The Hobbit Review

If you have read the book then you will like it.  If you haven't read the book and are expecting a movie like the 3 LOTR movies then you will possibly be disappointed.  If you haven't read the book and are not expecting a movie like the other 3, you will like it. 

The reason you may not like it is because it has a different flavor than the other movies.  If you have read the books then you will understand that The Hobbit was written for kids, pretty much.  It is a very lighthearted book while the LOTR are very much not quite like that. 

With my limited knowledge of the book I was scared about how they were going to drag it out into 3 movies; being afraid that they were just making it into a blockbuster film for the money.  I was very pleasantly surprised and found that the reason that it is 3 movies is because of all the detail they put into it.  In my experience, it followed the book more closely than any other movie that follows a book.  It was incredible, there were so many quotes that I knew just because I knew the book.  And the song, "Misty Mountains," is phenomenal.  The editing was also pretty sweet, I super enjoy that.  I also enjoyed the 3D.  The only other 3D movies I have seen were UP and The Green Lantern, and both of them were horrible 3D.  So it surpassed my expectations.
Well, the real reason that I wanted to put this up was to share this picture I found on imgur.

It's a LOTR Calvin & Hobbes!  The best thing ever!!!

Obligatory Bucket List

1. Record 8 seconds a day for a month and compile it into a single video. Video here.
2. Record 5 seconds a day for two months and compile into a single video. Video here.
3. Record 1 second a day for a year and compile into a single video.
4. Take a picture of myself in the same position every day for a year.
5. Write a song that I really enjoy.
6. Be able to do sweeps on the guitar.
7. Be the vocalist in a hardcore band.
8. Start a church.
9. Start a youth program.
10. Have people read this blog.
11. Move to Germany.
12. Change a kid's life.
13. Own a house.
14. Become engaged.
15. Become married.
16. Become a father.
17. Become a grandfather.
18. Become buried.
19. Get to heaven.
20. Get some of my thoughts published.
21. Work in a coffee shop.
22. Own a coffee shop.
23. Finish college. http://on.fb.me/1PQqDyX
24. Finish college with at least a 3.5.
25. Get hired as a youth pastor.
26. Become a member of AICP (American Institute of Certified Planners).
27. Move twice.
28. Run a half-marathon. http://bit.ly/1cCiluQ
29. Run a marathon.
30. Be able to wake up at 6 or earlier without wanting to sleep all day.
31. Hike the Appalachian Trail.
32. Camp outside in the winter, in the woods, by myself.
33. Own a well-behaved dog.
32. Climb a 14'er besides Pikes Peak.  Democrat, Cameron, and Lincoln http://bit.ly/1WMAihp
33. Land a backroll on the wakeboard.
34. Land a 360 on the wakeboard.
35. Take up biking. http://bit.ly/1Wrnklx
36. Do a triathlon.
37. Read through the whole Bible.
38. Make friends in Europe to visit.
39. Don't get overweight (or become not overweight if overweight has been becomst).
40. Make up a new word. Becomst.
41. Learn German.  To the fluential maximum.
42. Bike trip- HVA -> Bay Port, MI -> Hopedale, IL -> HVA
... (to be continued)

Places I have been, things I have done:

Some Thoughts On Dec. 14, 2012

*Keep in mind these are the thoughts and beliefs of a junior in college, not a theologian*

What do we do about this?
How could we have prevented it?

These are the questions that have been asked since the moment that the shooter entered Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday. 

I have heard a lot of good ideas and a lot of bad ideas.  There are those that say that gun control should be increased because then the shooter never would have had the guns (in this case it may be correct, seeing as the shooter seems to have a mental disorder as described in this article, take that for what you will).  Others say that gun control should be lessened so that those with concealed permits may have the lawful right to carry in schools, thus protecting themselves and the students.  Not that I desire to delve too deeply into this, but I will simply say that I am not against hunting but I am definitely against the availability of assault rifles to citizens, even with background checks.  I believe WV Senator, Joe Manchin sums that up pretty well.  Now, I happen to be one who also believes that killing is wrong in any sense of the word, which means to me that concealed weapons are not the solution.  I believe it is possible to prevent situations such as the shooting with no death required on either part.  One of these solutions being what Marylin Manson said about the Columbine shooters, that he "would listen to them, which no one else did." Now this wouldn't work in every situation, of course, but many of those other situations can be addressed by John Howard Yoder's book, What Would You Do? (Great book, great read, great discussion, great thoughts, great feels, etc) Death will happen in this world no matter how much we push for peace; but dang-it, we can try!  And we are called to try (as Christians, that is).  End of that subject.

Now, I've heard a lot of people say that the reason this happened is because we took God out of our schools.  Shut up!  This pains me so much.  If you are naive enough to think that God isn't in schools just because public prayer isn't allowed then you don't know much about how God works (not that I know much either, I guess it would be better to say you don't know much about the beliefs of true Christianity...) and you shouldn't be throwing those words about carelessly.  God isn't in legislature, God isn't in laws, God isn't in the government, God doesn't stay within little boundaries that man has put on Him (He proved this with the healing of Naaman, and sending Elijah to the widow in Zarephath, and countless other ways).  God is in each and everyone of us (Luke 17:21).  He is in the people who run the government, He is in the people who enact the laws against them, He is in the atheist principle that cracks down when they see a student praying.  He goes where He pleases and, as is accepted by most all God-fearing people, this means that He is everywhere.

Ok, that little rant done, I (almost) apologize if my words were too brash for anyone.

Now, in all honesty, I believe that God (and Christianity) will flourish in atmospheres where He is limited by man's vain conceit, by laws enacted against Him, and in environments where people try and push their reasoning over His.  Examples from the past include the Anabaptist's in Europe in the 1500's, the early church (you know, the one that Jesus started, was persecuted by the Roman Empire, yeah, that one), and now this school in Connecticut.  God flourished within the likes of Vicki Soto, who hid her students in a closet and took the bullets herself, leaving all of her students unharmed.  God flourished within the community and country that surrounded the families of those who lost loved ones.  God flourished within Robbie Parker as he extended his love towards the shooter and the shooter's family.  And I guess you could say that God flourished when Obama quoted the Scripture, and all these people calling for God to be brought back into schools.  (Here is a video of Mike Huckabee talking about this, I was sort of wary of it at first, but take it for what you will (sorry about all the links)) Leave God out of public schools, but put God back in our personal lives.  Public education should probably be unbiased in any way, no matter what we think.  There are private schools for our Christianity to be taught, if that is so desired.  That isn't what the public school system was made for.  Once Christianity is taught in the public schools, then every other religion needs to be taught as well. 

But these people that state that the reason for the shooting was God not being allowed in school are off-base.  Now, I am going to proceed with a short discussion on free-will and what I believe it is.  I have seen many posts from those against the Christian faith who find this a very weak statement about why we believe that God "allowed" this to happen.  Well, if this is our faith, then how is that weak?  That is the way that it is, that is how God created us.  It is something that we do not understand fully and debate about within Christianity and we (should) understand how these debates make those outside of Christianity think it is a fallacy.  But this is what I believe, and I believe strongly in it.  There isn't anything weak about it.  But I digress incoherently.
So, this free will thing.  My belief is as follows.  I guess the best way to describe this is to use the word "destiny." In this sense it is sort of predestination, but it differs.  I believe that God has a "destiny" that he has for each of us, yet it is up to us to decide whether we want to fulfill that "destiny" fully, partly, not at all, or fight that "destiny." In the case of atrocities such as this, it would be fighting.

Now back to the original thoughts.  Just one more.  I saw a quote that "Morgan Freeman" said, (I use quotations because I don't know if he really said it) he said that we shouldn't remember the shooter because that is what can encourage people to want to commit these atrocities in the future, for the recognition.  He said, rather, that we should remember at least one name of the victims.  Honour those victims, the families deserve that.  Vicki Soto is the name that rings in my head, namely because of her selfless act.  Another is Jack Pinto.  It doesn't matter who you remember, just remember the victims.

That's about all I have.  I really just wanted to write these down to organize them better.  Feedback is appreciated.  I expressed my opinions here, and that is that.




*Disclaimer: This link contains strong language*  Chris Rock on gun control.  Not my exact thoughts, I just laughed.  Because Chris Rock.

La Dispute - "Nine" Live Violitionist Session

La Dispute - "Nine" Live Violitionist session

Video of song. ^  Right der.

"I recall once on the church steps,

When I moved to kiss your chest,

How we paid such close attention

To each sweet and stuttered breath,

I should've stopped to paint our picture,

Captured honest pure affection,

Just to document the difference

between attraction and connection.

I can see all of my friends and

I break into empty buildings,

When the coast was clear,

With backpacks full of beer,

We'd throw our bottles from the rooftops

At this city-it looked endless.

Guess I still don't see the difference

between real purpose and that urgent adolescence.

And I remember in a basement sharing sweat

With all these stranger boys and girls,

“We'll change the world!” We sang,

“We'll change the world!” But,

Nothing seems to change and

They say none of them will listen,

But I still see much more power in that basement

than in worthless politicians.

And if we get beaten by this winter,

If we get strangled by regret, just

Let our love of life and tension

Gasp in sweet and stuttered breaths, and

Have them throw us in a basement,

Smash some bottles on the ground, and

Say we never knew the difference

between the feeling and the sound.

Remember not our faulty pieces,

Remember not our rusted parts,

It's not the petty imperfections that define us but

The way we hold our hearts,

And the way we hold our heads,

I hope they write your name beside mine

on my gravestone when I'm dead.

And when we are dead let our voices carry on

To find a better song.

To find a better song and sing along."

There are many parts of this song I would like to write about.

Each stanza has something powerful in it, which is a reason I like this band a lot.

In the first stanza, he talks about the difference between attraction and connection and how he wants to paint a picture of it.  Don't we all?  When we are in that moment where we feel truly connected to someone and not just physically attracted to them, we just want to capture it.  Because nothing can or has captured it. 

Second stanza he says he doesn't see the difference between real purpose and urgent adolescence.  I love this line, because when is purpose better defined than when in your youth?  Your dreams are endless, just like the city he is looking down on.  You feel like you can accomplish anything, and whatever God has put you here to do, you feel as though you will accomplish it.  But when you get older and get your "real purpose" it is often so much different and less fulfilling.  But your true purpose you found in adolescence.  Youth have the power to change the world.

Third stanza he talks about the powerful energy of a group of strangers that come together (this sounds like he is at a sweet concert or something) and have a huge desire to change the world and he sees more potential in them to change the world than in "worthless" politicians.  Hah, that's awesome.  Because dang it, it it's true.  I see so much more change happening through those who see an injustice and bring it to light and do something about it than I see our government doing.  The only way they seem to be able to handle problems is with the army, and our political system is corrupted by these democrats and republicans who are more loyal to their parties than to the interests of the nation in general or their ethics.  Gah.

Fourth stanza he says love of life and tension and the feeling and sound of shattered bottles.  There needs to be tension in our life because we should be fighting for what we believe.  This will bring on pain, verbally (the sound of bottles) and sometimes physically (the feeling of bottles) and emotionally (both).  I guess.  This one makes sense in my mind, but not quite written out...

Last stanza "It's not the petty imperfections that define us but the way we hold our hearts and the way we hold our heads."  Don't remember my mistakes, my rusty parts, but remember how I fought through those mistakes and how I fought through my imperfections to achieve that which I one day achieve.  And for you, if you have these imperfections and faults and rusty pieces, don't let them define you.  Become more than that, hold your head and heart up high, fight through it, and do what God has you here to do.  Like the second stanza.

Word.

Great song, even though a little different, still great.

I other news, my cast is off and I now have a brace, but here is my arm!

Also, I have been saving these gifs up for a new blog, but I haven't blogged in awhile so here they are all at once.

Ibrohimovic is a beast.

Gazelle gets owned.

Yup

Simplicity?

Why are we so content with our lives?  Why do Christians just sit where they are and, even though they are promoting good and “fighting” for a change in the world, we are so content with what we have and we don’t want to give up the luxuries that we have and go to help those who need it?  There are some who do, and we celebrate those who do, but it is so hard for us to do it ourselves.  Yet that is what Christ commands us to do.  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  We know this, yet we don’t do it.  Churches don’t even preach on simplicity anymore because people would hate to listen to that message and, chances are, the very pastor who would be preaching that sermon does not practice it.  I wonder what would happen if a pastor in an affluent church would preach a sermon on simplicity and how important it is to forego our worldly possessions and work to spread the love of Christ.  What would happen? Would people be mad, would they say the pastor is twisting the words of the Bible?  Or would it start a change?

On another note, what is the definition of simplicity in today’s culture?  Jesus told the rich young man to sell everything he had so that he could be called a son of God, that was what simplicity meant to Jesus.  Yet today our simplicity consists of not having the newest HD TV, or the newest Ipad, or the biggest house, or a nice car.  But Jesus taught to sell everything.  That is a little different from the simple life that we Christians live in today’s society.

I am not saying that I have this down, not at all.  I am currently typing on a Macbook Pro, I have three guitars and three guitar amps, I have tee-shirts up the wazoo, I have a 32” flat screen TV, I have more shoes than I know what to do with.  That is not simplicity.  It isn’t what Jesus preaches.  And because of this I am stretched for money.  But how can I give these things up?  Well, I could give up the shoes and the shirts pretty easy, I definitely don’t need those, but everything else?  I am attached to them, I paid for them, they are mine.  I don’t want to give them up.  But maybe I can give up part of my things, I don’t know.

If we look at the Amish, or the Quakers, there is some simplicity in this culture.  But is God calling us to have so much simplicity that we separate ourselves from the culture and, therefore, forgo most of the witness that may have with those in our society that have a lot of possessions.  I don't believe it. Yet, at the same time, are we so eager to not offend anybody with the Gospel that we tell them that they can have anything and everything they want as long as they believe.  I don't think that is what the Bible teaches.

What I want to do in life is not something that is going to make me rich, it isn't something that will give me an affluent status in life, and that is what I want.  Does that mean simplicity?  Does simplicity mean stretching to make ends meet our entire lives?  Or does it mean something different? What does it mean?

Feel free to help me out with this.

Proverbs 20:5  "The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, 

but a man of understanding draws them out."

I Google imaged "simplicity" to find a picture to go along with this, and I found the one at the top, but I also found this one.

Is this what simplicity means?

Do less, have less, for yourself?

Or is it to do less, have less, for others?

There is a difference between what this world sees as simplicity and what Christians are supposed to see.

"Live simple so others may simply live" is one way I have heard it put.

 

Life, love, liberty, and conflict minerals.

So, what is life?
What is love?
What is liberty?
And what are conflict minerals?

Well, I will get back to the first three, but conflict minerals are minerals from Africa (in this case, the Congo) that are being mined and sold and the revenue is being used to fund the armies (rebel and government) that are around the area fighting for control.  Well, the revenue isn't exactly, well, it partly is, but mostly it is the high taxes that the armies impose on the people that live and work in the mines. 
So these minerals are then used to make our phones, or computers, or etc. etc.  You know, stuff that us first world countries have and, literally, cannot make a decent living without anymore.
Why does this pertain to you and I?  Because we are the consumers of these products that are being made to finance wars, basically.  And to support slavery, because that is what happens in these mines.  Slavery. 
So yeah, this is a little scrambled, but here is my main point.
Pressuring these big corporations (like Nokia) to use conflict-free resources is a good thing, and and important thing, and I think that it needs to be done.  But realistically, that will just be an endless cycle.  I don't know for sure, I haven't done research on it, but I feel like there aren't enough conflict-free resources around for companies to not use conflict-minerals without prices going extremely high and everybody complaining.  Yeah, the companies may stop buying from suppliers that they know use conflict-minerals, but once they start using another supplier and this huge demand comes onto this supplier and the new supplier realizes that it needs to reach out somewhere else to fulfill this demand, where will it look?  Well, inevitably it will most likely look back to conflict-resources, because they are most readily available and they produce a lot.  So yes, stopping the use of conflict-resources by means of pressuring companies is a good thing, but isn't a long-term solution in the eyes of myself ("myself" being junior in college who hasn't done any first-hand research but goes off of what I hear other people (seemingly reputable sources) saying and intuition).
So where do I find the means to end this horrible thing?
Education.
Not just education for us, or education to be abundant in our country or other first world countries, but in third world countries.  And not done solely by us, but teaching those in third world countries how to become teachers, so that they can provide more jobs other than working in the mines.  More jobs need to be available in the country (I have no solution for that myself, except by providing teaching jobs) and people need to be educated to know that working in the mines is funding the very wars that they are trying to escape.  Of course, this leads to needing more job opportunities in the countries, which again, I have no solution for.  But people need an alternative to doing the jobs that are funding the wars which are killing their people.
So yeah, this was a very conjumbled blogpost thinger.  I apologize.  It was hastily contrived after viewing the film "Blood in the Mobile" and learning about this topic and before going to sleep.
I will leave you with one last thought on this subject, think about it.  Think about what can be done about it.  Whether this means pressuring the corporations or doing the dirty work going into the countries and educating people, or something else, what is it that you see needs to be done about it?  Just think about it.  If you want to go further than thinking to doing, then great, if not, oh well.  But at least think about humankind.


I cooked today.  Like, a ferreal dish of food.  For the first time, by myself, in this suite.  It was very good, but my beans were squeaky.  Here is picture.

Or two.  I guess I didn't mean to put two there, but it happened.  It is Barbequed Green Beans.  Yumm!

EMU

Well, moved into EMU, I'm all settled in, finally got my internet working this morning, I my first sort of soccer practice today, made my first actual thing, I'm ready for the year.  I guess.  I'm excited for this year a lot.  I'm excited to be on a soccer team with pleasant guys who have a passion for the game, I'm excited to get started on a new major, and I am excited to meet some new frands.  I am also nervous to meet new frands, cause I almost feel content with the frands that I have.  But I really wanna meet new frands.  I like frands.  Ok, I will stop spelling it frands now.  I will meet some new friends, and I have.  So that is good.
So the doctor hasn't given the official written or verbal permission to the trainers for me to play, so I can't really play yet.  Hopefully tomorrow I will.  But today I got a few touches on the ball and ran a bunch.  I am really out of shape, it's bad.  But that's what happens with 2 straight weeks of couch potatoeing.  I have also never been so self conscious of my soccer playing before.  I want to make a good impression cause I missed all of preseason and just came in with a spot on the team, but I haven't played any quality soccer in such a long time I am rusty and I get embarrassed with all my mishaps.  Such is life. 
I am still alive, by the way.  And I like food.  Speaking of food, here is a picture of my supper.

It was very good.  Hamburger, onions, pees, and an egg.  Yumm!
Have a nice day.  God is good, that is for sure.
Oh, my roommates are awesome, even the one I didn't know and the one that I didn't know I would have.  One reason God is so good.

Movin' Out (again)

So I just loaded up the family car to move out for the third time, but this time I am headed out to Virginia to Eastern Mennonite University instead of Hesston, Kansas.  (By the way, I can type with two hands now!)
I can't even really express my disappointment over the fact that I am leaving tomorrow in the car.  I should be practicing soccer, halfway through hell-week in Virginia already, but instead I am sitting on my butt recovering.  I also should be driving my cycle through the mountains on the way there with just the bare necessities along, instead I packed up all my things into the car to sit in the passenger seat all the way there. (I can't really drive very well with this cast...)  Man, I am really disappointed.  It just was not supposed to turn out this way.  This was supposed to be an awesome year for soccer for me, I was in the best shape of my life, I was kicking a ball around regularly, I was pumped to play with a bunch of guys that will take the game seriously, but instead I got thrown 2 weeks back, physically, and one week back from traveling with this stupid broken wrist.  This wasn't supposed to happen this way.  I am frustrated and disappointed and consumed in utter disbelief at the fact that it happened to me.  I can't help but ask the question, "Why?"  And I have so many forms of that question running through my head.  "Why did it have to happen to me?  Why did it have to happen now?  Why couldn't it have happened at the beginning of summer so I could have caught back up at the end?  Why did it have to happen at a time where it threw all my plans out of wack?  Why did it have to make me leave a week later for college?  Why did it have to happen the very last time I was driving my cycle to church?  Why does it have to cause me so much pain?  Why couldn't I have just missed the car and kept the bike upright?  Why did I have to go at that exact time to the church?  Why didn't I get hurt worse?  Why was it only my wrist?  Why was it only a bone that will still allow me to play soccer?  Why did it happen at home instead of on the way to Virginia?  Why am I so bitter when I could have died?"  I could go on and on with these questions, but I feel as though you get the point.  I am just really disappointed, and I know that I can grow from this experience in my faith, I just can't let the bitterness consume me.
I am reading The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis right now and in one chapter he talks about how humans can be very peevish about this thing called "time." The future is the most unsure thing (the farthest thing from eternity), the present is the moment where eternity and time intersect (according to him), and the past is the most sure thing.  But we have this notion that we "own" our time.  One of the best ways for Satan to pry his way into our lives is by taking our time away.  Whether it is just a few moments of the day which we thought that we would have to ourselves, or in my case, a whole week where I thought I could be playing soccer and meeting new people.  This gets taken away from us and we go into a spiral of frustration and, in my case, apathy.  I am just very apathetic about about everything right now because I am not doing what I wanted to be doing.  If, instead of pouting about what I am not doing and wallowing around in self-pity, I picked myself up and got back to life and looked to see how God wanted me to use this extra week maybe I would have had a different experience, and maybe I still will.  I just need to have patience, and look for God's timing and His work.  But it is hard.
I just thought of all that just now, but it is true.
In other news, I have a doctors appointment in Harrisonburg on Friday at 8:30 to have them look at (and hopefully schedule a surgery for) my wrist.  Hopefully I will be getting my surgery sometime next week during the first weeks of class and then I could be out playing soccer in just a couple weeks.  We will see how it all goes down.  God is good all the time.  And all the time God is good.  I just need patience.
Incidentally, I ran two miles today and started off at my normal pace from two weeks ago, I ended up walking after a mile and a half.  Shoot. 
Make it a good day, and check out this lad taking a super chill picture after such a harrowing experience!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Last Airbender.

So, first off, I have had an immobilized wrist for 6 days and am already entertaining thoughts of cutting it off.  The cast, of course, not my wrist, for how would I be able to the things I love with no wrist?  Twould be a difficult life, 2 hands and 1  wrist, and doesn't sound like the life for me.  I also hear that amputees have this thing called "phantom limb" where they can 'feel' the body part that is no longer.  Naturally, that scares me, although it is an interesting phenomenon to my brain.  Also, my writings are wanting to be shorter and farther apart, for it is difficult to type with one hand.  However, this helps my thought process and I thoroughly have enjoyed my past 8 posts, so I must bear the pain.  Rawr, like a bear.

So, I just read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky in the past 4 hours, and talk about an interesting book.  I just now saw that it is being made into a movie to be released September 21.  This must be seen.  I see that Emma Watson is in it as Sam (if you have read it then you know who I am talking about, if not, too bad, you need to read it) and I was a little confused because I thought she has some importance on modesty (greatly admire that if true) and the book is quite risque, but I also see that it is rated PG-13 so I am going to look at something really quick...
I went to look to see if Chbosky (who is also directing the film) took out the sketchy parts to make it more suitable and it sounds like he did.  Watson is quoted as saying, "I wouldn't say it's too risqué, but it's definitely more Hermione than you've ever seen before."  So take that for what you will.  Here is the link for the trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY5EbgJTvI.  Anyway, onto the book.
Most all of it left me feeling weird and confused, so let me explain.  The lifestyle's that the book portrays are definitely not lifestyles I would approve of.  I will do my best not to provide any accidental spoilers.  The confusing thing is that I really appreciated it.  I shouldn't really be so confused because I have frands that have lifestyle's I don't approve of, but I did.  The story is about a kid on the fringe of life who is taken under the wings of a group of seniors and his thought process through the whole thing.  It is a very real book about the issues everybody (at least every guy) faces but from a very unique perspective.  I appreciate it's realness, but I didn't know if I would like the book til it was done and I decided I really did.  It's a hard one to put to words.  I guess my feelings about it can be summed up a couple of ways, starting with this quote, "So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons.  And maybe we'll never know most of them.  But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.  We can still do things.  And we can try to feel okay about them."
The next way is, simply to face ourselves, view ourselves from the outside.  I tend to do this too much, however, but this book made me think.  Do I do it too much or in the wrong way?  But facing ourselves and our pasts is important.
The last way is the paragraph directly following the last quote I shared, just a different idea with it.  "I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset.  And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have.  Good and bad."  This is a very different concept than how we often think about the world, but it makes us think about love and what our love is like.  I don't know, it's just interesting.
"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

This is me after I read this book.  Yay.

So now Avatar: The Last Airbender.  This series made me feel a couple things as well; like I have no life was one, but also confused.  I didn't get confused until the last few episodes, but I will explain that later.  I remember wishing I was an Airbender, and dreaming about it all the time as well.  It was cool.  I think I said before that this was the one series I wished I would have watched this series in its entirety before, but I finished it yesterday, so I guess late is better than never.  Okay, here is why I was confused, bash me for this all you want, it's da twufe.  So, I am a pacifist, and I suddenly realized that the culmination of this series was the death of the Fire Lord.  I often thought much about how they did a good job not showing death in a kids movie, but I never thought about the end.  Suddenly they entered this whole ordeal about Aang killing the Fire Lord and I got scared because if he would kill the Fire Lord then I would be really disappointed in this series for my own reasons and they built it up a bunch like he was going to (sorry for the spoiler).  But then he didn't and I was happy, there is always another way, it may just be really hard to find, you may need a Lion Turtle to show you, and you may have to go against what all your friends say, but there is another way.
I wish I had a Lion Turtle.  Make it a good day.

Interesting picture of bending...

Recovering.

Sitting in my dad's Lazy Boy, feet up, listenin' to music, chillin' alone in the home, writin' a blog, doesn't seem like this life is too bad.  Cept it is.  Cause I was going to leave yesterday for Virginia, so I should driving my motorcycle down the Pennsylvania turnpike about now.  And yet, I sit here wrapped up in bandages and a big black cast taking Advil and antibiotics, typing with one hand.  On the bright side of things, I am almost finished with Avatar: The Last Airbender, I am in book 3, The Fire Kingdom, and I believe Chapter 12: The Western Airtemple.  It's getting pretty exciting, I regret never having finished it before now.  So that is the good side of this, I get to finish Avatar.
Once I get Avatar down I am going to start reading, first I am going to read Conrad Grebel; Son of Zurich by John Ruth and then A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Don Miller.  I have read both books this past year, but it was during school so I didn't get to read it the way I would like to read it, so I am going to again.  Speaking of Don Miller, I need to read Blue Like Jazz.  So yeah, that's my life at the moment.  I am going to bake cookies today I think.  We will see how Avatar goes.  I also switched my major to Business Administration, so I gotta figure out my classes and books for that.  I'm still planning on doing youth ministry, I am just broadening my bases I guess.  We will see where God takes me with that.  You know, this may suck, having to sit here all day and for an extra week (I am also getting surgery once I get to VA) but I still feel more blessed than ever before.  I could be sitting here cause I can't walk (which reminds me, I should climb our stairs or get on our eliptical machine or something, keep my shape), or I could have broken my arm, instead of my wrist, or both wrists, But here I am, barely broken, and God is good.  It is hard for me to think about serious things now, like college and my future, because I am too happy and pleased living in the present.  I want to write something meaningful for me, but it is hard for me to think about something. 
Oh well, it will come.
I enjoy this gif.

Motorcycle Accident and God's Protection

So, many of you may not know, I got in a motorcycle accident on Monday, Aug. 13, 2012 at 2:30pm, close to home in Michigan.  It was pretty intense, and here is the story so people can stop asking what happened and read it themselves.

So yeah, I wrote a fake story first, you can scroll down if you want the real one...



It was really a pretty average drive, and by average I mean that I drove that exact route 6, 7, or 8 times a week, all on my cycle. It was average, that is, until i looked like this -

Rockin' the ER with my chiseled bod... Or my bloody bod, whatever, same thing.

Well, if we are being precise, which I am, it was average until 2 hours and 32 minutes before this picture was taken, give or take 30 seconds. Here is what happened- (I am typing with one hand so who knows what kind of typos there will be)

At 2:30 I was headed down to the church to give pastor Alvin a final evaluation for my internship at the church there when I noticed a white vehicle speeding up behind me.  I slowed down a bit to let them pass and as they pulled out to pass, two of the occupants leaned out the windows.  I could see this in my mirror and got pretty scared at this cause I thought they were going to try and hit me or knock me off the bike or something, but what happened was worse.  They were all wearing black helmets with dark black visors so I couldn't see their faces and then it was kind of like The Fast and the Furious, except different.  Anyway, the two occupants leaning out pulled out some pistols and shot out both of my tires!  At this I went down immediately, got thrown from the bike and rolled across the pavement.  As I was rolling I thought of two things, one - Thank the Lord for helmets, and two - If I can walk when I stop rolling I am going to force these guys to build their own coffins.  Luckily, I couldn't walk (I say luckily because I am supposed to love my enemy, and that wouldn't have been very loving now, would it?), but I could see what these fellas were all about.  Turns out that they were just professional motorcycle thieves!  I saw them lifting my cycle into the bed of their pick-up and I first I was relieved because that meant they weren't kidnappers, which was my first thought. Then I remembered something, "My new sunglasses and clip!!"  You see, I had just bought an exquisite pair of $10 sunglasses from Walmart and a beautiful $5 sunglasses clip/holder from Macy's!  No one in their right mind would want to watch those two immaculate items to fall in the hands of dirty scoundrels such as these.  I had to think fast, the cycle was almost onto their pick-up with my items inside.  Suddenly I had a great idea.  "WAIT!" I screamed as I laid there, broken and hurting from both the thought of not seeing my sunglasses again and the broken bones.  "Wait, you can have all my money in my wallet if you will leave my bike here, for surely that would be a much greater loss to me." You see, I caught onto the fact that these were not just dirty scoundrels, but sadistic kleptomaniacs and were in the game to do as much damage to the victim as possible.  So the ringleader of the trio struts over to me and grunts (clearly trying to mask his voice, think of Bruce Wayne in Batman), "Where is it?"  I must have had a slight concussion because the first words out of my mouth were, "Where is what?  Better yet, where am I!?"  Then, quickly I recovered from my brief bought of amnesia and yelled, "Oh!  My wallet!  It's in my back pocket, right side!"  He reached under my derriere, being much more rough with it than I would have liked, and pulled my wallet out.  Just as he was about to open it I said, "Just take the whole lot for that would do even greater damage, you sadistic fiend!" He must have been pleased with this for he told his wolf-pack to set the motorcycle back on the road and stuck the wallet in his pocket without opening it.  Then, showing the ultimate maturity in the situation, he stuck his keister in my face and shook it around, growling, " Na Na Na Na Na" in the weirdest sing-song voice you can imagine.  He turned around and gave helmet a painfully playful kick, then they hopped in their pick-up and drove off.  I laid there, staring up at the sky and, even amidst the searing pain, I smiled.  Why did I smile?  Because my wallet had no money in it, my license was in my motorcycle, and my credit card was expired.  BADOOM, CHSSHH.

So I don't know where in the world that came from.  I must apologize, I did start writing this with every intention of portraying the actual story when suddenly -BOOM- I was blindsided by creativity.
So here is the real account of my accident.

At 2:30 I was headed down to the church to give pastor Alvin a final evaluation for my internship at the church.  Again, I drove this road 6, 7, or 8 times a week.  It was a very normal drive for me and the scariest thing was usually a dog running out from a specific house.  I is about a6 mile drive.  A car pulled out behind me and I noticed that they were catching up to me.  I was driving about 55-60, belting out The Sinner by Memphis May Fire into the confines of my full faced helmet, and focusing on trying to keep a steady speed.  One thing that annoys me when I want to pass someone is when they don't use cruise control and speed up and down constantly.  So here we are, cruising along, when I notice a minivan ahead of us, in my lane facing me, getting the mail.  I said to myself, "Man, I hope this dude doesn't try to pass me here, for that will cause some dangerous maneuvering to be inevitable."  Of course, he went to pass me, but I was expecting this, so I started to slow down but kept an eye on him, in case he slowed down too.  It would not have been good if we were both trying to slow down or speed up and just hung out next to each other until meeting the van.  Then I saw him slowing down too, so I picked up a little bit of speed to let him in behind me and that is what he did.  Taking my mind back to the minivan, I planned to head around it in the left lane because that is what most people let you do when they are getting the mail.  However, no sooner had I thought this than I noticed the van had backed up completely into the left lane.  My next train of thought was, "I guess they are going to let me go around them in the right lane."  I let off the throttle here because I was a little confused, but I assumed I had an open path around the van.  As I got closer, suddenly the van took off across my lane into the driveway.  If you look at this photo, you can see how close to the driveway I was when they decided to cross the road.  At first I thought they were going to stop and still let me through on the right side, which is why my skid marks head to the right at first.

The van pulled into the driveway on the right and I hit the brakes, obviously.

As soon as the van started across the road a few things flashed through my mind in about half a second.  I reviewed my readings about motorcycle safety, such as separate braking from swerving, how to react to locked up tires, etc.  I also thought about how not too long ago I was thinking about how it might be beneficial to lock up my back tire off the road to see what it felt like.  I never did get that experience until this happened, unfortunately.
Next in the sequence of events was the fact that the van never did stop and I realized that if I kept trying to go to the right that I would collide with the van head on and I knew that was not desirable in any circumstance.  This is where a bit of panic set in because I realized that I would have to swerve and my tires were already locked up, so down I was to go.  I would imagine I was traveling between 50 and 60mph when I locked up my tires.  So I swerved to the left as best I could and felt the bike sliding out from under me when, suddenly, (I may have let up on the brakes) the tires caught the pavement and flipped over (which is this next photo).  We believe this may have been what caused the broken wrist, I was probably holding on pretty tight and when it threw me it wasn't very gentle.

The first mark is either where the bike flipped or hit, then it slid off to the left and ended up on the side of the road.

So, here I was, flying through the air yelling "Frick!"  I remember being worried about the white car behind me for I thought they had two options, hit the van or run me over.  I hit the ground and started rolling.  In the moment I thought about the times I have fallen snowboarding or skiing and rolled down the hill without being able to stop my forward motion and how similar this experience was, except I was on asphalt instead of snow and I was traveling a lot faster, so I rolled a lot longer.  I also remember hitting my face on the ground and thinking I was very thankful for my helmet, I believe my exact thought was, "This helmet is nice."  When friction finally overcame inertia I came to a rest on my stomach with my body on the road and my legs partly off the road.  I laid still a little while and said three distinct words, "Frick, frick, frick."  I slowly rolled over, uncomfortably, onto my back with my backpack at an awkward angle underneath me (my backpack contained my reflection paper, a book, and my jacket.  I almost tossed my computer in there out of habit, but thank the Lord that I didn't).  At this point I didn't feel any pain yet and as I rolled I saw my bike all banged up.

My bike got banged up a little.  See the grass on the left side?

Then I saw the white car and it was untouched and had to thank God that it didn't run me into me or the van.  Then the pain started to hit as I saw people running toward me and I started to understand what happened.  The first person to get to me was a nurse and she knew how to handle the situation, thank the Lord, and asked me questions, did vitals, and called my mother.  At this point I thought that my arm or shoulder was broken because that was the only place I could feel pain.  I was not looking forward to lying there waiting for the emergency response teams to get there but I felt like I hardly had to wait there at all.  They even beat my mom to the scene!  Thank you for your quick response.  So by now I fully understood what happened and had recounted my experience to a couple people.  For some reason they took one of my shoes off, but my mom snagged it, as well as my new $14 watch from Walmart and my phone to give Kendra a call.  They loaded me up into the ambulance and I took my first ambulance ride.  As I was in the ambulance the pain was still there and I sang O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing and prayed, "Lord, give me strength," over and over until we got to the hospital.
I still thought that my arm was broken (especially since one of the EMT's said there was a bulge on it...) and the doctor checked me over and finally I got some pain medication and almost hyperventilating.  Then they ordered x-rays on my shoulder and elbow so I went to go get those done.  As I tried to stand up I grabbed a railing to help me off the bed with my left hand and knew something was wrong, so I asked if they could x-ray that too and they agreed.  Turns out that my shoulder was fine but my wrist was broken!  Kinda funny, but also weird.  My shoulder is just a little sore now, so I am glad it wasn't more serious.  Then the doctor stitched me up (shoved a finger into my cut to fish out gravel, that felt weird!) and proved to me that my shoulder was not broken with a very unnecessary gesture, pulling my arm back behind my head causing excruciating pain.  He was not very nice.  I got a sling and we left the hospital by 5:30.

What a crazy day, and weekend. On Friday I went to Katie Boom's to play Bang!  Saturday I helped mom and Megan get ready for Megan's bridal shower and went to David and Alyssa Maust's wedding openhouse.  Sunday I preached and went to the viewing of my great-uncle Elmer.  Monday I went to the funeral of my great-uncle Elmer and crashed my bike.

Crashing was something that I played in my head quite a lot since I am a new cycle driver, but I never really imagined it would happen to me.  I also figured that since my dad has been driving for so long and nothing substantial has happened to him that I know of that I either wouldn't crash for a long time or not til he did.  Haha.  And even now it does not seem real.  I remember thinking about Kendra as my mom went to call her and wondering how she would react, praying she would be ok.  The nurse was cleaning my wounds at the time and stopped cause she saw a tear and thought she hurt me.  The flashbacks are the worst, though.  Laying in bed these last two nights and waking up from pain, they just kinda hit without warning and I can hear the tires squealing and see the van getting closer and closer in my minds eye.  It isn't something I would wish upon anyone, and I know how blessed I am.  It was scary, really scary.

Most people who get in a motorcycle accident at that speed can hardly walk away at all, let alone with only a broken wrist.  There are so many different ways that I could have died there and hose thoughts keeping coming, I just thank God for my safety.  I don't know why He let me through that with so little problems, but I'm not taking it for granted.  He saved me, that day.  I know He did.  He blessed me in a way that I cannot repay, but that is just another small reason why I must sacrifice my life to Him.  This may have put a dent in my college plans in the near future, but I am walking, and I am OK.  God is good, even in hard times, and He has a way to make good out of bad situations, as He has shown me before.  He doesn't cause the pain, but He teaches us through it.  Thank you, Lord.

Guys, I am just blessed that I feel this good.  I could go on and on about how God spared me, but it is difficult to put into words.  Don't give up on God because He isn't going to give up on you.  Like I said, He doesn't cause pain and suffering, that is what Satan, the devil, does, and for the time being Satan is the ruler of the world, I guess.  But God can take what Satan does and make good things come from it, just don't lose faith.  And who knows how many of Satan's plans get thwarted by God.  God bless you all, just as He blessed me through this time.

Oh, by the by, I have been home the last two days watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (http://www.kumby.com/category/avatar-episodes/page/2/) and other non-active activities.  I am doing very good, all things considered, not really sore at all, but I am still in some pain, mainly the wrist and my road rash, so your prayers are appreciated.  Thank you.  Make it a good day.

Here are some pictures of my cycle!  My dad drove it home last night, pretty crazy that it still works pretty much fine!  Also it is ironic how my last post on here included a picture of my cycle and talked about how I was going to take that to Virginia on Friday!  So you have a decent 'before' picture there.

One more crazy thing!  Those sunglasses and clip that I mentioned in my 'creative' story were real and when I went to look at the bike they were still on it!  I took them off before the pictures though...

I'm a hard core biker.

Doin' stuff

Well, today I preached my second and last sermon of the summer at my home church.  It was on worship (like my first blog, which was actually a session for me to get some thoughts for my sermon).  I thought it went pretty well, seemed pretty well received I guess.  It was fun, I'm still wondering about whether a pastoral role is in my future, and what that would look like.  I guess we will see where God takes me.  So it was pretty good, I definitely felt God's hand in all of it, which was nice. 
Watchin' the closing ceremony for the Olympics, John Lennon is singing in his past self.  Cool stuff.
So, today I got my cycle ready for the trip out to Virginia, fastened my GPS mount to the fairing so I doesn't get lost and fastened a cup holder on as well, so I can drink my booze.  Well, actually it will be water or pop or something, nothin' illegal.  This will be my first time driving more than a hundred miles, but I am splittin' it into two days, stopping at my second cousins in Ohio, so 6 hours each day.  Also my first time driving by myself, it will be awesome.  And I will drive through the mountains, so I am excited for that. 
I also really should have been more strict in my running and working out for the soccer season.  I did a couple sprint workouts last week (for the first time this summer, I might add) and man I should have started doing those earlier.  I am gonna struggle a bit for this first week.  But I did run a 5:43 mile once this summer, and I am going to time once this week.  I have run a lot more than ever before, but I haven't done all the different types of running that I should have.  Anyway, this soccer season is going to be better than both Hesston seasons, I am sure.  Just because of the people I think, and not being a captain, and playing on a good field, and being around family who will come watch me play.  It's going to be awesome.  I am hoping I play.
So that's all I got for today.  Not much deep content here.  But I preached this morning.
I will say that I am done interning at the church now, seeing as I am leaving Friday.  It was a very great summer and I am extremely blessed to have that opportunity.  I definitely got some direction for my life, which is saying that I am not quite sure if I do see a pastoral role in my future.  But I know that God has me doing ministry, I just don't quite know what that will look like at the moment.  But He is in control of my life and will let me know when the time is right.
Also, I am changing to a Business Administration major I think, maybe a business minor and keep my ministry major, that will be decided tomorrow.  The reasoning behind this is that I already have my associates in Youth Ministry, so I can really get any youth ministry job that I want, and if I take Bible classes now they may very likely get repeated if I ever go to seminary.  And if I don't go to seminary to be a pastor, then I will need some other base to start my life after that on. 
Yup yup. Life is happenin', and I like it.  God is good, God is good.
In other news, I posted a picture of the Wiener Mobile that I saw once, I guess the driver of that mobile could have been Mitt Romney's new Vice Presidential Candidate, Paul Ryan.  Check it. http://cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2012/08/11/sot-paul-ryan-on-weinermobile.cnn

Also, here is a picture of my motorcycle that I am soon to drive to Virginia for my college life.

Make it a good day.

Leadership Summit 2

So today was a pretty good day at this Summit as well.  We got to hear people like Patrick Lencioni, Geoffrey Canada, John Ortberg, and Bill Hybels, of course.  Lencioni started this day off on a really good note, talking about organizational health and all that.  He had 6 (maybe 7, I mighta missed one) questions that each organization should ask itself. 
1) Why do we exist?
2) How do we behave?
3) What do we do?
4) How will we succeed?
5) What is most important right now?
6) Who will do what?
He also said that a company should have 3 core values that they base every decision off of.  3 anchors to fall back on for decisions so that each person in the organization can make decisions, so that not everything needs to come back to higher management in order to happen.  His example was Southwest Airlines (Jim Collins talked about them a lot yesterday too, apparently they are the best airline out there...) and one of their core values was "A Sense of Humor."  They also had, I don't remember them exactly, but things like a quick-turn around time in the gate and something else, I forgot to write those down.  But then, when you make a decision, whether you are just a flight attendant or the top of the chain, you go through those core values, ask whether it will damage the company or lose them money, ask whether or not it will make the reputation with customers  better or worse, then do it.  So yeah, he had some good stuff.  His organizational health thing had four steps, 1- Build a Cohesive Leadership Team, 2- Create Clarity, 3- Over-communicate Clarity, 4- Reinforce Clarity.  I think he thinks that clarity is important...
Then we heard from some negotiator that wasn't very engaging and I didn't really listen to him at all.  Oops!
We then heard from Pranitha Timothy, she was somebody who had had a brain tumor and could barely talk because of that, but she had led over 50 operations to free slaves in Asia and shared her story and how she was able to do that.  It was pretty incredible, inspiring.  She knew what it was she wanted to do and she did it.
Then Mario Vega talked, leader of a 73,000 member church in El Salvador.  He only spoke Spanish so it was through a translator which makes it really hard for me to pay attention, but one of his points struck me, "As a leader, you are not only responsible for your actions but for the actions of those people that you influence."  I thought of how true that is, and important, and thought of the example of Thomas Muntzer and the Peasant's Revolt and the Munster Rebellion during the Anabaptist Movement.  The Anabaptist's influenced those that participated in this revolt, but (not their fault) they didn't clarify their beliefs enough with them before radical action was taken.  That had to do with lack of available communication and stuff, but it tainted the names of Mennonites and Anabaptist's for years and years after, and even today there are people who only know those stories of Anabaptist's and Mennonites and have no idea that we are (should) be pacifists.
Then we had John Ortberg, pastor of the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Cali.  His message was titled "Who is this man?" and was more of a sermon than a leadership thing, but it was awesome.  His one point was "What is the driving force of Christianity?" To make everyone in the world, regardless of race, ethnicity, color, or age a member of a single, transformative community.  Pretty sweet (sounds a bit like a reason for pacifistic Christianity, does it not?).  He also started out asking the question "Who was this man?" and then at the end he changed it to "Who is this man?"  It was neat, he also has a book called "Who is this man?"  That's what I got about him.
Then Geoffrey Canada was up, he was an inspiring man too.  He started "Harlem Children's Zone."  He didn't talk a whole lot about it, which I respected, but it sounded like it was an education thing for children and youth in poor regions of cities, which he had grown up in.  But one thing that he said was the important thing for a leader to remember is that the organization is not yours, but it is the people's that you are doing it for.  Humility to the max.  And that, as leaders, you can't be afraid of hard conversations, which you hear a bunch, but it is so true.
Then Bill Hybel's came to wrap it up the way he does.  It was good, but I was being plagued by another idea so I didn't really pay attention too much, except that he said "The local church is the future of the world."  Oh, and that the key to leadership is Christ.  I'm not going to talk about my other idea except this, "What is the local church like in Germany?" So he wrapped it up really well, he knows what he is doing.  Then we came home.  Also, Gungor is sweet!
Alrighty, peaces.
Here is a picture of a giant wiener.  Saw it on the way to Virginia quite a few years ago.
"My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R, my baloney has a second name it's M-E-Y-E-R.
Oscar Meyer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A." 

Leadership Summit

Not expecting people to really read all of this, it just helps me process things.  
So I am attending the Leadership Summit put on by Willow Creek Church today and tomorrow.  It's a pretty sweet event, I think they said something like that they are translating it into 42 different languages for people to watch it in the next few weeks or something, some 90,000 people attending.  Pretty crazy.  They have some great speakers, today we had the likes of Condoleezza Rice, Jim Collins, Craig Groeschel, and Bill Hybels.  They also have music entertainment provided by the band Gungor.  And Kevin Olusola. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioMRzpmnl7U There is a very nice example of their musicianship.  So good.
So this is a pretty sweet event.  Only problem is, I am in Midland, Michigan, and the event is taking place in Chicago, so we are seeing it on a live stream.  So it is a little bit removed from the actual event, but there are about 300 people watching it with me in the big church there in Midland.  So it is fun.

Usually I am very wary of Megachurch things, just because they really seem like money-wasters and money-lovers.  I don't like big, flashy, Christian events because usually they advertise a bunch of organizations (Compassion, in this case) that really need money and ask all the people in attendance, possibly paying $200 to go to the event, to donate more of their money to these events.  I feel like they could get rid of most of their flashy things, still have a great event, save a lot of money, and therefore have a lot more money to give to the organizations they are trying to raise money for!  However, that doesn't really happen.  Of course, in an even like this, with such high-profile speakers, much of that cost is appearance fees, yadda-yadda.
Moving on from that, to what I have actually taken out of this event.

This event is called the Leadership Summit because we are learning how to be better leaders, hopefully.
First guy up was Bill Hybels and he talked about how a lot of times the hardest person to lead is yourself.  As a leader, you have to reach out to the people on the right, the people on the left, the people above you, and the people below you, but you also have to reach yourself somehow.  He also talked about transition in leadership and how it is really hard.
Next dude wasn't a dude, it was Condoleezza Rice.  That was pretty cool to be able to hear her speak.  She has a pretty crazy story, growing up in segregated, racist Birmingham, losing a classmate to a church bombing, etc.  Her parents raised her in a way that she believed that even though she couldn't buy a burger at the local market because she was black, she could still be president.  Those are some sweet parents, I don't know how they did it, pretty sweet.  So anyway, she said that as leaders we are supposed to try and help others realize their leadership potential.  Which I agree with.  Also, that we should strive to help the world become as it should be, not as it is.
Then Jim Collins, this guy reminded me of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory, but I actually respected this guy.  I'm not sure how "Christian" he was necessarily (this event also attempts to cater to secular audiences) but he was a very engaging and meaningful speaker.  I liked a lot of what he said.  His main format was this triangle he had, On the top was Fanatic Discipline, bottom right was Empirical Creativity, bottom left was Productive Paranoia, and the middle (the "x-factor") was humility.  He related everything back to the first two teams that tried to reach the South Pole at the same time and how every person in one died and the others survived by a series of 20 mile marches.  This is where the Fanatic Discipline came into play.  They went a certain amount of distance everyday, no matter what the conditions were.  If it were a really stormy and miserable day, they would go that far.  If it was a beautiful day and it seemed like they could go farther, they would discipline themselves and only go that certain distance.  A big point he had in that was that we have to discipline ourselves in good times so that we can manage ourselves in bad times.  Then, Empirical Creativity was "living with eskimo's", taking time to learn things firsthand and use things and processes that are guaranteed to work.  If you are blazing a new trail, you need to implement processes and things that will work, because if something doesn't then you can be killed.  Productive Paranoia was being paranoid about what could go wrong so that if it does go wrong you are ready.  Then, we can't just sit back and watch our "good luck" moments come, we need to seize them.
Last dude I will talk about is Craig Groeschel, the founder of lifechurch.tv.  He was a good presenter, and he was funny.  So it was fun to listen to him.  He talked about how we (the younger generation) need to respect, honor, and learn from the older generation.  They (the older generation) need to know that we are entitled and to teach us things, not give up on us, and believe in us, believing that we can do things.

So yeah, that is what I learned today.  Have a nice day, here is a picture of a donkey.  He's a really happy donkey!  But I think he died from a heart attack, or somethin... Poooooooor donkey. :'(

Feigning Innocence

So the title of this blog is "Feigning Innocence."  Here is a little bit behind why that is so.
First of all, "feigning" is another word for "faking," so this basically says "Faking Innocence."
Second of all, and lastly, it sounds cool.  The end.




And in other news, it's got a little something to do with the human race, I guess.  Ever since the beginning we have been faking our innocence.  You got Adam trying to declare his innocence from eating the forbidden fruit.  Genesis 13:12 "The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
Ever since then we have been trying our best to deflect the blame for things that went wrong onto someone or something else.  We hate being told that we did something wrong, we hate being caught doing something wrong, so we try our best to say that we didn't do anything wrong or we try to blame someone else.  We try to be innocent even when we are guilty.  We fake our innocence all the time so that a) we don't have to admit we were wrong, b) so that others see us better than they would if they saw us doing wrong, or c) so that we don't have to try and correct what is wrong in our lives, because life is easier when we don't have to change.
Basically I hate that.  We shouldn't fake our innocence, we should learn from our mistakes and try and fix them so that we can live better lives that are more glorifying to God.  There is a popular saying that seems relevant, "Learn from the mistakes of others because there is not enough time to make them all yourselves."  And if we don't own up to our mistakes, then others can't learn from them.  But more importantly, if we don't own up to our mistakes then we can't learn from them either.  
We are not innocent, we are guilty.

Another reason this is called feigning innocence is because I feigned innocence for a long time.  I couldn't admit to anyone, not even myself, that I was not innocent.  Slowly, I realized that there was no way I could fix my life if I didn't admit that I was doing wrong.  So I did admit I was doing wrong, but only to myself.  Then I started realizing that if I didn't stop feigning my innocence to those around me then I wouldn't be able to overcome it.  So I stopped acting like I was a perfect little church-kid, I sought out help.  And now I admit my mistakes often, it's kinda like confession to a catholic priest, except I do it to trusted friends who can help me through life, not some random priest guy behind some screened thing.  I am trying to stop feigning innocence because it gets me nowhere.  I want others to stop feigning their innocence as well, because you get a new feeling of liberation when you admit your mistakes.  So stop.
We are not innocent, we are guilty.
The great news, the reason that we can admit our mistakes, is that we are justified through Christ.  We are guilty, but He was innocent and bore our sins so that we can be free from them, if we only admit them and ask for forgiveness.
That is why we should not feign innocence.
And it sounds cool.  
In this song it says, "We are monsters on our own, banded together we'll overcome."  As long as we keep acting like we are innocent, by ourselves, we are monsters.  But once we admit our guilt we can overcome.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys74yq7mUi0
Those are some reasons why this blog is called that.
I will explain the other things in this blog later.  Gotta leave something for people to come back for... Ha.

I found this probably copyrighted picture of the quote.  Yay!  *No copyright infringement intended*
;)

Working Out

I have been doing this interesting thing called "sprinting" for the past couple days.
For those of you who don't know, sprinting consists of running forward as fast as you can for an amount of time, pumping your arms and legs to use maximum energy so that you can propel yourself forwards at around 20 mph.
I do this not for the feeling of wind in my hair, although that is nice, but to get myself in better shape.  Sprinting is a good workout for those of us who play sports, like soccer, or hockey, or football, or track and field (especially if you run the 100).  However, it causes pain for the rest of the day, sometimes even the rest of the week.  My question is relatively simple on this subject: Where is the line drawn between taking care of our bodies and self harm?

Now, I believe that we should take care of our bodies because they are a creation of God and we shouldn't neglect that.  If we truly love God then we will want to take care of the things He has made for us.  That should be a given for Christians.  Just like we should take care of the earth and not litter (while not making sustainability a religion (another topic for another time)) we should take care of our bodies and not let them go to waste.  But in taking care of our bodies, that also involves keeping our bodies from harm.  And when we workout, and we run, and we try and get stronger and in better shape, it takes a lot of pain to get there. 
Is that what God wants us to do to take care of ourselves?  I don't know what God thinks.  But what I guess I think is that we shouldn't rejoice in pain, but pain is necessary to get to where God wants us.  Sometimes that is physical pain, sometimes emotional.  I do not believe that self-flagellation is where God is calling us.  That is the opposite of taking care of our bodies.  But man, God needs us to be able to take control of our lives while at the same time being able to relinquish control to Him!
If we want to take care of our bodies, a little pain is necessary.  We shouldn't be trying for pain, and there is a big line between what is ok and what isn't (for example, some runners run until they throw up and then they call that a good workout.  That is not good.  Especially for those of us who hate throwing up...).  But sometimes pain happens.

The key to being successful in keeping your Christian life together with that is to be giving the glory to God, keeping your Christian life above whatever sport you are playing, and watching your temper while playing.  Dang that is hard.  Such is life.  And if your life following Christ is easy, are your sure that it is Christ you are really following.

(I like Calvin and Hobbes)