Truth and Grace Above All Else

The End of the Beginning Memories of your years in school can be a mixed bag of emotions. Some of sorrow, some of happiness and some of inspiration. This part of many peoples lives shapes them into who they are today or at least lays the groundwork for what they believe to be true. This is true in my life as well, but recently as I reflect on the experiences of my college career and my high school years, something sticks out.  Onward and Upward As I stand on the precipice of this new chapter in my life, I see how each action that lead up to this point has pushed me to greater and more lofty accomplishments. This drive to surpass those who came before me was kindled by those who taught me. As the great Jedi master Yoda once said, "We must become what they surpass.". So I take to heart that there is something more to education then just learning. There is are subtle nudges throughout that push us all to do better, be better and accomplish what those before us could n...

The Best and Worst Feeling When you think of waiting, what comes to mind? Maybe waiting in line at the grocery, waiting for a break in the rain so you can run to your car, waiting for the bus to arrive, waiting for the light to turn green, waiting for those last few seconds of the school day to be over, but no matter what you are waiting for there is going to be something to follow.  The Worst Feeling The phone rings and you see the hospital is calling. You have been waiting to hear the results of the tests. You hear what the doctor says and your face goes blank. Tears well up and your heart sinks. This was not what you wanted to hear, but after all this time your worst fears are confirmed.  You open your email and see the name of the company you applied to months ago. Emotions begin to stir inside of you and you click to open it. You read out loud what you hope you want to hear until you say, "...sorry...".  He said it was a large fire and that he would ...

Being someone who enjoys thinking about possibilities, I often get lost in my thoughts. I think about what I am doing with my life and whether it is the, "right" thing to be doing. There are so many social pressures that try to define all of us from a very young age that try and tell us what is the, "right" thing for us to do with our lives. When what we feel lead to do and what the world is telling us to do doesn't line up, there is friction. What do we do about this friction though? Do we seek guidance from those that are older and wiser then us or do we go it alone? Recently I found myself in one of these situations where friction was occurring where I did not expect any. This caused me to call into question my options. If the choice that I want to make is God honoring, what reason would I have to reject it? There is an underlying factor to this choice as well though: faith. This choice would require complete faith. So this made me wonder, is this fri...

Things that stick with you If you have ever met me in person, you have most likely seen me chugging water out of one of my many water bottles. These bottles carry different meanings to me because of the different places each one of them have been with me. I guess you could call it nostalgia, but I like to think that each one of them has character of it's own because of each of the scratches, dents and scuffs that they have. What really makes each one of my bottles unique though is that each one has a sticker or stickers from events or places that I have been with that bottle. One of my favorite water bottles has stickers on it from when I traveled overseas to Scotland and Ireland. That bottle carries many memories of travel and the stories of three summers spent traveling around Michigan. The sticker from Scotland takes me back to walking the streets of Edinburgh, eating haggis for the first time and having my eyes opened to how much larger this world really is.   The ...

The fire bell is ringing My younger years were spent adventuring and finding out all my town had to offer. My brother and I would ride our bikes around town and go to the local candy store to buy Snickers and other sugary goodies. On many of these adventures our next door neighbor would join us or they might even take place on his property. We would build forts, talk about baseball, try and dig to the center of the earth with a post hole digger, create massive piles of wood for bonfires and throw boomerangs the wrong way so that they wouldn't come back.  Anytime that we would go over to our neighbors house we would have to ask permission to do so from our parents. Usually when both of us would go over to our friends house it was because we had some crazy project in mind. On this particular day, our father was working on an old fire bell. Something was wrong with the mechanism that actuated the hammer to hit the bell. Both of us asked permission to go over our friends hou...

Playing the right notes I was told a few years ago that I am one of the most eclectic people this person had ever met. I had to look up what the word meant, but after doing so it gave me a sense of accomplishment. The reason this guy told me that I was really eclectic was because I carried around an instrument that very seldom is recognized. The instrument is called an ocarina. It is a wind instrument that is made of ceramic. The ocarina is a very strange instrument to hold and play because it is not conventionally shaped. I own what is called a, "potato ocarina". This is because it is literally shaped like a potato. The ocarina was just small enough that it fit into my backpack so I could carry it everywhere I went. I didn't have to worry about it breaking because of its design and shape.     When playing the ocarina, you have to contort your hands in a very strange way in order to cover the air holes properly while also holding it in place on your lips. It to...

Growth needs to be directed and maintained Having a few different hobbies keeps me very busy. Thankfully most of my hobbies require little to no effort to enjoy, except one. By far the most time consuming and enjoyable hobby that I take part in is growing bonsai trees. Yes, I know what you are probably thinking right now, "Oh, like Mr. Miyagi?". Yes, bonsai trees were popularized by the movie The Karate Kid , but that is not the reason I became fascinated with these almost whimsical plants.  I was browsing my Facebook feed one day and came across an image of a man holding a clay pot in the palm of his hand. Inside of that pot was a small tree that looked as though it was well aged and had a thick trunk to show how old it was. I became awestruck by this image and was captivated to the point of going crazy  over the other images I found of these delicate and beautiful plants. So about three years ago, I purchased a small kit to grow a tree from seed.  The pa...

Crazy for Him Have you ever just lost it? I don't mean dropped your coffee in your lap and been frustrated; I am talking about running around, yelling at the top of your lungs and not caring who stares at you or what could possibly come of doing such a thing. I have, but it was for a good reason.  As I have mentioned in some of my previous blogs, when I was younger I went to camps a lot during the summer. Camp was a place where I learned a lot about who I was and who God is to me. One specific time that I went to camp, I was there for two full weeks. I was a part of a group that actually went around the camp and cleaned things up as well as had fun of our own. There was about twenty-five of us guys and gals who served in this way for two weeks. During these two weeks of spending twenty-four hours a day with my, "crew", we got to know each other pretty well.  During the last week of being there, my team was serving in the dining hall cleaning up after each one...

Precision counts Making of a masterpiece...sort of About a year ago I was talking with one of my cousins about what he was doing those days. Somehow we got on the topic of hobbies and what hobby he was investing the most time in recently. We discussed a couple different things until he brought up something that caught my attention: precision spinning tops. These are not your ten cents spinning tops that you get at the arcade though, no, these are works of art in their own right. These tops will spin for upwards of fifteen minutes and some go even longer then that. I asked my cousin what it cost to acquire such a precisely made piece of art. He kind of chuckled and told me that most of these tops go for a few hundred dollars each. My mouth fell agape and I thought, "How in the world can someone justify spending that much on what is the equivalent of the adult version of what you owned as a child?". I was hooked though. I wanted to learn more about these simple yet elega...

Under Water Sharks in the water If you were to ask my mom how much I enjoy being in the water, she would say something to the effect of, "He is a fish.". Needless to say, I love swimming and being in the water on a hot summer day. I loved the water so much that one time I spent a little to much time in my backyard pool one afternoon. I ended up with a lobster red back and could not sleep on my back for two days. That was not fun, but that is not the story I came here to tell you today. The story that I want to tell you is about how my innocent game of playing a shark nearly ended tragically.  During my teenage years, I took every opportunity to go on little trips with my church's youth group. One of my favorite trips during the end of the summer was going to a water park for the day. Being the fish that I am, this was a blast for me. It also let me release my inner kid while I was splashing friends left and right. As a group, we would typically go on the wat...