Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, it is the day that has been set aside to give thanks for what we have. I am sitting in Indiana at my Aunt and Uncle's house listening to some great jazz, writing this and wondering, "what am I thankful for?"

I am thankful for my family, for my mom and her spirit to push me through the tougher times in life. And for her great attitude about life, love and God. I am thankful for my brother and his can do attitude about life and his willingness to serve people. For my sister Sarah and everything she let's me talk to her about. For Rebekah and the way she is, I love that she doesn't take crap from people. For all the other relatives that love me I am so thankful for.

My friends, oh how I'm thankful for my friends, without the people in my life who I hang out with I would not be the person that I am today, and the man of God that I will become.

I am thankful for my job, the opportunities that God has blessed me with and the things that I will see and do in this life.

I am thankful for so much that I can't even put into words right now, but I have to go help cook so I hope that you and yours have a great thanksgiving and a wonderful weekend in general.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

typed this up at khaldi's today. . . .

Think of this as a prayer. . . . .


Father, thank you for this beautiful day that you have given me. Thank you for the health that I have and the health of my friends and family. Thank you for the prosperity that you have given to me, I ask that in this time in life you would unveil to me the path that you have chosen in my life. Teach me to pray with holy hands lifted up to you. Break me, I know that I live in a broken world but break me. Allow me to die so that I can become the man you desire for me to be. Please keep me from the wonders/crap of this world, let me be a strong leader when in the presence of younger believers, by not giving into the temptation's that I struggle with.

Abba, be lifted high. Abba be lifted high.

Show me the ways that I need to improve myself so that I can become a man that is worthy of a wife. One who doesn't speak out of anger, who doesn't drink to heavily, who is looked well upon by You and other leaders. Help me to take care of the life that you have given me so that I may live a long and bountiful life for you. I beg of you to help me find the passages in your word that are going to help me worship you in everything i do. Break me of the "grid" that I look through during a worship service, help me worship you with every bone in my body always.

Let your name be lifted up with every action I do.

I ask now that you be with Mom, help her through this time in life at work. Give her the strength and courage she needs to make her feel like she has done a good job. Be with Sarah, give her the energy to get through school, work, and life so that she sees you in what she is doing. Watch over Drew, give him the courage, strength and patience to get through this time in life so that he can advance into the branch of the armed services that you have picked out for him. Look over Bekah at school, give her the strength and mind to get through the day and maybe even begin to like school. I so with I would have watched my mouth more around her so that she wasn't such a psynic when it comes to school. I ask that you be with the rest of my family and watch over them in their daily lives, reveal yourself to them in your time and special way.

Lord I thank you for all the friends that you have put in my life, I especially thank you for Randall, with his willingness to keep pushing me to reach for my dreams and become something more than what I am. Tim is another one of those guy's I couldn't imagine doing life without now. I thank you for allowing me to become friends with him so that I have another mentor to blast ideas off of. I thank you for Eric, Rob, Adam B, Brian, Shaun, Adam L, Sarah L, Ali, Sandy, Chrissy, Joel, Emily, both Jamie's and all the other friends that I have found for the relationships that I have with them, the conversations that i have shared with the and the dreams that I have unveiled to the, for me.

I also would like to thank you God for the youth that you have put in my life, for the seniors that have already moved on Brett, Brunson, Taylor, Ben, Justin, and all the others to the youth that are still a challenge for me to encourage, lead, and just talk to. I thank you for Aaron, Logan, Adam, Stevie, and so many other's who challenge me at the same time I am challenging them.

Father I so love the life that you have led me in and I can't think of any other adventure that I would want to be on. than this one with you.

I can't wait to see what's next.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Oh the afternoon it was and was not. . . . .

So, I am currently reading Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller. I am up to the point where they get to the Grand Canyon and are about to hike through it. It sparked my need to get out of the house and so I decided to go down to Castlewood park and hike around for the afternoon.

So, I got in the car and headed toward Castlewood; Now there has been a lot of construction going on around me lately because of the new best buy, Petco, Wal mart shopping prison and they just opened up the new road to get to best buy. Since I wasn't in any rush I decided to stop by best buy to check out the new store and see if Joe Perry was working. I walked in the store and saw all the cool electronics's, laughed at what they called their "apple" section and then proceeded back to the instrument section. I walked in and was impressed by how it was laid out a ton. The drum is completely closed off from the rest of the section as well as an amp "test" room where you can crank it up, and there is also another closed off room with acoustic guitars. Joe didn't happen to be there but I did run into Kent Hughes and we talked for a little while while checking out the acoustic guitar selection. All in all I was fairly impressed with the gear selection at best buy, the guys who were working did inform me that they didn't have all of the gear in yet so it should get better. They didn't have a lot of tube amps out yet. mostly just modeling amps, yuck.

I then restarted my journey down to Castlewood to hike around. When I got down to Castlewood I drove about half way in parked the car and just started walking toward the Meramac river. I hiked around in the woods by the river just enjoying what God had created there and also wondering why there were old concrete structures in the middle of the park. Question's came to my head while looking at these structures like, what were they originally used for, why had they been abandoned.

After wandering around the woods I decided to head down to the river and watch the water flow. As I approached the river the ground began to get softer I didn't really care because I was still making progress toward the edge of the water. I stopped my progress close enough that I could squat down and feel how cold the water was. As I stood back up and looked around I decided to head up stream and see if I could walk on the "beach" around the bend without getting stuck or falling in the water, well both kinda happened. Just not the way I thought they were going to.

When I was about 100 yards from the bend I was aiming for the shore began to get very soft and I saw a few spots where someone before me had stepped and created a hole that was about 8-10 inches deep. I tried to avoid doing the same and was successfull for all of about two minutes. Then it happened I was trying to move faster thinking that I had a better shot of not sinking y foot into the ground. That didn't really work to well, about ten seconds after into this attempt my right foot sunk into the ground with a nice "slurp" sound. As I tried to pull my foot out my shoe actually came off inside the hole that I had created. It was at this point that my left foot also sunk down about three inches and then decided to hold long enough for me to reach back and pull out my shoe. As my shoe came out of the whole with the same slurp sound my other foot decide to sink down til I couldn't see it either. I threw the first show up the shore as far as I could and started working on getting my other foot unstuck.

Once I had both feet out of their respctive holes I looked down at my self and saw how muddy I was. I walked up the to the forest where my shoe was waiting for me and decided to take off both shoes and socks. As I looked up the river I saw where Kiefer Creek meets the Meramac and decided that I would follow the tree line toward that point and get as cleaned up as I could. I stepped into the water and was washing my feet and lower legs off with the cold water, and it was kinda fun. It felt like I was 13 again and in the boy scout's wandering through the woods, it was really nice. At that point I made up my mind that I was going to wander through the woods til it was to dark to see, or at least close enough to dark.

I finished washing off my shoes and put them back on wet. With my socks in my back pocket I headed up the creek to wander through the forest some more. It was about this time that I pulled out my cell phone and updated my facebook status through twitter. I thought that I had sent, "Steve fell into the mud while hiking. Check the blog later for the full story." More on that later. . . . . .I headed up the trail a little bit and then decided that I wouldn't get on a trail for the rest of my "adventure." I tramped through the forest back toward the river where I could safely walk up to the water. I was walking the shore and stumbled upon an outrigger from a sailboat, I think. I then looked across the river and saw that there were many items that aren't normally found on the shore of a river. Lawn chairs, plastic toys, and other out door items were strewn across the oppisite shore. I wondered if they had been caught there during the last flood and hadn't been cleaned up yet.

I headed back into the woods and stayed off the trail trampling over fallen tree's and shrubbery. I so enjoyed making my own trail and viewing things that I wouldn't have seen if I had stayed on the trail. I wandered through the forest for a while longer and then headed back to the car. At the car I threw my shoes in the back and drove home barefooted.

When I arrived at home I flipped open my computer to let it grab email and jumped in the shower to wash off the woods and the mud from the afternoon. After a nice, hot relaxing shower I sat down at my computer and began to look at my email. After reading through my email I checked my facebook and found that seventeen people had commented on my status because instead of texting "hiking" I had instead sent "hicking" which started a string of comments because Randall took that to be hickey in the plural form and off people went from there.

So that was my afternoon, no there was no outdoor make out session, though it would have been nice. And I do not have a hickey from the vacum cleaner, Brian. If you would like to view the madness that went on check out my facebook page and click on the status that has all of the comments with it. Let me end this post with, "I hate my phone, want an iPhone and can't wait for thanksgiving so that hopefully my hours will go up and I can afford things again." And yes I would have left my iPhone would have stayed in the car. . . . . . . .