Home, Processing, And Tired

I’m sitting here thinking what to write about. I have absorbed so much information over the course of the last few days. So many good conversations. Great speakers and insights. For now, let me outline my week and travels and I’ll use that as a posting schedule over the next few days.

Monday

Well… after realizing that my plane left earlier than I thought, Keith rushed me to the airport and I flew the 5 hours to LA. Started to watch Holiday, read some more of Shaping of Things to Come (can’t believe I am not done with that yet), and watched Night at the Museum. The guy who was supposed to sit between me and the aisle seat never showed, so it was actually a decently comfortable flight.

LAX is huge. I got my luggage, got my rental car, and headed out into LA. As it turns out, LA is huge as well. I think there are more Freeways and Interstates in LA than in all of Florida. The Dodge Avenger was fun to drive and while the traffic was heavy and a little aggressive, it wasn’t too bad. If I wasn’t trying to read my map, drive, and take a few pictures at the same time, it would have been really easy. At least I wasn’t on the phone.

Pasadena (where the conference was) is beautiful. It backs up to a mountain which you can’t see because of the smog… I mean, Pacific mist. I got checked in and asked where I could get dinner. The guy recommended Quiznos, but I thought I’d wander a bit for something a little more unique. I drove around for a bit, saw some fantastic looking restaurants, struggled with where to park, and ended up going to Quiznos. Turns out I parked in the wrong lot, so I got back in my car and noticed Tommy’s Burgers across the street.

Wow… a unique Californian restaurant… I should check it out. Turns out everything on their menu comes with pickles, tomato, onion, mustard, and chili. And it was good.

Met my roomates, talked a bit, and went to bed early (early compared to LA time… it was actually quite late by Orlando time).

Tuesday

So Tuesday was the actual start of everything at Origins. Their worship band played (WOW), Erwin spoke. Erwin spoke again. We had a breakout session. Korean BBQ for lunch. And we learned about EARTH… "creativity is the natural result of Spirituality".

For dinner, I ate at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. Interesting combination of food, but very good.

That night, Mosaic put on a dramatic/creative event called Crave. Wow. These guys are way too talented.

Some more conversation, more sleep, and now its…

Wednesday

Today they talked about

• WIND - Mission is why the Church exists
• WOOD - Structure must always submit to spirit
• FIRE - Relevance to culture is not optional
• Water - Love is the context for all mission

After the sessions, I had some time to kill before I was supposed to meet Bryan (more on that in a sec, and a lot more on that later). Since I am in the market for a new video camera, I thought I’d ask some of their video guys what they’d recommend. Instead of a quick recommendation, I got some incredible in depth knowledge on the how’s and why’s of what to buy. I did get a good recommendation (2 in fact), but I now know more about what I’m going to be doing and how to do it.

After that, I headed to the next town over to meet Bryan for some sushi. This deserves a post all to itself, so hopefully I will do that later tonight or tomorrow, but for now, know that we talked until 3 in the morning and I didn’t sleep and went straight to the airport.

Thursday

Technically, it is already Thursday in this story, but for detail purposes… After I left Bryan, I went back, packed my bags, and headed to the airport. I ran into a genuine LA traffic Jam (at 4 in the morning). I managed to bypass that, and took I-10 all the way to the beach. Being unfamiliar with LA, but having heard stories of much crime, I decided it was not necessarily wise to get out of my car at 4 AM on some Random Beach. Maybe that beach is safe. Maybe not. I drove around for a little, got to the airport, returned my car, and consumed massive amounts of Starbucks.

I selpt for 20 minutes on the plane, had one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life, watched Lyrics and Melody. Got home, kissed my wife and family, and went to work.

Then I went to bed.

Friday

It’s Friday now. I’m tired. I’m still recovering and as you can see, I have a ton to process. God has been amazing this week. So much clarification, but also, so many new questions. New friends, new ideas, new books.

It is time to go to work again. This post will serve as an outline for me to post more information later, but for now, it will serve as a means for you to understand why I look a bit blurry and haven’t been responding promptly to emails or phone calls.

BTW… I should have put a few links in there, but time constraints and all. I might clean it up later, or else I will link where appropriate when I write the next few posts.

Tags: Origins, Mosaic, LA, life, Chris Marsden