We went to church this morning.  My parents’ church recently split when their pastor left, so the remaining members are in the middle of a pastor search.  The interim pastor gave the sermon today and at the end gave an invitation.

It really, really bothers me when preachers ask to have “every head bowed and every eye closed” when they give an invitation.  There was nothing private about what Christ did for us.  If you’re making a statement of belief in Jesus, it should be bold and unapologetic.  Christianity, true Christianity, will change your life dramatically - it’s not a lifestyle to step into half-heartedly, it’s a worldview change, a paradigm shift.  I think it’s inappropriate for a pastor to minimize the gravity of the decision to follow Christ by allowing people to slink into the relationship.  I think it undermines the importance of the commitment and makes the relationship seem like it doesn’t have to be THE priority of your life.

That said,  I think the “close your eyes” approach can be appropriate in youth ministry because kids are so wrapped up in what their friends and peers think of them, but adults should be able to make decisions - especially such important decisions - without basing them in vanity.  If you’re not ready to stand up and stand out for Christ, are you ready to commit to a life in him and for him?

I sound judgemental, and this is something I struggle with - snap decisions about things I hear and see, and the people that say and do them.  I need to think more, but I wanted to post my initial thoughts here so I could hear what some of you think.

So, what do you think?

My body doesn’t know what’s going on.  After 4 hours of sleep, I stayed awake for 20.  Then I went to bed at 6:30pm (HI time).  I woke up every 15 or 20 minutes after 2:00am (which is my normal wake-up time of 7:00am, IN time) until I finally got up at 6:00am (HI time).  I’ve made it ’til 9:00pm tonight, but I’m fading fast. 

I’ve been trying to get in a last hour of work today, but work right now is some graphic manipulation, trying to squeeze an image and find an extra 24 pixel rows - then trying to use that image as the base of a 20-image series.  It’s just too detailed for me to really focus on right now.  So I’m posting a funny video.

We ate at the Hickam AFB officers’ club tonight - at a mongolian barbeque.  It’s a building with only 2 walls, opening out over Pearl Harbor.  While we ate, submarines and motor boats floated by.  I got some fun pictures of my family, but can’t put them online or they’d cry…  my favorite is one of my dad’s face right after a baby puked all over the table in front of him and in his coffee.  =)  Use your imagination.

Leah and I asked Kelly (mom’s friend) to take a picture of us goofing off.  I handed the camera to her in video mode instead of picture mode.  =)  Here’s us posing for her, then waiting, then posing for a second shot just in case the second didn’t come out (pushing the capture button started then stopped the movie):

[coolplayer] http://tara.elmadera.com/images/hickamposes.AVI [/coolplayer]

Other pictures from tonight are posted on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/taukerman/.

It’s finally warmer here.  After a week and a half of snowstorms and blizzards and snow showers and icy roads and snowed-in garages, it’s finally warm enough that the sun is making things drip.  And I can drive again!  I had to try to pull out of the garage a couple of times (the garbage trucks they turned into snow plows have plowed the alley, creating walls of snow in front of all the garages), but I finally made it out!

Snow really freaks me out.  Dave’s been the driver - when the roads look like they have for the past couple of weeks (Indy STILL hasn’t cleaned up our residential streets), I don’t drive unless I absolutely have to.  I slid off of then back onto the road a couple of years ago and was very lucky that I only hit the guardrail instead of the other cars around me.

The dog likes the snow now that it’s softer - for a while, there was an inch-thick layer of ice on top of the foot of snow.  Jake would take a step and fall through, take another step and fall through.  It was funny.  =)  Today, though, because the sun was actually out, the snow was soft enough that he jumped around and cavorted and chased squirrels.

…

Tomorrow is my last day here - I fly out very early Wednesday morning, and I’ve got a lot to do (taking a break from work now) before then.  I’m doing laundry and packing most of my things tonight.  Tomorrow night, I’m going shopping for the things Leah said she wanted me to bring (among other things, Colts caps - she’s a fan!) with me.  She called last night with a list.  =)

I can’t wait - except for the leaving David for two weeks part.  I’m glad to be seeing my family, though - twice a year is just not enough.

I’ve been shamed into posting again.  =)  But guys, now that I have a dog, it’s more fun to spend my spare time OFF the computer.  Especially since I work on one every day, all day long.

I think the only really interesting and out-of-the-ordinary things we’ve done lately happened the last couple of weekends.  We had a couple of football-watching shindigs - for the AFC Championship game and for the Super Bowl - where 25-30 people (at a time) crammed into our house for dinner and the game (or to play games - turns out we had several games of chess, some Jenga, some Fluxx, and some Cities & Knights of Catan going on).  We ended up bringing two extra TVs for the big game because there were so many people here that we just ran out of chairs, sofas, floorspace, and standing room in the living room.  (Jake LOVED the crowd.)

Before the games, because I got a raise, David and I were, then weren’t, then were, then weren’t, then were, then really weren’t going to and so didn’t buy a bigger TV.  We just had folks watch the games on our 15-year-old, small, but perfectly fine, TV. 

I loved having people over, even though it was a lot of work.  I like being surrounded by the people I love - it makes me feel connected in a way I need.  I think I get that from my Mom.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it.  It’s been blisteringly cold here, and it looks like the temperature will just keep going down.  It started snowing this afternoon and already there are 2 or 3 inches on the ground with no sign of stopping.  David had class in Anderson today so he’s staying the night.  I have a deacons’ meeting later - it’ll be fun getting out in that mess…

But, on the plus side, Jake loves the snow.  He short-haired and skinny so he gets cold quickly, but he loves running around out there.  Check out my flickr pictures (flickr.com/photos/taukerman) to see a couple of new dog pictures.  I’ve finally been able to take a few that show you what he’s really like.  =)