Praise the Lord, today is my last day managing a RadioShack in Akron, Ohio. It takes a certain type of person to do retail management, and I don’t think I’m that type of person. Monday I start working with the internet division of Step2. (http://www.step2.com) My title: “Interactive Marketing Specialist” Fancy, huh?

I’ve been struggling through a really sore throat today and finally decided to give in and see a doctor, because it might be strep. Being sick really stinks, it makes getting out of bed harder, makes enjoying your last day at work harder, and means you have to go waste 13 hours in the waiting room at your local clinic waiting for them to swab your throat and send you home.

No grand revelations from God this morning, but I didn’t really get to spend much time with him. My verse for the week: Psalm 8:3-5
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
(4) what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
(5) You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.

A veces leo los blogs espanoles de gente que no conozco. No por la filosofia de sus pensamientos que tal vez suenen profundos, no para infundirme con ideas muy estimulativos. Solamente para expermentar el idioma.

Lloro por la falta de acentuacion, pero mi compu aqui no me da la oportunidad de usarla.

Asi es, y ya se que no hablo, no excribo perfectamente. Soy un gringo que se fue a espana un semestre y regreso medio hispanico. Soy un norteamericano quien vivio como hermano mayor en una familia tica en el barrio de Cedros de San Pedro, Costa Rica por un rato demasiado corto. Soy su Andreulito, y a ellos pertenece un trocito de mi corazon.

Es otra vida, realmente, esta vida en que las palabras se ordenen diferentemente, en la cual los nombres toman genero, an la cual me fascina la estructura de los pensamientos. Y todos ustedes que me pueden entender, lo saben perfectamente. El sol toma un color diferente en espanol, la gente se ve diferente en esta lengua.

Gracias a Dios por espanol.

Josiah, as promised. Now this guy was amazing–he comes near the end of a long streak of kings of Judah, some good, many bad. Josiah, though, blows them all away. 2 Kings 23:25 says “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did.”

Josiah began his reign as an 8-year-old boy, taking over from a guy who worshiped idols. When he’s 26, the high priest finds the Book of the Law and send it to Josiah, who tears his clothes and immediately starts changing things. This guy demolishes everything that goes against God’s decrees. Idols, shrines, priests to pagan gods, mediums, spiritists–everything. He even has everyone’s household gods destroyed. And he turns completely to God, renewing the covenant with God.

Imagine today if a president-turned-dictator got into power and did such a thing. He would destroy Hollywood, desecrate strip clubs, demolish half of the music industry (or more), and even come into homes and mash up little Buddhas, crystal balls, and nine tenths of most movie collections. Then he would gather together the whole country, and pray with them, telling God we would serve him only. America would never stand for it, and yet many Americans–and most foreigners–consider the USA to be a “Christian” nation.

How about on a personal level? What would happen if we turned our lives entirely over to Christ’s control? Would we need to destroy half of our movie collection? Would we have to delete our massive collection of pirated mp3s? How would we drive? Could we keep saying the things we say? How difficult would it be to root out all the household idols of our minds?

Oswald Chambers says it well in his devotional My Utmost for His Highest: Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in his faith than the beliefs he has already accepted.

As much as has happened today (when did it become OK to have a conversation on speakerphone in the middle of a retail store?), I’ve had a few thoughts that actually merit mentioning.

First was Josiah. More on him tomorrow, but this guy’s story is convicting.

Second was the reason this one will be so short.

Proverbs 18:2
“A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.”

Good food for thought…

So Navs was good tonight. Mostly God was speaking to me though, and I realized that I am a practical atheist if I don’t speak his Name. This blog (well, my life by extension) can’t really be about me, but his work in me. On that note…

I like old people who are cheerful. Senile ones try my patience, pessimistic ones are hard to listen to, but joyful old people are awesome. They have lots of wisdom and lots of good stories.

I want to be a joyful old person, and that starts today, by letting Jesus define my worldview. By killing the old cynical part of me. It will be tough, but God is faithful, and He’ll pull me through it. I suppose I want my faith to invade this page for better reasons than that, but Lisa always tells me that she wants to be an old lady who is always talking about how wonderful Jesus has been to her, and I’ll be a little funky looking next to her if I’m not the same! (And given my propensity for cynicism, I’m sure I’ll have to work harder at this one.)

So if you keep reading, expect to hear his Name. Read Jeremiah 20:9, because I want it to define me, and I hope it invades this blog like cattle to a water trough. (eh?)

And please pray for Jennifer, a friend of mine who’s having (serious) trouble breathing and her doctors aren’t sure why.

Yeah, I’m already back, but it’s only because I can see why blogging took off so much. It’s so much fun… I’ve been wondering what focus (if any) I should take here, since the Switchfoot thing was kind of spontaneous, and there’s so many places my mind wanders. Aha! I’ll make a list here of things I would like to discuss when nothing grander is placed upon my heart.

By the way, I’ll try not to use those inane abreviations, like ROTFL, IMHO, etc. They annoy me even when I do know what they mean. (Which isn’t always) On an unrelated note, this new Switchfoot CD is pretty catchy. Still tepid morally, but I might just give this disc some mileage…

THE LIST:
* iPods
* the war in Iraq (a not-so-political view)
* giving
* materialism
* working
* the internet (mostly, church on the web?!?)
* my sometimes cynical nature (quiet, I know…)
* marriage (Yeah, I’m a noobie. And Yeah, marriage rocks)
* art (this will be good)
* Jeremiah 20:9
* why you are reading this blog
* what I did on Tuesday (maybe this could be a weekly feature?)
* my aspirations for greatness (paralleled by “and what does God say about that?”)
* humility (guest authored by Scorbin)
* paradise in Costa Rica
* Español
* slacklining

Ok, I gotta chill out here, or I’ll have 10 years’ worth of blogs listed here before midnight. As for now, off to NAVs.

PS. Did you know you can email these blogs to your friends by clicking on the little envelope icon down at the bottom here….?