twenty-three

Things have been pretty quiet around here lately, but this week, I’m expecting a bit more traffic. I’d like to welcome new visitors to my blog from pomomusings.com. This week, I’m one of the featured bloggers in a series called “Plurality 2.0″, which has been going on for the last couple of months over at pomomusings.com, a blog run by friend and fellow Presbymergent, Adam Walker Cleaveland.

If you’re visiting for the first time, welcome. I’m Seth. You can find out more about what I do by visiting the INN University Ministries and Seth James Thomas Web Design. I also Tweet (more often than I probably should), via Twitter at @sethjames.

If you’re a loyal follower (I know who you are), thanks for staying tuned. You really should check out Twitter yourself, because that’s where it’s at these days. I’m hoping to follow up this brief post with a more extended bit of writing about “Why I Tweet and why I don’t blog these days.”

To all visitors, thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned these next couple of months, as we wrap up another year at the INN and I get back full swing into summer with web design work and a bit of travel. Hope you are all well.

**UPDATE**
Here’s the link to the post: http://pomomusings.com/2009/05/18/seth-thomas-on-plurality/

Last week, during a slighty spontaneous moment, I made a quick run to Best Buy and picked out a new iPod. I’d been eyeing the Touch a bit over the past couple months and seized the oportunity of this week’s travel to Louisville as a good excuse to make the investment. I don’t like lugging around my work laptop when I don’t have to, even around town, and I’ve been looking for a calendar device to replace my defunct Palm.

So, here I am typing away at a blog post using a miniature keyboard on board my return flight from Kentucky. And as I thumb-tap along to Death Cab for Cutie in my headphones, I remain impressed with this little device’s versatility and usability.

First, I was able to spend most of my time at the conference this week connected and in touch with emails and work from home. The Wi-fi capabilities of the iPod are excellent. Anywhere I went where I could get wireless, I was quickly able to sync up with email and calendars, along with Twitter and to-do lists. The only issue I’ve had in that department was trying to access “pay-to-use” networks at the airport, which was frustrating, blamed more on their inability to handle diverse mobile users rather than the device having issues itself.

I’ve also been impressed with how much use this thing has been able to handle with ‘ner a hiccup. I’ve been going strong for days now, simply charging up for a few minutes here and there. No overheating. No funky locking up. (I’m clearly a Windows user, as I’ve come to expect such things).

The applications included and available for free download are all pretty slick and really expand upon the versatility for me. Like I mentioned, Twitter got a lot of use this week. I’ve tested two apps, the free Twitteric and the $2.99 Tweetie. I’m going with Tweetie because of the better searching and no adds. I have my finances syncing through Mint.com, music tracking with last.fm, and much more.

Along with all the standard iPod music features, I’m also very impressed with the new Genuis features incorporated into the Touch. I’ve been really into this custom recommendation feature in iTunes and now it comes on the iPod. If you haven’t tried this yet at home, you really should. iTunes will build recommendation playlists from your music library and listening trends. I’ve found it great fir rediscovering music from my collection that hasn’t gotten much attention lately. A good reminder that I have too much music.

My iLife is now more completely integrated. I’m not sure if this is good or not, but at least my email response time has decreased significantly and I’m more organized. I’m still going to give the students who sit at the back of the INN with their iPhones going strong a hard time. But I think I get it a bit more now.

Today I wrap up my 3 day trip to Louisville, KY for the Presbymergent coordination conference. I’m sitting in the airport, waiting way too long for my short flight to Atlanta, followed by another layover and finally a flight home to Seattle.

This is my first time traveling solo and I’ve really been enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong. I love to go away with Stacy or family or travel with a big group of college students to a mission destination. But there is also something great about being alone.

We talked a lot about “the other” over the last couple days, as we engaged in conversations about those who leave the church or are missed by the church. Simply, “the other” is who I am not, the person who is beyond my understanding, outside of my knowledge, the one I may know and yet never really know. Ryan Kemp Pappan led a short devotion this morning that inspired me to think about how I reach out to “the other” as well as reflect upon who in my life is “other”. Like Jesus asks us to take care of the least of these, we are called to see Christ in those we are not like and to engage in loving them as we love Him. And by identifying and loving with I am naturally estranged from, do I not also draw nearer to Christ?

As I travel alone I feel a sense of becoming the outsider. People pass me by as I sit here and type. I am “other”, alone. I wonder if my enjoyment of this experience of transience is not in some way disorienting me, making me the outsider, and in some way, by separating me from these people I share space with, helping me draw closer to God by my estrangement.

I look forward to returning to my community. But maybe sometimes we need to be the outsider to remember what Christ looks like, felt like, and what we treat him as.

A video from speaking at the INN this past Tuesday night. Seems fitting, in the world of “iLife” to post this to the blog. The camera’s a bit shaky for a few minutes, sorry. And, I hope the sound comes through alright. Anyways, enjoy!

Hey everyone. Just wanted to say a quick word of thanks for your prayers and support as I spoke at the INN last night. It went well (at least, I felt ok). I have quite a bit to learn at this art of speaking, but I enjoyed the process and hopefully, above all else, students were challenged to consider Christ’s centrality in their internet-saturated, connected lives.

It was recorded, so I hope to have something to put up on the blog in the near future, for the viewing pleasure of those interested. That’s pretty fitting for a talk focusing on our iLife, right?

I thought “What better way to start a talk about how Christ is Lord of our iLives than to write my very own 25 list of things that define my iLife.”*

Here’s a picture of me, written by me, filtered by me, edited by me, about me.

1.    I’ve been blogging since just after I got married. I was 22 then. My blog was called Twenty-Two. Then I turned 23. I renamed it to Twenty-Three. Then I got lazy and never renamed it again. I’m now 26. It’s still called Twenty-Three.

2.    I was a part of the first Facebook generation, connected only to students at WWU.

3.    I’ve been happily IM’ing since the days of AOL dial-up. 24.4 baby.

4.    The first song I downloaded on iTunes was a Dashboard Confessional track.

5.    Twitter is my favorite way to blog these days.

6.    I can easily count at least 16 different email addresses I’ve had.

7.    While I was a late adopter, getting a cell phone in college, I quickly became a proficient texter. I do not have a land line.

8.    I cruised the original Napster back in the earliest days. My parents’ internet bills went through the roof.

9.    I own my own web design business during the summers and in my free time.

10. My parents do not have Facebook. I bet yours do.

11. Every job I’ve had since college has involved at least some sitting at a computer.

12. I’m an accomplished transcriptionist.

13. The first computer I ever had was a Macintosh SE.

14. I’m greatly impressed at the fact that we can email, chat, and even video chat with people around the world.

15. I had a PDA for about a year. It was too slow and boring.

16. I’ve been described as “gadgety”.

17. I’ve been connected to many of my ministry peers, locally and around the country, solely through email, Twitter, and blogs. I’ve never met most of them face to face.

18. I graduated Western with a certificate in Internet Studies.

19. I’ve said things to people over email or IM that I’ve regretted.

20. I’ve been broken up with over email.

21. I constantly battle pride with regards to my iLife.

22. I very often feel overwhelmed with the amount of time I waste on the computer.

23. I wish I had a Mac.

24. I believe that God can use me, even in the world of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and Google, to do good, loving work in humanity.

25. I believe that Christ would not have us shut off our computers all together, but does ask us to make him much more central in our iLives.

*Note: This style of post is very prevalent among current and former students these days. I’m doing a bit of creative imitating. Not mockery. Thought it would fit well with the talk.

This is a crazy week. We’re back in full swing (I feel like I keep starting every email with that tagline: full swing. How lame?) But it’s true, full speed ahead. Here are some exciting things happening this week.

1. Tonight, my Dad is getting officially sworn in as the new City of Mukilteo Fire Marshal. We’re heading down tonight to watch the ceremony. I’m very excited and very proud of him. He’s been in the position for about 6 months and he’s great at it.

2. I’m speaking at the INN. Tomorrow night’s my first chance to speak on a regular-year Tuesday night. I’ll be speaking on how Christ is Lord of our iLife - our internet, blog, Facebook, cellphone world. Should be fun. It’s weird to be working on a talk about a topic that students really are experts on. I’m focusing on putting some of it in perspective in relation to our “actual” lives out from behind the computer screen. Should be interesting…

3. The beer brewing has begun. This week I’m finishing up my very first batch of home brew that I made on my own. It’s a Belgian Abbey ale. And, I’ve got a second batch planned to be brewed this coming weekend.

Obviously, there’s more going on. the INN is very busy this time of year. Stacy’s still plugging away at her master’s program and still keeping those kids in line in 4th grade. I’m doing little web design pieces here and there, looking forward to the summer when I plan to do more of that. Life up in Bellingham is good.

That’s what’s going on. As I work on my talk, I check myself with each and every web interaction I engage in, so as not to be hypocritical and to remember how Christ is Lord of all I do.

It’s been a pretty weird start to the break here in Bellingham. We’ve had unseasonably cold weather. I walked out to get the mail today into close to a foot of snow. That’s pretty much unheard of in these parts. Barring some heat wave, we’ll have a White Christmas, which is just crazy.

I think the blizzard and isolation have been adding to a feeling of being “outside” of all the Christmas hub-bub this year. Maybe it’s been coupled with being a little more attentive (at least at the beginning) to the season of Advent, spending more time reflecting on the impending “coming” of Christ, rather than simply jumping into celebration mode come December 1 Thanksgiving Halloween. We did a pretty good job of getting the shopping and decorating over with early this year, so as to enjoy it (”savor the season”, as one friend puts it).

But something has felt different this year. In a good way. Kind of like I’m outside of Christmas. Outside of the hectic. Outside of the lights. Being holed up in the house for the past 5 days hasn’t hurt either. We’re pretty disconnected. The computer’s been off much more than normal. A lot more reading, movie watching, huddling in blankets, sipping of chai is taking place.

Maybe it’s healthy to be pushed out of the contemporary celebration of Christmas. Maybe it’s healthy to step outside of Christmas, as an act of expectation, but also as an act of denial. Denial, until the proper time. Refusal or shutting out to some of it. With a precarious balance being struck, finding a place to remember and expect in a proper way, without as many distractions. I hope someday that I can really honor the Advent season for all its depth, for all its significance, for Christ’s sake (literally).

As the snow gets softer outside, with hopes of getting out into the world more and more possible by the hour, this hermit is happy. Hopeful for Christ’s coming, only a few days off. Hopeful for a refreshed perspective on a holiday of such great significance. Time to love others and be loved. Time to remember the love we’ve all received. And a time to remember that Christ himself is truly outside of Christmas as well, coming again, yet not to a manger, but to a Kingdom.

This post might seem rather random, considering it’s the week of Christmas and one might expect I’d pop out something more about Advent or the holidays. Don’t worry, that one’s hopefully on it’s way as well. But, I’ve been thinking a bit about our “iLives”, you know the lives of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, text messaging, email, etc. a bit over the last few weeks, in preparation for a talk at the INN next quarter and just had an interesting thought I deemed worthy of putting up here.

Our “iLife”: the face we put on for all the Internet to see. The personalities we create that allow us to interact with others across the web. The “me” I am when no one can actually see me. I’m talking about our Facebook profiles, where we list our interests, favorite bands, quotes we hope describe us more completely than our own words might. Or the witty Twitter comments we leave, talking about our days (in 140 characters or less), and only the parts of the day worth sharing (not the mundane, not the inappropriate, just the censored parts). What if these “iLives” we put together were thought of as our attempts to be creative, to be creating, to be writing our own stories in our own way, not the way they actually end up being, but in ways we dream they were.

Hold that thought and let’s jump to the Creation story. 7 days, right? I’m not really interested in the Creation story’s scientific validity here, but rather it’s role in illustrating God’s character, who God is. I see the account as a magnificent telling of God’s expansive creating project, which scientifically probably took much longer. By illustrating it as a 7-day-deal, we get to not only marvel at all that is done in such a short period of time, but beyond that gain a view of this God who is bigger, grander, more powerful than anything science or reason or daily life allows us to conjure up. God is the impossible. 7 days of marvelous creation = One creative, grand God.

With this view, we know to expect much from him, his interactions with people, his promises. His creative nature lends itself to big expectations and big follow through. Right?

Now, we move back to our “iLife”. What if, by putting up all these cool pictures of the party I hosted, or writing eloquent words on my little ‘ol blog, I’m attempting to mirror that creative nature. In a sense, I am.

Here’s the kicker: Where in Creation, the literary telling of God’s grand, creative work (7 days = marvelous) helps illustrate God’s nature more completely, picking up with imagery where words fail, do our pitiful attempts at creating ourselves serve as a form of blasphemy? Do we mock God’s Creation story by trying to recreate versions of ourselves that are “greater” than who we truly are? By making claims (however grand or simple, however close or far from the truth) about ourselves that stretch reality into a more comfortable personal perspective (one where we feel better about our shortcomings, because they are more hidden) are we attempting to overwrite ourselves?

While I’ve tried pretty hard to be genuine with who I am in my “iLife”, as I work with students, befriend ministry peers across the country, I have to continually consider who I am away from my computer and who I am when I sit here, in front of the screen. My hope is that I do as little “overwriting” as possible.

How does your “iLife” look in comparison with reality? What do you think about this idea, comparing Creation with our own creative revisions?

Hi friends. I’m excited to have a little something to blog about. I’m working on our Sabbath service plan for tomorrow night. We’re going to focus in on the “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” lyrics as an Advent reflection. Below I’ve written up something short to open the night. It’s a draft, but read through it.

I’d love to hear your responses to how you are preparing yourself for Christ’s coming this season and what emptying of yourself might mean this year. I’ve been deeply struck by the significance of Advent this year and the amazing hope there is in waiting for Emmanuel’s coming.

Sabbath 12.5.08 – “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”

Tonight, we sing “O Come, O come Emmanuel”, calling for Christ to come and ransom us from the captivity of sin and life empty of him. We call for a life filled with light, with hope, and with the promise of newness in Him. We call out to be broken from the bondage of sin and strife and to become bound up in unity with each other, bound together in common purpose and love of God.

The Advent season is a time of remembering Christ’s coming in the form of a baby, born of Mary. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, we focus on her pregnancy, her being filled with Christ and hope in some way, we would be filled with Christ as well. His coming (again) is beyond us, but we are preparing ourselves in this moment to be filled with anticipation of that which is to come.

Our lives, being so wrapped up and bound by the trappings of the Christmas season, leave us too cluttered to have any room left for Christ’s coming. We have no space, amidst the tinsel, the lights, the gifts, to find space for being impregnated ourselves. We have no room in us for Christ’s indwelling.

Tonight, as we sing for Emmanuel to come, we offer up our filled lives and ask that we be emptied and prepared for the coming of Christ. We ask that we be emptied of the clutter, so that the light of Christ’s hope might live in us, preparing us for his coming. In being emptied, we ask that Christ fill us.

We are waiting for God to come. We pray that God would be with us now, in this place, in our bodies, in our being.