I still haven’t decided what the fate of this blog is yet, but for the time being, I’ll leave everything as is. I’m still going to Grace Fellowship and have so many things to thank God for every day. I’ll try to keep you all posted from time to time as life moves forward. Blessings!

We’re taking things slowly, one day at a time, because there’s a lot to do around the house, as well as after-the-fact tasks from the wedding like sending out Thank You cards and extra announcements and such. So I won’t be delving into meaty theological topics right away. I’m still not sure yet exactly where I’m going in terms of my online presence — I’ve considered shutting down this blog and starting up a different one with a little bit of a changed mission several times, but at the moment it’s up in the air. In the meantime, I’ll try to send out Twitter updates now and then and let you know what I’m up to and (more importantly) what God’s doing in my life.

Blessings of the new Autumn season be upon you! Love from Jared

But it’s good. Oh my word, it is good. Rosemary is the most beautiful woman in the entire world and the light of my life. I thank God on bended knee every day for bringing her into my world. Just a little backhistory — we’re both still young, obviously, but at the same time we have spent a good number of years in adulthood as singles, and while I’m so grateful we remained faithful to God’s call on our lives during that season, there nevertheless have been some struggles. The ways in which those past experiences have come to the forefront and found healing in the light of God’s love and word…well, it’s just crazy fantastic. I need to write about this in another post, but we have discovered that you can fall in love with each other more than once, and it’s all about two things: surrender and sacrifice. May Jesus give us the strength to surrender to Him every day, and to sacrifice our selfishness at the foot of the cross so that we can be a love offering to others!

More later. I have a wedding to plan! See you soon…

Things are going really, really well. Rosemary and I are in a very good place right now in our relationship. Our weekend was superb — my best 4th ever! — and, considering all the clutter in our schedule (so what else is new?!), we’ve been having a blast this week. This is in stark contrast to just a couple of weeks ago when things were going very poorly. Which brings me to my little rant for the day:

Being in love is [censored] nuts. I wish someone had warned me.

Seriously, I apparently grew up with a very skewed concept of this whole romance thing. I thought that I’d just bump into someone someday and fall head over heals in love with them, and either they’d think I’m out of my mind or they’d fall in love with me too and then we’d enjoy a long stretch of romantic bliss before finally popping the question and getting married — a life event of unparalleled ecstasy. I figured all the arduous, heart-rending, gut-wrenching, soul-searching moments of relational crisis would come much, much later, when boredom and toddlers and wrinkles and dumb jobs and drifting goals would start to tear away at our marriage and require some serious communication tune-ups.

Needless to say, since I’m writing this post, I was wrong. Romance is really, really difficult! It’s something you have to fight for with every fiber of your being, and sometimes you’re going to get toasted. Please understand, I am not talking about your significant other! The fight is inside of yourself. If you can master that internal struggle, the battle raging in the hinterlands of your heart and soul; if you can maintain that lifeline in your spirit to the divine Spirit, and discover what it truly means to lay your life down for another; then the romance that is birthed out of the fire of that holy love is like nothing else in the world.

Every time Rosemary and I have been able to weather the storms that have come against us and reach that point of breakthrough in midst of our issues, we’ve emerged stronger and more in love with each other than ever before. I continue to be amazed at how profound unity is after division has been eradicated. I must confess that the overwhelming totality of the effect our state of being has on one another has taken me completely by surprise. To be honest, it scares me. When someone is allowed to posses such a deep connection to me, I am potentially rendered very powerless.

This is a good thing.

I am preparing to get married in the very near future. And the fundamental building block of a true and lasting marriage is this: I am choosing to entrust my life to another human being. When the time comes to say “I do”, I will no longer be my own man. I will belong to my wife. I don’t think anyone can explain to you what that feels like. Which brings me to my next little rant (which I’ll expand more on in the future):

A lot of the “Christian” dating/relationship books out there really bug me. In fact, I think the genre is overrun with a great deal of bad advice or shallow clichés. My Google searches have come up with more pap than profit.

I wish I could write a book about how to have a Spirit-filled romance that honors God and the person you love while avoiding pseudo-spiritual weirdness and cultivating excitement, passion, fun, and growing intimacy. Maybe I will. Rant over.

I’m going to go watch an action film and veg. See you later!

I know I haven’t blogged much lately…Rosemary and I are planning on setting up an official “wedding” site with our love story and information about our upcoming wedding, so once that’s online I can link to it from here and share a lot more with you all.

One parting thought: I think something a lot of people don’t realize is that a godly romance and the marriage relationship as God intended isn’t something that just happens to you one day and then you try to figure out how make it work somehow. It’s an all-encompassing process that refines you and molds you and transforms you into a brilliant reflection of the image of Jesus Christ. It’s not “fun” — though romance can be incredibly fun — and it’s not “duty” — though a serious relationship requires sacrifice and responsibility — it’s essentially education. I’ve learned more about myself and how to love others since Rosemary came into my life than I ever did before. It’s a deep and profound experience. And that is exactly what God is after. I believe marriage is a life-long commitment to learning more about your spouse, yourself, and the eternal character and purposes of God, in every moment of every day spent together. That is what I’m looking forward to with eagerness, tenderness, and joyful anticipation.

Wow! I am going to get married!!!

This afternoon’s going to be wonderful because Rosemary and I will be enjoying a leisurely lunch (pizza!) with my parents and then after that just taking it easy…hanging out, maybe watching a movie, doing a little homework for our premarital counseling, dreaming.

Sabbath. An important part of life!

First of all, I am no longer working down in San Francisco as of this week. I had been working onsite as a contractor at BabyCenter, but my time there finally came to an end on May 7th. I just want to say for the record — and honestly, it’s not because this is a public post — BC is an awesome company, and I’m very grateful for my time there these past two years (I started in May of 2007 — read about it here and here). I made some great connections there with many fine people and learned a heck of a lot both in terms of business and technical expertise. In addition, God really caused me to grow in maturity and discipline in a myriad of ways — a great deal of the life lessons I’ve shared on this blog in the past have come from those experiences.

That being said, I am very excited and thrilled to be embarking on a new chapter in my life. Working up here in Santa Rosa (and largely at home to boot!) is such a blessing, and the kind of work I’m doing is much more invigorating for me. I’ve been itching to transition into my desired role of being a creative director and Web design/development project lead for a long time. I am and always will be an entrepreneur at heart, and it feels good to be back in the saddle. I’m actually doing this as part of a broader strategy shift on the part of my employer, Commandtext (FYI, the Web site’s out-of-date compared to our new developing focus), which is both challenging and inspiring. I have a couple of clients I’m doing work for right out of the gate, but it’ll take some doing to fill up the pipeline over the long haul. I’m looking forward to the opportunity, scary though it might seem at times!

Meanwhile (!), another development has taken place in my life: I am now engaged! Yes, I proposed to the love of my life, Rosemary, on April 29th along the seashore in west Sonoma County. What can I say about her? She is beautiful, charming, amazing, talented, godly, alluring, delightful, and I am throughly smitten. It’s hard for me to believe she is not only my girlfriend but my fiancé! I wish you could meet her. Actually, she may post some things here down the road, or on her own blog once it’s officially set up. She’s also given me the green light to write a bit about our courtship and the things we’ve learned in the past 6+ months of growing a serious relationship, as well as the crazy process of trying to put on a wedding! I’m looking forward to the sharing.

I know, I know, I’m the luckiest man in the world, but don’t hold that against me. I still have the Love Jam series to wrap up here as well, so I’ll do my best to give it some final attention. Much more to come here on Finite Calls Infinite! Never a dull moment in the White house….

Blogging will continue to be light for a while, but you’ll probably see me twittering away at least.

Blessings to you all! -Jared

Listen to the first installment here where I talk a bit about my upcoming Love Jam series installment and the spiritual theme of my most recent tweets. Enjoy!

P. S. I know the audio quality isn’t great — I was using my MacBook Pro built-in mic in a small conference room. Sometime soon I’ll need to get a USB mic I can put right up to my mouth so that the echo is minimized. Thanks for your understanding!

I’ll keep you “posted” (heh) on further developments along these lines. See ya!