January – The year started off with me debating whether I watch Football or Hockey. Hockey won out because for the first time in pretty much my lifetime Michigan was not playing in a college football bowl game. Sadly the same thing happened again this year. I sure hope that Coach Rod can turn it around this next year. Progress was made but not going to a bowl game 3 years in a row is unacceptable.

February – The month of February found me unemployed and in the state of Texas hoping to land a job with a church in Texas. So my first post of the month was a Texas Recap. I ended up not getting the job, which was very disappointing but we have always asked God to close the doors that we were not supposed to go through.

March – I started of the month with a reflection on the Funny Things We Say. Many people have noticed how much I talk about how much I love my wife and find her beautiful. There is a reason behind it besides the fact that it is true. This blog post explains why.

April – Once again I came to the realization that I Need to Grow Up. Nothing more needs to be said.

May – In May I had grown tired of being asked, “Why Are You Selling Your House?” and so I answered the question publicly for everyone. Sadly, we are still trying to sell our house because Chase Bank sucks and has taken so long on the 6 offers we have given them for our short sale that all 6 buyers have walked away. Hopefully, it will sell in 2010? Especially since we don’t live there anymore.

June – I found myself once again reflecting on the fact that Love Wins. The news of the abortion doctor, Dr. Tiller, being murdered by a “pro-life” person while Dr. Tiller was attending church was the biggest news of the day. I added my own thoughts to what happened in my blog post.

July – The crazy roller coaster ride that I call my life began a new phase this month and all I could do was echo the words of Mike Yaconelli, What A Ride! While we were up in northern Michigan camping I got the call that The River Church wanted to bring me down as their youth pastor, so we began to work towards that with the elders there. It is so weird to think that it has only been a few months that we have been here, because it feels like we have always been here. We love our new church and friends here in Cincinnati.

August – We said Goodbye, No See Ya Later to our home state of Michigan. With all that was going on with packing, moving, unpacking and then settling into the new youth pastor job at The River I didn’t blog other then this post.

September – I was looking for Someone to Pinch Me, because I was (and still am) amazed at how blessed me and my family are to be here in Cincinnati and to be a part of The River Church community. I look forward to the many, many years that we will be here.

October – I started off the month of October warning people that I Am Going to Step on Some Toes and I know that I did, but I also hoped that I inspired some people to make some healthy choices.

November – The month of November had me asking, Porter Family Snowball Fight and then talked about the Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas controversy.

That was my year in a nutshell. Now I need to get busy with my goals for 2010. Should it be twenty-ten or two thousand and ten? What is your preference?

Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be.

1. Did you date someone from your school?
No.

2. How many was in your graduating class?
About 200, I believe.

3. Did you car pool to school?
Nope, I was actually supposed to be at Cousino High School but transferred to Warren my senior year. So no one lived near me.

4. What kind of car did you have In High School?
1981 ‘Vette

5. Did you like your graduating class?
Yes.

6. Its Friday night…where were you?
Football (during the season) and hanging out with my friends doing things we shouldn’t have been doing.

7. What was your favorite class?
Law Enforcement, Government, Choir, and Drama.

8. Whats something you did everyday in high school?
Went out to get breakfast for Mr. Gordon during Law Enforcement (also known as McDonald’s 101).

9. Favorite Memory of HS?
Becoming an honorary band member and even getting a letter, even though I was never actually in band. Although I spent a lot of time in that class instead of in my drama class. Not too mention a ton of memories with friends.

10. Where were all the parties held?
Random places.

11. Were you considered a flirt?
I do not know, but probably.

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Choir and unofficially in band (see #9).

13. Did you have best friends?
Yep.

14. Did you get suspended or expelled?
Nope. Never even got detention, because I never got caught and knew how to cover my trails.

15. Can you sing the Alma Mater?
I did in choir, but I do not remember it now.

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?
Mr. Gordon and Mrs. Adams.

17. Where did you sit at lunch?
McDonald’s, Little Caesars, Taco Bell, Tubby’s, my car. I never sat in the cafeteria.

18. What was your school’s full name?
Warren Senior High School

19. When did you graduate?
1991

20. What was your school mascot?
Oriole

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
Heck yeah! I loved high school. That is probably why I want to be a youth pastor.

22. Did you have fun at Prom?
For the most part, yes.

23. Would you talk to the person you went to Prom with?
Sure.

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?
Yes.

25. Do you still talk to people from school?
Yes, mainly because of Facebook.

1) I have always lived in the state of Michigan, except for 3 years when I was in Bible college in New York.

2) I love to travel, but I rarely do because I don’t have a lot of money to do so.

3) My favorite means of travel is by airplane.

4) I am a roller coaster junkie.

5) I hate cold and wonder how it is that I have survived almost 36 years in this arctic tundra called Michigan.

6) Ever since I was a child I have always wanted to be a pastor.

7) I also have dreams of being an actor. I love being on the stage and would love to be in a movie.

8 ) My favorite state that I have been to is California.

9) Racism of any kind really annoys me and I even got in a fight with my best friend when I was a kid over it.

10) I am a Michigan fan at heart, but I also like Notre Dame. (Don’t tell my Michigan fan friends.)

11) I refuse to wear the color green or red during football season, because I don’t want anyone to think that I am a fan of one of those schools.

12) I love high school and college football.

13) I actually don’t own very many clothes with the colors red or green anyway.

14) My favorite athletic event is le Tour de France.

15) I have always wanted to meet Bo Schembechler and was really sad when he died, because it meant that I lost my chance.

16) I like to have an occasional cigar and I usually smoke one to celebrate a significant event in my life, like when I graduated from Bible college, had kids, etc.

17) I used to smoke cigarettes a lot when I was a teenager, which was dumb, and never had my ID checked until the day I turned 18.

18) I am a social networking addict.

19) I am a social butterfly and love being in large crowds of people.

20) I married my wife when she was a teenager and I want to be a youth pastor. Is that weird?

21) My wife and I have known each other pretty much our whole lives and I think that is very cool.

22) There are very few people that I can not get along with.

23) When I have a friendship end it takes me a really long time to get over it.

24) I rarely give up on people and I always believe that things can get better for them.

25) One of the most treasured things that have been said to me were: 1) that I am loyal & 2) that I was there.

January - The University of Michigan started of the season with a dominating victory over the defending 2006 National Champion Florida Gators and the Heisman Trophy winning Tim Tebow. Unfortunately, that was the lone highlight for Michigan in 2008.

February - I posted about Three T’s. They were tired, Twitter and TV.

March - I talked about some Personal Triumphs that I had at the gym in running.

April - I asked the question What Movies Have You Seen? and I was shocked to see that I had seen 34 of the AFI’s Top 100 movies. How many have you seen?

May - I posted from my mobile phone my son’s Big Fish Story. I am still in shock that he caught that big of a fish in my dad’s canal. May was a crazy month in which we remodeled our bathroom and took a trip to Colorado in the middle of the project.

June - We got our bathroom closer to completion and it was nice to finally being able to go to the bathroom inside our house instead of in a outhouse, and to take a shower at my house.

July - July always starts off up north in Manistee, Michigan and we took a special trip to Michigan’s Adventure on the 4th. I also ran in my first 5K while we were up north.

August - With the political season heating up I had quite a few blog posts about the election and this one was about how I felt that John McCain Had Gone Too Far. I am so happy that the election is over. Anyone else?

September - Youth Specialties released a video promoting Youth Worker Appreciation Day and so I asked the question, Why Do You Do It?. And that was an excellent follow-up to a post from a few days before about why I love doing student ministry.

October - I reminisced about how we were celebrating 70 Years of the Winged Helmet and what great icon for the University of Michigan.

November - I once again had the honor of going to the National Youth Workers Convention and I finished an entry that I had started a few weeks before after being inspired by Andrew Marin’s talk. Basically, I said that As A Christian I Am Sorry and I will let you read it to find out why.

December - I asked the question, “Can Atheists Do Good Works?”. I was inspired by an article I had read in the USA Today. What do you think?

2008 was an interesting year and I am really nervous as to what 2009 will hold for me. I could possibly be laid off from my job or have the company I work for shut down all together. It is really scary and the economy in Michigan is so bad. But my trust is in God and I know that no matter what happens I will have my family and my faith in God, so I am not too worried. However, I would be lying if I didn’t say that I wasn’t scared.

I know 2 people who have done this and they have gotten a free iPod Touch. One of them got an Xbox 360 Elite, 12-months of Xbox Live, Halo 3, a 16 GB iPod Touch, a 32 GB iPod Touch, could thousands dollars in cash and now a MacBook.

For me to get mine all I need is 8 referrals. You can click on the banner above or click here and sign up to start getting your own free iPod Touch or something else. In the infamous words of Bartles & Jaymes, “Thanks for your support!” I will let you know when it arrives.

Today, we were supposed to go to a birthday party for a friend of ours from church but it got canceled, so Kimmy and I are going to go out on a date. I can’t remember the last time we had an opportunity to do that, which is very sad. Then next weekend Caleb has his last flag football game, I am playing flag football with some guys from church and then we have a Halloween party we are all going to. Then the weekend after that, which is Halloween weekend, I am going to the National Youth Workers Convention in Pittsburgh. So I will be gone from Thursday, October 30th, until Monday, November 3rd. Then the weekend after that Kimmy and I am going up to Traverse City, MI so I can do the wedding for one of the girls that used to be in the youth ministry at the church I was a youth pastor at almost 4 years ago. So as you can see it is crazy!

A few weekends ago I was playing flag football again with the guys from the church and I strained my hamstring and sprained my finger. So I have been rehabbing my hamstring since then and it is much better now. And I should be back to pretty much normal by the time we play again next week. Although I am taking the next month off from playing soccer to make sure it is back fully before I start that up again. I have been able to run on the treadmill for about 20 minutes this week and that is a good sign. I am going to even go out for a run later on.

While I have sworn off talking politics on my blog I do want to say one thing that has been going through my mind a lot lately as I have seen people battling over this whole thing. Our pastor used Ephesians 6:12 the other day in his message and it got me thinking about this election. Here is the verse for you….

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

I realized that amidst people saying that if __________ gets elected that it will be “God’s judgment on the U.S.” and other such similar statements. Along with seeing people in the Church fighting with one another over their choice for President. It has really made me really sad because I think we are losing perspective. Our fight is not with other people, but against our spiritual enemy. The reality is that whomever becomes President of the United States will be the very person that God wants to be in that position and we need to pray for him and ask God’s blessings upon his life.

I regret how much bitterness and anger I felt towards President Bill Clinton, because I didn’t realize that my fight was not against him. Instead of praying for him, I spent more time speaking against him and praying against him. I pray that the Church in America can really rise up during this economic crisis and show America the grace and love of Christ instead of showing America bitterness like so many of us did during the President Clinton’s Presidency.

Okay, that was more than I planned on saying, but I needed to get it out. My faith is in God alone and not in this country or it’s President. That is the perspective I am trying to keep.

Rant #1 - I am done with politics this year and I am walking away from commenting about them here anymore. Not only has this political season dragged on WAY too long, but I am so sick of the way people have been acting. I have recently declared myself more on the moderate side of things, because I believe that there are issues on both sides that I agree with. But I am sick of having people literally calling my faith into question because I would even consider voting for a particular candidate. It is really getting irritating and so not only will i not be talking about it here, but I doubt I will be saying much to anyone. I am going to continue researching the candidates that I am interested in and check them against my list.

1) will do what they can to help end global poverty.
2) will do what they can to help bring clean water and basic sanitation needs to the world.
3) will help change the hearts of the American people to believe that abortion is a wrong option.
4) believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
5) help bring an end to the conflict in Iraq.
6) will look for a way to end conflicts that hopefully will not have to result in troops being sent in.
7) will go in with the mindset that “love wins”.
8 ) will not choose to legislate morality, but instead try to teach it and hopefully change the hearts of the people in our country.
9) will turn to the Church and ask her to finally do what they are supposed to have already been doing in regards to helping the oppressed.
10) will protect our Constitutional rights at all costs.
11) will protect our environment.

Rant #2 - My son plays flag football with the Upward organization and he plays with a kid whose dad is a pastor in our area. He has yet to come to one of his son’s practices or games. His wife told me today that she doubts he will be able to make any of his games, because he is “busy” on Saturdays. Seriously? You are too busy EVERY Saturday to come to your son’s football game. Haven’t pastor’s ever learned that you put down in your calendar your kids events, so you can tell other people that you are “busy”? When I heard this it took everything in me to not say something. That disgusts me. I thought the Church was supposed to be all about family values and that is how we are supposed to vote? Maybe we pastors need to practice more of what we preach and “put shoe leather to those prayers”.

Okay, I am done with my rants.

Rave #1 - I ran in my second ever 5K today. I am performing a wedding ceremony in a couple of months for someone who used to be in my old youth group and her husband is a runner, so he asked me if I wanted to run in the Witch’s Hat 5K that is a fundraiser for his old high school’s cross country team. So I joined him. I ran it again in 25 minutes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay around to see what place I ended up in my age group because I had to run to my son’s flag football game. However, I felt great running another 5K and look forward to running many more.

Rave #2 - My two favorite football teams played today and I was able to see both games. My most favorite team is my son’s flag football team and they tied their first game. He played good and got a couple of flags, made an interception, broke up another pass, and made a touchdown saving “tackle”. My second favorite football team is the Michigan Wolverines and they won today. I think they looked much better than they did last week and I look forward to seeing them improve week to week.

Rave #3 - I finally installed my flagpole that my parent’s bought for us about 5 or so years ago. It looks really nice flying Old Glory and the Maize & Blue. I installed it over Labor Day weekend and even put a flower bed in around it. I had to dig a 2 foot deep hole that was about 2 feet wide to properly make sure the base would be cemented into the ground. It was actually really easy to install and it is so nice to look out my window and see the flags flying. Now I need to get an additional light to properly light the U.S. Flag at nighttime, but for now the one I have is working. It does make a nice addition to our yard.

If you did not know, which I didn’t realize until now, that Kermit Love portrayed the character of Willy the hot dog vendor. He also created the Snuggle bear for the Snuggle fabric softener. And I know many of you might think that his name was the inspiration for Kermit the Frog’s name, but Jim Henson had picked out that name before Kermit Love came to help create the Sesame Street characters. I was really amazed at his accomplishments when I read them and it is kind of sad that there wasn’t more news regarding his passing.

You can read more here about his life and passing.

HT to Kristen McLane.