Sunday, July 24, 2016

The one of who lives

While I was driving to church this morning I was floored by that fact.

God is alive. Really alive.

Alive and also present with us in all space. He hold's it all together

Idolatry made it into the ten commandments but there is one story that I think of as an example of God's attitude toward idolatry.

If you want to read more then excerpt that I'm about to include go here. Otherwise, just keep going.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

VLOG3 - Together Day

So I've come to the end of this. The video's just under 17 minutes so I won't add too much on here, unless I think of some details that I forgot to mention in the vid.

I can't stress enough how worth it going to DC for this was. With respect to everything that I missed through out the morning and afternoon, I don't think I actually missed anything. The day happened a certain way, with more things being out of my control then in it. I think I heard what I needed to hear on Saturday, so while I'm still bummed that I didn't get to hear from Louie Giglio or Francis Chan, they're just men and I will have other opportunities to learn from them before it's all said and done. I believe that what I needed to hear, is what I heard. So the fact that it was cut short, that I missed things in order to stay hydrated and because I had to go find a place to add some juice to my phone doesn't matter. I got out of it what I needed.

That said, and just as an aside - I still fully intend to watch the video of the event to see and hear what else was shared by some of the most brilliant and talented minds in Christendom.

So enough typing, I'll post the video on Youtube, same as before and I have some pictures that I'll throw on below the fold.

Thanks for reading and watching!

Sunday, July 17, 2016

VLOG 2 - DC Free Day

Same as before, the file is too large so I'm uploading it to Youtube. The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HcAABNf6SQ&feature=youtu.be

Only thing left to add are a few of the pictures I took during sightseeing.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

VLOG1 - On the Road to DC

Wanted to make this happen during the first stop of the road trip but that didn't work out so I'm catching up a little bit on it.

More to come later but got one done for now.


Friday, July 8, 2016

Reset

Violence is nothing new. Regardless of worldview, history is packed with stories of violence. For Millenia the purpose was either to expand territories or defend those who wished to do so. That's an oversimplification but is also very true.

Now people kill each other over race or disrespect or just because they want to.

It's not new but even when it's justifiable, it's tragic.

My heart goes out to all the families that lost people this week. The police officers in Dallas last night, the two young men in consecutive days prior to that and all the unknown people who have died tragically.

Not that it was needed, as far as I'm concerned, but those events are all further evidence that the notion of safety is an illusion. Weapons can make a difference - positively and negatively, but they are not the solution or the problem. People will likely call for gun control and others will rail against the idea.

I like my rights as they are described in the constitution but the freedom we have now is already limited so if those that the majority elect see fit to change things I will abide, though not happily.

But I'm not here to talk about politics or current events, at least the ones that have happened already.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Maybe not.

Options come and go in life.
Opportunities like the breeze can come with refreshing but in an instant be gone.
Chances, well there are new chances each day, but even they are limited.
A couple weeks ago I wrote about a chance to travel with a team to Haiti, well that like all but one of the other potential destinations was removed from possibility. I knew the likelihood was there because past experience is the best educator, but also that other people were slow to co-sign. So slow in fact that I was told that I was the only one committed to going. So it's reasonable that the latest option was taken off the board.

Now I wait. Again. But in fact I never stopped waiting, because I expected that something would come up.  It's not all bad, so I'll get to the spin after.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

News on a loop, be prepared

I don't know if it's a trend or a coincidence but I guess I'm just seeing things anew that have been around since the beginning. Yesterday I wrote about the verbal sewage that gets spewed out so much these days, but really it was words that lit the fuse of the first sins by Eve then Adam. One of the next recorded sins is also still very much in play worldwide to this day.

Not attempting to hide our shame from God as he wants to be in a personal relationship with us. Though that is still in play for billions of people. Nor am I thinking of half - hearted offerings or the jealousy to those who give their best to Jesus.

If you know the Biblical story then you may be able to pin point my direction but I wanna keep tracking readership, so as always you'll find out after.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

The other excrement

This one's a little more graphically uncomfortable then I generally go, but the analogy I've concluded seems accurate so I'm going to go with it.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Memorial Day Weekend

A week ago I realized that I was coming up to a long weekend because of Memorial day. My first idea was to head to Duluth for the weekend but all the campgrounds were booked up so I went to plan B. So I figured out what it would take to head out west and have some fun. The first stop was the Teddy Roosevelt Park.

Friday came and after taking care of some duties at work, I got the rest of my stuff together and go on the road. I wanted to reach the park before the  information center closed. I basically couldn't stop on the way because of that which was a little rough, even for me. But I got it done.  Found out the best places to see in the park and then went exploring.

I'll keep some of the stories to myself, because I like it that way, but that evening was worth the drive. Then in classic fashion I crashed in my car for the night. I had to break it in for that some time and this was as good a time as any, and better then most. I woke up at dawn, as planned and headed back into the park. After driving for a while I found a great spot to park and watch the sunrise, or at least what I thought would be the sun rise. It was a bit of an overcast morning so it didn't happen as I excepted. So after taking some time to look at it and take some pictures I hopped back in the car and headed up to the highest point in the area.

On Friday when I was told about it that was where I wanted to watch the rise but as things happened in the morning I didn't think it would actually happen. Lo and behold, right about the time I got all the way up to peak the sun was busting out from behind the clouds. After more wondering and picture taking headed back down to keep roaming through the park. A few hours of that elapsed and I was exhausted so I headed back into Medora to check out some shops and just relax, with the intent of more exploring. But once I came down, I didn't have the energy to go back so instead I decided to go to Bismarck.

Once there, I spent the rest of the day just relaxing at a hotel.

Sunday came and it was time to finish the fun. I waited til the last minute to check out so as to hedge my plan a bit in case part of it went sideways. I proceeded to go up to Garrison for a festival that I'd recently found out about. I'll leave it to you to figure out what the festival was about in the photos to come.

After spending a couple hours there, I retraced my path back to Washburn to do some golfing. I got to the course about 10 minutes after their unlimited play began. Then proceeded to play for about five hours. I've played less golf then I anticipated playing to this point in the season but still managed the best round I've had yet.  Taking 10 strokes off without playing felt pretty good, but I did take the unlimited factor at its word and did some practice while I worked through the course, that's why it took five hours.

All that remained was returning home. It was a rough drive which went much later into the night then I wanted but I wouldn't change how the weekend went at all.

If a pictures worth a thousand words then this will certainly be the longest post I've composed but I don't think it's too much.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Voices from the din

Special priority being given to a select few is nothing new. Politicians, actors and athletes dominate headlines because of the positions that they hold. Sometimes they deserve those positions, sometimes they don't yet have them anyway. With the internet age that we're in, a statement that's made however simple or stupid can be "breaking news."

Twitter has made that all the more prevalent with their trending topics. I think it only makes the folly of the whole thing more noticeable, yet it goes unnoticed or at least ignored. To wit, I just looked on Facebook a few minutes ago and one of the trending topics was a statement by George Clooney saying that Donald Trump won't win the election.

Okay. Cool. That's an opinion. One that's held by millions of American's right now. One that I kind of side with. Not to get too political but I wanted basically every other Republic nominee to make it where Trump has now made it. But it's also just an opinion.

Why does George Clooney's opinion matter so much to people that it becomes a trending topic? He's an actor. Maybe he's even smart but he's ultimately just another guy. His opinion shouldn't matter yet it does. Which doesn't make sense to me. I'll keep going off in a sec.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Mirror Theory

There aren't many people who don't know what a mirror is. For the sake of the ignorant, it's a piece of glass specially made to reflect back what is in front of it. Some of the best times in my life happened when I was just living and didn't have a mirror to look in. It became a lot easier to not even think about presentation. Kind of like the millennia in which people lived.

But that's not what I've been thinking about today and recently, but I'll get to it after.


Sunday, May 8, 2016

Haiti. Maybe

Over 6 years, 6 different residences, the birth of all my nieces & nephew I've had a single, seemingly endless goal. Finish my degree from Bethany College. In the time it's taken for some to finish Bachelors and Masters programs I've had to slog for an Associates degree.

There's no question that some of the delays in the process have been my fault. Some, possibly more of the issues have come as a result of the people that I've had to deal with. Over the last 4 years there have been 7 different trips that I've tried to join. One was successful, the rest were not, which is slightly over 14 percent. That's kind of a terrible percentage but means I'm 50% of the way to finishing the remaining requirements. Through it all I've remained diligent and have kept working to try to finish it out.

Since Jan 1 alone there have been three different location teams I've tried to join. The first was Paraguay then some time before the end of the March that opportunity evaporated without a word. So I figured out another option - Honduras. This team is all set to go but because of the timing of my finding out that I had to figure out a substitute and the amount of time that it took for the school to process some forms I didn't think that I would be able to make that work with my job and being able to get a visa and everything else which would be required.

So door #3 then. After, as always.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Shadows

I've been thinking about this topic since Easter, but have been occupied with other things in my post work time. Fortunately it's not something that's time sensitive, quite the opposite in fact.

Shadows are something that follow each of, in the direction away from light. Yes, I know that's a pretty obvious fact.

Shadows are also something that some people live in. Whether it be the shadow of family legacy or a dream in this respect it seems to be negatively regarded.

And there is also the shadows in which things are kept secret. Hidden away from people for reasons that only the one living in such a way can understand, if even they could understand it.

But the shadow that I've been thinking about is at best only partially related to those options, it's the shadow of the Cross.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

2 month review

I've never gone this route with a post before but it's been a pretty eventful 2 months for me so I figured doing something new was a great way to approach it.

Well here goes!

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Walking Dead S6.9 interpretation and reaction

Over the last few years I've steered away from commenting about movies, TV shows or music regardless of my personal affection or disdain for any of the applicable medias. For one day and one day only I think, I'm going to break that trend.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a big fan of TWD. If you're like my parents and aren't too connected with popular culture or you don't have cable so you haven't seen it then you may not know what that is. It stands for The Walking Dead. And yes I know there are people who may have seen it and didn't like it, but for the time being I'm just going to disregard ya'll.

It's a TV show that airs on Sunday nights on AMC for 16 weeks a year, not counting the many days during the year that AMC goes through Walking Dead marathon. And that does happen several times a year. It's one of the most popular shows on TV.

But maybe you're asking yourself why I'm breaking a streak that goes back many years, to the days of the old name for this blog?
Well, the second half of the sixth season just premiered last Sunday. I would have gotten to this earlier but with my new work schedule and the fact that I'm putting an emphasis on a new blog that I started last weekend, I just haven't had time. The episode was just too good to not do a write up about. But more on that after the break.

Please note, there will be spoilers if you haven't seen the episode yet.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Resolution

I don't feel comfortable drawing a line between hope and resolution as if choosing to hope, or not, determines how things go, because that would put me on the thrown meant only for the uncreated one.  But I can't help to think that choosing to hope in difficult situations can make things happen at a more rapid pace.
Choose hope ---> think clearly----> make good choices. Trust God for the rest.
Well, as quickly as things seemed to be going out of control, there seems to already be some return to equilibrium.
I'll explain more after the jump, as usual!

Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Losing Life

So there's a reason that I've been thinking so much about hope the last few days, I've come to the realization that life is full of losses and gains.
To say it accurately I probably first recognized it a few years ago when I experienced the first period of condensed, significant loss. The experiences back then left me in a pretty dark place but as I've been told and personally discovered, I learn from the things that happen so as to avoid the same mistakes in the future.
Making mistakes is unavoidable and I wouldn't want to avoid them but making exactly the same mistakes is foolish but I'm no fool.
Loss isn't always the result of mistakes though, some times they are the result of the fallen nature in which we all exist.
Whatever the cause, loss is something we all have to know how to manage.
But then comes the x factor that is Jesus. More after the jump!

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Hope

I've touched on the topic of hope briefly in some posts lately. I did so because I see a direct correlation between New Years and hope. Looking to the future, wanting things better and brighter - hope. Truth is, hope that is lasting and real can only be found in Jesus.
Life is difficult and I'm not going to paint some bed of roses picture that just because someone follows Jesus, everything will get easy and better. Incorrect. Things get tougher following Jesus. Tougher but better.
He is the hope for all people.
I've always found music to be comforting when things get tough and hope is harder to hold onto. For that reason I'm gonna proceed with a couple songs that seem to hit on the hope of Jesus pretty well.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Fundamental differences

To say I've always been different is an understatement but is also very accurate. Coming from a very athletic and sports heavy family, my interest for the early part of my life was limited to the games that my siblings were in and on a limited basis on that. I got into Boy Scouts and theater instead.
Most people I grew up around liked to do things, liked to have people around. I've pretty much always like smaller groups, if having other people around at all. I'm fine just kicking back by myself and watching tv.
Those are a couple small examples but yeah, I'm different - by choice and just as fact.
As I've gotten older it's fundamentally changed though. I'll explain what I mean after the jump.