Snow!

We awoke this morning to a special treat of a dusting of snow. It perfectly covered all the trees, bushes, cars and grass. Hopefully the trend will continue into tomorrow!

New Look

Sometimes you just want to change. Well, today was that day.

I acquired some web space which allows me to do many things like hosting my blog. Yeah!

What does this mean for you? Well, for one, it means that I broke your RSS feed, so you'll have to re-subscribe: Put http://www.aarongeist.com/atom.xml into your feed reader of choice.

Second, it means that now instead of aarongeist.com redirecting you to renmusic.blogspot.com, the opposite will happen. Bookmark http://www.aarongeist.com as the official blog.

Lastly, it means that for those of you with iPhones running 1.1.3 firmware, when you 'webclip' my blog to your desktop, you get a cool icon. Touching eh?

Well, pardon the mess as I get links and other goodies established on my side bar.

And while you're at it, check out the last year in photos at our church, here. (put together by Brian.)

New Blog

No, I'm not moving blogs. But my friend Tyson just started a new blog. Check it out when you get a chance. I'm sure that if he goes for it, it will be filled with art and good thoughts.

While you're at it, Check out his artwork.

Exciting Day

Tuesday was an exciting day:

First, I got my car windshield replaced after the crack grew for months. I'm glad I replaced when I did too. I got the first crack in the summer, but the second crack happened the day before I got it replaced! Lucked out there!

Second, the iPhone 1.1.3 update came out. Now I can have Google Maps locate where I am and get directions from there...great feature!

And lastly, we had our 2nd Tigard-area Youth Pastor's meeting. It will be exciting to see what happens with this group of like-minded and group.

Happy Birthday Mom

This season of firsts without mom came quick and left in a hurry. Just like the rest of life...it goes on...and fast at that.

Christmas was a special time together with the six of us. Annie and her husband Matt, and Ali and I spent the night over at Dad and AJ's. We shared the usual traditions of snack foods, stockings, presents, fighting over who has to be "Santa." Dad put together some wonderful gifts for us kids: Coloring books made long ago by mom, an ornament with her stocking & picture and a note written in 2001 when she didn't think she'd make it another year.

Sunday January 6th would have been her birthday. So we all joined for a meal and her favorite movie, What's Up Doc?. If you haven't seen it, please do so. It's hysterical!

Christmas begun a new tradition for us. My dad suggested that we pick a candle each year to light at Christmas and her birthday. This year's was a beeswax candle we found at the Portland Farmer's market one cold Saturday afternoon.

I asked dad why he thought that mom didn't write any new updated notes (like the ones given at Christmas) since her last goodbyes. I thought about it and realized that in the last seven years, she lived in a way and said everything that she would have wanted to say. She lived in the open, unashamed, and boldly speaking. She left nothing behind with no regrets. It was a truly beautiful way to move on.

Winter Youth Article

I'll probably go deeper on a few Winter Youth ideas later, but I thought I'd give you a glimpse of our time at Winter Youth. This is from an article I wrote for our Church newsletter, Intertwined.

Over Christmas break, nineteen High school students and leaders spent four wonderful days together with 900 other students at the Jantzen Beach Red Lion Hotel for CB Northwest's Winter Youth Celebration. We shared times of worship, teaching by Rick McKinley and Chris Seay, painting by Scott Erickson that reflected each of our speaker’s messages, reflection as a group, drinking coffee, square-dancing at a hoedown, a concert, and jumping around some crazy inflatables.

Pastor Rick McKinley of Imago Dei challenged us to expand our view of God beyond just a "little bit of Jesus," to one that includes God Almighty of the Old Testament. We looked at how God revealed Himself to Abraham, Moses, and David. Each one of them responded to God in fear: A fear that accompanied safety, one that comes with trust, a fear that keeps us from sin, one that causes us to care about the things of God, and a fear that leads to knowledge and life.

Rick showed us that though these men failed in big ways, they were still called a friend of God, a man after God’s own heart, and one who spoke face to face with God. The great news is that God is turning us into the image of Christ so that we reflect His glory.

Rick's last message was about placing and finding our security in God alone and not the things of this world, others, or what they think of us. We were tested in this when they sent all 900 of us out around the Portland area in XXXXL (yes, quadruple extra large) t-shirts. Imagine the sight of that! In a culture where we often find security in how others view us, it was a challenge.

Finally, we were asked to think of how we can love our neighbor as a group by taking a step, saying yes to meet a need we see. We spent time brainstorming and praying about this task for which we were made.

Pray with us as we find where God’s pulse is beating in our group.

Less is more

It's the time of year that folks write down their new year's resolutions, and then try to stick to them. I've got them too:

I want to blog more. I want to read more. I want to read the Bible more. I want to get up earlier.

Others want to exercise, make more money, eat healthier, do more and be more.

More is great. But I'd like to do less this year. I want to rest...and not just take breaks, or lay on the couch watching TV, or vacation a lot, but actually rest more. I'd like to spend more time in awe and wonder at this life that God has made.

May this be the year of getting less done...more or less.

Psalm 46:10 - Be still and know that I am God.

Happy New Year (08)

I hope you had a great New Year's Celebration last night. Alison and I spent it with our friends Justin and Jessica with their daughter Brooklyn, Ali's brother and wife: Patrick & Maria, and later on, our friend David came as well.

We shared great times over the fondue pots of cheese, broth, oil, and chocolate. Mmmm mmmm good! I have never had a fondue experience I didn't like.

After a game of Imagine iff and counting down the year with Dick Clark, we somehow got on the topic of music in the '90s and went on over to VH1's website where they had listed the "greatest" 100 songs in the '90s. (Seriously, how did the Backstreet Boys make it to #3?) After singing through all of them, we made our way home, finally getting some sleep around 2:30.

Now I'm at Ali's parents house, blogging, viewing the snow capped hills to the East and enjoying a fresh cup of French press coffee from Patrick. Coffee is always a plus!