A Great Birthday
Posted by Chris
Today has been a great day. I actually wasn't sure what to expect. It seems that as I get older birthdays just don't carry the same kind of weight that they used to. Not sure why that is ... maybe we just get used to the process along the way. Whatever the case, my birthday turned out to be a wonderful day.
My dad & Cheryl came into town last night. We stayed up for awhile visiting & drinking coffee. It was nice to catch up with them & share about some of our experiences from being here for the past three weeks. I got to go into a lot more detail about the 'career' end of it all with them, something that we hadn't gotten much of a chance to do up to this point. This morning we all got out of bed pretty early (thanks to Emerie & the boys getting up early as usual). It still was a bit of sleeping in for me, both from what I am used to as part of my daily schedule, but also in stark contrast to what Sundays used to be like for us. It was nice to have a lazy Sunday morning, eat breakfast together (thanks to my lovely wife cooking me a birthday breakfast), play together & take our time getting ready for church. I had my quiet time out back in one of our lawn chairs under a tree.
Andrea's dad, Gary, met up with us at the house & we all went to Bridgeway together. As we pulled up to the church the youth were having a car wash. You leave your keys with them & they washed & detailed your car while you were in the service. We didn't do it as we only realized what was going on after we were out of our cars & up by the building. Definitely not what you would see in the typical American church on Sunday morning!
The service was great once again & was different in format to last week. I think this is going to be the norm, with every Sunday looking different. It was refreshing. I think I enjoyed this week even more than last - probably because I recognized more of the songs. Pretty wild having between 30-45 minutes of singing with only about 4 songs. Prayer interspersed throughout. Just a good time of worship.
Ironically Bridgeway's youth pastor taught this morning. It was good. He talked about "Spiritual Friendship" and what it looks like to be someone who cares as much about the soul and spiritual lives of our friends as we do about their emotional/physical/recreational, etc. lives. He also hit on the topic of the need for community within our spiritual lives. The contrast between a spiritual life lived for the most part in solitude and one lived out in the community of faith within the Body of Christ. A lot of the same thoughts that God has been teaching me over the last several months.
After church we went to eat at Poblano Grill, one of our early favorites here in Edmond. The food was fabulous! It was nice to eat together as a family (all 8 of us). We then headed back to the house for a little while. I wound up going to Best Buy with my dad & helping him pick out a home theater system & then coming back home for some cheesecake & coffee. After everyone left I laid down for a little while & wound up taking an hour and a half nap! Then I woke up, headed out to the local video store & rented a couple of movies for us to watch this week. All in all it's been a great day. I think I'm going to head downstairs & watch "The Italian Job" with Andrea as we eat Poblano Grill leftovers ... too good!
Andrea's dad, Gary, met up with us at the house & we all went to Bridgeway together. As we pulled up to the church the youth were having a car wash. You leave your keys with them & they washed & detailed your car while you were in the service. We didn't do it as we only realized what was going on after we were out of our cars & up by the building. Definitely not what you would see in the typical American church on Sunday morning!
The service was great once again & was different in format to last week. I think this is going to be the norm, with every Sunday looking different. It was refreshing. I think I enjoyed this week even more than last - probably because I recognized more of the songs. Pretty wild having between 30-45 minutes of singing with only about 4 songs. Prayer interspersed throughout. Just a good time of worship.
Ironically Bridgeway's youth pastor taught this morning. It was good. He talked about "Spiritual Friendship" and what it looks like to be someone who cares as much about the soul and spiritual lives of our friends as we do about their emotional/physical/recreational, etc. lives. He also hit on the topic of the need for community within our spiritual lives. The contrast between a spiritual life lived for the most part in solitude and one lived out in the community of faith within the Body of Christ. A lot of the same thoughts that God has been teaching me over the last several months.
After church we went to eat at Poblano Grill, one of our early favorites here in Edmond. The food was fabulous! It was nice to eat together as a family (all 8 of us). We then headed back to the house for a little while. I wound up going to Best Buy with my dad & helping him pick out a home theater system & then coming back home for some cheesecake & coffee. After everyone left I laid down for a little while & wound up taking an hour and a half nap! Then I woke up, headed out to the local video store & rented a couple of movies for us to watch this week. All in all it's been a great day. I think I'm going to head downstairs & watch "The Italian Job" with Andrea as we eat Poblano Grill leftovers ... too good!
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