’s feet a sponge bath. From this standpoint, washing dishes isn’t that bad.

John makes a big statement about Jesus here: His love serves from the lowest point; and that’s why it is timeless (full extent here is defined as love that continues after Jesus’ death). You see, in the act of a servant, love dominates the conversation. Death and personhood are not as big as love.

Now, go figure that one out!

farewell year that rhymes with my name

here are my top ten memories of 2008:
10. Yankees vs. A's at Yankee Stadium:
Shauna and I went to NYC for my bday and she took me to a Yankees game. It was awesome. I got to see the stadium again before it gets demolished. However, my fav memory of the day was switching seats 6 times and stressing Shauna out because I wanted us to sit closer and risk being kicked out of the stadium. All in all it worked out....4+ innings close to first base isnt bad!

9. The Wachovia in Charlotte, NC:
Me and my dad got to, for the first time, go to the final day of play and watch the championship come to an end. It was a great moment to see Anthony Kim win that tourney.

8: Golf:
With Shauna working in NC most of the spring, I got a lot of golf in...more than I can remember since college. Granted, her absence sucked worse than anything on the face of the planet, but it did call for great lonely afternoons improving my game.

7: Big XMAS tree:
I love big Christmas trees. At ALC, we had a 25+ft tree and it was awesome. It looked great, too.

6. Memorial Day Weekend:
My family came up over Memorial Day and we went to DC, boated into Baltimore harbor (thanks Dan), and went to a Yankees game. It was a really cool weekend.

5. Driving in NYC:
Ok, I am a dork, but I absolutely love driving in Manhattan. It makes me smile to be a pushy arrogant street pilot and pound my horn for the slightest reason. It makes everyone in the car nervous but I love it. I like to make believe I am a local. I experienced this first when Shauna's parents were in NYC over a weekend and we took a day trip. I loved speeding down 9th avenue weaving through the yellow cabs.

4. Moving to MD:
Probably one of the most difficult and rewarding things Shauna and I have ever done was to accept a position at ALC in MD. Shauna worked from NC and we weren't together very much for 4+ months. It was hard. However, God knew what he was doing with us and it is one of the best decisions we feel we have ever made. We have developed a great start to what we hope to be a deep and lasting relationship with Dan and Kathy and all of ALC.

3. Christmas in NC with Family:
It isnt over yet, but tomorrow we drive back to MD. Over the past week and a half we have had so much fun with our family and hanging out with old friends (not OLD, but friends we have known for a while...well, one or two of them were old...but they dont get online so...). It has been wonderful relaxing and not having an agenda other than to chill out. It is definitely a much needed breather, but we are ready to get back to MD. Shauna is going back for her MA and we are starting some cool new things at ALC.

2. Aaron.
Me and Aaron celebrate our birthdays by going to a concert each year (starting in 2007). We went to see The Police in 2007, and Willie Nelson this past summer. I do not recommend Willie's show. Anywho, after much prayer and time, Aaron and I have the opportunity to work together again. It is definitely something God had his hand on. It is so cool to watch Aaron work in his gift and to see him dream and create vision. God is still working some things out, but this thing has some great potential. Along with Sat evening celebrations starting at ALC soon, 2009 could be one the biggest years in ministry I have had the joy of working in.

1. My wife.
She moved to MD (finally) in June. It is so good to be married to this woman. She makes me laugh and laughs at my jokes (even when they arent that funny). I really can imagine what life without her is like, because while she went back and forth with her work during the spring, I got plenty of alone time without her. I hated it. I am so glad and blessed to have her in my life. Shauna, I love you very much.

So there it is...2008. There were many downers for sure for a lot of people, but it was truly a great year for me and Shauna. We had some challenges, problems, and aggravation, but all in all, it will be one of the most important years of our life. We learned a lot about ourselves and met many challenges we didn't know we had the ability to overcome. I suppose that tonight at midnight, we're supposed to put all that behind us...

Taking risks and watching God define our time and lives never comes to an end, though. And that is probably the top growth experience I had in 2008...it will go with me. Does that make any sense at all? In my world it surely does...

taking risks,
n

here it is...merry christmas

so here i sit backstage minutes before our creative teams show up at ALC as we do our final two xmas eve celebrations. green and blue are good colors for that, right??
after the last celebration, my wife, aaron and i will skip out quickly to an overstuffed car and ride to NC throughout the night. i am excited and a bit worried.

excited because i know tonight will be very awesome here in our church community. worried because as the season has snuck up on me and i have not reflected on the moment as much as i would have liked to do so. emotionally, i would have preferred to take more time to feel and reflect today and the pst few days. lesson learned. the reason for worry is that as i ride down the road, the feelings will catch up with me and i may go into several hours of verbal reflection. i feel sorry for my comrades. but then again, maybe i wont.

it will be very cool to spend time with family and take some time off. i will miss ALC over the holiday, though. i really feel like shauna and i are integrating here pretty well. even on our way back from NC over thanksiving, we recognized the belonging feeling we have here in MD. it has been a very positive, life changing year for us both. not only that, God has proved himself very faithful to us. amidst the challenges, we have seen and experienced the grace and provision of a very caring father.

well what do you know, it seems i am connecting with those feelings already : )

merry christmas everyone,
take the risk and follow what God is leading you towards...you won't regret it.
-n

lessons for a town house maryland christmas and legend of the gimp tree

so, moving to Maryland has been a learning experience, especially when it comes to decorating. today was Christmas decorating day at the drye house (um, townhouse). we brought out the decorations and spent a couple of hours getting everything arranged. below is my top ten list of things to make sure of when you are decorating a townhouse for Christmas. it is just my learned lessons, nothing more...
10. Christmas Movie: you HAVE to have a good movie on. we chose our traditional National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and took frequent breaks. it snowed today as well, and that helped the Christmas spirit.
9. TIME: we chose a Saturday early afternoon. this seemed to work well with our weekend as we carefully kept our calendar clear for the festive event. i went out in the AM for coffee and a tree, and came back to clean out large Tupperware storage bins full of holiday cheer. we carefully planned a good 4-5 hours for what takes 2- hours tops. we took frequent breaks (ok, maybe it was just me).
8. TREE SELECTION: ok, most people would put this around the top 3 because of the seriousness of the tree, but this year, we were experimenting. it wasn't AS important. see, we ALWAYS get a live tree (ok, we have had 4 Christmases together (double rabbit trail thought 4 Christmases was a great movie and I laughed a lot) so ALWAYS may be a bit strong). for the past 3 years, i have picked out a ridiculously large tree (our house in NC had vaulted ceilings). this year, now that we live in a townhouse on the bay, i was scared to get a large tree because we have 8ft ceilings. so, as you can see, the tree is a good 4-5 ft tall and looks gimpy. lesson learned...7ft tree in the future.
7. VOLUME: a townhouse can handle more than we thought. we went conservative this year because the townhouse is a bit um, how you say, small and tall. we COULD have just looked at what other people do, but i am lazy and figured keeping the volume to a minimum was a good idea this year. plus, we took more breaks.
6. TIMING: this is the first time we have waited until AFTER Nov 28 to decorate, and to tell ya the truth, it seems as though we cheated ourselves out of a couple weeks of holiday enjoyment. i think we need to decorate either right before turkey day or immediately afterward. this is an odd year, though...we spent the week of thanksgiving in NC and away from our new home so decorating was a bit challenging. but it looks cool...
5. FOOD: today for lunch during the decorating i had some leftover chili and a turkey sandwich...a good yule log and some fresh chili with grilled cheese would have really done the trick...and some peanut butter balls...Jesus would have been more proud...don't skimp on the meal is my suggestion
4. PLACEMENT OF THE TREE: ok, now we get into the nitty gritty...we placed the tree RIGHT beside our box of glowing pictures. time will tell whether this is a good move or not. it does make the zombie on the couch look i go for much easier to accomplish. however, we may move the location back to behind the couch in the future...i am unsure...this has top three potential.
3. MAXIMUM STORAGE ACCESSIBILITY: this is a newbie priority for me. make all the decor storage very accessible in the town home. this means prioritizing the placement of boxes in the "cave" on the bottom floor. if you create "crawl ways" (kind of like walkways that you crawl through) and accessibility it makes the process of decorating much simpler. this was a grade A #1 move for us (me) this year.
2. PRIORITIZE LIGHTING: with the gimp tree this year, we made a priority on the best lights. see, with a 13 ft tree, you need lots of lights. with a gimp tree, you only need two strands of your best lights. so, make them count...
and finally,
1. NAPTIME: make it a point to be extra lazy after decorating by turning up the space heater and curling up for a good afternoon nap. after that, watch college football, 80s movies ($20 if you can identify the movie we're watching in the photo above...), reality TV, and Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew...oh, and get take out chinese. it is the evening the shepherds foretold.

so that's it...for all you townhouse dwellers, i hope this was helpful
-n

behold my demise

so, a coworker who we'll just call KIM...gave me a bag of small round peppers.
BEHOLD


most of them were green at first, then they all turned a bright red. so last night i decided to cut them up, and Shauna used 3 of them in a stir fry.

long story short...i should have used gloves. these are some of the hottest peppers i have eaten...EVER. did i say ever? i think they are habaneros...but the flavor isn't familiar. JUST the presence of these little demons in the stir fry was too much for Shauna. i LOVE hot food, esp peppers, and it took me a while to get through the meal...which i did and loved it.

However, everything i touch now has pepper oil on it and burns...so don't shake my hand for a while...unless you want your skin to burn. i cant wear my contact lenses right now...my eyes felt like they were going to explode this morning when i tried to put in my contacts.

so, thank you Kim...i want more of these peppers...and some gloves. and hopefully, in a few days i can put my contacts in and be normal...until then, dont shake my hand...trust me.

we accept the love we think we deserve...

i look at several blogs every week. one of them is the postsecret blog developed by frank warren. the blog is definitely something to look at with discretion, and i, personally, find it intriguing. basically (short explanation is needed), the blog is nothing but people's volunteered anonymous secrets. it is a wonderful study of our culture.

that being said, i ran across a quote on there this week:
"we accept the love we think we deserve."

i tend to highly agree with this statement. not only do we struggle to forgive and love others, but when it comes to ourselves, it is very difficult. i also think this is a large factor in someone accepting the forgiveness and love of christ. how can we accept this forgiveness and love and it be a natural part of our development?

i would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this. i find it very interesting.
taking risks,
-n