For Hannah, and her Mother who misses her

I made this video for my sister who is trying not to disappear. I made this video for Hannah who touched us all in her short life.

Signs

One of the oddities about making a life decision is that you suddenly find yourself looking for signs everywhere.

Someone at work misspelled "Spanish Translation" to read "Spainish Translation." Ah, ha! It's a sign. I'm on the right road. God is with me. Everything will fall into place.

Now, should I have turned left or a right back there?

Spain

So here I am, a new chapter before me.

I decided over the weekend that I want to give myself to Spain. What does this mean, "Give myself to Spain?" I guess it means that I want to devote my video and writing talents to helping people in Spain see Christ within their contemporary culture.

I had an idea about six months ago. I got really excited about it, then my enthusiasm waned a bit, as it often does. But it goes something like this. Years ago my dad gave me a copy of the Mars Hill Review. I immediately connected with its mission statement: "...to reveal Christ in the various texts of our contemporary culture." Mars Hill Graduate School makes this a priority as well. I think it is useful to quote them at length:

Text

Our vision is to train men and women to see Scripture through a perspective that keeps the primacy of story and mystery alive as it authoritatively forms the fundamental parameters of our life and worldview. We believe interpretation or hermeneutics is neither primarily a science, nor a skill, but a living art that molds us into maturity by the Word itself, the convicting work of the Spirit, and in dialogue with the community of faith both past and present.

Soul

Our vision is to train men and women to live lives worthy of the gospel. We believe this is possible through an ongoing process of humility that reveals our bias, transforms our heart, and enlivens our passion for the Author of Life. The outcome will be a transformation that involves a shift in perspective (faith), purpose (hope), and passion (love) evidenced in how one relates to enemies and friends, body and mind, and the world in which we are situated.

Culture

Our vision is to train men and women to engage culture. Every culture attempts to flee God and yet find life in its own gods. Every culture reflects both the glory of creation and the depravity of the fall. We believe a person or community can never receive a hearing, nor offer the gospel, unless it incarnates the gospel through joyful participation in a culture's glory and honest engagement in its darkness. We wish to develop lovers of language, story, drama, film, music, dance, architecture, and art in order to deepen our love of life and the God of all creativity. The result will be a greater desire to know the human heart, the word of God, and the coming and already present Kingdom of God.

I can't think of a better way of putting it.

So, my idea? It was to become sort of a Spanish YouTube missionary, for lack of a better definition. I planned to download as much of Spain's popular culture as possible and begin to try to understand where God was within the expressions of their art and music and films. I even got started on a website. But it's easy to get discouraged when going it alone. I did a lot of research, made lists, watched a lot of media, etc. I guess I needed a little more structure.

I'm not sure where all this will lead. I just know that I've got to go where I believe I'm being taken. This morning I filled out a preliminary application with Avant Ministries, who head the Malaga Media Center.

All right. It's out there. A left turn down another road. I hope you stick around for the ride. If you think about it, ask God to make clear which turns are best in the journey ahead.

Too many projects, too little time

Translation

Will someone please translate these books? Thank you.

Control and Trust

It really does come down to those two things, doesn't it?

That which we cannot control we must entrust to others.

If we do not trust and we do not control, we cease to exist, don't we?

At least we cease to "truely live."

Can you give up some of the control?

Who can you trust?

Journey

The blogs that I like to follow are ones where the authors are on some kind of journey. Either they are moving to another country or working on a project or trying to start something. I won't bore you with the links to the sites I frequent; also, I like to think that I am the only one in on their struggles and adventures.

What kind of journey are you on? Or am I on? I am on a journey toward being a father of not one, but two beautiful and amazing children. I am on a journey into middle age, and ask my wife, it's not a pretty sight. I'm on a journey to discovering, or re-discovering, some of the reasons that I - Tom - am here at this particular time and this particular place in the grand scheme of things. I am on a journey to knowing God better than I did yesterday, or in my twenties or in my teens. I am on the way to becoming a better video producer, a better writer, a better husband, son, brother, in-law, cousin and friend. At least I hope so.

It's so easy to opt for the comfortable, the reliable, the usual. But I don't want - have never wanted, nor accepted - the "average," or the safe. I am on that journey. I am not starting one. I have been on this journey for more than twenty years. I may feel like I am stuck at the train station for much too long this time, but that locomotive will round the corner once again and I will feel the wind on my cheeks on the journey into the unknown.

Just one thing, though. The journey is always deliberate. It is never passive. It may appear that the hero is thrust out into an unwanted adventure, but secretly, in the mists of memory, the hero wanted to be called out of the "ordinary" into the dangerous life of the real. The True.

It's that "fully alive" thing that gets batted about in books and on talk shows. The problem is, most times, you can't be "fully alive" if you try to be "fully alive." I talked about being predisposed to being interrupted before. I think that I must be deliberate in being predisposed to being what Gabriel Marcel called available. Available to God, to my wife, children, boss, friends, etc.

I am on a journey to becoming more deliberately available.

I just got off of the Merry-Go-Round