'Idol' banter

A bunch of my friends and I are thinking about getting back into a video game we used to play.

Sounds like a harmless thing, I suppose.


So let me fill you in why this is a choice subject to record and blog about.


While I was dating Tara, and before I knew Jesus my life was:
Marijuana and liquor
Sex on the weekends,
FF XI (the video game) on the weekdays.


Sure I worked. But only enough to pay the monthly fee for FF XI. No that's not true. I need a substantial amount of money to support my drug habbits. For instance, about 2 - 3 grams of pot a day, runs you about 30-50 bucks a day. And the liquor and weed combo once every week or two, runs you about 100 bucks.


So... Lets say I worked enough to make about 200 bucks for my weed habbit, and about 100 bucks for the liqour (per week). Also smoked cigarettes, that's 5 bucks a day, so about... 150 bucks a month. The game is 14 dollars a months, so in reality it's cheap.


But here's the thing about the game. In three years I had accumulated 270 days playtime.


...That's right. About 6480 hours played.


Divide that by 20, and I could've planned and preached about 324 sermons.
Divide that by 2, and I would've gone to 3240 small group meetings.
At an 8.00 dollar wage that's about 51,840 dollars.
I could drive to Myrtle Beach and back 231 times.
I could drive to Walt Disney Land in California and back 90 times.
Driving in general, at the speed limit, I would've gone 421, 200 miles.
Do you know that the Earth (at the equator) has a circumference of 24,902 miles.
--That means I would traveled around the earth almost 17 complete times.

If only I gave God that time.

Alas, no one knows what could've been. The reality is we're thinking about playing this again.
2-3 hours a week, 2-3 times a week.
Meditating and praying on it as we speak. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jesus protect me and my wife, from myself.
In Jesus' name
Amen.

Early Morning at Work.

Sabbath.

I'm at work at the moment, and my mind is on sabbath. If that doesn't give you a hint as to how my day is going, let me give you a better explanation.

I got to work 45 minutes early today, driving the slow lane the whole way. How? I left at 20 of seven. Why? Because I am worried that my Saturn is going to blow a cylinder and vomit it out of my engine block at 4000 rpm.

Anyway, I walk up to the door, only to find them locked. As a temp I don't have a key. Also, as a temp it's hard to explain to the people with keys, that the only reason I'm tailing them into the building is because I want to get to work.

7:35 rolls around, and I found someone I could bum a card-swipe from, and I thanked her as she lit up another menthol. It has only been about an hour, and I've already accumulated a day's worth of work on my desk. I should be praising God instead, I'm praying for God's mercy to get me out of this job.

My brain is swamped with the anxiety of the young adult ministry, the prospect of a new church plant, the growth and walk of my wife, the giving up of my teaching, the taking up of other responsibilities, our finances, the effort with which I work, the amount of exercise I get, and even the fact I'm a horrible "sabbather."

Don't pity me, infact, you should rebuke me. For a newly-wed, this is way too much on someone's plate. To go on, you could even assume, I enjoy the burdens, that I may say God is using me! God is growing me! When the shameful truth maybe I'm ignoring God's call to rest, and let go.

I can't wait to go home, read some Judges, maybe some 1 Peter, and pray. Talk to my wife, share some laughs with her, pray with her, and hopefully get to bed early.