Matthew 8

Read it here.

Or you can read it here in the translation that our newest contributor's dad helped to put together (the NET Bible).

Let's get this party restarted.

I'm in Houston. You know, where all that money you pay at the pump eventually ends up. Suckas!

I moved out of the Stadium yesterday and into my parents' house in the northwest burbs of Houston. From here I am going to figure out what I'm going to do for the next year of my life. Austin will be missed, especially the people - it is still the city which maintains a plurality of the people I really care about, and Houston isn't nearly as cool. On the bright side, however, I did get to go to the Houston Ginger Man last night, and I enjoyed the beer and the company a great deal. I hadn't seen B Mart in a year or so, and it has been awhile since I've seen either Garrett or Drew, and it's always refreshing to catch up. I also got to hang out with a random really drunk dude, and that's always nice.

The sad part is last night could be the last time I'll hang out with Coop for a year, as he is going to East Asia. Coop, you'll be in my prayers buddy.

This morning I went to church with Drew at Second Baptist (a.k.a. "The Bapti-dome"). In a related story, I saw the two biggest stained glass windows in the world today, along with the third largest pipe organ in the world. The amount of money this church has makes my stomach a bit queasy, but I did really enjoy the preaching: in spite of all of the money, Ben Young brought it, and even though I felt like I was attending the J.D. Rockefeller of churches, I could tell that God's hand is very much on the place. Plus they let first time visitors grab a handful of diamonds from a special plate in the welcome area, and they even supply little baggies for you to keep them in. One handful only, please.

I hope they support Drew, because if they don't I fear for their salvation.

Also, in spite of how many people attended the contemporary service I was at, I'm pretty sure I was the only person in the room who voted for John Kerry in 2004. Not a bad thing necessarily, just an observation. Seriously though, I don't know if I've ever been in a room with that many Republicans. It made me miss Matt a lot.

I was made aware of a terrible travesty today. Do you remember when CiCi's pizza was $2.99? I believe it was the best pizza value anywhere (at least according to their jingle)? Do you remember when they raised the price to $3.99? Do you remember how many consecutive nights you cried yourself to sleep, wondering if their cheap crappy delicious pizza was worth the extra dollar? Then I'm sure you'll be just as enraged as I was today when I saw a billboard on I-45 advertising CiCi's all-you-can-eat pizza for $4.49. Seriously, folks. I wouldn't joke about this. Now it's only fifty cents cheaper than that Pizza Hut buffet by campus, and there is no way that Pizza Hut is only fifty cents better than CiCi's. And how many pepperoni rolls can you get at Double Dave's for that price? Weak. If I want overpriced crappy food I would go to Chili's. CiCi's, you're fired.

KO
FI
AH
NAN
(clap clap, clap clap clap)

Welcome to The Andude

We will shortly have a new member here at Witless Brevity. His name is Andrew Wallace, but you can call him The Andude. I'm pretty sure most of you already know him, but for those of you that don't, consider yourself formally introduced.

My first facebook birthday

So yes I've been on facebook long enough that this was actually my second facebook birtheday, but this one had a ridiculously facebooky feel. Actually it was way better than those first two sentences would lead you to believe. I woke up to a breakfast of chocolate cake. I deferred until lunch time. (It was only putting it off for 2 hours anyway). This was my first birthday to spend anytime with family in 2 years. 3 years ago my parents were with my in Colorado for my B-day, but it was nice waking up at home.

Speaking of past B-day's. I really had no expectations for today. Comparing it to having 20-30 close summer project friends around I figured it wouldn't be nearly as good as that. But it was. I flew up to Houston, mid day. My birthday gift/our son is going to East Asia for a year gift was a weekend trip to Houston to see the Astros as a family. Pretty sweet deal. I wound up flying a day early b/c I needed to visit a certain consulate about a certain document to gain access. Therefore travelling on my B-day.

Almost didn't make it due to some ticket problems, but luckily the plane was only beginning to load as a I got through security/arrived at the gate.

I didn't realize how good it was going to be to see B-Mart again. Add on a little Drew and Sam, and it was really enough to beat the past 3 years of Snow Ridge b-days. Don't get me wrong, those were awesome, but sometimes you forget how much you miss people, and how much it means to see them again. Add on that Cabe, Garrett, my friend Omar, my brother, and my Grandfather all called me on my brithday.

By the way, not to sound unappreciative, but B-day's have to be the stupidest idea ever. What a gimic for materialism. Way to be born. Good job on not dying yet. You don't really earn a birthday. You could argue that in a few years we will be on our own and have to work and feed ourselves and whatnot to survive another year, but that's crap and you know it. B-day's are grace days. You are appreciated because of who you are, who God made you to be. It's refreshing and a bit humbling to realize, you know the only thing I did 23 years ago yesterday was manage to get pushed out into the world, and yet all these people are legitimately glad I am here.

Maybe that's why we celebrate birthdays. I like that better then getting crap. Though if you do want to get me crap, get me useful crap like money, or itunes money, or support. The best gifts yesterday were a place to sleep (B-Mart's) and 2 beers (B-Mart and Sam). But even those things were just part of the package of getting to see these guys. Maybe these birthdays are just a good day to take stock of how blessed you have been in this past year.

Oh I found out today that B-Mart took 4th place in the EA National Weightlifting Championships of the World. Not too shabby.

Since Drew and Sam never post on here (Drew just post your prayer letters) quick updates on them. Sam works for Baylor Medical doing research. Really he is the guy that kills all the rats/mice they use in experiments. In 4 days he has killed more rats then populated his building. He has since started advertising on the internet seeking rats for dissection and experimentation. If you have any please send them (live) to Sam. The good news is he is helping to come up with a vaccine to prevent the rotavirus. This causes diarrhea in third world countries and in my home town. The bad news is Sam has the squirts really really bad.

As for Drew, he has propsed that Crusade at Rice sponsor the monthly campus streakings in an effort to gain campus exposure. After all he is a business major, and we business majors know that all exposure is good exposure. Thanks Marketing 337. But really he's tired, he just got back from Branson where he secured 50 jobs for the students to work at. After doing that he enjoyed pretending he was retired and attending the afternoon matinee shows in downtown Branson. Now he's preparing to reinfiltrate Rice. He is very excited about this next year. He gets to lead the women's ministry on campus. Girls there are no female staff members at Rice, so please graduate and join staff and go to Rice for their sake. (By girls I guess by default I'm addressing Tiffany our lone female reader, you're exempt because you're at Texas and that's way cooler, sorry Drew but it is. Any other girls who accidentally read this blog should probably stop.)

Anyway, the two paragraphs above may be sligthly off in how actual events may have occurred, but they allow you to understand a little bit about what Sam and Drew are up to. If they want to set the record straight they can post on here.

Anyway (part 2) , great B-day. I love you guys. I get to see Cabe and Garrett tomorrow! And more B-Mart and Drew, and maybe some Sam too! Don't worry I saw Matt and Nathan last weekend, but they can come too if they want. As for facebook, look on my wall and count how many "Happy Birthday's" I have. It's sick. I tell you true friendship is expressed in Facebook Happy Birthday wishes. I'm being sarcastic, but I really do appreciate them. It's quite a good feeling when people at coffee shops look over your shoulder and see all the Facebook notification emails and have quizzical looks on their faces, only to turn and smile and say it's my birthday, to have them nod in understanding and say "Ahhh, right-oh". That didn't really happen but we could all imagine how cool it would be if it did. And if it did happen that quoted part should be imagined with an accent of your choice, mine was a generic British one.

Speaking of Nathan, (I was just speaking of him when I orgininally wrote this, but then I remember the title of this was facebook birthday so I had to talk about that) he should be posting a story about a real occurance soon, right?

Whoa, I'm halfway there. Whoa, living on a prayer.

"Visualize Whirled Peas."
-Bumper Sticker on 34th St.

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything in this space, and I apologize for my absence. Matt made the comment that the blog is dying, something that I very much do not want to happen, so here I am to rage against the dying of the light.

A lot has happened to me in the last 48 hours or so. First, I decided that I was definitely going to stay in Austin this coming year. Then I went to what was basically a job interview at this really cool new church in 78704, and it went well and I felt really good about it. Something seemed really uneasy though the whole day, like something was not quite right. Then I decided that I am definitely moving to Houston, at least temporarily. Then I was accepted to Mars Hill in their Master of Arts in Christian Studies, which more or less came out of the blue. Now I'm trying to figure out whether or not I'm moving to Seattle, while at the same time working on logistics for how and when I'll be moving to Houston for now.

It's been a hectic couple of days. Pray for me for discernment and that I would not make any decisions based simply upon my own preferences, but instead that I would follow God wherever he would lead me.

Moving out

My living room desperately misses having a full complement of couches. My bedroom looks frightening without a bed and desk. Rene's storage unit is extremely full. And I don't really feel like I have a home here anymore. I was going to write that I don't belong, but I still feel attached, a sense of connectivity to the place or perhaps the people.

I'm really excited to go because of where I'm going and what I'm doing, and what I'll get to experience. My next year is so vague and yet so clearly defined. I know where I'll be and what I'll be doing and why, but don't have a clue how. Or have any concept of what it will be like.

Life after college is really about to begin for me on August 14th. Up until then it's just summer time right now. More later.

Greetings from Portland.

So Cabe and I have been conquering the Pacific Northwest the past 2 weeks. We feel like we've done it all almost. With some notable exceptions we did everything we wanted to. We skipped some gardens and the space needle and a few science museums because they were freaking rip offs. But from the blue field at Boise State, to seeing the Fray in Vancouver (with 1,000 screaming jr. high girls), to stumbling upon the International Beer Festival in Portland, and of course watching them throw fish at Pike's Place in Seattle, we've done pretty much everything we wanted to do.

We rode up with Rene, stayed with my brother, hung out with Kelli, and then ran into David in Portland. It's kind of crazy that that many friends would be way up here, but kind of cool.

This trip has also marked the beginning of the final month here in the US. It hits me in weird ways at weird times. I feel a greater desire to make sure I get a chance to see people before I go.

Anyway, I don't really have anything significant or thought provoking to type about yet, I just wanted to say we'll be back tomorrow and explain why Cabe and I have been absent for 2 weeks or more.


Oh jeez, the highway.....

Nawlin's and Hippies

A friend of mine recently told me that everyone has their "vices" and that mine is being judgmental. In short, I always think I'm better than other people, when in reality it hardly is the case.

* * *

With that short introduction, I will tell yall the story of my last month in the Big Easy.

For the last month, I've been doing relief work in New Orleans for a group called Common Ground Relief. Common Ground helps clean out houses that were flooded by Katrina in the poorest neighborhood in New Orleans, the 9th Ward. This neighborhood is predominantly black and has received little help from FEMA and insurance companies. It's a place that has had a long history of racism, and police brutality. These problems continue to face the 9th ward. Helping here reminded me that the world isn't always as simple as it appears and sometimes it's extremely corrupt and sad.

Most of the people I was working with and living with were white college students (Common Ground provides housing and meals for volunteers). Most of the college students were from liberal arts schools... ie Hippie schools. For example, the most over represented college was Hampshire College located in Massachusetts. According to Princeton Review, Hampshire College ranks first in the college that "smokes the most pot" and first in the "most Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking" college... ie most Hippie college. Hampshire people are different. They don't take showers everyday, they don't change clothes every week, they walk around barefoot, and instead of turning on a T.V. when bored, they make drum circles.

Furthermore, they annoyed me to death.

I think there is a strange misconception of hippies within the Christian realm... Maybe because of Blue Like Jazz. The hippies I met were not cordial hippies you read about in BLJ. They are the right-wing-stubborn-"you're going to hell"-republicans of the left. They claim to be open minded but they are only open minded in things that are different, non-mainstream, non-order, and not republican. These people seemed no more accepting than Rush Limbaugh...

Because of this, it made my trip really difficult. It's really hard to love people that don't seem to love others the same way (ie. The Nazi's, the KKK, or that stubborn-right-wing-Bill O Reilly lovin- republican that won't listen to logic). However, according to Jesus, no matter how much they don't love others you have to love them...

Because let's face it...

If we don't love people because of their different philosophies on life and different ideas on cleanliness, your criteria for who you love is incorrect. My arbitrary litmus scale of who to love based on character (being open minded, taking showers everyday, and being loving) is no better than their litmus scale of who to love based on political beliefs. Jesus doesn't have a litmus scale on who to love and nor should I.

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. Matthew 7.1.

Judging people creates a cycle that eventually makes everyone think they are better than each other. It creates an odor that repels love. Being judgmental and loving doesn't mix.

I forgot that lesson my first week in New Orleans, and it made my first week unbearable.

The next 3 weeks were spent trying to love these people for who they were. The same friend that called me a judgmental jerk helped me realize that staying in New Orleans was a good thing for my character. Maybe he was right. Maybe I developed a little more patience, kindness, and love through the hippies.

Maybe New Orleans didn't need me, maybe I needed it.

Matt