Abiding in the Vines

When I was twelve I thought it was a good idea to swing from a long vine that was hanging from a tree at the bottom of a ravine on a cold winter night. Some friends of mine and I during the summer months had done this many times. We would scale down the steep slope, retrieve the vine, carry it back up to the top and jump while holding on tight. At its highest point the individual would be 40 or 50 feet in the air. This particular night the cold temperature had frozen the vine to a brittle state, rendering it susceptible to breaking. That's just what it did as I held the vine, it couldn't handle the weight of my 12 year old structure.  Unfortunately the vine waited until I was suspended about 30 feet above the ground for it to break.  Luckily I was able to break my fall with my left arm, and luckily I landed on some bricks instead of the soft snow covered ground.  In the end I had a fractured left arm and a large gash on my forehead which required 13 stitches.  

Sometimes it seems like I'm always grabbing onto vines, swinging even though the danger seems obvious.  They don't all break, but many of them do.  The trick is to try to judge the sturdiness of the vine before the leap - that's the hard part.

I'm thankful for all the vines I've swung on - even the ones that broke...

Extended metaphor over.

Go with joy.

The Apostle Paul in Naperville, IL

On Thursday a missionary from TEAM spoke at Tyndale.  Soon he and his family will be moving to begin assisting a church planting ministry in northern Italy.  He described Italian culture, joked about some of the quirks of the people, and gave us a general sense of what he and his family were going to be doing.  When he was wrapping up his speaking time he quoted a verse from Romans.  I can't recall what the verse was, but something interesting struck me - Paul wrote Romans for the Romans living in Rome, which is in Italy, which is where this guy and his family are going.  I'm pretty sure that was part of the reason he chose a verse from Romans, but still an interesting thought.

Today when I was at a lonely park in Naperville shooting hoops, trying to reenact Lebron's amazing buzzer beater from game two of the Eastern Conference Finals, I was thinking about what Paul's letter to Naperville would be like.  Then I was thinking about how he would send it - email, Facebook wall post?  Then I was thinking about what Paul's Facebook page would look like.  Then I was thinking about which of those funny quizzes he would take, or what five things he would choose as closest to him, or who are the 5 people he'd most like to punch in the face.  Then I was thinking about whether or not he would Tweet from his iPhone while in prison, or maybe he would text advice to Timothy on the road.

Then I wondered if Paul were there right then if I could beat him in a game of one on one.  I haven't been to basketball camp since 6th grade, but yes, yes I think I could beat him.

New Post.

Grey day.

I think I'll go for a walk anyway.

Today I'll do the NYT crossword puzzle. This has become one of my favorite Monday and Tuesday activities. I'm not good enough to enjoy the rest of the week's puzzle (they get harder as the week progresses), but Monday and Tuesday I enjoy, and are the only days that I have completed without cheating or help.

How does one get interested in crossword puzzles?

I've always liked word games (Scrabble, word jumble, word search, dictionary dynamite, encyclopedia extravaganza, etc), and would do a crossword whenever one floated my way. After watching the movie Wordplay and being exposed to the vast subculture of the crossword world I became interested (bandwagon).

Check it out (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492506/), I guarantee you'll spring a buck fifty at least twice on a copy of the New York Times - I'd recommend waiting until next Monday though.

life - particle accelerator - broken

blogging about blogging about blogging

There are many ways to begin.

Here are some examples:

-I used to have a blog that I was quite dedicated to and I missed that feeling - I know no one is going to read this, but I just wanted a place to write random thoughts and intense musings.

I did a few things here.  I used the “I have so much to say but no where to say it” and the wanted my fellow 20 something to relate by using the words “random” and “intense”.

-Life, the waves of the ocean crash on the beaches of my path.  It erases the footsteps of where I’ve been, but makes fresh the sand I approach.  The clouds part, I weep for days gone by and days to come.

Disconnected metaphorical nothingness speech to invoke emotion from the reader.

-I hate blogs - I don’t even know why I’m writing this.  I hate my life. 

Fake cry for help - reveals that I really read thousands of blogs every night.

Mostly I guess I’m just going with the writing about what I’m going to write or not write on my blog rather than actually write something - it’s a very Sabadosian (you can’t make up words to give yourself your own genre - well to you I say, I didn’t coin the term) thing to do.

I have titled this blog - The Next Thing

Mainly because I had an idea for a physical newsletter/magazine/something titled - The Next Thing -  that I was going to mail to people and this was going to be the companion blog (it’s still going to happen - don’t worry)

And because often on my list of things to do - this will be the next thing on the list - never the first, never the last.

Have a nice day.