modern day parable

The past week I spent in Baltimore and had plenty of time at night to read and think about different things. One of the books I read made an interesting inquiry. In the Bible, the first Christians were labeled that by outsiders as the outsiders saw them following Christ and labeled them as Christians. Now days, people label themselves as Christians, but would outsiders still label many of these people as Christians by watching their actions and hearing them speak? This makes me think about how I live my life and if I label myself as a Christian or if others would label me as a Christian that didn't know me.

I also heard a couple analogies that really intrigued me. They almost seem to me to be like a modern day parable. When someome enters the military, they must follow all kinds of rules and are not allowed to say what you want and don't want to do. Why is Christianity not like this? Why can Christians determine which of God's commandments we want to follow and which ones we don't. We don't question the rules of the military so why do we question the commandments of Christianity?

The second analogy I heard was following God is like going the opposite direction on an escalator. If we just stand still, we are going to drift further away from our destination. In order to get to our destination, we must pursue it and walk in the opposite direction that a lot of people are going. It probably won't be easy and we may get a lot off weird looks, but we must continue to pursue the destination in order to get there. In no way am I perfect, in fact I would say that I'm standing still most of the time, but I think this gives Christians something to think about each day as we go through our daily lives.

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend, I drove across the most boring place on Earth (western Nebraska) to get to a small little Nebraska town. The reason, going to a good friend's wedding. I got there and was really hoping to have a good time. I needed a good break away from everything that was going on at home. So I got there and met up with Justin and all the other groomsman. It was wonderful catching up with everyone. Then we went to rehearsal and met Jill (his new wife), her bridesmaids, and all the family that was there. Everyone was very friendly and made me feel completely at home. We listened to some really bad jokes by the pastor and enjoyed a beautiful night outside. On the way to the rehearsal dinner, we may have gotten a little lost, drove around town and even watched a marching band getting ready to enter a Friday night high school football game. The dinner was awesome with some great food and a lot of fun conversation with old friends and people that would become new friends. We went back to Justin's place and 'the guys' hung out and had a great time together. Although sleep was at a minimum that night! I woke up early the next morning, too early, and we proceeded to make a wonderful breakfast! The rest of the morning was pretty laid back as we got checked into the hotel, ate lunch, and got ready for the rest of the day.

We then got to Jill's house (the location of the wedding) and got ready for pictures. This is when I became known as "the green guy." I had a green vest on and so for pictures the picture lady called me by the color of my vest. I didn't mind at all though :) Although I normally hate taking pictures, I actually didn't mind taking pictures this time. The group of people made it fun to be taking the pictures! The wedding itself followed and was a beautiful ceremony. After the ceremony, and after being attacked by a swarm of gnats, we took a ride into town on a big green tractor and hayride. Although the driver of the tractor was pretty bad (thanks Justin ;)) it was a pretty fun ride into town. I can't remember the last time people stared at me like I was a complete fool :) The food at the wedding reception was amazing, especially the potatoes!! Some more fun followed as we ate and talked. Then came the wedding dance. For anyone that knows me, I'm a white guy, therefore a terrible dancer! Luckily the first dance was a slow one so i could ease my way into the dancing for the night!! :) I got to dance with my awesome new friend...aka "the green girl." After this I proceeded to dance a little more and probably got some really bad pictures of me!! The dance got over and it was finally time for bed! Good thing cause I was really tired and even though I only slept for 5 hours before getting up and heading home, it was really needed. Even though I barely slept the whole weekend, it was a great weekend and I really wish I could have stayed and hung out with everyone a lot more!!

Regret

I always hear people say "Live in the present, don't regret things from the past." I don't think it's good to carry regrets, but I have a hard time not regretting things in my past. There are things that I still think about and regret from when I was in high school, as well as regrets from just the following week. How do I learn to not regret things I have done or haven't done? Most of my regrets are not things that I've done, but things that I haven't done. All of my life I've been afraid of not being good at something or being rejected, and therefore haven't taken many risks. I've always lived on the safe side. I thought of this as I was listening to a song by my favorite artist Chris Cagle called "The Safe Side"

Have you ever wondered what life would be like
If you'd only went left instead of taking that right
If you had waited just ten more minutes to leave the house
Would it all be different
Every decision everything we choose has a consequence whether we win or lose
Nobody knows that any better than me
I left her standing at the station with a ticket and a dream

She's the train that I didn't take
The big commitment I just couldn't make
For fear of breaking my heart, I didn't risk the ride
She's the lesson I learned the hard way
Now being lonely is the price I pay
The river of regret runs deep and wide
Here on the safe side

I still remember the night she left
She said she didn't want to lose me, but she had to find herself
I could've stopped her or got on board with her
But now it's too late to reconsider
She's the train that I didn't take
The big commitment I just couldn't make
For fear of breaking my heart, I didn't risk the ride
She's the lesson I learned the hard way
Now being lonely is the price I pay
The river of regret runs deep and wide
Here on the safe side
Sometimes the greatest risk of all
Is never taking one at all
She's the train that I didn't take
The big commitment I just couldn't make
For fear of breaking my heart, I didn't risk the ride
She's the lesson I learned the hard way
Now being lonely is the price I pay
The river of regret runs deep and wide
Here on the safe side
Oh I don't want to be alone
Here on the safe side


The one thing I really hope to learn is how to use my regrets to better myself. If I regret not doing something, maybe I will learn to do it next time. If I regret not telling someone something, maybe I will tell them the next time. I just hope that I learn and not let these past regrets just haunt me and not help me to change.

Broken

A little over a week ago, I was completely broken. I was at Lifelight and felt that God was really speaking to me. There was not one particular moment, but over the weekend I just felt a constant presence. For the past year I have barely picked up my bible and basically only prayed every once in awhile when someone asked me to pray for them. Its been a rough time lately and I guess I was just trying to do everything on my own. I don't like letting other people help me and I guess I was not letting God help me either. So when I got home on Sunday night,I turned to Job and started reading and there was a verse that said "shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" I guess that is what I really needed to hear and I just totally broke down before God. This past weekend I spent the weekend in Minneapolis and spent a lot of time in prayer and reading my Bible. I think this really helped me and I'm hoping that this will start me back down the right path. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I'm working on letting other people help me with stuff and taking suggestions. As hard as that is for me, I'm really trying to improve myself and I believe listening to other people may help me to do this!

Strength or Weakness??

There is one thing about me that I know is different than some people. While I am a pretty shy person, I am also very blunt. I am not afraid to say what is on my mind. I think honesty is a great trait to have and have always been proud to say i'm an honest person. I'm starting to wonder though if sometimes being blunt and honest isn't always a good thing. There have been relationships in my life that have ended due to my blunt honesty. There are certain things people don't like to hear and by tellling them these things, they felt the need not to be friends anymore. I know that most of these people were probably not true friends if they couldn't handle me telling them the truth, but it is still hard losing friends. I'm now just trying to figure out where the line is with when and how honest to be with friends. Do I not say something and keep their friendship, or say something and risk losing everything? I just really don't know anymore.

My Week

This week was a vacation week for me. I thought it would be perfect to get away from work, rest and relax my mind, and spend time with old friends. I went down to Des Moines and spent the week there with family and friends. Normally I have a lot of fun and this is extremely relaxing! For some reason, this time wasn't relaxing at all. It didn't seem any different, but I didn't sleep much at all and my mind was racing the whole time. Not on any one thing in particular, but a little bit of everything. I got home today and I now feel both mentally and physically exhausted. Now I'm off again tomorrow to start another week of work. I don't know how to recover from being exhausted like this as I don't know that I've ever been both mentally and physically exhausted like this.

Pet Peeve #1

Well I'm a pretty laid back person most of the time, but I do have a few pet peeves. One of my biggest pet peeves is when you call someone, leave a message for them to call you back and they never return your call. Not only is this frustrating, but extremely rude as well. It doesn't matter if this is at work or personal, it is still terrible. This week I called someone and asked them to call me back regarding a work project. They didn't return my call after a few days so I called again and left another message. Finally by the end of the week I tried calling again. This time they answered the phone and told me that it wasn't them that I needed to get ahold of. I actually needed to contact someone else. So I wasted an entire week trying to get ahold of the wrong person, when all it would have taken was a call back and I would have been able to move on a lot sooner. Now i'm just behind. The same goes for personal calls as well. I understand people are busy, but its at least respectful to let the person know you are busy and can't talk.

The Dream

Last night I had possibly the best dream I've ever had! The dream started with me getting a new job offer. I was offered a job in the front office of the Atlanta Braves. First off, I love baseball so this was great, but secondly, the Braves are my favorite team so it was great! I was also excited to move south and get away from Midwest winters! The first day on the job I was told that as a new employee, I got to throw out the first pitch of their game that day. This is one of the things I've always wanted to do! I also got asked to sit in the dugout during the game. After the Braves won the game, Chipper Jones came up and asked if I wanted to go out with the team. The next day I got to the ballpark and there waiting for me was the girl of my dreams (no pun intended) :) So I took her on a tour of the ballpark and then we spent the day together. So this was pretty much the best dream ever!! I just wish the dream would come true!!!!!!!

The Welfare System

Just thinking about the current Welfare System today as I walked through Hy-Vee. I watched as multiple people used either welfare checks or food stamps to pay for their groceries. I then watched as these same people went out to their cars that were worth twice as much as mine. I also looked at the kids that were wearing designer clothes. The adults were not only buying the items on their welfare checks, but also cigarettes and alcohol. Now I'm not saying that I spend my money wisely all the time and make purchases that make sense, but I also don't rely on the government to pay for my groceries. I believe the government really needs to look at the welfare system and revise it. I know the government has requirements to be on welfare, but I don't believe these requirements do justice. There are people that use welfare wisely and really need it. I have no problem with the government helping these people out, but there are others I believe shouldn't receive help. I knew a guy from college that received food stamps because he qualified, even though his family was very wealthy. I don't believe it is only the government's fault though. I think people need to take responsibility for their actions. If you need assistance, by all means take it, but only if you actually need it. There are many other things the government needs to do, but I believe this is one thing that should be looked at in the next few years!

The Flightmate

The past 2 weeks I have been on travel for work in Baltimore. During this time I also spent some time traveling to D.C. as well. It was a lot of fun, but lots of work at the same time. On Friday, I got to the airport and prepared to leave for home. I got on the plane and waited to see who would be sitting next to me. This is always interesting. Will I get someone that doesn't want to talk, a little kid, or someone that would take up both their seat and mine. I waited until the plane was almost completely boarded, when an elderly gentleman sat down right next to me. I wasn't sure what to expect when he sat down and was completely surprised how much of an impact this gentleman would have on me. Even though I was sitting by the window, he looked out the window like a little kid on their first flight. His arms and legs were shaking like he was nervous, but I could tell it was not nervousness. The plane took off and he continued to look outside and move around. Finally after we had completed our takeoff, the gentleman finally spoke. We completed the usual small talk and he proceeded to tell me about his trip. He was going to visit his daughter who was graduating with her doctorate degree. He continued telling me more about his life and I realized he had had a very tough life. One of his kids died and his wife had a severe case of Alzheimers and passed away a few years ago. All through this, he kept a positive attitude and looked forward to what was next in life. Next week is his 87th birthday and he truley believes that life is too short to not have a positive attitude. He told me that he loves flying and every time he fully enjoys it because he never knows when it will be his last. My conversation with this gentleman really made me think about all the things I take forgranted. So my goal for this week is to really think about things and enjoy everything I do, even though it may not be the best situation!

First ever blog!!

So I decided to start myself a blog. Everyone that knows me knows that I have a lot of opinions and am not always afraid to express them. So I decided that I would start a blog. I came to this conclusion while I was in D.C. this past weekend and had a good conversation with a girl in a coffee shop there about politics. It was interesting hearing the other views on different subjects. So if anyone has any suggestions about what they would like me to write about please let me know. Oh and don't be afraid to comment on my posts cause i'd love to hear everyone's views!! :) More to come!!