The End of An Era

So... today is my last day as a young dude that's managed to dodge the constant hurdles of being absolutely surrounded by alcohol. It's crazy, and I'm tripping out. I'm turning 21. With this new "legal" age, comes great responsibility.

I've been super excited for this day, I've been keeping a countdown for the past 6 months, and its all coming near the end. Although now, I'm just as anxious as downright frightened. The one thing keeping me away from alcohol was the arbitrary nature of my age.

Since last year, I've been questioning why I've had this drive to keep away from alcohol, and what is my ultimate motivation for waiting this long to drink. I don't have one straight answer, perhaps a multitude of answers. To a certain degree (I'm almost ashamed to say) I've held out this long to say that I did it the way it is supposed to be done. However, I'm not going to brag about it, cause that would defeat the purpose. But I do think it's amazing, and this definitely proves to me that there is something greater than me.

This willpower, strength, and desire to remain free from the influence of alcohol came from something outside of me. For whatever reason, God has provided me a decisive victory over any desire to drink before I am 21. Now that the time has come, I feel I'm on the brink of obscurity. I don't know what to expect, I'm a little excited for it though. I've been praying that I live up to the scriptures, and lead a life that is filled by the spirit, not one that is ruled by alcohol.

My views of drinking have changed substantially over the past couple years, and now I feel that if you can be responsible and keep it in moderation, there is nothing wrong with drinking. My parents raised me to be responsible, and I intend to uphold that for the rest of my life in all things.

So we'll see how it all ends up. Crazy to think I've been on this earth for 21 years already. What an adventure its been, and with the end of one era, comes the beginning of a new one.

Thanksgiving: A Verb, Not a Noun

In this life, I truly have a lot to be thankful for. I have an awesome family, great friends, a roof over my head (2 actually), and I have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe. During this time of the year, I am genuinely overwhelmed with how good it is to live the way I do. I am surrounded by friends and family constantly, Thanksgiving is always great, Black Friday is crazy, my birthday is soon, and then after that is finals and then three weeks of home-cooked meals with Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years.

All of these things converge into one mass that truly blows my mind. How did I get so lucky? God is good, and yes, it is certainly easy to say that when things are good, but when things are bad, we can truly press into him and learn more about his character and his unceasing love for us. Crazy!

There was a message at a church called Reality down in Carpenteria, about 20 mins south of Santa Barbara, titled "Thanksgiving is a verb." I listened to the Podcast today on my way down to the desert to have our Thanksgiving dinner with my grandma.

This message was powerful, the pastor, Britt Merrick, is truly an awesome pastor that really has the spirit speaking through him. If it wasn't so far away from my house (about 48 miles round trip) I probably would go more often.

Anyway, we as human beings are messed up (duh!), and it is very difficult for us to continually submit to God and give him praise and thankfulness for giving us another opportunity to grow closer to him and learn more about his love for us.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Paul writes "...in everything, give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Colossians 3:17 says "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

Both of these scriptures are pretty dang cool. By giving thanks to Him in all things, we are putting him in the right place in our lives--by keeping him above us, as we submit to Him. By default, it keeps us in our place by remaining submissive to Him as Lord of our lives.

I hope and pray that each day I live, not just the fourth Thursday of November, I actively and intentionally give thanks in all things. Happy Thanksgiving! Keep it a verb and not a noun!

Just a Glimpse...

I'm in the library right now, for the second day this week I'm going to be in here for about 6 hours. Yayyy for procrastination!

Two years ago, the thought of going in the library for that long was so foreign and crazy to me. Now after a few marathons under my belt, I'm ready for it. My backpack essentially becomes both a grocery store and a drug store at the same time. Right now I have an apple, three granola bars, a sandwich bag of cheerios, a sandwich bag of trail mix, and two bottles of water with a big thing of Gatorade. I also have some Tylenol and Excedrin to keep me (and my head) company.

Oh well, the bible says to rejoice in all things, and all this prepping makes me laugh, so just trying to keep it positive :)

Here's a few pics of a sunset about 2 weeks ago-- Enjoy!

Focus, focus, focus

With great ability comes great responsibility. And with great responsibility, one needs to have the supernatural ability to focus.

Unfortunately that is something I do not have!! My Sunday morning is going to be spent working on a project I have for my gender comm class, due Tuesday. I've waited until last night to really start working on it. Ughhh.

I don't really have all that much ability, but I definitely have a lot on my plate! But what I do know is God is good and He'll see me through this!

I'm listening to "You Hold Me Now" by Hillsong, its beginning to be one of my alltime favorite worship songs. The lyrics at one point really were speaking to me a few minutes ago:

"All my fear is swept away
In the light of your embrace
When your love is all I need
And forever I am free"

I can be free from this worry that I have for my project, as I'm writing this I'm feeling a little bit more confident... just a pinch. I'm going to use this time to glorify Him this morning, and there is comfort in knowing He's here with me, every step of the way :)

"Untitled"

I'm just going to start writing, kind of a freestyling, but with no rapping I hope.

I purposely didn't put a subject to begin writing tonight because I just need to get my thoughts down via this blog. Crazy how technology enables us to communicate our thoughts for all the free world to hear. I can read people's blogs from back home in San Diego, or friends traveling abroad, or even people I've never met but follow their blogs anyway due to their rich content that is God-focused. Its nuts. Maybe i've got patrons that read my blog that have never met me. Crazy right?

Life is so weird. There have been times in my life when I feel I've got something all planned out... and then it comes crashing down. This week has been interesting in that way. I've hit a wall I think. Sometimes I feel convicted that I've been going through the motions of life and not really committing myself to His will... a better word would be submitting to His will. I have no clue what I'm doing after college. That is about the only certainty I have right now. Ironic isn't it?

I've been praying lately a simple prayer: "Lord, I want to do your will and your purpose." Really simple... yet decidedly difficult to act upon. Just writing this right now something has dawned on me... I'm not praying for action, I'm not praying for Him to build me up and equip me to do His will. Maybe that's why I've been feeling a little stagnant? Only He knows fully.

I feel as though this post has a bit of a negative tinge to it, but that's not the case at all. Throughout my internal wrestlings of uncertainty, I feel as though God is really working in my life with the simple things. Everything needs to go through Him. Everything. It's hard though. I think recognizing it is vital, but putting it into action is even more so.

One of the blogs I enjoy reading recently had a post concerning if today was our last day on earth and if we knew that, how radically different our days would be. Can you imagine that? I know I would tell my parents I loved them again and again and again and because of their influence I can be the man that I am today, I would tell my sister she is absolutely precious and I love love love her sooo much, I would say thank you more often to people helping me at the grocery store or if someone helps me out at work, I would be so, so much more thankful about who God placed in my life to lead me spiritually, and most of all, I would be thanking God for the gift of being put on this earth. If today was my last day, I would want to glorify God to the fullest... but shouldn't that be something of a priority everyday? Luckily He loves me regardless, but I've been praying for his spirit to just wrap me up and take me where He wants me to be.

Just as spontaneous as this post began, it will continue to be so as it is now coming to a close. Love you all so much!

Halloween

Well its taking me about a week to post about Halloween because it has taken me almost that amount of time to recover... totally kidding!

Anyway, last weekend was Halloween in IV. It is a surreal experience. Last year over 40,000 people packed the streets of IV. Thankfully, that number was only limited to a paltry 25,000 revelers. Another good note, there were no deaths this Halloween. Sadly, people have died before on Halloween in IV, as they go for the glory of relieving themselves off the side of the cliffs, or OD'ing or alcohol poisoning.

However, the reality of the weekend hit me like a bus in the street--

People get drunk. Guys get hit. Women are abused.

It pained me to see the things that i did, like girls wearing virtually no clothing and guys saying pretty disgusting things to them in a cry for attention. I'm glad its only once a year.

After leaving a Real Life Dance Party on the outskirts of IV, I was walking back toward my house and heard the dull, thunderous roar of the raucous crowd on DP. It was a trip. I felt so insignificant, so small. But then I remembered, God is so much bigger than any of this! I was reminded of a daydream I had a couple days prior, it was Jesus walking amongst the crowds of IV, dressed in glowing white, and as he walked, the crowds were propelled back on all sides, knocked senseless by his presence. Man, did I want that to happen during the weekend! How trippy would that have been! I get chills thinking about it.

I like being positive though, and this time of the year is a good time to meet new people. I got to take some cool timed exposures from my balcony, and had like 10 people over to come watch the madness with me, so that was pretty cool and entertaining. I was able to meet some transfer students that are third years, and was able to love on them and give them a cool place to hang out for their first Halloween in IV!

Here's some pics of the madness... Enjoy!






Also I got to see some crazy, crazy outfits! Guys tend to be more creative when it comes to costumes, cause the ladies just take clothes off. Here are some of my faves: Waldo (Waldo! I found you!), The Mask (Somebody stop me!), A guy with a beer pong table on his chest (that one was interesting), A Guy in a Shower pretending to flash girls, and the one that took the cake... a giant walking robot! Here's a pic of it!