Urban Village of Pasadena

I see people older than myself in the Christian faith becoming disillusioned with their lives - they see a large discrepancy between what in their heads they believe their Christian lives should look like and the way they perceive their lives to have actually turned out. Today it occurred to me that in all likelihood I'll fare no better than some of these people I'm thinking of in achieving my ideals, that I'll be disillusioned as well. I once thought that life was all about handling one's business: doing the right thing, living a life of integrity - all that shit.

I took Macroeconomics in high school. I remember getting a 5 on the Advancement Placement test. All I remember from it now is that prices are determined by both supply and demand. When supply and demand are both high, prices go up. When supply and demand are both low, prices go down. With a fixed supply, prices go up and down according to demand. And with a fixed demand, prices go up and down according to supply.

Pretty basic stuff.

The other day I was planning on what a 3-session, two hours per session series would look like if I were to do it on personal finances. I was strategizing what I would talk about, from a moralistic (in the positive sense of the word), macroeconomic perspective all the way down to under what conditions should one splurge on buying donuts for breakfast. The truth is there are many different approaches to spending money - styles if you will. Kind of like kung-fu. No one style is more valid than another.

Back when I was fighting depression in my early 20s I stumbled across the book "Freedom from the Performance Trap" by David Seamands. It really convicted me. The first anecdote was about a young man who came to Seamands for pastoral counsel with regards to his persistent feelings of negativity and inadequacy.

I'm feeling pretty exhausted right now. I've traveled back and forth between Upland, Pasadena, Arcadia, and San Marino this past week - all to accommodate our trying to live part-time here in Upland with my parents while Glory is completing her Clinical Pastoral Education internship at Arcadia Methodist Hospital. Part of our reason for wanting to stay with them is because it's just a lot easier to be out here. My wife Glory has felt it, presumably, due to the fact that she hasn't had to concern herself with preparing meals, something which both my mother and father take care of.

I've always wanted to find an outlet for my writing. Right now I have the opportunity to write on this website given that I have a login. (Actually, people who do not have logins are also able to write on this website by commenting on other blogs.) I was watching my two and a half year old son Jude today. I took him to Magnolia Park on 15th and San Antonio around 3:30 PM. There was hardly anyone at the park when I first got there. There were two men who looked as if they were using metal detectors. From far away it looked as though they were blowing leaves with wind-blowers.

One of the biggest decisions in my life - or at least I thought so at the time - was choosing where I was going to work and live right after college. Upon graduating in the mid 90s, I was fortunate enough to have multiple job offers from a few companies here in Southern California.

When I was a young man I used to attend a church named North University Park Church over in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. It was a small church composed mainly of USC graduates who had somehow stumbled upon it during their tenure as students. Most of us were in our twenties, our pastor was barely over thirty, but it was a nice cozy congregation, and I loved some of the people there very much.

For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.
-- Matthew 19:12 NIV