toe the line

The Word

2009-04-25T15:40:00.004-04:00

Don't you love those moments when your heart and mind stumble upon a remarkable piece of truth or begin to understand a previously confusing thought or idea? I just had one of those moments.

One of the many things I learned from listening to Dale Bruner teach is the idea of Jesus being The Word. John 1 says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Here we learn that Jesus is God's Word. For most us (excluding those who believe they can "read" people), we have no idea what someone is actually thinking until they start talking. The person of Jesus Christ is God talking to us, and because of His resurrection, He is still talking. As soon as the Word became flesh, we could know what God thinks through His Word.

Later, in verse 4, John writes: "In him was life, and that life was the light of men." Putting 1 + 1 together, I end up with Jesus = Word = light.

John's decision to use of "In the beginning" to begin his gospel naturally points readers back to Genesis 1, which begins in the same manner: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Then, in verse 3, God begins speaking Creation. What follows the first "God said" phrase? "Let there be light...."

I'm not sure how, but this transforms my understanding of "In him was life, and that life was the light of men." I know it does.

Okay back to my paper. I'd share more thoughts, but I need to get serious about this paper. Also, I'm not sure that I have any more thoughts, at least any that make enough sense to include in this blog.

What do you think?

White-Out

2009-04-06T14:44:00.005-04:00

It's 2:48 PM and I'm wearing two tickets to tonight's game around my neck. You know, the kind of ticket that is 3 times bigger than normal tickets. The kind that come in a plastic holder strung on a lanyard that hangs around your neck. The kind that people in their 50's have framed with their other big-game tickets in their basement next to the pool table. Yeah, that kind.

MSU is asking for everyone to participate in a "white-out" of Ford Field. Appropriate because of the snow, and it's just an MSU tradition for big games. Awesome.

I'm kind of happy it snowed. Obviously it sucks driving, shoveling, and looking for your hat and gloves that you (confidently) put away three weeks ago. But I like the setting it creates for tonight's game. THIS is what the state of Michigan is like right now. THIS is what it's like in the city of Detroit. Yes, the Detroit Public School system is over $300 million in deficit, and yes, they may have to close 50 schools because of that. It's cold and wet and dreary and unpleasant here in Detroit.

If I knew how to convey my excitement for tonight here, I would. I'm excited for the game. I'm excited to be back down there again to cheer for MSU with over 50,000 others. To give our boys a standing ovation whether they win or don't win tonight. To walk the streets before and after the game, proud of what the city did to get ready for this and for Michigan State University and what they did to get there.

So I say bring on the snow. Bring on the Tar Heels. Welcome to Detroit.

And Go Green.

Fight, fight, rah team fight!

2009-04-05T12:25:00.015-04:00

Never thought I'd ever have a blog post title include the word 'rah' but after yesterday, why not.

My day, by the numbers:

5:35 AM - time my alarm went off

85 - number of apple pies myself and several high schoolers and leaders made for our camp fundraiser!

106 - approximate number of times I thought to myself: "I really don't like Digger Phelps."

2:30 PM - time of departure for Downtown Detroit!

7 - approximate number of miles we walked through downtown checking out Riverwalk, soaking in the sights of Detroit pre-game, and celebrating in the streets after the win!

6 - number of times someone said "do you smell that?" or "what is that smell?"

146 - estimated number of times I said "go green" or "go white."

1 - number of former Spartan standout wide receivers turned pro bowler turned Super Bowl hero turned future jailbird I saw in a hotel lobby and walked right past.

245 - estimated number of high fives given/received.

7 - estimated number of botched high fives with Dilyn Duffey.

2 - large deep dish pizzas ordered at Pizza Papalis after the game.

1 - MSU flags being run through the street.

3 - times the fight song was sang while we ate dinner.

8 - number of UConn fans I actually saw.

67 - total text messages sent and received that were about the game in some fashion.

2 - number of sophomore boys from Grosse Pointe that I saw in Greektown at 10 PM. They're crazy!

1 - number of phone calls I received from friends heading back to East Lansing saying they might have car trouble. Another adventure to add onto the night!

2:35 AM - arrival back home and immediate bedtime.

10.5 - total hours spent in Detroit. It was a great day to be a Detroiter and a Spartan.

People have spent a lot of time talking about what the Spartans' run means to the state of Michigan, and more specifically, to the city of Detroit. I don't think any comments about how uplifting this has been for the city or the temporary relief from so many troubles are a stretch. It was awesome to be down in the city last night, watching thousands of people who would never be there on any other night walk around with friends and be united in purpose. The only worry discussed last night by thousands of people wearing green and white was about how to stop North Carolina on Monday. All the pain and heartache that city has endured was nowhere to be found.

I think the same can be said for me. I've been living and dying with every jumper, every loose ball, and every final buzzer. MSU's run to Detroit has been nothing short of incredible, and I've been hanging on for every moment. It's like I've been living in this little oasis, away from the pain and hurt in my heart, since March Madness started, and I'm almost afraid for Monday to come and go because that means on Tuesday, it's over; back to "normal" life for me again.

I think the most joyful thing about watching the Spartans play is that it seems like they're fighting for more than just an NCAA Championship. They haven't played like this the entire year until now. It's like they're fighting for the state of Michigan, for the city of Detroit...it even feels like they're fighting for me.

Oh, and just for fun - enjoy this :)

Encouraging Words

2009-02-24T22:06:00.002-05:00

I got home from Young Life on Sunday night around 9:45 and caught the last hour and a half of the Oscars. I usually don't want them, but that night I felt like watching them was a good choice. So I did, and I really enjoyed them. I thought they were really entertaining (although I had to watch the funniest part on YouTube). But my favorite part was watching and listening to former Oscar award winners speak to each nominee for the Supporting Actor/actress and Lead Actor/actress awards. Since I work for Young Life and therefore am a not professional film or television actor, I don't really know what it's like to be one; however, I imagine that those personal words shared by their peers (and perhaps in many cases, heroes and role models) will be cherished as much as actually winning the award. Okay probably not, but I could tell by each nominee's face that hearing those words meant A LOT. Bravo to whoever thought of that idea. They figured out how to send everyone home a winner that night.

Take a minute and tell someone why you love them today. And if you can, take 10 minutes. I guarantee it'll be among the highlights, if not THE highlight, of that person's day.

A Lesson from Bob Ross

2009-02-21T14:25:00.006-05:00

If you've ever watched "The Joy of Painting" hosted by the late Bob Ross, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, check him out here. My sophomore year, my friends and I would always try to watch his show at 3 in the afternoon before class. He'd spend 20 minutes creating a beautiful landscape, and then suddenly, and seemingly inexplicably, make some huge mark with his paintbrush in the middle of the canvas. My friend Tom and I would always yell at the screen as if he could hear us, wondering what in the world he was doing to his painting. But after a few more minutes, this ugly and unexplained stroke of his brush would turn into a tree, path in the woods, or cabin that made the painting that much better.

Some friends and I were talking about this idea yesterday. We're aware that God is in control of our lives, and we're even okay with that after years of knowing that we have no idea what we want or need. We see the picture of our lives that God has been creating and then suddenly...that ugly, pointless, out of left field mark is placed somewhere in our lives. Then we wonder what in the world God is doing. And now we're angry and upset, and once again question our trust for our Creator.

However...

The truth is that God knows what He's doing and we don't. The truth is that He is in control and we are not, and that is actually the best thing that could ever happen. And the reality is that I need to be reminded of this. These marks that God makes in our lives shouldn't make us angry and cause us to doubt, but rather remind us that we are loved and in communion with the God of the universe. How cool? If we wait long enough, the events and circumstances of our lives that seem random and hurtful will begin to make sense as we view our lives from a bigger perspective. Obviously this requires a lot of patience and trust, two things that I feel like aren't in my bag right now. But I know that God is good. And I know that He loves me. And I know that those two truths are really all I need to know.

Thanks be to God that He is not done with me yet.

Spring is just around the...window sill?

2009-02-05T09:13:00.002-05:00

For the last week or so, I've woken up to a group of birds that sit outside my windows and chirp. I don't really know what they're chirping about...maybe the fact that it's actually been sunny most days lately, or maybe that Lebron put up 52, 11, and 10 last night at Madison Square Garden. All these chirps make me think that it's spring...that somehow, overnight, winter left and it's now June, which is when "spring" usually hits in Michigan. But alas, it's currently -2 outside (wind chill). But at least it's sunny!

10 random thoughts:

2009-01-24T12:37:00.003-05:00

...while waiting at my gate to fly home:

Einstein's bagels are really good.
I think my two carry-ons weigh more than my 48 pound checked bag.
It's a small miracle that my checked bag made weight.
I like the Denver Airport
I like the Denver Airport a lot more when my friends are here.
I bet the nice old people that dress like cowboys and say hi to people have a good life.
Time is a funny concept: two weeks have never gone slower and faster at the same time.
My plane just pulled in. I wonder if the people arriving in Denver are more excited than the people flying back to Detroit.
I think I've seen more sunshine in Colorado in the last two weeks than I will the rest of winter in Detroit.
Just checked the weather...it's cloudy back in Michigan.

What did you do today?

2009-01-14T00:17:00.002-05:00

I did a lot today, including climbing a mountain. On the mountain behind camp, past the repelling send-off, up another 150-200 feet, is a bunch of crosses sitting on the very top of the mountain. So me and a few others decided to go check it out. What transpired and resulted from the next 50 minutes of our life, through all the snow, ice, dirt, crawling, spontaneous snow ball fights, and hoping we don't slide down a mountain to our death, was in a word: awesome. I'm pretty sure it's best view possible around here (although I'm hoping Property Staff tells me otherwise) and it was lots of fun making the trek. We had great conversation and challenged our bodies in ways that none of us lazy bums have done lately.

I didn't bring my camera cord, so you'll have to wait 10 or so more days to see them. But it was incredible.

I hope you did something extraordinary today. If you didn't, do it tomorrow

Second Impressions

2009-01-12T16:21:00.002-05:00

I walk past the same view of the mountains at least 3 times a day, and every time, the look different. I'm looking at the same view of the same mountains, yet God causes my eyes to see something new and spectacular concerning His creation. (I'll spare you having to look at these *similar* pictures, I think it's one of those "you gotta be here" type things).

One of the things I appreciate about being here for New Staff Training is reevaluating and re-thinking several aspects of Jesus and ministry that I have previously considered "mastered" or "no longer worth long periods of thought." God has so much out here for me and the rest of staff - that has been so abundantly obvious over these few days we've been here.

God has so much out there for us all, all the time, in every place. That's cool.

Frontier Ranch

2009-01-10T15:27:00.004-05:00

To the few, the proud, the...readers of my blog,

Not sure how many of you are out there still (if you are, leave a comment and say hi!). I've been doggin' it on the blogging front as of late. Life has been happening a lot lately and blogging about it hasn't really been the priority. Anyways.

Right now I'm sitting in the designated computer lab at Frontier Ranch, imo the most beautiful Young Life camp there is. There isn't a cloud in the sky and the sun really illuminates the snow-peaked mountains in the distance. Kind of like this (going left to right):

I'm here for New Staff Training. There's over 240 people here for a week training for new staff (thus the name). It's great. I'm going to try and update my blog with random stuff and pictures while I'm here. Thus far, it's been awesome being right in the middle of such beauty, as well as awesome fellowship with 240+ like-minded people.

Here are the top 3 (slightly) embarassing activities that resulted in me short of breath:

3. Walking up a 20 foot hill

2. Playing a game of ping-pong (though it was very competitive)

1. eating breakfast this morning (I was really hungry)

Snowed in

2008-12-20T11:40:00.005-05:00

In my current living arrangement, I have to park in the street. Not a good thing when it snows 8 inches.

Old Man Oakland

2008-10-21T16:22:00.002-04:00

During my 4+ years as a Young Life leader, I've met a few people that have thought I was younger or older than I was at the time. My freshman year in college, some high school kids thought I was the father of small child I was walking around with (who happened to be Luke Granger). I've also been mistaken as either a junior or senior in high school several times. And then just this past year, a sophomore in high school. And now, just this past Sunday, this conversation happened with a Red Barons coach of one of our younger teams as we watched the 8th grade team play:

Coach: So do you have a boy out there playing right now?

Me: Umm no...I just graduated from Michigan State.

Old enough to be the father of a 13 year old? I've never been more honored.

Wow

2008-10-14T20:15:00.000-04:00

The new MacBook

What Teachers Make

2008-10-14T18:54:00.003-04:00

First things first: Shan and I tried this pumpkin seed recipe this weekend and they turned out GREAT. Highly recommended.

During pre-game at our football game Sunday, I was asking one of our players about his weekend. In typical 8th grade fashion, most of his answers were pretty vague, so I kept asking more questions to really figure out what was going on. He then said, "Dude, you're just like Tom Brokaw."

What caught me off guard was not his attempt at mocking me, but that he even knows who Tom Brokaw is. So I asked how he knows about him. His reply:

"You ever watch South Park?"

Me: "That's how you know about him?"

TV loving 8th grade boy: "Yeah, South Park's taught me most of the stuff I know."

Uh oh.

It was surprising to hear this, but I suppose I shouldn't be all that shocked. TV offers a lot of information, which is awesome as long as its true. Which I also suppose is not always the case. So for all my friends that are teachers or will be teachers, you've got your hands full. Thank you fighting the every day battle to teach kids. You make a difference every day.

The Good Ole Days

2008-09-29T20:40:00.002-04:00

I filled up my gas tank yesterday and paid $3.47/gallon. I don't think I've paid that "low" of a price in a LONG time. So naturally, I was excited, which is also the first time I've been excited about the result of my latest trip to the gas station since, well, I'm not sure.

The second thought that immediately came to mind is that I yearn for those "good ole days" when $20 was all it took for a full tank of gas, and maybe a pop to go with it.

I've spent a lot of time over the past few months wishing for a second-coming of those "good ole days." Things that were true in my good ole days (note: these span a LARGE number of days)

my girlfriend and I lived in the same zip code
Gas was cheap
I didn't have to buy my own groceries
I didn't have to buy my own anything
the Atlanta Braves were winning pennants every year

There are several others, but for sake of your time and mine, I'll end there.

So what if my Good Ole Days span approximately 11 years of my life. They all represent something, serious or not, that I don't like as much about my present life.

However, I've been learning something lately. And by something, I mean:

Past = past. Present is what's important. Be present in where you are, all the time. Future is worth hoping and praying for. Where we are going defines us more than where we've been.

Now, the thoughts that God presents to me in my head are presented much more eloquently than I've just typed to you, but I think you get the point.

I just realized that elaborating on these thoughts to the point that you'd actually understand them would take more time than I'm willing to give to my blog, and probably more time than you're willing to read (which I know is a lot :) So for brevity's sake, here's my point:

Rejoice in what God has done in your life and where He's taken you and led you to/through. Be fully present in the situation and life and with the people you're currently surrounded by. Let the direction you are heading in be more defining of your character than everything that's behind you.

(sorry if you think any of that has nothing to do with previous words in the post)

And my sincere apologies for giving you the most random, poorly thought/laid out post of my brief blogging life. Thanks for tuning in :)

As soon as I start feeling old...

2008-09-27T11:29:00.002-04:00

I was at pizza lunch for Grosse Pointe North last Tuesday and was hanging out with some guys. I asked what grade they are in and found out they are freshman. One guy responded back to me by asking, "are you a sophomore?"

As in, a sophomore in high school.

Do I really look that young?

When is the day that being asked if you are younger than you really are becomes a compliment?

New alarm

2008-09-22T13:33:00.005-04:00

For the longest time I've relied on my cell phone to wake me up each morning. I haven't used a traditional alarm clock since high school. But these days, I'm waking up to something new each morning. I've waken up at the same time each morning, give or take about 10 minutes or so, for the past week or so to a much more "natural" noise, if you will.

What is it you might ask?

"If you guessed "a squirrel jumping onto the a/c unit" then you're absolutely correct.

(p.s. if you do a Google image search for "squirrel" some pretty funny pictures show up)

Right around 8 every morning, a squirrel leaps onto the a/c unit that sticks out of the window. The particular squirrels that live around my house don't really practice quiet landings, so their arrival wakes me up every morning. It kind of sounds like someone pounding on my bedroom walls.

I might have to put up a "No Parking" sign today. Or line the a/c unit with tacks.

I'm only sort of kidding :)

Beautiful weekend for football

2008-09-15T20:23:00.005-04:00

This weekend I was part of two fantastic football games. Saturday afternoon Shan and I, along with some of our friends, spent the first half of our afternoon sitting in good ole Spartan Stadium. It had been way too long since I was there for a game, and this past weekend was probably my best opportunity this season.

I don't think I've ever seen it rain so hard for so long, and but I can't imagine having as much fun in a rainstorm as I did. We gathered all the rain gear we could find, picked up some free tickets from a friend, and found our seats perfectly located in row 3 of the upper deck. And it was great. The pageantry of college football is unlike anything else, and "Thunderstruck" will always bring about an adrenaline rush.

So we sat and stood and yelled and cheered and sang the fight song over and over for 3 and a half hours. Not surprisingly, we left a little soaked, but I don't think all the rain gear in the world had a chance that day. And after 43 carries and 282 yards from Javon Ringer, we left satisfied with a 17-0 shutout of FAU.

Last night was the opening game for the Grosse Pointe South Red Barons. I've been helping out with coaching this 8th grade team for the past month and I've absolutely loved it. We had a bye the first week, so the anticipation of a season opener has been on my mind for a while. We opened away against Macomb, one of the better teams in the league. With about a two dozen loyal and loving parents watching both teams, we kicked off under a relentless blanket of rain. After 3 quarters of sloppy but hard-nosed football, we held onto 13-0 lead. Unfortunately I had to leave early to get to a YL meeting, but I'm excited to hear a full report at practice tomorrow!

Hopefully after reading this you'll get a taste of how great these games were. I really don't think there are any words to describe how much rain fell on my head and how much joy was in my heart.

9/11

2008-09-11T11:47:00.003-04:00

Today it's been 7 years since the events of September 11. I still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard.

I was sitting on the left side of the classroom in my normal seat for Schu's math class. Right in front of his desk. The bell to start class had just ring and our teacher was just getting ready to get up and begin class. Suddenly one of our assistant football coaches briskly walked in the room and whispered something in our teacher's ear, then walked out just as quickly. The room was silent at this point because we all thought class was about start. Our teacher walked over the t.v. in the in the corner and turned it on, I think to NBC. He walked quietly back to his desk and we all sat their in silence for the rest of class. Not one person said a word for about 86 minutes.

The rest of the day was weird. We talked at lunch about whether they would attack us, in Northville. No one really knew what was going on and how serious this actually was. It was hard to really focus on anything that day, and especially the rest of the week.

Where were you? What were you doing when you first heard?

Other events that I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard about it: OJ's bronco chase, OJ's trial verdict, Princess Diana's death, MSU beating ND in overtime in 2005...I'm sure there's more, but I need to get some work done!

Putting the Giant in Little Giants

2008-09-08T14:03:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: our new guy is actually 205 lbs, not 165 as originally reported. Yikes. Welcome to the team!

Real life Little Giants

2008-09-04T15:26:00.005-04:00

So I've been helping out with the 8th grade football team for a couple weeks now and I love it. We have a fairly small team both in numbers and physical size, but I think we've got a handful of good players and several hard workers that should make for a fun season.

From my very first day, I noticed similarities between this team and the fictional Little Giants. We've got our own version of Ice Box (although it's a guy) and a QB that reminds me of Junior. And with several first time football players, I feel like I'm living in the movie (although sadly, none of the coaches are anything like Rick Moranis).

Last night we had our first scrimmage. I saw some good things, saw some bad things, but unfortunately didn't get to see a whole lot because it started late and was shortened by rain. But the most exciting story is that we have a new football player. Our very own Spike, if you will. He's 5'11" and 165 lbs, which makes him the bigger than all the other kids (except for one shorter, heavier linemen) and one coach (myself). Should be fun coaching him up!

Our first game is Sunday the 14th and I can't wait! Being able to combine my passion for kids and football is such a blessing.

Creatures of habit I guess

2008-08-20T21:35:00.003-04:00

I was at a coffee shop tonight waiting for my friend to show up when I received a phone call. It was this girl calling about an ad I put up on allMSU for a textbook I've been trying to get rid of. Unfortunately for her, I had already committed to selling to it someone else. I ended the conversation by saying "well thanks for calling, have a great night." Her reply was "okay thanks, talk to you later."

How often do we say things and have no idea what we're talking about? Obviously, there's very little chance she's going to talk to me later because she doesn't know me and really has no reason to ever call me again. Every now and then I'll accidentally say "you too" when someone says something to me. A couple weeks ago I was at Subway and the guy who makes me a sandwich at Subway and says "thanks, enjoy your sandwich."

"Thanks, you too!"

I bet he didn't like me very much when I said that.

Great way to spend an afternoon

2008-08-16T16:47:00.003-04:00

Just got back from the Grosse Pointe South football scrimmage. Beautiful day for football. Met some kids. Ate a couple free hamburgers. It was great.

Some parents were handing out t-shirts there. I think they are shirts that parents have bought because each shirt had a last name on the back. The front of the shirt says "Who's Your Devil?" Wonderful slogan if you ask me.

I'm not sure who my devil is, but I'm excited to find one to be!

Also, there are some 5 year olds that dress better than I do.

New friends

2008-08-14T19:42:00.005-04:00

I finally met the rest of the family when they returned home from vacation Thursday night and it was great. I ended up hanging out with two of their girls (age 4 and 6) for about an hour. Here are some highlights:

Fished a tomato out of their fish pond for the 4 year. She then rinsed it off in the hose and ate it.
Pushed the 4 year old on the swing for about 10 hours. It was only 15 minutes but it felt like that. She's a tough negotiator when it comes to "number of pushes left until the new guy can leave."
I was challenged to go all the way across all the monkey bars (about 8 feet). Somehow I made it without completely splintering both my hands.
Watched them both dribble the basketball and do their best moves. They both used the word 'cool' to describe it about 57 times each in the span of 2 minutes.
Listened to the 4 year old stress out about her packed schedule the next day. She wasn't sure how to fit in "playing on the swing" while she was already planning on sleeping in, coloring in bed, jumping on the trampoline, more coloring, AND riding her bike. I could only offer my sympathy.
And finally, as I began to walk away from the house to go running, I had this final exchange with the 4 year old:

Her: Are you leaving your car?

Me: Yes...I won't need it to go running!

Her: If you leave it in the street, it'll get stolen.

Me: Well, that's where your dad told me to park it.

Her: Well, you should listen to him I guess, but if you, it'll get stolen.

Me: I think it'll be okay, it hasn't gotten stolen yet.

So as I started to jog away, she yelled this:

"I'll pray for ya. God bless ya!"

Should be a fun time living here :)

'Tis the season

2008-08-14T13:43:00.003-04:00

Every year, during this very week, the air is filled with the sounds of whistles, pads hitting, yelling coaches, and the click-clack of cleats on pavement. Yep, it's the official start of week of high school football practice. It's also the official start week of all the other fall sports, but there's something different about football. Maybe I'm just biased though.

I live about a pitching wedge away from Grosse Pointe South HS, and just a little further away is their football field. Today is the first day of full pads and it couldn't be any nicer of a day. So all morning I've had memories of the glory days back in high school replaying in my head. It's been quite a long stroll down memory lane.

I still miss playing football. The heat. The camaraderie. The lights. Maybe I'll watch Friday Night Lights this weekend.

In other related news...I might be an 8th grade football coach!

Clever license plate?

2008-08-04T22:10:00.003-04:00

I saw this license plate last night and thought it was funny. Then I realized that the car was a BMW and not a Jag. I'm not sure if that fact makes it funnier/more clever or kind of dumb.

Trees

2008-08-04T20:23:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite things James Granger has taught about is in Mark 8:22-25. It's now one of my favorite stories. It's about a blind man who receives his sight back from Jesus by way of His spit. In the midst of the process, Jesus asks the man what he sees and he responds, "I see people, they look like trees walking around."

The idea is that we too see people as trees. Simply put, we see people as boring and emotion-less objects that are there to be looked at, ignored, or exist simply to get in our way, rather than unique creations made in the image of God.

It's been tough transitioning to Grosse Pointe. I feel out of place. Every day, every car here looks like it's been washed and cleaned, everyone dresses nice, and everyone has a dog to walk in the evening. Men in suits and bluetooth devices in their ears walk around at lunchtime. Most houses are huge and look nice and the ones that aren't huge still look very nice. I'm sitting at a Panera right now and in order to follow my rule of buying something whenever I sit down at a coffee shop/something like that, I bought a bagel, the cheapest thing on the menu (for $1.70 nonetheless!) It's a community where I feel like everything is more expensive and nicer than what I bring to the table. Obviously, it's full of great people with great hearts who love Jesus and people that need to be saved by Jesus; it's not really different than Mason, Northville, or East Lansing. But still, my first impressions are only what I see.

Through my first few days in Grosse Pointe, I'm fighting and praying to see people and not trees. I'm praying for God to put people in my path that I can love and whom can love me. I'm excited to see what happens.

And there are plenty of actual trees here too.

Drama on the 18th at Michigan's Adventure

2008-08-04T18:55:00.009-04:00

I went to Michigan's Adventure (I actually just realized it was Michigan's Adventure rather than just Michigan Adventure. I had to go back and correct all of them) for the first time with some friends yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and will probably be more fun next time because I'll actually bring my swim suit. I didn't realize it was 75% water park...oops.

One highlight was t-boning a random guy on the go-karts. It was entirely his fault for poor driving and not knowing what to do with a slow car: get out of the way for faster cars :) Oh, and for trying to needlessly cut me off on a curve.

We also went putt-putting. It had been a while since I last hit the mini links, so I wasn't expecting great results. And I certainly wasn't expecting to shoot a +26. Yep, 26 over par. I don't know if I've played a tougher course than this one. Most holes had a crowned finish to it so putts had to be hit at the perfect pace to go in. There were also lots of little pieces of bark sprayed all over, presumably from other players walking through and such. On almost every hole my ball made a detour for the worse after hitting a piece of bark, stopping behind obstacles, running into hazards, and occasionally jumping off the hole entirely. I finished the day with one par and one dramatic birdie on the par 3 18th. It was about 12 feet uphill into two pipes that trickled down to the hole. Somehow I made it into the better pipe in 1, and sank a 10 footer to birdie.

+26 sounds a lot better than +27, right?

(Sorry about no pictures. I tried to post a picture of Shivering Timbers - an old wooden coaster that was my favorite, but Blogger wouldn't let me)

It's working now...here's a picture of the beach we stopped by after the park.

Experiment = failed

2008-08-02T22:23:00.003-04:00

This morning it took about 20 minutes to sweep up a bunch of the mayflys (or fishflys as they call them around here) that had died overnight. These little things just fly into your house and die on you. Great. They were in a bunch of areas: the kitchen, where they got in, a few in the living room (where I had lights on while I was doing stuff) and a few found their way into the bathroom (where there was a nightlight that I didn't notice before). It's not fun to find 15 of these things laying in your bathtub when you want to shower.

Add to the list a half-dollar sized cockroach and huge centipede to the list of insects that have joined me at some point in time for some period of time since I've moved in. I'm glad to say they no longer live here.

So I put some duct tape on where I thought all the mayflys got in. I turned the lights on in the kitchen and within 5 minutes a bunch had gathered on the window. I checked in 5 minutes later and found about 10 had made their way in. So I went crazy and duct tapes practically the whole window. Needless to say, this problem needs to be fixed. I'm hoping this will be the final time I spend any time thinking or worrying about this.

It'll be a much longer summer if it's not.

Back in action

2008-08-02T21:03:00.005-04:00

So this morning I played some flag football. One of the guys in Grosse Pointe that I know brought me and I was able to meet some cool guys and play the sport that I love. It's been over a month since I've done anything even slightly physically demanding. It felt really good to run around out there. I played fairly cautiously because I was nervous about my still healing orbital. The doctor told me to wait 5-6 weeks until I do anything that could involve contact, and it's been pretty much 5 weeks on the dot. So I'm at the bare minimum. These two pictures are of my shoe that completely fell apart this morning. Guess I'm in the market for a new pair of shoes now.

I walked around a little more today. I found the Village, which is a cool place with ice cream, coffee, Panera, Borders Books, and a Moosejaw. I'm writing this from Caribou Coffee, which might have to become my new favorite coffee shop (mostly by default because it's really close). I think there's a Beaners somewhere around here, but it's not within walking distance.

By the way, places within walking distance of my house is my new favorite concept. Kroger and CVS/Rite-Aid fit are both really close. I bought a few groceries from Kroger and I'm already missing Meijer. Guess that'll be another new thing I need to get used to in my new home.

I'm to Michigan Adventure tomorrow! My first time there...should be fun!

New Roommates

2008-08-01T22:27:00.002-04:00

Well I've been here in Grosse Pointe for about 24 hours. Today I had lunch with a guy who is a recent GP grad and MSU-bound. He's excited to be a leader in East Lansing and it was great to spend some time with him. Then I spent the rest of my day getting organized and putting some things away in my new home. I walked around the downtown for a bit, bought some milk, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and red vines. Took a couple long phone calls from two great friends, and figured out that my internet will continue to be questionable and my tv doesn't work. BUT...I do have some new roommates. About 300 mayflys found their way into my little apartment and are now glued to whichever light I leave on. I'm not sure what to do about this other than avoid looking up.

I guess I've got an alternative answer for the "what's up?" question now. Especially if my name was Luke Granger.

Home (Bitter)Sweet Home

2008-08-01T00:29:00.002-04:00

Well I made it to Grosse Pointe. After a few long days of moving out of East Lansing and re-organizing and re-packing in Northville, I'm here. The family I'm living with has this apartment above the garage that I'm living in. It's spacious, clean, and now that the air conditioning units are running, comfortable. Maybe I'll post some pictures in the next few days.

It's been a tough transition for me over the past week or so. I've gone from the comfort of living in East Lansing to the excitement of living in Ecuador, transitioned for a week or so in Grand Rapids/East Lansing/Northville, and now into the unknown of Grosse Pointe.

I'm excited and anxious and completely unsure of myself all at the same time. I know about 5% of the people I know in East Lansing.

I'm a little tired, so maybe I'll finish this post tomorrow. I know I'm a little behind on blogging...I'm hoping to write something about Ecuador really soon too. The truth is, life has happened pretty fast in the past 6 weeks. Hopefully I'll catch up.

But for now, I've got a new home. I'm missing the old like crazy already, but I'm holding onto the promise that it'll be great sooner rather than later. Good night!

Bienvenido! (I think that means welcome!)

2008-07-10T10:10:00.003-04:00

Well, after a long day of traveling, I made it to Ecuador all safe and sound. It was a fairly uneventful trip and I even saw a famous celebrity on the plane to Ecuador. I also remembered how cool it is to watch clouds out of the window. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's really cool flying through and above clouds. When flying over the Pacific it looked like each cloud was its own little island of cotton candy. Or marshmallow. Anyways.

I was kind of bummed that I couldn't fly in during daytime to see everything we were flying over. But it was worth it when we approached the city. The overhead view of the city lights was spectacular.

So funny story. For the past 2 weeks Shan and I have been laughing about our eventual meeting in the airport. We were envisioning some sort of dramatic embrace, where I'd walk through the airport and see her standing there with a sign waiting for me. Suddenly, the lights would dim and then shine directly on her. I'd drop by bags and start running in slow motion, while the some sappy acoustic guitar song would play in the background. Or something like that. So I landed, walked briskly through the hallways, sped through customs, and was fortunate to walk into baggage claim and immediately spot my bag. So I continued to follow the crowds until I saw where everyone was waiting for their loved ones. There had to have been 150 people waiting with signs and smiles. I kept looking for Shan and my sign but all I saw were people that didn't look anything like her and were holding signs for Eduardo, Victor, and Julio. I frantically searched for her but couldn't find her. I wandered around for 10 minutes and finally just stood int he middle of the crowded hallway by the door waiting for her to walk in. And waited. And waited. 25 minutes later I had to text her (not sure how much that costs...). Turns out they hadn't even left yet! Her host mom said that they could wait for a while since it usually takes a while to get off the plane and grab my bags and such. I also landed about 15 minutes early. So while I waited all by myself in the middle of the Quito airport, Shan was at home watching Juno with her sister. Fortunately, she only lives about 3 minutes away. So we eventually found each other and it was fine. We're still laughing about this.

I know yesterday I said I wouldn't be online at all, but I'm currently at the University killing time while Shan goes to her last class. Not sure if I'll be on again though anytime soon. I'll be in touch sooner or later though!

Ecuador!

2008-07-09T08:56:00.000-04:00

I'm leaving in 5 minutes for the airport! I can't believe I'll actually be in Ecuador tonight....
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I'm not sure how often, if at all, I'll blog from there. I'd like to, but at the same time, I'm also looking forward to being internet-less for two straight weeks. There's something appealing about being away from a computer and the rest of the world for a while so that I can really enjoy the culture, being with Shannon, and soaking in what God has put in Ecuador.

So on that note, see you all in 2 weeks!

My Half Birthday

2008-07-05T22:29:00.008-04:00

When I was a little kid I'd always joke around that I was the only one who had their half-birthday celebrated with fireworks (along with all the January 4'ers out there). It was cool. And I always followed it with a plea for half of my normal allotment of presents. I tried again this year and was swiftly denied. I think I'm now 0 for 18.

Anyways, I've always loved the 4th of July. It's one of my favorite holidays for two reasons: 4th of July parades and fireworks. I love them because they are so timeless. It's not like easter egg hunting and trick-or-treating, favorite pastimes that become less cool and fun as you get older (unless you're me). Of course, now that I think of it, I do appreciate those kinds of things that are usually for the younger audience. After all, one of my favorite moves is A Goofy Movie. Does anyone else enjoy these holiday traditions as much as I do?

I went to my first 4th of July in Mason. It's weird to me that I've never been around for the holiday. It was quite the experience. Practially the whole town comes out for the parade, which is ingredient #1 for a great 4th of July parade (for the record, Northville has a GREAT parade). I loved it. Some of the highlights:

About 92% of the entries were tractors
I received my own mini flag to wave around from a Colonel
Several "USA USA" chants
A decent collection of Starbursts and Watermelon Dum Dum suckers, which are infinitely better than the parade staples (Tootsie rolls, Now N Laters, and Super Bubble). I did bring home a lot of those too

One of my favorite games to play while watching fireworks (well, the only game I've played) is to name the fireworks. My favorites are (see if you can picture these fireworks; they're classics):

Paparazzi (the one with all the flashes of light with no sound)
Gettysburg (flashes of light with sound)
Death Star (any huge firework, kind of the like the one I posted)
Weeping Willow (self-explanatory)

I tried to take pictures of the fireworks with my phone, but as usual when taking pictures of fireworks, they didn't turn out. Here's a decent one

A worthwhile way to spend 7 minutes...

2008-06-30T21:08:00.002-04:00

Watch this:

Faith, eh?

2008-06-30T14:15:00.003-04:00

It's been quite the rollercoaster ride over the past week. And not the Millennium Force kind; more like the Jr. Gemini: full of highs and lows, but generally pretty low the whole time. Or maybe the Corkscrew: dizzying and a ride I would never like to take again. I digress....

I ended up deciding not to go to YL camp with Grosse Pointe. I still don't feel well, can't really be on my feet at all, and just generally don't feel like myself at all. It was a hard decision, but I think the the right one. And I've been comforted and encouraged by friends and I've seen my decision reinforced by the fact that I'm either:

1. in bed

2. in bed fast asleep

3. in a chair at the computer (by the way, we don't have wi-fi at my house in Northville and it's kind of a hassle to switch the internet cables...so I'm stuck on our (cough) Dell (ick) desktop using (ugh) Windows (ahh).

4. on a couch watching tv.

A friend of mine wrote in an email: "Now you really get to see how that 'faith' thing works, eh?" And he's completely right. Small parts of me still say that "the trip won't be the same, the follow-up is hurt dramatically, you needed to be there, you're letting people down"...yada yada yada. But lately the voices telling me "it'll be okay, camp will go on, kids will still meet Jesus, and you'll have your time in GP" are becoming louder and louder. And those are obviously all fueled by a faith that has been growing stronger than ever. So why lose it now?

At this point, I can't think of this as anything but another opportunity to grow. One of the ways I've seen my faith grow is when God gives me a reason to lose faith and I don't. And I'm not looking to blink anymore. Partly because it hurts my eye to blink, but mostly because I trust my Lord :)

The cry of my heart

2008-06-27T11:16:00.004-04:00

It's been quite the summer for me thus far. I graduated college and began walking into a life that no longer had a predetermined route for me to take. My life was about to change/transition into something new. I was done with college, nearing the end of my time in Mason, and Shannon was taking off for two whole months to another continent.

Before she left, Shannon and I decided that we had an incredible opportunity to draw closer to our God while she was gone. And I really think we have. I began trusting Him and relying on Him more than ever. And I've been in so many situations and circumstances where God was my only comfort. It's been crazy. I've been praying to Him like I actually believed He was glued to every word I spoke (or thought). I asked Him for guidance about what to do about a job, and He provided a red-haired friend and an opportunity. Then I asked Him what to do about that, and He gave me great friends to tell me why I would be great at it and several reminders of why I love being a Young Life leader. He gave me affirmation and a renewing of my passion.

Then I asked Him to grow my heart and take care of Shannon. While she's been gone, we've been able to chat through Gmail most days, and we've been able to share our hearts while she's gone (hooray technology!). Though it seemed impossible to grow closer while she was gone, it's happened. And she's been through a lot of crazy things, but she's still safe. It's not distance that has made our hearts grow fonder, it has been God. I believe that with everything I have.

So over the past few weeks, Shan and I have been talking about me going down to Ecuador during her last few days there. It wasn't that we missed each other so much that we couldn't wait a few more days to see each other, but that the opportunity to travel together was too good to pass up. When else would be able to see a place like Ecuador, especially when one of us is already there? So we discussed it, and ultimately asked God to make it happen or not make it happen. And asked again, and again, and again.

So what happened? I started looking at plane tickets and realized that, given my current financial situation, it was affordable. I talked my good friend whose life situation 3 years ago is almost identical to mine, and he thought it was a good idea too. After talking it over with Shannon again, we decided to go for it.

Then I asked God for a round trip ticket that might include the same flight back as hers. It was too expensive for her to change her flight, and I really wanted to be able to fly home with her. It'd be kind of weird if we didn't. But seriously, would that even be possible? And then God happened again. I found exactly what I was looking for, arriving when we wanted me to and flying home with the same itinerary. So after freaking out about our luck (or our Lord), I went ahead and bought the ticket (with only 2 remaining at the time!).

At the time, I was also pleading with God to find a subleaser. Since I was going to Crooked Creek with GP YL, traveling for 2 weeks, then moving by Aug. 1, I figured a subleaser would make sense. And it would also help with paying for the plane ticket. As it got closer to today, the day before I leave for Colorado with GP, I became more nervous. Then, a few days ago, it appeared I had found someone. But after a few days, several emails, and the advice of some friends, I decided it was a scam. Kind of a long story that really doesn't deserve much blog space. So after that conclusion, I was pretty down. I asked God one more time for a subleaser as a last ditch plea. And then He showed up again! I was watching the NBA Draft and suddenly received a phone call. After a brief conversation, it became known that this guy was

A. a real person

B. just as desperate to find a place to live as I was to find a subleaser

So we quickly reached an agreement over the phone. I have a subleaser now!

AND...after buying my Ecuador ticket, I needed to set up an appointment to receive any shots and medications I'd need for my trip. I called as soon as I could and booked the ONLY available appointment this week. Which was huge since I need at least 2 weeks before I leave for the immunizations to be working. And my appointment was exactly 14 days before I'd arrive.

So at this point, I'm a little overwhelmed; I feel pretty exhausted even writing all of this down for you to know about! My relationship with God is hotter than Hansel right now. I've seen God show up so many times over the last 2 months it's ridiculous, and especially over the past 8 days. My only response is to stop what I'm doing, pick my jaw up off the floor, and praise Him. For who He is, for what He does, and for how much He loves me.

I hope all that makes sense. I'm still feeling pretty woozy.** Thanks for taking time to let me share my life with you.

I'm hopefully leaving for Colorado with a ton of high school kids tomorrow afternoon. So I'll be in touch in a week!

Where has God been showing up in your life? I'd love to know! Leave lots of comments.

P.S. So on Tuesday night I was playing basketball and took an elbow to the eye. The result: 3 stitches, a bad concussion, and a fractured right orbital. I wasn't really praying to God for that to happen, but I've had this incredible peace about the whole situation. I know it'll be okay. And I'm anxious to see how God uses it.

Maybe I'll post some pictures sometime soon!

In other news...

2008-06-23T18:27:00.002-04:00

I just bought a plane ticket to Ecuador!

Great Expectations

2008-06-21T09:13:00.001-04:00

*Just for the record, this post has nothing to do with Charles Dickens or Gwyneth Paltrow. I've never read the book or seen the movie. Come to think of it, I don't know anyone that has ever read the book or seen the movie. At least as far as I know*

So as I'm sure EVERYONE is aware, the Celtics beat the Lakers, which means my favorite player (Kevin Garnett) won his first title. He's been my favorite player for a long time now, and I'm truly happy he won. It might be lame that I'm genuinely excited for a basketball player who makes more money per week than I will in my life, but there's something cool about seeing a man who has worked his tail off, made the most of my God-given abilities, and is passionate and respectful achieve his dream.

I read a Bill Simmons article about his thoughts on the last game, and I read this quote about Paul Pierce, the Finals MVP.

"We spend so much time complaining about sports and being disappointed that our favorite players never end up being who we wanted them to be, but in Pierce's case, he became everything we wanted him to be."

(Throughout his entire career, Paul Pierce has been much maligned for selfish play and attitude, but over the past few years, and especially this, he has played incredible all-around basketball and been a great teammate and leader.)

My first thought after reading this quote: "good point Bill, because I do that too." My second thought after reading this quote: "That seems true of my life."

Over the past few years of being a follower of Jesus, I've become frustrated at the chasm between who I really am and who I really want to be. Like one of my favorite Jars of Clay songs, those two people were worlds apart. And that frustration was the building block of a wall that prevented me from ever becoming everything my Creator created me to be.

Complaining and disappointment are normal. But just because they are normal doesn't mean it's good. Complaints and disappointments are inevitable products of trying to do-it-yourself attitude. I thought that I could just work on some things, change my life around, and be more like Jesus. But at some point I reached this conclusion that I just couldn't do that. I couldn't change without Him. It's not to say that I am allowed to sit on the couch and wait for Jesus to wave a wand over my head.

I'm 22 and graduated from college. There's an obvious life transition that is about to happen, and I feel Jesus changing me. From the inside out. It's a cool thing. I hope you can experience that. Jesus is changing our hearts all the time. We just have to let it happen.

Snappy Casual

2008-06-19T16:45:00.003-04:00

So I was in Grosse Pointe last night for our pre-camp meeting. I was wearing my REI soft shell, and one of the girl leaders complimented my jacket by saying it was "snappy casual." I think I know what that means, but it's definitely something I've never heard said to me. Maybe it's because it's a Grosse Pointe thing, or maybe it's because I just don't have that many snappy casual things in my wardrobe. Nonetheless, it was a top 5 highlight of my day.

The others included, in no particular order: eating free Panera, talking to Shan on gmail, receiving unexpected phone calls in the midst of a long and boring drive which makes that drive much less boring and long, and finding out who is in my Crooked Creek cabin.

I'm in trouble...

2008-06-06T09:56:00.004-04:00

4th one down on the left side....shoot

UPDATE "If my life were on SportsCenter..."

2008-06-03T18:39:00.002-04:00

By gutter ball I meant a ball thrown where I didn't knock down a pin (like when I had a couple 7-10 splits and managed to bowl the ball straight through the middle). No need to over-do my embarrassment.

Overtime

2008-06-02T23:36:00.002-04:00

We're only a few more minutes away from the 2nd overtime of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It's one of those games that you sit on the edge of your seat, and only when play momentarily stops, you realize you've been holding your breath for the last few minutes.

With about 35 seconds left in regulation, while the Wings were up 3-2, my friend Mike says, "does pulling the goalie ever work?"

2 seconds later, the Penguins scored.

If the Wings lose this game, feel free give him a dirty look or two. But he's a good guy, so don't overdo it.

Does anyone want my Mac?

2008-06-02T17:34:00.002-04:00

So I can buy a new one?

If my life were on SportsCenter...

2008-05-31T18:48:00.007-04:00

...these would be the 5 best plays of the past week or so:

5. Great hustle by Jay Granger sparks a late inning rally

4. Bowled a strike in my first throw in nearly 5 months at our Mason YL bowling fundraiser

3. Hit a 30 foot bunker shot to within 7 inches of the pin

2. Channeled my inner Bill Russell to block a shot (12th of my career), rebound it, and start the fast break

1. Jay Granger scores the tying run in his baseball game

And these would be in the SportsCenter Not Top 10:

5. Lost 3 in a row in ping-pong to Tony at TWL

4. My bowling scores from today: 107 (good warm-up), 128 (pretty good but could improve), 96 (choked on the last ball to break 100), 76, (fell apart at the seams)

3. Contributed a 1-10 shooting performance to an overall team effort of (approximately) 4-55 shooting in a 12-4 loss at IM West

2. Bowled almost as many gutter balls over 4 games (13) as I did strikes (14)

1. I hit 0 out of 9 fairways last week

Conjuntion Junction

2008-05-27T14:23:00.005-04:00

Well it's been kind of crazy and busy the past week or so, and I have a lot of blogging catch-up to do. Now that life has slowed down a bit, I should be able to get to everything this week.

I've upped the number of blogs I consistently read to 22. In fact, I'm kind of a blogging nerd these days, if you will. Armed with my new favorite application, Evernote, I now keep up on several friends' blogs as well as several others from random people I don't know that I found through Noel's blog. Evernote lets me clip anything interesting that I find and organize it for later; it's basically a glorified note-taker. And I'm obsessed. Most of these blogs are personal blogs of several of my good friends. I love it.

Have you seen the first Matrix movie? Remember the scene on top of the roof right before Trinity and Neo save Morpheus? She calls Tank to upload her with the ability to fly a helicopter, and in a matter of seconds, she knows how to fly a helicopter. That's how I feel life is like right now. Because of the internet, we have limitless amounts of information only seconds away from us. I can look up basically any sports fact to settle any argument or debate. Just last night I looked up how many milliliters are in a cup because I needed to measure out 1.75 cups with a nalgene. "Google" has more usage as a verb these days rather than a noun. It's crazy.

So my favorite thing about blogging is the ability to stay connected with people. Sure, it's a great outlet for me to gather my thoughts concerning life and God and make sense of both, and to share funny things/stories with others. But it's also a great way for my increasingly scattered (geographically) speaking friends to keep in touch.

We all want to be connected to others in community. I'm glad blogs are around to help make that happen.

A quick way to make a $1

2008-05-19T02:13:00.003-04:00

Prize money goes to the first person who can tell me why the first paragraph is always 1.5 spaced. It bugs me. I suppose I'm not too obsessed with my the aesthetics of my blog, but the least I can ask for is uniform, single spacing. So if you know if/how I can fix it, I'm all ears :)

Just making sure

2008-05-19T02:08:00.003-04:00

It's pretty late right now, and I'm not too sure why I'm still awake. My average bed time if I've been at home has been right around midnight. I was talking to my friend earlier today how late 1 and 2 AM feels these days. It was normal to be awake that late during my college years (because that was SO long ago), but these days if I wake up on Monday, I'm going to bed before the clock turns Tuesday. But not tonight my friends, because I'm wearing my rebel hat.

Well, not exactly.

Anyways, today was a good day. I woke up for church (a small miracle considering my sleep patterns of the last 7 days), had a solid session of frisbee tossing in the park, and made the highest quality omelette of my life tonight (of the 5 total I've cooked myself). I also helped my friend Mere buy a new Mac today off eBay. Walking her into the land of Mac was quite the honor and privilege. Welcome to the club MLA.

Looking back to look ahead

2008-05-08T22:31:00.004-04:00

So I realized that when you save a draft then eventually post it, Blogger will post it with the date and time you originally saved the post. So it's not magic that I went grocery shopping today but was able to write about it on Tuesday. Although that would have been cool. It's kind of like that April Fool's joke from Gmail. Anyways.

For today, I'm going to go with the Top 10 Reasons why I'm excited about this Summer:

10. Playing catch in the park by my house

9. Golf. Lots of golf

8. Sleeping in

7. Lots of reading

6. Tigers games (tbd)

5. Going to the grad parties of the seniors I've known for 4 years

4. TWL Work Weekend

3. Spending quality time with friends without having to simultaneously study

2. Transitioning to Grosse Pointe

1. Sending Shan off to Ecuador...then welcoming her home!

Vitamin C is still playin' in the background...

2008-05-06T21:47:00.005-04:00

I'm a few days into summer vacation / realizing I'm done with college and it feels great. Life has really slowed down and I like that. I can go to bed before midnight without feeling pressured to wake up before 8 to keep studying. I can sleep in past 11 without having to miss a class.

The last few weeks have been so memorably crazy. I put the finishing touches on my first 4.0 semester of my life, was baptized with my friends and in front of my friends, and I attended my last YL leadership and college graduation. But during my slower, quieter week, the highlights have been:

buying enough groceries at one time from Meijer that I couldn't go in the U-Scan 12 Items or Less lane
interviewing in Grosse Pointe
buying a new rain jacket

There's still a lot of random things I want to do, but I've got the time now to get those done at my own pace.

To further comment on graduation, since it feels like it deserves more words, I'm planning on posting a few Top 10 lists. If you have any suggestions for one, let me know. I'll lead off with top 10 things that I will miss about college:

10. The Gallery at Snyder Phillips

9. Hanging out at Gone Wired

8. Mondays and Wednesdays with Sween

7. Being able to do things I don't want to do (e.g. study for a test) with people that I love

6. Friday night leadership

5. Springtime on campus

4. Walking down the banks of the Red Cedar in the fall

3. Izzone

2. Mason Young Life

1. Being within walking distance of a community of people that love me

I made that list in a surprisingly short amount of time, so I'm probably missing key things. I am allowing myself full permission to edit that list if need be in the future.

Enjoy the sun!

Sportsmanship

2008-05-01T15:53:00.003-04:00

If you've got 5 minutes, this is worth watching. I'm not sure if "sportsmanship" fully captures this. Pretty cool I think.

Drab

2008-04-23T21:24:00.002-04:00

So I finally went and bought my cap and gown today. So what if I'm graduating in 9 days? It does feel good to cross that off my to-do list, considering the facts that I love to cross things off lists and that it's been on there forever.

Part of the process involved telling the nice lady helping me out which college I'll be graduating from in order to pick out the correct colored tassel. Apparently each college has its own color, which I previously didn't know about. But anyways, I said "Business College" and she checked her list, and found the correct one. As I anxiously awaited the announcement of what color tassel I'll be wearing, I found out that I will be wearing the color "drab." Yep, that's right, drab. And that's pretty much the only word to describe this color. Maybe puke could work.

So in 9 days I will proudly walk around in a green cap and gown with a drab colored tassel. And I couldn't be anymore excited.

Driving with the windows down

2008-04-22T18:41:00.004-04:00

The other day I was sitting at a red light singing along to some Jars of Clay (self-titled album, probably a top 5 CD of all time...but that's a story for another time). Anyways, as I sat there, another guy pulled up next to me blasting some music full of lyrics which I couldn't understand. Because his music was at least 43 decibels louder than mine, I couldn't hear my music anymore. Yet, I kept singing along. I know all the words to "Love Song for a Savior" and there was no way that Mr. I Play My Really Bad Music Really Loud So You Can't Listen To Your Really Good Music was going to rain on my karaoke parade. It's a good thing I had the song memorized.

I used to be all about memorizing large chunks of Scripture. But for some reason, I've kind of just stopped doing that. I think it's because sooner or later my mind twisted the idea into another kind of homework assignment that was simply added onto my To-Do List. It's obviously bigger than that, but that's how my undergraduate (but not for long!) mind works.

I'm hoping to rekindle the passion to memorize large chunks of Scripture. Keeping God's Word in our hearts is such an advantage that we can have over the world. It's always helpful to know all the words when loud music and other distractions pull up next to us.

Parking Spaces

2008-04-20T21:22:00.002-04:00

So I met with two different groups today in the Business Library. I think of all the places on campus, excluding my dorm rooms, I've spent the most time here. There's something about this place that I love; maybe it's the environment that makes me feel all grown-up and professional. Or maybe because it's quiet enough to study but everyone's okay with soft conversations too. At the main library, the only sound levels are crickets chirping or house party. And, unlike the main library, it's not 150 degrees.

But anyways, 2 visits also means 2 times finding a parking space. Parking spaces in the Shaw Ramp are like fresh meat in piranha pools. Just like the rest of business it seems, it's highly competitive. During slower times of the day, like right now, it turns into finding a spot that is closest to the stairwell you want to take. And pretty much every time I'm in that situation, there's one spot that is "kind of close." These "kind of close" spots are nice, but they're always far enough away to make me feel like there's something closer. And 9 times out of 10, there isn't, and by the time I come back, someone else has wisely filled the spot.

I'm typically not okay with settling when something better is out there, but I also don't think that desiring more is healthy either. So that got me thinking...where does settling stop and greed begin?

I'm way too tired to keep thinking about this, so I'll just leave it at that. If I think of it, I'll post again with some more thoughts. But for now, I'm sleepy.

Can anyone REALLY vote for a guy like this?

2008-04-12T15:16:00.003-04:00

UPDATE: Obviously I will look into other things than just candidates' bowling skills. Also, I don't believe bowling ability is a reflection of leadership ability :)

I haven't done much research into the Presidential candidates for '08, but this information has to count for something, right?

from Obama bowls for Pennsylvania voters: "Obama did improve, nearly getting a strike in one frame, and in the seventh, picking up a spare, giving him a score of 37."

Welcome back to my life, 5-iron

2008-04-08T21:03:00.003-04:00

Today has been a really good day. It's not that I don't have other good days that are worthy of a blog post, it's just that today I was able to do some things that I don't normally get to do. Plus I still don't want to study, so thus, this blog post.

I just spent the last hour and 7 minutes watching YouTube videos, including both the 97 and 98 fights between the Red Wings and Avalanche, the "Loser Must Retire" match between HBK and Ric Flair from a little while ago, and an old Converse commercial. I'd love to show you all of those little pieces of pure gold, but I also don't want to waste an hour and 7 minutes of your day. So here's one of them:

Some of the other things I don't normally do but did today and had fun are:

slept in until 11:03
had lunch with Kelsey and Audry
took a nap (yeah I'm a bum)
ate two cheddarwursts (sounds gross and ridiculous to list as a highlight...but they were SO good)
went to the driving range

The trip to the driving range today deserves its own commentary. It was somewhat of an impulse decision by T-Mo, Tony, and I, and a great one at that. I've had this brand new set of irons sitting in our house collecting dust every since I brought them from home (a Christmas present). I've only hit them twice, and I've been anxiously anticipating when I could take them out again. And today was the day. My first shot was a 9-iron, and it was probably the best "first shot of the spring" of my entire life. About 120 (into a stiff breeze) and straight as an arrow. More importantly, my best club of the day was my 5-iron. I haven't been able to say a sentence like that in a long time. For the best few years, my 3-wood and 5-iron have been dead to me. But I hit both of them today and I felt really good about it. Maybe it's the new irons, I don't know (I really think it is, actually). The only problem is that I couldn't hit my even irons (4, 6, 8). Although my last shot (has to be a good one) was with a 6-iron, so I guess it wasn't all that bad.

It was a good day because it felt "college-y" and "out of college-y." I had lunch with some old, out-of-college people (smile) and talked about jobs, but I also slept in. I hit some golf balls in the classic "post-work" part of the day (6 PM) and also took a mid-afternoon nap.

This isn't that surprising since I've been riding the edge of college and post-college for a while now.

Stuff

2008-03-26T14:23:00.003-04:00

I spent most of Monday without my cell phone, having accidentally left it in Grand Rapids after visiting with Shan's family for Easter. So that means that I also spent most of Monday anxious and uncomfortable and slightly (okay, moderately) less equipped to go through the day without my cell phone. And right around 4 PM I realized how ridiculous I am. How can I be that worked up about not having my cell phone? It's just a cell phone, right? Obviously I'm less reachable and unable to communicate with people, which are both important things. And it's incredibly inconvenient. But really, it's not a big deal. The day will still happen. And it did.

I wish I wasn't like that. I wish my heart wasn't tied so tightly to things that it doesn't need to be. I thought about some other things that I would be at least slightly upset that I didn't have with me / didn't know where it was for at least a day. Here's a brief list, in no particular order:

MacBook
Bible (either of the 2)
Wallet (including everything it contains)
Keys
REI jacket
North Face winter hat

Class is starting so I need to wrap this up, but I guess the point of my rambling is that I was also able to think about the other things my heart really cares about. Like really cares about. Like God. And people. And relationships. And MSU basketball (just kidding...kind of). I'm hoping to go through the rest of the week and the rest of my life focusing more on the important things rather than the unimportant.

(Not that wallets and car keys are unimportant)

All this makes me think of this verse, and I'll leave you with it.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Co 4:18

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T22:40:00.002-04:00

I'm not a Harry Potter fan, BUT....

2008-03-22T17:43:00.002-04:00

this video made me laugh:

Chicago

2008-03-20T22:55:00.002-04:00

A few posts ago I mentioned that I would write about my Chicago trip during Spring Break. Well, now I don't really want to. It's not that it isn't "blog-worthy" - it's just that I'm just that lazy. I've thought about writing about it ever since I said I'd write about it. I've just been a mixture of busy and lazy. So in order to force myself to jot some notes about it, I thought I'd infuse some creativity. Therefore, in honor of my friend Kelsey, I will write using as much alliteration as I can without making myself go crazy. It'll be fabulously fun. Here we go.

I diligently drove to Chicago in under 4 hours, which is less time than rad Rachel predicted. 3 hours and 52 minutes to be extremely exact. I was a proud person that day. I passed the time by reflecting and thinking, two powerful pastimes that I rarely receive reliable time to do. So I enjoyed it.

I spent most of my time there following my friend Brian around Evanston. Here's a short list of where we went: his office, leadership, Pomegranate (restaurant), Northwestern's cool campus (yeah I know that was a lame effort on my part). We watched a high school play, went to some meetings, ate food, played basketball, listened to Tim Keller, and chatted. It's been a long time since we've had extended amounts of time to hang-out and talk about life. It was good.

I saw some students I met many months ago that go to Northwestern and do leadership with Bri. It was good to see them too.

(Okay I'm officially out of alliteration ammunition. I can't take this trouble too much longer).

So anyways, it was a great trip. It was relaxing, fun, memorable, and definitely worth all the gas money. At first I was disappointed in not going somewhere warm for Spring Break. But it turns out that was able to go and spend some seriously solid quality time with some of my favorite people in the whole world...who wouldn't want that?

(I guess I had a little left in me)

PS I couldn't post about Chicago without mentioning my friend Dana. She was down there being all grown-up and professional for her company Veritas. One of the highlights of the trip was when she walked into Cosi for this meeting and freaked out and made the "Dana freak-out face." Obviously she had no idea I'd be there. And I bet she freaked out when she read almost the entire post without seeing her name :)

God is Better than Groundhogs

2008-03-13T16:18:00.004-04:00

Front doors are left open. Sandals are being dusted off. Birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and guys are struttin' down Shaw Ave. in cut-offs and shorts. It looks like spring outside, so it must be, right? I'll admit it's REALLY nice outside, but it's still only 39 degrees. I think everyone is a little more anxious for spring this year after the snowiest winter I can remember. But I don't think the fat lady has sung on old man winter yet. If it snowed 2 feet in 5 days I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Nonetheless, I'm part of the crowd eagerly anticipating warmer weather. In fact, I think I have a lot of things to eagerly anticipate as of late...probably more than usual. I don't think it's too far of a limb to climb out onto to say Shan and graduation has something to do with that.

Last night a bunch of guys and I met for our weekly get together to talk about life and the Bible. We read and talked about Hebrews 11, which is kind of like a halftime pep talk about heroes of the faith. It begins by saying that "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." There's so much that I hope for these days and maybe even more that I do not see. I'm in this crazy place where my faith is as strong as ever, but where I watch it crash into some of my biggest doubts I've had.

Sometimes I think I'd feel better if a groundhog knocked on my door and told me what to expect. But then again, I don't think I'd be satisfied with what he'd have to say. So instead, I'll cling to the God I cannot see and the hope I that I am doing everything I can to be certain of. Because spring will be here sooner or later...and God will show up in a huge way.

What Not to Say

2008-03-11T14:15:00.003-04:00

I'm normally a guy who thinks through what I say before I actually say it. However, I'm not immune to an occasional slip-up. Last night I was talking with Shan about some old memories, and the 25K that she ran last summer came up. Here's a brief transcript of the conversation:

Me: I'm still so proud of you for finishing that race so well.

Shan: Yeah, I just wish that I would have stayed in better shape since I worked so hard to get in shape.

Me: Yeah me too.

Now OBVIOUSLY by saying that I meant that I wished I myself would have stayed in shape after working hard to get in shape. But I guess she heard it a little differently :)

We laughed about that little exchange for a long time last night, so I think that's a good sign.

It might be fun if I updated this topic (what not to say to someone you love) on a weekly basis, but I decided against it. Instead, I think I'll just cling to the hope that I won't put myself in these situations anymore :)

In other news, club went well last night. I didn't feel very well at all, which isn't the ideal way to give a club talk. But I think it went well, and I feel pretty good about it. One of my favorite moments was sitting at Burger King with this freshman guy. he was talking about his sister and how she (surprisingly) annoys him. Then he uttered this little gem:

"She's so messy at home, I can't take it. She's such a pig."

Now at first this may be all that funny, but then I'll tell you that he said that while scarfing down a whopper with cheese that wasn't exactly 100% going into his mouth. I think right when he said "pig" a huge piece of lettuce fell onto his shirt. Then he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Priceless.

It's been sunny two days in a row. Spring might be almost close to being nearly around the corner here in EL.

"Snap Back to Reality...

2008-03-10T00:30:00.003-04:00

...oh there goes gravity." I'm sure you're all familiar with that quote from Eminem. I seriously love that song...it's catchy, and I think it tells a great story. That story really has nothing to do with my life, but that first line does do a darn good job explaining how I'm currently feeling. It's currently Sunday night, the Sunday night only a few hours before the Monday morning that officially ends Spring Break 2008. No more sleeping in late, no more completely free afternoons, no more homework-free evenings. So bring on the papers, studying, and endless homework, late nights and early mornings, and hectic schedules once again. I'm ready.

It'll be alright though...I actually ended up having a great break. I caught up on a lot of sleep, worked out quite a bit, and took some time for myself to unwind and reflect. All much needed things. I took a great trip out to Chicago which I'll probably mention a little more in a later post.

So for now, I leave you all with this question. When you make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, what do you spread first - the PB or the J? I always go jelly first because it is much easier to wipe off the knife on the bread than peanut butter, since you obviously don't want to mix the two ingredients. However, some of my friends (whom shall remain nameless) go with the PB first, much to my surprise / dismay.

So are you a PB person or a J person? Please leave a comment with an answer...I'll conduct an un-official survey and reflect on the results later. In the meantime, have a great start to your week!

Senior Day

2008-03-04T00:35:00.004-05:00

So I went to my last MSU basketball game on Sunday, at least as a student. My last time down in the lower bowl of the Izzone. Some of my friends weren't able to be there, but I was able to bring some YL guys. It was probably the second most memorable game I've been to. 103-74...MSU ROUT. Here are some pictures:

Kalin Lucas driving to the rim

4 studs

It was senior day...why not?

I've tried my best to not label anything I do as the "last time" but I'm starting to see the writing on the wall. In a few months I'll be done with this 4 year chapter of my life. So here I am in the midst of my last spring break, during my last semester of college. I just went to my last Izzone game and I've already been to my last football game. Pretty soon I'll sit at my last YL leadership. This won't be my last blog (you exhale now, it'll be okay :) I'm not sure where I'm going or what I'll be doing, but I know that God has been faithful and will continue to be. I've got less than 2 months left and I'm excited for the last dance I've got here in EL.

Heat!

2008-02-19T14:23:00.003-05:00

After weeks of sleeping outside, I'm finally sleeping indoors again! Okay, I wasn't actually sleeping outside, but it sure felt like it. For the past few weeks the furnace that supplies my room with heat hasn't been working. Combinations of no air and cold air have been keeping my bedroom at a balmy 52 degrees.

With the temperature holding steady at my preferred 65-67 degrees, I can cut the number of fleece blankets down from 6, limit winter hat wearing to outdoors only, and actually hang out and do homework in my room.

Please try and contain your excitement over all this...I'm trying to do the same!

Icy Sidewalks

2008-02-14T22:50:00.004-05:00

Anyone that has walked around on campus the past few days has probably noticed that very few of the sidewalks are actually clear of the remnants of the past few weeks of winter storms. Walking around in all slush/ice/snow/muck is not really all that fun. Why can't someone just clear off the sidewalks? That way I won't worry about slipping, splashing myself or someone else with slush, or some other terrible tragedy. It is kind of funny to me how annoyed it has made me though. It does remind me, however, of one of my favorite passages, Habakkuk 3:17-19. I can't say that my life is so bad that it rivals having no food to eat, but nonetheless, there's a lot on my plate (I want to say that last sentence is ironic, but I know that's not the right word for it. But I don't know what else. Any ideas? I just know it was weird/funny). Anyways, just like walking around on icy sidewalks, the next steps of my life are unsure. What do I do? Where do I go? What kind of job do I seek/take? And Shannon...!?

I guess there aren't that many questions. Just a lot of depth behind them.

Not a path for the feet, but feet for the path.

Work Crew Weekend

2008-02-08T00:56:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, myself, 5 other leaders, and 29 high school kids traveled up to Timber Wolf to serve over 300 middle school kids. And it was awesome. It was full of laughs, hard work, and fun. And I think that many people on that trip experienced Jesus in one way or another. Rather than giving this weekend the space and words it probably deserves, I'll settle for a top 10 list of my favorite moments of the weekend:

10. Downtime, Friday night

We played this group game called Boston. Everyone sits in the circle with a number, and one person sits in the middle. With eyes closed, the person in the middle calls out two numbers. Those two people attempt to switch places without being tagged. My friend T-Mo, one of the Work Crew bosses, was hopelessly stuck in the middle. He struggled, to say the least. Here’s some evidence:

This game resulted in about half of the times I laughed the hardest. It was great. I think it really loosened up the group before the hard work came.

9. Club, Friday night

During the game, in which kids had to name something within a specific category without stumbling, a kid from Birmingham stood out amongst the rest. Brimming with confidence and personality that only a middle school boy can possess, he calmly answered right on cue each time. For the "ice cream" category, slotted third, he responded "pistachio." And for pop, this time going second, he said "Fresca." And he followed that with "diet cherry Fresca." Pistachio? Who is this kid?! I laughed really hard.

8. Cabin, Friday night

Everyone was getting ready for bed, and I had this urge inside me to gather everyone together. So I did. The 10 of us sat around, ala cabin time, and introduced ourselves, talked about why we came to Timber Wolf this particular weekend, told about 1 thing we wanted prayer for, volunteered to pray for 1 person, and I shared some thoughts that were on my heart. It really set the tone for the weekend personally, as I remembered that I couldn't do this without Jesus, and that being in tune with Him is really cool.

7. Lights out, Friday night

As my head hit the pillow, I first realized that I forgot to make my bed. As I tried to slip on the fitted sheet in the dark making as little noise as possible, I heard the sound of a waterfall. Turns out I had forgotten about the noisemaker that Nick brings with him everywhere. So finally, with a (partially) made bed and a waterfall melody in the background, I laid down and closed my eyes. Then I realized that our room was surrounded by dozens of middle school boys who had zero plans of sleeping anytime soon. After all, it was only 1:30. So with my fitted sheet not exactly fitted, a waterfall in the background, and the sounds of laughter and people jumping up and down, I fell right asleep. At that point, I knew without a doubt that it would be a great weekend.

6. Talent show, Saturday night

The talent show was starting. Our kids were taking a well deserved break to enjoy the many talents of the middle school kids. I sat down behind everyone, and took a deep breath. All the hard work felt good. And as 340 middle schoolers laughed and shouted, a feeling swept over me and consumed me: it was worth it. It was really worth it.

5. Wendy’s, Sunday afternoon

On our way home we stopped for food. It was great. We all sat together, ate some high quality fast food, reminisced on the last 30 plus hours, and laughed. It made me wish that we had more time together…they were really beginning to gel as a community.

4. Dining hall, Saturday evening, just before camper dinner

My friend Audry walks out of the kitchen and stops to say hi. I was on my way to make sure everything was set before the dinner wolf cry. I was also about to fall over because I was tired. She stopped me and said: "You just being you makes me smile." It was one of those little moments that God sends down that reminds you of what life is really about. Encouraged and reenergized, I kept walking.

3. Drive up, Friday night

There was a moment on the drive up that I ran up to one of our cars and saw faces. And these faces were full of emotion and full of life. It was a car full of people in the midst of life, experiencing the ups and downs in one moment. It was one of the more memorable moments of the last few months. I won’t forget those faces.

I was being vague on purpose. If you want a fuller story, call me ☺

2. Cabin, Friday night just after arrival

It had been a long journey to Timber Wolf: a long week of preparation and anxiety and a long drive. I put my bags down and opened the letter that Shan gave me before we left. I read it. And read it again. I read it when I was feeling good, feeling stressed, and feeling tired. I must have read that thing 10 times during the course of the weekend. It was inspiring, encouraging, and overflowing with love. Corny as it may be, it’s all true. What a gift. Maybe if you’re nice I’ll let you read it ☺ But for now, it’s the latest addition to my growing collection of notes from her that are nothing but extensions of her beautiful heart.

If you’re still with me after that “aww / gag me” part, here’s my #1.

1. Dining hall, Friday afternoon

After 9 straight hours of work, my dining hall crew finished their last task: decorating the dining hall. Program was hosting a red and white themed dinner, and provided decorations. Sore, tired, and cranky, this is what they came up with:

It looked awesome. I was so proud. I was so pumped. I don’t even think my below average photography skills come close to capturing how cool it all looked. I think God was honored by their work.

Whew. That turned out longer than I thought. It was a great weekend though. Thanks for reading all of that.

Second Semester Highlights

2008-01-16T14:24:00.000-05:00

It's almost been two full weeks of semester #8 for me. I've been meaning to post my "highlights" thoughts for a while now. I originally had ideas for a 1 Week update, but that quickly became 2 weeks. And if I don't sit down and write all this down now, it might end up being an end of college type thing. So here we go...highlights of the first two weeks of my last semester:

1. One of my professors has a lazy eye. Or he might have two lazy eyes. I've been to his class 3 times now (with a 4th trip coming tomorrow) and I have yet to determine which eye is actually the lazy one. I think it's the right eye, but every now and then his left eye just does its own thing. Let's see if tomorrow brings any clarity to the lazy eye mystery.

2. The Red Cedar River flooded last week. I'm not sure why I found this to be so fascinating, but I did. It normally takes me about 20 minutes to walk to my first class on Wednesdays, but I added 10 minutes that day adjusting my route because sidewalks were blocked, and picture taking. Here are two good ones:

This first one is taken on the north bank of the river. The Business College is to my left.

This is a view from the Farm Lane bridge between Auditorium and Shaw Roads.

3. I've had 4 classes with this marketing professor of mine, and each day, he has worn a monochromatic crew neck sweater with a polo underneath. So far he has worn (in order): green, red, white, and today, blue. I decided to grab a few buddies of mine in the class and start a pool with them that predicts the color sweater he'll wear. Each class we will predict the color he will wear in the next class. Then, the next class we'll each show up with a $1 and the winner takes the pot. If no one wins, the money will be collected into a cumulative pot that will be given away the next time someone correctly guesses. A lot goes into this: how many colors does he have, how often does he do laundry, how he arranges his sweaters at home, etc. At the least it'll help me actually look forward to class.

4. Most of my classes are smaller in size, and in most I've had to fill out some sort of information card. And one of the questions has been "tell me one interesting fact about yourself" or some derivative of that. Now I generally don't think there's too much about me that is interesting and that no one else could write down. But I do have a go-to answer: "I'm adopted from South Korea." I think that's pretty interesting, especially if you put thought into all that might entail. And especially if you look at it through a lens of God. Ever since I read Ephesians, I've loved it, and especially in the first chapter when Paul talks about adoption in Christ. So technically, I've been adopted twice. And I've been chosen twice. Life is hard sometimes, but I think that the more I can remember and focus on those two truths, I'll be okay.

Gift Giving

2007-12-24T19:28:00.000-05:00

At least in America, it seems like gifts and presents are still as synonymous, if not more, with Christmas, than the birth of Jesus Christ. And despite the best efforts of so many Christians, this still seems to be the case. By the way, how many commas did I just use? Geeeeeeez.

But as I sat in church this evening, a thought popped into my heart. I think, in efforts to move gifts and presents out of the limelight of Christmas, I've at least, in part, denied myself of experiencing the gift of, well, gifts. I've always bought presents for my family because I had to. And I used to buy a gift or two for a certain girl here of there because I liked her and somehow thought that whatever cheesy gift I bought may increase my chances of scoring a date. But now, I buy gifts because I love people and because I like figuring out ways to bring a little bit of joy and happiness to those whom I love. I've put some thought into what I've bought this year, and also have stumbled upon some gifts, and I'm excited to give them. If you don't get something from me this year, please know that I wish I could have.

One of the great revelations of my life that has come with my faith journey was that December 25 is not the actual date of birth of Jesus. The thought that follows that is obviously, why can't everyday be Christmas? And I remember a couple summers ago, hiking through Colorado with some high school kids, celebrating our own "Christmas" out on the trail. We gathered in a circle, broke bread together, and told each other why we appreciated each other and how we saw God move through that mini community in only a few days. It was incredible.

I think that the Kingdom of Heaven is something that we should be experiencing now, not just in Heaven when we leave this world. Once again, why can't Christmas be every day?

Today, tomorrow, the rest of break, and hopefully every day after that, think about the gifts that you have received from God, the tangible ones as well as the unseen. Talents, abilities, qualities...these all count. And think about those around you and the gifts that they have received. Then spend some time having conversations with these people about the gifts you see in them, and then talk about the gift we all have received, which is obviously Jesus. We all need reminders, and we all need to be told about the gifts we have that we have either have forgotten about or simply did not realize we possess.

Happy gift-giving.

Excitement and Drama on a Saturday Night

2007-12-22T23:32:00.000-05:00

It just went final. BYU 17 UCLA 16. BYU punted and downed the ball at the 1 with 2:02 left. Then UCLA's freshman quarterback (replacing the injured senior starter) takes them down the field all the way to the BYU 11. All that's left is 3 seconds and a 28 yard chip shot for the red-hot redshirt freshman kicker. Snap is good, hold is good...and it's blocked! Barely tipped actually, and the kick barely falls short. Game over. BYU wins.

So why am I posting about this? Because I picked BYU in my College Bowl Pick'em, and gave them 29 confidence points. I'm back in the hunt!

My guess on the percentage of people that read this that know what I'm talking about and/or actually care about what I'm talking about: 25%

Hustle and Bustle

2007-12-22T21:51:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day. I started with a Cassel's trip with Ben, mixed in lots of laughter and funny moments, made a few random people smile and laugh, and cheered on my beloved Spartans to a solid win over Texas. And when the dust settled, all of my Christmas shopping is done! Full day, I'd say.

A few months ago Ben and I decided that it'd be fun if everyday, we could make some random person smile and/or laugh. Not in a creepy way, but mostly just using well placed humor and wit and being polite. You don't even have to be funny. For all the great stories about Jesus documented in the Gospels, I'd love to read some simple stories of when Jesus did or said something to make a random person He didn't know smile. Now, maybe, since He was God, Jesus did in fact know everyone, but that's a different story for another time. But seriously, I think life would be better if we all made this a goal for each day.

I spent some time in Barnes & Noble today, and once again realized that, if left unchecked, I could spend a whole day in there. I even saw Frank Turner there today; he was signing his book that he just wrote and released. For those Metro Detroiters out there, he's the guy from Channel 7 news that retired last year. It sounds like he's had quite a ride of struggle and faith in his life, at least according to the book sleeve. Nice guy.

I managed to take some pictures of Christmas gifts from Barnes & Noble I won't be giving this year. I hope it's not illegal to take pictures of books. I don't know why it would be, but I felt like I needed to be sneaky about it.

The Elvis Impersonation Kit
Person Most Likely To Receive Gift: Either Mark Burley, Brian Hamm, Emily Moiseeff, or Tony Pyle. Or all of them.
Reason Why I Almost Bought It: C'mon...who wouldn't want their own kit on how to be like Elvis?
Reason Why I Didn't Buy It: C'mon, who would really want a $20 kit on how to be like Elvis. Besides, I think all of those people are talented / ambitious enough to be like Elvis if they wanted to.

Gray's Anatomy
Person Most Likely To Receive Gift: Katie Sweeney
Reason Why I Almost Bought It: Sween loves Gray's Anatomy...or was it Grey's Anatomy?
Reason Why I Didn't Buy It: Price. It cost $20 on sale, which was about $15 more than I was willing to pay for it. And about $20 more than it'd be worth to Sween after the "ha ha" appeal wears off.

God Wants You to Be Rich
Person Most Likely To Receive Gift: No one.
Reason Why I Almost Bought It: None.
Reason Why I Didn't Buy It: "How and why everyone can enjoy material and spiritual wealth in an abundant world?" Seriously? No wonder it's a national best seller...who wouldn't want to read about how God wants us to be rich and enjoy material wealth? I think I'd rather read Gray's Anatomy.

I also spent some time in Downtown Northville. Everyone should hang out there sometime, it's so great. Full of nice older people, fun stores, great food, and cool spots to hang out. And Christmas lights and wreaths that line each street at Christmas time. Here's a picture of the outside of Stampeddler, a craft/scrapbook store created for Lauren Wojcik and people that make cd covers by hand as part of Christmas presents.

I parked behind Rebecca's, which is one of my favorite restaurants. I saw this sign out back and spent about 7 seconds debating whether or not I wanted to take it. Ultimately...it's still sitting where I took this picture. However, maybe if Woj was with me, I'd have it :)

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you can see, hear, and experience Jesus over the next week.

PS I've decided that I like using pictures in my blog.

Catching Up

2007-12-21T21:13:00.000-05:00

"It's been a while since I've last posted, and I know this because I've received several comments about my lack of posts (cough Emily, Sween, and Shan, cough cough) :)

So what better time to post than a quiet Friday night back at home? I've been all over the place lately, which has been a good and bad thing, but mostly good. So here's a short (but most likely long, by the time I'll done) recap of some thoughts that I deem blog-worthy, but just have been too lazy or forgetful to talk about, in no particular order:

1. One of Jesus' promises/qualities is that He is the Bread of life. I realized why He is not the "Chicken Queso Burrito of life" a couple Wednesdays ago because an experience I had at basketball practice. I had one of these little pieces of Heaven for lunch, then a couple hours later found myself participating in a full court drill for about 10 minutes with freshman boys that had much more energy (and probably 1 less chicken queso burrito sitting in their stomach). Let's just say it wasn't a good feeling. But man was it tasty.

2. I went Christmas shopping the other day by myself at the Meridian Mall, and it surprisingly wasn't too bad of an experience. It was actually really funny, on top of being productive. I saw a lot of my friends from Mason HS, including watching two guys walk out of Victoria's Secret. If I had a picture of one of the guys' face (the freshman guy I know, who also happens to be on my basketball team), I'd post it. Probably a face worthy of an American Express "Priceless" ad. But I also took a few minutes to check out the line for seeing Santa, and I was disappointed. I'm sure the little old man posing as Santa couldn't do much more, but he definitely didn't look too much like Santa...at least as I imagine him. Now obviously this is somewhat of a subjective criticism, since Santa's about as real as the Lions' playoff chances, but still, he wasn't quite plump enough, his beard didn't look right, and he was either 10 years too young or 10 years too old (I couldn't decide which was actually true). And he wouldn't even let kids sit on his lap! The poor little kids had to stand awkwardly in front of him, sharing their condensed wish lists. That was another problem with him...I think his lap was too small.

3. Mason Freshman basketball is now 2-3, after a 38 point win over St. John's. Obvious evidence of a great coaching job :) And (read: in reality) our point guards are studs.

4. Played a game of movie charades with Woj, Shan, and the Granger boys. Our movie selections were limited to the movies on their shelf, which the boys have affectionately memorized. Here's a video of my beautiful girlfriend acting her little heart out (I only caught the tail end).

I love this video because of
A. The confidence and passion exuded by Luke Granger
B. Shan's lion impersonation
C. "Can I see that?" This quote ended the video, mostly because Jay grabbed my phone and almost broke it in half

5. I watched "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" again, only because it's one of Shannon's top 5 favorite movies. I guess that's just what happens...either I love her so much or I have lots of time on my hands. Or both.

6. Speaking of Shan, I spent a weekend with her family in Grand Rapids, and had a blast. We saw a movie, went out to eat with her whole family to celebrate her grandparents' anniversary, watched a family slideshow, hung out with her brother and his friends, went shopping, and many other fun things. It was memorable, and hopefully the first of many more memorable moments with Shannon and her family.

7. Finished my 7th semester of college!

I'm forward to tomorrow. I'm planning on finishing my Christmas shopping, cheering on the Spartans to a win against Texas, and maybe watching Charlie Brown Christmas, the G.O.A.T. of Christmas movies. Miss you all.

Bestsellers and Singing

2007-12-07T15:32:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since the last name I wrote, which hopefully doesn't become a trend. I'm sitting at Bestsellers right now, a coffee shop / bookstore in Mason. It's one of my favorite places in the quaint little town of Mason. I think I love this place because 1. it's the only coffee place in Mason; 2. I love coffee; and 3. it's full of opposites. It's not that I love opposites or anything, but it's interesting to me. It's full of old people and young people, well lit and dimly lit places, areas of great reception and dead zones. People here are either in a big hurry, or content with taking all the time in the world. It's small and consistent, just like the town it serves. Here's a picture of it (by the way, I took this with my phone, then sent it to my computer via Bluetooth...gotta love technology!)

Our freshman team had a game last night, and we won! It was awesome to share in the joy of victory with those guys. Our JV lost a tough one afterwards, but they absolutely played their hearts out. There's something inspiring and cool about watching people give their best. To try as hard as they can. To leave everything out there. It's always expected, and so rarely accomplished. It leaves us vulnerable, but it's beautiful. I hope those young men can build on that experience.

But anyways, I've been thinking about singing lately. I do a lot of driving, and much of that is driving by myself. It's not as bad as it sounds...it gives me time to think, reflect, pray, and sing as loud as I want to, without inducing cringes and laughter from others. I'm such a poor singer; I have no concept of pitch, tone, or key. I don't even know what those terms mean. But I sound great when I'm singing along with someone. At church, I sound great. When I sing along to PW, I sound great. Now obviously, I'm still the same schmuck who can't sing a lick, but singing along with someone who can makes all the difference.

I'm not good at singing, but I think there are other things that I'm good at that others aren't as good at. I think that God gives us each skill sets and passions that are unique to us. Mine doesn't include singing, but it does include other stuff. But whether it's singing, painting, cooking, or teaching, we're always better off when we do those things with other people. Regardless of whether or not we're any good, it brings out the best in us and it brings out the best in others.

Spend some time thinking about what you're good at and what you're passionate about. Then spend some time thinking about how you can invite others to join you in that. It'll be fun.

Past my prime?

2007-12-02T22:49:00.000-05:00

For those of you that don't know, I'm helping out with the freshman basketball team at Mason High School. It's only been a few weeks, and I absolutely love it. The guys on my team are really fun, and being able to teach and encourage these 14 young men has been both challenging and life-giving. We've got our first game tomorrow night...unfortunately I have to miss it, but there'll be plenty more!

Anyways, I decided to condition with them tonight. I've been thinking of doing this for a while now, but tonight was the first time I did everything conditioning-wise that they did. I'm hoping that joining them will inspire them to work harder and take on my attitude as well, which is (hopefully) one that works hard and encourages others.

Obviously, part of having said attitude is being in shape, of which I am dreadfully not in. We only did about 7 down and backs plus a man-maker (perhaps a more PC term for a suicide), but I was huffing and puffing by the end of it all. I'm not sure if I would have been able to finish another set of those. Sad, but true. I just can't run and jump and move like I used to. I'm not strong anymore either. Now, I'm sure not many share the same desire to possess these qualities as I do, but they're important to me for better or worse. At least kind of important.

As I took off my shoes and got ready to depart after practice with the rest of the team, I was joking around with a couple of them. As I joked with them to not let the "old guy" beat them in sprints (I know I'm not really old, but I feel old for 21 going on 22), one guy responded "but you should be in your prime!"

He said it in such a way that he was certain that, at this stage of life I'm in, I should in fact be in my "prime." I calmly and confidently responded that my prime was ages 17 and 18, and it's been downhill since. As we laughed our way out of the gym, I couldn't help but think: I'm just scratching the 20s and I'm already over the hill, athletically speaking. That sucks.

Am I really past my prime, athletically speaking? Maybe if I put in the time and energy, I can get back to the level of fitness and athleticism I enjoyed in high school. But I don't see that happening anytime soon, for a lot of reasons. Many of these probably aren't good reasons, but still.

I'll probably have much more to say about this basketball coaching experience. It's really quite cool.

Beginnings

2007-12-01T22:11:00.001-05:00

I told Shan that I decided to start a blog tonight and she said "I'm surprised it took you so long." I used to think that blogs were kind of ridiculous, but for some reason this afternoon I decided that I wanted to have one. For some reason, I felt this need to have an outlet to capture my thoughts. And that maybe, people would find it worth reading. And now that my MacBook is half-way to being a golden calf, I'll hopefully be able to post frequently.

I spent a while thinking about what my blog would be titled. I actually spent much longer than I'd like to admit to. I thought about using a phrase from one of my favorite songs, "From the Inside Out," but each of my favorite lines on it's own sounded weird. "My soul cries out" and "The cry of my heart" sounded emo-ish. And that's not what I'm going for. So I ended up with "toe the line," which is the title of a song by Stephen Speaks. Here are the lyrics:

"Toe the line again to see how far
I can run and still see where You are
Feel I've run this race a thousand years still I fall
These dirty feet calloused with the tread
And my eyes the eyes of dead men
Running far enough from my salvation
But only far enough to dip my feet

CHORUS: I am not pretending anymore
I am not at home
I am knocking at Your door
I am not at home, I am not at home, I am coming home

Toe the line again to see how far
I can run and still see where You are
Knowing full well what this grace has cost...
Seems this safety net's not made of lace
But the flowing river of Your grace
And who am I some selfish kid
To abuse this perfect love You give."

"Toe the line again and see how far, I can run and still see where you are." So much of the last 5 years of my life can be characterized by that line. I'm almost done with my 7th semester of college, and soon enough I'll have a job. A real job. I'm in the midst of my fourth year as a Young Life leader at Mason High School, and I have a lot of great relationships there...so much of my heart is invested there, and soon enough, I'll be moving on. But as some wise person noted, the end of each chapter in our lives means the beginning of a new one. As I sit here now, I've got opportunities (at least, the opportunity at opportunities) for a job, meaningful relationships that will last well past college, and specifically, one with a girl that I care about more than myself.

As many of you know, I'm 'that guy' that often needs to be retaught a lesson before it sticks, if it ever does, but here's hoping that as I toe this new line, I'll have my head up and focused on what's important. And I'm not talking about my blog :)

Thanks for reading. If you continue to tune in, I hope you find this humorous and insightful. Go to the well on the comments...I'd love to hear from you all.