As most of you know I have been very "non-existent" these last few months. If you do not have the foreknowledge of this all you have to do is look at my date counter to realize i am not quite the poster I used to be. I have become comfortable with the fact that most of my "audience" has left me for more productive fields. While this is an upsetting and depressing reality it is in fact, my reality.
so it is with sadness that i am telling everyone that if i do post here it will very very very far and in between.
I know this will be difficult for many of you because i have become such a HUGE part of not only your life but also your own spiritual formation ;).
ok so i am really tired of the "Urban Legend" Emails out there. Do people just really belive everything they read, no matter how off the wall it is. ah crap lets just email it to EVERYBODY ON MY LIST.
Here is the latest...
Subject: Who is Barack Obama?
Probable Democrat presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHIEST from Wichita, Kansas.
Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.
Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, 'He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school.'
Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.
Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta.
Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.
Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking Major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.
Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy.
The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!!
ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office - he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Kuran (Their equevelancy to our Bible, but very different beliefs)
Please forward to everyone you know. Would you want this man leading our country?...... NOT ME!!!
Can people really be this stupid. The version i am referencing had a preamble that stated to go to http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp and check it out "for yourself" The snopes article completely defuncts this legend. unbeliveable. idiocy irrates me.....
Ok, so I am renewed. i have found a way to integrate my blog and my facebook account. my two verbose worlds can now come crashing into one.
I am also tired of being the only person that gives all of your lives meaning. I mean really. come on. you guys are really going to need to find something in life that can fulfill you like my blog does. i can't handle the pressure. it is really heavy.
I have nothing to say and no time to say it in. So there ya go. plus i am kind of in a facebook mode as of late. i am kind of not proud to say that but again, there it is.
im lame i know... but at least i am at home in my lameness. :)
How was everyones Thanksgiving? We had a great time. 4 days off doesn't happen around here very often, so i had a great time! Got to spend some great time with my kids and friends. Thanksgiving has to be my favorite holiday. Sure it is completely glutenous, but hey.....
You know it's funny, there are times in your life when you really have to take stock. Look at yourself as a person, look at the things that have created you as a person. How you react to certain situations, how you treat certain people, how you train your children. Where did all of this come from, the good and the bad.
I have been doing this in the past couple of days. We have recently had a friend come and live with us. This person has been through some tough times emotionally with some past acquaintances and has me processing how my own dealings with these people has effected my life. It has made me realize that much of who i am today has been a response, a reaction to others negative influence. Almost an education of how i DO NOT want to live my life.
I can however look at two people with whom i always received/receive encouragement, wisdom, love and grace. My mom and my wife. In those two people i can always be confident that what i get is in my best interest. As many of you know my mom passed away a few years ago, which left a huge hole in my life. I mean you always want to say that "God" can fill that hole. which i am sure to some degree he does. but lets talk for real. i am talking about substantial human contact. it's like when you grow up without a father and people tell you that God is your father. sure he is and he provides, but he doesn't make up for that human contact.
anyway......
I think i am tired of my life being a response to other people stupidity. I am so ok with our life right now. i don't think i have ever been so at peace with my own person, at home in myself, with my faith.
I am so disappointed with some of these people and their decisions, but i think it doesn't really matter that much at least to me. i can't do anything about it and am choosing to continue my journey and allow them to sit along side the road. or at least walk a different path.
sorry, these are totally ethereal musings that are mostly for myself. no real content.
Ok..... so how hilarious is Halloween. I think it is funny when people get hung up on Halloween being this demonic thing, because clearly it IS NOT Halloween that is demonic, it IS the candy. Holy Cow.
So, we have adopted the rule that Beth grew up with, on Halloween, after trouncing half the neighborhood for free candy, you may inhale as much of said candy as you can possibly shove down your gullet until bedtime. Any candy that is left becomes subject to rationing over the coming months. This does lead to a sometimes dangerous method of inhaling candy at rates that Takeru Kobayashi would be jealous of.
I watched as my daughter, at the ripe old age of two years old sat in front of her bowl of goodies and proceeded to open wrapper after wrapper and shove pieces of candy into her already full mouth. leaving much of the candy behind on her shirt. We had to remind her that she had to finish one piece before starting on a new one. The problem is that we were laughing so hard you can't even enforce it.
And as the evening draws to a close and our glutenous children finish their bedtime duties of brushing teeth and saying prayers, these wonderful words come from my sons mouth; "my tummy hurts".
classic.
my daughter, who ingested i think about 6 lbs. of candy in an period of about an hour. not a word. she has indeed inherited the great balon candy eating gene.
surprisingly enough both children went down without argument. content with the effort they put forth in the great Fuson Candy Ingestion of 07 they laid down and slept.
I just ordered some new books. Getting new books for me is almost as much fun as ordering geeky tech stuff. When that box comes i get all giddy like a little kid on Christmas morning. then i sit and just look at them, caress them, talk to the... EHEM! i mean.... it's cool ya know.
anyway. Rob bell has a new book out that i have heard is pretty good. It's called Sex God. Whoa. How do ya like that, sex and god in the same title. actually i think it's pretty tame. It dives into the whole issue of how we see sex as believers, how it has been tainted from our judeo christian mindset.
most of you have probably heard by this point from my wifes blog that we were given a new building. It was once a theatre then a gay dance club and most recently a jazz/dance club. it is seriously sweet! our first week is sunday. once everything is finalized i will have to tell you guys the story because it will make you lose your shorts. This isn't just a building, it's the boomin sound system, lighting, full industrial kitchen, beautiful stone entry. this place was done up!
We had a great weekend with my dad. he came up to see the redskins play the packers. and see the kids. saturday had a wonderful day doing our pumpkins and sunday got to go see the packers beat the redskins!!!! woohooo! go packers.
This is cedars last year in preschool. Next year it's the big time. KINDERGARTEN.
the start of 18-22 years of dad being oober-frustrated with our school systems. it's funny when finally confronted by this i find that it is probably not going to be as hard for me to let go of him and let him go off that first day, but it will be much harder for me to allow someone else i hardly know to begin to form his world-view. to judge him on how well he can adapt to the SYSTEM.
I am petrified that he will be pigeon-holed by some retarded teacher who doesn't want to stray from their little teaching box. cedar seems to be a lot like i am. he doesn't seem to sit and learn by listening but more by doing. if i show him something once and then let him do it, he has it. he will sit down with a set of lego's and build an airplane that would blow your mind. anotomically perfect in everyway, with cool little additions to boot. then he will come up with a name for it. i know i am the doting father and am completely biased but he really does have a very overdeveloped visual mind. incredibly bright in that way. but he checks out sometimes, when trying to get him to do basic things sometimes, it's a a nightmare. in my view, this isn't a downfall, it is a different way of learning.
i am the same way. school for me was a nightmare. having to sit in a class and be judged on how well i listen. oh brother. i would still flunk. however, you put me at a computer and give me an application i have never used, a programming language i don't understand i will just learn it. usually within a day or two. if my mower is broken i will take it apart and fix it. but if i have to sit and listen to a person tell me how to do something, it is horribly difficult for me to sit and learn anything. most times i will just catch little overviews and then go and figure the rest out on my own.
this is not to say that it is not important for all of us to be influenced by different ways of gathering and applying information, i am not saying learning is bad, by no means. i love learning, i just like to do it in ways where i can actaully digest the infomation. because if you are not able to digest the information then it is all for nought. how i wish some of my teachers would have given me some boundaries and basic instruction then let me go.
thus my concern for my son. i know he is brilliant. i see it everyday. but i know there will always be others that do not, because they are only allowing themselves to see him through their feeble little linear box.
Ok..... I am going to admit something. This is a big step for me.......
I purchased a new phone. I replaced my Mac Freindly Treo 650, which i loved, with a new HTC Mogul that runs Windows Mobile and........ get this, I LOVE IT! I know i am reeling from this epiphany.....
Not only is it easier than my treo to use, it syncs (TO MY MAC) like 700% easier. It's almost difficult to think that Microsoft had anything to do with this sytem. I had to purchase an application that was made for syncing Entourage to Windows Mobile devices. and voula!
I am amply impressed.
I came really close to buying an iPhone. Sucking it up and paying off my sprint account and just moving to the iPhone. but now i am seeing all the news coming down the pipe with what apple is doing with disabling users that have hacked thier phones. it's like they have taken a chapter out of "How to be like Microsoft. circa. 1985-1995". I have a friend from church who purchased one of the iPhones and make no mistake it is super cool. But to be honest, i almost like the Windows Mobile app a little better for what i do.
weird, i feel almost dirty... shirking an apple product for microsoft.....
I fully recognize that some of you will not even know what i am talking about. This subject is one of those "Christianeze" buzz words. Thus the reason i am bringing it up.
Most of you know the background that i come out of. Youth With A Mission, Evangelical, Spirit-Filled, etc. Much of which i am not anymore. But there are some things from my background that i still hold onto to some degree. For example, i believe that God heals, like freaky supernatural healing stuff, not as often as many evangelicals think that he does, but still. I believe that the Holy Spirit does whacky things that we can't understand.
One of the areas that hard line evangelicals are big into is "Spiritual Warfare". The concept that there are spiritual forces battling for happenings that involve each and every persons daily life. example, I believe I am supposed to go on a mission trip an dam raising money, but just can't seem to get the money by the deadline. The concept that there are demonic forces at work that are "keeping" me from getting that money therefore keeping "non-believers" from hearing the gospel. The more I pray, the more power it gives me to "combat" these demonic forces and achieve my goal of raising that money. I know how ridiculous this sounds to someone who has not grown up around it, but needless to say because of my background i don't even bat an eye when i hear these types of things.
That does not mean that i agree with it. actually i don't. well thats not true either. lets just say i am unsure, but do not hold to this specific approach......
so we had an issue this week come up where our church plant is looking to get something big donated to us. we talked about it Sunday and are having our church pray. Pray that God would allow this to happen. Pray that God would give us favor in the eyes of those who are looking to donate this. etc.
my first inclination is to say, why? does God not have enough power to do this on his own, does he somehow need us to "help" him by asking him? do you see what i mean? in talking with my buddy he threw out that God wants us, in these times of "need", to seek him, to ask him, to essentially "meditate" on him and through this practice to watch him meet our "need" and thus have a greater understanding of who he is and how he works.
I could be more comfortable with this approach, that said i don't think it completely explains the need for it. I mean if God wants us to have this thing, he will give it to us. if not we will go without, and be fine.
i am interested to hear some of your thoughts, because i know many of you grew up in the same background as i , and have since moved away from that thought space as I have.
I woke up this morning to the wonderful realization that someone had broken into our house and stolen all of my main computer gear. It sits out in the corner of our kitchen and is the main server for our house. It was connected to an external drive that held our entire life. Pictures, movies, music, memories, important information, everything. I could care less about the computer or the drives or the speakers system, etc. but the intagibles, the unreplacebles.
I had all of my photo logs from before my children were born, births, holidays, special events, freinds, family, and my mom.... all gone.
i feel, in a small, infantesimal way like someone who has had thier home burned down with everything in it.
wanna know the kicker..... last night my back was bothering me, so sometimes i sleep on the couch because i don't wake up feeling like a manican. i was sleeping 10 ft from the backdoor where they came in, and never woke up.
You know its weird i haev children that are old enough for school. I geuss it really isn't all that weird. I am after all 34 years old. But still, do you remember your first day school evrey year when you were a kid. I remeber almost every year (until high school) being so excited to go to school, that usually wore off in the first three days. It's just kind of freaky weird to be on the parent end.
Going to the open houses, parents nights (which by the way, are seriously boring) My wifes probably sees this totally different than i do. i mean she will actaully get a break during the day. ahh the hallowed "Back to School Days". Parents live for em.....
Luckily, we are still doing preschool, next year is kindergarten. We decided to hold Cedar for one more year. He is incredibly bright and is already reading, but socially we wanted him to have another year before being thrown into the lions den.
Anyhoo..... I was talking with a buddy of mine the other day and the topic of school came up. We both agreed that school was not a pleasurable experience for either of us. I am very nervous of how to navigate these waters as my children grow. I believe i did not do well in school and did not like it becasue i was being taught in a way that my "artistic nature" doesn't easily comprehend. I get irritated at how our society sticks to the very linear, closed box way of teaching our children. I think there are many children out there that this teaching style is very effective with, but there is an equal number of children that would benifit from a more hands on approach.
I learn by doing. I have no college degree, I have no official training in my field, and yet i have owned and sold a profitable business, and have a very good position in a marketing agency. Juxtapose this with... say ... kids coming out of a 2 year or 4 year college or tech school. They really know very little. I was struck by this several months ago when i was in the process of hiring a web developer. I filtered every tech school and college to find someone who could come in and fill this need. Everyone was seriously brain dead i think. Some didn't even know the basic languages it takes to do this job.
Then i ran across a guy who, much like me, taught himself everything he knows. He is unreal! very smart and is a wealth of knowledge for our industry.
Man i am kind of rambling here..... my point is what do you guys think of our education system.... pros/cons. etc.
I have worked on a mac for around 15 years now, but becasue of the nature of my business i am forced to have a cute little PC sitting on my desktop as well. in the past this has been a bane to my day. sometimes just looking at it makes my stomach sour.
BUT NO LONGER!!!!!
a freind of mine discovered a new app that installs on my Mac and My PC and allows me to control my PC from my Mac keyboard. Just like i was running a Dual moniter set up with my PC. It's like it is one computer.
Do i still have utter disdain for the microsoft product. uh....always... but it has become much easier to deal with now that i can at least unify my workflow. Now if i could keep the damn thing from freezing every ten minutes.
I don't know who left this comment, and i hope i don't completely offend them but i have to start a discussion about this. i want to know agree or disagree.... and give reasoning.
here's why..... i have heard this my whole life. blah blah blah. and in my opinion its just not true. sure it is true in miniscule cases, when perseverance meets destiny. (or whatever) but we are talking a mere .000000001% of people that have lived in existence ever.
im not saying its not good to be perseverent or consistent, actaully the opposite. i think these are two neccesities of success. but thats different than "changing the world". i think people use this term so loosely, especially in evangelical circles. why isn't it ok to just be small, invest wholly into a small thing but do it very very well. and intern you might change the world, but even if you don't you were responsible with what you were given.
jesus was like this. he invested in 12 guys. thats it. they changed the world yes. but his principle was to invest wholly in this small group and let the snowball grow as it rolled down the hill.
I am what you would call a true greenie in spirit. i mean i love hearing stories of people who buy organic only, grow thier own food in the backyard, drive peanut oil cars, live in a house that is buried underground, use only candles to light their home, wear only clothes that they made from their own wool sheep in the same backyard....
but seriously......
In todays society how easy it it really to go GREEN. I mean, it has gotten much easier in the last few years to make attempts, but really thats all they are is attempts. Let's say i go out and buy a new hybrid..... you would think by the commercials and the hype that you woul dnever again have to buy gasolline. when in reality these cars many times get worse gas milage than the non-hybrid types. for example... a Ford Escape Hybrid gets 30 miles to the gallon. i could go out and get a honda civic non-hybrid that gets 45 miles to the gallon.
im in the marketing business. i understand how certain Fads are piggybacked to upsell merchandise. isn't this a tale of mainstream upselling? like i said im all for green.... im just not sure how feasable it really is.
i was just discussing the whole organic foods thing over on my sis-inlaws blog, and was raising the question of how do i "buy organic" for a price that our family can afford? i would love to be th efamily that only eats non-processed, organicly grown foods. but i think i might starve to death. plus the fact that i have tasted organic beer and that taste about as good "Old-Style", and thats just not gonna happen.
i can't stand it. it's so pop culture. it's so "i'm a pimply faced fifteen year old". no dispurtions on those who use it, but it makes me insane. it is horribly designed, allowing the user to cloudy up their page with crap loads of useless nonsense, irritatingly long loading photos, music i don't normally like.... It's like giving candy to a 4 year old and locking him/her inside a china shop.
Name: Levi Fuson Home: Green Bay, WI, United States About Me: This is a journey, lets take it at the pace which God is setting and not the world around us. >> See my complete profile >> Family Photo Album
The Last Word & The Word After That - Brian McLaren
Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is - N.T. Wright
Lost Christianities - Bart D Erhman
Dr. Ehrman goes indepth into the history behind
the early christian sects & their beliefs. He gives wonderful detail
to the background of the canonization process. The Story We Find Ourselves In - Brian McClaren
This is the follow up book to A New Kind of Christian.
Very cool book, although i haevn't had a chance to process it completely.
A New Kind Of Christian - Brian McClaren
If I ever recomend a book in my life, this is it! The thoughts in this book completely changed my perspective of my
walk with God.
