NathanLogan.com

Made it a full year without posting!

And you all said I couldn’t do it! Ha, well I showed you.

While I’ve never prided myself on my updating consistency here, I’ll admit that a year is a little excessive. Really, this year was a needed and welcome respite from blogging, at least in the “traditional” sense. Why, you ask? Well…

First, it was busy. It involved things like living in San Francisco, getting involved in a great church in the Bay Area, meeting and marrying the woman of my dreams, going on a 3-week trip mission trip to Africa, moving back to Boise from San Francisco, buying a house, living in Hawai’i for 2 months, and all the rest of the busyness of life. Overall, I have seen God’s goodness in the past year more abundantly than ever before – I have been so ridiculously blessed. He is amazing.

Second, Facebook. Facebook is really pretty great. A huge waste of time, yes, oftentimes, but also a great way to connect with people. So many are using it and it’s incredibly easy to send updates on what’s going on at work, in life, or on the Web in general. There is something efficient about a single community to see what’s going on with others and to let others know what’s going on with me.

Third, Facebook. Yes, again, but for a different reason. While I didn’t used to care about this, Facebook has the huge benefit of tightly-controlled privacy settings. I can limit exactly who I want to see what’s going on with me. It could be argued that this is a false sense of privacy, but really, I’m not going to spend my time paranoid about the person who would go to extreme lengths. For all intents and purposes, if I don’t want you to see what’s up with me on Facebook, you probably aren’t going to. And that differs from this site.

So that leaves a bit of a hanging question, I suppose. Will this blog continue?

And really, I don’t know. Perhaps it has served its purpose (a holdover until Facebook?); perhaps it has a bright future ahead; perhaps it’s a good place for a portfolio; perhaps it will soon be something else entirely. Since you are reading this, what are your thoughts on what it could/should be?

Pictures of my Beautiful Niece!

I finally get to see pictures of her, which makes me even more desirous of seeing her in person! Thanks to Tony for sending these to me!

Here she is in all her cuteness:

Sleepy!

One Beautiful Family

Great Grandparents

Foods!

Man, God is so good.

I'm an Uncle Again!

My beautiful niece (I have yet to see her, but I just have a hunch), Reece Lee, was born less than an hour ago (at 1:17 pm MST)! She’s a healthy 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and (middle) named after her mother and her father’s grandmother. Labor was just over 4 hours, and my sis is doing well!

I really wish I could be there with everyone, but am so thankful that God blessed Reece with good health and an uncomplicated birth.

Reece, I love you already and am so excited to meet/hold/kiss you!

What's the Best Way to Learn Guitar in 3 Months?

I have a mission trip coming up in mid-September and there’s a need for someone to lead singing/worship, preferably with a guitar. I’ve been wanting to learn guitar for a long time, but just haven’t been disciplined in sticking with it, and this would obviously be a good time.

So, particularly for you guitar players out there, how realistic is it that I could pick up just the basics in time, and what’s the best method to do so? Lessons? Watch YouTube guitarists? Forget the guitar and buy a ghetto blaster? Help me out!

Thanks in advance!

One of the Best Articles I've Ever Read

If you’re like me, you grew up in the church. You learned Christianese as your second language, you have the “good kid” routine down to a science, and somewhere along the line, you displaced heart with action. This wasn’t something that happened overnight and it wasn’t even necessarily intentional or malicious – you may have just had the desire to be close to God, saw other folks who were, and rather than develop an intimate relationship with Him, just started acting like they did, hoping one day you would arrive on the same plane.

Well as we now know, it just doesn’t work that way – action apart from heart is meaningless, and in this case, quite harmful. The dilemma, though, is that we now have these negative habits and motivations ingrained. These suckers hold on, too. And in my experience, change starts not by sitting there and muttering “no, no, no”, but by marinating in the sweet basic truths of the gospel.

To that end, a friend just directed me to an incredible article that I would recommend to you, as well. Come with me as we toss the guilt of our sin aside, rest in Jesus’ work on the cross, and live radically committed lives for Him as a result.

Blomberg on Generosity

From his book, Neither Poverty Nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions, Craig Blomberg concludes his chapter on Jesus’ teaching in the synoptic gospels with the following (from pgs. 145-6). It would do you well to read it slowly, thoughtfully, and personally.

It goes too far to say that one cannot be rich and be a disciple of Jesus, but what never appears in the Gospels are well-to-do followers of Jesus who are not simultaneously generous in almsgiving and in divesting themselves of surplus wealth for the sake of those in need. ‘This free attitude to possessions may be expressed in a disposal of private property, though this is not mandatory. It will certainly find expression in an almost reckless generosity, motivated not by a dour sense of obligation but by a warm and unselfish compassion’ (France 1979:18). There is room for the periodic celebration of God’s good, material gifts, even at times to a lavish extent. But these celebrations will be the exception, not the norm. The covenant model that assumes material reward for piety never reappears in Jesus’ teaching, and is explicitly contradicted throughout. As in Proverbs 30:8-9, Jesus is concerned to moderate extremes. But the main focus of his ministry, the road to the cross, and this call to disciples to imitate him in similar self-denying sacrifice rather than basking in glory, suggests the overarching paradigm of generous giving, rather than ‘godly materialism’, for the one who would faithfully follow Christ.