On the other hand, much of the stuff that I’m running to and from are important things, things that God values like church activities and family. I need to remember that I think that God longs most for us to live our lives around Him. Not so much in overtly spiritual things like Bible studies, but by immersing our daily lives in Him. In other words, if how we conduct our day to day things, even our gaming (you) and car (me) hobbies, are shaped by and reflect and illuminate our faith in Him, He is pleased and that should not be discounted.

I like the multi blog, I’ve used it to create a separate gallery blog (now broken and stagnant, unfortunately) but the big thing is being able to play with layouts and stuff on an offline copy of my blog.

Some literature out of Muslim countries talk about a Hizb al-Shaitan (Party of Satan). In one book whose name escapes me, the ‘elected’ leader of the country creates a Party of Satan to be the opposition. He renames his own party, the Party of God. He then boasts about his openness because he dares to speak to the evil party of Satan about matters of state.

In some ways, I feel like that much of my time from 2003-2006 was spent as a delegate of the so-called party of Satan to various conferences and leaders of the so-called party of God. Sometimes I invited the opportunities, other times I didn’t. At times, there was this sense of “I talked to this pinakidion guy, I think we’re okay.” or “I talked to him and he hasn’t repented yet.” I especially remember all the efforts to demonstrate that I either was not interested in Biblical reconciliation or in some kind of sin against a big leader, my church, or the ICoC as a whole. I know I wasn’t the only one. (In fairness, some of the conversation actually turned out to be productive.)

Now that everything has pretty much played itself out, I’m just not interested in ICoC stuff outside my congregation anymore. I’ve said all I can say about ICoC stuff. In the future, some of the stuff I said will prove to be right, some of it will prove to be wrong. Personally, I saw myself as someone that cared a great deal. Now I don’t care much because there is little I can do. Instead, I care about the things I can do.

@mark: Thanks, BTW, for your response. There was a time when being pin’k was my identity and it was tempting for it to become who I was. I’m glad I didn’t end up doing ICoC News or going into the ministry or a host of other things. I feel like more myself than I have since I went off the college at 17. It’s a happy time.

FWIW, I need to make some John Pinkbears with proceeds going towards a trip for my family to visit NC.

good post by the way.

Wow – the ‘Build the Bear’ folks would love it. Hey – do they have them in Omaha? Maybe you could do a fundraiser for the hard of hearing – the John PinkBear bear.

I’m telling you – I think it would work.