“All you need is LOVE!” – part one

So I get the privilege of doing the talk this weekend on the subject of LOVE.  Our church had the idea of “what would happen if we chose to leverage the music of one of the most popular bands ever and find some common themes in their music… and then see what God had to say about those themes?”  This is the result.  ”The Beatles: Life.Love.Faith.”  When was the last time that you felt “love”?  When was the last time you KNEW love?  In our culture these two things can be very, very different.  Our culture tells us that love is based on feelings, circumstances, it’s something that effects your emotions and is something that you fall in and out of.  The love that the Beatles write about is no different.  ”Love me do”, “She loves you”, “Hard Day’s night”, “Can’t buy me love”, “I’m looking through you”, “hide your love away”, and “All you need is love” are just a few songs that, if you took a look at the lyrics, you would find their particular circumstance affected how they felt, how they wrote, and, ultimately, how they loved.  Love can be easy to give and feel when everything is going right… but what do you do when the bottom falls out?  What do you do when love is not reciprocated?  what do you do with rejected love?  What do you do when your love leaves you?  Do you just stop loving?  Do you hide your love away?  How does God’s love differ from this?  And what difference does it make?  After this sunday’s message… I’ll let you know!

Phillies WIN!

so I was having this conversation with my dad about a month ago.  My dad and I talk sports like it was our job.  Like I am Tony Reali and he’s Woody Paige.  anyway… I was telling him “I’m not sure if anyone can beat the phillies… they look pretty strong.”  He wasn’t quite sure.  But after they DESTROYED the LA Dodgers… it was just a matter of time.  I knew that the Rays would put up a good fight for a while… but Cinderella didn’t have her final dance this year.  It was good for MLB to have a team like the Rays this year who give everyone hope that you don’t have to be a dope head, steroid using idiot to be good at baseball… you need a great team.  Great season Tampa Bay.  But even great season Philadelphia.  Hamels was a dominant pitching force!  as a former pitcher (not major leagues… I wish) I totally respect how he went out every time he was handed the ball and stepped up to the challenge and said “you want to try and hit my fastball?  Here it is!”  Look out for this dude in the future!

new adventures in painting

I had NO CLUE how much I disdained painting… until I had to do it for the past 2 days.  My wife and I are in the middle of packing all our stuff up from our apartment and moving into our new house… but before we can do that… we had to paint the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms.  I feel like I’ve done nothing for the past couple of days EXCEPT paint.  I can’t wait until the painting is over.  I hope that we can get all moved in just in time to watch the World Series!  It’s a highlight of my fall every year!  HERE’s TO MOVING IN!

 

ALOHA!  (once again… all the other ones were taken )

re:MADE in OSM – week two

Here is part two of re:MADE.

reMADE Pt 2 from Travis Carpenter on Vimeo.

re:MADE in OSM – week one

here is week one’s re:MADE video.  this is a series about how God wants to remake our lives to become like Jesus in his attitudes and actions.  This video series is a spoof of the MTV show “MADE.”  enjoy:

reMADE Pt 1 from Travis Carpenter on Vimeo.

T-E-A-M!!!

There is nothing better in youth ministry than having a GREAT team to work with.  OSM has a great group of volunteers that serve and give of their time, energy, and money!  I view myself more like a coach and they are the superstars of the team.  I want to help them be the best youth ministry volunteer team that they can be… and one of the coolest things is… they already have a head start.  They were great to start out with, so I can’t even imagine their potential.  A big “WAY TO GO!” to the volunteers of Oakbrook Student Ministries!

what do you do on your day off?

change is in the air…

I’m sitting here on my couch watching a TV show about a family with like 20 kids or something in it and it got me thinking about the future and some changes that are coming into the Burke household.  (not 20 kids… in case you were wondering… sick-o!).   But there are a few things that are exciting coming… FIRST: we are expecting child #2 in March/April.  We have been totally blessed with our son Nic… he is awesome, but we felt it was time to add to our family.  BTW… I just watched/witnessed the most awkward engagement ever.  This guy asked a girl to marry him that he barely knows because he believes that “courtship” means engagement… then getting to know her… then marriage.  It was also awkward because he gave her a side-hug!  A SIDE-HUG.  I give side hugs to moms and grandma’s b/c I’m too uncomfortable to really give them a hug.  ANYWAY – (sorry that was really ADD) – we are having another kid!!!  exciting.  I’m telling you… there was no side hug there SECOND: We just closed on our first house!  Here is a picture of us & the SOLD sign

It’s a great house!  We are now just waiting for a couple of weeks before we take possession to give the former owners a chance to move out.  And FINALLY: I changed my Blog.  I know, I know… SHOCKING CHANGE!  EPIC!  HAHA!  more like LAME!  anyway… I thought confessions was getting old and becoming “not so appropriate” for what my blog was… so I changed it to IMAGINATION @ work. I feel like that is more “ME”.  anyway!  Hope you enjoyed the post!  

ALOHA (everyone else took all the other good greetings and salutations… it’s all that’s left!)