Potato Leeked

So much has gone on since my last entry…. I will try to give the cliff-notes version… Well I only have two weeks until my first triathlon ever. The Olympic distance is most defiantly going to be a challenge. Some days I have trouble running just three miles after a long bike or swim. I have to keep reminding myself that I can run and walk the last leg or the race.
These last few weeks I have been praying long and hard that God would direct me into my career. I know that the offer from Grant Thornton is still on the table come September. This offer is contingent upon me finishing the accounting program this summer at Santa Clara. With my four jobs and trying to figure out how to pay for it sometimes I just put my hands in the air and said God what the heck do you want me to do? Most of my workweeks I put in about 60-80 hour weeks and how am I going to finish school while doing this? About a week ago I was working in the kitchen at the Salvation Army and one of the kids only put a single bag in one of the trash cans. I proceeded to pull the bag out of the can and lode it on the gator 4x4 and take it out to the dumpster. I drove out to the dumpster and pulled the bag off the tailgate to hoist it into the dumpster and the bag burst all over me. I was drenched with Potato Leek soup and bacon grease. I wanted to cuss so dang bad. I just grumbled back to the kitchen dripping and had a conversation with God saying why the heck am I here? I have a college degree and I am chucking soup and grease bags. At this point I realized that I had to do whatever I could to jump into my career. I had pressed on some doors and the only door that was opened was the accounting.
Some people think accounting and they think about how boring it is going to be. I think about the talents that God has engifted me with and that I can help people in their weakness. What a great thing. Plus it is one of my life goals to get a CPA. Another interesting thing is that if you look through the classified adds in the job section there are always going to be two jobs people are always looking for Accountants and Nurses. Match Set Point.

Move that Bus!

I must confess that I love going on mission’s trips! But when you come back to the real world you do experience a bit of a spiritual low. I hope that I will always be able to go on short- term trips. It was so amazing to be able to go on the trip with my father. To build a home for a needy family and hand over the keys at completion was amazing! The whole time I wanted to yell “Move that Bus”! Just because I am a big cheese ball. In all seriousness, I hope one day I can take my whole family on a short-term trip. It is how I visualize heaven (except without the whole streets of gold thing). People coming together for one purpose. To glorify the kingdom of God.
God has really blessed me with new friendships and a desire to serve in the high school group of my church. It has been a desire of mine for some time but through this trip he has made it very clear that this is where I should be.
My dad made a great point when we were debriefing as a group after the trip. He said “he always wanted to be at a point where something was going wrong in his life so that he needed to go to God for help”. That when we were building the walls of our house two of the walls were build entirely wrong and with so little time we got very far behind. The man who we were building the house for was an unemployed bricklayer who also happened to be incredible at stucco…. God totally sent a professional stucco guy to our job site. That has never happened in the history of mission’s trips! This was a miracle to our group. Four days to build a house goes by quick.
This point that my dad made is simple but profound. As a man who wants to be self-made it is so hard to let God lead when I have my own vision of how things should be. The reality of things is that I am being like some crazy backseat driver that is hollering out directions to God. He kind of invented the earth. He probably has a good idea of where he wants to steer my life.

Orange is for Freedom

Lately I cannot stop thinking about the fact that slavery still exists in our world today. I have always felt like I wanted to make a difference in the world I live in. What better way to do it than to set a person free. Most of the people in the world today are on the same page where they do not agree with slavery but it still happens. I herd that in the 1800’s if you were to buy a slave it would cost you the equivalent of $40k. Today you can buy a human life for somewhere in the neighborhood of $50.00!
This is insane to me! My friends and I are talking about politics and I cannot believe that people are not mentioning slavery in their debates. They might all be against it but the fact that no candidate has mentioned it. There are great organizations out there offering news and counsel on what to do to stop the trade of human life.

I was talking to my boss at the salvation Army asking him if he had ever knew anyone who was involved in organizations making a difference. He said that the Army did an event in San Francisco that put price tags on children and put them in storefronts. I thought that would be a great idea to raise awareness in Santa Cruz. Who knows? I just hope that I can make a difference in my world. If this is a way that I can, then I am all for it.

I don't want to get to the end of my life with a ton of worldly treasures but no heart treasures. The scene from the end of Schindler's List always sticks out to me. He just save the lives of so many Jews and still wishes he could have saved more. He looks at his car and gold pin and ring. He is troubled with the weight of how meaningless those things are when compared with human life.



http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

Only ice cream, never sundaes

February is one of those crazy months for those of us who are crazy hopeless romantics. In the past I would probably rush something. Take someone out just so I would not have to think about being single. This time around I actually did not even want tickets to the show.
I hear people all the time talking about the Carbon footprints that we leave behind for the environment. Lately I have been thinking about the Love footprints that I will leave behind.
I do not have a love interest that I am really interested in. I do have an amazing group of friends though that God has blessed me with. I know that God has put me in a place to encourage both my sister and my boss. They are both single mothers and both of them are very lonely. I know that if I had a love interest I would not be sensitive to hear them out.
Those of you that know me well know my mission. So with my mission being slightly delayed for the moment I know that God will have me to be a good friend and a good brother and a good worker. I pray that God would use me to make a difference in men’s lives and to love the unlovely. To do good things when no one is watching.
I love that even in the Bible in the Love passage that you hear in every wedding you hear it said that Love is patient and Love is kind. A more accurate translation of the word patient is longsuffering. This kind of makes me laugh because even God knew that men and women are going to have issues. You know out of all the weddings I have been to I have never heard them use the phrase longsuffering. Ha ha.... I wish to all of you longsuffering in your love life.

19 and OHHHHH!

Well I must say I was a bit disappointed at the outcome of the Super Bowl. One of the greatest teams to ever play went down to a team with Peyton Manning's little brother at the helm. I sat there in my parent’s living room with 32 of my closest friends in disbelief as the mighty Patriots went down. Not only that but Tom Brady did not come through when they needed him. Where was Brady to Moss? Brady is the only Sports hero I have in this great world and I feel like the kid who asks Shoeless Joe Jackson if he cheated in the World Series or not. "Say it ain't so Tom" The greatest team of all time ended the season at 18-1... Oh how it stung! Que Sera Sera.

My update on the training is that I finished Jan out at 50 miles. This far exceeded my 25-mile goal. I will most definitely pat myself on the back for that one. But we are in a new month with a new goal. 60-miles in a short month. 55-to go at this point.

I went to vote tonight and told them I was a Republican and the man said he would not hold it against me. Then he said no comment... You can't say no comment after you comment. I am sure that it is highly illegal to say anything like this if you are a voter representative at the polls. Such is Santa Cruz. Besides I don't even know whom I will vote for yet in November. I do know that I will make an informed decision and I will vote for the best person for the job. Whoever that may be. I will say that right now I am looking into voting for Obama or Mccain. I saw an amazing video a few days ago put out by Will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas using parts of an Obama speech that he gave in New Hampshire.

Rock out with your Sox's out

So the race is 16 weeks away and I feel like I am right on track. I have blown away my goal of running 25 miles in Jan. Today I stand at 32 miles but I am shooting for 40. I have noticed a huge spike in my energy levels. One thing that has been a huge lesson for me is that when I have this extra energy I have a stronger desire to serve others.

Which is what I really want to talk about. I have this idea to pass out socks to the homeless. I am sure you are are very aware that it has been very cold lately. I think that now more than ever homeless people need socks. When it gets this cold many homeless people will use socks as hand warmers. They also throw out their socks when they get too wet. So if anyone would like to join me send me an email or call me up. I am collecting socks for the Winter and will be going out every couple of weeks to pas them out.

Oh one more thing. I have this huge desire to go and hunt wild Boar. I know it is random but you know you want to come? Never done it but feel like it would be a great adventure. I am very much looking forward to doing it. So if anyone has any connections let do it.

Sunshine Garden Juno

I love my life! For the first time in a while I love my life. Due to the nature of my job I spend a lot of time around people with disabilities. Tonight I met a married couple that are both in wheelchairs. They have a hard time speaking and have a hard time feeding their selves. They smile all of the time. They love life and they love each other. They showed me so much kindness tonight by inviting me into their homes. It is hard to find a time in which they do not smile. I am currently working with a pair of guys that have some issues with short-term memory loss. They want so badly to settle down and have families of their own. They want so badly to be loved and accepted by their peers. They were both in a car accident that brought on this issue. It is kind of like the Drew Barrymore movie 50 First Dates every day. But deep within this disability they want to move on but they have this anchor attached to them while they try to tread water. They have awareness but cannot move on. Today I went to the beach and saw a cool family and wanted so badly for him to be able to have this one day.

Most of my life I have felt like I deserved to be married or have a healthy child or live the American dream and buy my first home. I have even had days where I was upset with God because I have none of this. Today I realize that I have none of this because God wants me to come to His Throne and bow down in thankful worship when life is not done by my will. When life looks like a Sunshine Garden Juno.
As a man society has ingrained in us that we are what we do. That our profession defines our manhood. In today’s world staying in a profession for thirty years is long and gone. Even if the employee was loyal employers are not. How does a man go about being a man if they are changing jobs so often? If our identity is tied to this our world is in trouble.
In my head this is the nakedness that Adam felt. With many men finding their identity on shaky ground, thus you have so many men running and not really knowing who they are. Today our world says that if you get a woman pregnant you are a man or if you make a lot of money you are a man. Then why do you have boys still living with their mothers and having the girlfriends move in? Married men who struggle with their own identity and run off after being together for years. Swearing before God and men they “Till death do we Part”. In my opinion this is just a huge identity crisis. I feel that because most men do not feel equipped they run. They do not finish what they start when things get hard. I want to change this.
I want to change men’s hearts and help to equip those who feel ill equipped. Or at least stand by their side during the journey. My housemates and I have a huge heart for this mission.