Merry Christmas' Eve's Eve.

Today has been an interesting day so far.

Mitch and I woke up around the crack of noon. We then switched off between taking showers and playing New Super Mario Brothers. World 9-7. It took about 28 lives, 20 mushrooms, and about 6 stars to pass.

Ridiculous.

Our plan for the day, among other things, was to have lunch with an old friend from Catalina. Mitch gives her directions to La Hacienda, and we head over there. When we got there, Mitch had missed a few of her calls. He called her back, and it turns out she had rear ended someone while getting off of the freeway.

Turns out our friend saw the homeless man at the end of the off ramp. She then realized, "Hey, I have some oranges I can give him!" She then reached down in front of the passenger seat to get them, thus taking her eyes off of the road. She slammed her tiny Buick into the back of a Chevy Avalanche. The hitch of the avalanche dominated the front part of her car.

Two people in the accident. Both were okay. Two cars in the accident. Or, rather, one car and a tank. The Avalanche appeared nigh unharmed.

The panhandling man at the end of the off ramp (i.e. the only witness) took off and was nowhere to be seen.

Anyways, we immediately realized a quick, "Hey!" (lunch) "Well, see you later!" was out of the question.

So her car was towed to Mitch's family's shop. We went to lunch while Mitch's dad proceeded to fix her car. When we got back, they had it running just well enough to drive. With a hilariously janky left headlight and blinker. We saw her off, and came home.

All facts taken into account, the moral of the story is: Compassion for the homeless is bad luck.

Just kidding.

But really though. Moral of the story (and every story for that matter): Accident or no accident, Jesus' Love for us is the same.

And you can take that one to the bank. Or anywhere else you'd like to go.

Roots

I totally had intentions of blogging on an (almost) daily basis. I guess I underestimated how much stuff I could distract myself with. And then when I would actually sit down to blog, I rarely completed them because I couldn't get my thoughts clear enough for my liking. So I didn't blog.

Here's where I'm at.

A while back I heard Pastor Greene make a good analogy for getting into the Word. He said something like, "Reading the Bible everyday won't always be glorious. Just like not every meal you have is a feast. But it will give you the nourishment you need throughout the day."
In the same manner, going without the Word, or Prayer, or reflection is like going without a meal. The longer you go without it, the less healthy you will be. And eventually you will die a spiritual death.

Now, I am one to go back and forth on a lot of things. Those who know me best can testify to this. I have a hard time being zealous for very long. This is true in many areas of my life. Especially my faith. I will go a month or two of being absolutely on fire for Christ, wanting to tell anyone and everyone the good news. It's quite an exciting time. But then I will put that on some sort of back-burner, and live my life based on myself. Which is when I do stupid things.

It all went around and around and around in circles for me pretty much since high school started. But in high school I had two morally upright best friends. Nathan and Jeff. They kept me from making too stupid a mistake. They were an enormous blessing.
However, going into college, they went away, and there was really nothing to replace them, or what they had done for me. I worked at CBS for a summer, and came back as zealous as ever. But I came back into a world without a community. Not one brother to stand by me the way that Nathan and Jeff did.
So I joined another community of friends. One that was focused on Christ. Or something like that. I don't blame them, they just weren't what I needed at the time. So I reached out to people, I just reached too far in the wrong places. I was pulled (by the world, and by my own sinful nature) into places I never intended to go.
This whole ordeal sent me into a depression. Depression for about 7 months. It wasn't an enjoyable time. Just before my second summer on Catalina, it was all at it's worst.
When on Catalina, I thought I had it all ironed out. The experience was awesome, but it was rough.
Coming back was interesting. I was zealous again. I had a good idea of what I needed to avoid. But I overlooked a lot. So I came back and made some crucial mistakes. And I didn't know where to go from there. I had to put a lot on pause in order to figure out my problems.

And that's where I'm at. It has definitely been an interesting journey thus far. But what I'm discovering more and more each day is that it all starts new each day.

Every morning I have the choice to give my day to God. That is, dedicate everything within it to Him, and let Him have the glory for it all. Or, I can choose to live for myself. This one is much easier to do. The world screams at us to get our attention, but God only whispers.

So my new routine is to wake up, read the Word, eat, and Pray. That way, to start the day, I may not have had a feast by heart, mind or stomach, but will continue to be nourished. And that's where it all begins.

A good tree will bear good fruit. But no good tree goes without good roots.

Eh.

Today I drove out into the country. Most of the roads around this town are familiar to me. But not the one I took today.
It was a road I drive almost everyday. But much further than I ever need to go. But today I needed to clear my head.

It was extremely windy. And the view of the mountains was clear from where I was driving. The clouds in the distance were the big fluffy type that everyone loves. It was an astounding view during the entirety of the drive.

I have no real point to what I'm saying. But I was more stressed before I went for that drive. It helped me relax.

Days like this make me love my Creator.

Reflection on a Dream

It's currently really early in the morning. I accidentally fell asleep on the couch again. Which I'm not supposed to do, because I forget my night-guard to keep me from slowly destroying my face. However, I'm not too disappointed that I did that this time.
I had a dream, sleeping on that couch. It was a rather long dream, with a storyline and all. I think. The story is not what I remember, nor is it what I'm concerned with. It was like a battle of some sort, at a hotel resort or something. But that's not important. The end of the dream went as follows:

It appeared that the battle we were fighting was the last battle. The one that will take most people to the next life. Christ was coming back soon. Very soon. It was the undeniable truth.
In the mix of the whole thing, I got wrapped up with fighting the "bad guy". I'm not positive who it was, because it appears he was mortal. He and I were fighting by the pool. Our fight took to the water. But the water was different. As we fell into it, someone cried out, "watch out for the pool!" It was then that I realized we were not falling into a resort pool, but a rather large, rather strong, rectangular whirlpool.
It was not shaped normal. Imagine a large, simple pool: deep and wide, but basically shaped. Now imagine that the walls and floor of that pool were really deep, fast moving bodies of water (that held their shape, despite physics).
He and I were both tossed into the pool, and whirled around a few times. I tried to swim against the current but it was no use. He was also struggling to get out, so I kicked him into the rectangular vortex, waiting for us at the center.
As my irresistible fate drew near, I was crying out to Christ. "LORD! Take me in! Forgive me!" I yelled something more, but I forget what it was. Which is good, because I remember it sounding horribly dumb. And I knew that my last words were moronic. The vortex took me in. It was all over. And as I fell, I thought, "this is it. This is it."
I knew the moment I died. I felt it. And for a split second, I was neither on earth, nor beyond it. It was terrifying.
I plunged back into water. A very shallow pool. I don't remember ever getting out of the water. But I soon found myself in a solid room. It was an extremely small, circular room, with barely enough room to sit in. I realized I was sitting next to an old friend. The room got no larger, but still seemed to sustain our dimensions. The only door was through the front, and I knew it was not my door to open. There was also a small window, to the right of the door.
What appeared to be a Mexican man stood at the window. He was wearing a quite large name tag. It read: "JESUS".
The rest of the dream is odd and inconsequential, and I don't remember much of it.

As I was brushing my teeth (after letting them waste away for the night), I thought about this dream. It went back in forth in my mind. But what was hardest to wrap my head around was the second between. The second where everything stopped. It felt like an extremely short amount of time. But at the same time, it also felt like an eternity.
It was in that second that all of my life hung. My heart and soul looked destruction in the eye. And it was scary as hell. Quite literally speaking.
And while I ran this over and over in my head, I thought about how Christ could have just let me fall into the pit of Hell. But He took me in. And I think now, while my life still continues: "will He do the same when it really does come time to do so? Am I living for Christ? Would he be proud of me? What can I do to actually live for him, so that the split-second between Here and There is not scary, but exciting?"

It's all heavy stuff. Think about it. I will. Praise be to God.

Oh, thought.

I've created this blog in order to organize and vocalize the thoughts I have throughout the day. I don't even know if anyone will read it, but either way, I'll keep writing. I must admit, I got the idea for this from a good friend of mine, Colin. I'll find a way to link you up with his blog, as he is leaps and bounds ahead of me in thought, and knowledge of blogs. :) A good idea always deserves to be copied. Wouldn't you agree? Anyways, I will be writing blogs a few times a week I think. Maybe just once a week. Whatever the case, I will look in my heart, and write.