Chicago is cool.  You knew this though.  Chicago has the feel of a very nice city, with lots of great architecture and good people and wonderfully distinct neighborhoods and lots of good sports.  It is a really great city, and while it does lack true oceanside beach, it is has beach from a great lake.  So I can’t argue.  But it is just an awesome place period.

So I came to Chicago because I have a really awesome friend and his wife who are really important to my life and who I want to be.  So I came to spend time with them and catch one of the cities on my bucket list.

I got to listen to a Gospel of Matthew colloquium at Loyola University, which offered me a chance to hear three people talk about their academic work with the book of Matthew.  And for me, it was a really good experience.  While I am not a through and through academic, I have an MDiv and therefore I have some academic in my background.  But it was thought provoking.  How does oral tradition change the way I think about the gospels being shared?  How does Matthew’s metaphor of debts for sin change the way I think about sin?  Are debts a metaphor for sin or is sin the metaphor for debts, and gosh, that would really get me thinking about the importance of the sociological status of our church communities…anyway, I digress.  I enjoyed hearing their thoughts because while I don’t feel like we ought to trivialize the Word of God with endless breaths of speculation, it is provocative to hear that the way I read Scripture may be different, may not be the only way.  Again, it was great to get started with a thought provoking seminar.  And it also provided an awesome opportunity to see the university architecture at Loyola, including some of their buildings right by the great Lake Michigan.

And then it was a Cubs game.  Now, it is on my bucket list, so I was incredibly blessed to be able to see the excitement of a Cubs fans with all their dress and gear and passion, and hang out in the “Friendly Confines.”  And it was great to attend a game outside of Texas, where the 7th inning stretch is just “Take Me Out to The Ballgame” and where they serve a different regional beer (I love Ziegenbock and Shiner, don’t get me wrong) like Old Style (probably even cheaper than anything I know).  It was also cool because I got to sit around for 4 hours and talk life with Cambry, things like church, children’s ministry, the hospital life, Matthew and Mark, dating, and all sorts of storytelling.  And the Cubs won in beautiful fashion, from a 9th inning, down to the last strike Darwin Barney of all people 2 run game tying home run that just got over the fence in left…and then a last strike in the 11th single to score a run.  Crazy exciting way to win a game.  While at the game, Cambry gave me a little bit of a distant tour of the city, explaining the city skyline and preparing me for the fun of Downtown Chicago on Day 2.  Cool, cool, cool.

And did I mention that I got to ride on elevated trains, the L line as some might call it here in Chicago.  I love elevated trains because there is a nostalgia and a Northeastern stigma I associate with them.   It was great!

And to finish it all off, I got to try a Chicago deep dish pizza, which Cambry and Heather ordered as a deep dish with sausage, diced tomatoes, spinach and butter crust.  Pizza you have to eat with a fork and knife.  That’s awesome!  The sausage was like a cake, not just simple fine slices.  The cheese thick and bubbling.  The crust so sweet and yummy.  Amazing pizza.  Like a casserole of pizza, not a “slice” of a pizza.

Pretty cool.  But I don’t write this all to double up on what I posted on Facebook.  Rather, I write this all because it is a way for me to claim how fortunate I am to travel like this.  The world is a great place, and I love having the opportunity to see it and discover it and find all the joy it brings to life.  The crazy thing is that I got these tickets on Southwest for just 199 dollars.  Easy tickets for a small amount of money that I am fortunate enough to have.  And it is by far a small cost to finding great joy in life by exploring the tastes, the beauty, the people, and the world around us.  I appreciate it, and the cool thing is, it was only day 1!