Jesus is the Reason for the Season

Yup...you've heard that one before. I know I've cringed at it's somewhat cornyness, but I recently stumbled across a HILARIOUS video clip that I think drives home the truth of that statement.

Many of you remember the Reebok commercials feature Terry Tate as "The Office Linebacker" Here it is for you to refresh your memory...



Well now SermonSpice.com has come out with a few funny spin off's of this great clip. The first one is titled "Evangelism Linebacker" and can be viewed HERE.

And now just in time for Christmas SermonSpice.com has put out the "Christmas Linebacker" clip. Check it out HERE.

This will certainly make you think twice before blowing off the true "Reason for the Season."

Merry X-mas,

Ty

The Beauty of Winter

I was out yesterday with one of my students. Chris took this shot yesterday morning at a park near his house. I simply love this shot...and was thrilled to get a copy of it yesterday afternoon when we connected for coffee.

These last few days have been spectacular. This snow fall is certainly one to remember. Charity and I found ourselves right in the middle of the huge snowfall Saturday night when we drove into Ladner for my parent's annual Christmas party. One poor lady at 7-11 (where we stopped for some hot chocolate) was having a nervous breakdown into the phone saying "it's a white-out...I'm not going to be able to drive." I think she had a prior negative experience driving in the snow to be that worked up. We made it safely home that night...praise God.

Sadly, Charity and I never got to have our annual "first snow-fall winter walk." Every year we've been able to walk up to Starbucks and grab a coffee/hot chocolate on the first snowfall. This year we couldn't because we were in Ladner. Oh well...bring on the next dump of snow! Charity had her class canceled on Monday and we were able to decorate our house for Christmas! The tree is up...and we're realizing that we're running out of room in our basement suite! A 7.5 foot tree sure takes up a lot of regularly used space.

So before the rain comes (which we know it will) enjoy this amazing snow. Make a snow-angel, make some yellow snow, go for a walk...whatever you do enjoy the amazing scenery around you.
Blessings,

-Ty

winter showed up

well...if any of you live in the lower mainland...and especially in the fraser valley, you were certainly woken up this morning due to a very loud hail storm!

i have no clue when this thing happened during the course of the night...but it was white on my deck and grass this morning. i also loved driving the 5 minutes to work and already having to deal with moronic drivers who think a bit of hail means they now have to drive 20-30 km p/h.

anyways...if there's hail on the ground here that can only mean one thing. the local mountains are open for business. as of today, all 3 north shore mountains are open. this can mean only 1 thing. i really really really need to hit the slopes more often this winter. time to dust off the snowboard...north shore here i come baby.

Walkin' in a winter wonderland:

-Ty

scheduling time for relationships

anyone else here guilty of this?
guilty?
"excuse me" you may be asking.
why would I feel guilty of wanting to spend time with my friends?

perhaps this is just something that I'm feeling, but lately I've realized that I so often have to "schedule" time...sometimes months in advance...to connect with my friends. personally, this makes me kinda sick to my stomach. is this just the cultural norm, and something that I need to suck up? am I an idealist who simply wishes things were different, yet deep down inside knows it'll never be that way?

or maybe...
just maybe...
we're living our lives totally wrong?

don't get me wrong, I love my palm T/X, and so many times that thing has saved my butt from forgetting important meetings, appointments etc...but sometimes when I look at that thing it reminds me that so much of my life is nailed down, planned, commited to, required. Again, perhaps its the ADD is me that wishes things to be different. I digress.

this whole idea of living in community, spending time with those you care for, always seems to sprout up this time of year. today is the american thanksgiving...a time for families to re-unite and share their lives with one another. next month is christmas...again a time when people stop what they're doing to spend time with one another. but does this time with one another always have to be because of a national holdiay?

maybe Acts 2:44-46 sheds some light onto what I'm talking about. a vivid portait of the early believers actively participating in each other's lives. breaking bread together (modern equivalent of this would be eating dinner?) why did this happen. vs. 47 says they did this to "praise God". what a beautiful picture of what deep, authentic, committed relationships should look like. and isn't this a central focus of the gospel message? Christ came and lived among the people. Christ innitiated indredibly deep relationships--with all sorts of people. maybe for you...this is a reality. and you do have these friendships that happen on a somewhat regular basis. but for me...and I feel for many of us...this is sadly not the case. I do have meaningful friendships...don't get me wrong. and I love the relationship I have with my wife. but still I see a need for us a the body of Christ to be more like a body...less like random scattered apendages.

these thoughts are still in their infancy. so bear with me as I continue to wrestle with them. I hope that you and your relationships think deeply about this. do you have to schedule time with those who mean the most to you? if so...then maybe we need to reschedule the rest of our lives!

-Ty

fog

This picture best represents what me head feels like right now. Let me rewind to give you the full picture...

On friday we had our 3rd annual "Ultimate All-Nighter". This meant that from 7pm-7am we went Swimming, to Flip City, had a worship concert, went skating, and watched Nacho Libre & Over the Hedge.

What happens after you stay up for 24 hrs (since I had gotten up at 7am on Friday to drive Charity to work, and then prep things for this big event...) is that your body gets REALLY REALLY confused. I went to bed Saturday at 8am. Woke up at 3pm. Went to bed again at midnight. I saw a total of 2 1/2 hrs of daylight on Saturday...how depressing.

Well now after screwing up my body clock my head feels like its stuck in a San Francisco fog. Hopefully the fog will start to clear in the next couple of days...because I don't get sick that often...and I'm a bit of a grump when I am sick.

Lot's of stuff coming up here in the next few weeks. We're setting up our house for Christmas this coming weekend...and that means that Corey & Erin's wedding is only a few weeks away. That means...Corey's bachelor party is coming up soon! WOOT. He's gonna pay... and we're gonna laugh and laugh and laugh...

Two Big Trips on the Horizon:

1) Ontario: Dec. 13th-19th for Corey & Erin's wedding, and some guy time in Toronto with Jason after the wedding. We're leaving our wives at home...and having some fun.

2) Alberta: Dec. 21st-30th: Charity's family is having a family reunion in Alberta. One whole week of figuring out all these people's names that I barely know! WOO HOO.

Time to drink some tea:

-Ty

Viva Italia!

Oh man, is this going to be a tasty weekend.

So tonight Charity and I received an invitation to attend the Test Kitchen for The Old Spaghetti Factory that's almost open next to our church. mmm! So we get to go...and eat their food as they prepare their kitchen and serving staff. I've got a Jr. Youth event tonight at 6:30pm so I can only be there for an hour...but who cares! It's time to eat some yummy Italian food.


So if things couldn't get any tastier. On Sunday from 1-5 pm Charity and I are also invted to attend the "Test Kitchen" for East Side Mario's that's opening up across from our church. WOO HOO. So for 4 hours we get to sample all their creative dishes...make our own pizza's, and a whole lot more yummy-ness. So I might be putting on a few pounds this weekend, but it's all for a very-very good cause.

To top things off...on Sunday night we're getting together with some of our young-married friends for a dinner at one couple's new house in Abbotsford. So this is gonna be one heck of a tasty weekend. Sorry that I can't invite anyone...but you can't aruge with God's calling to place me at this church surrounded by new restaurants...(immense levels of sarcasm).

Have a great weekend everyone,

-Ty

Artist Showcase: A Sheep at the Wheel

This is the first music video put out by my buddies in A Sheep at the Wheel. Check it out and give them some good feedback on YouTube & on their website.



For more A Sheep at the Wheel info:

MySpace

Website

Rock On:

-Ty

Free Derek Webb Album

Not much time to post...but this is great. You can get the whole Derek Webb album "Mockingbird" for FREE. Yup...nada, zip, zilch, nothing, free! Just follow the directions.

Click here:

Mine's downloading as I type this. Woo hoo for free tunes.

I gotta run:

-Ty

Our Halloween Date

Yesterday, Charity and I got to spend the day to ourselves...and decided to have a little Halloween date. It wasn't an huge theme date...as I've done in the past...but we did kinda keep the events somewhat similar to a Halloween-ish experience.

To start we went to Science World to check out Body Worlds 3. This was something that Charity and I had wanted to go to since it's rare to ever have this exhibition come to a city near you. It was a really amazing experience to see the human body so close up. The display of human organs, tissue, nerves etc...was something that Charity found totally fascinating. This was any biology keener's dream-come-true.

The price is a little steep for this ($25/adult & $21/student) but it's something that many of us will only get to experience once in our lifetime. It's deffinately something worth making a trip down to Science World to see. It takes just over an hour to see the entire exhibit. You can purchase the audio tour component for an extra $5 dollars...which might make it more interesting...but I don't think it's entirely necessary.

After this we headed down to W. 4th Ave. to go for dinner at Hells Kitchen. This is NOT the same restaurant as the show that was on TV a little while back...but it was great food none-the-less. Really the reason we chose this restaurant...aside from it's name & that it was Halloween...was that we had an Entertainment coupon that we wanted to use up! If you ever get to go I would reccomend the Yam Fries...a very yummy twist on the usual. After our meal, we ordered a couply of Pizza's to go...since Tuesday's are 2-for-1. They smelt yummy on the car ride home, and I'm going to be eating some for lunch today...drool.

It was a fun date...something we both deffinately looked forward to. I'm off later this afternoon to go purchase a bunch of 1/2 price halloween candy from WalMart & SuperStore. T'is the best time to get the stuff...and save it for future youth events...

Boo:

-Ty