It was my 21st b day today  :)

It was awesome. It was it was. Wow. I am 21 in the year 2008. I wonder how many other people are 21 this year... and I wonder how it differs from when people turned 21 in 1981 or 1920 or 1330. I'm a 21 year old right now! Im at the prime of my life in the technological era... the computer age... i dont really know the proper names for it. Some day when i am my parents' age i will be able to look back and remember all the decades i lived through... i already can count the 90s... and ive just gotten past that weird feeling. Pretty soon I'll add the.... 00's to my belt and so forth. And each decade will have its own charm and quirks that we'll laugh about when we look back at pictures of how we dressed and stuff. Its weird... right now I can't imagine how i could look back at myself in 20 years and just laugh at what i am wearing right now... but it seems inevitable. I mean... the way people dressed in every single era before us looks weird now... 90s included, and that was only 7 or so years ago. 

Anywho... it feels good to be 21! I feel like it is so well timed. I feel like I can just embrace it and feel comfortable about it. It's a feeling I don't know if I've had before at birthday time. It's as though being 21 came not a day too early and not a day too late. I wonder if I will be able to grow up and through the years not regret turning the age I am turning but instead consistently welcome the next year and all it brings. So that I won't be so terribly surprised when I turn 40 or 50 but instead will be in tune with what it means to be that age and to enjoy it as it comes. That's what I hope to do.

Sometimes I think I'm such a proudful little prick. haha. Whoops. Proudful little boy?? And I am so so blessed to have the people that I have in my life. On a day like today I am reminded of them and they humble me with such love... whether I deserve it or not.

I feel like some of my architecture school is peeking through when i say this.... but i want to ask... what does it MEAN to be 21?? And what does it mean to be 21 in the year 2008 in the country im living in, at the school im going to, on the block i live, with the upbringing  i have, with the skills and gifts ive been given, with the people that have been put around me. You know... 21 year olds have only been around for... what, 5000 years? That's not that long. Who is to say that my existence as a 21 year old is going to be that far removed from the life lived by other really awesome, effective, powerful 21 year olds? We're all the same. The Earth that God created in the beginning isn't THAT different for us today as it was for David and Joshua and Moses and Jesus and Alexander the Great and... whomever.

I am so bright-eyed and optimistic and... naive?? Don't say that! Im sure im yet to be hardened and toughened up by a lot of real world trials and experiences... i know... im a pretty spoiled boy and i grew up having it really easy... but i think that hope and expectation and idealistic goals is nothing to ever shy away from or to ever cast down by calling naive.

This is going to be AWESOME!

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!

Happy Father's Day everyone.

Hooo i was out at the Keg this afternoon with my Dad and brother... and we just stuffed ourselves silly. Crazy North America. Probably only here that you can sit down and have: calamari, beer, steak, shrimp all in one "normal" meal. Yikes. I'm like sweating just sitting here as my body tries to digest it all! It's funny... my friend said yesterday... "gluttony is like the most ignored and overlooked sin in our culture". So true! So much recreational eating!

So let me tell you about the fiddle show that my band Kinetic North put on a few weeks ago.

It was incredible!!! Thank you so much to whoever supported the show, the CD making process in prayer! It was successful in every way, and I really felt God's help and blessing with the show like I have never before felt with a fiddle concert. The CDs arrived from Edmonton the morning of the concert! We reallyyyy cut it close... and just the fact that the disc sounds as good as it does without any big errors is quite a miracle too. We sold 80 discs at the show alone which was huge and paid off the expense of making the CD just like that! And we made around $3000 for the charity!!! About 1700 from ticket sales... and one guy alone donated 1000 bucks the night of hte concert... other people made extra donations that night too. And also... you know, the sound gear worked really good, everything happened on time, and everyone who attended had such a good time. There were a few songs were I felt like I was in heaven. There was a nice big area right in front of the stage where people could dance and at one point in time I think there were about 40 people dancing! It was so glorious and joyful. I almost cried on stage.

So praise and thanks to God for helping and blessing this ambition of my band and mine's.

And NOW.... well life is quite a bit slower and "lazier" which is awesome. I am really just enjoying and soaking in some summer months that i can afford to just take off and let happen. So i keep the tennis going once and a while and have random fiddle gigs to play... and get some good books read.

Hmm... I am reading this book about courtship. It is like, "dating vs. courtship". The title of the book is actually called, "Of Knights and Fair Maidens". And I just finished reading "End of the Spear" which was sooo good. This incredible true missionary story.

Im doing grrrreat!

Wahoooo. The Xanga updates are rolling in all over the place these days!

Even John, who I thought had gone the way of the Dodo bird (!!! got that one from my Australian professor Max Foran... PI), has surfaced. Praise the Lord.

So life is something wickedly amazing.... as long as you keep God priority and daily choose to keep close ties with Him. I sort of feel like life is a video game (probably not the attitude I should have). Real life is in the heavenlies where my real self lives, and I am thrown into this kind of complicated game with all sorts of challenges just for a short amount of time. Must make the most of it. Must fight for the good cause.

Anyway... I am constantly a little scared that I may be turning against that huge prophetic word I got from Ken Helser back at the DTS... "Martin, God wants you to make sure you always remain a child." I am scared because it seems the inevitable gravitational pull of maturing and adultnesssss comes upon me as I have to take on more responsibilities and be more "important". You know, in my daily banter and such little things I feel some childness dwindelling. It is awkward because a lot of it I feel like I really SHOULD change.... like I am otherwise really patronizing the people I am talking to and not really listening to them. I am learning to listen to people better in conversation... to engage better and to be more real... to really get closer to people and have a chance at some more meaningful relationships. And it feels like in the process of this maturation I lose the childlikeness!! Probably not true. I am thinking I am deceived to think I am losing it... what I am really losing is probably just my pride and selfishness and stubborness masked as God-honoring childlike false humility!

Because I think I really am still a child.... I just pray that I am not losing it like Ken Helser warned me not to. I just pray that in my great busy-ness of activities and running around like a chicken with my head cut off... that I am not forgetting waht is most important.

I am planning a really really really really exciting concert for the beginning of June!!!!!! Seriously, I haven't gotten so giddy over the thought of something for such a long time... and I praise God that He has given me the inspiration and opportunity to put on this concert. I just pray that I am doing His will and not trying to create my own opportunities.

My fiddle band Kinetic North is putting on a concert at the university theatre here (seats about 500 people) and it is going to be a CD release party hopefully... if we can get the CD done. Ack it is kind of crazy trying to record a full length CD in a month and write 4 final exams. But the best part of the concert that sets it apart in my heart as something far more valuable and worthwhile than a lot of the concerts I have played before.... is that we are going to make it a charity event too. My church is currently really involved in these "compassion in action" projects that are taking initiative to raise money for several organizations in areas stricken with poverty and AIDS. So we decided to contribute 50% of the ticket sales and to also have some donation bins set up in the lobby after the concert.

Can you friends please help to pray for this concert... first of all that it would be blessed by God and pleasant in His sight without selfish, prideful motivations or taintings. Can you please pray that it is successful for His purposes and that we raise as much money as He sees best. And please could you pray that everyone in my band (Mark, Krista, Sean, Aleks, Theresa) and everyone in the opening band (Chey, Bret, Stu) have unified hearts that are focused on the right thing this concert. And also please pray taht we sell tickets and that we have everythign organized in time.... with both the concert show and the CD we are making. That would be amazing.

So that is hugely on my heart and also there is final exams.... and also within the next month I will go into the disability resource centre here on campus and have some assessments done for Asperger's Syndrome... just to see and maybe get some tips on how to better treat my parents and others socially.

Thank you guys.