so i find myself at panera anxiously preparing to write lesson plans and grade homework for my Calc with business apps class, only to find that I have forgotten a crucial ingredient: my notebook, which contains all the correct answers for grading, and in which I write my lesson-plans.

It would seem that my plans have come to a temporary impasse. Thankfully the gray skies and mist throughout and my sweet collection of iTunes music on my laptop make today an ideal day for blogging my thoughts, and the recent going ons of my life.  Fear not, I’ll continue with my thoughts on those three verses, but not with this post. (I am presently undertaking a one-word study over the verse I blogged about last time)

**If you're wondering where those thoughts are posted, you have to check out joetucker.wordpress.com!!**

So whats up:

+I just turned 23. I got two cakes from two good friends. I got two things of ice cream. I went to Karaoke twice. Had dinner with the fam. Had a night on the town with the roomies and plan on watching 23 tonight (I should shoot for getting 23 people to show up…)

+On the note of Karaoke, it is one of my  new favorite past times. Let me elaborate:

normal college bars:lots of drinking, dancing-but the awkward kind that I can’t really do, jukebox, pool–all in all things that I either don’t really partake in or that I suck at

karaoke bars: singing and lots of it, dancing-but the kind that people do at weddings to Journey’s Faithfully or Bon Jovi’s Livin on a Prayer, darts, usually a lot of drinking there too, but all in all things I love (singing and goofy dancing) plus the company of friends you’ve known forever backing you up while you try O-Town’s I want it All. good times indeed.

+Jon Penn’s new CD, off the chain. Check it out at wavethenavel.com

+I got accepted into a program through Mission Year and Eastern and it is a contender for what I might do post-graduation. Not entirely sure yet myself, still praying these things through, but worth checking out for yourself or if you’re interested in where life may take me: www.missionyear.org/masters

+Mike Smith and Anne are both coming home soon from their ventures over seas. Exciting!!

+i was thinking about creativity and how I appreciate it, but really don’t have much of it myself. For examples most blogs have trendy post-mod pictures of themselves looking away from their cameras while walking along some derelict street with a guitar strapped against their backs and random graphics around the corners of the page. I got nothing.

Not that i desire to be exceptionally more creative than I am now. I would consider myself innovative, but not creative. Moreover I can emulate like no other. I can duplicate what is funny (just listen to how frequently I quote movies) but coming up with something that is in and of itself funny and original usually evades me.

+So marvel.com has just released a bunch of back issues of comics online as digital comics (Sweet) but this new addition has caused their server to fail and their website can’t be accessed (suck), so now I am forced to look at my sweet backdrop of Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler of the Uncanny X-men until I can access marvel’s homepage to find a sweeter backdrop.

That takes care of most of what has been going on, I’ll post some deep thoughts sooner (or later)

Grace and peace!

If any of my readers are unfamiliar with who I am, which I find unlikely since to the best of my knowledge only my Mom reads this site, let me present to you my religious affiliation: Christian.

Now the modern day dilemma with such a simple word as “Christian” as expressed by C.S. Lewis is that generally Christianity carries with it some other implication. Lewis denoted this affect “Christianity and” in his book Mere Christianity and tries to get to the core definition of the word.

However in today’s society most Christian’s, as I have observed tend to switch Christianity to some new word that they the control thus controlling its implications. For example, Don Miller author of Blue Like Jazz, classifies his works as reflections on Christian Spirituality; while John Piper would call himself a Christian Hedonists. Although I disapprove of this trend of word bending, I find myself in the same conundrum as the aforementioned authors, “How do you label yourself, when you feel that the common label does not do your beliefs justice?” If Christian, as America defines it, is decidedly Republican, evangelical, and white, then this is certainly a label I find I can not have.

(Thankfully I have higher hopes of America’s definition of Christianity than that, I just use hyperbole to reinforce my point.) Thusly, I will define myself Christian and define Christian as a follower of Christ. (Which yes is a broad definition, but one that has brought me much joy as I have searched for what it means to follow Christ.)

Now as a Christ-follower I present a few verses from the Bible that I have wrestled with for quite some time. It is my hope over the next weeks or so to post an extended exegesis of these verses, my thoughts and reflections, what I was taught as a youth, what I think now.

• Mark 8:34-36 “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
  • 
    
• Luke 14:25-27 “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
  • 
    
• Philippians 3:10-11 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

So sit tight, there should be some good stuff coming soon….

joetucker.wordpress.com