Let Her Legacy Live On

When I was a senior in High School I remember our youth group hosted a "Let's recognize the Seniors" night. It was there that I heard something from my youth minister, Mike Havens, that I will never forget. He brought us seniors up individually to tell us how much he appreciated us and our committment to the youth group and to point out our good qualities as among other things.

My turn came and he talked for a little bit but then he led the conversation to something I didn't expect. See my Nannie died a couple of months before this and I can honestly say that she was the most devout Christian I knew. My biggest regret is that I didn't take advantage of her being as big of a mentor as I would have allowed. Mike began by claiming that he didn't know my Nannie very well but he knew of her from other people and her story/legacy. He knew of the great things that she did and how loving, caring, humble, selfless, and disciplined she was. He then asked me to cary on that legacy and to become just as she was. That has been burned in my memory ever since then. I hope that I can make Mike proud as well as my family. Even my Nannie looking down on me with our Creator "standing" next to her. I pray that I will gain the discipline to wake up in the wee hours of the morning praying to Him and seeking guidance and thanking Him for my many blessings. I pray that I would become as selfless and give as if there is nothing that I really own. I pray that I would become as intelligent as her when it came to knowing scripture so that the wisdom we all long for is at my fingertips for whatever situation may be at hand. 

I pray that I may become a Disciple, Just As She Was.

I pray that her legacy will live on

Friends

It's funny how friends can change so fast and so drastically. I remember in elementary school grown-ups would come and speak about the statistics on drinking and sex. They gave numbers on the number of under age drinkers there were especially in high school. Along with the ratio of virgins to non virgins. I remember thinking to myself that this guy doesn't know what he's talking about because my friends would never do that; obviously showing my ignorance. But when middle school hit i began seeing a change with the people I have known as my friends. And it seemed to get worse in high school. It's hard to see people that you love change into people that you can't really respect because of the choices they've made and continue to make. It hurts more than I thought especially when so much was invested and the potential that it had.

It even surprises me good friends that I used to hang out with a lot and stick up for just kind of drop off. Like they just kept me around because they didn't have anybody else because their other friends didn't like them anymore or were just in another places. But at the time I would think that that wouldn't be a factor. That we're all just good friends who like hanging out with each other. But as soon as another friend came down my thoughts on the matter changed. It seems that maybe we all weren't as good friends as we thought. And that maybe, just maybe, other people were right no matter how much I didn't want to believe them. 

Maybe they were right

Clubin

So life has been pretty good lately but still had it's usual twist in the midst of things. Last night was probably the most interesting considering everything that happened within the night. My cousin asked if I wanted to go to a club so I said yes because i thought it might be fun and a new experience. We went to one in talequah with her and one of her friends and listened to rap all the way up there. I never thought I would get so sick of rap in my whole life! Plus when we were filling up with gas turns out the cop filling up by us was the one who arrested my cousin last time she went "out on the town". We weren't off to a great start. We got to "EFFX" round 10:30 and it was not what I was expecting. Haha Usually on TV you see the clubs people go to and they're really big with lots of good looking people everywhere. Well that wasn't the case. There were weird people everywhere! People with weird haircuts with their Tapout shirts and chains and i'd say at least half were obice. There was even a point where I saw a guy short and stocky with baggy jeans, a Tapout shirt, a hat (which from the looks of it came from Pacsun) which was on the wrong way, and to top if off he had those big white Oakley sunglasses on. Who where's sunglasses in a club with no lighting except the ones over the tables and dance floor? Plus this place was pretty small with absolutely no class. But what do you expect from a small town? Honestly I expected a little more....

Well finally around 11:30 to 12 a lot more people started showing up and the dancing began. And yes I did get my groove on with a couple of Phillies. In about 30 minutes of shaking my groove thang I was hot, sweaty, and sick of all the drunk people being idiots. And for the record I did not drink let alone get drunk. I'm not about that. 

Right before we left we all witnessed 2 people throw up back to back and we decided that was a sign to leave before it became a chain reaction. I had a good time but its not something I would like to do often. When we were on the road heading home something happened that I never would have expected or even witness. My cousin was driving and we were in the middle of Ft. Gibson and Talequah when I felt the brakes hit rather violently. I looked up and 2 dogs were in the road and she tried to swerve to miss them but failed. We hit one of them and all I heard was screaming and the screech of tires on the pavement. We didn't stop, which i'm still kind of unclear why, and just sat there in shock of what happened. I never would have thought I'd be the one in a car to make road kill.

We ended up going to IHOP afterwards to get something to eat and there were these old people, like late 40's early 50's, and I lost my appetite quite quickly. The main reason was the older woman (who clearly tried to look young) talking to the guy next to her. She was talking to him and joking around she offered to go out with him but he refused. To which she replied, "What am I not young enough or firm enough?" ....kill me now. I looked up from my once delicious looking pancakes at my cousin and her friend and asked, "Did I really just hear that?" We decided to leave after that experience and headed home.

All in all it was an interesting night and I hope my interesting nights from now on are a little less interesting in different aspects.

Hot Stuff

So this is the first photoshop project that I've worked on and I have to say that I'm pretty happy with it. Let me know what you think and don't be afraid to give me your honest opinion.

Drama. Why?

Oh the drama people can bring into one's life. I never understood it nor will i probably ever understand it. Yea it's typical in high school especially with the high school girls but with people that are graduated or at least old enough to know when to let things go or take responsibility for their actions....come one. This life is too short to worry about such insignificant things or to ruin someone's life. Things should be more simple along with the people that come with it. We should be humble and swallow pride when we're wrong and let things go when they don't matter. One of the things I hope to accomplish in my lifetime is to create less drama between me and other people that I come into contact with.

Things to Think About

As my first official blog i wanted to talk about a book I recently read called Sex God, by Rob Bell. I finished the book a couple of days ago and frankly i already want to pick it up again because of all the thoughts and realizations it led me too.

The first chapter really caught my attention by Bell setting up how our humanity has changed. He starts the chapter out by giving a short summary of something Lieutenant Colonel Mercin Willet Gonin, a British soldier who helped liberate a German concentration camp, wrote in his diary. He explained how he had seen corpses laying everywhere; some in piles and some by themselves or in pairs where they have fallen. He also wrote that "it took a little time to get used to seeing men, women and children collapse as you walked by them. It was, however, not easy to watch a child choking to death from a diphtheria when you knew a tracheotomy and nursing would save it." 

Bell uses this horriffic document to explain how people are being stripped of their humanity. In Genesis it clearly states that in all of creation there is something different about humans. There is a divine spark that resides within them. We are bearers of the divine image. What we as people have not come to realize is that something as un-significant, or significant, as a bunch of hormone driven guys rating girls as they walk past is the same idea as starving Jews til they collapse where they stand. We strip people of their humanity. 

One of the biggest things i took from this book, and especially the first chapter, is that how we treat creation is how we feel about our creator. Why must we treat people as an object or something that we could use when in all reality they are the same as us. A person with a story. A person with goals. A person with dreams. A person with regrets. Why is it so hard to love people that are "different" than us? I have come to realize that its how we as people, we as sinners, we as human beings see things and view the facts right in front of us. We don't see "they" as "we", "those" as "us" or "he" as "me". So when we treat "those" as "us" we are displaying the new humanity. The one God intended on us living in. God has called us to bring Heaven to Earth. We as Christians can either bring Heaven to Earth or Hell to Earth. I want to work towards the new humanity and give people a glimpse into another realm. Into a better way. A Heaven to Earth.