My 25 things...

You may have seen it...the Facebook "25 things about me" meme. Well, I did it. It was fun to put it together so I decided to post it here as well...

1. My wife is my most favorite person in the world and if I could hang out with anyone, anywhere, it would be her. I tell her that she is my island of calm in my ocean of chaos...and I mean it.
2. I came within a few seconds of drowning when I was 19 years old.
3. I never wanted to be a pastor...and at times I still question the wisdom of that decision.
4. I have four amazing daughters (15, 12, 10, and 8) that are each unique. I am proud to see who they are becoming and hope that I can be a father that God uses in their lives.
5 I am currently setting some sort of record for the longest Masters Degree (M.Div) in history. I am 16 years into it and am planning to complete it in the spring of 2010.
6. I play guitar and piano...but not as well or as much as I wish.
7. If my wife and I could work as travel writers - you know, visiting places all around the world and writing them up in travel books - we would start tomorrow.
8. In college I once filled up a friends entire shower with snow...all the way to the ceiling.
9. I have always liked basketball better than football, but I got cut from my high school basketball team when I was in Grade 10. I continued to play football due to the fact that it doesn't take as much skill to run into people.
10. I have a NAFTA marriage. I am American, my wife is Canadian, and we met in Mexico.
11. At times I dream of moving into an Amish Community...seriously.
12. I once climbed a 300 foot, 3 pitch rock climb when I was in college. There is a reason I only did it once.
13. I like to blog (www.jeffsjourney.blogspot.com) and would love to write a book one day but at this point consider myself too lazy to write that much and too young to have anything to say that hasn't already been said.
14. As a pastor, I generally like doing funerals more than doing weddings...
15. I think technology is changing us and is far more dangerous than we realize. Yet here I am on Facebook...go figure.
16. My favorite songwriter - bar none - is Matt Auten.
17. I sometimes write poetry. And sometimes I don't.
18. Some of my best memories are from long road trips (BC to Mexico, BC to Alabama) in a 1987 Chevrolet Van with my family. I would love to drive with them from Alaska/Yukon to the tip of South America in a 6-12 month period.
19. I think everyone should probably read everything that Eugene Peterson and Parker Palmer ever wrote.
20. I have a sneaking suspicion that my house owns me instead of me owning it.
21. I do not have the gift of working with children other than my own, unless it's to box them up in crates and send them back somewhere.
22. I am captivated by Jesus and excited about what He is doing in the world...even though much of the time I do not understand it.
23. I often contemplate selling everything and moving to Mexico or Guatemala and just doing whatever needs to be done.
24. I think church is really weird, and dysfunctional, and hurts people, and usually misses what's most important, and yet in some strange way is still vital in teaching us what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
25. I need a certain amount of silence in my life or I get really grumpy.