the mac life

Well as some of you know I have joined the mac life. Although, it was partly by accident, or God's provision... seriously!
Ben, my brother that I inherited through Engelina, gave us a late wedding gift... it was a mac powerbook. Then my wife had some money from her old bank account in MD, and she allowed me to use that money to get an ipod.


So I thought I would let you all know that I have joined the mac life. It is weird. The following explains why:


- When you see a fellow macie, it is a similar experience when you see people who have the same car or are driving a bus, and they wave at each other even thought they have no idea who the person is and will never see them again.


- When mac people get around all they do is talk about their computer.


- Non mac people are interested in the whole thing. The other day three of us (macies) were sitting in class at one table and our Prof. came up to us and said, "Is this the mac table?" and for the next five minutes we preceded to talk about the rise of mac computers. Also, when I took my mac into the the tech person to get configured for wireless internet at school, he said, "Oh! you have a mac!"


- There are websites, which I have NOT visited, that unite all Christian mac users. THAT IS WIERD!!!


I enjoy the mac life, but I dont know if I enjoy the mac cult.


Peace
jj smith
Peace
josh

Memories

Josh & Gina wedding 037,
originally uploaded by jj smith.

It has been nearly four months since we tied the knot. Good times! It goes so fast.

Our good friends the Mitchell's told us that one of the most important things to do in your marriage and even in the first year of marriage is to make memories.

So I wanted to share some of our good memories with everyone else.

- Our honeymoon. There are a lot of memories packed into this one category that deserves its own blog.

- Road trip to pittsburgh. It was great b/c we got to spend quality time with the fam and my best friend Rucc (Adam Ruccio, who i have known since middle school).

- Going to the park in the summer. There were a couple of Sunday afternoons and Saturdays that we would go and spend time in the park on a blanket. We talked, read, and relaxed. The best was when Engelina (my wife) read to me the Chronicles of Narnia.

- Laughing. There are a couple of specific memories with laughing, but overall we love to laugh with each other. Engelina is starting to laugh at my joke a lot more... I like that

- Road trip to Kings Dominion. We went to Virginia with our good friends Megan and Ryan who live in NC. We got caught in the worse traffic of my life and when we got there after 4 hour trip (what normally is two hours), we rode two rides and left b/c it was so cot-pickin hot and crowded. This was so much fun, b/c we laughed and talked in the car for about 7 hours.

- Our recent get-a-way to Lancaster with our good friends from college. It is great to see friends.

It is really cool to see what remembering does. It has the ability to change. That is interesting.

Maybe the trouble with broken relationships between people and people and God is because we forget all the time.

Above Reproach Not Above Life

So here is what I have been thinking about. Above reproach. I think this term is used improperly and lived out to a point that it is detrimental to the Kingdom in many circles. However, I could be wrong...that is not unusual

Paul used this referring to overseers or elders in the church. He said they have to above reproach, but it goes on to say what that looks like. He says, „ the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money‰

I realized in my own life that I used the excuse of being above reproach to not hang out with people who live wrongly, or not to go certain places where people would see me or do things that had the appearance of sin. That meant don‚t let anyone see me smoke my pipe, or don‚t go to bars b/c someone just might see you in there drinking milk and think that you are sinning, thus I would not be living above reproach.

I don‚t think Paul was saying this b/c that would mean that Jesus did not live above reproach. I wonder what Christian conservatives would think today if they saw a young woman caressing Jesus' feet with her hair and Jesus accepting this behavior. I wonder what they would think when they would be rebuked by Jesus for confronting an adulterous woman. They would say he is not living above reproach by hanging out with these people, and developing deep relationships with them.

I discovered that living above reproach according to Paul is exactly what Jesus did, and the opposite of my life. He said they are to be self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, faithful to his wife, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. he did not say anything about hanging out with people who did not follow this life style. If no one spent time with them how would they know about the freedom that comes from following Jesus.

Peace my brothers and sisters