I get it now

Travis visited Bethlehem yesterday, and it's an absolutely lovely thing that we can see one another so easily now, and something tells me it's going to be exactly what I need in my last year living in the USA.

I might have been most surprised when he seemed pleased to hear that I'm pretty sold on the idea of working in a church (which essentially means being a pastor, although I'm still getting used to saying that word), kind of almost like he had been waiting for it to happen and thinking it was my life calling for a while now. This reaction seems a little common with friends, and I'm wondering why I'm the last one to realize what God has intended for my life. If it was so obvious to everyone else, why hasn't anyone spoken up? I expect people to be surprised when they hear the idea, but they all sort of react with a big "duh," as if to say, "Uh, yeah. We know. What took you so long?"

Maybe they have spoken up and I wasn't quite ready to listen yet.

But I just started attending seminary on iTunesU, where Tim Keller and Ed Clowney get to coteach a class of one student sitting on a couch in his boxer shorts who didn't have to pay a dime for their efforts on the importance of Christocentric preaching, and I guess if just an intro to such a lecture series gets me this excited, then yeah, I probably am supposed to be a paaaaasss.....someone who works in a church.

As much as I absolutely love figuring out life and what to do with it, after discussing issues with Travis all afternoon and deliberating about things with Erica last night, I decided I'm more than ready for the return of Christ. Life is wonderful and beautiful, yes. But it's full of a lot of difficult crap, too, the very least of which is having fifth graders vie for attention by shopping at Abercrombie, and so I say along with a certain favorite songwriter in a tone of weary exasperation, "Oh, Christ, when you're ready to come back, I think I'm ready for you to come back." When that happens, we won't have to resort to having guys like me work in churches anymore anyway, and we'll probably all be much better for it.

In other news, it's Labor Day, and the big picnic we had planned is going to be a little less fun with the sun hiding and the temperature in the mid chillies. But if you're not busy laboring, come on over to the new house in Hellertown and party with a sweatshirt on.

And finally, what's with me and run-on sentences lately?