TATTOO on the HEART

New Beginnings…

// January 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // EVERYDAY LIFE

January 1 kinda came and went.  I went to bed 2 hours prior so I pretty much left the new year to arrive on its own.

Newness, hope, and beginning has been sort of a running theme with God over the last year or so.  Life has changed alot.

But I think a simple mark of following Christ should be newness.

Think about what Jesus said: Old to New, Death to Life.

Could death to life be any different?  It’s drastic.

And I think the mark of following Jesus is not a one time change, but a perpetual newness.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV)

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Yes there should be a beginning change.  But there should be another change.  And another change.  Glory is one thing, but another glory or an increase in glory?  It’s fascinating.

Is death to life still happening for us?  Is New from Old still happening in us?  It should be.  If there’s not drastic change then we’ve somehow settled.  Somehow Christ is not manifested in us yet.

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Besides that, I’ve gotten the opportunity to see changes externally as well.  God’s really changed the way ministry looks for me these days.  I’m appreciative of all that I’ve experienced thus far and the fact that God’s totally dropped my jaw many times over.

Now is such an amazing time because after so many years of saying that I wanted to see the next generation get it, own it, and advance the Kingdom of God, I’m now getting to experience that.

In starting a new church, one of the most important things was having a team, a family to share it with.  No more lone rangering it for me.  & over the last quarter of 2009, God granted that desire with some phenomenally gifted young men who have a passion for Him and a passion for this community.

One commitment that I’ve made going in to this thing is a commitment that is honestly missing in a lot of churches.  Most youth guys I’ve known (and still know) have a longevity of about 24 months max at any given place.  That’s unfortunately the norm in ministry.  It’s not a leadership thing or a lack of gifting or maturity.  It’s a relational problem.  How many people would say, “Hey, I’m going to make a commitment to you personally.  I’m accountable for your life.”  Not that many.  And I think that’s the problem.  If there’s safety & security in relationship, there can be honesty, change, discipleship, frank discussions, growth, and longevity.  And we simply don’t have time for these things anymore.  Or we’re just not willing to make those kinds of investments.

If you’re pastor that’s reading this, it’s your job description to love & give your life for your people.  Don’t hand them a Maxwell leadership book if you’re not going to commit yourself to them.  Your accountable for their life.

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So for me this has been pretty phenomenal – getting the opportunity to come alongside, to mentor, nuture, to give permission to the next generation to do what they were made to do.

Who thought this could be so fun & graceful?

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Lastly…Christmas…

On the way to bring some gifts & hang out with some homeless friends in the area, Jessica asked me if she could run in to Rite Aid. Yes, it was open on Christmas Day & I feel it’s wrong to shop in places that keep people from their families on holidays…BUT Jessica needed something, and I’m smart enuff not to argue.

She was inside forever & I was thinking: “That’s some kind of line in there.” Eventually she walked out & I pulled up the car to pick her up. She handed me a small gift bag & said, “Merry Christmas!” I was like, “What kind of overpriced gift comes from Rite Aid?” I opened the bag & found this. She had a hunch. I was amazed. Then it crossed my mind that I might have urine on my hand with no way to wash it as I made my way to the party.

Paul’s Headed for Iowa…

// November 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // EVERYDAY LIFE

I’ll be on quite a whirlwind speaking tour around Iowa for the week of November 15th, 2009.

If you live in Iowa or the nearby Omaha area, I’d love to see you.

Check out my main website for full dates & locations:

www.PaulDabdoub.com

Surfing Lesson #1

// September 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // EVERYDAY LIFE

Well, I learned the hard way that natural athleticism has NOTHING to do with surfing. I’m absolutely not a natural and was shocked to find it so difficult.

Licking my wounds today.

My bucket list for 2009 included “learning to surf” and “failing at something.” So at least I know I’m going to cross out one of those before December.

“New York” Pizza

// September 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // featured_video

Monday morning…

// September 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // EVERYDAY LIFE

I walked outside my back gate this morning to take out the trash and pull out the recycling bin. Trash & recycling trucks only run on Mondays in my neighborhood.

In some of the other neighborhoods in OB, the poor and homeless strategically beat the big trucks for the best in plastics. But I’ve never seen any of these guys in our neighborhood…that is, until this morning. Or maybe I was pulling our recycling bin out at a different time than normal.

A white-haired guy was across the way about to dig in my neighbor’s recycling bin when I let out a friendly “Hello” as though he was walking his dog on my front sidewalk.

I have to say he was equally friendly to me as I asked him how he was doing, etc.

He politely asked me if it was okay for him to go through our recycling bin.

Obviously it was okay with me, but unfortunately, we don’t really buy plastic stuff for the simple reason that we invested in the much more cost-efficient Brita water filter.

Hope he’s around next Monday despite the fact that we don’t have many finds in our recycle bin.

TATTOO on the HEART – Free!

// August 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // EVERYDAY LIFE

I just received some kind words from Brian McLaren who recently read the book.

For a limited time, we’re making TATTOO on the HEART free in text and audio.

We’re asking everyone to give it a read, post comments (which I will respond to) share it on Facebook, Tweet it, email it – so that it can be shared with everyone.

www.tattooontheheart.com

Let me know what you think!

Father’s Day…

// June 22nd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // EVERYDAY LIFE

A few weeks ago, Jessica and I were walking around the farmer’s market in Ocean Beach and ran in to some friends who run a booth down there.  They sell an array of items from overseas – mostly handcrafted sculptures out of bone and wood.  However, this was the first time I’ve ever looked at their jewelry, and noticed the various creations that looked really manly.

That’s when an old urge came back from my teenage years of getting my ear pierced.  Of course, back in those days you only got one pierced and, if you weren’t gay, you pierced the left ear.

I opted out of getting pierced – in part because of the stigma’s that you’d get while living in the south.  You know, no good employee would have piercings.

But one great thing about SoCal is that most things – even facial tattoos – hardly get a second look.  So there I was staring at manly earrings for the first time in my life and thinking, “Hey, I can do this.”
Father’s Day

I got back from Milwaukee literally 27 minutes before Father’s Day.  The next day rolled around and Jessica asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, “What about getting my ears pierced?”

So everyone started getting ready to go out.  Victoria (11) asked Jessica about getting a nose piercing to which I actually said, “Yes.”  Of course, Victoria said, “I was afraid you’d say ‘yes.’”  You was already thinking about the fact that she’s sort of a scaredy-cat.

I told her it’d actually be pretty cool if she got a piercing with me.

If you’re scratching your head, I just don’t see what the big deal is.  In Hebrew tradition, Daughters younger than Victoria were pledged to be married to men with a visible sign of placing a ring in their nose (Genesis 24:34-51).

Maybe I was counting on Victoria being a scaredy-cat, but at the same time I wasn’t going to just be religious about the matter.  After all, a piercing can always be removed.

We loaded up the whole family and went to Apogee Piercing right down the street in Ocean Beach – a place that I’d highly recommend if you’re thinking of getting one.  The staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and not pushy.

Furthermore, I’d learn that they were obviously more “moral” than me as they wouldn’t even consider giving Victoria a piercing.   They actually told us, “For moral reasons, even when a kid is with their parents, we won’t pierce a person under 15.”

Hmmm.

Anyway, minutes after signing my waiver, my family gathered around a sterile medical table.  Victoria made a strange gulping sound as they pierced me and ran down the hall.  Jadyn – the 5 year old with a fascination with a macabre fascination with booboos, just stared at me.  She did kind of scratch her ear while she was watching.

Thanks to Jordan over at Apogee!  Best Father’s Day ever!

Back from Wisconsin…

// June 22nd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // EVERYDAY LIFE

Well, I finally got to visit Wisconsin this past week.  I was invited to speak at a youth camp right outside Milwaukee. I was pretty close about a year or so ago when I was in Traverse City, Michigan. One ferry and about 5 hours separated me from popping my head in.

This week was an incredibly enjoyable experience as I’d have to say the people of Wisconsin (and particularly Whitefish Bay) are some of the nicest you’ll ever meet in your life. And by the way, in case you’re wondering, the correct pronunciation of Wisconsin is “Wes-kaun-zin.”
I had a lot of favorite moments, but here are a few:

• Driving through Whitefish Bay – Maybe I’ll get a chance to vacation there. It’s definitely a hidden gem that’s apparently not been discovered by tourist. Outdoor amphitheaters, art, history, beer, Pabst, houses that look like they were transported from Germany – it’s just a really cool place with a smalltown feel.
  

  View of Lake Michigan

• Milty Wilty – I had frozen custard for the first time in New Jersey many years ago, but Milty Wilty? Well, I’ll say this: you ever heard how doing crack one time could cause you to be addicted? Same principle at work here.
  

• Dairy Farms – I grew up with a view of grain silos, but I simply love dairy farms with real black and white cows. I’d hoped I would have gotten the chance to milk one, but we didn’t fit that in to the schedule.
  

• Late Night Cards – sometimes I really miss being a youth pastor, and it was so cool getting to play cards until you’re deliriously tired and you laugh about pretty much everything. Despite looking at my opponent’s cards, I lost miserably. I did learn how to play Texas Hold’em. Lost every single one of my chips. Got loans from other players. And then when I couldn’t get loans from anyone else, I let out a big, hawking yawn and said it was time to crash.
  

  You see a bed - a teenager sees a card table.

• Stars – sometimes you forget they’re out there. At 2am I laid – somehow comfortably – on a rock and stared into the millions of stars that were just layered in the sky. Sometimes people look at the vastness of space and feel insignificant. Quite the opposite for me. I felt a God who was staring down at me with light from the heavens that he prepared for me a 1000 years ago. And I was enjoying a moment he planned with me in mind. It was awesome.
• Milty Wilty – a spiritual moment as well. Told you it was addicting.
  

  Okay, not Milty - this was Culver's frozen custard dripping in the humidity

• Old School Camp – campfires, smores, songs, OFF!, humidity, outdoor sports – just such joy in simplicity.
  

UMC Whitefish Bay – if you read this, thank you so much for sharing your life with me.  Hope you guys enjoyed me (or are recovering from me if that’s more appropriate!). It was truly wonderful.

And a quick shout-out to:

Alex , Connor , Colin, Andy, Keith, Daniel, Danny, Sam, Bettine, Mary, Kevvy, Mitch, Will, ‘Kenzie, Georgia, Maggie, Grace, Riley, Jessyka, Annie, Sarah, Marshall, Nathan, Amy, Lori, Judy, Paul, Mel, Chris, Kali, & Neil.

Love you all.

Untied Clodhoppers…

// June 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // EVERYDAY LIFE

Last week I got the rare opportunity to speak close to home.

A youth event put on by a youth ministry from Scottsdale was meeting in Imperial Beach, so it was quite luxurious getting to speak every evening and still sleep in my own bed.
I joined the group every day at lunchtime at various beaches around San Diego. If you know me, you know how I value relationships. I just don’t think that a speaker as any credibility if they come in town and they only time you see them is when they get on stage for their show. No offense to speakers who do that of course. I just don’t understand ministry any other way outside relationship. Most of the time when I’m out just hanging out and having conversation, God shows me specifically what He’s doing and the things that are on His heart to speak.

I think God is much more spontaneous than our shrink-wrapped churches would allow you to believe.
Sure, God was a planner – but His plan was only to enable relationship to form. Jesus often seemed off script. Like the time when He was part of a kind of parade and he walks out of line to find a sawed-off tax collector in a tree.

I love that about Him.
Weeks like this are fun for me. It’s a week of discovery. You learn about people, where they’re from, what sort of sense of humor is embraced in their neck of the woods. And by the end of the week you know people on a first-name basis. Nothing’s forced. You become friends with the people you speak to and share an experience.

Wednesday was one of those important bonding moments. The youth staff at this church always plays an annual beach football game against the students. Instantly I was transformed into an 18 year old guy with something to prove. Everything went fine, I shook off tackles, threw bodies to the sand and left not a shadow of a doubt of my Alpha dog masculinity.

However, there was this one point in the game when I noticed this huge kid – a kind of genetic freak – lining up parallel to me on each offensive down. At first I thought it was a coincidence until it happened like 4 times in a row. Eventually the collision would have to happen. At first it was an incredibly beautiful sight: I caught the ball on a short pass, shook off one tackle. Then two 170lb guys grabbed me but couldn’t manage to pull me down. In slow motion, the huge kid Parker made a huge dive at me that I adjusted my body about 30 degrees to miss, but unfortunately about 45% of his 250+ lbs still nailed me. At the same time that 3 guys had a hold of me, my body decided that it wasn’t 18 anymore – it was 34, and my foot rolled up like a cheap pepperoni on a Tony’s pizza.

I dismissed myself from the game while at the same time channeling my wife like who was chastising me for acting like a kid. That night at home, I could barely take my shoe off.

Fortunately I have an old pair of clodhopper Sketchers that are abnormally wide so they are my substitute for one of those moon boots.

Despite my casualty, I was able to finish the week. By that point I knew the majority of students by their first name. Some of them actually began their relationship with Jesus during our week together. My night ended with about 125 hugs in succession from students. It was sad to say goodbye, but I’m so grateful when people share their lives with me even for the short-term.

Next week is Milwaukee, Wisconsin and hopefully new relationships. I just hope that I don’t give a bad first impression with my clodhoppers.

Home: Ocean Beach

// June 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // EVERYDAY LIFE

Yesterday, I took a walk around the main drag of Ocean Beach.   Community is tangible.  The sights, smells, noises – I fall in love with it every day I’m out there.

I dragged my cheapie digital camera to take a few shots…