Christmas/Family/Remebering

I love Christmas, I always have. I love the music, the decorations, the smell of pine needles, the excitement you feel when you walk into the mall. I love it all, but this year I have not been excited about Christmas and after reading Cassie's blog (home) I have come to the conclusion that the reason for this is that I am not home. In 83 days I will be getting married. In five months I will graduate from college. I just moved out of the dorms and into a new house as well as have just started a new job. I am so busy It just doesn't seem like Christmas yet. I am by myself in this huge house, while the rest of my family is in Lubbock and my fiancee is in Houston.

I can think back over 21 years and there is only one Christmas I didn't enjoy. The reason that one has not found a fond corner of my memory is because that one Christmas my family wasn't all there. I realize that even though I love the music, decorations, and atmosphere of Christmas those things are not why I love Christmas itself. I love Christmas because of who I share it with. I can remember back five years ago when all of us were employed by the Raspberry Enterprises. As a family we were in all the restaurant business, flipping burgers, pealing sweet potatoes, and scooping chicken salad. Looking back those memories are good ones (even if we didn't think so at the time.)

Five years later we are all still in the family business but we no longer work in restaurants. Dad is now the founder senior pastor of Turning Point Community Church. Mom just finished her class work for her masters degree in counseling, as well as working as a full time pastor's wife. Carrie is the children's minister at Turning Point and is married to Kyle the youth pastor at Turning Point. Cassie is as well working on her degree in counseling at Southwestern Theological Seminary and it looks as though she will soon be married to Curtis, a youth pastor in Dallas. I am now working at Crescent Heights Baptist Church in Abilene as a youth minister and am one semester away from having my bachelor's degree in church ministry, and am 83 days away from marrying the girl of my dreams. Life is good.

While I am not excited about Christmas yet soon I will be on my way to Lubbock to see my family. And even if I do not enjoy Christmas this year I will most certainly enjoy the time I spend this next week with the people I love most in the world.

Definition of Friendship

I wrote this on Feb. 28th 2007


I was working this morning at Cracker Barrel when a man was seated in my section. He was an older looking man and a little rough around the edges. (Most likely this guy was never called a wimp or a sissy.) When you are working in restaurants you can usually tell who is traveling through and not native to your surrounding area. I poured the man his coffee as he poured over his road atlas. When I finished taking his order he asked me the best way to get to Denton. I suggested a route and pointed it out on his map. When waiting tables you are always searching for betters tips, so in an attempt to be more personal and social I inquired where he was from. He replied with, "Phoenix, I am traveling to Denton because one of my closest friends in the world is dieing. He saved my life." I offered my deepest condolences and feeling a bit awkward hurried off to put his order in the computer. A bit later I was stopping by to refill his coffee and inform him his food shouldn't be much longer when, with glazed eyes, he said: "I was a Fighter pilot in Vietnam, flying the F-4 Phantom. One afternoon I was flying my routine mission when out of nowhere a S2AM (surface to air missile) came up from behind me and clipped my landing gear. The plane was on fire and the landing gear was jammed so I knew I couldn't land back on the carrier. I found a rice patty, radioed my location and glided in. When the plane crashed within seconds I saw four black Marines. They drug me out of the plane. Timmy, Daryl, John, and Robert, they made a stretcher and carried me on it for three days. Three days on a hand made stretcher! They saved my life. After we came home two of them came and worked for me as district managers for my oil company in southern California, another is living in Brewten, Alabama, and Daryl is in Denton, thats who I am going to see. Daryl is the one who is dieing. Its a shame, a damn shame." As the gruff Vietnam veteran wipe the tears out of his eyes, I had to excuse myself to do the same. I think that today I heard the best definition of friendship I will ever hear.

The Extraordinary of Any Idle Day

One of my favorite things about my blog is the name, "The Extraordinary of Any Idle Day." Out of the title, I really enjoy to think about the phrase, "any idle day." It is something that implies ordinary. There is nothing special about any idle day. A movie that I really enjoyed was the movie Stranger than Fiction, starting Will Ferrell. In this movie Ferrell plays the character Harold Crick. You see Harold leads quite a routine lifestyle, he is awoken each morning by his Timex T56371 watch, eats alone, counts the number of steps he walks for fun, focuses on ways to save time tying his tie, and brushes his teeth exactly 76 times (38 vertical strokes, 38 horizontal). He does the same work and does not leave his routine. Harold lives an idle life, with no excitement and no changes. In the movie Harold's life gets turned upside down and he begins to experience change in his routine. But life is not a movie. While in the movie, Harold Crick changes who he is because of the event that occur to him throughout the plot line, in real life those changes seldom come. When we do experience changes in our everyday routine, the changes that are made lead to new routines. For most people in this world our everyday norm is idle.

What we fail to realize is that laced in the normalicy of our lives are traces of something that keeps the world spinning. Action, adventure, love stories, tradgedy, fear, humor, sadness, theses are the things that make our everyday idle lives extraordinary. These are the things that makes us exactly who we are. It isn't our routines or life styles but our lives that are extraordinary. "Everyday extraordinary," are the things I want to think about, write about, and remember when I look back and ask myself what I was doing in 2007. I will easily remember where I worked and lived, the idle things about my life but what I want to enjoy when I am old and looking back on my life isn't the idle it is that on some random Sunday I forgot my wallet twice in one day. That is the extraordinary of any idle day.

• They are the things that make us cry because we didn't know it could hurt so much.
  
• They are the things that make us fear because we don't know what the future will look like.
  
• They are the things that we marvel at the adventures we take.
• They are the things that make us giddy because we never thought a kiss could taste so good.
  
• They are the things that make our sides hurt because we never thought we could laugh so hard.

They are the things that make us feel more than idle.

One of Those Moments

Recently I had, "one of those moments." Anyone who has ever had such a moment knows exactly what I am talking about. It is an instance in life where one experiences or witnesses something that reassures the lack of perfection in the human race. I was the key player in such an experience only yesterday.

Pt.1
After church yesterday I went with the rest of the church staff out to eat at Rosa's Cafe, a delicious Mexican food restaurant. I waited through the line, walked up to the counter and ordered my chicken enchilada plate with an extra chicken fajita burrito and a medium drink. The nice cashier informed me of my total, $6.48, and instinctively I reached for my wallet in my left rear pant pocket...No wallet. I must have made a mistake and placed my wallet in my right rear pocket, but again I found no lump in my pocket. After thoroughly checking the remainder of the pockets in my pants and jacket I realize that I had left my wallet in the top right drawer of my desk back at the church. Embarrassed for having already ordered my food I thoroughly apologized to the nice lady and mumbled something about going and checking for my wallet in my car (even thought I knew it was not there). I hung my head and retreated to the large area where several people had pushed tables together so our party could all sit together.

It didn't take long for someone to notice my lack of food and drink and without telling me they took the initiative to purchase my food and drink. (One of the members of our group had heard my order while standing in line behind me and had made sure that I received my meal, by paying for it himself.) With humility I accepted the gracious offer and enjoyed my enchiladas, and chicken fajita.

Pt.2
Last night at church there was supose to be a men and boys bake off, but do to unfortunate weather the services were canceled. Before I knew of their cancellation I had determined to purchase the ingredients to make a delicious Coca Cola Cake. I walked into United Supermarkets on Judge Ely Blvd. and began collecting ingredients into my buggy. After making my final selections I made my way to the checkout line. The nice lady scanned my items, told me my total, $11.27, asked if I wanted paper or plastic, and began sacking my groceries while I reached into my left rear pant pocket to retrieve my wallet. OH CRAP!!

Once again I had the realization that my wallet lie dormant in the top right hand drawer of my desk at the church. For the second time in the past two hours I graciously apologized and walked the shamefully, tail between my legs, back to my car without my groceries. It was one of those moments that made me realize how not perfect I am.

My Thoughts: If at first you don't succeed give up before you fail again.

LifeVesting

We are all given choices in our every-day existence that allow us opportunities not only to succeed , but also to receive the greatest possible return from the decisions we make. In the adventure of life that we have all been chosen to participate in, we find ourselves in situations filed with these opportunities to succeed. Every day we are given multiple opportunities to invest our lives in hopes of gaining a return from our “LifeVesting.” LifeVesting are the investment we makes in the personal, social, and spiritual aspects of our lives in hope of gaining some form of profit. The idea behind LifeVesting is that we have to make our life investments in wise opportunities, or the “Wall-Street-market” of the world will beat us. How, then, does one make the investments in life that can yield the greatest return? In order to gain the greatest benefits from LifeVesting, three different types of investment are necessary: SelfVesting, OtherVesting, and GodVesting. These three areas, if invested properly, not only affect, but also benefit each other. Each has its own unique dimensions, its own risks, and its own benefits or consequences.

One of the greatest “SelfVesters” I have ever known is my grandfather. He has taken care of himself physically, financially, mentally, and emotionally. In the physical sense, almost every morning of his adult life he has gotten up early and gone jogging, no matter what the weather conditions. Financially, he has never invested in something he hasn’t researched and is confident about. Mentally, he began his college education at the age of nineteen and continued until he received his M.D. degree. But in my opinion, his greatest SelfVesting achievement was his emotional investment in marrying my grandmother. The two have now been happily married for fifty-two years. As easily seen from my grandfather’s life, the investments of a SelfVester are those that attempt to add value to one’s self. We are born with an innate desire to seek self-perfection. We want our lives to be better today than they were yesterday. But the unfortunate reality of the situation is that many times we are our own harshest critics when our investments turn out to be unwise.

There are two risks with SelfVesting. The first is in not investing at all. This results in an apathetic lifestyle causes our lives at best not to change at all, or, at worst, to turn out worse because we didn’t invest. For example, how many people who can’t get jobs wish that after high school they would have gone on to college instead of pursuing their instant self gratification? The consequences of having no self investments can be dire, resulting in an unsatisfactory life that is rapidly wasted.

SelfVesting also carries the risk of over-investing in self, which leads towards a life of vanity. The unfortunate fact about our own desire to gain perfection is that many times we get wrapped up in our self-improvement to the point that it can actually damage us. For example, girls who have eating disorders feel like the size of their bodies doesn’t meet the standards of the world that so harshly portrays the image of the “perfect” woman on the cover of Cosmopolitan This demonstrates that the end result of over-investing in self matters can actually turn the tables on us, and instead of helping us improve, it can actually end up hurting us in our vain attempts. magazine.

But what about the possibilities of a return from our SelfVesting? My grandfather has stayed in shape, his education produced a successful career in the medical field, and financial success through his wise investing have produced a secure retirement. But the greatest self- return from his investments have come from his investment in his family, having had four children and eight grandchildren. When a person is successful in investing in himself, it in turn affects those around him and opens doors for the next type of LifeVesting.

“OtherVesting” is a type of investment in which both we and others gain and benefit by our investment in their lives. My father has spent a large portion of his life OtherVesting. He has spent countless hours pouring his life into others so that they may be better off for it. The results of his OtherVesting can be seen every day when he leaves the house. I don’t believe I have ever gone with him to the grocery store, mall, or any other place open to the public where he doesn’t see someone he knows. He has spent countless hours investing in others’ lives. Socially, he is well-liked and respected. Relationally, people trust him. Personally, people feel respected by him.

OtherVesting helps us relate to the world and improves the way the world relates to us. Investment in others is the basis by which our world gets along; it can also be the cause of why it doesn’t. When looking at the investments themselves, what is it that we are actually investing? The most significant investment one can make toward others is simply time. Of course, the needs of others are many, and time is not the only investment we can make. Regardless of what is invested, however, the hardest part about othervesting is learning how to “get over ourselves.” We have to do things for other people, putting ourselves aside, to receive the greatest benefit.

The greatest risk of under-investing in others is isolation. In the book Silas Marner, by George Elliot, the main character, Silas, had a bad experience with investing in others. As a result, he became a miser never - leaving his house and making no outside contact with others. His lack of OtherVesting caused him to live a sad, gray, miserable life. But looking at the other end of the scale, if one over-invests in other people, the end result will be one in which they care too much about what others think and do too much to please others. As a result, they lose their sense of self.

The investment return of OtherVesting, though, can be one the greatest rewards experienced in this life. If we invest in other people, they, in turn, will invest in us. We will receive what we need and more from others, forming true bonds that can help us in every aspect of life. If we look at two best friends, they are two people who over time invest in each other’s lives. Each also receives the benefit of the other’s investment. But to truly understand the potential value of the return from our LiveVesting, we must examine the third type - “Godvesting.”

Each one of us has a longing for answers to the innate spiritual questions that arise in our lives. We all have a desire to invest in something dealing with the spiritual. GodVesting is most certainly the most important venture that LifeVesting brings. Godvesting has the potential to yield a greater benefit than the other two. The reason that Godvesting offers so much to those of us who truly don’t deserve its gracious dividends is because of the investment that was first made in us. God saw humanity and invested Himself into it so that we may in turn invest in a Savior to become closer to him.

The only risk in this eternal investment is not investing at all. The consequences are not only the worst, when speaking of severity, but also the most assuredly dire. As for over-investing, the only risk we run is becoming closer to the Being that loves us more than we can possibly fathom. The benefits we receive from GodVesting are those of the eternal, that make the suffering we could experience on the earth minimal. GodVesting is also the most significant type of LifeVesting because it encompasses the others. When our relationship with God is in the right place, our relationships with others fall into place as well, and we are better.

Our life investments determine the type of life we will live. The results of wise investing can produce the profit not only of a successful life, but a happy one as well. The return of our wise life investments can be seen in our personal lives, our relationships with others, and our relationship with God. The greatest part is that we have new opportunities daily to make investments and to change our returns from losses to profits. Life provides all of us the opportunities to have success. LifeVesting is the greatest determinant for how successful that life will be.

To learn more about LifeVesting check out LifeVesting.com

Anderson Hall

With the exception of a few months over the last three Summers, Anderson Hall has been my home for the past four years. Most Hardin Simmons residents live in the dorm for two years, as is required by the HSU handbook. I however am working on my fourth. For the past seven semesters Anderson has been the place where I returned at the end of the day. Some of my fondest memories have been in the walls of this building.

Freshman year - August 14th 2004 I moved into room 122 with my best friend Geoffrey Turner. Freshman year was crazy. Between getting locked out of the dorm our first night to having our suite mates set off black cats in our room life in 122 was never boring. Frequently graced by overnight visitors such as Lance Huston someone was always in our room and willing to make a late night run to Wendy's or Wataburger. We had a quote board that we made out of part of my bed and only two quotes ever made the board: "We the British have hated the French for years, you the United States have just joined the club." - Simon Cowell, and "For losing the Superbowl the Eagles don't go away empty handed. For finishing second they receive the Stanley Cup" - ESPN Magazine columnist.

Sophomore year - Room 208 was by far the coolest dorm room Hardin Simmons has ever seen. Room 208 is located in just the right position of the building that it is several feet larger than most Anderson rooms. During the 2005-2006 school year Anderson Hall room 208 housed two beds, a large desk/entertainment center, a mini fridge, an end table for toiletries, two TV's each with separate cable hook ups, surround sound stereo, with speakers suspended from the ceiling, two couches, one of them raised on a platform behind the other to form stadium seating, and walking around room. It was by far the coolest dorm room in Anderson's history. Again living with Geoffrey was always interesting always making room for late night Wendy's runs. During our sophomore year, Geoffrey proposed to his now wife, and I met and began dating my now fiancee. Things had mellowed out much more since freshman year. With the exception of the occasional rowdy attacks on the two R.A.'s on our floor Purkey, and Pool.

Junior year - If room 208 is the largest room you can get on campus room 248 is the smallest. A single "closet room" there was barley enough room to turn around, but I didn't complain much since the room was complimentary with my new job as Anderson Hall Second Floor Pound Side Resident Assistant. By this time Geoffrey had married and I was living on my own room with the responsibility of making sure that everyone else kept their rooms clean. Between constantly telling freshman (and Hunter Mangrum) to be quiet the new job came with the role of "dorm police." Between finding beer, pornography, marijuana, cocaine, liquor, girls, and even snakes in several dorm rooms our group of RA's became fast friends (with the exception of the third floor pound side RA). Bobby Cooley, Ryan Vanderland, Josh Knapp, Casey Jones, Jay Patterson and myself had some amazing times playing dbaba, 4th flooring it (Anderson only has three floors), and playing crotch bear. It was an unforgettable year.

Senior year - As one of the senior RA's I know am living in another oversized room, room 105. The room that is directly under the room from my sophomore year (208). Still living on my own this year I have had more room than I know what to do with. My room is a makeshift office, kitchen, entertainment room, bedroom, and bathroom. Having proposed, to my now fiancee I will only spend one semester in this room, a semester that is almost over. This year I have realized just how quickly time can pass. Having broken my foot I have spent the majority of the semester hopping around my room. And it mostly feels as thought I am simply waiting here. Waiting to move out, waiting to get married, waiting to graduate.

Well my waiting time is almost over. I am now spending my last nights in Anderson Hall because as of December 16th Anderson will no longer be my place of residence. I am moving out, because I am getting married, and shortly after that I will graduate. Seven semesters I have walked the halls and staircases of Anderson. I have met lifelong friends. I have experienced once in a lifetime opportunities, I have studied and I have played. I have caused trouble and I have worked. I have pulled all nighters and I have slept through class. I have made Anderson my home.

My Thoughts: September 14th 2004 - December 16th 2007...Not a bad run!!

I Never Went to Lucy's House

This week for thanksgiving I will be going to Alabama for my first Wood Family Reunion. Out of the generations that are represented at our family reunion I am the only one who has the responsibility of carrying the namesake of the Wood family forward. I have grown up hearing stories of my great grandparents, but I have very little memory of my great grandmother, none of my great grandfather. My experience with them are stories and granite. I have never been to Lucy's house. In fact I never knew Lucy. I never knew what a family reunion on the fourth of July was like. The oldest dog I remember was Smokey who I quickly found out when I was young was not a squirrel hunting dog of a legend that Spot was. I have never had fresh milk from a cow. I have never played dominoes and honestly I don't know how. All of these things are things of legend in a family where I hold the namesake.

This week stories will be told about people that I never met or who had died before I had ever been born. People will remember things that have been outdated by my generation. To many people the stories and legends would me nothing but not to me. I will hear stories about people that I never knew and those stories will mean something to me because they are who I am. To me my last name isn't simply a name but it is a heritage that I have fallen into. My last name is a point a pride because of the people that it connects me to, people I have the privilege of calling family. The stories that I have heard all my life and will surely hear again are the same stories that I will tell to my son when I explain to him that his last name isn't just a name but a connection to a proud heritage that is our family. And even though he will never go to Lucy's house he will know the stories about her and about so many other people that have added to the our family legacy.

Heaven

Revelation 21

If a friend asked me the question, “What is Heaven like,” I would respond to them by saying that it is forever being in the presence of God. I would read to them vs. 3 and 4, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” A God that is so Holy in other parts of scripture it is impossible to even see in his presence will not only dwell among us but we will be his people. In being the people of God we will be cared for by someone who conquered and defeated death, mourning, crying, and pain. This action of conquering wasn’t simply for the purpose of freeing us fore freedom sake but it was freeing us for the sake of God himself. God wants us to be his people, he wants to dwell among us and he wants to wipe the tears from our eyes. Heaven is where there is a God who longs to dwell with his people.

Ouch pt. 2

So today is the day that I have my surgery. Dr. Stephenson, who is an excellent physician will operate soon. Let me quickly recap for you. I am now in Lubbock (thanks to my wonderful fiancee) and I went and saw the doctor on Friday. At first the doctor's P.A. said that it didn't look like it was broken and that it would just need to rest and let the swelling go down. Dr. Stephenson came into the room and made the other guy look like a complete idiot. Just after we had gotten excited over the fact that I would not be having surgery the real doctor informed us that in fact my foot was broken and in fact I would need surgery.

That leads us to today. It is 8:30 I am have to go the Covenant Lakeside hospital to have blood work done at 9:00 and then at some point this afternoon I will be having two bio-pins placed into my foot. The pins we be able to absorb into my bone after it is healed. The doctor will send a scope into my foot, clean out around the bone and then place the pins in, easy enough right? No! Yet again a doctor has told me how strange the break in my foot is. "I only see one of these about every two or three years."

The bio-pins that are being placed in my foot have a metallic end that drives the bio-pin into the broken section. The metallic portion is then driven out another section of my bone and out another section of my foot, OUCH!! After the bio-pin is in place they snip off the excess pin sew me up and I am done. I would like to just go ahead and say that I am not looking forward to this. I hope everyone else has a grander day than me, but hey on the plus side I was promised ice-cream tonight.

Thought of the day: OUCH!!

Ouch pt. 1

It was any idle Tuesday afternoon when I was leaving my Intro to Marriage and Family class satisfied with myself for receiving an 89 on a recent test. I quickly reached into the left pocked of my three day worn faded blue jeans to retrieve my cell phone. I flipped open my razor punched in the numbers of a friend in order to enjoy a leisurely conversation on my brisk walk back to the dorm. I walked down out of the doors of Abilene Hall, walked down the sidewalk and stepped off of the curb onto the street. The only problem was that in my senior year at H-SU, after having at least seven classes in Abilene Hall on this day I forgot that the curb at Abilene Hall is twice as high as that of other curbs.

"POP!" My ankle went sideways bearing my weight on my ankle and sending sharp pains through my leg and foot. I immediately hung up the phone without even waiting for an answer and began limping back to the dorm. After hobbling twenty yards I once again grabbed my phone mashed the number 2 speed dial and attempted to call Ashley, no answer. Slapping my phone close and re-opening it, all in one motion, I pressed hard on the number 5 speed dial, no answer from Dad either. On the third try i finally got in contact with my mother. "Mom, I think i broke my ankle."

After receiving instructions on keeping my foot iced and elevated, and grabbing a pair of crutches owned by Anderson Hall I contacted Geoffrey who willingly agreed to drive me to Dr. J's (our insurance approved medical clinic). When we walked into Dr. J's we were immediately met with hostility when I was informed that the office manager would not accept my insurance since i did not have a physical copy of my card. After begging and pleading, having my father beg a plead and asking to speak to the office manager who was not there I stormed out of the office speaking very loudly to the remainder of the people waiting in the waiting room, "I hope they give you all better care than they gave me!"

After re-weighing my options The best course of action was determined to be paying the extra fifty dollar co-pay and going to Hendricks memorial for medical attention. With my foot in writhing with an intense sense of pain We waited, and waited, and waited. We called Pizza Hut and had a large pizza with half pepperonis and half hamburger meat and then we waited. Geoff went and got my laptop and season two of scrubs on DVD and we waited. We watched three episodes of scrubs and they finally called me back into a room and had x-rays taken of my foot. After this I continued to wait for two hour before I finally saw a doc (this allowed me to watch an episode of dirty jobs as well as an episode of House).

When the doctor finally arrived after five hours of waiting he told me what the deal was. Good news my ankle was not broken. Bad news something else was. His exact words to me were, "I have never seen anything like this before." After reviewing my x-rays he wasn't quite sure what he was looking at so he enlisted the help of an orthopedic surgeon that just so happened to be walking by at the time. After consulting the surgeon the news was grim. I had fractured a very strange part of my foot and would most likely need surgery. If i had only have skipped class that day.

Rain Rain Go Away

As of Friday September 14th I am officially engaged to be married. It was a very interesting experience, amazing, wonderful, and I am relieved I don't have to face the anxiety again. I put so much careful thought, consideration and planning into the event that I almost missed the beauty of it as it quickly passed through my life.

Growing up I never was much of a planner. I simply did what I wanted when I wanted to but as I have gotten older and particularly since I began college planning has slowly taken a larger hold on my life. See before college parents tend to due the majority of the planning (for males this tends to have been mostly pertaining to mealtimes.) but college begins and home is has become a place for visiting each second of the day has to be filled doing something. When I first obtained the "planning" responsibility I didn't handle it well. As a result of poor planning skills I was lonely and board often. But alas, as I have grown in my collegiate years so have my planning abilities (homework, work, class, meals, church, social time, time spend with my girlfriend, ect.). So much in fact that when I spend a large amount of time planning something and it doesn't go the way I envisioned chaos is soon to follow. Such a time was it on Friday.

I had everything planned to the last detail for how I was to propose to Ashley, then on Thursday while traveling to Alabama (my ideally planned proposal location) I heard the forecast, rain...all weekend long. Not wanting to lose my cool I did not panic (at least not immediately). I quickly began text messaging my brother-in-law who was located in the seat directly behind me in the van full of my family and Ashley. We were text messaging in order to covertly discuss the looming dangers of a weekend full of isolated showers. In the end we decided it best to hold out and hope the rain would break.

Friday, after sending Ashley away with my mother and sisters for the day I began putting my plan into action while keeping a weather eye on the chance of precipitation. While the news said there was a thirty percent chance and the dark gray clouds threatened rain the ground remained dry. It was looking good, everything was going to worked as planned. I had received to supreme confirmation in the fact that it would not rain by the premiere weather expert in Dunbar, Alabama (population 7) my own Grandfather. He was wrong. Twenty minutes after the said prediction the rain came in the in brute force (the official Alabama term that is used is gullywarsher). At this point I lost it. The plan hinged on the participation of the elements as the occasion would take place at a specific spot outside. After demanding the weatherman's resignation I took a deep breath collected my thoughts and began freaking out all over again. Even if the rain did stop the ground would now be to wet for the setup that was the center point of my plan would sink (quite literally). I had to go to plan "B" which I quickly realized I had forgotten to make...again with the freaking out.

It was my brother-in-law that came to the rescue. He took me aside and said to me the most prophetic words I had heard all day, "Joel, its going to be perfect." Kyle convinced told me that the planning I did was great but what made it perfect wasn't all of the little things I had planned but the event it self. That night I was asking someone to spend the rest of her life with me. Thanks to Kyle I regained my composure moved my setup 12 feet under the protection of a covered porch and enjoyed to perfect evening and the beauty that was the moment that I said, "Ashley, will you marry me?"

Oh by the way it had stopped raining.

Who am I to be god?

The death penalty has always been something that vexed me. I didn't know how i really felt about it. On the one hand i firmly believe in justice and the responsibilities of one's actions resting on their own shoulders but something never seemed to sit right with me concerning taking someone's life as punishment. Before I go any further I would like to give the disclaimer that I have never had or even known someone who had wronged another person so much that the law was imposing a punishment of death on them. I cannot honestly say how I would feel if one of my loved ones was killed by another and the possibility of the death penalty came up. With that being said I realized something today. The occasion for having such a realization was a very small moth. I was sitting and working the desk at my job when a small moth started fluttering by my computer screen annoying me. As soon as the moth landed to the left of my lap-top I swatted, it forever ending it's existence. The realization I had was the fact that I took life away from something. I decided that the life that was flowing through something was less important than my annoyance level. In turn I played god to a moth and took it upon myself to decide the fate of another creature. This realization brought me again to thoughts of the death penalty and i asked myself, "Who are we, any of us, to be god to another's life?" With this realization I cannot help but come to the conclusion the killing someone for justice is wrong. Incarcerate them, remove them from society, yes but killing them is not the solution to the problem.

Randall Gallaway

Tuesday night I was working at Cracker Barrel and Randall Gallaway came and sat in my section. I immediately noticed who he was remembering that he had spoken at one of my high school chapels. The most striking things about Randall are his hands. Upon seeing him for the first time in high school I was somewhat shocked to see that he had one mechanical and attached to place his right hand would have been and a pinching hook mechanism attached to the place where his left hand would have been. In high school I had heard his testimony of surviving 13,500 volt shock and 38 surgeries. Since that time he has become a successful motivational speaker and has recently taken a job as leading and training mission teams for short term mission trips.

When I walked up to him and had introduced myself and reminded him of the time he had spoken in chapel he told me of a problem he had. He said that he had been driving to the Dallas and the air conditioner had dried out his eyes and he was unable to drop eye drops in his own eyes. He told me he had been praying for a place to stop for dinner where someone could help him with his eye drops and he just happened to stop at Cracker Barrel and sit in my section. I gladly helped him with his situation, took his drink and food order only after promising to come back for more discussion. When I finally had a moment to again talk to him I explained to him about my life in Abilene and Hardin-Simmons. I told him of the calling on my life to pastor and that I had been on short term mission trips recently.

It was a nice conversation but nothing extraordinary, just a nice conversation between old acquaintances. I told him goodbye and wished him well in his trip to Dallas and the Lord's blessing over his ministry. When I returned to his table to bus the dishes and clean it for the next quest I noticed that he had left two twenty dollar bills on the table. In my six years of waiting tables this the second largest amount I had ever received. At first I was overjoyed with the abundant provisions the Lord had blessed me with but as the night went on I felt the Lord leading me to an opportunity to bless someone else.

After Asking Ashley's Dad for Her Hand in Marriage...

It will be a reliefe to finaly get some sleep tonight.

Sidekicks

Recently I had one of the strangest dreams I have ever experienced. While most everyone at times has those dreams that when you wake up you are disappointed to find out were only dreams, this dream was not one of them. I cant recall many details about the dream itself all I know is that in my dream I was the sidekick. I was not the hero. I did not get the girl. And I received little or no glory for the accomplishments that were made. I woke up from this dreams pissed off. I mean I was there working my but off so that someone else could receive the glory because lets face it, sidekicks are the peons in the superhero world. Think about poor robin. First of all while batman got to be fully clothed Robin was force to prance around in his green underwear. They always forced Robin to say the stupidest things like, "Holy priceless collection of Etruscan snoods!" (and I am not making that one up.) And probably worst of all his nickname, "The Boy Wonder!" How would you like that nickname to stick with you when you are 24 and fighting crime. Ladies you can go on a date with, Iron Man, Batman, Spider Man, Superman, or The Boy Wonder!! It got so bad that in the comic books he actually had to leave batman and after going through a serious super hero identity crisis reinventing himself as Nighthawk. I don't have to much left to say on the matter so I will leave you with one more thought followed by a few more Robin quotes. It flat out sucks to be the sidekick.


Holy bill of rights, Batman!

Holy haberdashery, Batman!

Holy atomic pile, Batman!

The way we get into these scrapes and get out of them, it's almost as though someone was dreaming up these situations; guiding our destiny.

The opposite of a girl is a boy!

Scrubs

The one break between school and work that I enjoy in my everyday life are the two episodes of Scrubs that my Tivo shares with me. I don't know if it is the witty writing, actors, or the fact that I can connect with the main character J.D. (Zach Braff). J.D. is a nerdy, emotional, needy character who is a constant search of how to better his life while trying to do the best job he can at his job. His constant daydreaming and life narration in his head hit close to home. There hasn't been a show that has ever made me laugh more. The hundreds of inside jokes that continually run through the episodes (and pop up when you least expect them to) leave the faithful views on the floor in stitches and the occasional viewer confused as to why something is funny. Though there were rumors that Scrubs was to be canceled the executive producers at NBC have signed the show for one final season, running eighteen episodes. This is truly a show that I never get tired of watching. Though I have seen most every episode I still look forward to watching them and laughing all over again. Scrubs is my source of humor on days when i am tired from work, stressed out over money, or just need a good laugh.

TPCC

TPCC

I can remember the day very vividly. I was sixteen and it was my a junior at Trinity Christian High School and I drove a 1998 green Ford Ranger. I walked through the rear entrance of the Science Spectrum and quickly turned right into the large exhibit room. At the front of the room there was a stage that had been erected holding several musical instruments waiting for a band to begin playing. Flowing from the left and right of the stage large white curtains were raised to the ceiling spaced about two feet apart each. On two of theses curtains (one on each side of the stage) the logo of Turning Point Community Church was being broadcast by beams of light. As I made my way through the rows of chairs to the front of the sanctuary the air of excitement could be felt as several people busied themselves, getting ready for the beginning a celebration that is the climax of months of preparation. As the group of near fifteen made a circle each taking a short moment to ask for the blessing of the Lord on a church. Not a building, for we had none of our own, not an organization for it was much more than that, but a community but one question still remained in our hearts and minds, who will take part in this community? That morning two hundred people chose to be a part of our community.

Sunday, I had the privilege once again into a building that our community occupies. Once again, stage erected. Once again, instruments waiting. Once again, curtains hung. And once again, the feeling of excitement in the air. On Sunday July, 22nd 2007 at the intersection of 114th St. and Quaker, Turning Point Community Church, itself, achieved a turning point, when six hundred people entered a building but it was not the building that was the church but those who occupied it. The same community that had occupied the science spectrum four and a half years previous had now grown but the community of our church remained, not in a rented or temporarily occupied space but one we could finally call our own. One we could finally call home. Welcome Home Turning Point Community Church.

HSU 06-07

I have two days, two finals, and one take home final left before i am done with another year of college. It is amazing how fast three years can fly by and how much a person can change in those three years. It seems like almost now time has passed from when i was graduating from high school and here this time next year i will be graduating from college. This past year has really been quick. Here are a few things that i have learned my Jr. year at HSU:


1.Brotherhood, Pride, Usefulness

2.Driving 300 miles seems to go a lot quicker when you have motivation to see someone.

3.Driving 300 miles back seems a lot longer when you are leaving that someone.

4.No matter how many times you tell freshman guys to shut up they will not

5.Sometimes there is nothing better than smoking a cigar and discussing theology

6.Post-modernists frustrate me even though i become more and more of one each day

7.Firecrackers cant be put out by throwing them in the toilet but they can blow out the bottom of the toilet .

8.Pshycobilly Freakout is the hardest song to beat on Guitar Hero II (still cant do it on hard)

9.BUNAZIUA means "hello", LA REVEDERE means "goodbye", and POOP means "to kiss"

10.DBABA


My Thoughts: While some may think College is to learn academics I like to follow a different policy, "Play before "A" That is also why this semester I ended up with three "B's" and a "C"