Please Support My Tweeting Ministry

It’s 2014. God has finally set a fire in my heart. I’m here to serve, we’re all here to serve, and there’s no better day than today. Amen! Hallelujah! I’ve been asking for direction: “Lord, show me a need that I can fill.”

After months of waiting, the Lord responded and I heard it clear: “Send.”

“Hit send?”

And the Lord again said, “Send”

“You want me to hit send? Tweet?”

The Lord wants me to start a tweeting ministry. Whatever sacrifices I have to make, I’ll make. So far, I’ve quit my job and left school. Praise God! It’s been hard, but when the Lord calls us into hard times, there is no choice but to trust Him and follow.

What?

is a tweeting ministry, you ask? Let me run you through it.

Step 1: Begin each day with prayer, asking God to reveal his wisdom

Step 2: Edit God’s wisdom into 140 characters or less  (more…)

That One Time I Married Special Agent Dana Scully

My favorite X-File comes from Season 10. It’s called “Marriage.” In this freaky episode, two harmless citizens dedicate the rest of their lives to each other until they die. The man and woman follow one another all across the world, leaving friends and family behind, and even if they aren’t always happy, they stick together and see through it. Quickly dispatched are Agents Mulder and Scully who investigate this unexplained phenomena.

Scully, the scientist, suggests brain trauma. Mulder, the dreamer, hypothesizes anew.

MULDER: What if they’re in love, Scully?

SCULLY: In love?

MULDER: Ancient Irish folklore suggests the idea of ‘love’ as early…

I Want to Believe

I’m just gonna come right out and say it. I’m a huge X-Files fan. Right? That little outdated show from the ‘90s is my TV bread and butter. It’s on Netflix now, which means I get to drag my wife through the entire series.

The X-Files means a lot to me. It’s the salient reason I ever started writing. As a child, I loved the idea of exploring different pockets of the country and each week discovering a different monster. Pushing boundaries and all. I began writing short stories in elementary school because of it.

My wife, she’s an awesome wife, got me a book for my birthday called The Philosophy of The X-Files. Nerdy? A little. You know your wife loves you when she encourages you to nerd-out.

(more…)

New Year’s ResoWINtions (or, I’m More Resolute Than You Are)

New Year’s Resolutions have a bad wrap. To be fair, the word “lose” is implied in the name. I prefer resoWINtions (I’m a crafty wordsmither, no?). Pastors, blogs, magazines, everyday folks, they all clamber resolution warnings. No doubt, your ear-holes and eye-balls have been plagued with a mess of conflicting messages. Christians, I’ve found, like to shrug off New Years Resolutions. Maybe they see it as shallow. I don’t know. Some folks, maybe, don’t like to be reminded how susceptible to failure they are.

As for me, I’m a fan of new challenges. I like them all year-round. Once, I only used chopsticks for three months or so.

SIDE NOTE: Hands down, salad is best eaten with chopsticks. (more…)

Best of 2013: Eyes and Ears Edition

It’s that magical time of the year when we reflect on the music, movies, and books we’ve read, making arbitrary lists and comparisons. Once again, I find that I am purchasing less and less new music these days. I’m unimpressed, you could say. Maybe that’s what getting older is all about: discontentment with the new and nostalgia for the old.

Nevertheless, here’s what piqued my ears and eyes this year.

MUSIC

imgres Daft Punk: Random Access Memories 

It took me forever to find the bandwagon (I’m not a big electronic music person), but I finally jumped on board.  I love Daft Punk’s newest. It’s absolutely wonderful. The musicianship is incredible. And the mastering engineer wasn’t too bad either.  (more…)

Quick! Don’t Tell. (A Study Break)

Hello blogolopolus,

Meet my friend, Procrastination. He likes to stop in unannounced and drink all my beer.

I’m attempting a super quick blog post. See, I’ve been studying and working and sleeping and (well) that’s about it. My ECON Final is tomorrow. Yeah, that Econ. Thank the Lord above and the ghosts below; I’m almost through it. And when I get through it, I’ll be able to claim the knowledge of why a Demand curve slopes downward. Totally worth it.

Some good news as of late. The University of Rochester approved my proposal to create an entrepreneurship degree. (From inside sources) the proposal was “one of the best the committee had ever seen.” Sweet.

In addition, my wife got a new job. It’s suppose to be a better job than the one she has, which means we won’t hate our lives nearly as much. Yay! I don’t blame her for disliking her job. I don’t care for mine very much either. Add on a foot of snow and life feels sludgy and terrible.  (more…)

Saturday Skit: Give ‘Em God
The following is a scene from a larger one-act play I’m writing called GIVE ‘EM GOD. It’s about my experiences leading worship and growing up inside the church (very much still a work in progress). I’m hoping to have it finished as a final project for my playwright course in a couple weeks.

GIVE ‘EM GOD: Scene 5

College Nights

(Spotlight over YOUNG TAD and YOUNG DEBORAH, sitting on the floor in the corner. They are outside. YOUNG TAD is smoking. The Moonglows’ “Ten Commandments of Love” plays quietly in the background, repeating if necessary.)

YOUNG DEBORAH: I guess… I never really thought about it.

YOUNG TAD: Yeah?

YOUNG DEBORAH: Yeah. You know. You grow up in the church and learn not to question things. Certain things.

YOUNG TAD: So you just—

YOUNG DEBORAH: Shut it out, really.

YOUNG TAD: And here you are in college, and your professors tell you differently.

YOUNG DEBORAH: I guess so.

YOUNG TAD: Before you didn’t think much about it.  Now you have to think about it. That right?

YOUNG DEBORAH: It scares me. What if they’re right and biology and evolution and big bang and… explains all this? It’s Santa Claus all over again. How fashionable… lying to children. Somedays I do feel I’ve lost my faith. But I look everywhere for it. The cupboards, the closet, under the bathroom mat. The toaster if I’m hungry. Lord. Somedays I don’t find it.  (more…)