I’ve been terrible about posting lately. Sorry. But there’s a few static pages that I want to get up in the near future. A page about my nerdy projects (MAME cabinet, MythTV box, etc). Improvements to the movies page. Also a page about pro audio.
Feel free to suggest content you’d like to see here.
A daily Drew drawing from Toothpaste for Dinner.
Awesome last two Wednesday nights at The Gathering 703. Looking forward to getting to know more of my Mason peeps.
Headed to Blacksburg for a few days tomorrow. Enjoyed the short trip this weekend and looking forward to a few more days at good ‘ol VT. And the concert can’t hurt either.
It’s been a very long time since I last blogged. A lot has happened during that time, including taking a much needed rest from blogging. As much as I like blogging, it can be taxing at times, and so my silence originally came from business, but later became a break as I was adjusting and settling in to the new neighborhood.
Soon (I promise sooner than the last post!), I will write more about the time in the blog silence. However, today I want to share briefly about tonight. A little bit of background: I’ve moved since I last blogged. Up here, we’ve been in a drought. I’ve had to start watering my trees to keep them alive.
Tonight, I went to Frontline. Ken Baugh was in town and shared a message with us that deeply impacted me. Ken taught about prayer. Many of you at Virginia Tech would think that I am a prayer warrior. But the truth is that prayer comes hard for me more often than not. I can pray before meals and before bed, but those times of intimate, heartfelt prayer are things that I have to go at least an extra mile to make happen. I’ve seen God move mountains through prayer and I don’t have a shadow of a doubt in my mind that God answers every prayer that is in line with his heart for the world. I understand that prayer is important, but I am lazy and unmotivated. Tonight, Ken told us that there are three areas to praying powerfully and effectively. If any of these areas are lacking, we will struggle in our prayers.
I was convicted of not putting God in the right place. As I’ve been in transition, I’ve had a lot more time on my hands than I have had in years. I’m also at an awkward time right now where most of the stuff that I’ve previously been involved with is over and the next chapter of my life hasn’t fully materialized yet. With so much in the air and so little on my plate, I have absolutely no excuse for not putting God in the right place. There never is a good excuse, but when I have only one weekly weeknight commitment, I should have an amazing prayer life instead of a desert prayer life.
As I was debating getting ready for bed this evening, I realized that I needed to do something. It’s not enough to feel convicted if that conviction doesn’t lead you to action. So I decided that I would take some time and pray. I realized that I wasn’t in the right state of mind to pray in the house, so I put on some shoes and started walking.
I prayed as I walked around the neighborhood. As I walked, I remembered prayer walking on the Virginia Tech campus. I remembered walking by the dorms on Otey Street. I remembered walking from McBryde to Burruss, praying for all the students and faculty in each building along the way. As I walked, it started sprinkling, which shortly turned into a full out rain. I thought about turning back, but knew that the plants needed the rain, just like I needed to be out here praying.
I walked around the neighborhood, lifting up the apartments and houses in prayer, repenting for not giving God the role he deserves in my life, praying for people I work with, praying for friends. That’s when I realized that I had a spiritual impact in Blacksburg because I was persistent in prayer. If I want to have a spiritual impact in Vienna and Washington, I need to pray. If I want to see God move in my own neighborhood, I need to invite him to use me here. That rain felt good. A soaking, cleansing rain. Rain that washes away the dry past and marks the start of a green future. I believe that God has big things in store for my generation, and I don’t want this generation to miss some God’s blessing because I wouldn’t do my small part in bringing it to them.
God, send your rain. I don’t want to just know you. I want to make you known, like your son Jesus made you known to us. Change me every day so that I can be the man you want me to be. Have it your way God. Break me out of my comfort zone and give me the strength to put you in the right place, even when it costs me.
I want to draw your attention to a page we put up on the vtONE site sharing some of the prayers and stories that are flowing in from around the world. Feel free to check out the page and the announcement post on the vtONE site.
It’s been the kind of day that you wouldn’t wish on anyone here at Virginia Tech. Our campus has been shaken, but God is still our king.
As people are coping with the loss of so many members of our community, we want to take every chance that we have to lift our campus up in prayer. There’s a few specific things that we can pray for:
Gatherings related to the tragedy in Blacksburg:
Outside Blacksburg:
We appreciate your prayers as our campus struggles to resume life. Please post a comment if you’re aware of any other goings on that would be of interest to the Christian body at VT ro cool ways of how God has worked through this bad situation.
Today has been one of those days. It hasn’t even been a bad day, but it’s just kicked my butt several times over. I can’t even explain it, but the rollercoaster that I thought was over returned today.
Up down up down up down.
It’s days like this where I know where I need to be (and it’s the hardest to get there): on my knees. I can’t make the world right, but the God of the universe has things under control. I like how The Message puts the Lord’s prayer:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
You know what? This chapter of my life is over in four weeks. The next chapter begins shortly after that, and I don’t know what it brings, but it’s going to be all right. Today I declare that I’m not going to listen to Satan’s lies and admit defeat. My God is mighty to save. He makes mountains go swimming, and all kinds of things that are beyond my wildest dreams. Living life with God is an adventure. It is absolutely unsafe. But God is good, and he will supply all my needs according to his riches and glory through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19 paraphrase).
It’s been one heck of a month for me. I’m in that bittersweet stage where I’m both very glad that my education is almost over while at the same time not wanting to be done.
The week leading up to vtONE was a rollercoaster all by itself. There was so much still to be done going into that week, and we had no idea how to get it all done. God delivered, but was teaching us patience in the process. Saturday night was powerful beyond words. The Holy Spirit was all over Commonwealth Ballroom, and I’m praying that the fire from that night will never be extinguished. The fire has already been contagious–our anointed band has been invited to play at New River Community College because of the fire of God they saw at Virginia Tech this weekend.
God has been faithful in helping me to be productive and get all my work done. Work didn’t bother me at all during the vtONE lead up week. Now, I have all but one of this week’s assignments done. I didn’t expect to be done so fast, and I know that my productivity was a gift from God for some specific reasons. Last night, Tim’s father passed away unexpectedly, and I have been able to dedicate time that I didn’t expect to have (was expecting to be doing classwork) to being there for Tim.
Another way that God was with me during vtONE was by not letting my allergies get into the way. I didn’t have any significant allergy trouble before the worship event, even though the pollen levels were high. This week, I’ve had trouble sleeping, my head feels weird, and I sound like a cow in pain when I attempt to sing. I’m used to being like this in allergy season, so it was a huge relief to get through the vtONE event without feeling anything.
The original house I made an offer on fell through, but I have some more leads on potential houses and house-related stuff. I was feeling somewhat uncertain about moving forward this weekend, but my wise counsel seems to all be in agreement that it’s a good thing for me to do. My hesitation all revolves around on the fact that I’m really not sure where God wants me to be and what I should be doing. I’ve loved almost every minute of my time leading vtONE, whether things were going good or bad, and I don’t want my graduation to mark the end of my ministry. I’m praying about what comes next in my ministry life, but have been getting more questions than answers. And that’s why I’m thankful that I have a great job lined up, since not knowing what to do and being broke would be a bad combination.
I will bless the Lord who guides me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
I know the Lord is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
My body rests in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.
You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever.Psalm 18:7-11
It’s been a crazy month for me. I’ve accepted a full time position with Digital Sandbox as a project engineer. I helped the company move to McLean, VA. I’m looking for a house (I’m most interested in one in Reston), and am currently applying for loans.
We’re also 10 days out from vtONE (updates will be on vt-one.com). I’m very excited about this event. As a leadership team, we’ve risked a lot with this event. We’re stretching ourselves beyond what we can do, and believing that God will deliver. After all, if we could change Virginia Tech through our own human effort, why bother with God? We want this event to be completely about what God is doing, and not at all about us. We’re praying that this night (March 31) would rock peoples world for the glory of God. With 10+% of the campus active Christians, it should look different. And we’re believing that God wants to start making the change with us. I would covet your prayers for this upcoming event.
Once we get past these next two weeks, I’m hoping to return to a more normal blogging schedule. I’ve been stretched thin in the areas that tend to make me want to blog, and so this blog has been short changed.
After the hard drive died in May, the MythBox has been in a constant state of disarray. First, I couldn’t get a reasonably current Linux distribution to install (for a variety of reasons, different for each distro I tried). Then, I finally got MythDora 3.2 installed correctly and I had no sound. Turns out the audio chip in my TV tuner card has been depreciated. No luck trying to get it back.
I decided that the no audio problem meant it was time to break down and buy a new TV tuner. My old STB TV tuner has been with me since early 1999 and was ready for retirement. I purchased a Hauppauge PVR-150 hardware MPEG2 encoding TV tuner from NewEgg.com for under $60 shipped. The PVR-150 is identical to the very popular PVR-250, except that many components that were separate chips on the 250 have been integrated together on the 150. Functionally, they’re identical.
Now Myth is back up and happily recording. Now if we only got more TV channels . . .
I would like to add a DVD+RW to the machine still, but that can wait for a super sale. I want to try out MythArchive.