the order of the ravens

because Halloween is upon us!

Mayhill Church of Christ contacted me this week: they want me to come and preach again. "And after the service, we'd like to sit down with you and talk about the position." This will be the third time I've preached there, and it seems like they like me well enough to talk about what the position would entail. I'm thinking that's a good sign? If I were to be offered the position (and if I were to accept), that would at the least be an extra $800 a month. That would be insanely helpful. I told Ashley about how I'll be preaching there the first Sunday of November, and she said she'd support me in whatever I choose to do. You can't put a pricetag on the kind of support she's shown. I'm thinking I'll preach a sermon entitled "Loving God: What It Means," showing how love for God is essentially the same as devotion to God, and how one's obedience is a litmus test of sorts to the claims of love for God. It's an important subject in a culture where having warm feelings about Jesus, or trying to adhere to your moral compass, or simply believing in God, is viewed as "love" for God.

I also have an interview with my home church tomorrow.

The position is for Youth Ministry, and I'm their first interview.

Roger said he really liked my resume (he helped me design it!).

Working at Southwest would be my first choice.

(but we'll see where God takes me)

I've really enjoyed doing Bible studies with Ashley, either in person or over the phone. Mandy and I prayed over the phone, but I wasn't as adamant as I should've been about reading scripture and studying the Bible together. Thus I've been far more proactive in that arena with Ashley. Lessons learned, eh? It's been great so far. Today we went to Zola's Pub and spent most of the meal talking about Christianity's assimilation with pagan culture and how that assimilation is often viewed in terms that isn't assimilation at all. I don't know if that makes any sense? Anyways, it was a good talk, made even better over Kentucky Bourbon Ale!

Ashley and I don't have a long-distance relationship, and I'm seeing how some of the things I believed about myself in a relationship were off-base. For example, when I would go see the Wisconsinite, I would want to cuddle all the time. I'm a natural cuddler, and she's not. Ashley, she's a cuddler just like me, but we're not cuddling 24/7. I think because my time with the Wisconsinite was so limited, and because one of my main Love Languages is physical touch, it was my natural disposition to want to cuddle as much as possible. Another surprise: I'm far less of a homebody than I thought. I do enjoy quiet nights in with Ashley, but I like to go out and do stuff, too. We've gone on several dates, we've gone on walks, we've went out and done things. I like having an "active" relationship. When I would visit the Wisconsinite, I would want to go and do things, but I'd also want some time just cuddling and talking at her place. Again, I think that goes back to the time constraints that long-distance relationships put on a couple. It isn't easy to gauge how things will look "in real life," and it's easy to believe that a relationship will look one way "in person" based on what the relationship looks like long-distance, and for that assumption to be wildly off-base. Of course, these are things you can see only in hindsight. But they're noteworthy in their own right.

I've finished Allan Eckert's The Conquerors.

Next up: Stephen King's Just After Dark (a collection of shorts stories),

and Michael Crichton's A Case of Need, a medical thriller about abortion.

Reading fiction is always a good stress reliever.

(God knows there's been a lot of that lately!)

I've also been doing a lot of writing, "getting back to my roots." Writing fiction has always been nothing short of exhilarating. Crafting a story out of "thin air," playing God with the characters, fashioning something out of nothing (a literary ex nihilo)... There are few things quite like it. My first novel (and my first trilogy) all sold remarkably well; maybe if I get back in the swing of things (and actually take royalties), I could (a) do something I enjoy doing, and (b) make money off the fools dumb enough to enjoy my work.

Those are most of the updates for now.

Tomorrow Ashley, the girls, and I are going to church together.

Then we may have a picnic, and we're going to a Fall Carnival.

And tomorrow night? THE WALKING DEAD!!!

(with Blake, Traci, and Ams)