New Year. It has a hollowness to it. Well, to me it does.

Last year went so quickly-

and this one is sure to flywheel towards that end as well.

To look at the next 365 days all-together makes it seem big. Maybe not. Tomorrow is big.

There’s so much to do.

Wow. I can sit here and think of all the cliche’s that surround today, and they’re all true. We only have today. Tomorrow may not come. Live now. Et cetera.

So I’ve decided to do this. To write everyday down in nor more than 500 words. Interesting adventure this should be

~NjS

No. It’s not a typo. I haven’t written in some time. Sorry for those who care. You’re welcome for those that are loathing the break of the silence.

Updates:

Amie and the baby are doing well. We were able to switch to an amazing doctor and love it there! Just having that piece in place is making this preparation for being first time parents easier.

Jobwatch. I wrote some time ago about being on the cusp of having my  dream job. It’s happened! I am the Operations Director at The Pursuit! It’s part-time for now, but will more than likely become full time early 2009. I’m still helping out with my family’s business from time to time as well.

Barak Obama was elected President. Seriously, if you missed that one I’d like to see the rock you’ve been living under. While I don’t agree with 95% of what the man stands for, the process worked and he will be my President. I will pray for him. Best of luck to him, I wouldn’t want the job.

Car exec’s are begging for money. Congress wants to appoint a”car czar” to over-see them. (Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let’s have the people that assisted us into trillions of dollars in debt, over-see people that are in billions of dollars of debt. Good idea. Idiotcrats.) I say let em fry. Sink or swim. No one is giving money to my family’s business during these hard times. Good riddance to em all!

I’m going to go eat pizza. Glad to be back!

~NjS

I’m pretty good. I’m better than most.

A bold statement, indeed. Let me draw the comparison, or establish a baseline to bolster my point.

Who am I better than? Or, who are the “most” that can’t quite reach my level of piety? As you may know, I heart lists.

• Crack addicts- or for that matter, anyone that needs to put something, chemical or otherwise and not prescribed by a physician, into their body in order to simply “function”
• The religious- anyone that needs to identify themselves with something bigger than themselves as justification for their existence
• The irreligious- anyone that needs to distance themselves far from anything that might appear religious in order to not offend
• Rich- anyone that bases their existence on what they own or what they have the potential to own
• Poor- anyone that can’t afford stuff
• Politicians- pond scum has more to it.
• Pond scum- see above
• Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…

I take it by your silence that you agree with me. Welcome to the “Better Than” club! Naturally since I founded it, I’m better than you. What’s fair is fair.

What’s that? OH- you don’t agree. That’s fine- you just made it obvious that I’m better than you. Thanks for making it easy.

Satire. Hope you got that.

• My doctor didn’t tell me take a protien supplement every morning. Although I’m certain they wouldn’t be opposed to it, I take it to “function”. Everyday.
• I go into a church more than once a week.
• I can’t stand being called religious. When the accusatory statement is made, I retort that I’m in a relationship not a religion.
• I have more money and possessions than at least 90% of the nearly 8 billion people on this planet.
• I don’t have an HD TV.
• Pond scum doesn’t think its better than anyone. It knows it’s pond scum. Pond scum gets it.

So there’s this Jesus guy. And he says things like “there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last” and “The greatest among you will be your servant.”*

And He doesn’t stop there. He says that this is The Way. As in, if you are- if I am- going to associate myself with Christ I must live this way.

I’m no greater than anyone.

But it’s more than that. It’s not for that purpose. Am I humbling myself for Him? Or for you?

*Cited: Luke 13:30 and Matthew 23:11, respectively.

Gary Osnower and Danny Pellegrini are in India the rest of this week. They’re tracking their travels and sharing their stories as they go on a blog set up just for their trip.

I really want to challenge you, that if you haven’t read through it, do so. Right now.

Now that you’ve read that, I would ask that you take a look at some stats previously posted here. Go to The Big Picture to gain some more perspective.

Got one more shot for ya. As we enter the holiday season I hope we can all do something beyond ourselves. Something that, if we attempted to accomplish it on our own, we would fail completely. Something so far out there that the only way for one iota of success, is for the hand of Abba to be on it. Let’s really go big or go home. And then let’s keep doing it. Let’s not stop because the Bowl Games are on, or because the tax incentive deadline is more than 360 days away again.

So I’m putting it out there. What is the challenge you know Abba has laid on your heart?

For some of us it will be simply forgiving someone once close to us. For others it may be meeting a need in our community. Still for others there may be something that will require everything.

Whatever it is. Go.

Ah. The long lines, the grumpy people that shouldn’t be, the debating and arguing, the crying and stomping of little feet, and the big guy himself.

That’s right. It’s election day!

What? Yes, the big guy. El Presidente. Commander-in-Chief. Head of the Executive branch. The President of the United States of America. THAT big guy.

I have that classic hit “Who Can it Be Now?” stuck in my head.

More than likely, a mere 24 hours from now, we will know the outcome of our polling place picks. But will it matter? History is waiting to tell us. I could conjecture the probable outcome, but I’ll save it for another day.

If you do one other thing today besides read this, vote.

I’m not going to go into some schpeel about how lives have been sacrificed giving you the opportunity. I don’t think I need to remind anyone that it’s not a right, it’s a duty. And if I need to go on a rant telling you to shut up and stop whining because you didn’t, we, frankly, won’t be friends anymore. And that won’t be of my choosing- I’ll love you just the same. We won’t be friends because I’m too honest for you. I’ll be shooting you nothing but silver-coated, hollow-pointed, truth-bullets and you won’t have anywhere to run or hide.

Do us both a favor. Vote.

Oh- and I’d be reticent if I didn’t say it: FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Vote on PRINCIPLE, not party!

Now.

Go.

VOTE!

I’m currently in the mountains somewhere at a retreat for the high school youth leaders of The Pursuit. And I’ve had some time to reflect.

I’ve realized how much time I’ve been spending on this- my thoughts. More specifically, writing them out for someone, somewhere to read. No, its not self-indulgent. I haven’t taken issue with the amount of time I’ve been writing, nor the content of my posts. I am taking issue, ironically with myself, regarding what I’m not doing.

I haven’t spent the time with Amie that I’ve wanted to. I haven’t spent the time with Abba that I’ve wanted to. I haven’t spent the time with Hudson that I’ve wanted to. All these, are very important to me- not necessarily in the order listed.

I’m gonna go spend time with those…

I asked. You answered. Kinda.

With a dead-lock in the results, I must cast the deciding vote.

Stay.

Nothing is going to change, for now. The poll will be up for a while longer, so feel free to vote if you didn’t get the chance. If things go one direction or another over the next week, I’ll consider going with the majority opinion then. Thanks to all those that weighed in!

I’ve been tracking the progress of the blog and its been steadily rising, yesterday was another record day and today looks to surpass that! Thanks to everyone checking it out, and especially to those that are returning!

I got a message on my Facebook wall that someone had talked about me and/or my blog on their site. The message came from a friend of mine, so I went to check it out, but the link didn’t work. My friend was online so I instant messaged them and saw that their status said that their account had apparently been hacked and that any messages from them were spam. Glad I saw that!

More after the jump….
(more…)

This morning I wondered and asked how Amie and I would pay the bills this month. This afternoon I found out how. I won’t go into the details, because frankly they’re not anyone’s business. But I will say that someone gave us what we needed. Thank you to the people that saw a need and met it, really- thank you.

What’s even more astounding to me is that this was a gift. Not a loan. No strings attached. Thank you for your trust. Thank you.

At the risk of sounding like a Rockstar’s award acceptance speech, I foremost thank Abba, my Heavenly Father. It is because of Him that I can write this. It is because of Christ that I am here. It is because His Spirit moved another to our aid. It is because God, maker of heaven and earth and Lord over all, that this has happened. He gets the glory. It was His to start with anyway.

God knows you. God sees you. God loves you. If no one has ever told you this, I am truly glad you’ve found it here. If you want to know more, just ask. Amie and I are apart of an amazing place here in Boise. We invite you to come and enjoy it with us. It’s called The Pursuit. We hope to see you there.

I haven’t a clue as to how Amie and I will make it this month. Things have been tight, but now they’re really tight. I don’t know why I’m writing this out, I think I have writers block, and by jotting this down I hope to remove that and then be able to write something else…. whatever.

Running through my head at this moment is the ticker of all the payments due: Car, car insurance, furniture (yeah- dumb, I know), gas, electric, water, cell phone, internet. The hardest part is deciding which one gets the last of our money. Or do we attempt to diversify, pay a little to as many as we can, attempting to cover all the bases? This sucks.

$1,200. That’s the tide that’s coming in. That’s our need. I wish it was a drop in the bucket, but its not.

And I wrestle with the faith of it all. Gotta have faith? Gotta believe that its all going to be ok? I want to hope. I want to believe. Is that faith- the desire to want to? I know the verse in the Bible “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and evidence of things unseen.” So do I have faith? Yes. I have evidence of that which isn’t seen. I have hope. I have a belief that we can get through this.

And I know it won’t be because of anything, great or small, I did. Its gotta be God. It doesn’t matter what it is, it will be Abba. That’s faith.