I was driving home tonight from Church (at 2:30am) and I was thinking as I was cruising down the open stretch of I90/94 here in Chicago. I was thinking, "wow, I'm content here."

Now don't hear me wrong. I'm not ready to settle down here in Chicago - far from it. But I am content. I've been thinking about Paul who was once named Saul quite a bit lately. Maybe it's because my brain has been so tuned to my favorite book Galatians, but for whatever reason, I've just had him on the brain. As a result, it has occured to me that like Paul, I too am in my learning phase. I'm away from all that I know, and set apart to learn how to do the ministry that Christ has called me toward.

I'm to the point where I can see myself looking back fondly on my time here in Chicago. I think tonight was the first time that I've come to that realization. I have not forgotten how much of a struggle this has been by any means. But for the first time, I'm seeing the sum total as a good thing. This place will ultimately have a really sweet place in my heart, after all there have been a lot of firsts accomplished here:

1. My first apartment (not a dorm, or living with a family) was here.

2. My first experience living a long way from home - further than I can drive by myself in one day.

3. My first apartment as a married man.

4. Where I spent my first year as a married man

5. My first time being in a REALLY big city for any extended period of time.

6. My first time living somewhere away from the people I know, and know me.

7. My first time buying my own car from a dealer

Believe it or not,

8. This is the first time I've ever worked with a Youth group I wasn't in.

I like Skokie. I like being across the street from the Crafty Beaver hardware store, the Aldi, and the Market Place (which sells produce and ethnic food, you know, whole pickled pig's heads, sheep hearts, etc.). To walk through our Fresh market, is to walk into a whole new world. I like having an alley on two sides of me. There's something sinister about the alley - abandoned shoes hanging from telephone lines, old plastic bags blowing through the poorly lit throughway. The alley is home to the street urchin kids, rats the size of small dogs, dirt, and soot. The alley's aren't clean and they aren't quiet, but among the dirt, animals, eastern european shouts, and honking horns, there is a charm about it that evades the main streets where the people walk.

I do not like the Gang that lives and operates on my block. I do not like seeing Latin kings tagged on my storage doorway, or the knowledge that the little hoodlums like to go meander up the back steps of our apartment in the summertime to sit on the roof of my unit. But nothing is perfect, especially not home, and especially not in this fallen world.

Anyway, I like where I live. I like my home. I love my wife, and all in all, this has been a really great first year of marriage. I know Paul suggested to not get married, and in retrospect, I can see why he was saying that, but if it weren't for misti I'd be a wreck in the ministry to which I would be assigned. I am big fan of marraige if you ask me.

Joel, I believe you and Erin just recently passed up half a year already. Congrats. I hope you both continue to have a wonderful first year! It's nice to have someone else get married right around the same time as you. It's exciting to have someone else as a peer in that particular way.