Reverend Trevor's Rectory

Now, most of ya'all know about the passage in Mark chapter 8 where Jesus heals a blind man in stages.
First, he prays for the man and ASKS HIM IF HE SEES ANYTHING.
Usually, Jesus was a pretty confident guy,especially in regards to his connection to his Father's healing power.So to ask if something happened was unique indeed. The man responds that he sees people that look like "trees walking around".
WHAT?!?!?
I thoght that Jesus was fairly proficient at this healing stuff, so why didn't this dude get the full monte up front?

Well, I just dont know. It's that simple.

But it happened to me.

I had an issue of my knee being very sore and busted since last weekend. No idea what caused it, just suddenly "Surprize, you're broken!". Last night, right before I went to teach, I asked for prayer from our leaders. They gladly responded quickly, and as they prayed I felt a sensation of healing. I wanted to started playing with my renewed appendage like a child with a new bike, but something still didn't feel quite right. My knee was still unwhole. As I sit at this moment, I can't say exactly why my knee was partially restored, but I'm tusting that God will show me. Until then, I'm extemely grateful for the prayers of friends and a God who never stops listening

Troy finally caught on to the whole "new do" thing that I've been hinting at. Since not so many people read my blog (or at least don't comment so much)he decided to announce it as a listener poll on the air or at our our Morning Blast page. I'm a little worried about the color choices that were SELECTED FOR ME, so maybe some new suggestions could be thrown in. Perhaps even some dual colors, Like Spartan green and white, or Eagles green and white, or West Ottawa black and white( wait scratch that, I'd look like a skunk!). E-mails to trevor@jq99.com or studio@jq99.com or call the ol' station at 616-931-9936.

Alright, enough desperate pleading. On a serious note, God has highlighted yet another area of my life. I have to stop "apologizing". What I mean is, the fake apologies that don't really mean that much. The word tells us to "let our yes be yes, and our no be no", a concept that I believe helps hold me accountable to say what I really mean and hold my piece until then. I believe it's known as "speaking the truth in love".

Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice and let me sing
always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold
not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
every power as You choose.


Take my will and make it Thine
it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is Thine own
it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord I pour
at Your feet its treasure store
Take myself and I will be
ever, only, all for Thee.
Take myself and I will be
ever, only, all for Thee.


Here am I, all of me.
Take my life, it's all for Thee.

I wrote a lesson that I'm teaching this week as well as last week on surrendering our obstacles for more time to walk in rythm with God. It is very intelligent and sounds pretty good, full of thoughtful points and fun illustrations. It is also tremendously difficult to carry out in real life (like most good messages are).

About a year ago, I was blessed with an iPod video. I lost it, found it, scratched it, and updated it with hypernormal frequency. Last week, as I was putting the final touches on Wednesday night, iPod went bad. The only thing that shows up on it is a weird frowny face and a website that doesn't really help anything. Now I love Jesus, I try to surrender my will to Him daily, I was even a hippie for about 3 years. But when that thing broke, all of my patience broke with it. I thought for about an hour that my night was ruined (along with the rest of my musical appreciation career). I mean, how was I supposed to play music without an iPod? How did they do it 5 years ago? For a guy who had a cassette player in his car until 2 years ago, I was pretty pathetic. With prayer and humble honesty, I got over my anguish.

For the night that is.

Then, as the week went on, I found that my tiny technological friend had a gargantuan foothold in my mind. It was as if the backdrop had been removed from my school play, leaving a dreary black landscape with which to play out my mediocre drama.

On Monday, Troy came back from the Congo with stories. Tales of poverty and gratefulness for minor prescription dugs and cough syrup. My heart and mind finally started to crack and shift from its inward focus and direction. I started to really give up was not mine. And then today it hit me:

NOTHING IS MINE

Everything that is in my possesion is an extended line of credit, freely given from our loving Father. It is His to use how He chooses, and His to take when He chooses. How powerful and ancient of a truth, to give back to the Ruler of the universe what He created, and watch him use it the right way. I still miss the stupid little box, and I might get around to calling AppleCare to try and get it fixed.

But I'm learning.

NOTHING IS MINE

So my buddy and roomie Eric started his job at 1 AM yesterday morning. He drove to Ohio and back, which placed him back in Holland at 3 PM. All this on 2 hours of sleep, mind you. We go to meet with some youth kids at a coffee shop.
Eric gets a triple espresso.
Eric downs a triple espresso.
Eric drinks a sugar free Red Bull.
Eric says he needs to go home and take a nap.
I get in my truck and head home. When I pull into my driveway, this is what I see:













The crazy man is washing his truck! At this point my manhood is challenged, so I begin to wash my own truck. Both trucks looked pretty nice for 4 minutes until it started to rain. YAY!

Wow, it's been like a week and a half since I've shared anything with my keyboard. So much is new! I went to see Mutemath (ears rang for 3 days!) and Eisley (beautiful). I started the chicken soup diet this week in effort to shed some pounds before winter and laziness sets in.I made my own broth the healthy way with chicken stock and lots of yummy veggies. It feels really good to cook again, seeing as how for me it's like riding a bike. Oh yeah, I'm teaching at church tonight (which will probably involve a treadmill and rocky 3 clips,sweetness). So, big week and more to come.

PS. my favorite place in the breakfast world is now Marge's Donut Den. 32 years and she's still got it folks

How do you make a good day go sour? 27-20, that's how! Seriously, 27 points? When I went to bed, the score was, like, 3-20 (Packers up!)Where's the Pack Attack? This is kinda like when the the cobbler went to sleep and woke up with new shoes. Except that this time the cobbler wakes up with 3 lousy fantasy points for his Packer D. OK, OK, that being said, today is STILL going to be a wonderful be a wonderful day, because God made it just for you and me. And He put a ton of great stuff in it, so reach into the bag, grab something out, and hold it high with pride. Don't sleep until you've gotten what God has JUST FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!!!!!!

Tomorrow is my daughter's birthday! She is turning 11, the same age as a ton of my youth group kiddos. WOW!!! I feel totally old now. I guess it's not the age, but what you do with it. Speaking of doing, tonight I get to go to a football game that a guy I know is playing in. It's kind of weird that I spent the first 18 years being frustrated with school and ready to "never look back", and now I can't wait to throw on the black and white and rep W.O.

Today's scripture was "Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works."(Hebrews 10:24). My challenge to you for the weekend is how can we impact our environment and encourage others to do the same?

Well, Dave Roberts already hogged the amazing video news, so I guess that I'll just talk about how pipe YG was. Oral Ice Cream Sundae is a fun new game that was the perfect amount of messy. Just enough to be fun to watch, but not so much that you spend an hour cleaning after. Everybody was off-the-chain excited, and there was a ton of new people, including a new girl named Sierra. (I remembered a name!) God is so amazing in giving us places to be used in huge and small ways! As an added bonus, the show was absolutely hilarious this morning,and I got to hang out with Gary Thompson and listen to Rocky while running down the beach


Well maybe just around the JQ pond... but I still got to punch a dead cow
(well maybe it was a hamburger patty...

SO many people have asked me "why no mo mo' bro?". Well, here's the skinny on my recent folical redux.

A year ago I had some a good-sized fro,


which turned into some thumpin' dreads

but those got really itchy, so I cut 'em off and started the "Mohawk era" (mind you this was more than a year ago now!)


That was a ton of fun for the past year, but then I started noticing some interesting phenomena:




from kids





to older guys. And then then I saw these







I mean, Brad Pitt? Too much! I had to do something new. So I'm taking suggestions, requests, drawings, and toupees.

HOW CAN I AVOID A TREND AND UPDATE MY HAIR?

I just found this video that combines two of my all time favorite pastimes: surfing and juggling! Road trip to Great Wolf Lodge or Double J, anyone?

Surf Juggling Show at Wave Pool in Japan

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But seriously, it's been a weekend to remember, and I'm caused to remember my absolute favorite things in life (in no particular order):

1. My family (in all it's various forms)

2. Donald Miller books

3. Compliments from Troy West

4. When Gary Thompson gets my weird jokes and references

5. Dave Roberts' laugh

6. Matt Wolters' love of bacon

7. bacon

8. BACON!

9. Wesco popcorn (all yellow, please)