values.

so ive been inspired to come up with my own personal list of values, if you will. heres what ive got so far...

[DISCLAIMER: this is a first rough draft, a no-notes, recounts, or error-checked draft, meaning that at any time i can change, fix, delete, or add on to any one or number of items.]

...wait a second. before i even begin, lets get some items out of the way...
first of all, i ask the question, what is a value?
the answer? (wow its a good thing i did an somd :)
-my values are characteristics from God that determine my behavior, what makes me unique, and am insistent on upholding in my own life.
now, what has value, according to me?
-the following compilation is determinate of my behavior, personality, and belief system, at this present time, anyway.

now to the good stuff...
(i imagine a red carpet rolling out right here, presenting at the end what everyone has been waiting all night for...the star of the show, the glue that holds it all together...)

[in no particular order whatsoever]

i value...

- an honest days work for an honest days pay
(to keep laziness out of the picture)
- skepticism, struggle, and the urge to question everything
(to find out for myself what i believe to be true)
- laughter, jokes, silliness, and general goofings around
(as a means of maintaining and upholding my personality)
- intimacy, truth, honor, and integrity in every relationship
(otherwise, i fail to see the point)
- the Bible as an authoritative source on every matter
(its my absolute truth..."there are no absolutes." "are you absolutely sure?")
- Jesus
- family
(they are my rock. your family reflects you, however you choose. what does my family say about me?)
- a commitment to love the lost, hurting, dying and disappearing in our society today, sharing the joy and light that is mine, that is meant for every soul
(otherwise, my life really has no value. or purpose.)


reflecting back on that, there are many things that are me that are not a part of this list, it is not exhaustive you see, but a mere glimpse into my life, as this present moment. i also see that i have many items in my life to look over, change. my personal values are a tall order, and only can be accomplished when i lay myself down, and let the maker of me be the change...
what will you do?

transformer fires and the night they all slept on the mission field.

so last night i flew back to la after a week of vacation, and as we exited the freeway moses commented on how dark it was, really dark. as he was saying this, we realized that it wasnt just dark, the freaking power was out!! our entire grid was down, there was not a light to be found anywhere. apparently the transformer caught on fire, which is a really bad thing. everyone expected the power to be out for days. we rolled up to the base, and immediately turned around and got the h out of there, it was a hundred flipping degrees outside (at least it felt like that, it was REALLY hot and muggy!), and inside the trailers it was even worse. we went and got a drink instead, where there was not only pool tables and tv's with the game on, but really nice ac. afterwards, we decided that there was no way we were going to stick around and try in sleep in such swampy, miserable conditions, so we made a few calls, and the fabulous moses took us to his fabulous ghetto mansion, where we not only enjoyed the amazing air conditioning, we also watched some pretty awesome movies on his pretty awesome tv. we all nodded off for a while, basking in the cool air and low volume noise (trying to sleep on a base with 60 plus people and no sounds to drown it out = not a good time.) around 2 we woke up and headed back, where i proceeded to fall onto my bed, hot and sticky, but relatively miserable-free, considering some of the conditions ive endured elsewhere. around 8.30-ish i rolled over, and was pleasantly awakened by a roll of cool air that swept over my body, the power was back on! i can only imagine the lengths the power guys had to go through, staying up all night in an effort to relieve us of the oppresion as quickly as possible. so we played hooky from church, went to dennys instead, and now are inside of our trailer, where the swamp cooler is on, and all is well. what else are we going to do to stay cool today? well, there is that movie were going to this afternoon, and the pool which is just calling our names. sigh, life really isnt so bad when its a holiday weekend and you can stay up late inside of mansions and go swimming at night and enjoy movies during the day.