Summer is Almost Here

The year goes by fast and it seems like just yesterday we were hoping for snow and not getting any. Such is life in Washington, warmer winters with rain and colder summers with, you guessed it, rain. Even though this has been one of our coldest springs ever we are finally getting a break with some good spring weather, I heard we may even reach 80 degrees this weekend.

I just took this picture off of my back porch to prove that there are days when we don't have to deal with rain.

I do enjoy the summer. It isn't my favorite season but it has its perks. I like food so that means BBQ's are always a good thing that comes often with summer time. I also enjoy swimming and boating which I plan on doing much of this summer.

In the midst of my busy schedule I am hoping to find some rest this summer. My job (which I love) is one that keeps me busy almost everyday of my life. When I am not at work I am constantly thinking about work and thinking about what I am forgetting to do at work. My job also requires me to wear many hats with what I do. My title is Director of Student Ministries, but I just go by Youth Pastor. Fridays are my days off but I spent much of today making calls and sending text messages as well as planning some stuff for the summer time. So while I still have much on my plate I am going to do my best to find some time to just relax and forget about work and read some good books and try to rejuvenate before the fall hits so that I am prepared to jump into another busy ministry year.

-KMK

Books, books, and more books

Books have been my life as of recent. Immediately after launching this blog page I started a Seminary class that ended up taking over my life with reading, papers, and a presentation on teaching the family. While it was a great class I am happy that I can go back to normal life again. Looking back I really should have launched this page after the class so that I would have started off with frequent consistency.

The class that I took was different than any other college course I have taken in the past. This one was a module and consisted of pre-residency reading and assignments, followed by a week long set of classes from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00p.m.. And now I am finishing my post-residency paper. I am always wanting to go back to school and continue with education, but I have a hard time with due dates and assignments. I wish I could just read and show up to class and discuss. This is my ideal version of education.

I finally got Portal 2 a week and a half ago. Portal 2 is by far the greatest puzzle video game ever made. While I was attending my week long class I used this as a reward when I got home and finished homework. Its filled with constant puzzles that consist of your character lost in a room with portal guns needing to use your portals to get out of the room and advance to the next room (more exciting than it sounds). I finished all of the rooms and am now escaping from the test center. I thought I had beaten the game, but then realized there is still a third left, which is for the better. More game equals more fun. I also had a chance to play the online multi-player mode which is also a blast. My wife even enjoys this game and she rarely plays XBOX 360, she usually keeps grounded to the Wii. I highly recommend this game to anybody who enjoys video games.

Back to the topic of books I must say I love books. I love reading. I just love getting to choose the reading that I do. I am currently building a summer reading list that I will start on June 22nd - Sept 21st. So far the list includes:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Tolkien
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
The Pastor - Eugene Peterson
Walt Disney - Bob Thomas
Almost Christian - Kendra Dean

And of course other reading for work.

If you have other suggestions feel free to leave a comment.

One last thing: It is my goal to post on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule from now on.

-KMK

Keep Calm and Respawn

So after taking almost a year off from blogging I thought I would start writing in a blog format once again. There was much debate in my mind about if it was worth the time or not, or if it would just end up being another thing I forgot to keep updated. In the end I went for it, but only if there was room for change. I knew (like many things in my life) there needed to be some changes between my blog contributions of the past and with what was to come. For this reason I have started over by launching this new blog page and breaking apart my old one. The changes will include more consistency, order, and less complaining. My last site really turned into a place to have a personal complaint fest. So now it is time to change and start over.

A friend of mine purchased a t-shirt for me that was created by the wonderful people of Penny Arcade, it says "Keep Calm and Respawn". The shirt is in reference to first-person shooter games where when your character dies you get to, in time, start fresh with a new character. This shirt is very fitting for me in two ways. The first being that I often get very angry when playing first-person shooters online and I have to remind myself that its just a game and I have infinite lives. And second, I need to remember when being angry with life or circumstances that sometimes I need to keep calm and let myself refresh or start over.

Chasing after change and starting over seems to be a constant theme in my life. Sometimes when we get a fresh start or are able to respawn we need to remember to look forward instead of wasting time thinking about the past. The apostle Paul of the Bible wrote a letter to the Philippians and said "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead," (Phil 3:13b esv). Perhaps thats what we all need to do, we need to make change, and keep making changes while looking forward toward the big picture in life, whats really important and let that be our goal.