Spiritual Retreat

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I'm off with my amazing pastor friends to a spiritual retreat at the Hilltop Renewal Center near Big Bear, CA. It's always crazy trying to get away with moving and all, but it's so good at the same time.

I'm looking forward to praying, resting, talking, playing in the snow. Where I'm going there will be a lot of snow, so this is a good test for me.

Have a great day,

Into the future,

davidT

I Bought a Weapon Today

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I thought it would never happen but it happened yesterday. I bought our 4 year old his first pirate sword, patch, flag and telescope combo.

That happened way sooner than I expected and in fact I told myself I would never buy our son a weapon. Funny.

I actually wish I had bought one for myself!

Have a great day,

Into the future,

davidT

Pretty Worn Out

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Crown molding is not easy, it takes a looooong time. Have you done crown molding? No? Then, you don't understand. Have you done crown molding? Ok, you get it. It takes a loooong time and I'm tired.

I actually enjoy doing it, the angles, the cutting, the nailing, the look is nice. But I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

What is crown molding? See image.

Have a great day,

Into the future,

davidT

It's a Beautiful Day, Yet Real

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Today has been a very beautiful day for me. I feel happy inside. What's causing such bliss?

1. Listening to "You Are Holy" by Nordemann (my wife's cd)
2. My wife loves to worship to this CD during the day which makes me tear up thinking how lucky I am to be married to a woman who worships
3. My wife and I are painting the ceilings together and it's going well (living room done). More today (kitchen, bedroom)
4. Children are happy. Yesterday they were playing "horsey" around the house which means little David (4) is in the front as the horse, poor kid, Isabela (6) is in the middle with a scarf around David's neck, and Canela (8) is in the back grabbing on to Isabela's hood. It's so fun to see them go.
5. Finalizing details on our next steps. Asking God for wisdom.
6. Writing songs, lyrics, writing on the piano, very creative time for me right now.

It's a good day. A day of work and tears, laughter and trusting God for tomorrow. Sometimes I can find God really easy in the dark nights, but I think I need to find God in the Sabbath rest as well, in the "great is thy faithfulness" days as well as in the "Lord, where are you" days. I've had both recently and both are great, in fact I think that although much more challenging, the nearness and kindness of Jesus in the dark nights is much sweeter.

UPDATE: My friend Susie's husband Larry fell off a ladder sometime this week and cracked his skull open and has internal bleeding. He's at UCI Medical center right now and they may have to go in and do surgery. Susie sang with me for 10 years at Bethany and is a dear friend.

God is faithful.

Have a great day,

Into the future,

davidT

Compulsive Cleaner

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Here's what I want for my birthday (April), rings and cleaning gear.

I like to clean, bit compulsive about it. For example, while my wife is cutting carrots, chopping up broccoli or shredding lettuce, again WHILE she's doing this, I'm by her feet, picking up leftovers with my dustpan off the floor. Yeap, pretty compulsive! It's my gift.

The ring is to celebrate our new marriage, our 12th year anniversary. I recently read that every great marriage has a combination of old and new marriages. Both R' and I feel 2007 was the beginning of a new marriage for us, we've made many positive changes in how we do things. I bought her a beautiful modest diamond ring yesterday and this is the ring she will buy me, Titanium, wide (10mm) band, swirls and a small diamond.

Have a great day,

Into the future,

davidT

How Many Things to Update?

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How many things can a person update in one life time?

Myspace.com
Blogger.com
Facebook.com

This is getting ridiculous.

Although I must say I like Facebook | David Trigueros a lot right now. We'll see how long that lasts.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

How to Respond to Challenges

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God shapes me during times of illness. I guess he does that in all of our lives. Think of Job during his on going losses, think of Martha during her brother’s death, of Peter’s mother in law, and the little girl’s parents to whom Jesus said, “she is but only sleeping.” That was tough to hear.

I don’t like it when my wife is sick, or our children are sick or anyone I love is sick, it scares me. Yet I know this is one of those two or three things in my life that God uses to grow me into His child.

The others are:
1. Illness
2. Things I don't know how to do
3. Unresolved situations

All these things cause anxiety in me, stress and a feeling of overall lack of control. I don’t like to not know how to do something, or feeling unloved or feeling like I’m not good enough. I don’t like having to compensate for this attitude by being more than I am. It leads to burn out and resentment even bitterness which leaves me vulnerable to making stupid decisions.

How I respond:
1. So I pray and I keep working at it, and I trust God and I get nervous and
2. I write about it and I pray again.
3. And I work, and engage life and do what I can to keep going and
4. I take breaks and play music and sing to God.

When life throws me into those moments of weakness, I usually retreat and run, that’s how I cope. But instead, I am learning to be the hero my wife needs me to be, the knight in shining armor, her rescuer and helper.

So today, instead of sleeping all day while she’s not feeling well, I will engage, help her out, and do some work. This is what’s best for me and for her.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

A Recession That is Coming

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Is there a recession coming?

Mortgage Problem
Unemployment at 5%, highest in last two years
$100/barrel last week

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

Driscoll, McManus...Comparison

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Podcasts I'm enjoying:
1. Erwin McManus, pastor of Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, CA (listening to his December 2007 Christmas series)
2. Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle, WA (listening to his message from the "Creative ChurchConference, May 2007")

Erwin - Passionate, creative, relational, challenges Christians not to be judgmental, preaches acceptance, can come across as wishy-washy, not enough of a fundamentalist, traditionalist.

Driscoll - Quotes Luther, harsh, bold, passionate, fundamentalist, preaches against moralism as a substitute to the Gospel, can come across as ego centric and critical, but in love with Jesus and the Gospel, not religion or moralism.

What I learned from both of them:
1. Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, his message of grace and mercy
2. Christians often get in the way of this simple message
3. Love for those not yet followers of Jesus

Great examples.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

What I'm Listening To

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Enjoying these days:

1. Over the Rhine, "All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue" from "Snow Angels", "Later Days" from "Good Dog Bad Dog". Amazing vocals, great songwriting, so moody, I love it!
2. The Frey, "Vienna", "Heaven Forbid" from "How to Save a Life"

About Over the Rhine:

"Look no further than the lyrics to this track for what animates Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, the married couple at the heart of Over The Rhine: “I hope this night puts down deep roots / I hope we plant a seed / ‘Cause I don’t wanna waste your time / With music you don’t need.”

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

Looking Back and Ahead

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It's the night before 2008 and all through the house
The little ones are sleeping and my wife and I are watching Hannah Montana on TV at Times Square.
Next year I'm doing a rave: blue hair, blue drink, strobing lights. Can you imagine it?


So what did 2007 bring?

1. Doing Things Together With My Wife. Rachelle and I stopped doing things on our own, which brought a lot of disconnect between us, and we learned to do things together - mow the lawn together, go to IKEA together, drop off the children together, make dinner together, do the dishes together, etc. etc. This has brought a new level of intimacy, honesty and oneness to our marriage. It's probably the biggest change in my life ever. It is because of this that #2 could happen.

2. We left our church Bethany. After 15 years on staff at Bethany (21 attending for my wife) God called us to leave and trust Him for the future. We feel excited and nervous but as Abraham (Genesis 12), we believe God asked us to leave and follow Him in faith. We feel He has promised to guide us and lead us into something amazing. Our desire is to change the world for Jesus.

3. No one in my family died, was in the hospital, or got crazy sick, which is a first in the last 5 years.

4. Great Shape. Even through quitting and learning a lot about myself, I continue to work out 5-6x/week, lifting weights, running, abs, and eating healthy (5 years).

5. I am not Special. I am Special. I saw myself at my worst this year, in self, and at my best, in Christ. I used to think I was something special on my own. That is false, I am hopelessly lost. I used to think I was not very special, but I am. In Christ I am uniquely made and a gift to Him and this world by His grace and power.

6. Made some headway in my issues with Anxiety. I have dealt with anxiety my whole adult life, but this year, I began to pray that God would heal me of it. He hasn't totally, and maybe He never will, but I do feel more in tune with the cure to anxiety - realizing I can't control my life and realizing that I can't figure things out without God's help.

That was a full year.

My goals for 2008:

1. Write. I love to write and I think I'm pretty good at it. I need to write a book, I have no idea what it will be about, but I have tons of material. I want it published by NavPress or someone like that. My goal is to eventually write 10-12 books.

2. Work with Mike Silva in Nicaragua/Latin America. Mike is an evangelist and friend of the family. When Mike preaches, people come to Jesus. He has invited me to lead worship with him world wide.



3. Work among Latinos together with Rachelle. Both my wife and I feel part of our new call is to work among Latinos together. My wife is not Latina, but speaks fluent Spanish and loves the culture and so do I. I also feel called to worship and the arts, developing young leaders, reaching postmoderns and living missionally locally and globally.

4. Love our new church.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

What Does a Man Do?

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So what does a man do the day after Christmas?
1. You Tube his son (4) on drums
2. Laundry
3. R' to Target at 7am (me, home arbitrating new stuff and who gets it when)
4. Did I mention the drums, LOUD! In our Living Room! Can you say sound paneling?
5. Water backyard
6. Work day on Saturday, things seem to break (and not get fixed) during the holidays right?

Hope your Christmas was great. Probably one of the best moments was adopting a family on 7th and Lime Ave in the LBC. We brought over $500.00 of new toys, clothes, ham I baked myself, a Christmas tree and carols. This was my wife's vision and heart.

Ten of our family members went to their one bedroom apartment, to visit Carinna, an immigrant single parent coming out of gangs and her 5 children ages 9 to 6 months. Her niece, teenager, is also staying with her during Christmas (here from Mexico). They both spoke of being abused as young girls by their parents and how they struggle forgiving them.

I spoke to them from John 6 of Jesus being the Bread of Life, of Him being our forgiveness, of the grace and mercy of our God. I told them that we hope the gifts would remind them of the love of God, that God knows everything and yet loves them no matter what. She kept saying how tough it is to forgive. We can't even imagine. She had tears in her eyes.

We listened to them, loved them, prayed together, our children playing with theirs as one family. They spoke mostly Spanish, but the language didn't matter, we were there in the Spirit of God and love.

I learned so much that night, that even beyond "giving" to a family in need, that the message of forgiveness and grace is what they need most. The pain in Carinna's life is evident, and no church or pastor can heal her, only the grace of God can and time.

And those gifts in her house, now opened, her children perhaps moving on to the next thing, represent more than gifts. They represent the grace of God and the forgiveness of God offered to her.

I don't think Carinna has yet experienced this forgiveness, but in a way she experienced it that night as our families in Christ, offered love and acceptance to one another. It wasn't just us giving to them, we all gave to one another. The rest is up to God.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

Crowder at the Wiltern

Hello,

First act, the Myriad, good alt rock
phil wickham was ok.
Waiting for mr. Crowder. He'll rock it.

Davidt

In Rainbows, Radiohead Review

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Radiohead has been up and down for me through the years. Sometimes they're too intrinsic, sometimes I realize how influential and primal they've been to bands such as Coldplay, Sigur Ros, Keane and half the "British-alt" sound out there.

I started following them when "OK Computer" came out about 10 years ago. At the time, I saw them at the Greek Theatre and they mesmerized me. Then came "Kid A", "Amnesiac" and "Hail to the Thief" and I was off the bandwagon again.

Now comes "In Rainbow"....a CD (or I should say an MP3 download off their website for any $ amount) and all I can say is that I'm back on the bandwagon. Wow.

You know what I like about this album? It's accesability. This album has simple hooks, catchy intros and endings, while maintaining that Radiohead emo/atmospheric sound.

Take for example "Weird Fishes...." what a great guitar/drum/bass intro with the chord progression taking you places for 16 bars before the vocals come in. Wonderful. Then he sings "In the deepest ocean...." I love it.

"Nude" is an old song of theirs from what I hear, but what feeling as the strings, revolving synths and simple snare/hh/kick groove come in. Then the vocals come in with a haunting melody as the bass line kicks in. And something about going from a minor chord to a major chord in two measures that just works.

"Bodysnatchers" is just a great jam. Sounds like the old "U2" Vertigo/Pop/etc. which is a throwback to that 60's scratchy classic rock and roll sound, David Bowie and the Doors all wrapped into one.

"Faust Arp" sounds like a song from the 70's, like the "Mama's and the Papa's", but more haunting. "Reckoner" is awesome, I love that acoustic guitar lick with the "thrashy" snare, bell and tamborine sounds all creating a sort of gypsy-like feel, until the bridge comes in and it all quiets down to just vocals and guitar. Then back to the groove. This is probably my favorite track on the album.

"House of Cards" is a beautiful song, nice intro again with a layed back guitar progression and simple groove behind it. Great vocals, nice melody. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" is a favorite as an acoustic guitar player. It has that major to minor chord thing again which is classic Radiohead and a tight groove behind it. "Videotape" is a piano/Coldplay type song which perfectly ends the evening.

The whole CD flows as one from track to track, it's a journey, a circular path, but still one to walk. A CD you want to listen to as a whole.

Overall, I enjoyed this album.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT

On our way to dmb if we survive

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On the park and ride bus to the hollywood bowl on a date with my wife to see Dave Matthews, big fan. But we think the bus driver may be drunk!

UPDATE#1: We made it. Now waiting at the ATM machine to get some $ to rent binoculars! Yeah, cheap seats. No matter. I'm with my baby.

UPDATE#2: Going home, amazing show. Dave is a machine.

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT