random recent thoughts/ideas

sorry for not having a meaningful/thoughtful/thought provoking blog post in awhile. but here are a few happenings and/or thoughts from the last few days.

1. yesterday while working at mugz, i spilled 3 shots of espresso all over my left leg. all of this b/c i took my eyes off the cup to say hi/make eye contact with one of the owners. it was really hot. also while at work i slammed my finger in a door. it was an interesting day as a barista yesterday.

2. in the last month, we have had two young families with younger children join our church. this excites me. now if we can just teach them the way of Christ, not the way of being baptist.

3. i’ve been pondering what my role as a youth pastor is lately. do i need to take over parental roles in situations that the parent isn’t doing their job in teaching their child the way of Christ? should i just step back? i don’t ever want to take the place of a parent, or make the parent feel like i am stepping on their toes.

4. my brother just told me online that he is going to be running a motorcycle engine that he and a friend built today in school. he goes to MMI. im glad he found something he likes doing.

5. what exactly is an everyday congregational church member’s responsibility towards the church? why do so many church members base their faithfulness to a church on a single thing? if that one thing changes, adios church…

6. why do so many church members care more about their faithfulness to a church, or their faithfulness to a single thing at a church, more than they care about their faithfulness to Christ?

7. my boss at the coffee shop said she wanted to find a church that she could go to in her mugz uniform. i told her the coffee smell would be a great fragrant offering to God.

8. i will never understand how some churches think that God/church has a “dress code”.

9. he is legend is great. i am hollywood is such a great album.

10. do church members really understand the role of the ministerial staff of their church?

11. i know more about some of the regulars at mugz (where i have only worked a week) than i do some members of my church. why is it that coffee shops are more authentic/real/full of community, than alot of churches?

12. i think coffee has superpowers.

grace and peace be with you.

lunch date

i got to spend lunch with my beautiful wife today. we had chick-fil-a. it was amazing as always.

for who?

so for some reason today my mind has been ticking more than usually. the thought in my head today has been this…who is the church for?

we have all heard the saying that church is a “hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints”. yes, this is true. but how often do we actually see the church as being a “hospital for sinners”? in my eyes, the church is more often a hotel for saints. i guess this is good and bad.
a church is a hotel for the saints b/c it is a place where worship happens. unchurched people are not going to understand everything that goes on in a church service. this is simply b/c they are UNCHURCHED. they won’t (most likely) get it. in this case we can relate church to “base” in a game of tag. after running around all week and hopefully getting dirty by doing ministry in our offices, our meetings, our classrooms, etc, we can come back to “base” to catch our breath. to gain energy, and then go back at it.
but then there is the word “hotel” in that statement. many churchgoers simply leave their christianity in the church. so these churchgoers “stay ” in this hotel called church. they feel that that is all they need, the thought that church is about me, me, me.
now the thought that the church is a hospital for sinners. this is very much true as well. if i were sick enough to have to go to the hospital, i am confident that i would feel very welcome in the hands of a doctor. in the hands of someone who knew the cure or could point me in the direction of someone who knows the cure.
in my opinion, the church should be both. it should be a place where we can retreat to be re-energized with the word, and to spend time with our Creator, but it should also be a place where “sinners” (i am reluctant in using that word b/c it makes churchgoers sound better than everyone)can come and feel welcome. where they can come to be pointed in the direction of the one who holds/offers the cure.

so here the major question that has been going on in my head all day…to whom should the church cater, if it should cater to one specific group? on some blogs i read regularly i am excited to see things that other churches are doing.
Austin Stone Church is doing great things FOR the city of austin. FOR the city, not specifically for the churchgoers. it seems that their focus is making sure that their churchgoers see that the church is much more than some walls and a guy that sings, and a guy that preaches, and some people that sit in chairs and sing songs about a guy named Jesus and listen to the bible proclaimed.
another example is Buckhead Church in Atlanta who is doing this crazy thing. going into the bars and clubs around atlanta and taking good art. (mostly music it seems) church members are going and simple talking with people. not mentioning buckhead church but just investing their lives into the others there at the bars/clubs. and the crazy thing is…IT IS WORKING!

i just sit here and see things that are going on in other churches around the nation, and then i look at my church. i wonder what things we could do here in rosenberg that would make an impact on the city, and on our church.

so here is my question again…

+ gonzalez family II

here are some more shots of my friends angelo, sarah and hayden.

grace and peace.

flashback

for some reason i was singing always be my baby by mariah carey today. i have no clue why. then i thought of david cook singing his version of the song on american idol. it was very nice.

everytime i hear this song i am taken back to 7th/8th grade dances in the school cafeteria. all the tables folded up. chairs around the room against the wall. all the rumors of who had made out with who down one of the hallways. all of us awkward “ladies men” scoping out the room for the next girl we would ask to dance when the slow songs came on. all of us wearing our penny loafers with khaki’s and a sweater vest thinking that we looked oh so fly. thank goodness those days are over.

now i have an amazing wife who will love me even if i were to wear sweater vests.

what songs remind you of your jr high/high school dances?

time for the summer routine.

taking the youth to student life camp tomorrow at angelo state university.
it’s that time again.
pray for us.
it’s going to be a crazy week.
no sleep.
early mornings.
late nights.
and a lot of jesus.

it’s going to be a great week.
pray for us.

grace and peace.

day 5 & 6 of honeymoon

day five was spent in jamaica.  in all honesty, when i looked out the window and saw jamaica it was not what i expected.  i expected jamaica to be beachy and flat.  instead it was beachy, with huge hills and forests.  it was b-e-a-utiful.

in jamaica we rescheduled our dolphin swim that we missed on the first day. swimming with dolphins was really cool. our dolphin was named Calypso. she was nice. she dance for us. she sang for us. she pulled us through the water, and she jumped 16 feet in the air for us. one of the cool things that they told us was that dolphins can swim up to 120 mph. that craaaazy.

after swimming with dolphins we got in a bus and went to dunns river falls. we climbed up this waterfall. over 200 feet. it was beautiful but the water was really, really cold. after climbing the falls we walked through an area where they allowed the locals to set up shops and sell their stuff. they are so pushy. i dont think i have ever been that uncomfortable.

after all of our experiences on the island we went back to the boat and ate lunch with our friends from canada. (they said “eh?” all the time. it was funny. but then they laughed at us cause we said “y’all” all the time).

day 6 was a day at sea so we really just relaxed all day. by relaxed i mean we spent time at the buffets.

overall, our honeymoon was great. we had a great time and made many memories that we will remember when we are 80 years old and drinking coffee on our porch. it was a great way to start my life with my wife.

now here is a picture for your enjoyment.

this is taken from our room balcony in the bahamas.

grace and peace.

day 4 of the honeymoon.

in the previous post i mentioned that day 3 was a day at sea. so here we are at day 4. day four we were in grand cayman. this place was very awesome. loved it. our excursion this day was snuba. it was dang awesome. basically it is a mix of snorkeling and scuba diving. you can go 20 feet underwater with no tank on your back. you are pulling a raft above the water with two tanks on it. there are 4 people per raft, 2 people per tank.

after we got off the cruise ship we found our snuba guide and he took us to where we would be diving. they told us all the rules and how-to’s and then we got geared up and got in the water. at our dive site there was an actual shipwreck from the 1800’s. it was really cool. it took me awhile to get the hang of breathing under the surface, but i finally got a hold of it. it was amazing. we dove for 30 minutes and after about 25 minutes another guy attached to our raft and i looked frantically at each other and realized that we had run out of air! we were 18-19 feet below the surface with no air. that is a horrible feeling. we went back up to the surface and realized that they had hooked 3 people to 1 tank. it was supposed to be 2 people per tank. but we got it fixed and right after i got back under the surface kimb got stung by a jellyfish. watching your wife panic 15 feet under the surface is not a great feeling. after we got back to the base we got her jelly fish taken care of (white vinegar) and took our gear off and then went to eat.

we ate at this place called breezes. we both had fish and chips and the was really, really, good. we did some shopping and then caught our boat back to our cruise ship and then relaxed on the deck for a hour or so until the boat left the dock.

i would totally do snuba again.

here is the picture for the day. this is one of the excursions they offered in grand cayman. you got to go on this pirate ship dress up like a pirate and do pirate things. i.e. shoot canons, play with a parrot and even walk the plank. this picture was taken from our room balcony on the back side of the boat.

day two of the honeymoon.

day two was the day of our first excursion. we docked in the bahamas during the night so monday morning we had to be at the end of the pier at 8 o’clock in the morning. this monday morning we were going to swim with dolphins. we were both really excited. so we got down to deck zero about 7:30 thinking that 30 minutes would be enough. NOPE SORRY! it took us 45 minutes to get off the boat and our dadgum dolphin swim excursion left without us. THEY LEFT WITHOUT US! we were a little upset. (and by a little i mean we were totally hacked) well, we got stuff worked out. we got reimbursed for the missed excursion and lined up dolphin swin for another day.

so while we were in the bahamas we went snorkeling. it was niiiice. we bought a bag of fish food for $1 and while we were in the water we would simply drop a small handful of fish food in the water and then look underwater at the mass chaos that was about to take place. it was a great experience.

we had to be back on the boat at noon on monday so after snorkeling we went back to the ship, waited in line, boarded the ship and then hung out at the food buffets for lunch and then that evening we went to the musical on the ship.
day two was a great day.

day three was simply a day at sea. not very exciting. we just floated on sea for a day and again spent time at the buffets. 24 hour buffets. amazing.

here are a couple more shots.

a shot from our balcony before we left port in ft. lauderdale.

kimb on the beach at ft. lauderdale

*post-script
i don’t really like getting bills, but yesterday my compassion international monthly statement came in.
i smiled when i opened it.

day one of the honeymoon.

so after the reception last saturday night, kimb and i went to the marriott at bush airport in houston for the night. we woke up around 4:30 sunday morning to catch a flight to ft. lauderdale to get on our cruise ship. we had found out on saturday that our cruise was going to be arriving in ft. lauderdale late due to a “medical emergency” but we had already booked the flight so we dealt with it. when we arrived in ft. lauderdale we caught a taxi to the port and got our luggage checked in and then we were put on a charter bus and taken down to the beach to hang out while we waited for the ship to arrive. we met a couple from seattle in ft. lauderdale and hung out with them the entire afternoon. they were awesome.

due to the late arriving ship, we missed lunch so carnival cruise line credited each of our accounts $15 for that meal so we went and used that $15 to get some lunch. we went to bubba gump shrimp co. for lunch. the food was really good. to bad it took them over an hour to bring us our food and then when it arrived, it was the wrong meal. needless to say we were upset. so kimb and our new friend from seattle raised a stink about it and WE GOT THE MEAL FOR FREE!!!! that was awesome. thats my wife!

we eventually got back to the boat and were herded like cattle for awhile until everyone got on the boat. it’s amazing what a little medical emergency can do. we got to our room (we had a balcony room. it was nice.) and our luggage arrived and we had nice dinner that night. it was a busy and long first day but it turned out to be the start of a very memorable honeymoon.

more stories to come, but for now, here are a couple pictures.

grace and peace.

i will be…

…out of the country for the next week.
on today, the 23rd of february i become a husband.  my wife and i will be on a cruise and will cut off all forms of communication with the motherland.
we will return to the motherland (texas) on the first of march and then i will proceed to post pictures and fun stories from the honeymoon.

that is all my friends.
that is all. 

more edits from a good evening.

some of kimb’s family came into town tonight for our wedding on saturday. we shared a great meal together then just hung out. during this time i got to play with the kids. here are a couple from the night.

hope you enjoy.
im getting married in two days. actually, its after midnight…
im getting married tomorrow!

edits.

this week…

…is going to be fun. meetings everyday monday thru thursday. friday wedding rehearsal and dinner. saturday is the wedding. im so excited. IM GOING TO BE A HUSBAND!! i am full of so many emotions. my mind is not in the right place. i can’t focus on work. i forget what i have done so i do it again. so much stuff going on.

all i know is that on saturday i will be a husband and then on sunday i will be heading to ft. lauderdale to get on a cruise ship and go to Jamaica, the bahamas and grand cayman islands with the love of my life.

i am so excited.
please pray for my future bride and me this week as we prepare ourselves and deal with last minute stuff.

photo by goodlight photography

im teaching…

… on second timothy tonight and when studying, i think i have found something that i can chew on for awhile.

“But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed,…” 2 Tim. 1:12a

 

Paul is saying that he KNOWS, his redeemer. he knows the character of his redeemer. it is because of that character that he is not ashamed and sticking to the true gospel of justification by faith.

so here is what i am going to be chewing on for awhile.

there are many characteristics of my redeemer. what is my favorite? can i have just one favorite?

love. on. the. beach. II

love. on. the. beach.

photos from the promised land.

these are a few pictures from the trip my mom and i took to dublin, tx. we had a great trip. these pictures of the dr pepper bottles are only the tip of the iceberg. there are currently 480 bottles of dublin dr pepper in my old room at my parents house. it is certainly an amazing sight.

grace and peace.

and we wonder why… (WITW)

…Christians have a bad name.

way to go westboro

this hurts me.
and im pretty sure it hurts God.
such a shame.

i’ve been busy…

…unpacking at the new home with my fiance’. everything (couch, mattress, internet guy) arrived on time today which was good. i realized that we have alot of stuff and that wedding showers are awesome. i will give you the MTV Cribs tour (via photos) later.

grace and peace

compassion.

In December my fiance’ and I went to Andrew Peterson’s, Behold the Lamb of God show. While there Bebo Norman gave a presentation on Compassion International and Kimb and I felt called to sponsor a child and through this sponsorship, offer them hope, life, and Jesus.

 Yesterday in the mail I received a letter from Compassion and in this letter was a letter from our boy Clement.  I promptly opened it and read with great eagerness.  It was so exciting to read and through this letter sense his excitement that a couple in the United States would choose him.  So last night when I saw Kimb, she and I quickly wrote back to him.  So here in a few days we will find a picture of us to send with our letter and in a few weeks Clement will see what we look like.  Kimb and I are so excited to be able to impact Clements life.  We pray that through our monthly sponsorship Clement will come to know Jesus and that if we can never go to Burkina Faso to see him, to know that we will see him one day dancing in heaven.

 The joy that this brings to Kimb and I is amazing, but the joy that it brings Clement…
…I cannot imagine.

Would you pray about sponsoring a child through compassion?

peace be with you,

patray.

tonight we took my grandpa out for dinner for his birthday tomorrow. it was awesome. we had a great time. great laughs, great food, and even more amazing green sauce.

if you are ever in rosenberg, please swing by la casona. it will be well worth your time and money.

peace be with you.

blue tape.

well today marked a good day in the life of kimb and i.  this evening we had our pre-close meeting on our house.  our construction manager, tyler, basically gave us the rundown on how our house works.  like if our thermostat says the heat is on but the house isn’t heating, we now know how to fix that problem.  or if our garbage disposal stops working, we know how to reset it.  it was fun. then he gave us a roll of blue tape to put a piece next to the things that we thought needed to be fixed…cosmetically speaking.  it was cool to “inspect” our home.  to look at the paint with care.  to look at the tile back-splash in the kitchen and the bathroom and make sure the are lined up (for the most part).

kimb and i are almost homeowners.
this is crazy!

thats kimb and i outside our house a few days after we signed contract. 

seated where i don’t belong

last night during communion my pastor shared a story written by bob benson.  (this is a paraphrase.  the best i could remember it.  but the meaning is still there) 

there was this man named james.  james was a very active member in church.  one sunday his pastor announced that the next saturday afternoon their community of faith would have a picnic at the local park where everyone would just bring their own food for their family.

so james went through his week like he always did.  living for Christ in every way that he could. saturday morning comes and james goes to run some errands and stops by the store.  there he runs into one of his fellow church members.  this member asks if james is going to the picnic.  james replies, “i actually forgot all about.  i shouldn’t go.  i don’t have anything to bring”.  james’ church friend encourages him to go and then heads on his way to the picnic. so james goes home and opens his refrigerator and pulls open the drawer where he keeps lunch meat and finds there a dried up piece of bologna.  he sighs and pulls it out.  he gets his bread and it isn’t really that soft but he gets what’s left of it and the mustard and he makes himself a less than desirable bologna sandwich.  then he gets in his car and heads to the picnic.

when he gets to the picnic the church family quickly gathered and prayed over their food and then began to eat.  james goes to one end of the table and sits down.  then a family of 4 comes over and sits near him and it looks like the mother had slaved over the stove all morning.  a huge plate of fried chicken.  baked beans.  potato salad.  pickles, tomatoes, carrots, celery sticks.  a chocolate pie and a huge jug of sweet tea.  james hesitates to pull out his undesirable bologna but realizes that it is all he has to eat.  so he pulls out his sandwich and starts to eat.

when the mother of the family next to him sees that all he is eating is a small bologna sandwich she offers for james to share in their feast.  james says “no its ok. i’ve got my sandwich”, but the mother insists.  james agrees and enjoys the meal with his new friends.  james realized that he was a simple pauper bringing very little to a feast, but then he was invited into this family to share in their feast.

now i understand that this story might be a little cheesy and sound completely made up, but the point is that we are invited to the table to take part in the feast that Christ has to offer us.  the thing is that we really have nothing at all to offer him.  just a lousy bologna sandwich  all we can do is agree and take part in Christ’s feast.  the feeling i get when i think that i have been invited to the table, i have accepted the invitation and even though i am seated where i don’t belong, i am never asked to get up and leave the table.  ever.  i am glad Christ accepts me for who i am.

i saw this phrase on my friends myspace.
“i’m a complete idiot, but i’m pretty sure that God still loves me.”

i am glad that God still loves me and never asks me to leave the table.  even when i am a total idiot. 

communion.

we had communion last night at church. every year, on the first sunday of the year, we gather in the fellowship hall around tables to share the bread and the wine (grape juice. we’re baptist remember). don’t get me wrong, i love taking communion and the memory that comes with it but this years was extra different. with the death of my cousin and everything else that was/is going on, it was good to sit with my family and to be served the elements by my father. after we have taken communion we all stood in a circle and sang the good ole baptist hymn, the bond of love. it felt good. it felt like community.

thank you Jesus. what a great sacrifice. help me to understand to the best of my ability. i know ill never completely understand, but still.

the lasting effects

through this entire process dealing/healing with and/or from my cousins death i have seen something that has made me sick. that is the lasting signs of divorce. here we are in a time when we need to love and be completely unselfish but all we can be (because of the divorce) is selfish. asking questions like “what of his do i get?”, and making statements like “i am entitled to it!”. im sick of it. we are all mourning. how ’bout we just mourn and let the healing begin before we start dealing with all that crap.

through this i have seen the lasting effects of divorce. because of this divorce many years ago, there has been a wedge shoved between former husband and wife that will never be removed; between dad and daughter that will never be removed and that wedge is causing more problems than ever at this moment.

i have been watching this closely simply because i will be getting married in a couple months and it is my plan to never cause my family to experience the lasting effects of divorce. it is my aim to love my wife with every ounce of my being. to love her. to serve her. to care for her and to play guitar hero with her until our fingers are numb. and i am confident that she will do the same towards me.

this just hurts. death is never fun. ever. but this situation just adds another log to the fire. please pray that God will guide our family in all upcoming decisions. we are truly going to need His guidance

emotions i’ve never felt.

yesterday (thursday) morning at 6:10 i received a phone call. my cousin, who is just a month younger than, me took his own life early thursday morning.

its so weird to write that. i don’t exactly know what my heart/head/body is feeling. there is a total mix of emotions.

brian was a respectable man. his father left when he was still young so he was forced to grow up quickly. he did so and quickly became the man of the house and a father figure to his younger sister. he worked two jobs so he could attempt to pay his way through college. he lived simple. he loved his family. he was always laughing. he loved to play dominoes. he loved to eat chocolate pie. he loved to laugh. he loved to play pool. he loved to live life. he loved.

its so hard right now b/c my heart feels like it needs someone to blame. im angry at him b/c this was so selfish. i am angry at his ex-girlfriend b/c i believe that was the source. i am angry at myself b/c i didn’t make more of an effort to tell him about the love of Christ. i just don’t know what i feel. i almost wish that they find out that someone shot him so i would have someone to blame. but then i am stuck with the fact that as a believer i would have to forgive the person that did it.

i just wish i could wake up and this all be over.

there is something though that is going to happen through all of this. somehow, in some way God is going to bring glory to himself. so in the meantime i am mourning the loss of my cousin but i am waiting and watching in expectation for the time when God receives his glory from all of this. i don’t know what is going to happen or when it is going to happen but i sure hope it is in my lifetime.

i covet your prayers.

my everything is home.