Thirsty

This day five months ago my life underwent a tremendous transition. I embarked on a new journey with Cathy. Her home became my home, and mine hers. We vowed to join together in this life as an act of faith in the kingdom of God here today. These five months have been filled with a combination of new roller coaster rides and the delicate hidden changes that happen inside a cocoon. Hallelujah! Praise God for his goodness and the life he gives us to be his new creation!

Two weeks ago, Cathy & I drove up Greenlawn Ave heading toward my house, and when we took the left turn onto Cedar, I accelerated out of the turn in hope of fishtailing a little bit on the snow before straightening out, which I enjoy and feel like a race car driver when I do it. This time, instead of straightening out, my Explorer continued to rotate and turn on the ice, eventually sliding perpendicular to path of the road. We were slowing down, but not enough to avoid hopping the curb and giving a tree a little tap. It didn't sound too bad, but when I got out and looked, I saw a bumper bent in, headlights on one side cracked open, and the impact bending a side fender, contorting the wheel well. My heart dropped a little bit, I grimaced, and asked myself and Cathy why I had decided to do that. Approaching the holidays and the wedding, we did not need any new complications. We had a full day planned, so I put it out of my mind and decided I would get a quote on the repairs ...

My life for the last 6 months and the next 2 months consists largely in planning this: Cathy & Justin's Wedding

Today I got to have lunch with Cathy out on her front porch at the Connolly's. As we were finishing up, we watched a large blue van pull into the Gilbert men's house across the street, and Kim DeCelles walked up to the house to drop something off. The van windows were down so it was easy to hear talking and laughter coming from it. A few seconds later the side door swung open, a girl got out and ran out into the yard. Another few seconds and the door swung open again, releasing a younger girl. Next the door produced a boy, as they all spread out on the Greenlawn property, unbeckoned by their mother. Knowing the Decelles, there was probably still another child in the van. A minute or so later Kim returned, calling them all back into the van, and pulled the bus out of the driveway. As she turned down the road and saw Cathy & I sitting there waving, she paused long enough to yell to us, " Hey do ya wanna poke your heads in here and take a look at what your life wi...

I still can't believe it. That's all it takes for it to be a miracle, right? Another video from the same moment, and a photo of us shortly thereafter. Now then, onto a new awesome phase of life. Wedding planning! :) p.s. I love Cathy Grill!

A couple nights ago I went to Theology on Tap to hear John O'Callaghan speak about "The Church & Science and Technology - Are Science and Technology the Enemy?" He didn't refer directly to the Catholic Church at all throughout it, but referred more implicitly to the body of Christ which the Church consists of. I'd like to summarize my experience of it rather than a comprehensive overview of all of it. Regarding the ethical dilemma of creating technologies that may be used for evil, there are two things to consider: We need to remain concerned about the big picture and not just the work on our desk. I work in a small division currently which forces me to be aware of the business opportunities and risks rather than just the programming that has been assigned to me. This needs to be equally true of our moral ethics. The relationships we experience in our work are quite possibly more important than our work may be. We struggle with whether the variety of e...

Yesterday a man died on Silver Beach in St Joe, Michigan. Here is my experience of it. I was on the beach with a group of friends, it was close to 90 degrees and sunny, and the sand was scalding hot. So hot that despite the dense sprawl of people enjoying the day and the cold water, the multiple volleyball courts - usually packed - were empty. Mike & Sarah left to go for a walk in town, and when they got close to one of the entrances to the sand, they found a man laying face down in the sand. Other people noticed him too, and somebody rolled him over and discovered that his bowels had vacated. Pete G and Liz, both nurses, began assisting another nearby nurse in assessing his vital signs. As Dan B and I became aware of the situation, Dan suggested that perhaps our umbrella would help with what we presumed was some degree of sun stroke. I took the umbrella over and held it angled to shade the mans face and chest, and I remained there until the later-arriving paramedics took him...

It's about 2AM and I'm finally home for the day, but I still feel like posting my thoughts. This afternoon my former roomate Ricky married his best friend, Allesha. I was one of the groomsmen so I got close contact with the entire proceeding without necessarily having much responsibility throughout it. I tried to support Kevin Connolly - the best man - as much as possible, and get to know the other groomsmen and ushers that I didn't know as well. It was a great experience to share with my roommate Pete and with the so so so many other people that took part in the wedding in various capacities. They had friends in from Louisiana, Minnesota, Portland, Rockford, Muncie, Indy, Evansville, Toronto, Northern Virginia, California, and Florida, from the people I knew at least. They also had a wide variety of friends from around town. There was standing room only in one of the largest Catholic churches in South Bend, Holy Cross Parish. The wedding party intentionally had no t...

Try to imagine 100ish guys filling the screened-in-porch behind the People of Praise center, overflowing in fact out onto the grass, with Ricky Thomas sitting in a chair in the middle. The party had miraculously quieted down so that a few guys could publicly honor Ricky. Now imagine me stepping forward and pulling out a folded up printout and reading it's contents to Ricky right next to me, in an awkward sort of way, while attempting to speak loudly enough for all to hear. Ricky, I'd like to honor you for living in the moment. When I met you two and a half years ago in Allendale , we quickly struck up a friendship. We went for a few evening runs together and it was easy to share openly with you. Then when you moved back to South Bend the following summer, you continued showing us how to live in the moment. You fostered friendships with the Kottkamp boys and excitedly shared about them whenever you had a chance. "Excited sharing" is a familiar thing to those who...

A couple days ago I took part in a health screening offered to all LaSalle Company employees, which was fun. It included sampling for blood tests, and yesterday I got a call from my doctor's office that they had already received results from those tests. Apparently the liver function tests show elevated numbers for me, so they're asking me to wait 4 weeks and then take the test again. They didn't have any other information to give me, they said that the waiting would allow for any anomaly to pass, otherwise some more tests would be in order after that. The cool thing is that they are giving me a month to pray for the Lord to clear up any condition! I randomly came across a favorite video of mine yesterday, a Ted Talk titled Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy? , and I thought perhaps it was a little reminder from the Holy Spirit. Update : My LFT numbers are normal! Praise God!

"You're right, dear" Yesterday I drove down to Muncie for 6 hours to witness the wedding of Ron & Sandy Mixell . I arrived at the same time as my parents and walked in with them and Terry & Patti Bomkamp in from Rockford. The deacon who had "prepared" them for marriage said that they were both the oldest couple he and his wife had ever worked with, and that they had scored the highest on the "pre-marriage inventory" quiz that he gave them, the highest in his 35 years of giving that quiz! When they each lost their spouse recently, I regretted not making it down for the respective funerals. Barb & Karl were powerhouses in the Muncie branch. Surely they still are in a different way. So when Ron & Sandy announced their engagement, a shock of joy rippled throughout the community. This new step they are taking is some combination of "weird" and "perfect". There were numerous honorings and thanksgivings at the rece...

Over the years at the lake cabin, we've grown close to the Daman family two houses down from where we are. My dad in particular has spent a lot of time with Brad, but we all pretty much share everything we have, from our time to our belongings. Their two sons have always called my dad by his first name, a pattern I'm not used to seeing since they're only just now in & approaching high school. Anyway, one of the boys, Ryan, has been pursuing a career in refereeing, and I just heard tonight that he had an article written about him! We've got some cool photos of him here , here , and here , and the article is Teenage basketball official isn't kidding around on the court.. . Awesome, Ryan!

A week ago my brother moved to Bangkok, and yesterday The Boston Globe's popular photo blog, The Big Picture, ran a Protests turn deadly in Thailand post. Greg follows web sources closely, and has even compiled a Twitter list, @gregory_walters/thailand-journalists , of some of the amateur sources. A journalist relayed this perspective: Getting some traffic from farangs (foreigners) asking if their loved ones are okay. Farangs are in no danger so long as they avoid the fighting. The fighting is localized. There is no general state of war in Thailand. Farangs are safe. Normal Thai life is going on outside the danger zone and normal Thais are very ...friendly. (They are friendly even in the danger zone.) Greg is about 11 hours ahead of us in the U.S., and he posts photos to flickr. It sure makes you more interested in foreign events when somebody you know personally is very close to them! Update : Another photo post: Crackdown in Bangkok

I sat in a chair on the deck at my parents' lakehouse, surrounded by 7 other guys , ranging from 9th graders to a soon-to-be freshman in college. They all had their hands on my shoulders and head, as I had asked for their prayers, for the Holy Spirit, that I could take more leadership when I see the need. That I would know what to say when I see that something needs said. As we prayed, one of them told me that the Lord is listening to me. Another told me that the Holy Spirit would give me the words to say. Another asked if we could pray for my neck which I had mentioned during our earlier game of football. When you speak, do you speak as if you are speaking to Christ?

I just disabled all of my FB information except for links to other websites of mine. It was very complicated but as I've been seeing more people do this, it made me realize that it is an option. There are 3 basic reasons why: 1. I don't care for FB's advertisements which all users must endure. 2. FB's privacy policy has become a slippery slope to their profit. 3. A more personal reason, the prevailing culture in FB of indiscriminate intimacy spreads me too thin. I'd like to redirect any energy I've given to FB instead toward stronger investments in loving my neighbor & the Lord.

Friday during the day I had very little planned for the evening. I expected to go to the Havard's to jog with Robert-Michael and make some final arrangements for dog-sitting for them. I also made some last-minute plans to briefly join a group of friend's celebrating Allison's birthday, who I've gotten to know recently through a Lenten faith-sharing group. They intended to continue the celebrations later into the evening watching basketball, but I had a number of missed calls from Charles, so I ducked out halfway through. I'm also not much of a March Madness fan, which I know is blasphemy. :) Charles is a neighbor of mine with no steady employment who bikes around the neighborhood and near Notre Dame asking people for money and collecting cans and any scrap items he can recycle or pawn. When I first met him, he readily accepted prayers from me and a few friends, and told us how important smiling is as we parted ways. I've never given him money in the num...

Now Hollywood wants to make you think they know what love is. But I'm a tell you what true love is. Love is not what you see in the movies. Its not the ecstasy, its not what you see in that scene you know what I mean? I'm telling you right now, true love is sacrifice. Love is thinking about others before you think about yourself Love is selfless not selfish. Love is God and God is love. Love is when you lay down your life for another Whether for your brother, your mother, your father or your sister Its even laying down your life for your enemies, That's unthinkable, but think about that Love is true Think. Chorus I'll put you in front of me So everybody can see My love, this is my love I know that I'll be alright As long as you are my guide My love, this is my love Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast It is not proud. Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs You see love does not de...

Most of you know very little about the retreat program that I involved myself with this weekend (my amateur photos are available), so I thought I would share a bit about it with you. Ron & Emily Collins are heavily committed to the Love of God (LOG) retreat that Michiana Youth Ministries cultivates multiple times per year, and I decided to squeeze it into my schedule this fall. They've spoken highly of it, and I was curious about what the Lord is up to in that neck of the woods, so when it appeared that their planning schedule could cooperate with my schedule, I decided to commit to help with one of the retreats. It is a student-run retreat in many ways, with a small team of adults, mostly volunteers, that guides the students in building & running it. LOG is loosely based on the cursillo retreat weekend, adapted to a high school-age and largely protestant audience. Represented on the weekend were teens from 8-10 different churches, including non-denoms, Methodists, E...

Yesterday I entered into a deeper commitment with the members of the People of Praise. After spending the past few years discerning whether God was calling me to spend the rest of my life in it, I was invited by the community to do just that. Sarah, Laura, and Trish also did this at the same time I did. My parents came out for it! After being embraced and prayed over by many many people, we were each given an opportunity to reflect on our decision. Sarah has posted her sharing here , and Laura and Trish gave awesome glimpses of the events leading up to their decisions too. Here is what I shared with the hundreds of local branch members and visitors: I don't really know how to organize my thoughts about what this commitment means to me. When I moved here a few years ago, I only vaguely knew a handful of people here, but that was less important to me than what I already knew about all of you. I knew in my mind that there would be a bunch of saints here, doing something to lay...

This afternoon at our People of Praise branch meeting, Paul & Andrea Kane walked to the back of the room. There were a variety of furtive looks toward the back where she was. I tried not to be distracted from the meeting, but it was very apparent that we all indeed were distracted. It was then announced that she was suffering from a kidney stone attack, and we all turned and extended our hands and prayed for her. We then continued with the meeting. Toward the end, she returned to her seat and appeared to be back to herself. Amidst the final song, there was a lot of cheering at her return. Of course, my first reaction to seeing her was joy at her return, and joy that she was able to raise her arms and praise God while just previously she was laying prostrate on the ground in pain. But my second, and enduring reaction is my experience of the joy and relief that flooded throughout the room. I guess I'm an observer at heart, but I couldn't help but stand "outside...