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I love lightning and thunder! Last night we had a great lighting storm so I went outside and sat on the bench in front of our house. I looked up and every 10-20 seconds the sky was lighting up with purple from the cloud-to-cloud lightning. It’s so incredible to see miles of clouds lit brightly by God’s bolts of electricity. I also love it when a lightning strike occurs close to me and the thunder shakes my whole body. It’s amazing to feel the acoustic power generated by that. Here is a site I found with some beautiful lighting pictures, she does a good job of capturing the amazing power in her still photos:

http://www.lightninglady.com/gallery.htm

The one downside is that people’s property is often damaged by lightning, but it sure is exciting to watch and hear. I felt a sense of peace last night when I was looking up at it. It gives a sense of perspective about how powerful God is and how little I am.

Joel

Today I was thinking about my priorities, goals, and dreams in life. Here is some of what I came up with:

Priorities

#1 My relationship with God

#2 My relationship with my wife

#3 My relationship with my (future) kids

#4 Loving other people and sharing Christ with them

#5 Providing a safe home for my family that fosters growth and togetherness, also one where we can have guests over and make them feel comfortable

#6 Other stuff such as ministry, hobbies, planning for the future, etc

Unfortunately I seem to not line up my resources with my priorities so well right now. My relationship with God does not get the #1 spot when it comes to my time and energy. I think that’s the main thing I need to work on right now

My employment also plays into the whole list since I have to pay bills, buy food, etc, to do #’s 2,3,5, and 6.

Dreams

Natalie and I both would love to own some acreage within 45 minutes of Beaverton where we can have a house, a barn, a few horses, and a tractor. We dream of a place where our family spends a lot of time together, where guests can come retreat at a small cottage or cabin on the property, and where they can walk through a spiritually refreshing garden. That kind of dream takes some $$, so we’ll have to be patient

On Work

Right now I am strongly seeking ways to move out of working at Freewire full-time. The best option at this point seems to be going 1/2 time with a church such as Beaverton Christian doing A/V work, staying at Ethnos as our home church, and working 1/2 time for Freewire as a contractor. My goal would be to eventually move out of both BCC and Freewire into a full-time role at Ethnos. The great thing about Ethnos right now is that there is some much opportunity for Natalie and me to grow in using our spiritual gifts (pastor-shepherd for me). We’re praying about this a lot right now, and we’ll see where God leads us.

Recently I mowed my own lawn for the first time. That was fun. Now I have embarked on an ambitious plan to fix our ghetto driveway, make our grass look better then the Jones’s, and build a little pathway up the driveway out of pavers. We still only have half the doors mounted inside the house and no molding installed, but it’s ok because external appearances are what really matter.

(note: insert a proper amount of sarcasm when you read the above non-fictional post)

Joel