turned out alright

Today I was uber lazy. Like seriously, I laid around the house and did nothing. I was at the house till probably 1:30pm. I got up and around because my friend Jim texted me and wanted to meet at school to play some pool. Yeah, Jim is a good friend. I really like talking about God with him. We are in the same place I feel in a lot of ways. We seem to complement each other really well spiritually. I am hesitant to use that word, but it works.

After I was done playing pool, I met up with my friend Ryan and his little sister to eat some Mexican food at this place called Casa Grande. It was real good, and real free for me. Then Me, Ryan, and our friend Zach went to this like art show for Haiti.
The guy was really passionate about the whole Haiti situation. And he had good reason to be, he has family over there and it was a good reminder. The evening ended at my friend Ryan's house. Ryan, Zach, and I hung out, watched T.V. and had some good conversation. All is well.

God is good.
Friends are good.
Life is good.

Letting go is extremely painful. God has to have a reason for be and Janice being in a relationship though.

back to the grind

It is Saturday, and that means LIBRARY and STUDY TIME!! What a relief, I was getting restless with all this laying around and extra sleep (emphasis on sarcasm added). When I was at the library today, I had to start off by getting on a computer, and printing something out for a class. I usually sit in this one area, but for "some reason (Holy Spirit telling me)" I felt pushed to sit in an area I don't usually sit at. Not only do I not usually sit there, but there was a guy who was talking on the phone and being kind of loud. Regardless, I sat down and got what I needed. As I sat there, I overheard this man's conversation. It went something like this, "I just can't believe she isn't going to make it, I can't believe she is going to be gone.." As he hung up the phone, I said something to the effect of, "that sounded like a pretty heavy conversation." As he explained that it was his aunt that lived in Colorado, and that he wouldn't be able to make it in time to see her before she died, he seemed really crushed. I simply took interest, and found out that she was in the final stage of a long fight with breast cancer. I asked him her name and he seemed confused, he told me it was Dianna, and I told him I would pray for him and his aunt. Which I did, right there in front of him. He made a point not to make eye contact with me for the rest of the time I was there, but I could tell he was lifted just by the fact that I took interest in him at a difficult time. Loving people, for no other reason than to just give what we are so freely given by God, is what it is all about. I did not know that person, and I will probably never see him again. BUT, I know that I did what I could in the moment to offer words of comfort and hope. I stepped in where I could have easily stayed away from out of love. After I was done studying, or I guess I should say after the library closed, I left to my "seclusion spot" on top of the parking garage to do my Bible study. I love this little spot, especially when it is sunny and nice out. While I was there, I talked with George, who I told I would not be able to accompany him to Dave church tomorrow because I had to go to a Young Life meeting (they are every other week). But, that I felt it put on my heart to tell George that he should really go even if I do not. He agreed that would be a good idea, and I told him I would tell Dave to be expecting him. I called Dave while up on top of the parking garage, and talked with him for a bit. I got the scoop that he was babysitting his grandson, "~Isaiah~" Click that link to see Isaiah. Isaiah is Phil's (Phil is Dave's son) son. You with me now? Well anyways, Dave said he was at Phil's new apartment, and I said, "well would it be okay if I stopped by?" Dave said, "well I don't see why not." So I went to hang out with Dave, Margie, and Isaiah. Dave and I went out to get a Pa Pa Murphy's Pizza, and we talked about where he felt God was leading Dave Church/Lifelight Ministries. The main focal point focused on the "decentralization" of the church that is so commonly known today in America (Sunday morning, worship time, sermon, maybe more singing, and departure). This could happen, "we discussed" by starting many churches of small groups (such as Dave church) and then collaborating together to form a church body, on specific dates, possibly once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month to gather, talk about what God is doing in the lives of others, and lifting each other up in support. Also, possibly doing the whole worship thing, because that whole "church experience" can be so beneficial, but should not be relied on fully as the once a week "FIX." Now that I have had time to digest what we really talked about, it makes so much sense. Not only does it make sense, it needs to be done. Radical? Yea, I suppose.

labelless

I could not think of a witty, exciting, and punch line'ish title for this BLOG post. I was assured that "labeless" is not a real word, and that may very well be so. BUT, I don't care, it is what I am rolling with. Today was cool, I went to an abandon gas station and took some really cool pictures for my photography class. I will have to upload them once I get them developed. I am excited to see how they turn out. I am not even going to try to describe them, because they will be all the more awesome when I upload them and you see them. TRUST ME!!! It was cold, and it started snowing today. When I got out of my 3 hour long (6-8:45) law class, I just wanted to be warm and naked. Naturally I knew I had to go to the tanning bed. Sorry if that was too graphic a depiction for your imagery senses. I am just being real with you.To the tanning bed I went. When I got home, I spent a little bit of quality time with my parents and the Television. I also got some AWESOME NEWS!!! If, and I say IF, because the only way it will all work out is IF God intends for me to go to Arizona for the paid internship this summer. BUT, IF He does, and I go. My friend Andy said he will send me, meaning he will give me the air fare to go. :~O That is some sweet stuff. SERIOUSLY SWEET!!! God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me.

G'Night!

Celebratory day of my birth

What do ya know, December 18th has once again rolled around. I am still living at home, and I suppose this is where God wants me. I am okay with that for the most part.....slightly unsettled, but nothing big. I dunno.....I am 22 now though.

My day started off by me picking my sister up from her girl friends house, and taking her to work. She has no car right now because it is getting fixed. I wanted to take a picture of her in my car, but I totally forgot to do so. SO, I snapped a picture of her seat right after the fact.Once I dropped her off I went to school to my parking garage of choice. I spent some time reading this book I started yesterday. I really like it a lot.When 11:00AM rolled around I headed over to Snider for some contact work. It was real good.

Back to work, then after work I went to Dave Church where Dave was having an open house of sorts. He put a column in the local newspaper for a couple small towns, and told people to come on out for food, and talk, and fun. It was all that and more. I got to see some old friends, and enjoyed it quite heavily. My birthday was, well pretty freaking average, but I suppose I forced that. Goodbye

Unique experiences.

Something strange happened today. This is worth telling too, because it is just delightfully bizarre. I am walking into IPFW to work on a project that I have been putting a lot of time into for one of my classes. There was this girl who was standing outside the bus stop. I suppose she wasn't really standing either, more like pacing. She just had this look on her face that said stressed and disconnected. Well, I walked by her, then had a tug on my heart. Ughh, so I turned around and asked her, "are you waiting on a ride or for a bus?" She said she was waiting for a bus, but that she thought she had just missed it. She had this giant purse, full of books and quite possibly all of her belongings. She was acting strangly too. She was maybe 24 or so. She said she needed to get to the mall, and since it was only maybe 10 minutes away with traffic. I told her I would be happy to take her. As soon as she got in my car she acted very tense. She leaned forward covering up her bag, and looked like every muscle in her body was flexed. I asked her if she was stressed out about anything, and she said, "I am so sick of people asking me that, I had a cop ask me the same question eariler today." She said nothing more after that. I didn't bother asking any more on that subject either. So I kept driving and talking to her. When I asked her if she was from Fort Wayne, she replied, "No, I just moved here from Elkart, IN." Elkart is about 2 hours North West of Fort Wayne. I said, "ohhh I have family near there." She said, "it's a horrible town, I hate it." I asked, "why?" She told me, "well I got 666'ed three times there." I kind of looked at her, expecting her to explain. But, she didn't, so I had to ask, "well, what does it mean to get 666'ed?" From what she explained, she told me that several times she had machines print out a receipt and all it said was the three numbers 666. She said that one time she was at a coin machine, and all that printed out was the numbers 666. This also happened at an ATM, and I forget what the third instance was. I asked her, "well, why was it happening?" She told me that THEY, were sending her a message. I had to ask, who are they? She explained that "they" are the electronics. She kept saying, I just hope I get paid soon. It has to happen eventually. In my head, I am thinking, this girl is either possesed, on acid, or just nuts. I tried to understand what she was saying, but couldn't get through to her. I shared Christ with her as best as I could, but couldn't really get through to her. Or maybe I did, I dunno. It was just an extremely strange situation.I went back to IPFW, and got some serious help from the Media Help center. This place ROCKS!! This guy from Napal, hooked me up with some serious photoshop skills.

When I left school it was late, so I went to get some food. Chinese food that is, and after I ate, I started handing out these surveys to people that I have to give out for my OLS project over Australia. It is a 6 question test with general knowledge questions. I gave some to a handfull of Chinese guys. It was good stuff.

When I got done with that, I called my friend Andy. I needed to ask him a question, but then found out he was playing Tennis with his cousin/my friend Alex at a park. It was like 11PM, but I had a tennis racket in my trunk, so I said, "i'm on my way." After a bit of tennis, I went back to his house and played on the Wii, and then a little garage disc golf (pig). It is just like playing pig in basketball, but you take different shots with a disc, into a disc golf hole, or catcher, whatever they are called.

I got home super late, and that was my Friday.

YL up & running

I woke up this morning at 8:30 I believe. Church doesn't start until 10:30, but I wanted to get some things done and go to church and then go to school and study before I had to go to a meeting on the South side of town (I live on the North), where the very first Young Life gathering would be held. I ended up sleeping in way to long, and not even going to Pathway like I wanted to. I did get over to school for maybe an hour and 45 minutes, but didn't accomplish much. I liked the meeting, although my heart was not in it completely. I really wanted to be at Dave church because my friend George finally agreed to go with me, and I was extremely excited. But, I had to call and tell him that I wasn't going to be able to make it this week/take him because of this first YL, start off the year assembly of old and new leaders. It was a good meeting because it was motivating and set the pace if you will for the year to come. I dunno, I should have been all in it though.

It rained some more today, I so enjoy driving in the rain though. I just don't like it when people crash because of poor vision or slippery conditions. When I am able to drive without any of those things happening though, I really love it to death.

After the meeting was over I high tailed it outa there to make it over to Collateral. I wanted to be with my brothers, and get some church in. So I did, and we were going over MOSES. I guess they are going to start a small study on Moses. Guess I just can't get enough of that guy. ;-) Anyways, we went over Exodus 2-4 in brevity. This is what I walked away with.
Collateral, Moses, grace, mercy, willingness, power through Grace.

• Moses wanted to fight against God and His will for him. But you have to make major adjustments in your life to join God in what he is doing. Moses had to make some extreme changes in his life and heart in order to get in God's will. There was nothing special in or about Moses. He was just willing to accept God's challenge and will in his life. Once he accepted it, God did amazing things through him.
  

When collateral was over I went to Kroger with Matt and Brad and Brad got some food before we went over to Nick Hudsons house. Nick and his wife had put the children to bed, and we gathered, made some frozen pizza's and ate them. All the while enjoying each others company and conversation. It was really nice, and healthy. Mentally and spiritually healthy for me.

it's my Friday

I am finished with math for my college career. This is of great excitation to me because I am not in sync with mathematical excitability. Just let those 5 dollar words sink in for a second....good, okay so my thought is that I should try to sell my calculator before it becomes obsolete. I posted it on CraigsList.com and if anyone who reads this BLOG might be interested, or know someone who would be interested, I am willing to send it through the mail if need be.

When I was leaving school today after my morning English class, I saw this red escort in the parking garage, and well it reminded me of my friend Chris. He use to have an escort, and we had many good times in it. He always talked about how he wanted to "pimp" out that car, and make it all nice and rally worthy. This car just gave me a kick, so I wanted to be able to share it with others. Good stuff. That car was in good shape for a late 80's vehicle. Paint was perfect, it even had some nice lil rims on it. It reminded me of the good ole days. Chris and I have a lot of memories from that old car. His was silver, and a bit more beat up than this one, but I figured an escort is an escort. Some of our friends use to really mess with him in the parking lot after school. One guy inpaticular (Eric), would go up to him and nudge him on when ever he had the opportunity to do so. Chris would get so furious, it didn't really matter, there were a million bumbs and scratches in that thing, but Eric knew it really set him off. One of the MANY memories I have of that car. Another one was when Chris and I were coming back from sking in Michigan. He had a little tiny crack in his windshield, more towards the passenger side. On the way back, I decided to test it's strength. I made a fist with my hand, and gave it a punch. Well, as soon as I made contact with it, the tiny crack (made probably from a rock falling off a truck), turned into a full blown, full length crack from top to bottom in a matter of minutes. OOPS!! I remember laughing extremely hard and some type of liquid coming out of my nose. I think that may have been the same road trip where a bottle rocket was lit off in the car, while we were driving. OOPS, DIDN'T KNOW THE WINDOW WAS DOWN!!! lol. So many of these types of memories associated with his old car.

It has been raining like crazy today. It started last night, and has not stopped. I mean like a constant drizzle at all times, with some spots of HARD RAIN. I saw an accident on the way home from work. One of the cars must have spun out, but man it hit a light really hard. I mean really hard. No one was hurt though, I saw both drivers out walking about. The first picture illustrates the size of the pole that was knocked down, and it's approximate position if it were still standing.
The second picture shows that the driver is still okay, and shows the pole lying next to the vehicle in the median area. Seriously, he must have been going fast, I am so thankful no one was killed.

My evening ended with a grand Bible study. I went with the guys, and boy we just talked about and read scripture that had really been talking and moving in our lives. It is so good to have that. I love those guys. The prayer time we had tonight was amazing! The Holy Spirit was in that room. I laid on the ground, to just humble myself before the Lord by making myself as low as I possibly could. The prayers of the men in the room were sincere and powerful. They were of gratitude, appreciation, thanks, awe, hope, thirst and humbleness. Also, Matt (the Matt that has been struggling with Wife and things) is in a place of peace and change. Also, he hasn't talked to his brother in months. His bro has separated himself from Matt. Well, he called Matt last week out of no where. Told Matt that he had made changes in his life, that he had accepted Christ's path, and wanted to know how to study scripture. :-O Matt was blown away, completely blown away. He has been praying for his bro for so long, and BAM, just like that God grew that seed. Man's calling may be to plant the seed or water it, BUT, only God can grow it. It sprouted in Mark (Matt's bro) and it is just so powerful to see things like that unfold.