Our comforts have grown so greatly that compiling a complete list of this nature would be impossible. Here are a few items I’ve come up:

• Cars (and the litany of refinements they’ve experienced)
• Air conditioning
• Goretex, Kevlar, Scotchguard
• Titanium
• TV, DVD, DVR, Blu Ray, High Definition TV
• MP3 Players, CDs, Stereo Systems
• Bicycles with gears & advanced components, skateboards, in-line skates
• Sporting goods, clothing, facilities for any sport imaginable
• Interstates & Highways
• Air travel
• Plastic
• Shoes engineered & made for specific purposes
• LASIK eye correction
• Restaurant dining
• Soft drinks
• Candy that’s mass produced and no longer considered “a treat”
• Starbucks & ungodly expensive coffee
• Microwaves, Fridges, Freezers, Dishwashers, Bread makers, rice cookers, and other kitchen appliances
• Health Clubs
• Professional Sporting Events–ability to attend games or watch on TV
• Internet, Email
• Cell Phones & Landlines that connect almost instantly
• Cameras – both photographic & video
• Shopping options unimaginable 100 years ago in terms of quantity of stores & items available
• Gas Grills
• Dental Care & all its advances
• Medical Care & all its advances, increased quality of life, life span
• Sunglasses
• Copy machines
• Skin creams, ointments, vitamins, pain killers, etc.
• Firearms & numerous advances
• Book availability on an unprecedented scale
• 911 & emergency services
• Electricity & lighting everywhere throughout country
• Snowmobiles, ATVs, Personal watercraft, etc.
• Washing Machines & Dryers
• Supermarkets
• UPS, FedEx, and reliable package delivery
• ….and many, many more that ought to give us reason to pause and give thanks.

Can you add anything to the list? What advances commonplace advances have made your life easier?

Chris and I took advantage of the beautiful day to walk around campus and photograph some of the updates that have been made. These photos may not mean much to anyone who has not visited ORU, but trust me, the renovations that have taken place are making an enormous difference. Everything was falling apart when I graduated in 2004 and it was devastating to student morale. We were paying $20,000+ per year, but conditions kept getting worse. It was encouraging to see updates being made to the more dilapidated portions of the University. Remodeling work will continue and I hope this continues to create optimism for the future. As anyone who has attended ORU can tell you, what’s happened at the school goes far beyond dollars and cents. The renovations represent a reversal of the mismanagement of the school that left us confused, frustrated, and cynical.

In some of these photos, nothing has changed and they’re merely for my own memory’s sake. But many of them show updates to the campus and the encouraging progress that is taking place. Hopefully many ORU alumni will have the chance to see these.

The Graduate Center

The unique architecture of the Graduate Center

New welcome desk area in the GC

New chairs and artwork in the halls. There's also an updated color scheme throughout the building.

New carpet as seen in the famous Hall of Mirrors

An updated bookstore

A beautiful student admissions welcoming area. Very modern and great for prospective students.

Admissions viewing area for prospective students

Lettering above admissions welcome desk

Downstairs of the GC. Still not pretty, but much better due to new carpet & doors. Large lecture hall has also been remodeled.

The Prayer Tower & Gardens

An ORU and Tulsa icon, the Prayer Tower was constructed in 1967 and stands tall in the middle of campus. Admittedly, the only other time I had visited the building was during my college weekend visit prior to attending the school. However, today it was really nice to see the newly renovated Prayer Room and the tranquil environment it fostered. It would have been nice to have had such an area when I was living in the noisy dorms. Outside the Tower are two large garden areas that have also been updated.

No matter what updates are done, it will always look like a space ship

Looking up from underneath the Prayer Tower

The underside of the observation deck

Entering the Prayer Tower

View from the observation deck

Inside the new Prayer Room

To the right of the room

Wall decor

The centerpiece of the room, a wooden cross

Holes in cross for written prayer needs

Lots of prayer requests

Chalk for writing more public prayer messages on black boards

Outside of Prayer Room

Updated landscaping for garden area

Christ Chapel

Christ Chapel surrounded by construction

The iconic tent shape seen from the main entrance

Same shape from inside

Balcony view

Lower level view of remodeled stage

The beautiful daylight flooding in

The ugly gold remains, but the upholstery is better

The towering windows of Christ Chapel are my favorite feature of the building

The call upon which ORU was founded

Student Areas

The Eagle's Nest now has a Chick-Fil-A Express and the seating has been redone

Zoppelt Auditorium has new seating. The ugly gold and old tables are gone!

"Towers" - My dorm was on the far left

A newly opened section of the "Fishbowl" that used to be a dorm director's residence

New seating in the "Fishbowl." Other updates include flat screen TVs, pool table, air hockey, and vending machines

Separate dorms are still in effect

Fred Creek

They’re currently working to redo the sidewalls of Fred Creek. The stone looks beautiful! While I can’t remember what was there before, this is a huge improvement. A new pedestrian bridge leading to the Mabee Center has also been built.

New bridge connecting campus & Mabee Center

View when facing 81st Street

View when facing Lewis Avenue. Old pedestrian bridge seems tiny.

New stone along Fred Creek

View of the GC from the new bridge

Thoughts

It was encouraging to see the variety of improvements taking place on the ORU campus. While they may not appear overly impressive to those that have attended nicer looking schools, I was blown away by the work being done. Renovations have also been made to other facilities, including some dorm rooms, but I didn’t visit these areas. Hopefully my next visit to campus will bring even more surprising changes. The school is turning a corner and let’s pray it continues.

After viewing more portfolios than I can remember, I finally decided on Brian Hoff. Though his work was solid, his work flow and expertise impressed me more than anything. Through reading his articles at The Design Cubicle, I realized how little I knew about design and how many elements went into quality layout and graphics.

While I can’t justify hiring Brian to style my personal blog, I am inspired to learn and come up with something nice for this site. It has been neglected for too long and I want to come back strong with quality styling and interesting writing. My first experiment is with Typekit fonts to add readability and order to the site as Brian taught me here. We’ll see where it goes from there.

Though Meredee is self-sufficient, she’s at her best and happiest when she’s taking care of her husband and the house and not thinking about work. In the same way, I’m happiest when I’m working, supporting her, and not taking caring of the house. If I never had to do the dishes or cook again, I would be the happiest man in the world! And if Meredee never had to work again, she would be ecstatic. It has nothing to do with either one of us being lazy or irresponsible and everything to do with us complementing each other. As we found out during our eHarmony communication, we both embrace traditional gender roles.

My wife is not alone in her desire to be a wife and be taken care of. Contrary to what pop culture tells us about women being independent, most are wired to support their husbands. Likewise, men are wired to provide for their wives and lead the relationship. Somewhere we’ve gone wrong and confused a lot of people. We now have millions of lonely women chasing careers and postponing marriage when they’re yearning to be wives and mothers. Conversely, most men now know what a duvet cover is and have lost much of their masculinity to suburban life.

Politically correct or not, men and women need each other. I’m incomplete without my wife and she’s incomplete without me. My hope is that we appreciate this more throughout our marriage and work to help each other fulfill our respective roles. To start, I’ll continue to work hard toward keeping her at home.

Days like today add to my divided opinion of my home area. On one hand, I miss the Midwestern people, their values, and the work ethic. It’s nice to live in a place where you don’t have to lock your doors. On the other hand, it’s flat, freezing cold, and winter lasts waaaaaay too long. Conversely, Oregon’s people are very different than what I’m used to and much of the culture is strongly at odds with my beliefs. However, I love how we can see the ocean or the mountains by driving 2 hours or less! Why can’t the people and the landscape go hand in hand?!

Yesterday at church, Pr. Gary railed on Black Friday and what it’s done to our attitude toward Thanksgiving, and I’d definitely have to agree with his analysis. He really got into it and probably surprised some people when he told us to “rage against the machine” and tell the spirit of consumption “Up yours!” by not participating in Black Friday shopping. It’s ironic that, if we’re not careful, Thanksgiving can turn into a day of planning how to get more rather than a day of reflecting upon the incomprehensible amount of wealth, opportunity, freedom, and other gifts we’ve received.

I am just as vulnerable as anyone else in this country to materialism and some of the lessons of gratitude I learned while living in South American can seem like distant memories. I want to live full of thanksgiving and have a proper perspective on what I’ve been given. I struggle with this and it often seems like I’m destined to go through life always wanting more. It appears that contentment will be a lifelong battle and pursuit. For now, I’ll start with Thanksgiving. I’ll thank God for all his provision and for placing me in this location at this time in history. And to help the process, I’ll tell the media and those in the highest places of power to shut it when they start blathering on about how bad things are. If we would all give thanks, I have a feeling everyone would be better off, and not just on Black Friday.

Last night we had the best discussion of the course as we talked about healing and our faith. I won’t go into specifics because of the personal nature of our discussion, but it really brought our Table 5 group together. We talked about the healing God had done in our lives and how negative experiences could be used for good in the long run. We also prayed for each other and our group gathered around Meredee and prayed for healing of the pain in her leg that has bothered her for 10 years. There were a lot of good tears last night and I had a wonderful glimpse of what God may want the Church to be like. The unpretentious, genuine nature of ECF and it’s people initially drew me there and this attitude was displayed again last night in a beautiful way.

We only have 1 week left of Alpha and then the discussions and amazing dinners will be over. (They feed us a full meal every week!) To extend it though, we’re having a group Christmas party at our house for one last get-together. It’s hard to develop close relationships in a large church and I hope we’re able to maintain these friendships and get to know others as well.

An easy excuse would be to say that everyone does this. That’s not good enough because I don’t want to be like “everyone else.” It bothers me when others don’t follow through on small matters and it pleasantly surprises me when they do. One of my pet peeves is when others use the excuse “they were busy”, all the while failing to realize how ridiculous they sound given the simplicity and brevity of their proposed actions. No, they didn’t make it a priority. I want to be someone that makes another person’s day instead of the one that makes them sigh in frustration. And if I can’t follow through on something, I shouldn’t make a promise in the first place.

Keeping one’s word is a simple, yet key and often overlooked part of our daily lives. I don’t want to be a liar and am purposing to be better in this area of my life.

We had a nice talk and Michelle outlined the steps I would have to take to be a part of their team. There were four steps: 1) Complete the application for a license with the state 2) Get fingerprinted 3) Complete 40 hours of training 4) Pass the licensing exam. I had done step one and am working on the training. I should have done the fingerprinting a couple weeks ago, but had not.

So today I went down to the Sheriff’s office, took a number, and waited in line to be fingerprinted. It was a long wait as their glacial pace closely resembled that of their cousins over at the DMV–which I need to visit soon as well. But once I stepped into the office, it was actually fun to do the fingerprinting. It never occurred to me that it would be digital! I had visions of an ink pad and walking out of there with stained fingertips. Nope. The machine was state of the art and the man doing the printing knew what he was doing. First they scan your 4 fingers together on the left hand, then the thumb. They then repeat this on the right hand. After this, they scan all 10 fingers individually, rolling them from side to side to ensure a complete print. I liked watching the patterns of my fingerprint appear on the screen and it was easy to see why no two fingerprints are identical. Afterward, he printed (with a laser printer) my prints on the official FBI card and I was on my way.

They might be lacking it customer service and behind in other ways, but that was cool! Plus, now Big Brother can watch over me a bit more easily.

Prior to living in Missoula, MT, I did not know that there was such a thing as a young hippie. I’m being serious. I thought all hippies were baby boomers and living in a bygone era. They had long gray ponytails, wore peace signs, and drove Volkswagen vans. Or, they were philosophy teachers at the local community college, stirring up dissent and hatred. But when I ventured to Montana’s capital of liberalism, there they were. There was a culture of young people with long hair, tie-died shirts, body odor, “natural” food, and more bumper stickers than you could imagine. Transplant me to Eugene, Oregon, which is essentially a Missoula of four times the size, and there are more hippies! Maybe there had been a handful in Fargo while I was growing up, but it would have taken quite a surveillance effort to find them. But not here!

Meredee and I went downtown Saturday to take some pictures and enjoy the weather. We decided to head over a few blocks for my official initiation into living in Eugene–the Saturday Market. Hippies everywhere! There were more earrings, outlandish hairdos, and skinny, frail men than I could believe. There is much about this place that I have not been exposed to and may never understand.

When I walk by the downtown bus stop on any given weekday, it’s sad to see what this “freedom” has done to young kids who don’t go to school, are trying too hard to express themselves, and are set on rebellion against the traditions that have given them the luxury of living a hippie lifestyle. They’ve been lied to and have bought into it hook, line, and sinker. There are other groups of people that my heart breaks for, but I will admit it doesn’t break for the hippies. Maybe it should, but it doesn’t. Perhaps my attitude is unbiblical. If it is, I’m not sure what to do because I’m finding it extremely difficult to have compassion for people so bent on complaining, obstruction, and destroying much of what I believe in.

I could go on and debate the differences I have with the hippies, but that would take more writing than I’m up for right now. Besides, anyone who knows me would assume I have little to nothing in common with a hippie. Let’s just say I’ve learned that there are young hippies and they obviously prefer a warmer climate than that of Fargo, North Dakota.

Her new toy arrived today, a day early, and she’s already taking a liking to it. As I speak she’s in the other room looking for anything to shoot–candles, pots & pans, bananas, etc.

Mer teases me that I have the coolest wife in the world. How many other women would buy a camera in such a situation? I tease her back reminding her that not many people begin learning photography with access to the two professional $1600+ lenses I have.

Not only is my wife’s purchase guy-ishly cool, it’s also something I enjoy and can use as a business backup. Also, we’ll have fun as I teach her photography and have her accompany me on some shoots. Plus, the camera shoots 720p video–something mine cannot do! I do have the best wife in the world.

Meredee has gone through the same issue and is equally relieved because she does not have to fend for herself or always be strong when there are problems. She no longer has to go to movies or eat alone. Also, she gets the chance to plan and do things she’s always wanted to do, but either didn’t follow through on, or simply didn’t want to attempt as a single woman. Now we get to experience and share life together.

Companionship is a part of marriage that cannot be appreciated fully until it’s experienced. While many couples fight because they have to share their lives, it wasn’t meant to be this way. In its positive form, the company of a spouse brings out the best in us and gives great joy and fulfillment. Having my best friend as my wife is a pleasure and I thank God for putting Meredee in my life. It’s uncanny how well Meredee knows me and how our personalities and interests mesh. She is an extremely intelligent, thoughtful, and caring woman that is already proving herself to be an ideal wife.

Thanks for your friendship Mer.

It’s hard to believe it was almost a year ago that I packed my car and made the 13 hour drive straight west from Fargo. I knew RMSP was something that I wanted to do and was excited about, but I still felt strange because it seemed like another random interest of mine. But looking back now, I would not trade that experience for anything. I think fondly about our classes, optional lectures with Neil, photographing ghost towns, driving through the incredible landscape of Montana, and sitting around using geeky camera and computer terminology with other students.

While we felt a little crazy taking such a big step, we also knew lots of friends and family members that would have loved to be in our position. We were all living out a small dream, not just talking about doing it. Our groups C and D became especially close, learned together, and made each other better. It’s very emotional to think about how special our camaraderie was and yet I can’t explain it to someone who wasn’t there. When I ask others if they miss the experience as much as I do, they resoundingly say yes. Many people went home and went through withdrawal and mild depression because they had lost the relationships and experiences that had been vital to their daily lives for 4 1/2 months. It’s strange being on our own, trying to make a business of photography and not having the daily support of our classmates. The Internet helps immensely, yet cannot compare to personal contact. I miss being surrounded by people who knew what I meant when I asked questions about f-stops, exposure, Lightroom, and dragging the shutter. I miss their encouragement and telling me I could do it when most others seem to suggest getting a “real” job and settling into their boring routine.

I thank God for Montana and the time I had. What I experienced there will stay with me forever. While I started out feeling inadequate and crazy for taking such a risk, after 2 months I was confident and knew I belonged at that school. I knew God had sent me there and had given me an eye for photography that he would use somehow. That’s what I hold on to now when it hurts and want to be back in Missoula. I trust he didn’t just send me there for a special experience that would end, but to develop skills that will lead to even greater experiences that would not be possible if I hadn’t visited Montana.

When I was a child, the Old Testament was a collection of stories and something for reading time with dad or Sunday School trivia games. Now as a married adult, I am enjoying going through the same stories and viewing them from a much different perspective. For example, when I was a child, I thought the Israelites were moronic for not following God and could not comprehend how they went away from worshiping him and instead followed foreign gods and did what was right in their own eyes. As an adult however, I am trying to read with a view of human nature and our brokenness. I try to put myself in their shoes and wonder what it would be like to follow Moses and this Yahweh that had been with their ancestors some 400+ years earlier. Was worship of God commonly taught among them while living in Goshen or was following him a big new step? If I were used to a life of slavery and oppression and was suddenly freed and told to worship God in the desert, would I know how to handle it? Apparently Moses and many of them did, so it was possible. The difference now is that I don’t assume obedience and faith to be the norm as I did when I was a child growing up in church. The Israelites were sinful for forgetting the miracles and goodness of God demonstrated in Egypt, but I can empathize with them now because of my own sinfulness.

Perhaps more than anything, reading through the Old Testament has taught Meredee and me the seriousness nature with which God approaches obedience. When we read through Exodus to Deuteronomy, it was staggering how many times a phrase like “just as the Lord has commanded you” would appear. The text made a point of using this phrase first in the giving of the instructions and then in the past tense to summarize how they did or did not follow through on the command God had given. Apparently, when writing the Pentateuch, Moses thought it was important to emphasize strict obedience to God and his laws. There was no debate, bargaining with God, or adapting God and his ways to the culture. He was God and that was it. This lesson was totally lost on me as a child but now rings loud and clear.

While the instructions for obedience and punishments for sin were explicit, one cannot help but see the love of God for the Israelites. This takes some time to grasp and does not come with every reading, but it’s there. I can almost feel a minuscule fraction of God’s heartache when he pleads with his people to obey him, all the while knowing they will walk away. He goes to great lengths to warn them of how they will be destroyed and punished for generations to come if they choose disobedience. This has sparked conversations between us about how Israel was a microcosm of humanity and how God still created us even though he knew we would reject him despite being warned. What kind of unimaginable love must God have to do this?

The Old Testament has also caused us to think more about the supernatural. Scriptures like Genesis 6, where it speaks of supernatural beings coming to the earth and having intercourse with women, cause us to wonder and scratch our heads. This is a text that can be glossed over and explained away so that we feel comfortable with our tangible, explainable world, and Christians have done that plenty. Or, it can be read as something supernatural, possible, and heart wrenching for God because of its wickedness. Add to this the plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, miracles in the desert, and Balaam’s talking donkey and you’ve got a lot of unexplainable material. Do these stories embarrass us and put a dent in our faith because they’re not what we experience in the Western world? Or do we read them and ask, “How have we strayed so far from a belief in the supernatural and wanting to be a part of it and God’s work on the earth?” We’re not even close to being there, but Mer and I are praying and asking God to help us believe in the supernatural and expect great things, not just live by what makes sense to us. This is a tough battle for the mind and I don’t have an easy solution.

As I write this, I feel futile trying to explain the slow transition that’s taking place in us by going through the Bible in a way we’ve long wanted, but did not have the discipline to follow through on. It was obvious something was happening when we visited a church in February and the pastor was preaching about devotions and prayer. He said that the Bible was a book with a lot of difficult passages but that it also had passages filled with action. Therefore, if we were struggling to maintain disciplined devotions, we should just read the action parts. I was furious! Here Meredee and I had been laboring through Exodus and had not encountered much action. Yet, we were learning and growing in our thinking. Many of the lessons we were learning or examining had nothing to do with action. Rather they had to do with confusion or being overwhelmed by the idea of a God bigger than we could understand. How dare this pastor say that?! He was doing his people a disservice and helping contribute to the dumbing down of the evangelical church. Mer could tell I was angry because I wasn’t laughing at his stupid jokes interspersed throughout the sermon. I wanted to leave and I wanted him to resign and apologize to his congregation.

I’m not saying the Old Testament is easy to understand or that I have a firm grasp on its context. I still have lots of questions and we will continue our reading throughout the year, which will raise further questions. My only point is this: I fear many Christians have become too much like the pastor that angered me. We stick to the portions of Scripture which make sense to us, make good sermons, or have a lot of action, but we avoid the difficult topics. What about the violence of the Old Testament? They completely wiped out women, children and whole cities. What about divorce? How do we deal with Jesus, in the New Testament, saying that if a man or woman divorces, except for marital unfaithfulness, and then remarries, they are an adulterer? What do we do with that? How have we ignored that when Jesus talks about it?! There are people I respect that ignored or explained that one away when it hit too close to home. What about envy that pervades every fiber of our society so deeply that we’re blind to it? How do we preach against the victim or entitlement mentality that rots people from the inside and destroys their souls? Are we going to step on too many political toes with that one? (I could go on and on just examining my own heart.)

I am no Bible scholar and am not interested in being one. But I can’t help but be filled with questions and a desire to know the God that I have ignored in many ways. One of the aspects I love about Meredee is her genuine nature. As we’ve been reading, no matter how simple or profound the question that comes to her mind, she asks it. At the same time, I’ve allowed myself to say “I don’t know.” It’s refreshing to say that. No longer do I have this pressure to be able to explain everything I read or question I have. (I don’t know where the stupid notion that I could do that came from anyway.) This makes it feel like we’re going through Scripture both as children and adults–children because it’s okay to not understand and adults because we examine with more maturity and introspection.

God is infinite and we humans are finite and insignificant to a level we cannot begin to grasp. Reading through the Old Testament has helped us grow and begin to ask God to put our lives and faith in perspective. Let’s hope this continues.

I started watching season seven of American Idol with Meredee from the beginning. She was a religious Idol watcher and had even taped (with a VCR) previous seasons in order to keep up with the show. So after we were married, it was my husbandly duty to spend time with my wife watching one of her favorite shows. I was skeptical, but Mer did have two things in her favor. First, we recorded the show with the DVR and were able to skip the commercials and unnecessary blabbering portions of the program. This greatly reduced the mental and time commitments required of me. Second, we were able to watch the show in high definition. Now it’s not as cool as watching the Super Bowl in HD, but I couldn’t complain. Even manly men can appreciate how good Ryan Seacrest looks in 1080p. This has nothing to do with liking his girlish figure or fake bake tan. It only means that men love technology and can appreciate a crystal clear, lifelike picture regardless of the show.

While I still wouldn’t consider myself an ardent fan, I have found Idol interesting and entertaining. I even find myself occasionally making comments about someone’s performance or the idiocy of Paula Abdul’s critiques (or lack thereof). Because I cannot sing to save my life, it is especially impressive to watch such young performers sing with astounding confidence, power, and ability. With only four contestants remaining, Meredee and I have our favorites as well as those we want to see go. We do not like either Allison or Adam and are pulling for Kris and Danny.  It’s interesting that both Kris and Danny have church music backgrounds as well.

I guess marriage will do certain things to you. Never would I have pictured myself watching American Idol, but we’re enjoying it. Plus, I always like listening to Simon’s commentary. Like Rush, he’s never wrong.