randalevan's blog

Trek Women Breast Cancer Awareness Ride

Two friends of mine and I did a 50-mile bike ride today to increase awareness of breast cancer, and, to honor a close friend of our's who died from it about two and a half years ago...

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and about 150 of us rode for 10, 25, or 50 miles.

"Trust Me" and the Pacific Grove Triathlon.

Given the fact I will enter into my fifth decade tomorrow, I decided I would get one more blog post in while I am still in my forties!

I wanted to write a quick post about an amazing experience I had two weeks ago today. As many of you know, I started doing triathlons in June, a small miracle in and of itself, given the fact I hadn't been able to run (*knee problems) for over ten years, not to mention the fact that I never swim. Anyway...

Immediately following my first "tri" in Morro Bay, I signed-up for my second in Pacific Grove...scheduled for September 10th. All my training was going as planned, and except for the occasional jitters and anxiety (*prayer works great...as does telling myself to relax!), I was good to go. Well, until early Friday morning...September the 9th.

My trip to Boston

I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Boston to connect with some old friends. My journey began with Don & Nancy - great people and wonderful pastors of the Vineyard Church in Kingston. The weather was great my first day in New England. We went out for lunch at the Blue Eyed Crab Grill and Raw Bar in Plymouth and we all ordered the same thing...a crab cake sandwich with some kind of sauce that included jalapeños:
On the way to the restaurant, I saw this great warning label above the storm drain...
I bet you have never seen one of these in California before!

"You can't do that."

 

When was the last time somebody told you, "You can't do that"? I have certainly heard it a time or two! I was reading the foreword of a book on Saturday morning and it got me thinking. It describes some of the obstacles the author had to overcome in order to get her book published. She received multiple letters of rejection from a variety of publishers. Here is one of the comments she received: "Lady Di could be cycling nude down the street giving this book away, nobody would read it."

In spite of all the opposition, she felt like the book had something to say, so she tried one more time...and the rest is history.

The book I am referring to is Feel the Fear...and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers and I have a copy of the 20th Anniversary Edition. The publisher who said "Yes, you can!" has sold over 2 million copies so far.

I guess all the other publishers were wrong...and they probably kicked themselves when they saw how successful the book has been!

Jeffers isn't alone. People are telling us all the time, "You can't do that." Let me share with you just a few examples.

snowy new england still holds a warm place in my heart

I left our Mountain View, CA home in the wee hours of a Thursday morning in January. It was the beginning of a typical, mid-winter day in the Golden State: lo's in the hi 40's, with a hi that would reach the mid 60's. Jacquie was bringing me to the San Francisco Airport, where I would hop on a flight for Hartford, CT.

I knew the weather would be slightly different (HA!) in New England. I even knew that a blizzard had just dumped two feet of snow. But somehow, temperatures in the 20's just felt colder than they used to when we lived in Framingham, MA...a town about 20 minutes west of Boston.

manhattan, spain, and boston.

 
Jacquie and I just got back from a fantastic trip to Manhattan, Spain, and the Boston area. It was both wonderful and very busy! We were traveling for about two and a half weeks (April 26^th thru May 13^th), visiting family, friends, and partners in ministry.  If you would like to hear a bit about our journey and see a few photos (*thanks to Jacquie and Greg!), here is a quick summary.

don't leave home without them

there was a great american express commercial years ago with the actor, karl malden. the catch phrase was "don't leave home without them", referring to the importance of traveling with american express traveler's checks. (*if you want to check one of these commercials out, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K4seWtxEeA&feature=related)

well, that is not what i am referring to in my blog! i am thinking about prayer, and if you are reading my blog because you care about jacquie and me, then i would like to ask you to pray for us and the team we are traveling to spain with next week. we don't want to leave home without knowing people are praying for us!

Breakfast with Friends

just uploaded some photos of a fun breakfast we had this morning with some neighbors and friends. check-out the album below, on the right-hand column!

jesus makes us bigger

a friend and fellow pastor, liz milner, recently completed an internship at a local jail and the experience stretched her faith a lot. as i read her personal evaluation, i felt encouraged to see people in a different way, to believe that jesus is present even when our world feels like it is falling apart, and to face my fears with more courage. i have copied her evaluation below.

a pastor's dilemma

A friend of mine and fellow pastor, Sean McMasters, made an interesting post on his blog recently that I would like to share with you.  Here's a brief quote.  (*If you would like to read more, click-on the link below.)

"Pastors are caught within a wonderful dynamic: On the one hand I need to be an example of what it means to be a successful follower of Christ; on the other hand I am not, & never will be totally successful. What makes this more interesting is the never-ending appeal of religion; Those who do good are--gooder & I am the gooderest of them all. Right? However, I'm not good.

What is the role of a pastor? To create the "That's it" image? I need to teach Saints & non-saints how to be: Broken, angry, forgive, sexually appropriate, depressed, frustrated, etc. However, do I teach them from the position of: "When I used to..." or "Last week when I..." Don't I have a pious image to uphold, since no one wants to follow a loser? Especially a pastor who wrestles with sin. No doubt there are limits to my involvement with any sin & it's ability to control me vs. my ability to yield to the Spirit. However, we can so easily create a theology of leadership, which says, "Follow me as I follow Christ" because, "I've arrived," vs. "I've been working on this for years, & I'm still walking."

To read more, please go to:

http://offthewahl.blogspot.com/2009/09/pastors-are-caught-within-wonderful.html