Moving? Again?

Well, to whoever has actually been following this blog I want to sincerely thank you! You're gonna hate me. I'm moving. Again! This is the last post on here. I've been playing around with this host for a few years and as I've been looking at a few others I think I finally found a real home for my blogging over at Tumblr. My style is pretty minimalistic and I think I prefer the "feel" there and actually love the fact that Tumblr already has its own blogging "community" of sorts and it's also like Twitter in many ways, where I can easily post and re-share things I like, as well as post the usual vids, music and content I've been posting.
So I apologize again for the craziness, I'm no Tim Challies or Donald Miller. I'm Ruben Cardenas, and I'm learning things and trying things out as I go. As I've said before, I love blogging and I have no inkling of any desire to stop. I think its good for me and maybe even good for some of you (whether just for killing time, for entertainment or for resources). To whoever reads this, thank you again. And hopefully you will follow me at my new home here.
Blogger, it's been sweet, and I thank you for providing me with a platform since 2009. You're great, and I'm still an avid user of your other Google services and I love them! So long!

Some Snapshots from the Men's Retreat

I just got home from my church's men's retreat which was held at a cabin ran by the gracious folks from the Calvary Chapel Conference Center in Twin Peaks. And it was refreshing to say the least! I'll be posting my thoughts on it later this week. In the meanwhile here are some snapshots from the weekend.

Blogging Break and Men's Retreat

So I can focus on what I'm teaching about this weekend at my church's men's retreat I'm gonna take a break this week from blogging and cut back on social media a bit (something that's good to do anyway!) The theme for our retreat is The Art of Gospel Manliness and my talk is on identity (from the Gospel). This is admittedly the hardest thing I've had to teach anybody since I myself have had to wrestle with this doctrine in my personal life a lot in the last two years, it seems. Prayers would be much appreciated! See ya next week and thank you!

A Word on Blogs and Books

One of the few people who have inspired me to blog is Joe Thorn. I find his resourcefulness and pastoral insights helpful; his love for his family and the church is evident; his appreciation for culture and his down to earth honest approach to things is refreshing and encouraging for me personally. If you haven't read his stuff I highly recommend him to you now. He's given a needed caution to feeding on blogs more than books (and you know this is easy to fall into).

Many of us tend to rush through blog posts rather than give them the serious consideration which could yield better fruit. It’s just so easy to “read” online while rapidly clicking from one thing to the next, moving between multiple open tabs on our browsers, all while the latest episode of Parks and Recreation plays in the corner of the screen.

I encourage people to read blogs, selectively, considering them to be supplemental to our reading diet. Blogs are good, but books are better and more important. Good books are better than good blogs because they generally offer a more serious, sustained, carefully edited and reviewed work focused on a given subject. A book will lead you to slow down, properly ingesting and digesting the words and ideas. Books are, I believe, better teachers. Blogs teach as well. I love blogs! But I hope you are reading more than the stuff in your feed reader.

Ouch. But he nails it. Read the rest of it here.

The Scariest Thing

"You know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world. To not know why you're here... That's... That's just an awful feeling." - Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson, Unbreakable)