New Year's Resolution, February Edition

So last month, I wrote that I had made a few New Year's Resolutions, one of which was to, basically, start doing the things that people who have a life do.  To stop putting my life on hold, just because it's not the life I thought I would have. 

Alison recently wrote a post wherein she stated that "life doesn't come with odometers."  It wasn't really about this topic, but it was a great turn of phrase, and in my mind, brought with it a very interesting perspective.  An odometer does several things - it tells us how far we've traveled how much longer until we get where we're going, and it tracks certain expected maintenance tasks - refueling, changing the oil, replacing the timing belt and tires, etc...

I was thinking about how this applies to life: I think that we (ok, well, me anyway) tend to view birthdays as miles on an odometer, with all the attendant expectations.  College.  At 18.  Graduate school at 22. Good job at 25.  Married at 26.  Kid at 28.  Second kid at 30.  And while some of that is perhaps changing a bit, as average age of first marriage goes up, I think that general narrative still exists in many of our minds.  I think I sometimes view life as, "Hey, I forgot to fuel up at 25.  I'm getting on toward 30, and not seeing anywhere to get a new timing belt.  Etc..." But it occured to me today, as Alison said, that "life has no odometer." 

Life is just life.  And even though everybody tells you that you need to change the oil every 3000 miles, the reality is that if you use Mobil One, you can wait 7500 miles.  And I always use Mobil One.  :-)

So cheers to that! And on to the February edition of my New Year's Resolution...

There's kind of two parts to this.  I had originally planned to go to a concert last Thursday night by myself.  It was in a city about an hour or so north of where I was planning to be Thursday afternoon, and it was like six bands for ten dollars.  Sweet, right? 

Then, on Thursday morning, a friend texted me and we agreed to meet for coffee.  After chatting a bit, it turned out that her mom was going to the same concert.  Only, she had paid for the "VIP Tickets" that get you super good seats.  She'd bought an extra ticket, hoping to find someone to use it.  Since my friend didn't want to go, she convinced her mom to offer me the ticket.  So I ended up going to this crazy awesome concert, sitting in the second row. 

I feel like I'm becoming kind of a MercyMe groupie.  I've now seen them in concert 3 times.  I'm not even that big of a fan, but...having now seen them three times, I love the humility, especially Bart's.  He just seems like a totally normal guy who loves Jesus and loves singing. You feel like you're his best friend, or the only person in the room.  Not in a slick-politician kind of way, but in a really good way. 

I am, however, a huge fan of Matt Maher.  He has such a smooth voice, and great lyrics that are absolutely drenched in Scripture.  I'd never seen him in concert before, and absolutely loved it.  Sign.  Me.  Up.

Way to take the Magnificat, jazz it up a bit, and keep it totally focused on Jesus.  Love, love, love it!  

This one will get you signing out loud and dancing in the pews on Easter morning!


Aah, simply marvelous!

The second part of my "having a life" in February was a lecture by Charles Chaput, the Catholic Archbishop from Denver.  I've read some of his writing and absolutely love what he has to say, (especially here, if you get twitch, just subsititute "Christian" for "Catholic,") so I was excited to find that he was going to be in town (well, the closet "big town"), delivering remarks on "Building a Culture of Life."  I actually had plans to go with a friend, who ended up having to cancel at the last minute.  But she knew some other people who were planning on going, so she sort of pawned me off on them, and surprise, surprise, I made four new friends!    (See how getting out and about pays off?!)

So, my plan to "get a life" proceeds apace - yay!  Wonder what I'll come up with March?  Any suggestions?