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Showing posts from 2016

Jingle Bells

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It's always been difficult for me to connect with God during a worship service. I'm not sure why -- I am a musician after all, so you'd think it would be my first choice of meeting God. But for some reason it's rare that I really feel my spirit connect with God's during the musical part of a worship service. This Christmas season, I found myself at  St. Andrew's Church  in Mt. Pleasant. I owe a lot to this church, having gone here often in high school and always coming away a better person, as well as being continually impressed with their community. It was actually on a St. Andrew's trip to  Creation Festival  that I made the public declaration of faith that changed my life. Sixteen years later, I still see the light of Jesus in this place. Despite the tremendous quality of this church and its worship team, as I stood in the pew with good friends singing Christmas carols and worship songs, I still felt disconnected. We might as well have been singi

Pot Pie & Purpose

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How come pot pie never works? It takes forever to cook, despite being counted amongst the most prevalent of frozen entrees; and when it's "done," it's either still frozen in the center or so hot you can't eat it for another hour. I'm not sure why this is the case, but it seems to be a universal truth. And so, as I chomp on my piping hot Trader Joe's pot pie, I am wondering if there are any other parallels that this long-time American staple could relate to (I'm always eager to relate  food to theology  you know). The first thing that came to mind is a big idea on our purpose in life. Have you ever done something that just doesn't work? Maybe a job or relationship that goes wrong at every turn. It's like wearing a shoe a half-size too small -- you could get by, but every step is uncomfortable and rubs against your little toe. Perhaps this experience is your pot pie in life. It will get you by, but something just isn't right. So what

No Risk, No Reward

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It was a big day at Redondo Beach, which is rare. The waves were breaking hard and fast on the south side of the jetty, while smaller and a little more predictable on the north side. I paddled out south along with about ten other guys who were already out, or filtering in. You could catch rights or lefts here, depending on how close you were to the jetty. But it was a steep drop no matter what, and so I hung out in places where it looked like I could get a good corner. Wipeouts abounded before I caught an amazing left. Big, long drop. I was flying - one of my fastest waves ever. My body was wound up perfectly to travel up the wave and do a big snap at the crest. Not that I'm great at doing snaps, but I've been learning. Unfortunately, on that day though, I enjoyed the drop and the speed so much that I didn't want to waste my ride on what would have likely been a failed snap. And so I absorbed the drop, tried to keep as much speed as I could, and rode it out. Unfortun

Trump

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"Trump won." This was the first thing I heard from my wife this morning. She has been following this election and been quite involved, which I'm proud of her for doing. We're both in disbelief really, and as I got ready for work and exited into a world that seemed changed somehow, I wasn't sure what to expect. Would there be rebel-rousin' folks driving around celebrating by shooting guns into the sky? Or would riots fills the streets of disappointed Democrats, lighting cars on fire and drinking forties? But as I drove in normal traffic down the streets I travel every day, I found nothing unusual, and that feeling started to leave. It seems drastic to have such an extreme man as our president, which leads to my drastic thoughts about what he may or may not do. Will immigrants be sent out forcefully? With The Wall actually be built? Will Muslims be put in concentration camps until they are deemed "safe" by the government? Extreme examples, but my

Albums that Heal

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If you're like me, you still listen to albums. Full albums, not pieces of albums shuffled together (I still shuffle too; no judging). There is just something about a succession of songs in the order the artist intended for them to be in that tells a story, has an arc, creates a feeling that one song just can't accomplish. And sometimes, one of these albums speaks to you in a way that really connects with your life -- like the artist just lived what you are living right now, and gave you this great accompaniment to make it a richer experience. This could be something as light as an album that makes you feel like you're  riding to the beach  with the windows down; or it could be heavy, like therapy on a cloudy day in an even cloudier part of life. The first time this happened to me in a memorable way was  Emery 's  I'm Only a Man . It's an album about sin and shortcomings relevant to humanity. Divorce, abortion, infidelity, even murder -- from both sides of

Normal

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I didn't go to a normal high school. It was the  School of the Arts , and we all had to audition for one of several art majors just to get in. We had no sports (although a fledgling tennis team was started at some point while I was there), about half the teachers had weird eccentricities that kept us wondering who they were outside of the classroom, and vocal majors would walk the sidewalks singing between classes. I guess it's about as close to living out  High School Musical  as you can get. I went there from 6th grade until 12th, but when I got to high school, I had thoughts of bowing out for a more "normal" high school experience. I wanted the football team with cheerleaders and the marching band. I wanted big classrooms and nice facilities (SOA was literally in the middle of a project neighborhood). Ultimately, I just wanted something a little less strange, and a little more like everyone else. In the end,  my dad  talked me into staying, and I'm so gl

Surfing is Inspiration

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Maybe you've noticed (or maybe not), but my blogging has been rather light this summer. Part of it is because of a  tumultuous move , but another part is that I've lost part of my inspiration. What is that inspiration, you might ask...surfing! (big surprise?) This is the surf report I've seen far too often this summer, and unfortunately, when I'm not surfing, I'm not writing. Maybe that doesn't make much sense, because you'd think if I'm not surfing, I'm doing something inside  like  writing. Not the case, particularity when I aim to write about surfing! This isn't the first time this has happened to me. Years ago I wrote for  StoreYourBoard.com  and was loving it. Then we had our first child and life became about the baby. I surfed when I could, and wrote when I got ideas. But without the former, the ideas were infrequent and therefore so was my writing. They didn't fire me so much as I resigned, but I  do  miss getting paid to wr

Make a Decision

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My aunt bought me one of these pads years ago. I'm not sure I was aware of it then, but I guess she was...I'm pretty bad at making decisions. I remember one time sitting in my living room when I was in high school and staring at the wall.  My sister  walked in and asked what I was doing. "Trying to figure out if I should play video games or go skateboarding," I replied. (Oh, the hardships of youth...) My sister said that was dumb and walked away. She came back about 25 minutes later and I was still sitting there, undecided. "You're ridiculous!" she said, and she was right. I had spent so much time deciding what to do, that I could have probably done both things with the time I wasted. Where does this come from? Over the years I've come to realize that this  indecisiveness is rooted in  fear . I'm afraid to make the wrong decision, and so I spend way more time than necessary to make the right one. The folly in that should be more obvious, b

Skateboarding as Art

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I had a professor once tell me that  art is making something out of nothing . If that's true, skateboarders are the best artists around. Here's why: I've walked past this empty parking lot dozens of times, and every time I think to myself, "I need to skate that." Why?! It's just an empty parking lot! Maybe to a typical bystander, but to a skateboarder, even an empty parking lot is full of possibilities. A curb, a ledge, a handrail; stairs, loading docks, walls...it's all fair game to a skateboarder, not just as an obstacle, but as a platform for  creative thought in action . Many skaters feel that the way they skate is self-expression, because one skater can see a ledge and think one trick, while another will think of something entirely different. It's all open, and up to interpretation, combined with ability and practice. The end result is something normal transformed into something special, which is always valuable to humanity, and often hard to c

Your Wife is Probably Right...

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It takes a humble man to admit it, but in most cases, your wife is probably right. The longer I'm married, the more I realize this. I had one of the more significant revelations about this topic lately, one I think is worth sharing and proves the point well. Recently we decided to make the move from California to the east coast, where we're both from. As we examined our moving options, my wife did a little research and decided it would be best to rent one of those  portable storage  units, sell everything we could and fill it with what was left in our Prius. Unfortunately, selling everything included my beloved  Subaru Baja , which I did not want to do. Well, I decided to do some of my own research, and found that it would actually be cheaper to hook up a 5x8 Uhaul trailer to the Baja and sell everything we couldn't fit in there and the Prius. It would be a stretch, but we're kind of into downsizing, and so we decided on that option. It worked -- we sold just

Follow Me

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Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.  (1 Corinthians 11:1) I've found that when you want to do something, it's best with people, but also best not to wait around for those people. This applies heavily to skating and surfing, particularly in your 30s. I'm notoriously bad about planning a little surf excursion and then inviting everyone I know to join. What ends up happening is I stress over organizing times, places, carpools and board-borrowing, which leaves little time for enjoying surfing. Sometimes a simple trip with a couple friends is all you need for a good time, and honestly, my best sessions are like that. However, sometimes you invite all your friends and no one wants to join, or everyone is too busy, or it's cold and the waves are bad. In these cases, it's easy to call it a day and play  surf video games  instead. But too much of that, and you've lost all the surf-muscles you've built up, and before you know it you weig