Baby Fullen: 22 Weeks

Check out Baby Fullen! We just got these a couple of days ago! Oh, and Merry Christmas!

I talk about sex a lot

Let me start by saying that I like people with conviction. You know, people with gall who say something and then stand by what they say. It seems to me that this is a fading quality in our world. It used to mean something for two people to have an agreement and if a person was trust-worthy then a certain respect was rendered to them.

I know that for my best friend, and me, we learned that if you give a person your word, then you meant it. Word was bond sort of deal. That said, what is happening with so many that lose the virtue of conviction?

Let me clarify. I just read an article that has me kind of peeved.

Too many times in our society today, it’s far easier to just change your opinion than it is to speak up for what you believe. I’m sure many people find it easier to fold to the pressure stated and just conform rather than stand up for their own convictions. You know cower and drink the Kool-aid with everyone else instead of have a voice.

I’ll set it up for you. I teach middle school students, 7th & 8th grade to be exact. I teach students all kinds of things from the perspective of the scripture. I read, interpret and speak based upon what the Word says. I work hard to connect the bible to real, everyday life. The bible happens to say a lot about everyday life and the decisions we make. I happen to believe it is the all inspired Word of God, without error. With this in mind, I speak to my students about a lot of topics and talk about the teachings of Jesus and about how God has weighed in on many subjects. One topic I speak frequently on is that of virginity or abstinence, saving sex until marriage. I think it’s a timely topic and I certainly think students are interested in knowing about it, and to some people’s surprise, they even want to know what God says about it.

Well the article I read just spoke about how celebrity teens ought not set themselves up for failure. They ought not call themselves virgins or tell that they are practicing abstinence, because they might fail and that would give them no room in the public eye to move. The only option if they fail is an image in free fall. You can read the article here. I just have to say this is the most stupid, anemic, puny and weakest advise I have ever heard from a so-called teen adviser. The actual quote from the article is here: Stars who speak out about their virginity pledges may be setting themselves up for failure, says Jill Zimmerman Rutledge, author of teen self-help books "Picture Perfect" and "Dealing with the Stuff that Makes Life Tough."

Pardon me while I rant! I’m not sure I understand you Jill! Are you on drugs? Let me explain. I ask if you are on drugs because this is obviously a crazy question to ask a professional like yourself. You wouldn’t be on drugs. In fact, you would even be against drugs. You might even go as far as telling people or even teens to, “Say no too drugs,” because they’re bad for you. However, Ms. Rutledge, we don’t want to set people up for failure, so maybe we shouldn’t tell people we don’t do drugs. They’re may not be any other room but failure if we call ourselves drug-free, then end up using. After all, we are still building our own identities here, so we need to leave room for mistakes.

I don’t get the logic behind “mums the word.” Why can’t people just mean what they say? I admire the celebrity teen that calls himself or herself a virgin and then follows through with it. I even agree that if they voice their abstinence, they may feel the pressure of the public eye watching them, but so what? Christians that follow Christ, make that decision everyday. They choose to state their convictions and live by them. It takes real risk and there are weighty matters at stake.

I talk about sex a lot to students. I teach students all the time that waiting until heterosexual marriage was God’s plan for sex and any thing outside of that is sin. I didn’t make the rule, God did. If we don’t like it, fine, complain. But complain to God about it. Let him know how he created this thing called sex that our culture worships with every commercial and then complain about how you can’t have enough of it. Tell Him about how we need more sex. Explain to Him your better idea of sex outside marriage, preferably at a young age, perhaps even junior high, in order to have more years of sex. Let Him know how you think it’s okay for kids to experiment, kind of “learn the ropes.” Be sure you explain to Him how it’s probably not going to take an emotional toll on that individual later in life, because you understand things from a better perspective. Include the part about how He doesn’t understand all the pressure that a teen is under too.

I’m pretty sure most people would agree that marriage seals a certain vow, a genuine vow to give oneself sexually only to their spouse. Why is it so accepted now that people have sex with whomever until that marriage day? I mean, sex outside of marriage is still unfaithful sex, even if it happened years before you were married. I want students to know that God created and guarded sex. He protected it for their benefit. Why would we sell students short and tell them not to state their convictions for fear they may fail. We wouldn’t do this in any other arena. We don’t tell students to keep college a secret in case they fail. We don’t tell students to keep their job a secret in case they lose it. We don’t tell students to not ever baby-sit, incase they make a mistake at it. However, when it comes to the subject of sex, we think that we might as well give in now, cause everyone fails. Well, I think God protected it for a reason. Mainly, because something so powerful as sex could cause a lot of good or bad- if left to the whims of hormones.

I mean, I’ve never heard an adult talk about all the “mistakes” they wish they would have made in high school. Only the ones they wish they hadn’t made.

I’m just crazy enough to believe some students really can see what God created and why he protected it with marriage. Those students may just be the ones calling themselves virgins.

You're about to laugh at me... like seriously! (Jason's edition)

I totally lifted this blog from Robert, but thought it was interesting. Here it is:

The following is a list of shows that I have never sat and watched a single episode of. I've seen clips here and there but maybe only a few seconds at the most. Please don't hate me! [I couldn't believe how close our lists turned out. I simply striked out the ones that I had seen]


ABC SHOWS

Boston Legal
Brothers & Sisters
Dancing With The Stars
Desperate Housewives
Dirty Sexy Money
Eli Stone
Grey's Anatomy
Life On Mars
Lost
Private Practice
Pushing Daisies
Samantha Who?
Scrubs
True Beauty
Ugly Betty


NBC SHOWS

30 Rock
Chuck
Crusoe
Fears Regrets Desires
Heroes
Kath & Kim
Knight Rider (the new one)
Life
Lipstick Jungle
Medium
My Name Is Earl
My Own Worst Enemy
The Office


FOX SHOWS

24
American Dad
Bones
The Cleveland Show
Dollhouse
Don't Forget the Lyrics
Family Guy
Fringe
Hell's Kitchen
Hole in the Wall
House
Lie to Me
MADtv
Prison Break
Secret Millionaire
Sit Down, Shut Up
So You Think You Can Dance
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

CBS SHOWS

The Big Bang Theory
Big Brother
Cold Case
Criminal Minds
CSI; CSI: Miami; CSI: NY
Eleventh Hour
Flashpoint
Gary Unmarried
Ghost Whisperer
How I Met Your Mother
The Mentalist
NCIS
New Advs. of Old Christine
Numb3rs
Rules of Engagement
Two and a Half Men
The Unit (Seen about 2 episodes, Season 1)
Without a Trace
Worst Week

*****************************

Just so we are clear, this is just a statement of fact. I haven't seen them, but I'm not trying to make a statement here or anything. Just haven't watched them.

okay, begin mocking...now.

rainbow

sweet rainbow! picture doesn't do it justice.

sweet rainbow pict2

the otherside of the rainbow

@ Times Square Saturday night!

@ Times Square

Macy's

In macy's, here's the new's year's timesSquare lighted ball on display.

Don't Hate Me

Okay, so don't hate me. It occurred to me the other day that alot of people may actually like the apps that are available in Facebook. That means that some of you have been very kind and decided to even include me in the fun of Facebook's application world, and for that I would like to extend a real "thank you."

If you have sent me and ap invitation, I probably owe you an apology, because I probably didn't accept your invitation. Now you may be wondering why I chose not to accept your invitation to become part of a worthy cause, or join you in a fun game, or perhaps work hard at discovering my true top friend, but the truth is, I'm in a dilemma. I find some of the apps overwhelming, some useful, some fun and some of them mind numbing (but probably not the one you sent.)

How does one solve such a dilemma? Easy. You do nothing at all. Therefore they collect into one location. Currently I have received somewhere over 216. I hope I haven't offended you by not responding & I certainly hope you understand. I figure there are some things in life you have to say no to, and so far, Facebook Apps are it. Who knows, I may add a few one day.

So for fun, how many Facebook applications do you have?

A little update!

1). Rach is doing well and we are in the 14th week of pregnancy! And by "we," I mean all of us: me, Rach, and the baby. It's been hard on me. Having to eat for 3 and continue the normal routines. It's like I'm climbing a mountain - only with a pregnant lady :)
2). I'm reading a good book by John Eldredge called Walking with God. It goes well with another book I'm reading called Letters by a Modern Mystic. It's by Frank C. Laubach.
3). I've been thinking about the nation as a whole lately. So many people with so many opinions. I'm continually intrigued by Jesus and his lack of involvement in politics. Not sure what that means for me yet. I do know that I am glad the election is over. I also know that I've grown tired of reading about all the people ready to "flee to another country" if McCain or Obama were to win. I think that is ridiculous. "For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Romans 13:1"
My faith has never been in a President, but rather in a King from another Kingdom.
4. A big shout out to my friend Todd Wright is in order for his great news! Todd has recently had one of his songs off his new CD entitled All The Freed get picked up by SongDiscovery. Very cool news. Very excited for Todd and Kristin and their family as it is so evident God is doing some awesome things in their lives. You can hear all about his news here if you're so inclined.
5. I forgot to call my dad on his birthday. Yep, I'm a loser. Sorry Dad. Happy Birthday (Belated) Dad, Rach and I miss you tons!

A Rock Hoppin' Saturday

Saturday was a fun day! I went with the Swann's and the Lawyers and David Kumpf out to Cunningham Falls in Thurmont, MD. We had a great day of adventure! I had know idea our group would turn out to be the rock climbers that they were! We left no rock unconquered!

Our day included a hike to the falls, a picnic by the lake and a 1 hour training session on skipping rocks. Not to mention a small stint at the playground monkey bars.

It was indeed a wonderful day, as the weather was perfect!

CATALYST 08!



As you may already know, I was in Atlanta last week for Catalyst. It was a great event. It also proved to be a fantastic time of listening to some really smart people make some really challenging and great points, not to mention some pretty crazy illustrations like the elephant picture above. I'm going to continually be processing some of the things I heard this past week. I'm still processing some of the stuff I heard from the Leadership Summitt!

Upcoming Events Radar: the Hunt & Adventure for 6.

mark batterson

he's a pastor in DC.

Catalyst 08

So far so good! Andy is talking about Nehemiah. He's making good points.

A "Little" News!

WE'RE PREGNANT!

Well, Rachel and I celebrated 13 years of marriage this past May. May 13th to be exact. We have had an awesome 13 years getting to know each other and experiencing a lot of life events together.

As many of you know, Rachel and I have been unable to have children. We really didn't know why, and technically speaking have never taken preventative measures of pregnacy - and still it just never happened. Once we moved to Maryland we became a little more intentional at finding out what the circumstance was and possiblities of infertility. However, after a year of working with a doctor and starting some mild medications, Rachel became pregnant a year ago which ended in a miscarriage. We were very sad, but encouraged to see "progress."

Well, after a lot of prayer and Rachel and I confirmed this week that indeed we are pregnant again! and this time we have a HEARTBEAT!!!

We are so totally stoked! We've never been down this road before, but we are excited and so greatful for this addtion. We know we're very early in this process (Rachel is only 7 weeks), but we just have to celebrate what we see as nothing short of a miracle!

We want everyone to know how much we appreciate all our friends, their prayers and support and encouragement through the years and your continued prayers as we navigate uncharted waters!

Thanks to my new friend Matt, I Present...Roadents

Day Late and $ blah blah.....

Tonight I decided that I wanted to go look for an Andy Gullahorn concert to see if he was going to be close to Maryland any time soon. Robert introduced me to his music at the beginning of this year, and I really like his stuff, so I thought it would be fun to hear him live.

Today was September 10th, and I went to the site and looked for the schedule and found the following:

AndyGullahorn.com
The Official Site For Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Andy GullahornClick HERE for more information on booking shows and house concerts

September 6, 2008 Lancaster, PA
with Andrew Peterson
Lancaster Bible College
7 PM

September 7, 2008 Phoenixville, PA
with Andrew Peterson
Faith Baptist Church

September 13, 2008 Jonesboro, GA
with Andrew Peterson
First Christian Church
7:30 PM

September 14, 2008 Lindale, GA
with Andrew Peterson
First Baptist Church

September 21, 2008 Nashville, TN
Square Peg Alliance Show
with Jill Phillips, Andrew Osenga, Ben Shive and Eric Peters
12th and Porter
7:00 PM

October 4, 2008 Albany, GA
with Jill Phillips and Andrew Peterson
Porterfield United Methodist Church
The Rock Fest 2008
7:30 PM

Can you believe it!!!!?? Lancaster is maybe and 1.5hrs away, and I missed it by 3 stinkin days! I thought about looking about 3 weeks ago and I just got to it and look what happened...

O well, I'll try and catch him next time around. Sorry Andy. It would've been fun.

Recent Prose

I spoke a few weeks ago I spoke at our main service at LifePoint. In the middle of writing my message, I decided to write some prose that reflected my need for mercy. What started as a whim became something that had real meaning to me, as most everything that I wrote had some story behind it. It may not make a lot of since outside the context of the sermon, but you can read it any way. Also, if you like, you can listen to the sermon here. or download it here.

Now for the prose:

I’ve Seen Him
by Jason Fullen

I’ve seen him. Distant. Far from morality. Hateful. Bitter.
I’ve seen him, with his disdain for the fair.
I’ve seen him mock, scold and complain; I’ve seen the selfishness in his veins.
I’ve seen him lie; Treat truth as frivolity and walk in defiance as if it were royalty.
I’ve seen him.
I’ve seen him be consumed by self-centeredness, amused at his wittiness, oblivious to his thoughtlessness.
I’ve seen him crave the tasteless, shun the majestic and gasp in awe of the worthless.
I’ve seen him beat up the helpless and follow the ignorant.
I’ve seen him sneer at the young and ignore the old.
I’ve seen him.
I’ve seen him speak harm to the innocent and encourage the thief.
I’ve seen him sing the praise of cruelty and laugh at injustice.
I’ve seen him cry over pettiness and overjoyed at insignificance.

How dare this man?! Does he not know?! Ignorance upon ignorance!
How can a man be so blind?
He spends out of his bankruptcy. When will he learn?
God give him mercy! Poor it on strong!
Bring healing to his depravity and pour grace on his soul!
I’ve seen him. He lives too close.

mycrazywife!

her new found love for power risers!

Day-cation

We're in Vermont!

Jason's Friday

Okay here it goes. I have spent more time today working for this guy than I care to admit.

6:45AM Awakened by the veggietales song "Where is my hairbrush?" Then I laid there for 15 minutes while lots of students moved around starting to pack up for the ride home.

7:15AM I finally join in the packing.

7:40AM Go load the girls stuff in the van with the guys and then moved the van to the back of the church to load the guys stuff.

8:25AM Rolled out of Grace United Methodist church where I saw this guy riding a bike, like previous mornings.

8:30AM Rolled into McDonald's parking lot for breakfast. It was pretty good.

9:18AM Begin to listen to lots of laughing as we all started reading our care cards from camp. It was funny and the laughing didn't stop for some time.

9:54AM Rolled into the church parking lot for an on-time delivery of students. The only time I've ever been on time. And the only time ever that not one parent was in the parking lot waiting to pick up their child. I vow never to be on time again.

11:00AM Roll toward Hanover PA to return the rental van.

12:30PM Rach and I come home and skip lunch. I fall asleep on my bed, Rachel heads to Westminster to run errands.

1:45PM I wake up and head down stairs to veg out in front of the tube. I watch Law & Order and part of Return To Me. Rachel comes home at 4:50pm

4:50PM We start getting ready for Ben & Jobi's wedding. Jobi worked as a elevate table leader last year and part of this year. Then she had to go and get engaged to Ben Duke, our senior pastor's son. Now they're moving to CO and I'm down more leaders in Elevate. Ben & Jobi also went on our ski retreat in Jan. They will be sorely missed.

5:40PM Rolled into the church in the Jeep with my bride looking as HOT as ever! She was dolled up now! She wore black, and she was hot! I looked good too. Rach got me a new shirt that I really liked, until someone commented on it being purple and me supporting the Ravens. Then it quickly dropped a few points. I do like the Ravens some though after there bout with the Patriots last year. However, I digress.

6:00PM The wedding begins, and as the bride, Jobi, comes down the isle, I see a last minute panic before turning onto the center isle. I was sitting on the back row and watched a first hand account of her conversing with her dad about what to do with her gum. I think he noticed it and then out she spits it right into his hands and into his pocket his hand goes. It was very funny, and priceless. The last act of a father saving his daughter of embarrasement before she is married. It was cute. Yep, I said cute.

8:00PM After talking at the church we headed out to the reception. It was a very nice reception. It was fun catching up with friends.

11:45PM Rachel and I finally leave the reception and head to the grocery store. We didn't have anything in the house from being gone all week.

12:45AM Rachel makes cheese dip and we head downstairs to watch the rest of Return To Me, which I happen to think is one of the best movies of the year 2000. Especially, when I don't remember another movie in the year 2000.

2:00AM Rachel is asleep on the couch & I finish the movie.

2:00AM Jason is asleep on the couch.

2:30AM Rachel wakes up and begins to take stuff upstairs.

2:33AM Rachel hollers to Jason to get up and go to bed.

2:35AM Rachel hollers again to Jason to go to bed.

2:37AM In an effort to make his wife quit yelling down the stairs, Jason finds enough consciousness to make it up the stairs and go to bed, but barely.

Twinkies! or Maybe Not...

Anybody else find this disturbing? I can't believe this, tell me it's not true.

"Hey Rach, bring me one of those cattle flavored snack cakes! Mmmmmm! Thanks!"

Reality Week Live - Camp Night 4

Camp Night 2 - Live 8-9pm

at the dc fireworks!

were @ the mall in dc! Larry Gatlin is on the stage in the bkg. other than that, it's great!

Thoughts on America's Dream

Currently pondering the following:

I think in mature Christian circles (those self-identifying as “close to Christ” or “Christ-centered,”)most would agree to the following statement:

"The American Dream is not biblical."

Now for me, I know I have taught students that the American Dream is not necessarily God’s plan for their lives. By it, I don’t mean that God can’t give them wealth. I simply mean that God’s plan transcends American culture and is in fact possibly adverse to the American Dream. Of course, I don’t mean that God always works a certain way; I mean that the principal behind the Scripture is not always in line with America’s idea of a dream, i.e., happiness.

Now this brings me to my point. Happiness. Most Americans are born and then ingrained with the notion to pursue happiness. I reference the United States Declaration of Independence, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
It has just dawned on me that pursuing happiness may not be biblical. In fact, the more I think about it, it resonates in me that it is in fact the incorrect thing to pursue. Hold on, I’m not yet finished. My point is pursuing happiness is not correct. Biblical counsel seems to command us to pursue differently. I think pursuing goodness is a much more worthy and biblical pursuit.

I find the following:
Romans 15:14
I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
2 Peter 1:4-6
4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

It seems to me that if happiness was paramount, then we should be adding goodness to our pursuit of happiness. However, in verse 5 of 2 Peter 1, we are instructed to add goodness to our faith. This makes faith our vehicle to pursue goodness.

My fear is that I use my faith to pursue happiness way more often than the pursuit of goodness.

Bottom-line:
Pursuing Happiness is singular and internal.
Pursuing Goodness is plural and external.

Therefore, how do you feel about this quote from Marva Dawn:

“To be middle class is to have more than your share of the world’s resources.”

Scary thought: Is the American dream simply to be middle class? I’m curious as to how much energy I put into attaining or maintaining my middle class-ness.

Community

Sure do miss these people:


Congratulations on Carley's arrival!

Water- logged

Jodie, Rach and I decided to kick off summer with a fun excursion through the beautiful landscape of Maryland by floating the Gunpowder Falls River. Mind you none of us had floated it before, but it was a hot day and we were looking for an adventure. Earlier this year I discovered a few tubers, while we were running on the NCR Trail North Central Railroad Trail) They were coming out of the water with there tubes and it reminded me of my Guadalupe floating days in Texas.

With that in mind, it seemed to be a great solution to our adventurous appetite. Well, I'm careful, so I asked around and found a friend, Chad, who had canoed it 4 or 5 times and he assured me of the route we were planning and said it was about a 2-3 hour canoe trip.

Saturday, I bring up the idea of floating after church with a little bit of excitement we kinda tabled the idea. However, after church on Sunday, I had already had it in mind to bring it up again. It was supposed to sunny and 85 for the high. We brought the idea back up as an option and I decided it was time to start checking barriers to the adventure, afterall, we didn't even have any innertubes yet.

One phonecall later, we had innertubes and an assured dropoff and pickup location.
All we had to do now was go. Of course, there was a little concern since know one could tell me how long it takes to tube it, but I figured we should try anyway. The only thing I had to remember was that once we traveled about 6 miles via the river we were going to start cris-crossing the NCR trail and at anytime we could get out and walk the NCR to the take-out spot. Well, it didn't work quite as planned.

We gathered the tubes, made it to the take-out spot, dropped the Jeep off there. Took Jodie's car to the put-in spot and then moment of truth hits us. Jodie's key is electronic, meaning, it can't get wet. It must be locked in the car! Once you do that then there's no turning back and mind you it's now 4:30pm. We're about to venture out on and 11 mile river journey with no idea of how long it will take and if we can even make it to the NCR before dark.

Well, it's an adventure right? So we lock the doors and head for the river. We get to the river and see a bunch of people floating, only there floating towards us and get out where we're about to start. We get in the water and it's only warm enough to keep from being ice! I mean cold! Anyways we're good, right? Well kinda. I float for about 3 minutes when I discover some bubbles whistling from my tube. I have a pinhole in my tube and we are still 1/2 mile from the car. At this point I notice a bunch of fishermen ahead and that the water is very shallow, so I stand up in search of deeper water. I find it, but meanwhile begin wondering if shallow water will prevail most of the trip or if this was going to truly be a river float and not a river walk.

Well, I decided the leak was a pinhole and that it should last a while. Yeah, risky. Anyway, we float for awhile and I'm basically just trying to keep track of where we are in my mind, how long we've been floating, where we are, will I see a snake, will we survive this adventure or will I go down in history as the man who took a risky adventure and failed.

I come across a few more fisherman and ask them about a landmark ahead, to which he replied, "oh, Interstate 83, well, that's quite a ways." Great. Just what I wanted to hear. So at this point we I begin to relax a little, simply because we're commited to this, we'd passed the point of return. About 45 minutes later we find the landmark. I'm relieved that we've made some ground, but still looking at an 11 mile float, a roughly 3 mile landmark, wasn't that comforting in light of the 8 miles ahead. Shallow water provided us ample walking opportunity, which was somewhat tiring, however, the watermelon slices and Dr. Pepper that we brought in two small igloo coolers provided a wonderful mile or two of blissful floating and refreshment.

Meanwhile, we make our way down the river and begin a wildlife count somewhere along the way. Twenty-four vultures, 4 full-grown beavers (you know the kind that Rachel screams like a wild badger at. Especially when they're swimming towards her.) 3 deer, and 1 snake (that I didn't tell the girls about) and a couple of fish; a great count I think, for any adventure.

Well, as sun falls so does the water temperature. I begin asking every person I saw, "How much further is it to the NCR?" I figured this was a valid question. It's quite a landmark that everyone living around there should know. Well, they didn't. It didn't matter who asked, they would say, "I don't know where that is." That was not comforting. Finally, we come across another landmark. That was more comforting, but remember, we have maybe an hour to 1.5 hours of light left and my fear was that we were only half way.

We rocked on along, and let me tell you I do mean ROCKed-ON along. There were rocks everywhere and we were constantly hitting them. It didn't make the trip bad or even miserable, just a constant reminder that maybe a tube with bottom might be good next time, if of couse we survive this time.

We finally come to a bridge. I'm up front so I get out and run up to the road to look around and see if I can see the NCR. Well, I find some people walking to their car, and they basically get in there car and drive away as if to ignore me. I get back the bridge and not knowing anything about where we are, I decide that we should just get back in the water and keep floating. I know that the more we float the closer we get and we were losing daylight. Off we go, I find a person about 200 yards from the bridge we just left, fishing, and guess what. NCR? They don't know. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I mean, I can see a long way down the river and there's nothing ahead. We keep floating. Like for another hour. It's getting dark, had to be 8:30 by now. I'm thinking, "okay. I'm looking for any sign of civilization at this point. Trail. Sign. Road. Power line. Sounds of cars. Anything. I find nothing. Just water and logs.

Ironically, somewhere along the way the water did warm up. I don't know exactly why, but we passed this waterway that was coming into the river and the water was warm. That was encouraging. I still was prefering to see a bridge that said "NCR HERE." The terrain seemed to change at one point. Jodie pointed out that it looked like the NCR and we all agreed we thought we were getting close, but how close was the question.

About 20 minutes later, I spot a clearing on the right. I had seen that before when running on the trail. Then after a much anticipated wait, I see path coming down to the water. I had looked for anything resembling that for quite some time and now it was finally here. I got out and ran up the path and to my relief, the NCR. It had to be 9o'clock. It was late. I figured we were about a mile from the car. We carried the tubes and walked for just a bit and noticed a landmark on the NCR. We had made it! We had gotten just what we wanted, an adventure. All was well and we even had the key for the Jeep still with us. All in all a great adventrous trip, heavy on the adventure.

HyperConnected to Twitter

I decided to take up a request of my pal Todd. He requested that several people follow him in signing up with Twitter for at least a 2 week period. I noticed some of the people he asked to do it and honestly I thought that most of them would not and therefore that makes the request more appealing. It at least gives me the illusion that I'm not jumping on a bandwagon, when indeed I am.

Anyway, I will be twittering for a while, just to see if I like it...

you can follow me at www.twitter.com/jfullen

For those of you in the dark, Twitter is a news feed that I update whenever I want via web or txt that answers the question "What are you doing?" so that anyone that cares can be updated of my status.

Even when I explain it, it seems weird. O well! here goes...

This is cool.

Bubble Game...Politics

I had an idea to every now and then post a picture with a bubble and let readers comment to fill it in, so here we go! Let's come up with the best lines for the guy in the background. How would you fill the bubble?

Note: Please keep it clean, politically correct (as in no slander or bad mouthing a certain party) and remember, the guy is supposed to be a supporter right?

*Jason Fullen does not necessarily endorse all comments replying to this post and reserves the right to delete any questionable comment.

Peer Pressure

Okay. So I'm not to fond of these things, but I feel that out of loyalty to friendship (and fear of backlash from the Bluebirds) I submit to you the following:

What were you doing 5 years ago?
1. Looking to buy our first home.
2. Working as a Missions Pastor/Facilites Director/Technical Director (computers and sound) and also a Student Pastor.
3. Building Mach Games Ramps at 3:00AM and still editing all night videos.
4. Buying our first house on Sandybrook.
5. Spending way to many hours away from my wife.

What are 5 things on your to-do list today (not in any particular order)?
1. Rehearsal @ 7pm
2. Brown Bag staff lunch at 11:30pm
3. Write a short script for this weekend's services
4. Email about 10 students
5. Locate a certiain DVD and make arrangements to pick it up to use it this weekend.

What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
1. Diet Dr. Pepper - it's great and reminds me of Sugar Free Dr. Pepper that I drank as a kid at the bowling alley, Lufkin Lanes.
2. Babybel Cheese
3. Bananas and granola
4. Chocolate Chip Cookies
5. Chicken in a Biskit crackers

What 5 things would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Drive to every debtor personally and write them a final check
2. Start about 3 nonprofits; job placement, orphanage, AIDS victims
3. Buy serval businesses, including something to do with hydrogen powered cars
4. Create a Thinktank in Washington DC, centered on Student Ministry, with all their findings made available on the web.
5. Move my family to Maryland.(and Rachel's if they'd come!)

What are 5 of your bad habits?
1. Staying up to late
2. Seeing injustice, feeling convicted, becoming aware, then doing nothing.
3. Seeing others do great things and not thinking I can do great things. (If I get on to my students for thinking that can't do great things, it has to be wrong when I do it too!)
4. Law and Order
5. Knowing my ways the only way. (Notice I didn't say thinking. I can only see it my way.) - Sorry everyone.

What are 5 places you have lived?
1. Nacogdoches, TX Rachel's Parent's Home
2. Douglass, TX Our Trailer Home
3. Lufkin, TX 103 West
4. Lufkin, TX Sandybrook
5. Reisterstown, MD

What are 5 jobs you've had?
1. Poultry Farmer
2. Cabinet Maker
3. HVAC Shop Helper
4. Storeroom Clerk for MHMR
5. Pastor - Missions, Student

Tags:
I'm afraid to tag anybody. Some of the ones I would haven't blogged since Windows 95.

AAAHHHHHHH, Yeahhhhhh!

Well, we did it. Rach and I ran a 10 miler. Ouch. It was hard. But we did it!

Yep, it's my birthday!

Okay, it's been forever since I've blogged, so instead of hiding on my birthday, I will just own up to it. I know it sounds conceited to blog about your birthday, but come on it was pretty conceited of me 33 years ago as well. I mean, I made quite a fuss back then with all the attention I was demanding. At least I'm not demanding attention this time, barging in and expecting everyone to answer to my beckon call! (Wow, was I rude when I was born.) I mean, I expected so many people to drop whatever plans they had and come see me, and then there's my mom and dad, who gave up so much just to make me happy. Wow! Do I owe them alot! Thanks mom and dad for giving me such a firm foundation of family and a genuine love for Christ!

So on this birthday, I turn this whole thing around. Not Happy Birthday to me, but thank you to everyone else! I know it sounds trite, but I really am thankful to so many that have invested in me over the years, and now I'm grateful for those that have settled down to call themselves friends! You people are great! Not everyone has friends, but I do and so for that I say "thank you for being a friend."

I turn 33 today. That's roughly the same age that Jesus was crucified. Me being a pastor makes me look at Jesus and His ministry in a new light considering my new age. It makes me think of something weird. Jesus completed his ministry in 3/3.5 years. It makes me wonder about what God has in store for me in the future in regard to influencing people for eternity. I want to make everyday count. Toward that end, I've decided to change a few things. Rachel and I are running more. Notice the Nike+ pic up top. Yep, it says 8 miles. We did 6 the week before. That seems crazy. I know it's not "ministry," but I sure enjoy spending that time with Rach. I've also vowed to read more. I've even taken the extra step of rearranging furniture so I have a "reading chair." We'll see out it goes. I'm looking at this birth day as a wake up to guard against insignificance. No, I haven't lost purpose, vision, hope or am I even depressed. I just want to start finishing strong, whether I'm a 1/3 to the finish or over 1/2, and there's no better place to start again than on a birthday.

Thanks friends!

An Unfavorable Favor...

I thought I would be all nice and try and offer assitance to Ross King and his band, Ben Love and Micheal Steel, by picking them up from the car rental return at the airport in Baltimore. This was a last minute plan, but seemed efficient and a no- brainer. I was already heading to a business that was only 10 miles from the airport and I was going to get there the same time they needed to be picked up at the return center. So, after a little coordination, we made the plan. The best layed plans...
go to Micheal's blog for the rest of the story that was completely my fault.

Just Plain Cool

I found this site while cruising around the web tonight and thought it was just too cool not to mention. Check it out!

Cool New Site...

After much effort on the part of these guys, and these guys and myself, LifePoint Church has a new one of these.

I'm excited!

Me and The President

Okay, so I respect the office of the President of the United States, alot. Therefore, I was quite overjoyed to see some "presidential" helicopters flying overhead today as we were downtown, admiring the cherry blossoms.

Anyways, I had my camera-phone out and was taking a picture of me at the Jefferson memorial. See figure 4-01.

FIG. 4-01

Okay, maybe a minute later I hear a helicopter flying low, so I turn around and see this helicoptor fly right in the same space that I just took my picture. See FIG. 4-02.

FIG. 4-02.

About 30 minutes later, we (Jodie, Rachel and I) are walking back toward the Metro, and we hear the helicopters again, this time they're on a mission. One comes in low from just over the Jefferson memorial toward the big house, and then another follows and then another follows. The first two come in for a landing and then bail at the last minute. But the last one, Marine One, settles in at the White House. It was very cool! I got home and looked up some details on the web. Look at the pict I found. See FIG. 4-03.

FIG. 4-03.

The very cool part is just after all the activity, I turn around and begin to look for the Metro station, I look towards the Mall and something catches out of the corner of my eye. Two men in black attire, emerge from a rooftop and swing very large black bags, as one would do a rifle. It was obvious they were security snipers. We watched them for about 40 secs, and they were gone. It was way cool!

Did Jesus show up on American Idol?

I don't know if you caught tonight's episode of American Idol, but it was quite crazy. Dolly Parton was the featured guest and not suprising, she sang about Jesus; something like Jesus and gravity.

Anyway, that was not too big a surpise. What was crazy to me was the fact that the Clark Bros, came out and sang "This Little Light of Mine" like from "Sunday school." I couldn't believe my ears! This is American Idol! The Clark Bros are an "up and coming" country/bluegrass band (that won "The Great Next American Band"), singing a children's song about a no less controversial person than Jesus? Could this be?

After Dolly sings she talks about the song and tells Ryan "I have Jesus and you a Simon." Then Brooke White shows up in the bottom 3 and Ryan asks her to comment on her emotions about the evening, and she refers to Dolly's song about Jesus and gravity among a few other things. I just couldn't help but think that there was a lot of references to Jesus! (Which I think is usually not tolerated for very long.) Overall, Idol (so ironic) felt more authentic and evangelistic than some of the churches I've seen on TV.

Anybody else agree? Disagree?

Rob's HOUSE SHOW!

I found this picture taken from a recent House Show that Ross was performing at in Sanger. Apparently, Rob wanted a little "house-show" of his own...

Ross is coming to Maryland in about 3 weeks for Weekend 180! It's going to be fun!

My Creative Wife

My wife is crazy cool! She made this silly flipbook for me for Valentine's Day. I loved it so much I thought I would share it with you all.

Saturday

This was my Saturday. Nothing special, just a Saturday.

1. got up at 9:30, skimmed through the book of Hebrews. Good book.
2. cleaned up the office 25%
3. went to basement and began a whirlwind of reordering/cleaning in the storage part
4. called Fedex Kinko's about my poster order
4.5 went next door to check on Delton and return a bowl. He wasn't doing real good
4.75 moved china cabinet to den
5. went to church to get poster backer board to cut down posters to exact size
6. went to gateway grocery to get sandwich stuff:
List: a. sub bread rolls
b. honey mustard
c. leaf lettuce
d. colby jack cheese
e. black forest ham
f. red onion
7. went to Owings Mills, first to Burger King then to Kinko's
8. cut down posters even though they were printed small, but will work temporarily.
9. went next door to safeway to get ice, half&half and sour cream & onion chips.(buy 1 get 1 free.)
10. came home. worked on office to 60%
11. skimmed Time Magazine
12. went to church
13. took backer board and posters to my office. met Rachel in auditorium. It was packed
14. after church, i talked to chad, lance, nicole, and dale. dale and I went to underground to troubleshoot buzz in montitors
15. left church to meet rachel and jodie at home for sandwiches
16. ate and cleaned the table and put up all the dishes
17. went back to church, put up posters.
18. replaced 1 of the monitors amps in the underground
19. found broken key in a closet door
20. went to worship center to find remote for new underground projector.
21. found remote for children's new projector and delivered it to the mailbox.
22. came home finished cleaning office
23. finished hanging towel rack in basement bathroom
23. picked up in the tv room. finally replaced ottoman wheels
24. folded blankets put back in ottoman.
25. decided to replace door handle to downstairs bathroom (after two years)
26. swept stairs and basement
27. blogged. went to bed.

Irish? On Saint Patti's Day?

I decided to look around for the origin of the name Fullen and found a few things interesting...





But to my surprise, this is the most wierd...

"Re: What is the origin of the name Fullen?"

Answer1: "My mother's maiden name is Fullen and her father was William John Fullen born in Desertmartin Co-Derry N-Ireland and lived there all his life.He died in1947. There is still a long line of Fullens alive and well living in Co-Derry.[Ireland] will try and find out more of your 3rd great grandfathers connection,if any,to my family."

Answer2: "The spelling is actually correct. Fullen comes from someone who feltches or felting they would be considered a fullen."

Answer3: "I am a Fullen by marriage. The information I got from a family name researcher is that Fullen is a variation of Fuller, an occupational name referring to the process of making full cloth from wool. Because the process involved walking repeatly over the cloth as it was formed, the name Walker is another derivitive. The Fullen variation was used in SW England and Wales."

If Answer1 is correct, then does anyone else think that it's crazy I discovered this for the first time on Saint Patrick's Day?

Recent Exchange

The following exchange took place in the car today between Rachel and I:

Rachel: “I don’t think we’re going to buy you any more cargo pants.” “The buttons come off a lot and they are too hard to iron.”

Jason: “Okay, then we won’t buy you any more cool clothes either. In fact, we can just get you a burlap bag to wear. That will be easy to maintain.”

Rachel: “If I were to wear a burlap bag, it would be in style after two weeks.”

Jason: [ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!aha!aha! ah!]

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Confession: I think she may be right. My wife constantly takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. I love her.

All The Freed

Lately, I've been listening to a song from this guy off this CD.

If you are reading this, chances are you already know Todd. If not, he is a personal friend for over 20 years. He's an incredible guy that loves Jesus and is an incredible musican and songwriter. He's just released a CD entitled All The Freed. He describes it as songs written for the church. I would recommend purchasing it from here.

Over the past 10 days or so, this song has really ministered to me. To be honest, it's a hard song to swallow. However, it's right and true. I just hope to sing it more and more as my own.

Lyrics and Music by Todd Wright:

My life is Yours for the keeping, my life is freely Yours to take
I know Your eyes are ever on me, through darkest night and brightest day

And I cannot pretend to know You
Your ways are higher than my own
So take these tears if they can be used
To make Your glory known

If it's in pain, that You're made great
Let it be, Lord, let it be
If Your true worth is shown through this hurt
Let it be, Lord, let it be
You're strength when I am weak
You're the words I can't speak
So if You want all of me...
Let it be

Poured Out

Okay. It’s time to write.

I have had very many thoughts over the past 5 days, in light of recent events. Just so we’re all on the same page, let me fill you in briefly so you can have a context for the thoughts. This past weekend, Lance and I were taking 11 people to a youth ministry conference in Ohio. The weekend had been planned for some time and we were looking forward to the time away and the focused conversation of “talking shop.”

The weather turned bad on Thursday afternoon, forcing our Friday morning departure date to leave on Thursday evening, to get ahead of the coming storm. Lance and I picked up the rental van at 4:30pm Thursday, and made plans to leave town with nine of us by 9:00pm. I made a run to Target to get Rachel’s prescription and then headed to the house to pack. About 5:45pm I decided to watch a little news while waiting for Rachel to come home. As soon as I turned the news on, I was confronted with a Breaking News bulletin. The reporter showed a map of our county and began to make report of a bad traffic accident that happened on Route 91 that involved five children including one being life-flighted. Due to the report’s proximity and detail of an SUV, my heart sank. I knew a family that lived very close to the location and had six children. Long story short, I made a phone call and waited. Soon a return call would confirm my fears. The SUV involved was the exact family that I suspected; only the news was much worse than expected. The father of the children had been killed. I didn’t really know how to respond. I was in shock. This was only supposed to be a nightmare that takes place in movies, not in the lives of my friends, and certainly not my own life. His name was Kevin. Kevin Lawyer. He was an orthodontist. Therefore, he was a doctor. So they called him Dr. Lawyer. Kind of confusing.

Anyway, I knew Kevin and his family and was shocked by the events that were unfolding. I quickly made some phone calls to confirm the stories and hoping beyond hope that is was rumor, but I soon found the unbearable news to be the undeniable truth. I called Lance to inform him. He had not heard anything. We quickly decided that we had to cancel our trip to Ohio. I made a trip up to the church to be with some students that were having drama/band practice and then came back home to get Rach and go to Johns Hopkins in downtown Baltimore to be with the family.

Lance and Amy introduced us to the Lawyer’s not long after we moved here. I got to know them more and more over the last couple of years though dramas at church. The very first drama I was in at LifePoint was with Kevin and his wife, Suzie. Rachel started to get to know them by teaching their kid’s Spanish in the summer time. Kevin and another friend Lou Sabad, invited me to golf with them at the Annual Men’s Summit. I wasn’t much of a golfer, but they insisted so I went. I was bitten by the golf bug on that trip. Those were the seeds of getting to know the Lawyer’s.

Kevin was an incredible man. His life was overflowing. Life just bubbled out of him, you know, like opening a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper. He was involved in so much at LifePoint. He taught and acted in children’s ministry, worked on dramas that the main service was hosting and would lead a community group. His life touched so many people at LifePoint and beyond. In addition to his ministry, his professional work was as impressive. He was known for his fun-loving spirit and passion for helping people.

Okay, now for a few thoughts in light of the circumstance. I watched so many things this weekend that were hard to watch, yet fascinating. I saw the people of LifePoint pour out love on a family. Not just the immediate family, but everyone that was close to Kevin. I heard words of hope given to people who had no hope. I saw faith in action. I watched Suzie rely on her faith in Christ as she was forced to move from wife to widow. I heard story after story of how much Kevin’s life had impacted them to give their life to Christ. I watched about 2500 people come out to support Suzie at a visitation and another mass of people come for a celebration memorial. I could not believe the atmosphere. It felt much more like a wedding than a funeral.

The Church

I watched so many people sacrifice so much toward the memory of Kevin, out of their faith in Christ. Now, I think the cynic might say, “People just did that as a way to cope with their own pain.” However, I would argue that watching the church be the church was so much more than selfish people working to provide selfish relief. Watching the church this past weekend was supernatural. I watched so many people striving to commemorate Kevin’s life by serving each other and the community in a sort of biblical, spiritual triage. The idea of hope coming out of something so broken is so much the nature of God. The church is such a mystery. There seems to be nothing quiet like it. The mystery of perfect strangers becoming family, bound by the love of Christ, is so counter to our nature. Our nature is to serve self. The nature of Christ is to love others. When we become persuaded by the gospel, we surrender our lives to Christ and take on His nature, we become different. We want to reach people with the same love with which we were reached. Our collective counter cultural lives become the church. I love the diversity of it, the worldwide size of it and the message that is common to it; that Christ came to save that which was lost. Without Christ I truly would be without purpose and aimless. Evidence of this love was so vivid this weekend. Christ and His nature were seen in so many places, from Kevin’s life and Suzie’s faith to loving friends reaching out to each other and a community in pain. It was an incredible sight to see. What a joy to be part of God’s people.

Offering

My final thoughts during the memorial service were occupied with something my pastor, Joe said a few weeks ago. He explained what Paul, while on house arrest in Rome, meant when he said his life was like a drink offering. The drink offering was used as a means of making an offering on the altar that would essentially be wasteful. No one was allowed to drink from it, as it was only to be used to pour on the altar. Therefore it was seen by outsiders as a waste. Paul used it as a means of analogy to say that outsiders may see his life as a waste, just because he was in prison. I couldn’t help but think back to that analogy. I could see such a picture of Kevin’s faith being poured out as an offering to Christ in every area of his life. And then even in his death, what we might call a waste was no waste at all. God even redeemed Kevin’s untimely death to bring more people to Himself through the life and death of Kevin. It makes me wonder in what ways I can waste more of my life on others?

President Clinton Visits Nourishing Mother

Stephen F Austin is my Alma Mater. Alma Mater in latin is "Nourishing Mother." I thought this was funny. If your in the Nacogdoches area, you may want to drop by just for the heck of it.

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SFA Home / Public Affairs / News Releases / February 2008

Former President Clinton to speak at SFA Friday afternoon
Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to talk Friday afternoon in the Grand Ballroom of the Baker Pattillo Student Center. Doors will open for the event at 6 p.m.

The former president will be speaking to Nacogdoches-area supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a daylong, East Texas tour that will include Texarkana, Longview, Tyler and Lufkin.

Random Blog Thoughts

We just got back from Vertical Weekend 2008 at Whitetail Mountain. It was a great time. Jonathan Taylor Martin came up with a friend, Patrick Lockwood to lead us in worship. They did a great job. I had a friend from Grace Fellowship (Columbia), Jamie Schaad, come and teach the retreat. He did an amazing job. It was a great time. You can check out a few picts over to the right. (It's also some picts from my awesome trip with Rob's group to CO.)

P.S. I love my students and leaders! They were/are awesome!

Randominity:

- the shadow at the bottom of the picture is me.
- rach and I just purchased 1/4 of a steer (freezer beef) totalling 158 #s. I truly am from Texas.
- rach downloaded Eye of the Tiger from itunes; it reminded me of getting ready for church on Sunday mornings as a child. I would always get ready early and go listen to Dallas Holm's song Rise Again, and promptly after that I would play, mind you it was a record, Eye of the Tiger. Nothing like worship prep!
-I started watching LOST, but only the 1st 3 episodes on DVD. Long way to go but i'm hooked.
-I really love my wife. We seem to get along very well - and we've been married 12.5 years now.
-I'm already trying to figure out how to go skiing again before too long. Pitiful.

ok. done.

Look at Todd's blog first

Here it is. Be sure you go by Todd's blog first before watching this one.

Snowday!

Hijacked

You just thought you were smooth Jason Fullen. I have hijacked your blog. I've been trying to hack into this thing for a while just to see if I could figure out your password. Well, I've outsmarted you!!!!!

Love you bunches!!!! XOXOXOX

Uncle Jason...again!

A special welcome to my new niece just born this week! Paisley Jewel Carnley

You can find more picts of her here.

Just Curious...

Read the text below and honestly evaluate whether you knew the following before you read this post, or you had no idea until this, or you knew an estimated percentage of the information below. I will comment first.

The Cold War began after World War Two. The main enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold war got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In such a "hot war," nuclear weapons might destroy everything. So, instead, they fought each other indirectly. They supported conflicts in different parts of the world. They also used words as weapons. They threatened and denounced each other. Or they tried to make each other look foolish.

roads closed

I've been travelling for a week and saw some very beautiful landscapes and participated in the holiest of sports, skiing. We were snowed in momentarliy (1 night) so our trip back to Texas from Colorado was 22 hours instead of the 16 hours it took to get there. We pulled out of the Winter Park YMCA at 7:20am on Monday morning and turned left instead of right to go to Texas. Another way of looking at it is, we had to swing by Utah on the way to EAST Texas! It was all we could do and turned out to be a good decision, considering the CO Highway Patrol didn't open I70 until 6pm Monday. Wow! What a fun and challenging trip. Glad to be home!

The pict is somewhere south of Grandby CO on a back snow-covered windy road.