telling the Great Story, loving my wife, loving our cats, growing vegetables and herbs (no, not those herbs), playing guitar, being a book-slut (I read around, I'm always enjoying different books), seminary, Young Life, high school students, being one of the few, the proud: the 27 year old married guys on myspace, drinking coffee, i love the Oregon Ducks and Seattle Mariners and Sonics and Seahawks, doing my small part to help the Christian faith proclaim God's Good News in our post-modern/post-Christian culture...(by the way, a post-modern context does not have to be anti-thetical to Christian faith & practice - it can actually help refine our perspective on this Great Story that is told in every culture, time, and place)
You can tell how hip I am when no one on my list is still living (at least, in the way we are used to), no American Idols or sports heroes here: Martin Luther (would he recognize today's Lutherans?), C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien (thank you for blessing my imagination), GK Chesterton (the funniest), Henri Nouwen (the honest-iest, ?) my Dad (miss you), and the obligatory Jesus Christ shout-out (but, it's true...and besides, I've already met him...not face to face, more like an invisible hot line or something, telling me this is NotJustTomsSpace.com)
ben harper, derek webb, jimi hendrix, christopher williams, jars of clay, nickelcreek, justin mcroberts, led zeppelin, eric clapton, tom petty, DMB, jack johnson, john mayer, SRV, switchfoot, etc, if these people weren't so talented I might still have the confidence to write my own stuff - most of what I write sounds like an acoustic american idol audition...
good will hunting, magnolia, heat, matrix, traffic, office space, braveheart, glory, field of dreams, LOTR, whalerider...basically movies that tug at my heart, make me remember that we are meant to live for so much more, that pain and loss is a reminder - though deep and harsh - that we were created for so much joy than we can find in this world...(you can tell I'm going to be a pastor when I can't list fav movies without getting preachy, I'm sorry...no I'm not)
No Cable, so it's basically "The Office" or Seinfeld & ER dvds...
...the Bible (the Great Story book, story conveying truth and born in wrestling), anything by Gerhard Forde, CS Lewis, Brian McClaren, GK Chesterton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Charles Spurgeon, Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Tony Jones, Dallas Willard, NT Wright, Donald Miller, Kenda Dean, and many others... ...special favorites include "hurt" by chap clark, "great divorce" and "narnia" CS Lewis, "A new kind of Christian" trilogy by McClaren, "Orthodoxy" by Chesterton, "divine conspiracy" by willard, "in the name of jesus" nouwen, "blue like jazz" miller, "postmodern youth ministry" by tony jones, "life together" bonhoeffer, so many more.... ...I love to read Fantasy books too: Harry Potter, LOTR, Narnia, Space Trilogy (CSL), Wheel of Time, Song of Ice and Fire... ...some recent reads I love: "Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry" by Andrew Root; "Where God Meets Man" by Gerhard Forde; "Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker; "Bondage of the Will" by Martin Luther ...if you don't read, don't ask questions, and don't learn, you only grow to become the type of person the World, Wal-Mart and Dominant Culture wants you to become...
Jesus (surprised?), my Dad (we get along better in my memories, don't we?), Teenagers (you face more than kids ever have, keep your head up but don't get spoiled!)