I'm sitting at Panera listening to Alli Rogers' song "Eden." I recommend it.

I've really been dwelling the last couple days on what it means to be incarnational. I was just replying to a great question from my friend Andy, who really got me to thinking about this. Does incarnation mean anything to followers of Jesus? I mean, besides the obvious? I don't think it has meant much to me...I can say it has meant a lot, but unless it changes the way I live, it just doesn't really matter. I wonder what it would look like if, instead of short term missions and giving money to overseas missions getting all the attention (not saying those things are bad), we shifted our focus to incarnational mission. I wonder.

My toes are cold.

Today I was in the drive-thru at Chick-Fil-A. I love me some sweet tea. Anyway, the decorations on the car in front of me caused me to chuckle. On the left side of the rear windshield was a small, rectangular bumper sticker. It read: "________ ________ Church: Passionate About Jesus!" (names removed to protect the innocent). Fantastic!

On the right side of the windshield was this large sign:

You can't make this stuff up.

I thought to myself, I'm not sure how those two things go together. However, on my return trip from Portland, during my brief layover in Chicago, I took a picture of two things which go perfectly together:

Fannie Mae and the Cubs!! Two pathetic entities in hopeless slumps desperately in need of a bailout! (I know it's not the same Fannie Mae, but humor me!)

Anyway, you're not going to get me to say much about politics, but if you want to know how I feel about it, read my friend Andy's recent blog.

I'm sitting in the Portland airport after a week of simply mind-boggling classes. Here is a brief list of what we've covered:

• APEST (Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic, Shepherding, Teaching) Leadership
• Decentralization of Leadership
• What really belongs in dogma? (Hint: not as much as you thought)
• A thousand years of church history
• Pelagianism, Perichoresis, Ecclesiology, Soteriology, Ontology, Phenomenology of Movement, the Problem of Evil and how to make Core Values matter