The White Minivan. Few things can compare, indeed. Some people have found it humorous that I would name my publishing after a car. Well, this little inanimate object has a name: Drips. Yep. Me and Dripsies on the road again. (She got her name from the time she became a little overzealous and tried to take a curb straight on. You know the saying...it only takes a moment to ruin a reputation. Or something like that. OK, maybe that didn't really relate.) Anyway, I like her because she's like a pick-up truck with a roof. There's a lot of space (this much) back there to load up instruments and free chairs. She always gets me where I need to go.

Thanks again to everybody who made it out to the Curb Cafe last night for the show. Hopefully I'll be able to put some pictures up of shows once I get my computer back. By the way, if you check out my MySpace page, I put up a new song demo called Gloria. Peas!

Alright, first off please disregard the "Atlanta Parent" portion of the picture. We're operating on a low budget here. Every other part of this picture, however, we hope will come true. My friends and I are planning on inviting the whole street over to our house sometime within the next month. Have no fears...we're going to be out in our front yard to avoid any sort of social hospitality disaster.

We figure that we'll provide everything but the meat. I'm realizing that it's easier to be joyfully generous if our money and possessions are going towards something that is relational; something that we are somehow personally tied to. What that means is that we have to get involved and can't stand on the sidelines.

Let me know if you guys have any ideas or suggestions for what we're trying to do. Also, just a reminder, I'll be playing with David Condos tomorrow night at the Curb Cafe - 8:00.

If the world were a city
Every country in one
Would you stay in the richest of neighborhoods
Or pretend there were none?

This is the first verse of a song I've been working on recently. One of the biggest questions I've been facing recently is, "Who is my neighbor?" and "How do I serve them?". Jesus told us in the book of Matthew that loving our neighbors is second only to loving God. He said that the whole law and prophets hinge on these two things.

So I was basically faced head on with this realization: I don't love my neighbors like myself, let alone really know the people living next door to me. Now I know that my neighbor is not only the people on my street, but also my classmates, the people I meet at the grocery store and so on. But I honestly don't really know the people next door. Also, I realized that there are people that I'm living with in my own house that I don't have a solid relationship with. As a believer, it is my duty to be the one that serves and loves those around me. I would be embarrassed and ashamed if, for whatever reason, I let these opportunities slip away along with their chance of experiencing God's love.

The way we live here in America doesn't really promote the kind of community that we were intended to experience. The richer we get, the farther apart we build our houses and the more we distance ourselves from our neighbors. I don't want you as a reader to just push this truth aside, or just think it's nice that I'm learning something usefull. The Bible sets a pretty high standard for how we should love each other, including considering others better than ourselves. I can't say I'm really there yet, nor can I say that I've seen a whole lot of people that are really living life like that.

I've had some good talks with one of my roommates, Clint, over the past few days. We decided that we really want to start serving and loving our neighbors and roommates. Willingness to learn and do something can make up for any lack of training. That was all it took. It was as if the opportunities had been there all along, but now our eyes were seeing them. We've had numerous conversations that we previously wouldn't have had if we weren't looking to build relationships with those around us.

The Christian faith and Church is built on two things: loving God and loving other people.

One thing I've learned in the past week: computers and coffee don't play well together. In fact, usually the coffee wins...at least in my case. It's so bad that I (as much as I hate to admit it) am forced to use a Dell in my school's library. (No offense to any PC users out there.)

But in other news, I'm still waiting for my computer to get fixed. There's a great place here in Nashville called MacAuthority where you can get products made by other companies that are compatible with Mac computers. By the way, if you're reading this and are anywhere near, I'll be playing solo at the Curb Cafe this Tuesday night.

the Church

What follows is an excerpt from a journal entry written by my girlfriend Brittany on July 22 this summer. Her church college group took a trip down to help with Hurricane relief in Mississippi, and the opportunity proved to be an incredible experience for all who were involved. They experienced life as the Church; one unified Body of people acting for the glory of God.

It has been an incredibly long time since I've experienced the unity of a group like I felt this whole week. Barry said it best when he told the group that, though he was sorry he didn't know every one of them, he felt love for each. I felt and understood this. Finally, I found the Church. Here it was, and here I was within it. At this converted Napa warehouse without so much as a cross, I found the Church. We were functioning as one Body with many parts, and the poor and helpless were the benefactors. We lived together and learned daily from one another, though none of us was ever isolated from the world or the need faced by so many. The needy had faces and names, and we served out of love rather than obligation. We took no offering for the "poor" but spent our days meeting their needs. We received outside support from people like the man who brought the ice cream and bread for family night. This trip was a beautiful illustration of so many ideas I have been analyzing this summer.

So here was the Church, but the beauty and mystery didn't stop there. It went further because Jennifer, the massage therapist from Boston, also sat in on the devotional that night. In the middle of the sharing time I was praying that God would help her see something different in our group, and I was praying for her heart. I was so joyful when I saw her hand shoot up to share. She began, through tears, to describe to the group how she came to Mississippi to do something for herself by serving others. She’s going through a divorce and didn't even know exactly why or how she ended up at Camp Katrina. It was hauntingly obvious to the rest of us that God had drawn her there intentionally and with a very specific purpose. She could hardly speak as she told us that she had never before experienced such immediate love and acceptance, and she realized there was something to what we believed. It was such a beautiful moment to see her free to share to a group she had known for only one day. I am excited to hear what God continues to do in her life. What a joy she was to our group!

thelongbrake takes a shot

Many thanks to everyone who made it out to Higher Grounds last night. It's always a joy to come home to Fort Wayne and be with such amazing people.

As some of you know, Josh has enrolled in a photography class at a local school. I look forward to seeing that gift grow and be used to impact those of us who vicariously live through his trips and journeys. It's hard to tell where his camera's aimed in this picture, but frankly I don't trust him.

DaVinci Deception

"If we Christians would take all the energy we put into proving we're right and others are wrong and invested that energy in pursuing and doing good, somehow I think that more people would believe we are right."

Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christian