Shawn's Weblog

Goodbye Blogger, Hello WordPress

2006-07-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I've moved my blog location. Actually it's still at the same place it has been theblancspot.com/blog but now it's not hosted on blogger anymore. I've made a glorious switch without looking back to WordPress. (No offense to all my friends who power Blogger.)

The only setback to this switch is now you can't see my picture when I post comments on friend's blogs. Oh well, 6 of one, half a dozen of another...

Should I stay or should I go?

2006-07-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

So I'm considering switching my blog layout and publishing tool from this current blogger one to WordPress. Check it out and let me know what you, the reader, thinks about it.

Me against me against me

2006-07-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

I realized in a new way today just how violent and difficult it is to live out a life which is centered in around the 8 beatitudes of Sermon on the Mount. It is narrow and it is difficult and it is really stinkin' hard.

But in case you're having trouble being 'poor in spirit', Jesus' suggests you give away your money, and then don't tell anybody about it.

I'm wouldn's say I am glad that there's such a battle going on within me, but at least knowing that there is a battle is helpful.

We are called to holiness in this life and then happiness in the age to come, not earthly pleasure now and then redemtion for our wasted years and so lots of fun then.

a3 Jetta Boy

2006-07-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm picking up my old roomate for 4 years, Ben, who now lives in Roseville, California, and is coming to visit for the week.

Ben is an awesome friend. He and I hung out so much over those 4 years that we developed our own sense of humor. On more than one occasion we have made off the cuff joke punchlines durring a conversation where we both say the same comment at the same time, but it was not a 'quote' or an 'inside joke', it was it's own unique phrase.

Ben is a great guy. He moved to Cali a year and a half ago because he met a cute girl out there. Now they're married and are expecting Little Cunnington in the late fall.

Starbucks Culture

2006-07-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

The more I drink coffee the more I become aware of the sub-culture that is involved. Then the more I learn about that sub-culture the more I see how much Starbucks has molded it.

Holy Moly, Starbucks is taking over America. Well, maybe not taking over but they are at least telling us what the best way to spend $3.85 on 12 ounces of liquid is..."Tall, Decaf, Cappucino."

Did you know that coffee is the most popular drink in the whole world? 400 Billion cups of coffee are sipped down every year: that's more than 1,000 cups per second. How did one company that originally thought to brew coffee was the consumer's responsibilty end up defining the way we drink our coffee, order our coffee and expect our coffee to taste?

I've been to coffee shops where they get mad if you order a 'grande' instead of a 'medium'; "Don't you know this isn't Starbucks?"

I didn't totally get into the coffee pool until I started traveling with the onething™ team. Starbucks is a high priority when you're living out of a suitcase and not using your own shower. I think I now know the location of every Starbucks in every city we've ever gone to.

Did you know you can tell a lot from someone based on the type of drink they order? You can tell a whole lot. I'm finding out that the real 'purists' order brewed coffee or americanos. And they like them black. I think people who drink black coffee are like people who shop at Costco. Most of us don't do it be we recognize that it's probably way to go and we give respect where it's due, but we just aren't quite to that level yet.

Some Ammusing Facts:

My parents didn't allowed to drink coffee until I was 16 years old in fear that it may stunt my growth
I'm 5' 8" tall
I'm the tallest member of my immediate faimily (hmmm....coincidence?)
I don't shop at Costco

Birthday Gift Roster

2006-07-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

Two pounds of coffee from Broadway Cafe
One pound of coffee from Crowfoot Valley
A Krups Burr Grinder (for use with above gifts)
Raspberry Jam
A box of Whoppers
Two bags of Mountain Man
Dean & Deluca gift certificate
Very strange finger painting of a cow in a field
A green polo shirt
A silver, blue and black stripped tie
Clue (the game)
Some dough
An e-card (the method here is not how I prefer to be wished well, although it would be a fun way to blow out the candles on the cake)

25 Years Old

2006-07-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

Today is my 25th Birthday.

So far, it's a great day. I'm brewing some coffee sent by my parents from the local rostarie back home, and I'm about to have an english muffin with some homemade rasberry jam.

Today, in an odd way, marks a new chapter for me. When I was in high school my best friend, Jim, and I promised eachother we'd go sky diving before we turned 25. It's now been 7 years since we made that promise, and I'm realising that I'm not who or where nor with the people I thought I'd be.

The first thing is that I don't live back in Castle Rock. If you've been reading on this blog for longer than a day you probably know how much I love Colorado.

Other things that are differnet is that I'm not around the guys I grew up with. Half of them live in California now, only is still back in Colorado.

The third thing different about my life is what I'm doing. I went to college to be a youth minister with expectations of traveling around speaking at youth conferences. Although I'm quite close to that dream while doing the Onething Regionals, it's not quite what I had in mind.

These differences however are not bad. I would say the only thing I really bum about is not living in Colorado, but Anna and I will be moving back one day so I don't mind waiting.

The comrades I have now are some of the most marvelous, amazing men and women of God I can imagine. Obviously they don't replace my childhood buddies, but I have realized that they're not supposed to replace them nor will the friends I have now be replaced when I move back to Colorado.

My job with IHOP is so far from what I thought I'd be doing in ministry for my twenties. I graduated high school with full plans to go into the ministry, but not into one that has kept me so 'hidden.' As I think about what I've been doing with the past 5 years of my life since I moved out here to Kansas City, I am so thankful. I'm thankful for a leadership staff that has discipled me in a Sermon on the Mount lifestyle. I am so glad the Lord has put me in this ministry.

Looking ahead to the next 7 years in my life and thinking about the same three questions, Who, Where, What; I realize that the only one I have control over is none. The only thing I can do between now and then is to daily maintain my relationship with God and to continually grow in meekness and love towards the Word and towards others.

New Gear

2006-07-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

So I bought a new snare a few days ago. A Pork Pie 7x13 orange, acrylic snare drum. This was quite a leap from what I've been playing for the last 10 years. 10 years ago I bought a Remo 13x3.5 Mastersound piccolo snare with the profits from the "All American Heros" t-shirt sales, and a few "All American Hepos" because we ran out of 'r's.

My Remo snare has served me faithfully for years. I was constantly getting great comments on how well it sounded, but as the nature of playing drums goes: things end up breaking after time. I did some math to get a rough estimate of how many times I've hit that snare and I figured in the 10 years I've had it I've hit it around 8 Million times! A lot of that goes to the fact I've been playing at IHOP frequently and consistently for almost 5 years now. The reason my snare broke though, is because those 8,000,000 rim shots were all done in the same location on the drum; I always set it up the same way whenever I played it.

The next items on my drumming shopping cart were two new Zildjian Dark Crash Cymbals.

This is an exciting purchase because I haven't had crash cymbals for about 8 months now. That's like a secretary not having a handset for her phone.

There is a very logical and reasonable answer as to why it's been so long since I had cymbals: I decided that since I play so much at IHOP and travel so much with Merchant Band and Onething that I ought to pursue an endorsement. So I worked very hard to put together a press kit to send of to Istanbul Cymbals, hoping they would give me free stuff. I even had a great editor help me out with the content. But unfortunately I never really sent off the press kit and after 6 months of procrastinating I finally drove down the road to guitar center and ended my misery. The good news is if I do get that press kit sent off sometime soon and they accept me then I can just sell my Zildjians on eBay.

Worlds of Fun

2006-07-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Anna took me to Worlds of Fun today with some great friends of ours, Josh and Sarah, as a celebration Josh's and my birthdays this weekend. This was the first time any of us had been to Kansas City's amusement park, and we were all surprised at how much fun we had.

I realized today that I have a mindset towards Kansas City that everything out here is somewhat "less than" or below average compared to other major cities. Throughout the day today I found myself standing in line to go on a roller coaster already expecting it to not be that enjoyable. However, I was pleasantly surprised time and time again today. After riding nearly every roller coaster that had a height limit I re-assessed my stereotype towards Kansas City and have now concluded that although Kansas City will never be Denver, it still can hold it's own. Although this is not true in regards to the road conditions and the quality and speed of construction.

July 2nd

2006-06-28T05:20:00.000-07:00

Some things I bet you didn't know about July 2nd:

It's the 183rd day of the year. That's the middle day. There are 182 days before it and 182 days after it.
It's the same day of the week as New Years Day

July 2nd in history:

It was day two of the Ghettysburg Battle in 1863
In 1776 The Continental Congress adopted the resolution severing ties with Great Britain, though the formal Declaration of Independence was not adopted until July 4th
In 1947 an object speculated to be a UFO crashes near Roswell, New Mexico, though the U.S. Air Force claims it was a weather balloon
The first Wal-Mart store opened for business in 1962 putting Arkansas on the map
The Susan B. Anthony Dollar was introduced in 1979

People born on July 2nd:

Shawn Blanc (1981)
Thurgood Marshall (1908)
Dave Thomas (1932)
Jose Canseco (1964)

Closer to 30

2006-06-28T04:51:00.000-07:00

My 25th birthday is this coming Sunday, July 2nd. That means that on July 3rd, I'll be closer to 30 than 20...but I'm not here to muse on that right now. Instead I'd rather vent my excitement about one of my favorite days of the year.

I've always been a big birthday guy. I love birthdays. I've been having big birthday parties since I was a kid. The traditional play of events used to be that I would call my best friend about a month in advance to make sure his parents would let him come over for my birthday. All the other attendees were not as big of a deal.

The staple food for my birthday was pizza and ice-cream cake. Especially ice cream cake. I remember one year I wanted to branch out, so I didn't have ice cream cake and it was a sore dissapointment. But that tradition faded out over time. I think I'll have to revive it this year.

On Friday my good friend Josh and I are having a dual party (his birthday is also this weekend, on Friday). We're inviting people over to my house for potluck BBQ and dessert. Then we're all going to this summer's inaguration of "Theatre in the Park." Where you go and set up picnic and watch a movie followed by fireworks.

Next, on Saturday, Josh, his wife Sarah, Anna and I are going to Worlds of Fun for the first time.

Finally on Sunday the 2nd I get to hang out with Anna. We're going to grill ourselves some steaks, bake some potatoes and then go out for ice cream.

Another One Bites the Bean

2006-06-27T03:12:00.000-07:00

While my mother-in-law and her sister were in town for the past week my aunt joined in with Anna's and my daily morning coffee ritual. While she was here got to taste coffee that was ground just before brewing and that didn't come in a red can. She kept telling us how she was going to have to start making coffee this way instead and how much tastier it was than what she was used to.

Once we ran out of the cheap starbucks coffee I opened up our bag from Crowfoot Valley Coffee Company which is a local roasterie back in our home town of Castle Rock. Holy Moly, those beans are so easy to brew. I'm now kicking myself for only bringing back one lb. of coffee last time I was home.

New Problems in School

2006-06-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

I read an article in the Kansas City star today that said approximately half of college grads will need some kind of phsycheatric help before they graduate because the stress and pressures of college and life in college are so heavy.

I think that doing a Biblical internship before college is a great idea; get rooted in the Bible and get your heart in love with Jesus and then go get your degree.

Besides, I don't think you can use student loans to pay your psrink.

e-mail it or lose it

2006-06-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

At the IHOP-KC all staff meeting today we found out that if you don't
check your e-mail for 4 months you may lose your staff designation
and not even know it...

Luvcatology

2006-06-26T14:06:00.001-07:00

I picked up The Divine Imperative, by Emil Brunner, at a used bookstore in downtown Kansas City a few days ago. I'd never even heard of the book or the author, but while I was paging through the book while standing in the aisle I came accross this line which made me buy the book to take home.

Love in the sense in which the New Testament uses the word, is not a human possibility at all, but it is exclusively possible to God. Love is an "ultimate" eschatological possiblity; for it will be the last thing when everything else, even faith, has vanished. Hence the state of "living in love" is not something which man can achieve by his own efforts and in his own strength, but it is something which happens to man in faith, from God. The decisive element in this life in love is therfore always to allow ourselves to be loved by God.

He goes on to write some more profound statements about God and about Love:

Therefore God only demands one thing: that we should live in His love...Or, still more plainly: to "Remain in love." It is the summons to remain within the giving of God, to return to Him again and again as the origin of all power to be good or to do good. There are no "other virtues" alongside of the life of love.

Emil makes an awesome point about 'doing good':

True good can never flow from this feverish intensity of effort or from all this painstaking endeavour to attain the Good, but simply and solely from the Central Source of goodness as a state of existence (i.e. to Remain in Love). The "Good" which issues from effort is, for that very reason, not really good; the Good must descend from above, not be striven for from below, otherwise it lacks genuineness and depth.

This is such a clear understanding as to why humanitarianism will ultimately become satanic. Just because someone is feeding the poor and taking care of the needy does not mean that it is a Kingdom building activity. Yes, Jesus wants us to take care of the poor and needy. James tells us that pure, undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble. But these acts must be consecrated to God and done out of a living, remaining, relationship with God and with His love.

There will be an antichrist ruller calling us all into a one-world religion on the basis of compromising for the greater good of humanity. We have to stand strong and un-compromising in our belief of Jesus as the only way of salvation.

Poison Ivy

2006-06-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I got this big itchy spot on my left forearm and I didn't know what it was. After moving out here from Colorado I am continually discovering new, and usually annoying, plants and bugs that I never knew existed such as Chiggers.

So before I got this itchy spot I had been pulling weeds in my back yard. I don't know what kind of weeds I had but they looked like Strawberry Reubarb on steroids. So I'm pulling these huge weeds by the side of my house and notice this dark green ivy plant hanging out all over the place and climbing up the siding. My first thought was to rip it out also but I thought it looked kind-of nice so I decided to leave it (hindsight being 20/20 I definately made the right choice).

So back to the itchy spot on the forearm. At first I thought it was a chigger bite since it started out as a small little bump. But as time progressed it started to get worse. I'll spare you the details of what happens when Poison Ivy get's worse...

I wasn't for sure it was poison ivy because I couldn't figure out where I had gotten it since I hadn't been hiking deep in the back woods for quite some time, but wanting to eliminate all the possibilities I thought that I should check my back yard just in case. I got onto Google Images and searched for poison ivy only to find out that the huge growth of nice green ivy on the side of the house was not so nice after all.

After making Anna promise not to tell anyone how ignorant I was, I went to the hardware store, bought some poison ivy killer, dressed up in a sweatshirt and rubber yellow gloves, put plastic bags over my shoes and went to terminate with my spray bottle. That poison ivy will be a thing of the past in only 2 to 4 weeks.

Apocolypto

2006-06-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Mel Gibson's new movie, Apocolypto, now has the trailer released.

You should check it out for two reasons:

1. The movie looks really cool
2. If you go slow you'll find something hidden in one of the frames that will make you laugh

Another Reason Why Colorado is the Greatest

2006-06-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Smoking ban to take effect July 1

Colorado will become a mostly smoke-free state on July 1. The law prohibits smoking in most public places.

One Step Closer to a One-World-Religion

2006-06-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Episcopalians refuse affirmation of Christ

This is un-real. Below is a resolution submitted to the Epsicopal Angelican Church that was shot down by thier commitee because it is 'the same kind of language that was used to to alienate the type of people who were executed in the Holocaust.'

Resolved, the House of _____ concurring, That the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church declares its unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved (Article XVIII); and be it further Resolved, That we acknowledge the solemn responsibility placed upon us to share Christ with all persons when we hear His words, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

 No-one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6); and be it further Resolved, That we affirm that in Christ there is both the substitutionary essence of the Cross and the manifestation of God's unlimited and unending love for all persons; and be it further Resolved, That we renew our dedication to be faithful witnesses to all persons of the saving love of God perfectly and uniquely revealed in Jesus and upheld by the full testimony of Holy Scripture.

One of the men voting in favor of discharging the above statement was Rev. McDowell.

McDowell explained that how one lives his life is the more important issue than whether one affirms Jesus as Lord. To place a statement of belief over actions is the essence of "self-righteousness," he said. "Actions speak louder than proclamations...What Jesus calls us to do is to live our lives." 

 McDowell outlined his basic theology of grace: "Salvation by grace is remembering that we are the children of a living God. Grace is already there. And salvation is realizing we now live into that salvation. And sanctification is the transforming of my life from one that's me-centered to one that's God-centered."

This sure sounds like it's just one step away from, "All religions lead to the same God. What's important is that you are a good person and treat others as you would like to be treated."

As believers in Jesus Christ we must not compromise one iota for the sake of 'humanity'. Making things 'more simple' or 'easier' for people to get 'saved' does not help them. All we're accomplishing by that is raising up people that hear the word immediately receive it with joy; yet have no root in themselves, but endure only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble (Matthew 13).

We can't kid people into thinking that the way of salvation is easy and broad.

Staying Steady

2006-06-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

I've been meditating and thinking a lot lately about 'staying steady'. About maintaining a longevity and passion in my life with God. There have been so many people my age that have started out strong and passionate and then fizzled out 5 or 10 or 15 years later and are now lukewarm, bitter or have even given up their faith. Just because I am hungry for God now does not guarantee I'll still be longing for Him just 5 years from now, let alone 25.

I've been reading the letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2. They were a massive revival center, if not the revival center of the earth at the time. Jesus exhorts them with some powerful words of encouragement saying

I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary."

What a powerful statement. How many churches in the western world do you know of right now that we could say the same things about? How many churches could we say are laboring, have patience and zeal for righteousness? How many churches have such a spirit of discernment that they are exposing false apostles? How many churches today have perseverance and patience and have labored for the Gospel and are not weary? Not many places could we label with these banners, and those that we could would probably be very highly thought of. But Jesus has more to say:

Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have lost your first love.

What a powerful accusation! This has been burning in me lately. Despite their good works and labor and perseverance the Lord holds against them that they have lost their first love. But what is more striking to me is what Jesus says He will do because of their current problem:

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.

This statement by Jesus is a wind that blows opposite the current of our western church society. This reminds me Matthew 7 where Jesus is speaking about false prophets He says that we will know them by their fruits. He says a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit...therefore by their fruits you will know them. This statement is so often related to ministries where we say, "Oh look, that ministry has cool people, they have lots of members and they're doing outreach so they must be a good ministry. Look at the fruits of their works." Except I don't think that is what Jesus was talking about. Let's look at another passage:

Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons i Your name, and done many wonders in Your name' And then I will declare to them, ' I never knew you; depart from Me you who practice lawlessness!'
- Matthew 7: 21-23

I realize I've opened up quite a bit to chew on right now so let me make my point.

I think that the 'fruits' Jesus spoke of is not the 'outward success' of a ministry but rather the inward influence of the Holy Spirit and the practical expression of a Matthew 5-7 lifestyle. We will know them by their__________ (Meekness, Humility, Spiritual Hunger, Joy during persecution, Prayer Life, Charity and Generosity, Love for their enemies, etc...).

Those people and ministries that are in a similar position as the Church in Ephesus are in danger of being like those Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:21-23. Those that 'did the stuff' but never had the "first works" which I think is the "first commandment"

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.
- Mark 12:30

Jesus wants us to have a ministry. If we're working a job at McDonalds or if we're traveling the globe doing massive crusades and raising the dead God is primarily concerned that our heart loves Him. He wants us to keep our first love as the first goal in our life. I don't know how many people I've met or talked to that have the testimony of going hard after God and then their ministry 'got in the way' and they neglected their personal life with God.

So what does all this have to do with staying steady? I think everything. If our life in God is only a means to an end then we are already off course. If we are praying and reading our Bible for the sake of finally getting anointed one day then we are already fallen and back-sliden. We also can't just pray a good prayer one day saying, "God I promise to stay steady and keep you first for all my days" and then assume we're good. Staying steady is something that has to be pursued daily. We must daily build our house on the rock. We must daily be sure that we are walking on the narrow, difficult way. We must daily re-evaluate our life and see how we can better align ourselves with the truth in the Word of God.

If we are ever pursuing roads and other things that do not fuel our personal relationship with Jesus then we are in danger of losing all that we have. Jesus was more concerned that those in the Church of Ephesus were in love with Him than anything else. Why is He so concerned with our voluntary love? Because that is the one thing He cannot do. He can't make us love Him because if He did then our love would not be pure and voluntary.

The highest calling for any of us is to love God well.

Dwayne-isms

2006-06-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

Some new words thanks to Dwayne Roberts:

"Dourney" - A Journey to the Depths

"Buke" - a.k.a. book

"Stunder" - To study in order to understand

"Orientated" - a.k.a. oriented

"Disorientated" - a.k.a. disoriented

"Encrouchly" - To hide like a tiger from within the bowels of the jungle foliage

"Relevization" - To have revelation and a realization at the same time

Chi Town: Day 1

2006-06-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we flew into Chicago via Southwest; which was a much needed breath of fresh air after after last month's nightmare encounters with Delta. Southwest is hands down the kindest, cheapest, most accommodating airline I've ever flown.

After arriving and loading up our 46 checked bags** we grabbed some lunch and then went to the church. We had a record breaking set-up and sound-check time in the history of the Onething Regional Conferences: less than 3 1/2 hours! (Last month in Florida it took us over 8 hours.)

Once we were done at the church it was time to go downtown for some Chicago style pizza. Last year when we came to Chicago we all had heard the rumors of this glorious pizzeria, Gino's East, and we were looking forward to some good (and I mean good) Chicago Pizza. However, our hosts had other plans and so our experience at Gino's had to be put on hold. So after an entire year of planning the moment when we would say, "Please don't feel the need to make dinner plans. We heard that Gino's East had pretty good pizza so we thought that we would try and go there."

And it worked! But why does it seem that something can never happen the way you want it to in order to be just right? It is supposed to be a 60 minute drive from the church to Gino's. So we called ahead to order the 7 pizzas for our entire crew plus in-town friends and family. However, thanks to Chicago Grid-Lock our tour through downtown took nearly two hours, allowing our pre-orderd waiting-for-us pizza to get cold. How anti-climactic can you get? How many people can say they waited 12 months for a slice of cold "Meat Legacy" pizza?

But don't let the story get you down: There was enough of us that we had to order a few more pizzas, so in the end I did get a slice of hot, thick, melted cheese, sausage supreme. And it was good (but, actually not that good.)

After we stuffed ourselves (**See Note Below) we went down to the Navy Pier, which like a boardwalk but on a pier instead. After walking past many bars, shops, video arcades and funny mirrors we heard some live music and some seriously off key vocals: Live Band Kareoke! Well of course with our in-house diva, Sarah Motlong, in town she had to sing. So after enduring through a few more acts, the final one being a guy in white tight jeans, and a short black t-shirt with the shiny silver letters: "AC/DC - Back in Black", a few large silver and gold neclaces, a scruffy beard and shoulder length curly hair, singing " ", Sarah finally get's her chance. Singing "RESPECT" and recieving just that. It was out of control. The best part was towards the end when the song has those breaks the drummer would toss his stick in the air and let it do like 9 rotations and then catch it again:

"BRANT"
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
"BRANT"
Find out what it means to me
"BRANT-BRANT"
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Take Care of TCP
Sock it to me, Sock it to me, Sock it to me.....

You get the idea...in fact maybe you feel like you were even there.

**Note about the 46 checked bags: We've never ever checked 46 bags before. But since more people were flying with us this trip we had more allowance so I think that some 'rule' or 'law' came into play that says, "You will consume and or use the maximum amount you have allowed." It's the same idea when a huge plate of food is before you; you eat the whole thing not because your incredibly hungry but because the food is there. You have to eat it.

My Sister + Trampoline + Digital Camera

2006-06-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Apple's New Get-A-Mac Ads

2006-06-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Apple released three new ads the other day for thier 'Get-A-Mac' campaign.

One of the ads, "Touche" is about Boot Camp. Boot Camp is a beta pre-release of what will be standard operation in Apples up-and-coming OS, Leopard.

I think Boot Camp is a pretty cool idea, but in all honesty is it really released primarily as a feature or is it really just a marketing ploy to wheel in those people that would buy a mac but think they can't.

I used to be one of those "Windows till death" people. My roomate and I always used to knock on people that used Mac OS or AOL. (Looking back, I can't believe I put Apple into the same barrell as AOL, I feel I should personally ask Jobs for his forgiveness.)

Even though I learned to type on the Apple IIe when I was in like 3rd grade, I always thought Macs were a little 'post-dated' for the times. But then when I started getting more and more into music and graphic design I realized that Mac had leapfrogged far ahead of Microsoft Windows.

Once I got my new PowerBook and had finally transfered all my old documents from my high school graduation present: a Dell Inspiron 3800 I kept the old 'lappy' around for a while in case I needed it for something, but I never did. Not once. In fact the only time I've needed to Anna's old Dell tower downstairs was to see if The Blanc Spot loaded up o.k. on web-designer's nightmare: Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The more and more that Apple presses into the computer world it seems like many people are drawing their lines deeper and deeper in the sand. Those that are still undecided on the fence can be swayed by the arguments on either side:

"Don't buy a PC they'll crash all the time and you have to watch out for all sorts of viruses, etc..."

"Why whould you buy a mac? You can't do anything on it. It's completely irrelevant in the real world because everyone else runs PC and you can't work with them if you don't have windows."

So to silence the final argument against buying from Apple, they've now made a computer that can host either Operating System, I think it's mostly for the point of getting people to fall off into the Orchard. Once they're in and they've played around with OSX for a little bit they'll realize what they've been missing all this time.

The Fasted Lifestyle

2006-06-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

David Sliker on the fasted Lifestyle:

Voluntarily embracing weakness in what we do and who we are with our time, money and giftings.

The fasted lifestyle is a constant decision to lay aside the short-term gain for the point of long-term gain (eternity).

To really embrace the fasted lifestyle you have to make many internal decisions that make you relate to God and men in a different way. Most people don't have their values really in line. People need language and tools to lay hold of what's real according to what's Biblical not cultural.

Great Wife

2006-06-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to mention how wonderful Anna is.

Today, she mopped the floors, cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry, cleaned (and I mean cleaned) our bedroom and even vacumed....all this while I tirelessly slaved over the computer updating my weblog and re-liniking it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that after I mowed the lawn this morning she made me a strawberry-lemonade-slushie.

Boosting Weblog Traffic

2006-06-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin shares the best ways of How to Get Traffic to your blog.

As of this post I am currently majoring on his points 36-39. (Within this post I am attemting to apply points 38 & 39)

36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.

Note the puncuation at the end of his bullet-points. I happen know on good authority from a certified 'web content editor' that those periods are a no-no.

We Have Moved

2006-06-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

"The Blancspot: Blogstyle" has now officially moved, please update your bookmarks and tell all your friends.

http://theblancspot.com/blog

The Blanc Spot goes .com

2006-06-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

So I officially launched Anna's and my webiste yesterday!

http://theblancspot.com

After 3 different layouts and lot's of "This page under construction" I finally knocked it out this past weekend. It's got a lot of room to grow still but what else is new?

It's primarily designed as an interface and touchpoint for our supporters.

Small Town goes Big Time

2006-05-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Castle Rock, Colorado. I was born and raised in this little town that's named after this small mountain that's located in the middle of all the development and has a large, rectangular shaped rock sitting on top.

On top of The Rock is The Star. Every November is "The Starlighting". At The Starlighing many events take place. The most famous is the fire department's chili cook-off. Downtown Castle Rock just swarms with friendly citizens. Then we all gather around the old courthouse, sing a few Christmas Carols and then somebody has the honor of flipping this gain light switch that turns on the Star on top of The Rock. Events like these are just one of the many great community times that I grew up in.

My friend, Jim, and I used to ride our bikes down to the Wal-Mart and hang out because there wasn't many places to go, until one day we got an Outlet Mall when I was in 8th grade. It was this monumentous event (which our local taxes are probably still paying off) that put us on the map and really got the ball rolling. For a while Douglas County was the fastest growing county in the nation. We were getting all sorts of people (mostly from Texas and California. I could tell you a few good jokes....). We all knew who was a newbie to the area because all of a sudden there was a flood of new SUV's bearing the same 3 first letters on their license plate: "DAD - "

After the outlet mall was built Junior Highers and retirees alike had something new to do: walk around the food court and order a cinnamonster. After the Outlet Mall came the free city-wide-clean-air-shuttle. My friend Jim and I were good friends with most of the drivers. Sometimes we would just sit on the shuttle for two or three laps around the city.

Castle Rock continued to grow. Once Wal-Mart built a new location on the other side of town and turned into a Super Wal-Mart everything changed again. Safeway moved to Wal-Mart's old place. The Public Library got the old Safeway, the Fire Department just built a whole new building, so the Police Department did too. The old fire station turned into retail and the local coffee shop, Crowfoot Valley Coffee Company united us all as espresso connoisseur.

Since I moved to Kansas City in September of 2001 there have been so many changes I can't keep up. Every time I am home visiting there is something new. Chick-fil-A, Cold-Stone, Red Robin, Target, a new wing to the Outlet Mall, a new middle school, etc...

What really blew me off my rocker this weekend while I'm here for my cousin's wedding and my brother-in-law's H.S. Graduation was that the community rec-center which I used visit regularly with, (you guessed it) Jim has a new addition: A Water Park!!!! What??!! I remember when the big upgrade was a pool table in the lobby. I used to count the days when I would be old enough to go into the steam room. My cousin Nate and I had to go experience the new city toy. We quickly assessed we might not be the 'target audience' the rec-center was aiming for when we found ourselves standing in line for the water slide behind 6 year olds. Oh well. There was also the lazy river which took about 1 minute per lap. But once again, oh well. At least there was the hot tub. About 10 girls got 'carded' when the lifeguard told them they wern't old enough to sit in it. It took us about 45 minutes to fully exhaust all the resources of the water-park although it was a great time nonetheless.

The other out-of-control addition is a 12 screen movie theatre. What in the world? Where was this when I was in High-School? I went with 3 of my other cousins this weekend and we must have been followed by the water park crowd. I felt like the kids behind me had just discovered 'being out without your mom and dad'.

What a reality check. I don't think of myself as being that old but I realize that the majority of my stories from back home happened at least 5 years ago if not 10 or 15. It makes me sad sometimes to think that I'm spending some of the 'prime time' of my life (meaning my 20's) in Kansas City instead of "God's Country". I love looking out my parent's back porch to see the rock mountains. People come from all over the world to ski there. In many ways I will be very glad when the Lord brings Anna and I back to this state to do what we love doing now: Prayer. It seems like a no-brainer to start an IHOP out here.

Hey come love Jesus and the weather doesn't suck.

Family

2006-05-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Anna and I are in Colorado this weekend for several events in the following order:

1. Anna's brother, Andrew, graduated from DCHS yesterday.

2. My cousin, Rebecca, graduated from High School yesterday.

3. My cousin, Hannah, is marrying the man of her dreams, Jared, tomorrow. (Pictures to come...)

4. Colorado is the greatest place on earth.

5. Did I mention it's beautiful out here?

There is something unique about my family. On my mom's side there are 19 cousins, plus 2 that have married in (3 if your reading this 24 hours or more from the time of this posting). What is so unique about us is not the amount of cousins but the closeness between us all.

It is always so great to be with familly. I don't know if there's really a way to explain it other than to talk about how easy it is for us to come together without seeing eachother in over a year or more and immediately laughing, hugging and crying together. It is an amazing bond of friendship and family that I am so grateful to be a part of.

So with that said I'd like to give a shout-out to all the cousins; and when I say cousins I mean the literal kind, not the other kind (it's a little inside, I know).

Nate, Hanna, Angie, Steven, Jaleh, Ashcon, Bejan, Romeo, Trevor, Tessa, SaraLynn, Kyle, Dirk, Angelique, Elena, Daniel, Rebecca, Jennifer, Elise, Anna: I love you guys.

It's gonna be a bright sunshiny day

2006-05-17T04:54:00.000-07:00

The Onething crew is going to Tallahassee this weekend for a conference. The forecast looks good. Too bad they don't serve IN-N-OUT. I guess you can't have it all.

In other news: Justin Rizzo will be going with us as the other worship leader this weekend. He's been writing songs and they are really good. You can tell he reads his Bible.

Your John G. for the Day

2006-05-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

John G. Lake on the Baptism of the Holy Ghost

When we stand before the bar of God and are asked why we have not fulfilled in our life all the mind of Christ and all His desire in the salvation of the world... How terrible it will be for us to say we neglected, we put off, we failed to seek for the enduement that cometh from on high - the baptism of the Holy Ghost

Experiment in Tongues

2006-05-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

Two days ago our prayer room team decided to do a little experiment with praying in tongues. For 24 hours we were going to try to pray in tongues whenever we were not talking. After 24 hours we decided to continue the experiment for a whole week.

Some of the testimonies so far after only 2 days are:

1. Noticable increase of God's presence on our spirit.
2. Easier to have refined speach (you have to stop praying to say something).
3. Less prone to sinning (you have to stop praying to sin, or pray while sinning).
4. Noticable increase of joy, kindness and humility.
5. Increased tenderness and hunger for God.

Baptized in the Spirit

2006-05-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking and praying a lot over the past few days about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and how that relates to being a 'sent one' and a 'witness' ( John 1:6-7 ; Acts 1:8 ).

It started a few days ago when I was just reading through my daily verses in John, and I came to 5:33 where Jesus is talking about John the Baptist and He says that "he has born witness to the truth." O.k. that's cool. All Christians bear witness to the truth right? Well why is John the Baptist the only man mentioned as a witness to Christ in chapter 5? The other witnesses are the Father (v. 32), Jesus' works (v. 36), and the Scriptures (v. 39). So this leads me back to John 1:6-8

"There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He...was sent to bear witness of that Light."

This got me thinking: "Can we be true witnesses of Christ without being sent by God?"

This question led me to other scriptures in the Bible that relate to heroes of the faith having an encounter by which before that encounter they were less 'active' and 'powerful' in their walk with God but that after the encounter they had a marked increase and greater dynamic of the anointing in their life.

Example #1: Moses - Before the burning bush he had run away from his homeland and was hanging out in the desert. After the burning bush he has a power ministry in front of Pharoah (who's basically the king of the world), he delivers millions of Jews out of 400 years of captivity, and continues in signs and wonders until his death.

Example #2: Elijah - His Biblical Debut is 1st Kings 17:1 where he shows up out of nowhere and tells the king "it won't rain except by my word." He went from "who's' that" to "Ahab's Most Wanted" in one sentence. James tells us that Elijah was a guy just like the rest of us but that he prayed earnestly so it didn't rain for 3 1/2 years (James 5:17).

Example #3: Isaiah - He's operating as a prophet for five chapters, and prophesying some pretty good stuff too. But then all of a sudden he has the meeting of a lifetime. He has a Divine encounter with God, and he gets sent by God to prophecy to Israel a decree and a judgment that still stands today.

Example #4: Jesus - In Luke 4 he goes into the wilderness for his 40 day fast being "filled with and led by the Spirit" and he comes out afterwards "under the power of the Spirit." Immediately He begins His ministry, and need I say more?...

Example #5: The Apostles - They're all fishermen and even after 3 1/2 years of "Jesus School of Ministry" they still run away, deny Jesus and accept defeat in the hour of testing. But after the ascention they're in the upper room for 10 days praying and Pentecost comes. They get filled with the Holy Spirit. From that point on the church goes crazy, they have shadows that heal people, they preach sermons that get 3,000 saved in a day and that's just the start!

On this subject, Art Katz says

"There is a difference between ‘went’ and ‘sent’. The root word of apostolic is ‘sent’. However well meaning most of the activity in the church today is self-initiated. We donÂ’t esteem the phenomenon of sending as well as recognizing the difference between the work in those who have been sent and those who just went...Nations that hate us will only hear us if they recognize we are sent from God."

In all this my point is that I believe there are levels of our personal 'baptism in the Spirit' or that there are stages of our being filled with the indwelling Spirit. I think our progression in the Christian faith probably looks something like this.

1. Lost Sinner
2. Saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus
3. Baptism of the Spirit / Receipt of the indwelling Spirit
4. Working out our Salvation
5. Progression of holiness and freedom from sin
6. Progressive increase of anointing on our hearts and our ministry

To muse on steps 5 & 6 for a moment (really these two go hand in hand): I think that as we continue to draw closer to a holy God we can only do so by growing in holiness ourselves. We are designed to be a dwelling place for God but a holy God requires a holy dwelling place. Our progression in the Spirit is directly related to our denial of our selves and our hatred of sin. Every little ounce of sin in our life is a hindrance to the life of the Spirit within us. Every act of rebellion is an axe-blow to the tree of life growing in our soul. Real Christianity ever seeks to be made perfect in God, both in character and gifts.

We all know that we need to deny ourselves as we progress in our faith. That's not a new concept. What I want to know is how do we get sent?! I think there are lots and lots of Christians in the Church that will live their life and never be sent. The point isn't to be sent into full-time ministry in Africa or whatever. The point is to be sent as witnesses and as apostles of the Living God; no matter what your vocation. Right now We have a skewed and watered down view of the Baptism of the Spirit. When it came upon a man originally, as it did upon the hundred and twenty at Jerusalem in Acts 2, no one went around saying, "Brother, have you got your baptism?" They were walking with their shoes of, with uncovered heads and uncovered hearts before the eternal God!

"You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me..."(Acts 1:8)

So how to we get from our initial baptism in the spirit to our own personal pentecost where we go from scared fishermen to thoseturning turrning the world upside down? I love the answer that John G. Lake gives:

"You may have God. That is the wonder of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It is not a work of grace; it is God possessing you. So beloved, you pray through. Pray through for this church, pray through for this work. Oh, God will come! God will come with more tongues than you have ever heard. God will come with more power than your eyes ever beheld. God will come with waves of heavenly love and sweetness, and blessed God, your heart will be satisfied in Him."

We will never be sent ones if we casually read our Bible and pray a little bit. We have to do as the Apostles did and "give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word." (Acts 6:4)

Riot Slimer

2006-05-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

The Researchers at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas have developed a super-slimy substance. When fired at an unruly mob it causes rioters to slip and fall over.

The invention will also be sold at Toys-R-Us as the new summer sensation slip-n-slide-as-you-go.

[Read more from the actual site.]

Baseball Cards

2006-05-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

I read a funny story today about this guy Alex Gordon who was going to sign to the Kansas City Royals so they (Topps) made his Rookie Card, but then he didn't sign and instead is only playing double A down in Wichita (I have no idea why, but I chalk it up to fitting in with the way things go for the Royals).

So Topps pulls his cards from their 2006 collection but some kid stumbles accross 5 of them at Wal-Mart after buying some packs of cards for his own collection and (very inteligenly) decides to sell them via eBay for a grand total of $5,761.79!

There's supposedly less than 100 out there that didn't make it in the recall and so now everyone's going crazy over this guy's rookie card when he's not even in the major leagues. Supposedly he might be a really good ball player down the road and then his 'non-existent' pre-rookie card rookie card will be worth even more than the $2,550 that someone's paid for one so far.

Intimacy vs. Ministry

2006-04-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

It seems that the most common issue in Christian ministry is the issue of intimacy and relationship with God. When I was in high school and then Bible college my paradigm of going into ministry was really just based on my own pride and hunger for the spotlight. I wanted to be this big preacher guy who had the fire of God and would do radical alter calls, etc, etc... I didn't think it was based on pride at the time (we never think that), but looking back I realize now that if I had gotten any power on my life my relationship with God would have gone down the tubes a lot faster than I would have realized.

Today I've been thinking about what my life and salvation would have been like if I hadn't been in a prayer room for the past 5 years. What if I had finished out Bible School and then gotten a job as a youth pastor, or as a traveling speaker or something? The reason I left school in the first place was because I realized that my classes weren't teaching me anything about character or integrity or life in God. As a Youth Min. Major most of my classes consisted on how to keep attendance in your youth group, how to grow your attendance, how to plan a summer camp and so on. But none of my classes taught me how to get out of sin so I could lead others out too. None of my classes were on how to pray and fast and study the word. My Bible classes were super interesting and full of information but they didn't teach me how to get the Word living and burning in my spirit to make me alive in God. If I had kept on that course I wonder if I would really be saved...maybe enough to get by but would I have made it through the days ahead? Would I have survived through the fire of God's coming judgments, or would I grow cold and then offended eventually to fall away and be one among the many in the Great Apostasy?

After having virtually no "ministry" (as some would define that term) for the past five years I've come to realize that God really doesn't care all that much about the size or effectiveness of our ministry anyways. My point is that He does care about our ministry and about us touching and reaching other people but if we had a big or small ministry that won't count in eternity. The only thing that will not burn away is God's word. Whatever we do in life that is not out of a humble heart in service to God won't count. That's why even a cup of cold water means so much and will never be forgotten because if it's done as a gift to God it's an act that will be remembered for eternity.

In the sermon on the mount Jesus doesn't say anything like, "Blessed are those who preach to the masses," or "Blessed are the miracle workers," or "Blessed are the anointed worship leaders." He says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God. Blessed are those who pray and fast and give their money to a place that moth and rust do not destroy. Blessed are those with treasure in heaven. How many ministers of the Gospel are there in America today who have traded their relationship with God for ministry? They think they don't have time for personal devotion and prayer because they have to get the new fresh sermon. But true ministry will flow out of a heart that is alive in God.

I'm not trying to say that we should forget about ministry and just do our thing and love Jesus. But I think there is a better way to do ministry than what the norm is today. I think there's a better and more effective way to really touch people than to hurry up and get behind that pulpit and start preaching. I think that the most effective way to do ministry is to wait until you're 'sent by God.' What if instead of going from High School to Bible School to Seminary to Associate Pastor to Senior Pastor you just waited? What if you just waited in the presence of God and built a prayer life? What if you read the Bible 100 times before you preached even one sermon? What if you waited to get God's vision for your life and ministry before you just went for it? I don't know how much this is making sense or if I'm even making any sense. I feel like so many ministers are so zealous to touch people that they're hurrying up to get out there but they don't really have anything to offer so they're not producing that much fruit, and the fruit they are producing is just dying off anyways.

What I want for my own life is to be in love with God and to have His Word burning in my spirit. I want to have a real relationship with Jesus. Then out of that place I want to be a noble vessel to be used for noble purposes. Of course I still want to see powerful ministry times and anointed preaching with signs and wonders but I want to see hearts touched with longevity. I want to see sound conversions not emotional decisions for Jesus. And at the end of it all I want Jesus to say well done Shawn, you grew in love for Me and for others and you had revelation in your spirit. He won't be interested in the size of my ministry, He'll be interested if I responded in love and humility to every situation; and for the times I did I will be rewarded forever.

Stunning

2006-04-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor just had a baby 2 days ago and she's still in the hospital recovering. Her husband is at home with the 4 other kids, and so Anna offered to babysit whenever they needed. She's already been over twice in the past week to help out and lay the smack down.

Tonight is our weekly date night and a big one because I was out of town all last week, but our neighbor called up to see if we would babysit so he could go visit his wife and new baby at the hospital. Anna said yes, and very generously sacraficed our date night. Not only that but because I've been feeling under the weather ever since I got back from California she let me stay home to get some rest.

So I just want to take this opportunity to say how amazing and kind my wife is! Thanks so much Babe. You are stunning!!

Raising Up Intercessors

2006-04-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot since the Onething conference last weekend. One of the nights we had a ministry time for those who felt like they were called to be "Anna's" and serve the Lord in His House of Prayer with prayer and fasting. I'd guess that 50 or 100 people stood up to respond. 50 people in Sacramento that said; "Yeah, I want to serve the Lord in the Prayer room and give my life to praying and fasting for revival." That is a bold statement, and a lot of people proclaimed it!

What I've been thinking about is how do we get those 50 people who stood up into the prayer room once the conference is over? About 15 minutes away from the campus that hosted the conference is the Roseville House of Prayer. I went in there a few times after the conference and there wasn't anybody new. There wasn't 50 young people praying or fasting. Obviously that's not a realistic expectation, but how do we get young people from the conference to the prayer room? How do we raise up intercessors other than by laying hands on them during a ministry time?

When Frank Bartleman would travel and preach there would be a breakout of night and day prayer. He carried such an anointing and spirit of prayer on his life that it was contagious. The Onething conferences need the very same anointing. But it's only attained by praying. So I guess we are doing the right things and waiting for the Divine breakthrough.

Spidey Gets the Red Out

2006-04-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

From USA Today:

"An exclusive first image from Spider-Man 3, due in theaters in May 2007, indicates a change of garb, as Spidey shifts from his signature red suit to black. Tobey Maguire returns as the arachnid-bitten Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Kirsten Dunst is back as on-off love Mary Jane.

But there's a new woman in Peter's life: Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy. Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) is bad-guy Sandman. And director Sam Raimi returns at the helm."

So in case you didn't know: I'm a nerd and like comic books.

Tall Decaf Cappuccino

2006-04-20T23:33:00.000-07:00

I swear, if you blidfolded someone and dropped them out of an airplane into any random location in California the chances of them just walking into a Starbucks before any other establishment have got to be shockingly high.

At any given Starbucks you're not more than two minutes away from another Starbucks; so if all Starbucks had a drive-thru you could potentially drink 15 hot cups of coffee in 30 minutes on your way to any given location.

Now there's some java for thought.

Ministry

2006-04-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

This evening was the first session for the Onething Conference, out here in Sac-town (Sacramento for all non-native, non-gangsters).

Jackson Senyonga was the speaker tonight. He was off the cuff. He has a powerful reality of prayer. After his message he gave a salvation call and several people (10-ish) got saved tonight! Those small responses never cease to make me love Jesus more. After that, he had everyone stand and the whole room prayed out-loud to the Lord for several minutes. After this the room was in a clear state of I-need-more-of-God-ness and so he opened up the front of the room for any who want to come and the open space between the stage and the front row was instantly full with people on their knees making conversation with God!

It's moments like that which make me so proud to be part of the Onething team. This is a great way to spend my life.

Confession

2006-04-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

We landed at Sacramento Airport yesterday after 6 hours on our airplane. One of my favorite things about flying is at the baggage carousel when we collect our 25 huge, blue, rubbermaid tubs and our 7 instrument flight cases holding our guitar pedal boards, monitor equipment, and cables. People are always staring at us like the circus is in town or something. "Are you guys in some sort of band? What is all that stuff?" And it's usually old women that ask. It's good to know that that's the crowd we're attracting when we go to do our young adult conferences. Now all we need to attract more attention is matching blue and white jump suites: GO TEAM ONETHING!

After we pile all our gear into the back of a huge box truck (which is a nice relief from the standard 7 suv's) we head off to get
lunch. Of course where else would we go other than IN-N-OUT? This is where my confession comes: I had fish tacos instead of a double-double. I totally let Steven down. Half the gang (the healthy half) went to a nice fast-food mexican place similar to Baja Fresh. The rest of us went next door to the IN-N-OUT, except after all the travel my appetite was not going to give way for a burger, no matter how fresh or tasty. So I walked over to the mexican place and received quite a bit of slack from my teammates when I stood in line to order the "Famous Fish Tacos." But like I always say, "You gotta
do what you gotta do."

Sac Town

2006-04-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

In less than 12 hours I'll be in the air on my way to Sacramento, California for the Onething Conference. It's at a university and we're expecting close to 2,000 people to show up. That's great. It seems that a lot more people come when it's free. Coincidence? I think so.

This will probably be my personal highlight for the Onething Tour this year because my old roomate Ben lives out in Sacramento. Ben and I practically spent all day, every day together for almost four years. We invented our own sense of humor. Ever since he moved to California a lot of my jokes have gone un-appreciated or even un-told with the knowledge that insetead of laughs I would only get blank stares and cricket noises.

Another reason this will be a highlight trip is that it's our last trip to the west coast which means my last chance for IN-N-OUT in 2006. This is where self-control will need to come in to play so I don't try to eat a 12 month supply of Double-Doubles in only 3 days.

Does anyone know if you can you freeze a hamburger and fries?

Do floutists get blisters?

2006-04-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

When my band in Colorado used to play local shows I would always joke around while we were loading in that I should have played the flute. Then I wouldn't have to carry a heavy bass drum, toms, hardware, cymbals and then unpack it all (of course once it was all onto the stage I loved setting up my kit from scratch. That feeling of, if I set it up better than last time I'll play brilliantly) only to do tear it all down again after the show and then figure out how to get it all back into my car because traveling with a five piece drum set in a Honda Civic is like eating a sandwich at Arthur Bryants: 4 pounds of beef crammed between two slices of Wonder Bread.

Today when I was playing at IHOP for the 10AM it hit me how funny it is to be a drummer. For 14 years I have been spending lots of money to buy quality equipment and to play with well made sticks instead of the bargain banana brand. But it doesn't end there; it's not like the flute: you don't buy your gear and now your set. Nope; with my instrument everything I own breaks. But what else is so funny is that I'm the one that breaks it. It's the opposite problem of kids in an antique shop. I buy it then break it. I buy it knowing I'm going to break it.

Studio Time

2006-03-30T14:30:00.001-08:00

Merchant Band is in the studio this weekend working on our next
project. I love being in the studio with these guys. It's always a
blast coming in with our initial plan for the song and then recording
it a few times, listening to it, recording it again, working out a
new part, talking about it, someone going in to redo their part, etc...

I just love hanging out back and forth between the isolation room on
my drums and the console room on the couch listening to what we've
done so far and listening to the other guys add parts. And what
makes it all that much better is a hot cup of coffee (when will
Starbucks start delivering?).

A Weekend to Remember

2006-03-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

Anna and I had our one year anniversary this past weekend. We
technically started the celebration on Friday with Anna's 23rd
birthday. I cooked chicken stir-fry and then took her to a factory
for cheesecakes.

What makes me so great as a husband is that for her birthday present
I gave her the A&E 6 hour presentation of Pride and Prejudice (Anna's
favorite book). Then we spent all day Saturday watching it (girls
say "oohhh", guys say "ouch").

Things get better though... on Sunday we had reservations at the
Sheraton Suites Hotel downtown and dinner at our favorite fondue
restaurant. We had a 3 course meal of cheese fondue, salads and raw
meat we got to cook ourselves followed by another meal of chocolate
dipped delicacies (i.e. brownies and fruit).

We came home Monday morning feeling great about life and our
marriage. Some good advice from a friend told us that money invested
into our marriage and relationship is always a wise investment.

Here nor There

2006-03-23T08:24:00.000-08:00

Merchant Band and the Onething team is on their way to Dallas this
weekend without me. They're doing a conference at Christ For Nations
college. (A school that I almost went to instead of coming to IHOP 5
years ago). They're expecting at least 1,000 to show up and that's
not even including one student. It should be a great time! Some
amazing person even fronted the money for the whole conference so
it's free!

So why am I staying behind? you might ask. Well in less than 24
hours it will be Anna's 23rd birthday and in less than 72 hours it
will be our very first anniversary! We have an action packed
weekend. Tomorrow Anna has plans to go out with her friends for tea
and then I have a special date planned with her for tomorrow night.
Saturday I have something special planned as a roll-over event from
the birthday. The home-run comes this Sunday the 26th because I
have secret plans for celebrating our anniversary...Anna doesn't even
know I have a secret yet.

Who's on Drums?

2006-03-20T08:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the morning off from playing drums with Merchant Band
for the FCF church service because another drummer (we'll call him
Frank) is subbing for me this weekend while my team plays in Dallas
since Anna and I will be celebrating our One Year Anniversary.

After sleeping in and getting ready for my day I check my voice
mail. I have two messages from Marcus. The first says "Hey man, I
forgot to let you know for sure that you don't have to come in this
morning so if you get this then go ahead and keep sleeping." The
next message said "Um, hey Shawn. We're not sure where Frank is. If
you get this call me."

At this point it's already 9:35 and the service starts at 10. So I
call Josh to find out that another drummer, Joel, was called up and
is on his way. He was at IHOP playing drums, so he got someone else
to take over for him but they were using my stuff. So I had to go to
IHOP to get my drums stuff back from the guy using it at the time,
then race over to FCF, set up and sound-check with the band all in
under 10 minutes.

My wife was kind enough to bring me a hot cup of java I got to enjoy
after worship. Thanks honey.

Spring Cleaning

2006-03-17T16:23:00.000-08:00

We have some family coming to visit us this weekend. I love having
company because then the house gets cleaned.

This evening I found myself emptying full trash-cans that I didn't
even know we had and dusting corners of the room because I had to
stay there until the floor was dry after being mopped.

Why is it true of everyone that when someone's coming to visit the
whole house has to be clean and then we pretend like it's always that
tidy? We all know that it's not that tidy but we all pretend like it
is. You do it to me and I do it to you. And if you don't mention
that 'wow, you're house is kept so well" then we get mad that you
didn't notice. Except when you do notice we act like we're surprised
you noticed as if it's always like this.

So do people that always have super clean houses kind-of mess things
up when they have company come over? "Honey, quick, make the couch
cushions messy. We don't want them to think we're crazy neat freaks."

Podstar Runner

2006-03-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

Two of my favorite things have come together: iTunes and Homestar Runner.

Now I don't have to wait countless seconds for the flashing L O A D I N G . . . to finish but can download Strong Bad directly to my Mac and watch whenever I want. It's sooooo good.

If you know who Brett Bretterson is then Click Here.

If you have iTunes click here.

There stands One among us...

2006-03-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

John the Baptist said "There stands One among you whom you do not know." It is so easy for me to point this sentence at others and say "yeah, those people don't even know Jesus is in their midst." But what about my life? Just because I'm in a positive spiritual atmosphere and I know some relative Bible verses that does not mean I am in the place of knowing Christ.

Mary of Bethany knew. She knew who Jesus was. She knew what He was doing. She knew where He was from and where He was going. And most importantly she knew what He wanted from her and how to respond to Him...she wasted everything! She gave it all!

How did she know who He was? What was the difference between Mary and Martha? What compelled Mary to sit at Jesus' feet? Why was she so needy to be with Him? Why didn't she want to serve or learn or ask Him to bless her? She just wanted to sit and be with Him.

Jesus said that she chose the good part. She chose what He wanted her to choose. He wanted her to sit and be with Him. My prayer is for the Lord to give me the grace and wisdom to chose this for my life. That I would be able to just sit and know Him. It's such a shock to my paradigm that the Uncreated Son of God doesn't need us to do anything for Him. He really just wants us to be His friends. That's why He made a way for us by His blood. He wants us to 'sit' with Him for all eternity, but it won't always be at His feet, it will also be at His right hand.

Classified

2006-02-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

My favorite Olympic Moments

2006-02-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

If I were to compete in the olympics the Snowboard Cross would deffinately be my highlight event. Blasting down a mountain, negotiating turns, checking other snowboarders, fighting for the lead and shooting over kickers. What a great time... Also, I think it's pretty cool that the gold medalist for Men's Half Pipe was Shaun White...

In other thoughts, I think it's funny that Seth Wescott who won the Gold for men's snowboard cross was actually excited when American, Lindsey Jacobellis, fell durring the Women's Snowboard Cross final run; because then Seth's girlfriend, Tanja, from Sweden won the Gold.

Maybe Seth should have taken off his USA jacket before jumping up and down to celebrate Sweden's victory after America gave away the gold.

Millennium Olympics?

2006-02-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

Question:

Will there be tournaments and competitions between the resurrected
saints during the Millennial Kingdom? Will we fight for 1st place
or just have intramural games where everyone is a winner? Would it
even be a competition since we'd all have our glorified bodies? Say
you do win and get a gold medal; isn't that still just pavement?

The Cross

2006-02-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

You know how everyone seems to have their own personal 'nitch' in the Bible? It's thier thing that they always tie everything else to. Personally I think it's amazing how that works. One verse can have so many applications to so many people. It can get one person excited for evangelism, one person turned on for worship and someone else motivated for prophecy.

My 'nitch' is Jesus. Seriously. Not just Jesus the man or king or god but, Jesus, the inventor of the cross.

There is something about Jesus dying for me that whenever I think about it my heart starts to ache. Then my stomache get a little tense, my throat choke up, and brings me close to tears. Almost every time. (Wow, I'm sounding like a sappy halmark card).

There has been such an end-times focus within the IHOP community over the past year+. I love studying end-times. But it wasn't until my heart made the connection with the first coming and the second coming that I began to actually cry for His return. The 2nd coming finally had become more than a topic of interest for me; I realized that it is the claiming of all He bought durring His first visit.

I love thinking about Jesus and the Cross because it intregues me in every way. The doctrine, the intimacy, the humility, the power, the simplicity and the ''who in the world thinks of something like that?''.

Monopoly with Top Hat Rat

2006-02-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

My sister, Elise, drove out from Colorado to visit Anna and me this weekend. Tonight the three of us had a blast playing games and drinking tea. We played this one game where you pick out a random topic and then you have to write a story or a poem about that topic. Then you go around and everyone shares what they wrote. It had us all rolling. Afterwards we had a short game of Monopoly. Short only because I dominated and had everyone bankrupt in less than 90 minutes (now that's what I call "Feel Good Monopoly").

Here's the funniest of the stories that was written:

Top Hat Rat, you think you're 'all that'. But when I sat right down next to you, guess what, you're fat. Splat was the sound I made when I hocked a huge loogy right onto your feet. Top Hat Rat you don't like my cat. Well I do. His name is Calamazoo, and today he turned twenty-two. "Phew" I said to myself when I realized it wasn't too late to get my little kitty his favorite birthday treat: Meow Mix.

Home is where you don't sleep

2006-02-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

After arriving at 2 A.M. this morning from the Los Angeles Onething
Conference our team managed to squeak in a few hours of sleep before
the 6 A.M. prayer meeting at IHOP.

Even though I'm exhausted it's great to be home. No matter how
hospitable our hosts are and no matter how up-scale their homes are
it's not the same as using your own towels, making your own tea in
your own mug. Even if your barely conscience at the time.

Attention Unorganized Tiger Users

2006-02-19T12:21:00.000-08:00

www.kudurshian.net/highpriority

Just when I was seriously getting tired of using stiky notes to keep track of my to-do list because I hated opening iCal whenever I needed to put in a new to-doer gues what I discovered?

"High Priority is an inexpensive Mac OS X 10.4 or higher menu extra whose sole purpose is to help you manage your To Dos in a simple, intuitive, and pleasant manner. Leveraging the power and simplicity of iCal, Apple's calendar software bundled with Mac OS X, High Priority allows you to create, edit, and remove your To Do items directly from the menu bar, without having to have iCal open."

Sometimes the fall is literal.

2006-02-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

"After Jacobellis attempted to grab her board going over the second to last jump, she caught an edge upon landing and lost the gold medal."

Go America!

Worship Music and IN-N-OUT

2006-02-17T18:39:00.000-08:00

Merchant Band and the Onething team are in Los Angeles for a conference this weekend. I love coming to California because the weather is always nicer here than in Kansas City (actually that rings true of everywhere we travel to). Growing up in Colorado with the Rockies in my back yard make the ocean not that exciting to me for some reason. If the ocean were a giant waterfall that would be cool. So I suppose the real reason I love coming out here is for the double-double.

"What," you say, "is a double-double?" Well it's a hamburger. But it's the Chipotle of burger joints. Or perhaps Chipotle is the IN-N-OUT of burrito joints. My point being that IN-N-OUT serves fresh goodness. Their fries are cut from the potato about 45 seconds before they're cooked and put into your french fry box. My current favorite words are "Order number 45!"

This trip there are three guys with us (Josh, Steve and Corey) that have never even been to California before let alone to IN-N-OUT. So I got to introduce them. Tonight dinner was homemade for the band by some volunteers at the church. One lady was pretty upset when she discovered that half the band was skipping her meal to go get a hamburger, fries and chocolate shake.

Are football fans ever normal?

2006-02-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

After watching one of the most depressing football games of my life two weeks ago, I find myself incredibly excited to turn the TV on again today. Unfortuanately, no matter how much I hoped or screamed the Broncos were unable to pull of the AFC title match. So now I am forced to root for the Steelers and act as if it's normal. But I don't know if I would define someone who has a Denver Broncos Cash Back Bonus Debit Card as normal.

The Blanc Spot

2006-01-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

We are in Colorado now as our support raising trip is winding down and we're enjoying the last few days we have out here near the mountains. We've had an awesome time out here. Anna and I have had a chance to meet several new people and share a lot about what all is going on back in KC and our plans for Castle Rock.

Every time we come back to Colorado I get more and more excited about moving back here some day. This place will always be home for us. Too bad my hands get really dry when I'm out here now. I'm not used the high dry air anymore...there go my hopes and dreams to win the elephant rock race this year.