Birthday/Job Hunt/Surgery

So, it's been awhile since I've done a personal post, so here's an update for all of you (two) readers.

Sunday was my birthday - the BIG 23. My birthdays can be measured in the amount of time it takes me to actually realize that it's my birthday after I wake up. When you're 8, as soon as you wake up you're looking for your first present. I can remember not realizing I was 19 until I was already in the shower. This year, I spent close to an hour of my birthday unaware that it was, in fact, my birthday. Okay, so that's not really THAT long, but it really does contrast your attitude when you're a kid.

Part of being 23, apparently, means really being a part of the "real world." Part of being part of the "real world" means looking for a job when you need one, and not relying on nepotism to come through for you in the clutch. My internship is done this June, so I have to look for a "real" youth ministry job. Not that this job was fake - I did plenty of work - but I just didn't get a "real" salary. Right now I'm talking seriously with a First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina. They seem pretty interested in me being their Jr. High director, and I'm pretty interested as well. I've got a pretty big phone interview tomorrow night, so we'll see how that goes. Other than that, there's nothing in the pipeline for right now.

Side note - it's very interesting to me that most of the time when I announce that I'm looking for a job because my internship is almost over, almost everyone asks "Oh, in what field?" or something to that effect. You don't ask that if someone leaves a IT job, you assume they're staying in that field unless they tell you otherwise. I guess people just assume I'll eventually get sick of kids, or God, or combining the two.

Anyway, another part of being 23 means getting surgery for the ACL you tore when you were still 22. I'm told it's a right of passage that marks your transition from a puny child who relies on his parent's health insurance, to a MAN who sucks money out of his OWN insurance policy - or wallet. In my case, it may turn out to be both, but that's still yet to be determined. In any case, I'm reporting to the surgery center on Thursday bright and early at 6am. You know, if they're going to operate on you and take you out of commission for at least a week, the least they could let you do is sleep in a little, don't ya think? So, I'll be a shut in for basically the next week, on crutches for a week after that, and in physical therapy for the first quarter of my 23rd year. (I guess it's actually the beginning of my 24th year...) While I'm not looking forward to all the rehab and not being able to do fun things like walk briskly, I can't wait for Thursday to get here so we can just begin to get this over with. Maybe while I'm stuck here at home I can begin the invention process for bionic knees...

Trekked Out

Okay, so first off, I need to confess, I am a Star Trek fan. Have been for years. Though I never really cared for the old-school Captain Kirk era show, I ate up 'The Next Generation' and actually have my TiVo set up to record it in syndication so that when there's nothing else to watch, I'll always have a Star Trek or two saved up. I've gotten my fair share of teasing over the years for my love of the show, but hey, it's great television. Much better than most of the reality crap they have on these days.

Tonight I found out that the latest Trek incarnation, 'Enterprise', has been cancelled and will air its last episode in May. I'm pretty bummed, actually more bummed that I might have expected. I didn't realize how much I had come to enjoy this Trek prequel.

Last year, my roommate Seth got me turned on to 'Enterprise'. I had heard bad things about its beginnings, and had actually gotten pretty turned off to Star Trek in general because of 'Voyager' getting really lame. But, when I started watching 'Enterprise' I found something new to the Star Trek universe - story arcs. Sure, there had been some connected episodes in earlier series, but 'Enterprise' was willing to create an entire season based around a single mission - stopping an alien race bent on destroying earth. The ship got in firefights often, and the captain was willing to do whatever it took to succeed, even *gasp!* torture information out of enemies. The parallels between Enterprise's mission and our country's fight against terrorism were hard to miss, and it helped make the show really enjoyable. The characters were dealing with the same kinds of things we are. Even since the completion of that season and story line, 'Enterprise' has continued the trend with shorter story arcs that have been really good. Most recently, the writers tackled the story of the forming of the Federation, which was really cool.

I guess not enough Trek fans were convinced to return to the franchise after how bad 'Voyager' was, because ratings for 'Enterprise' have been bad. They actually dipped to their lowest point for an episode in the middle of the best story arc so far this season. So, what's happened to Star Trek?

You might be surprised to hear that, when 'Enterprise' ends its run, it will be the first time in 18 there hasn't been new Star Trek episodes airing in primetime. I certainly was! 18 years is a LONG TIME! That's most of my lifetime! And that's certainly long enough for most people to get a little sick of Trek, especially with all those terrible 'Voyager' episodes stuck in there. Part of the reason Trek made such a great comeback was that there was such a big gap between the original series and 'The Next Generation'. People had forgotten how much they liked the Trek universe.

Paramount, in its cancellation announcement, hinted that this was not the end of the Trek TV universe. While I look forward to what's to come, I'm hoping they wait a few years before they even start thinking about what to do next. Then bring in lots of new people to make sure the show is as fresh as possible, just as 'TNG' was when it came out.

If they wait long enough, hopefully most people will have forgotten the monotony of 18 years of Trek, and be ready to start fresh. Maybe even you - come on, you know you like it!

24 and The Great Commission

Two for one deal today, ladies and gentlemen! I had this cool thought about 24 and figured this is what most people have blogs for, so I might as well use mine to work this thought out a bit.

Put simply, there isn’t a single “good” person on 24. All of the characters are flawed in some way or another, even the people you’re rooting for to save the country from whatever terrorists they happen to be fighting. Jack Bauer, the show’s main character (who I see as the toughest Jack on television, no disrespect to Jack Bristow or my friend The Kize) , is consistently forced to deal with troubling personal problems, while putting his life on the line to save his country. From having his wife murdered, to dealing with a heroin addiction, Jack’s seen a lot of hardship over the three seasons of the show, and yet he always manages to come through and save the day. And lest we think Jack is some kind of super-human, able to repress his feelings all the time, the writers show us bits of his humanity from time to time. A particularly good example of this comes at the end of season 3 where, after facing his 3rd twenty-four hour day filled with terrorists, near-death situations, and personal problems to boot, we’re left with a shot of Jack breaking down in tears in his car – fade to black, season over.

This season, Tony Almeda returns as a character that has fallen from grace. We find in this most recent episode that the former director of CTU has done time in prison for last season’s decision to help terrorists who were holding his wife hostage. Jack has pulled some strings to get him released, but his anger has driven him towards drinking, and his wife away. He seems to be making a change for the better, however - despite his saying that he wants nothing to with Jack or CTU, he decides to help Jack take down a key bad guy at the end of the episode.

Jack always manages to get the job done when he’s called upon to do it, with aid from his allies at CTU and elsewhere in the government and I’m expecting to see a similar outcome with Tony (although I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tony’s life sacrificed in some way to save the day, much in the same way as George Mason and Ryan Chappelle have done in previous seasons). Because of all he has to overcome, Jack’s eventual triumph is that much better. It would be one thing to see a guy who has it all together save the world, but having someone deal with severe emotional and even physical handicaps do the same job makes a much better story.

That’s God’s point of view, too. He calls us to do various things for Him and His Kingdom while we’re here on earth, all of which work to fulfill the Great Commission He’s given us: to “…go and make disciples of all nations…” But He doesn’t use people who have it all together. Rather, He uses the people who are broken, and know it. These are the people who, after they’ve accomplished something great for the Kingdom, don’t immediately point to themselves and say “Look what I’ve done!” because they know there’s no way they did it on their own. They’re clear that their calling was from God, as was the support they needed to get the job done. When they finish, they’re not looking for attention, but if it’s given to them they are quick to deflect it, giving God the glory for what they’ve accomplished.

By using this type of person, God makes himself look better! In sports, a coach who wins with a team of losers is a hero, while one that wins with a team of superstars is often referred to as a babysitter and receives little credit for the team’s success. God handpicks his team, and fills it with people who know they couldn’t succeed apart from Him, or even people you’d never expect to see on His team in the first place! Check out what Paul (whose name was changed from Saul) was doing before he became a Christian and wrote a large chunk of the Bible.

I’m really looking forward to see how the writers of 24 will restore Tony this season. I guess I can’t be sure that they will, but I know their usual pattern: Jack’s life has always taken a turn for the better after completing one of his mega-missions. By the end of the season, Jack still faces his problem, but with a renewed sense of determination to fight it and win, with help from his friends or family. We can get the same determination by working at the jobs God has called us to. By recognizing our inability and weakness, but relying on His strength, He brings us through safely on the other side with a job well done, and a better appreciation for His faithfulness.

Pretty cool when God shows himself through pop culture, huh? I’d love to hear what other people think about this, so leave some comments!

Welcome Back

Yeah, it's been awhile. No, I'm not going to give you an explanation for why it's been awhile, because there really isn't one worth writing about. I have come to realize in the eight months or so that I've been out of college, that I am not very good at keeping in touch with people. So I realized that updating this can fulfill both my desire to make sure people know I'm not dead, and my lazy attitude when it comes to actually being proactive and communicating with real people. Don't let that stop you from communicating with me, though. I actually love catching up with people, I'm just not very good at initiating. Hey, maybe you're reading this and you don't even know who I am - you should call me too! We have a lot of catching up to do, you and I!

Anyway, for anyone that doesn't know, since June I've been working at McLean Presbyterian Church as an intern with their youth ministry program. 'Intern' is actually kind of misleading - I work for my boss, Mendoza, and it's just the two of us. We have a fairly large number of kids in the ministry, and that, plus the fact that I'm the only male on staff, means I have a lot of work to keep me busy - about as much as a regular full-time employee.

The job has been a good one. Extremely challenging at times, but also extremely rewarding at others. Sometimes even challenging and rewarding at the same time, but not that often. I've still got about four months left, but I'm beginning to look ahead to next year. The church won't be able to keep me on staff for financial reasons after my internship is done, and so the job hunt begins. I'm primarily looking for an assistant director position at a large-ish church - probably Jr. High Director, or something like that, where I can have more control over what I'm doing, but still be able to work under someone who can help me out when I need it. The search has just begun, but I've already talked to a guy in Columbia, South Carolina about a position that sounded like a good fit. Now if I could just get him to call me back...

More on the personal side, my knee has returned to haunt me further. As some of you may remember, I dislocated my knee cap about two years ago, which really even less fun than it sounds. My knee had been doing great, to the point where I wasn't really even thinking about it anymore. Then I planned my triumphant return to skiing. I hadn't been skiing since before the 'incident' and I was ready to hit the slopes again. I was doing really well too, right up until one of the last runs of the day. I think I was tired, and I KNOW that my bindings were too tight, so when I wiped out after having to dodge an out-of-control snowboarder, the skis didn't really pop off when they should have. This caused my left leg to twist in an unholy manner. And that caused my ACL to snap. The really crazy thing is that, even though I was pretty sure I had felt something snap inside my knee, I was about to keep skiing down the mountain. It didn't really hurt that bad. But, my knee cap felt really loose, so I decided to take the walk of shame down the side of the mountain. Two days later, my doctor gave me the ACL diagnosis. An MRI confirmed it, and showed a torn lateral meniscus as well. What the heck is a lateral meniscus, anyway? So, long story short, surgery is scheduled for February 24th, to fix both problems. Until then, I can walk pretty much normally, I just can't do anything to physical that might involve my knee twisting. Including, as I found out last night, stepping off a two foot stage with my bad leg first. Had the all-to-familiar feeling of the knee cap sliding out of position, then the brace I was wearing pushed it back in. More on this to come, I'm sure, since I'll be off my feet for a week after the surgery with nothing better to do than mess around on the internet. Oh yeah, it also turns out that the previous problem had nothing to do with the ACL. My doctor said I'm the first person he's met that's dislocated a knee cap and torn an ACL in the same knee. Go figure.

So, that's it for starters. Check back next Monday (I get Mondays off since I work all day Sunday) for more, if I remember. Hopefully I'll find a way to make more jokes in future entries, since this one is kind of boring. Besides, I get jokes.