On The Horizon

I felt like God said that I'd be able to live in that awesome way that I've been yearning to. He said this coming semester was the time for it. The difference now will be that I'll keep in mind the value of balance. During my time in Canton, I had lots of time to sit around praying, texting and selling (didn't sell much). Things came together. Here are a few things on the horizon for me/us:

1. Generally speaking, I'm stepping it up in leadership. I stepped back this past semester to let other people step up. To be specific, Rush and Perez didn't. Rush would be the main problem there. He's the one with the friggin' huge anointing for leadership. So yeah, when the ones that God wants don't step up, those less-abled among us have to do so. This is how Jordan and I end up leading. Not to downplay my or Jordan's abilities, of course. I just felt like God is having us take the place of someone who decided not to step up when God wanted them to.

2. New Paradigm. I'll be talking to Pastor Nick about videos for the New Paradigm tomorrow. One such new video may be a new, improved version of the I Am Paradigms. Pastor Nick originally intended for them to be a fresh word caught on video. I've got an idea for the first fresh word (it's based on the blog about Solla Sollew by Dr. Seuss).

3. Revolt, the school retreat coming up at the end of January. Jordan said he needed someone organized to help out with it. Guess who was waiting for someone else to step up to the plate? Yep, so now that it's a month away, I'm taking over much of the planning. I texted Cameron, and he confirmed that Mike Bond will most likely want to be a part of this, so there's our speaker. Awesome? I think so.

4. I get to give most of my/God's Christmas money away (the money I was gonna be living on for awhile or, if I saved it, gambling with on the cruise). I love having to rely on God financially. Don't worry; His orders, not mine.

5. God revealed something to me through my Dr. Seuss research. Dr. Seuss wrote his books for adults, but written in language simple enough for children to understand (in many of his first drafts, he cussed and swore a lot). When asked if he would ever write adult books instead of childrens, he replied that he didn't know of a difference between the two. This plus a sermon I was listening to clued me in on something. I've been uncertain of whether to approach the subject of awesome supernatural stuff with my small group, 'cause I wasn't sure if it'd be the appropriate group. But it's a subject I ALWAYS wanna talk about, like something rising up in me. So maybe, just maybe, if it's done simply, we can start talking about my favorite parts of Christianity.

I'm excited.

My Troubles Are Going To Have Troubles With Me

"Then I started back home
To the Valley of Vung.
I know I'll have troubles
I'll, maybe, get stung.
I'll always have troubles.
I'll, maybe, get bit
By that Green-Headed Quail
On the place where I sit.

"But I've bought a big bat.
I'm all ready, you see.
Now my troubles are going
To have troubles with me!"- I Had Trouble In Getting to Solla Sollew, Dr. Seuss

The whole story, the main character is trying to get to a land where there are no troubles, or at least very few. He spends ages and ages risking his life trying to get there, and when he finally arrives, he finds that the "very few" problems mentioned about this safe haven included the key to get in not fitting.

He hears about another place where there are no problems, but instead of trying for this easy way, he goes back to face his problems, and this time armed with a bat and an attitude.

I love it, 'cause it so ties in with Christianity. We have all these problems around us and think "OH GOD, DELIVER ME!". We take God as an instant ticket to easy street, when He has the tools sitting there for us to use.

We need to get TICKED at the crap the devil tries to throw at us, and all the junk in our lives, and go in there with our "bats" (or better yet, our Sword of the Spirit) and beat the crap out of what has wormed its way into our lives. We have a full suit of armor, and all the devil has are "fiery darts", which we can easily quench. GO ON THE OFFENSIVE WITH YOUR CHRISTIANITY! Don't say, "It's a shame that she/he's getting back into sin." Tell them, "HEY! What happened to that man/woman of God I saw before? What happened to the DIFFERENCE I could see in you and in the people around you, because of what you were doing?"

Don't stand back. Stand up.

All of our lives are "too busy" and "too hard". Are you gonna let that control you or are you gonna take the authority that God has given you and set things straight? God never intended for your life to be too full for Him to be actively working in every inch of it.

Laughter

I don't like to post blogs that are just quotes, or lyrics from songs, or stupid crap like that, 'cause I think it's unoriginal to do so. However, I did find this quote from Dr. Seuss to be awesome, and to put into words some thoughts I've had in the past.

"Have you ever stopped to consider what has happened to your sense of humor? When you were a kid named Willy or Mary the one thing you did better than anything else was laugh....

A strange thing called conditioned laughter began to take its place...

[It depended on] financial conditions. Political conditions. Racial, religious and social conditions. You began to laugh at people your family feared or despised-- people they felt inferior to, or people they felt better than... You were supposed to guffaw when someone told a story which proved that Swedes are stupid, Scots are tight, Englishmen are stuffy and the Mexicans never wash. You discovered a new form of humor based on sex... Your capacity for healthy, silly, friendly laughter was smothered."- Dr. Seuss

Also, to give you guys an update, the mock trial has gone on with the prosecution's witnesses, but it looks like I'll finally be able to testify tomorrow. Problems with God-junk haven't been resolved yet (look back to previous blog). I have to show notes from my thesis research tomorrow. Let's hope that that goes well.

Sketching

The first thing that really got me thinking in artsy terms recently was when I was drugged up from wisdom teeth, and I was trying to think of what use I could put to this intoxicated state.

Last night, I was watching a documentary on Dr. Seuss (I'm doing my senior thesis on different aspects of his books). Apparently, like me, he was a crappy artist, 'cause he never ended up drawing what he intended to. He would try to draw a kangaroo, and it'd look crappy and nothing like one. This is one reason why he made up his own animals (it also helped with his rhyming quite a bit). I gave up on drawing quite early, thinking that I was simply untalented in that area. However, after looking at the way Dr. Seuss did things, I'm thinking that maybe it's not too late to try putting pencil to paper and drawing a few sketches.

Be Humbled

Tuesday was a bright and shiny day. I went to Early Morning Prayer ('cause they require it of SL to go once a month) and Early Morning Prayed. At school, I talked to Mr. Beaumont about my senior thesis, and he told me not to write on Dr. Seuss's life, but rather on just the interpretation of his children's books, and their effect/influence upon children. So now I'm off to collect and read all 46 children's books by Dr. Seuss, and to see if there's a further interpretation to be made of each of them. Mr. Beaumont also made out that I was trying to take the easy way out by dropping his class. My other classes were not eventful enough for me to remember, apparently, 'cause nothing particularly exciting is coming to mind. On my way home from school, I turned around 'cause I had forgotten a book, and something strange happened. My cruise control was set to 45 mph in a 35 mph area, and I had gotten a ticket for doing that before, so I pushed the decelerate button, but it didn't do anything. So I just decided to reset the cruise control. Unfortunately, the cruise control did not shut off, as it usually does when I hit the breaks. It just slowed down according to how long I held the brakes. So I pulled the car to a stop, determined to stop these shenanigans, and turned the car off, then back on. But even while in Park, the engine was revving, 'cause the cruise control was still going. It wasn't until after I pushed the pedals every which way after turning the car off and on that it was finally in working order again. Nothing else particularly eventful happened that day, besides the fact that I've been talking to Sarah Massie, a girl with a troubling not-so-distant past, and have been giving her advice.

Today, school was just peachy. In Government class, we were making fun of Alyssa for some little stupid thing, and I said something particularly loudly as the teacher walked in. Mrs. Williams asked me to come into the hall to talk to me, where she basically just said, "Stop being so loud in class", but in less words, and we came back in. Then I grabbed my shoulder and made a pained face as I walked in, thinking that one or two people might see it. But no, this was not meant to be. The entire class roared with laughter as I made my way to my seat, and Mrs. Williams was astonished that I would distract the class so just after she had talked to me about it. This was completely unintentional on my part, and I explained and apologized after class, but her reply was "You know your audience better than that." Next was a student council meeting, where I corrected my test, said what I wanted, and it didn't matter, 'cause I wasn't an elected official in there, so I don't have to do anything for them.

Later, I traveled home (by car) and showered and all that jazz, then headed to Gamestop, to get the new Wii Jedi game (I have to be partial geek to fit in with geeks, 'cause I can't be cool if I like video games, right?), all the while listening to a fun sermon by Pastor Jude Foucquier (whom I have so much more respect for after seeing him interact with Pastor Benny Perez at the YFN leaders workshops). After that, I hopped over to church, Chipotle in hand, and was offered the task of taking pictures for the small group manual that Pastor Nick was making, and I undertook the challenge. By this time, I was fairly convinced that I was not going to be asked to help lead a small group. During pre-service prayer, God started telling me about how I needed to be humbled, 'cause I felt like I was far enough with God to do a small group. Then he brought up the valedictorian issue, and told me that it was because of Him and His plan that I am even competing. "Be humbled. You are a servant." I had forgotten about being a servant in my petty concerns. Isn't that stupid? So then I thought about how many times that God tells me something during pre-service prayer, it often becomes the focus of the leaders' prayers, even though I don't mention it. Then I told God about how what He was telling me didn't fit the mood or the message or anything, that if He wanted me to tell it to Pastor Nick, I would need confirmation. "You are the one who is supposed to be confirmation for people," was the reply. So I told Pastor Nick during worship, and it didn't fit any of the night's mood, but I explained it to Pastor Nick afterwards (in a lot less words, 'cause I did it through texting), and he understood.