house meeting and trampolines

Tonight we had our very first official house meeting. We being Brian Johnson, Iain Cook, Will Reagan, and me. First order of things was to elect a house president, so we picked Will, because we thought he would look best with a white wig. His are the orders passed:

Brian is going to head up the mission "kill the mice" - I know, sounds a bit harsh at first glance, but you must understand what we've gone through in the past two months. Whole loafs of bread tunneled through - - -check. Mice poop everywhere - - double check. Even the Ramen noodles got attacked, not to mention our hot chocolate powder. Brian enacted a strict rule of no food left out. Sounds a bit obvious, but for some reason its hard.

Iain is going to take on the roll of head-recycle-man. Seeing that Iain came from Vancouver, and that he's way more "green" then the rest of us, he's the obvious choice.

I decided to take on the job of getting a new router for our internet. Not that exciting, but our internet has a bad habit of not working...it really quite moody.

I can't remember what Will's role is....well, other than the fact that he's the head-renovation-expert of the house. For those that don't already know, we've decided to completely renovate the kitchen, and Will's working a ton on it. Its gonna be so sweet when its done. Pray for "cabinet favor" if that's possible. We have a tight budget, and need some new cabinets pronto.

After meeting tonight, I'm stuck with this thought. Community is amazing. Really, its worth fighting for. Its obvious how God has is hand on all of our relationships, how He birthed something so beautiful, and how He's called us to "be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." - we got to pray for each other tonight, and I was struck at how blessed I am to be living with 3 amazing guys who are sold out to following Christ as any cost. Everyone in the house brings a different gift to the table. We all have our "stuff", our quirks, but there is also the amazing creativity of God in each of my roommates. What's cools is how we all call each other higher. "Let brotherly love continue." - Hebrews 13:1

Another thing that Iain brings to the house, seeing that he's the new roommate and all, is that he's full of big ideas. Like digging a hole for a pool. Or buying a old diesel car and converting it to run on grease. Or planting a garden. (none of these have happened yet...like i said, big ideas) He also decided we need a house trampoline , so he went on Craig's list and bought one. Lately, its been a constant source of fun, as we re-visit our childhood days, though slightly bigger and not quite as flexible. At sunset, I struck up a conversation with our neighbors and then invited all their kids to jump on the trampoline. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, they bolted on it. I'm amazed at their self-control in not jumping on it sooner. Our neighbors are real nice...the classic random assortment of people where you're not quite sure their relationship status....white lady, african-american man and brother, 4 african-amerian kids - but we had a good time chatting it up. I did learn that there utility bill was $600 a month, so our $300 a month bill doesn't seem so bad now.

That brings me to our other resolution from the meeting - neighborhood block party! Get ready, late July is going to have the best party ever Banks Ave has ever seen. God's been speaking to us a bunch about living as revolutionaries, and that starts as our own neighborhood. I'm talking about being radical light-bearing, kingdom advancing dudes that bring God's light everywhere our feet tread. And turns out that people our desperate for this light - many never see it. Some remember it long ago. Many live in an constant state of darkness. We prayed together tonight, and God kept impressing that God's light, His goodness and peace, is ready to bust out of us to everyone we come in contact with.

I'm all about revival busting out of Knoxville, but I'm starting to see it starts with the relationships in my life and the people that live around me. If I'm crying out for the "general Knoxville revival", but not willing to see it happen in my own relationships, then what am I doing? Let this be a challenge to live everyday with your ears opened to what God may have you say and do with the people that YOU come in contact with in your NORMAL day. That's how a "normal" day turns in to a God adventure. There's nothing normal about being an ambassador of God - God's entrusted us with His Kingdom, and we have the privilege of seeing it established wherever we go.

I echo Paul's prayer, that "...for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak." - Eph. 6:19-20