Archive for March, 2009

Mar

2009

Randomography // Tattoo Update…

I went in yesterday and got tattooed for a little over 3 hours. For now, my right arm sleeve is complete. We’ve agreed that I’ll come in at a future date to touch some areas up and whatnot…but for now…it’s done! I’ve got over 25 hours of tattoo work put into this arm. Normally, it might not take this long to complete a sleeve, but anyone who has ever tattooed me always has the same thing to say…

YOU’RE ARMS ARE LIKE LEATHER!!

I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, but here are some shots from yesterday. I took my housemate Ryan…gee golly I hate having someone live with we who has the same first name…to shoot some photos.

Oh yeah…and I also added in a section of recent podcasts from my latest teachings at Vineyard Westside. It’s located below Ava’s photo in the right side-bar. Feel free to take a listen.

Posted in Photography, Vineyard Westside | 17 Comments »

Mar

2009

Defense Mechanisms and Deflection…

I’d like to start this blog post with a quote from the movie FIGHT CLUB:

Narrator: Tyler, you are by far the most interesting single-serving friend I’ve ever met… see I have this thing: everything on a plane is single-serving…
Tyler Durden: Oh I get it, it’s very clever.
Narrator: Thank you.
Tyler Durden: How’s that working out for you?
Narrator: What?
Tyler Durden: Being clever.
Narrator: Great.
Tyler Durden: Keep it up then…right up.

Okay…back to the blog post.

I consider myself a witty bloke. It’s fun to fire off something clever and you find yourself doing it more and more around good friends. Something I’ve noticed over the years, however, is that I have a major tendency to use “being clever” as a defense mechanism.

Last week did something in our men’s group that was difficult, but it was life-giving. Each Monday we meet together to have dinner, do some sort of study…either from the bible or something that’s on our hearts, or we just hang out for a while. This week we took time to pick each person out, one by one, to speak affirming words to them.

Each man in the group had his turn to just sit there quietly as the other men said the good things they saw in him. We made sure to not allow things like, “nice shirt” or other lamewad comments.

This was a chance for us to speak out on those things we’ve noticed about each other. Things like:

* I’ve noticed that you’re a really good listener and it always makes me feel like you value what I have to say.

* You seem like such a hard worker. You’re always taking on some new project and you’re not afraid to just jump right into a situation.

* I remember when I first moved here and you were just so welcoming to me…I felt like I had a great friend right away.

The person on the receiving end of these comments was just supposed to sit there and receive. But geez was it terrible! I found myself wanting to deflect everything that was being said! I wanted to say something witty or “knock myself down” after each compliment. It was so uncomfortable.

And it wasn’t just uncomfortable for me…most of the guys were freaking out! Some of them had a hard time receiving words of affirmation while others struggled to say them. It was clear that we were hitting on some serious issues. What I noticed right away is that we have a serious struggle when it comes to receiving things. We want to earn everything on our own and we don’t want to take help from people.

It’s difficult to work past things like this, but I think one of the first steps is realizing the defense mechanisms we have in place. For instance, my deflection tool of choice is being funny or witty whenever someone tries to give me a compliment.

Some people just downright deny that they are anything good at all or they shy away from situations where they might be praised. Have you ever done this? Deflected?

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

For those of you who shared your thoughts on prayer from a post last week, I’d like to say thank you. I taught 3 services at Vineyard Westside this past weekend and you can feel free to listen to the podcast if you’re interested in what came out of that post:

http://vineyardwestside.com/2009/03/podcast-jesus-reset-prayer-ryan-detzel/

I would also like to say thank you to everyone who has stepped up to support my mission trip to Honduras. I cannot believe this, but I have pretty much met my goal for the trip! It’s humbling when your friends and family reach out and support you financially and for some reason I am even more humbled by “virtual strangers” who have said yes to the call God has given me. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

God is teaching me a ton about being able to receive and accept the goodness He has for me.

In what areas do you struggle to receive? What are some of the defense mechanisms you employ…are you a deflector?

Posted in Honduras!, Vineyard Westside | 30 Comments »

Mar

2009

Such a great night…

Allison and I had an awesome night for our anniversary. Maybe it’s because we’ve done so little in the past for our anniversary or maybe it’s because we’ve not really been alone very much since the arrival of our ~~attention-stealing offspring~~ sweet little bundle of joy.

Our typical anniversary revolves around…well…you know. Eating dinner. Oh…and doing it. Very much of both in fact. And there’s really nothing wrong with an anniversary like that…we enjoy both of those activities. Very much in fact.

But we wanted to do something really fun this time around. So with a little bit of planning we were able to cook up some ideas for a really fun night.

5pm – Reservations for The Celestial Steakhouse in Mt. Adams.

The view of the city was amazing. The food was incredible. The price was…expensive. But, we had never been and it’s definitely somewhere I would recommend.

Allison’s meal: Pear and Gorgonzola w/ Mixed Greens Salad, Baked Potato, and Filet Mignon w/ Mushroom Bordelaise

My choice: Pan-Seared Sea Scallops, Herb Risotto, Filet Mignon w/ Melted Gorgonzola + Pinot Noir

Perfect.

6:30pm – We headed over to the Playhouse in the Park to see The Foreigner.

If you’re in the Cincinnati area…you should go see this play. We had
friends with a pass
that made our tickets half-price…if you can do that…even better. Honestly though, I would pay full-price for this. It was hilarious.

10pm – Arrival at our hotel room downtown. We stayed at The Westin and I’ve got pictures to prove it.

Here’s a shot from our room at night: