What to Notice?

Yesterday was a dark day in our community. We gathered around our screens. Large screens and small screens. We texted and waited. We talked to God and listened to reports. Then we were shocked - hurt - afraid - uncertain. We did not look at Purdue quite the same. We did not look at our homes quite the same. We did not even look at ourselves the same way. The questions swirl. The most simple but included in almost all? Why? Times like this make us all question. We are jolted out of our every day existence and we see life differently. We see the people we love differently. Someone I love very much was only feet away from this tragedy. I was tied in knots thinking about her...life without her. I wanted to hug my wife and kids more last night. I wanted to make sure they saw me and I saw them. I wanted to not allow work to be the most important thing. I wanted to tell the people I love that I love them. We see the things we do in our days with different significance. We feel the fragility of our lives with poignancy. In fact, life's fragility slaps us across the face like the coldness of this day does our cheeks when we step outside. If this was my last day. If this was my wife's last day? It is only a moment away...all the time. What must that 21 year old have been thinking when he walked into that building? Before he died? What did he spend his time doing? If he had known that yesterday was going to be his last day, would he have lived the day differently? If today is my last day at the end of it, would I regret the way I have lived it? We see our money differently. Our spending. Our diets. Our activities. In these changes to our view, good things happen - we may notice the things in life that really matter. We may make changes that make our life look more like our values. After all, we want our lives to be consistent with what we believe. Otherwise, do we really believe it? What do we believe in? What do our lives look like? Where do we spend our time? Where do we spend our money? If you are asking these kinds of questions, we would love for you to join us tomorrow night at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, from 645-800pm. But, there's another side to this tragedy in many of us. We see things differently. Now we see people and we wonder who is likely to hurt us next. Sometimes now we look around in fear and wonder how we will ever make it. We remember the pains of our lives and we read the news and we want to hide. We do not want to feel the pain anymore. We ask ourselves, "What if?" so much that we begin to doubt there is goodness in this world at all. Now we see the world with distrust and pain. We shake our heads and moan over the pitifulness of the world. We simply despair the society we are in. We feel more hopeless. We decide that we want to hide. We want to run. We take this as another evidence that life is filled with loss and risk is not worth it. Many times when we feel like this, we don't really want to believe this is true, but it is all we can see! Let me tell you something if this is your response. If you just feel buried by days like yesterday...let me tell you that there really is goodness in the world. There is a chance in the midst of the pain and the hurt to have life and joy and peace. there is healing for hurt and brokenness. There is love. there is laughter. The path of pain of this culture we live in is not the only way! I know. I used to live in despair. So did many of us at Morethanmore. But we will not live that way anymore. We have found a better way. We will live life differently. We will shed the usual American life and forge a new path. We will laugh. We will care. We will support each other through the hard times. We will give to our community and make a difference in our world. We will live what we believe. Plus, we would love for you to join us! We have great times every other Thursday night just hanging out - light and fun - we celebrate a different way of life every time we are together. It is so amazing to hang out with some people who actually care about you for who you are rather than for what you can provide to them. To laugh and not have to fake it. To have no agenda and no axe to grind. We have activities for kids - and for youth. Both led by people who really want to help the kids become all they can be - not people who were voluntold they had to fill a spot. Responsible and good people you can trust. We would love to see you! Like i said earlier, we hang out at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, from 645-800pm every other Thursday night - next being tomorrow night the 23rd of January.

Morethanmore for Thursday January 9th is canceled.

Hello everyone. Because of the crazy bad weather in the Lafayette area, we will be canceling Mtm this Thursday the 9th. We will miss hanging out with you all, but with the roads so slick, we do not want you to risk your safety to come to Mtm. We will be hanging out again on the 23rd of January - 6:45-8:00. Hope you all can join us then. Extra info about that next time together on the 23rd: We will be restarting our youth time. Kale Fisher is going to be leading and he has some cool new plans for our young people. As usual, the kids will be hanging with Mrs. Abbott, our wonderful preschool teacher/kids leader. see you soon - stay safe, keep warm, and don't forget to notice!

Perspectives

The other day i was at a performance. The performer was fantastic. Entertaining and funny, he still challenged us to see life differently because of his unique form of art. But i have to admit that i just did not get into it nearly as much as i should have. Why? Well, there was this lady sitting in front of me. She was not that tall and had short hair. I know her actually and like her ok, a nice lady i would say. But, i sat right behind her at this particular event. What was strange was that i had never noticed before how much she moves. Side to side, rhythmically responding to some internal beat that only she can hear. It was as if she was rehearsing for a dance act in her head and it was driving her body to sway side to side. So, as i'm sure you can imagine, with each side to side movement she would obscure the performer for just a second and then back the other way, obscure him again. I began to feel very distracted by her movements. After a while all i could see was her and was . missing this awesome performance going on right on the other side of her, up on stage. I tried moving with her, but that only made me feel weird (and no doubt look kind weird too). Then i tried using only 1 eye at a time, shifting eyes just when she moved to the other side - but the problem with this is that my eyelids got tired and frankly all the winking was starting to get my wife concerned (just kidding). The alternate winking became more distracting that the original swaying after a while and so was no use. Before long i could have told you the color hair she had, the style, the clothes she was wearing, maybe even her ear rings. I got so that i was so focused on the nice swaying lady in front of me that i was totally missing an amazing event! The thing is, it was really hard to tear my attention away from the sway (did you get that rhyme? Away from the Sway, haha) All this has coincided with some stuff going on in my neighborhood. You see, we have a homeowners association and a board. Apparently they periodically send out a newsletter (although i have lived her for about 8 years or so and do not recall seeing them regularly). Well, we received one of these "creekside newsletters" the other day and that is what goes along with swaying lady. They started off their newsletter with a few words about the responsibilities of the board and then they plunged into what would take up about 80-90% of the newsletter...complaints. You see, they said, the board has a responsibility to report the complaints people have. So, as i read i learned about people's complaints about tools and dogs and rv's and guns and fences and a lot of other things i frankly can't remember tonight. Then at the end there was a short note about how great it is to live in our neighborhood! So, by now i wonder if you are a bit unsure as to what the swaying lady and the newsletter have to do with each other. Well, let me help you. I could not see the awesomeness of the performance because of my distraction. The swaying lady was totally encompassing my perspective. It did not mean that the performance itself was not good - i am sure it was phenomenal It simply means that i missed it. I could not get my perspective right - i could not get myself to focus on the important things - instead i was focusing on the distraction - and the longer the distraction continued, it seemed the more i focused on it!! The same is true of the people who are complaining in my neighborhood - the swaying people are the dogs and the tools and the rv's and the fences, among other things. The performance is the wonderful people that live in the houses with the dogs and the fences and the rv's, etc. And some of my neighbors (and subsequently the board) were seeing the swaying lady more and more and more, losing their perspective a ton (and their joy!). Now, I wish that it was only me at the performance and the complainy people in my neighborhood where I see this terminal messed up perspective. The truth is that I see this same thing in me every day. I get focused on my schedule (swaying lady) instead of caring about the person in front of me (the performance). I get focused on money (sway) instead of the relationships around me (performance). I focus on what I can achieve (sway) rather than the things in life that matter. I focus on the hurt and disappointment I feel (sway) rather than on the potential I have for growth or the other joys in my life. I focus on short term happiness (sway) instead of long term becoming. And I see it in my culture too. Why else are we as a country so in debt (short term sway, instead of long term responsibility). Why the lack of trust in government? Self-serving leadership (sway) instead of leaders who operate in the best interest of those the serve. On and on and on it goes... So what can we do about these major issues with perspective? It is clearly so easy to get pulled into the swaying of the perspective stealers and before you know it you have your list of complaints long enough to fill a newsletter. Well, first, we have to notice the fact that we losing our perspective - that the less important things are getting our attention instead of the more important things - my wife has this little sign up in our house that says: "Pay Attention to the little things in life because some day you will realize that they are the big things," and we need to see when we are not doing this if we are get our perspectives straight. I am making an attempt to help you notice by this writing, highlighting the tendency in us to sway away. Once we notice the perspective issues we have, we need to begin to look for ways to get our focus back on what is most important. Sometimes we need to move away from the swaying ladies and sometimes we need to introduce ourselves to the wonderful neighbors and have them over for dinner (and then write a newsletter all about how wonderful our neighbors are). One of the best ways to begin a perspective shift is to be with people who are also trying to shift their perspectives. If that sounds like something that you might be interested, you just might love More than more. You see, at Mtm we are all about noticing and shifting our perspectives and healthier, more joyful, more true lives. We would love to have you come and hang out with us - we will be at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00 pm this Thursday night, the 12th of December. As always we will be having free, wonderful child care. Also, for those of you who might be interested, we will be restarting our young people (middle school and high school)group in January! We have so much fun whenever we are all together and everyone is accepted - we truly hope you can make it!

A Few Notes on Sharing Soup, Sandwiches, and Shoes

A couple wks ago, More than more had a new version of Love Your Feet! For those of you who don't know, Love Your Feet is something we have been doing for years, in which we take our resources and buy new shoes for people in our community who don't have adequate footwear. We have been trying to think of better ways to do this for a while and this year we have seized on an idea that we think is pretty fantastic! We partnered with a local elementary school (incidentally where one of our folks is the principal) and she found families in her school that could really use the help. We then met for dinner and some time to hang out (and play for the kids - and the 2 Jasons) and provided shoes to their entire family. It was a blast and needless to say a great way to share some of the goodness we have been experiencing with some other people! It was so amazing to see folks just hanging out, talking about life, sharing soup and sandwiches - it would not surprise me if someone had a hard time distinguishing who was doing the "helping" and who was being "helped" if it weren't for our bright orange outreach t-shirts... One of the best moments was when one of the moms told us how these were just in time, took the shoes off her son's feet, replaced them with the brightly colored new shoes, and then promptly walked over the the trashcan and threw the old ones out!! Shortly afterward, the little boy was to be seen in the gym playing basketball and announcing that he was so fast now because of his new shoes!!! Great to see him feel the love of God in his toes!!! We all enjoyed it so much that we are planning to repeat this on a regular basis! We are tired of living in a world that talks about helping but doesn't do much of anything - instead we want to make a difference. At More than more, we are all about looking outside of ourselves to notice the world around us - where can we help... If this kind of living is intriguing to you, you would be welcome to join us - everyone is welcome - we will be hanging out next on December 12th (we will be missing one More than more because of Thanksgiving - i don't know about you, but More than more will be one of the things i am thankful for this Thanksgiving...) from 645-800pm, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette. As always there will be fantastic child care provided. Hope to see you there!

What i defy part #3

One of my friends called my last post a "rant" and as i think about it, i suppose it was. but I hope you have gained some insight into not just tattoos but where my heart is coming from and going to. I warned you that the 3rd of my reasons for "defy" on my left deltoid in black ink was going to be different than the 1st 2. Truth is, it was totally unexpected. I went into getting the tattoo because i believed strongly in living counter to the culture i live in and intended to defy it. Plus i wanted my arm to be a living testimony to the fact that i will live defying loveless religion and a culture that promises everything and comes through on nothing except for emptiness. Since getting the tattoo, I have had great conversations with people who have tattoos that i would not have had if it were not for the ink on my deltoid. We have talked about religion and God and the waste of our culture. We have bonded over our artists and what their tattoos mean to them. I have had a chance to have conversations with religious people who have generally condemned tattoos as evil about the state of my soul and how good the God who has saved me is and they have had to face a God who loves people desperately who have ink and who dont. And they have to face that what ink is on someone's skin is not indicative of the realness of their walk with God, or their usefulness to Him. It has been fun, challenging, but fun. Now, months afterward, i am sure it was the right thing to do!! So, continuing on with my reasons for defiance... For years i have struggled with pain and defeat and hurt. I have struggled with inadequacy and abandonment and fear. Over many, many years, i have found a great deal of freedom from these things with God. Much of the journey has been through the very "noticing" we talk so much about at More than more. It is a wonderful thing to look back and see that you are now free of the prison that you were previously in. However, from time to time i come across some circumstances in life that bring back the memories of my pain. Sometimes they slap me across the face with inadequacy and beat me down with abandonment and fear...and the hurt rises like tides threatening to swallow me up! During one such time, i was telling my wife of the raging feelings that i had, confessing that i was struggling so much with the pain of my past and she said something i will never forget, "Jason, it's not the same." Sounds simple maybe to you, but to me this was one of the most profound things she could have said. "You are God's man now. You are following Him. He has you," she continued. This awoke in me the realization that she was right. It's not the same. I am free now. I may not FEEL like i am free all the time and the prison may feel like it is coming at me 100 miles per hour, but the freedom is TRUE and REAL and RIGHT and GOOD. This conversation began a renewal of the healing and freedom in my life. But it also gave new meaning to my tattoo! You see, in the moments when i am feeling sucked back into the despair and pain of the past. When the pain and hurt threatens to overwhelm me, i can now look at my left deltoid and see the TRUTH - i defy that prison - it is not me anymore - it never will be again - i am free! It's not the same. I defy the voice of inadequacy. I defy the pit of fear and the threat of abandonment. I defy the replay of the hurt and the dwelling in it. I will live in the freedom of the God of More than more - the God who gives a million things to notice and a million people to notice and the strength and joy and peace and love to do it - for every moment!! So you see, defy has come to mean not just all that i choose to rage against in my life but all that i choose to celebrate in my life!! Defy to me stands for freedom! For purpose. For love. For Trust. For Goodness. For life. For all the things i knew i could be and was but could never get to. Well, there you go, defiance in a whole new light. My take on it anyway. If you are interested in joining with a group of people who embrace this kind of defiance, who are moving toward living life different, better. We would love to have you join us this Thursday night, November 14th, 645-800 pm at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette. As always there will be free childcare, which is excellent. We are currently redeveloping our youth times, we will keep you updated on this portion. In the meantime, McAllister has lots of activities and space for kids to hang out safely. Hope to see you there

What I Defy Part 2

So, as i said in my last post, i will spend my entire life defying the culture we live in - suspect by now you are getting that... But there were 2 other reasons for choosing the word defy for the tattoo on my left arm. The first was expected when i got the tattoo and the 2nd has been pretty profoundly affecting me in the past several months. The second thing i intend to defy in my life is a little more complicated than the first. You see, i grew up in 2 churches for almost my entire life before i left home. I was kinda a loner of a kid, in spite of wanting desperately to have friends and be loved. i would always get excited when someone new moved into town, hoping that they would be the person who would be my friend. I dreamed of moving away and starting out new with friends and good times. I looked for attention and love wherever i could find it. But i did not find it in church. I learned about this Jesus in church - the one who loved the little children and included those who were cast out - and yet what i saw in church was hurt, exclusive and mean cliques, harsh and painful words, hypocrisy (like parents allowing other peoples' kids to do things at their houses that they knew the parents would not allow), gossip and boredom. I hated church so much that i would arrive with my parents, find a back stairwell that no one used, and sit there until everything was over and then come out and meet up with them again to head home. It was easier to run away than to battle. I determined at that time of my life that i did not want anything to do with a God whose people were this way and so i rebelled (there were other reasons too, but not for this post). What i saw at home was better, but not all the way - i saw parents who clearly loved me, but struggled a ton with loving each other. I saw a father who was consumed with making money, motivated out of love and desire to not leave us destitute should he die (which i think he expected at any moment), but nevertheless his focus on money was undeniable - sitting in church and writing on the tithe envelopes what his finances and savings looked like... I saw a mother who would run away from him and problems when she couldn't handle them. I heard tons about the rules i should follow, the damnation i would face if i died and was not living right (felt like i needed to live perfect, although i am not sure that was the intent), and felt the weakness of my life in trying to do what God wanted. For years i prayed nightly before i went to sleep that God would please forgive my sins as i was convinced that i was heading straight to hell. We did not attack the problems of our lives together with prayer. We did not speak of the wonderful grace of God and the joys of living for Him. We did not talk about freedom and hope and life and goodness. Mostly we were dominated by life and its problems. We lived in fear of death, of disease, of problems, of conflict, of money. It felt like a defeated life a lot of the time - we seemed to be getting by, waiting to live at best and at worst living to survive in fear and anger. I realized that my parents had once been very different; that they claimed to have met God and to have had their lives changed by Him. I realized that they had had profound effects on lots of people over the years for God, but i could not figure out why and i certainly did not see anything good in the church. I went my way in life - determined to do better, but not sure how. Then i hit my own rock bottom. Only 22 years old, i realized that i had no idea how to live life. I was broken inside - terribly - see the Sanctus Real song titled I'm not all right. In those times, i reached out to God, as did my new wife. We found Him. But I found Him in a strange way - personal, yet hard to believe in completely because of the distortions of my past. Then we found this really cool group of people that we loved and who loved us - we loved their kids and the kids loved us - calling us JasonandMelissa - as if there was only one of us, because we were always together. We learned from a grammy winning musician turned pastor (now a musician again)who understood God's love and grace so well. We hung out, did life, had lots of Oklahoma Mexican food and learned that maybe what i had seen as a kid was not all there was to God. But, at the same time i was encountering people at school who had this image of God and His people that was much the same as what i had seen growing up. They saw hurtfulness, judgement, harm, non-acceptance. They were talking about how hard it is to believe in God with all this suffering in the world. They talk about the God of child molesting priests and slaughtering crusades and Spanish inquisitions. It was strange to now be seeing the new and the old. I did not know what to do with it all at this part of my life, but was enjoying being accepted and loved for one of the first times in my life. I finished med school and went on to residency and there i encountered much the same. Residents who had little interest in God because of what they saw in the church and church people around them and other residents who were quick to exclude anyone who did not follow their list of rules. I saw despair in more forms than i can tell. Pain and heartache and loss and burden. I wrestled with God and tried to figure out who i was in the face of all this. The hurt in me was so big and so overwhelming at times i did not know what to do with it. Then we moved here - to Lafayette - and i began to truly journey with God - more and more deeply encountering Him as i tackled the pain of my past, grieved things i had never known i needed to, wept and prayed and hurt and also felt new freedom and peace and joy and then even goodness flowing from me and love for people and gentleness and patience and kindness within me - things that i am not sure i had ever really known before unless they were self-serving. i began to see people around me as wonderful and started loving them so much. Thing is, i went to church and saw many of the same things i had seen my whole life in church. I tried church leadership and boards and committees and i saw more of the same. Domination by rules in some churches, judgement and harshness and hurtfulness and in others feel good teaching that did not engage with the real cancers and death and pain that i see every day in the office. It was hard. Plus, i kept seeing people that had had the same kind of experiences that i had had in church growing up and many of them were saying to me that they would never go to church again. Some of them refused to even believe in God anymore because of it and some of them believed in God a ton, and talked to Him a lot, even read their Bibles, but they would NOT go to church. I had talks with gay folks who i cared about so much and listened to their feelings of hatred and betrayal at the church who would not love them. Their jeer was to quote the church saying, "Love the sinner, hate the sin," to me and then ask me who was loving them... Yet, at the same time i was meeting up with and loving people within the church who are kind, loving, accepting, tender, wise, gentle and generous. They inspire me. I now know preachers who love people more than their doctrine or their success. I have seen church people care for the people around them and graciously extend love even when it is hard. In short, i have seen church people who look a whole lot like Jesus - the real Jesus i know. So... I will defy the kind of distorted, mankind-dominated, self-focused, prideful, harsh, judgmental, mean-spirited, exclusive, messed-up kind of religion that has hurt so many people over the years, including me. I will intentionally spend a lot of my time trying to be divisive to any religiousness that is counter to the Truth of this wonderful God i serve. I will fly in the face of their rules when they are not founded on God. I will live "all in" for God and my love (only a gift from God) will defy their judgmentalism. I will forgive and not judge them either(only a gift from God too), but will love in the midst of their distortion - always always always pointing the way back to the God who has rescued me from the pit of despair i was in before i encountered Him. I will serve and sacrifice my entire life, everything (again only by His ability within me), for this amazing God of goodness and i will live this in the midst of the church, in the face of the church - with the intent to show them the wonder of this amazing God. And i will do it with a symbol of my defiance on my left upper arm. You see, i will simultaneously stand for all the judged people that have a tattoo in the world and for the wonderful love of the amazing God who established the church in the first place. My intent is to live out my life loving God and people and have church people ask me why i have a tattoo and then have the chance to tell them about this amazing God in my life...maybe in a way they never expected. And, my intent is to have some awesome conversations with some people i love dearly who have tattoos, who have no idea how much i love God, but who like the ink on my arm. We will have conversations about a God who loves people with tattoos as much as people without them. And how the people who judge them because of their tattoos or their long hair or the color of their skin or whatever superficialness they are being judged by do not well represent the God who i serve - the God who, when He walked on this earth, was accused of being a drunkard and hung out with the cast-offs of the society. Why did He? Because He loved them. He loved them. He loved them. He believed they had a beautiful future ahead of them. He believed they mattered! And so do i. (By the way, while i got the tattoo, me & the tattoo artists - now my friends - had a fantastic conversation about God...they are great guys who really struggle with how hurtful people are to them because of their skin) My hope is to be part of a church that loves people the way God does - in the meantime, i will defy anything that is contrary to the Goodness of God.

Why Defy?

Well, many of you know that a few months ago i got a tattoo. This is on left uppr arm and it says simply "defy" I thought and prayed for many months before deciding to finally go and get it done - the idea of something so permanent on my skin was not something to be entered into lightly and i knew it. Yet, the more i prayed, the more i felt certain that it was the right thing to do. Since having it done, i have been praying and thinking about how to tell the story of why it is so important to me. There are many people in my life who do not and will not agree with me doing it. In fact, i was raised to basically believe, either being told this or having the general idea portrayed, that tattoos are wrong and that people with tattoos are probably sinful, bad people, people to be feared. But then again, i was also raised to believe the Baptists were wrong and Catholics were more wrong, that going to movies was wrong and that dancing was wrong, so i will let you judge where all that goes... i have decided to tell the story in 2 parts - the first being this one: Why Defy? and then the second being: Why a Tattoo? Why Defy? There are basically 3 things that I intend to live my life defying, 2 were very clear to me and partly were the reason for the tattoo in the first place and then there was a 3rd reason that came up after the tattoo was placed, and actually has been more significant to me than the other 2 up to this point. The first, and most important, thing that I intend to defy in my life is the culture around me. I intend to fight against it with every breath that I have, with every ounce of energy, with every drop of my blood - I know it sounds dramatic, but let me explain. Every day I go to my office, to care for people that I have grown to love, and I see that they spend the far majority of their time working their hearts out for bosses that don't care at all about them, in companies that will downsize them in a second if they can save a buck. I see that we live in neighborhoods where the people are more interested in their own rights and keeping their lawns neat or their privacy in place or whatever and in towns where politicians are more interested in their income and the perks than the people they serve. I see that we live in a culture where marriages split and kids are left to fend for themselves as often or more often than they succeed, where affairs are commonplace and to be shared with your doctor but not with your spouse. Where working hard is intended at best to provide for your family so the kids can get better jobs than us and therefore make more money to buy things that won't make them any more happy than the things we have bought ourselves and at worst it is to gratify our every desire, running up our credit card debts to the max so that we can have houses full of things that only distract us from our emptiness. I know far more families that are in turmoil than those that uplift and support each other and it is always about me, me, me. We talk and talk and talk about values and family values and stuff like that but we do not live it. Giving to help our fellow man or woman is buying girl scout cookies or boy scout popcorn, and most dedicated and giving people we know spend a week a year on a mission trip. I see people literally shredding each other - after years of marriage, chucked aside - treated as inhuman because of our faith or our skin color or the tattoo's on our skin - we search for the differences between us not to celebrate our diversity but to judge and exclude. We say our companies are about serving the people we serve but they are not, they are about making money, and we all know it. I am disgusted by this culture. I feel literally nauseated when I see people who have been destroyed by their own greed - sitting there in front of me after a lifetime of following after what the culture tells them they should be doing - getting what they can - with no one who cares for them in their old age - children who hate them because they have treated them so badly for years, spouses who have left them because there was not enough attention paid to them after the work day was done. I sit with them day after day - "there must be something more" is the phrase I hear over and over again - "I feel empty inside" This is the end result of our culture - driven by greed - driven to destroy - like a parasite. My answer to the culture? I will defy it! I will live my life differently and try my best to encourage as many people as possible to come with me. I will live for other people. I will give my money away and serve in my own town, day after day, week after week, year after year. I will throw aside the idea of stuff as king and will do everything I can to love those around me - making them my focus - no matter how frustrating, difficult, and painful. I will live a life in the face of the culture and I will live it with joy and peace and meaning and purpose and I will keep going as long as I have blood in my veins and breath in my lungs. I will teach my children from the time they are little that people are the most important thing, not stuff or winning or succeeding. I will honor my wife and grow my relationship with her and together we will form a team diving into the darkness of the world to shine as much light as we can. I will give my gifts to the world around me, mentoring and teaching and doctoring. I will give tons of care and life and goodness away - always with the mission to spread the defiance of the culture and help other people see that there is a better way. I will disregard the tightness of my schedule when people are involved and serve the person who needs me most, even if it means inconveniencing me or the person after them on the schedule. I will defy the pressure to hurry hurry hurry and instead will stop and notice, pay attention to the awe and wonder around me and savor the moments of my day. I will resist the urge to be more and more involved and instead will only involve myself in things that meet with the mission of cultural defiance and valuing people, with few, if any, exceptions. But I will aggressively involve myself in all areas that come up that meet those goals, involving my family in that as much as possible. My life will not be ordinary. In short, I will live every second of my life in defiance of the culture - I will defy. This is my mission - I am not perfect at it, but I am giving it everything I have and I will continue to. I will defy. I will continue this soon - next will be the other 2 things I intend to defy - it'll be interesting to hear what you think... If you happen to find this appealing - all this defiance in a positive direction, you should consider joining us at More than more - we will be hanging out tomorrow night, the 3rd of October, Thursday, from 6:45-8:00pm at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette. As always there will be free childcare. Hope to see you there!