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The Hopes and Fears of All the Years are Met in Thee Tonight

I love everything about Christmas. Everything. Every year I intentionally try to slow down time so the season does not get behind me. I'm not kidding. I look at the calendar in early November and think, "it's almost 'the...

Kingdom Moments

I had an hour to kill in downtown Escondido before meeting three friends for a much-anticipated lunch at the local French bakery café during my recent vacation in Southern California. I decided to wander over to Grape Day Park, which was on the way. Since moving to Washington I had missed seeing some of the people who live there; I used to have breakfast at the park on Saturdays with a few friends from my faith community.

Icicle Lights Anyone?

First, let me declare, loud and clear, that every package of icicle lights should contain this BOLD disclaimer: The manufacturer will not assume responsibility for any mental health or anger management needs arising from the attempted use of this product.

Grrr-r-r-r-r

My great-niece, Alanah, who is 18 months old, enjoys her food. This becomes very apparent when as she is eating... she purrs...well, it is really more like a growl or an elongated grunt. It is quite entertaining. Remember Bjornie?...

Thankful

My wife. My sons. My mom. My dad. My sister. Brother and sister-in-laws. My nephews and nieces. My aunts and uncles. My friends that live here. My friends far away. Jesus. Washington State University. The Washington State University Athletic...

We're On A Mission From God

I have a question for you, and I want you to stop and think about it for a second. If you could look ahead 20 years and you had accomplished everything you wanted to do in that time, what would your life look like?

Hubert

If you ask me if you should forgive a friend for something unforgivable, I will recall when I was about seven years old and told my best friend, after some minor dispute, that I didn't want to ever talk...

Focusing on ... ?

God values faith very highly. Perhaps it is because He knows that we so often walk by sight and not by faith, that we judge the tenor of our lives by the circumstances we walk in. He also knows that He works in us and through us much more effectively when we are trusting in Him. (And how can we help and love the hurting world around us if we don't have faith in the Giver of all good things?)

You - Yes You! - Are the Light of the World

I've been hanging out in the Sermon on the Mount lately. While I've heard these words of Jesus for so long, new things are popping out to me. One part that I seem to keep coming back to is right near the beginning ...

Certainty or Trust

I was at the gym the other day and was listening to a podcast where a guy told the story of how he traveled to India in search of Mother Teresa, found her, got to speak to her and...

Discipline

I'm not the best when it comes to discipline. And why is it that the things that are hard to stay disciplined on are usually the things that keep you the most healthy. It's like my brain and body...

How To Find Living Color

I’ve been greatly enjoying the latest sermon series at Creekside. It’s just what I need to add a spark to my spiritual life, which, I have to admit, has become a little boring. My life has been going well...

Love Letters

I was recently going through a box of old cards and letters and came across a letter written 20 years ago by my grandfather to me a few years before he passed away.

Break Free

She kept trying
Over and over again
To get out
To get to the world she could see
Something was in her way
She knew that is where she was supposed to be
Deep within her, a longing so strong
She kept trying
Over and over again

A Day in the Life

I say the Lord’s Prayer most mornings. Right off the bat, it says "Thy Kingdom come." If I understand this correctly it is a command that we invoke, not God. Somehow, we are supposed to order God’s Kingdom to appear, pronto, so that we can go out and do His will. First, we command the Kingdom to come, and only then does "Thy will be done" happen. The order is important. God rested on the seventh day, not the first.

Learning To Live The Invitation

There is a strong temptation in me to stay up in the sycamore tree and not come down. Like Zacchaeus, I am content to watch from my perch. Even when Jesus reaches His hand up for me, I oftentimes...

"So this is what everyone else does on Sunday mornings."

We didn't go to church on Sunday. Hard to believe, I know. We felt the same way. It was a very weird feeling to not be at Creekside, or any church, on a Sunday morning. We were in the car and said, "So this is what everyone else does on Sunday Mornings." It was an interesting thought that we don't often pay much attention to.

The Redeemer of Years

In one of my creative writing classes in college, one assignment was to write a sketch about our deepest fear. That was probably the easiest page I’ve ever whipped off, but it turned out to be a far more emotional experience than I had anticipated. In my sketch, a woman wakes up on the last day of her life and realizes that she didn’t accomplish the biggest things she’d intended to do. It was one of the few times I’ve ever cried while writing.

Community

This summer my husband Doug and I were thrilled to accept a call for him to pastor Creekside. We both agreed he would go ahead of me, driving up from Southern California with our oldest daughter Alison - finding a place for us and starting his new position, while I stayed behind with our other two kids (and dogs), rented the house, packed for the movers, and got ready for the new renters. Piece of cake, right?

Lukewarm

Speaking of the weather...Man! Was it hot a few weeks ago! Most of us don’t like weather that hot, then again, most of us don’t like cold weather either. Isn’t that why we live in the Pacific Northwest? Most of the time the temperatures here stay between the parameters of too hot and too cold - nothing too extreme on either end - right in the middle. You could say we like things ‘lukewarm’.

Seeing the World Through Spiritual Eyes

Mike McAllister and I were sent from Creekside to the Ukraine for two weeks (July 11-25). The purpose of our trip was to encourage Jen and Andrew Kelly, missionaries in Ukraine, and assist with the summer camp for 26...

All the Days of My Life

I’m 55 on July 30. On that date in 1954 I was brought into an overwhelming world, but because of my mother, ultimately a comforting world. I’ve lived over 20,000 days since then. If I live to be 57 (plus an extra 14 days) that’ll get me to 500,000 hours (or 30 million minutes or 1.8 billion seconds), but who’s counting.

Lovingly Unused

So I was talking recently about my baseball career that started when I was 5. How in the summers I’d go to Stottlemyer Baseball Camp in Yakima and learn all the ins and outs of baseball. We’d practice our sliding skills on slip-n-slides in the 105 degree Yakima heat. I learned a lot about baseball in my summer camps there. One thing they taught me about, which wasn’t skill-related, was about taking care of your glove so that it’s in good form and most effective.

The Antidote For Modern Misery

My friend posted an article on Facebook the other day about why people in modern, developed nations are so miserable, despite all the advances in technology designed to keep us safer, healthier, and more comfortable. While tongue-in-cheek, the article had a good point: closeting ourselves away from real human interaction is having a severely detrimental effect on our happiness.

Learning the Language of GRACE

July 5, 2009... Creekside Covenant Church. We were a small group this morning with a lot of folks at Family Camp and many more on a great Fourth of July adventure. With Keith’s "encouragement" we revised our first seating arrangement and huddled up front and center... the about fifty or so of us. We had the gift of being informal as Keith sat with us and talked about the last question from our book of James series. WHAT DO I DO WITH MY ATTITUDE? The talk became interactive and conversational as we pursued the four questions Keith introduced.

Testing Our Trust (or Trusting Our Tests)

Ever since the country decided it was in a recession, I have fallen into a dangerous area of mistrusting who God is and what He can do. He calls us to do a lot of things - some easy, some hard, and some just crazy hard. And what’s easy for you might be difficult for me and vice versa. And right now, my "difficult thing" is trusting in Him to provide for our family’s financial needs.

Lessons from a Laptop

I am without my computer right now. It crashed last week and I just wrapped it up yesterday and sent it off to be repaired. Now, the data was backed up, the laptop is under warranty, and my neighbor loaned me an old laptop. So I am not in a panic about losing vital information, having to fork out heaps of money, or not being able to get anything done for the week or two I'm without it. However, I am learning some lessons in efficiency, effectiveness, and reliance.

Understanding What it Means to "Call" a Pastor

Mark Novak, Superintendent of the North Pacific Conference, provided us with a short blurb about what the word "call" means when it comes to hiring a new pastor. Suffice it to say, calling a pastor, is not exactly the same as hiring an employee or voting for a presidential candidate. We share this with you so that all of us can be on the same page in terms of our understanding of "call."

Confirmation

This past Sunday I got to watch my nephew, Kyle, get confirmed at Newport Covenant Church. Four young men and one young woman presented themselves before the congregation at Newport and confirming their faith in Jesus Christ. How cool is that?

Experiences of the Spirit

I remember a sermon from years ago at Creekside talking about the Holy Spirit. Mac was preaching, and he pointed out that the word power in Acts 1:8 is the Greek word dunamis, from which we also get the word dynamite. For some reason I had never considered the magnitude of what Jesus was saying there. He wasn't talking about the power of a light bulb - he's talking TNT! This sounds like something I should get plugged into.

On the Importance of Labeling

Almost exactly one month ago I got up one morning thinking about what to cook for dinner (I know, I need more in my life to keep me busy, NOT!). Anyway, I decided on lasagna ... home-cooked, from scratch...

Creekside = A Gospel Community

Having been 'knee deep' or maybe more like 'up to my eyeballs' in matters of our church for over a decade, a year ago I felt it was time to step back...time to evaluate and recalibrate thoughts on the church in general and on Creekside in particular.

Vastness

Have you ever tried to comprehend how vast God really is? Try now to absorb the many Biblical attributes, roles, and names of Christ compressed into the following sentences. Read and be humbled.

E-3

A few years ago, I read a book called "Sermon on the Mound" and it was about a man who gave his life to Jesus while watching Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Boston Red Sox, who hadn't won a World Series since 1918, were one out away from winning the World Series when a routine ground ball to the Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner went through his legs and the Mets would win the game on that play in the bottom of the 10th inning.

An Offering Of Freedom

I hope you got a chance to hear Keith's sermon two weeks ago. We're going through the six major theological affirmations of the Evangelical Covenant denomination, and we started with "freedom in Christ." The principle is best summed up with the age-old phrase, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity".

The Tax Man

Yesterday was that ever pressing deadline to file our federal tax returns with Uncle Sam. W-2s, 1099s, Schedule C, and the earned income credit. All those confusing forms have probably been bouncing around you house for the past few months and if you're like me, you stood in line at the post office yesterday wondering why the IRS has no street address in Ogden UT.

The Least of These

"Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, 'Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn't feed me. I...

LOST: A bit like my life

Have you ever seen the show LOST? I have got to admit, Kari and I are big fans. We've seen every episode. For those of you who haven't seen it here's the very short recap. Plane crashes on mysterious island. Some people survive. Strange things start to happen. Strange things continue to happen. Strange things are still happening.

Repairshop

This week Char is sharing some special poetry she has written over the years. She picked out a few of her favorites.

Dawn

You may not have noticed it yet. The news channels touch on it every day, but not for much more than a minute. It is drowned out by talk of the stock market, unemployment, Federal bailout plans, and everything else that is supposedly newsworthy. But just as the sun rises every morning and sets every night, we are at the dawn of yet another 8-month window of time where 25 men will enter our families and be with us nightly, hopefully through the month of October. Yes, my friends... baseball season has arrived.

Fear of Heights

I recently went skiing for the first time ever. Contrary to my expectations, I didn't hate it. After a bumpy start (literally), I got to where I could almost steer and usually stop. I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then my friends, skiers comfortable on black diamond runs, took us up the chair lift to where the beginner blue runs start. By this time it was dark out, so all I could see was a line of lights down a steep hill and a sign above it that mocked me with the words "Easiest way down."

God's Heart Beats Me

Last year if you'd asked me about the purpose of my heart I would've answered, "Beats me." But this year I've developed a bit better understanding of the heart. In January I found myself feeling tired and weak with my heart beating at about 120 beats per minute. I went home to bed, hoping that with rest my heart would bring itself back into a normal rhythm, as it had done before. (For me, normal is 54 beats per minute.) Not this time.

Obedience Class

She grows still; her body tenses and her ears lay back flat against her head. Her eyes are alert and focused. A low growl begins to rumble deep within her chest. Translated into English: "Step away! This is mine. You can't have it."

Belonging

Have you caught the Facebook bug yet? Are you on it all day, every day? Once a day? Weekly? Do you even know what I am talking about? And why do I want to be "Facebook friends" with Les, Marcy, and John - people I haven't seen or talked to since the day we graduated from high school?

Insert Your Story Here

As part of Creekside's 10th Birthday Bash on March 1, we are celebrating what God has done in and through our lives and we need YOUR STORIES!! From small to big, how has being a part of the Creekside journey had an impact on you.

Weigh-In, Weigh Out

Some of you may know that every year, I have a Super Bowl party at my house. We call it the "Weigh-In, Weigh-Out Super Bowl Party". This year was the sixth consecutive year that it has taken place.

Spring Training

A few weeks ago, I noticed that I was feeling reluctant to go to church. I always feel a little bit unenthusiastic on Sunday morning, because the 9:30 AM church service is earlier than I usually get to work. But this time I noticed a little resentment in my reluctance, and that gave me pause. I've been to church nearly every Sunday of my entire life; why did I suddenly resent it?

Strange and Unusual

This has been a strange and unusual "SEASON" for me and our family. Let's start with Thanksgiving. JaLynne has a good friend at work who, as a single Mom with two very needy boys, truly coveted a safe and...

Gaps

We all have gaps in our education. You know, those things we should know but we don't. Whatever the reason, these gaps are what keep us humble and keep us from thinking we "know it all".

Our Stories - 2009