It became a reality today that one of joys & pains of being a home-owner is that my vote this election has more implications in my life than just whether or not my moral standards are going to be held up by some elected official I choose to vote for.    Not that I don't take voting seriously, trust me, I do.   On the road to becoming an Eagle Scout, we're required to earn all the Citizenship merit badges - Community, Nation, and World.   So I am all about living out my civic duty on election day.

But in reality, even as late as primaries this past March, voting to me was more centered on which candidate did I see having the most Christian-worldview,  and there were few things that had an influence on my vote beyond that.   Let's face it, increases in taxes mean little to most people who do not own any property, so it's difficult to know how to vote on such issues, in which case I choose to not vote on them at all.

But now I have voice with reason to speak-up on such matters.   As I looked at the DDN Voters Guide (available online), the reality is that now as a home-owner, these ballot issues mean a whole lot more to me now than before, because now I have to decipher not only their need for the community, but whether or not I am willing to pay for those needs.  Greene County has four ballot issues that would cost us a total of a $200 increase in taxes over five years if all passed, all of which are for services we do not necessarily use.

It's my hope that I fight the choose to keep honor God first with my ballot on November 4th, and not let the fear of taxes prevent me voting for something God might use to help those in my community that might be in need.  

One of the highlights of our trip to Bulgaria & the Czech Republic was the opportunity to lead discipleship with the guys with us.   For our Bible time, we took an in-depth look at the book of James. 

As a reference, I am posting a file of the notes I prepared for leading the study.  

This collection of notes is probably one of my more memorable accomplishments for the year.   I felt like I was able to get a good handle on the text, and then pull out and share very tangible lessons.  

James 1: 22-25

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

From the get go, one of the reasons for this blog has been to enable me to explore new technology and learn some new coding methods.  BlogEngine, my blogging engine, is known for being one the best examples of proper C# coding standards   I made some site updates on Monday, but with the business of life -- especially with closing just two weeks away on the house -- I just haven't had time to discuss them much.

First thing you notice is the header is changed.  That's simple, but fun to reflect the season of life we are in.   

Second, I am experimenting with Twitter, which I have yet to truly find the purpose of.   Twitter allows you to send short messages, 140 characters max, to it via multiple devices.   People use it to track life-in-real-time, or to share links of news or websites to read.    It's probably not going to last on here but Chelsey does have plenty of PREGO quotes flying these days related to her hunger cravings I could share.  Anyway, there's an area on the right with my latest "Tweets" via Twitter.

Last,  but not least is I have added my Picasa site to this website.   If you visit my photos page, you'll see the 15 most recent albums listed.   This is using an API which allows me to directly talk to Picasa.   I am not doing anything here to update them, but rather communicating with Google's servers for thumbnails and album counts.    Currently clicking an album takes you to Picasa, but I might adjust that in the future.  It's pretty cool, and was a fun challenge for me to learn. 

I'll acknowledge that Danny Douglass' Flickr Gallery was helpful to see how some else crafted something similar  (I don't know Danny Douglass, just read his blog).

For the first time this week, I had this urge to find someone and for a split-second wished I had a Facebook account to do so.   I have thought of people before that I maybe would re-connect with through a social-networking site such as it, but never wanted to so bad that I felt the urge to cave and create that account.

It got me thinking, why not join?   Everyone does it, why not me?  So I've been reviewing my reasons not to join and have decided that I still feel like I am not ready to make the leap off of this bridge that the rest of world has leaped off of.

I am tired of people asking "didn't you see that on Facebook?" or "Why haven't you joined Facebook?".  No, I didn't.   I don't get your updates or anyone else's.  But just because I don't have a Facebook account, doesn't mean that I don't want your updates.  I enjoyed hearing about the lives of my closest friends, and distant ones as well, before Facebook, why would that change now?    Our friendships weren't based on what email accounts I had or my cell phone carrier in the past, so why now does it seem we rely on a website to tell us what "friends" we need to keep in touch with?

So, please, all you Facebookers out there, remember us friends without accounts still want to be your "friends" too...

No one can deny that we've had one crazy summer, but I have really felt challenged recently to reflect on what has really happened over the last 6 months.   We've have had some of the highest of highs combined with the lowest of lows.   There's got to be something to be learned from all that we have experienced.

If anyone would have seen us the night of the 11th of July, you'd of thought that we either just got engaged or just found out we were pregnant (that came later).   The truth is, we had just signed a contract on a home that neither of us ever expected we'd be able to get.   We were beside ourselves that night with both pure joy and disbelief.  We didn't deserve that house, but it was going to be ours.   

But that excitement was changed three days later.  At 10pm that next Monday we were notified that our apartment building had caught on fire.   The short story is that we were unable to return to live there, and even though we just had water damage to our apartment and little loss, there has definitely been a feeling of displacement since then. 

That drastic change in emotion has been going on and on all summer, and throughout we have felt like God was really trying to teach us about entitlement, or lack there of it.   I've taken the past week or so to finally sit down and explore what God says we are entitled to, and how and why this summer has been so good and yet so challenging.

Here are some simple truths I've learned:

Our God is a GIVING God.   He loves to give to his people.  He gave bread to the people of Israel when they were hungry.  He gives wisdom and knowledge to those who ask Him for it (James 1), and ultimately He gives life through His son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16).  

I am sure one could identify plenty more examples of where God gave His people something they had asked for.   But I think there are a few things that we have to remember when talking about entitlement.  

1. God gives to His people.  Therefore, we must first be in Him.
2. God's giving isn't always because we're entitled to something.

His Word shares with us scripture to explain this.  First, in John 14:13, Jesus tells us that when we ask for something to do it in his name, and it will be given.  This is not flippant. When we ask something in the name of Christ, believing that He is who He says He is.   But we must also ask with right motives.  James 4:1-3 warns us about asking God for things for our own selfish pleasures.

Second is the idea that everything we ask for, and that which we may receive, doesn't always give us an entitlement to it.   I can't help but to think of the Israelites here.   God gave them manna to eat, time and time again.  But I don't think they were necessarily entitled to the manna, but given it as a gift because of God's grace.     In Matthew 6:5-8, Jesus instructs us to be specific with our prayers, because the Father already knows our needs.

I think the struggle for me has been the task of taking Matthew 6 and knowing how to balance it against Psalm 37:4 -- "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."  For us, the fire or the fear of even a miscarriage, is nothing we would've asked for or even desired.   So how does that fit into the Lord giving us our desires?

One thing that I often want to forget, but I think is an essential piece of this thought process if that sometimes what we need is not always going to be what we desire, and sometimes it may even be discipline.   Hebrews 12:5-6 says that the Father will discipline the ones He loves.   We never desire that, but sometimes, we need it.  

I might never know the answer, but I have come to a point where I am not going to be afraid to ask if there's been something that has been in the way between me and God.   Was there an idol? "our perfect little apartment", that I became too content with and was prohibiting me from a proper view of God?  Or was it all an accident, and just a lesson in rolling with the punches? But the biggest shame here I think would not be to ask at all.

Which ever may be the reason, I do know this.  That we can't take anything for granted.  Our life, whether it feels like it's on a high or low is in the hands of God.   He's got the plan.   It's my desire to learn how to better honor and glorify him through it all.   And that even in the middle of the unexplainable hard times we can still pursue happiness.

Chelsey and I are now into week 11 of pregnancy, and it's crazy to think we're over a quarter of the way done.  Last Friday we had our first "official" pre-natal visit which was so cool.   We actually got to hear the heart-beat of the little one inside. What a crazy thing that was.  At first, we just could hear Chelsey's heart, then all the sudden there it was -- "chuchu, chuchu", almost like a train.   It was like twice as fast as her's, just chugging along.  

I went to the waiting room for the rest of the exam, and couldn't help but to tear up.  How humbling?!  I am humbled that I have been allowed to be part of creating a child.   That God would allow me, so undeserving, to father a baby.  Even now, there's a weight to the responsibility in doing so, yet I believe it's a healthy one.  Not overwhelming, just a new challenge to grow closer to Him so that I am leading others His way too.  

I am not sure how often I might attend these appointments (our doctor is notorious for being behind), but I am blessed to have been a part of that moment.  To experience the signs of life we've created, in such a real way, is unreal.

"My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth" - Psalm 139

Over the course of the past 18 months work for me has been more divided than ever for me between help desk for end-users  and web design.   I can truly call myself a "coder", because more than often I spend a majority of my week writing code for some project or another.

In September I pushed live two sites:

The first was a Sportlinc website, for the recently revamped AIA Sportlinc ministry.  SportLinc is designed to help resource student-leaders to lead AIA on campus where we do not have staff there to lead, mainly DII & DIII schools.   Chelsey actually is helping administratively to get this movement off the ground.   The website is resource-centered for students to be able to come and get resources to help lead team meetings, discipleship, weekly AIA meetings and more.

I am still not completely satisfied with all of the design, but am awaiting a new SportLinc logo to be created see what direction that make take the site.  My favorite piece however is the Campus Locator, where I integrated all of the campuses with Google Maps.   We were also able to copy that tool to AIA.com as well.

The second site is our Application Center.   As we begin to connect with more and more students we needed a more robust site be able to handle the multiple application needs as well as various forms.   This site has had over 50+ applications go through in three weeks for next summer already,  and will see somewhere between 1500 - 2000 total between Sept. - May.    I actually built the back-end for this site (what the staff use to process the applications) last summer.

I also want to share, not necessarily being the product of my work the new AIA.com.  It went live just over two weeks ago, and still has some tweaking to do, but definitely makes for an exciting September for our IT department.

I posted a page with brief descriptions of all my work here.

It's been some time since I've attempted this blogging thing.   I decided for whatever reason to try it again, not being quite sure why I ever stopped blogging to begin with.   My life has changed for the better since the last time I wrote an entry in the fall of 2006,  but it's not been a simple road either.  

We, Chelsey -- my wife and I, tend to listen to a lot of KLOVE in the car and I find myself constantly singing the latest Matthew West single, "You've Got Something to Say."   What a true line in the chorus of that song:  "You've got something to say, if you're living, if you're breathing....God is love and love speaks through you...You've got something to say." 

That's sort of been my motivation for restarting this blog.  I've got something to say.   It might not always be profound, and might not even be your thing, but as I continue to grow both as man, husband, and disciple as well as the new journeys ahead in home-ownership and fatherhood, I am sure there's going to be something I am going to want to say.

My hope is that I can use this to be an outlet for me.  Yeah, I probably will take some freedom to blog about why "I'm a PC", however I hope that most of this will be more than technical jargon of my life.  

Until next time - Andy