Finals Week

I hate finals week. I especially hate finals week this semester. I have not been doing anything this semester. It's been absolutely terrible and I have had some of the hardest classes. It's so crazy because my teachers expect me to work on all this different stuff outside of class. The only problem with that is that I don't want to work on this stuff outside of class. So all that being said it has put me in a predicament now that finals have rolled around. My class grades are super low and my only real chance of passing is that I do pretty good on these finals. The only thing is that I SUCK at studying. I have been in the library for the past two nights for a combined total of 15 hours. I think that I have looked over my material for classes for about 30 minutes. I am really just kind of hoping that the information I learned in the small amount of classes that I have gone to this semester is still lodged into my brain somewhere and I can pull a passing grade for my test. We will see how it goes. Please be praying for me, my finals, and everything else that is going on with me. Thanks everyone....Dueces!

Update

Wow...I have not blogged in forever. I know that a lot of you probably have not missed my random thoughts and boring ramblings but I have missed sharing them. I will go ahead and apologize to the ones who do read my blog for not posting in so long but I feel kindo stupid posting without something to talk about.
Anyways my night has been long and I'm not asleep yet so I am going to go ahead and give an update on whats been going on here. My life has been going GREAT! I recently found out that I am very very close to graduating and while that does make me a little nervous I think that I am going to go ahead and get off my butt and get me a job that I actually enjoy so at the same time I am really excited.
I just got done coaching my youth flag football team for the season. It was by far the best job that I have ever had. Even though my team finished a very terrible 1-9 it was the greatest thing that I have ever done. I wasn't a coach yet when the kids were drafted so I got stuck with all of the kids that noone else picked. While that doesn't sound like a great thing to a lot of people I took it as a challenge and an opportunity. I had the best group of kids that anyone could ever ask for and they came out and busted their butts every time we had a practice. When we finally won that first game (which happened to be the last game of the season) I have never been happier due to a sporting event. The way the kids celebrated and the way the parents congratulated me just left me with one of the greatest feelings that anyone could ask for. I am looking forward do doing it again next year, as well as coaching youth basketball this January.
Classes are going extremely hard and I have found that I actually have to work hard to be able to pass them. But on the flip side I AM HAVING A BLAST hanging out with all of my friends here in Stephenville. I am looking forward to taking random roadtrips, going on retreats, and just sitting around and watching some TV for the rest of my time here at Tarleton.
Well that is about all I have for my update on life right now. Sorry for the long post but I suppose I had a lot to give you guys today. Anyways I hope that I don't take that long to blog ever again. Dueces!

Classes

I am taking all of my business classes this semester. I don't really know how I feel about this yet. My accounting class absolutely sucks. It's hard. I don't know how well this is gonna work out. So be praying about that one. Other than that though I have all marketing classes, which is my major. I really like all of those classes. A couple of them seem like they are gonna take a lot of work. And that really sucks since I don't like to do homework but instead of just lectures all of the time our classes are all discussion based which makes it a LOT more interesting. However my favorite class so far has to be my Public Relations class. We are getting together with a team and creating our own PR firm. My team's firm so far is looking pretty great. Granted we only have a name, slogan, and a logo I think that we are on the right track to being a very successful firm. Anyways, I think (I say I think because I'm not sure I was really listening to our teacher when she was talking about this) that we are supposed to go around town and find a business that will allow us to publicize their business. It seems like its gonna be a cool class and a really cool semester. Short post tonight but I was really just trying to make JMob happy. Dueces!

Hola!

So I have maintained blogging silence for quite a while here. Things have been pretty busy and I have been kind of sick. Makin the transition back to school has been a rough one on my sleeping schedule but it has been a lot of fun. Here are a few highlights so far....

1. Moved back into my apartment with my roommate and it has been awesome. Our apt is great and its awesome not having to live in the dorm with a bunch of rules. Besides that a couple of our buddies moved into an apt on the floor above us and it has been really cool hanging out so far.
2. Started classes on Monday. So far they are really really cool. I have been taking straight Marketing classes mixed in with an Accounting class. My classes have been cool because they are less note taking and a lot more conversation in class.
3. Been hanging out with some of my Tarleton friends and it has been great to catch up. Kinda cool to see what had been going on during the summer and just chillin with them.
4. Still have not gotten a job yet. I am just gonna go with reffing football games for right now. I should make enough money to be alright while doing that. It pays alright.
5. NFL preseason is winding down which means that the real season will start in about a week. I can not tell you how excited I am about this. This is definitely my favorite time of year.
6. Tomorrow I am gonna ride with Epi up to Ft. Worth to watch my high school alma mater....THE Goldthwaite Eagles play their first game of the season. Should get to see a lot of people from my hometown and get to watch the first real high school football game. I'm pretty pumped.
7. I am finally getting over a cold that I have had ALL WEEK. It freakin sucks. I mean honestly....who gets a cold in August? It really sucks.
8. Really excited to see how this year of school is gonna go. Im sure that it will take me about two weeks to get completely tired of school but I think it should still be a fun school year anyways. I will try to keep you guys posted.

Anyways those are a couple of the things that have been going on with me here lately and I will really try to do a better job of updating my blog more often. Gotta finish watching the rest of the Cowboys preseason finale right now so I gots to go. Dueces!

Hard Knocks

Hard Knocks is one of my favorite shows on television right now. This year the HBO crew has gone from training camp with the Chiefs back to training camp with my Dallas Cowboys. Last year Jenna and I went to Cowboys training camp in San Antonio, Tx. We were really hoping to go this year to especially since we would get to get on the field this time but a Church of God conference in the Alamo Dome forced the Cowboys to have training camp in Oxnard, California. It really sucks that I didn't get a chance to go this year but Hard Knocks has kind of settled my anticipation for the season down a little bit. The best thing about the show is that it actually gets you deeper into training camp than actually going. It is a great show that profiles one of the greatest franchises in NFL history. I suggest that if you have HBO then you should get home by 9 on wednesday nights and check out what has been going on the past couple of weeks in Oxnard. You won't be disappointed.

My Past Week

This past week has been pretty great. I haven't done anything really. I have been working on finding a new job and that has actually gone pretty well. With a lot of help from Nicky B I think that I may have found a new job that will give me just a couple hours a week which is exactly what I am looking for. Other than that I have just been hanging out with my roommate Epi. He is one of the coolest guys I know and its been cool just hanging out with him this week. We have been trying to get a lot more exercise into our routine so three nights this week we have been going to play basketball. I love playing basketball but considering that I haven't worked out in I don't know how long, I have no endurance, and they like to play full court it has been pretty rough on me. I'm slowly making that transition back though.

Other than all of that I have been looking for a new car and that isn't going so well. If anyone is looking to donate a car then let me know....I will probably take it. Hopefully something will come up pretty quick and I will get this thing solved.

This weekend Jenna came down to see me. It has been a pretty great weekend. We have just been hanging out and catching up. On Friday we went and ate half price appetizers at Montana's and watched Pineapple Express with a couple of my friends here in Stephenville. On Saturday we had nearly decided to go up to Dallas/Fort Worth to see if we could find me a car but instead sat around the house and ended up watching the Cowboys game and Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal. Tomorrow we are gonna try out a different church called Harvey Baptist Church. I am pretty pumped about trying it out and can't wait to see what God has in store for me there. Also next week we got tickets for the Cowboys 3rd preseason game and we are gonna go up to Irving and watch it on Friday. I am freakin pumped and cant wait for the game. Sorry about the delay in posting but its been slow here and hard to find topics to write about. Anyways I got to get to bed so I can get to church tomorrow. Dueces!

Here it is....

So here it is. Nic posted last month that NCAA Football 2009 was the greatest game ever and that the day it is released should be a national holiday. Well I would have to disagree. Now I did go out and buy NCAA the night it was released at midnight and have been playing it like crazy but for my taste I always go with Madden. I have been a Madden fan ever since Madden 96 came out on SUPER NINTENDO! It has gotten me through a lot of rough times in my life and now the lastest edition has been released to a video game store near you. It has a ton of new features for this years game including a skill level mode where it measures how good you are at different aspects of the game and then sets the difficulty level of those things to how good or bad you are at them. Pretty sweet. If you guys have never played Madden then I highly suggest you go over to someone's house and just try it out....you won't be disappointed. Now unfortunately I do not have the spare cash to purchase Madden right now so I'm just gonna say that if anyone would like to make a contribution to the "Get Jaron Madden 2009" fund then I would gladly accept. Anyways that is what im ranting about today but now I've got to go eat some $6.00 fajitas. Dueces!

Trying to Shed Some Pounds

If you guys read this blog often then you know that I am a huge fan of Perry Noble...he is to me like Mark Driscoll is to JMob. If you guys don't get that then I should probably let you know that JMob is a huge Driscoll fan and hangs on every word he says. Anyways I am a huge Perry Noble fan and last weekend he preached about if it was alright for a Christian to drink alcohol. Well he was talking about how a lot of people were getting all pissy about having a beer but there are a lot of facts that prove that obesity is just a big a problem in Christianity as alcohol. If you guys wanna read a couple of the facts from that sermon then here is the link to Perry's blog. Now his words got me thinking about that and it is so true. Obesity is a huge problem that noone ever talks about but it is just as bad as drinking. I do not consider myself obese at all but I do think that I could stand to shed a few pounds. So this week I have been running everyday and trying to get in a workout. It takes a lot of work to push aside my XBox time to go for a workout but I have managed to do it. Now I have not turned into a total health nut or anything because I still eat whatever the crap I want but I have made a couple of changes. This week I have had nothing but water to drink and that automatically has made me feel better. I also have just tried eating smaller portions of whatever I've got in front of me. So I am trying my best to shed these pounds and put a stop to my problem with gluttony but it will take some work. So if you guys are looking for something to pray for then pray for my endurance in this task. I already am missing cookies and brownies but will have to cut back on them quite a bit. Now I have to go ice my entire body after my two hour basketball game so until next time. Dueces!

The Season is Nearing

I love the game of football. I think that the every aspect of the game is just absolutely incredible. Most people are really excited about the Olympics right now. For me...well....I just really don't give a crap about the Olympics. I mean, I like the men's basketball but it is nothing in comparison to a football game. My football infatuation goes beyond just a love for pro football. A couple of years ago I was looking for easy ways to make money and so somebody introduced me to officiating high school football games. I love when the the high school football season rolls around. I love being out there on the field and just watching guys that are passionate about the game of football go out there and knock the crap out of each other. I also enjoy college football however I feel most of the time that college football saturdays are just something to keep me slightly entertained between friday and sunday. Sunday is the day God created and told us to rest on.....so that we could sit back and enjoy the NFL regular season. I absolutely love the Dallas Cowboys. If you have hung out with me for longer than thirty minutes you know that I bleed blue and silver. The worst part of my year is the NFL offseason. It consists of me breaking out in cold sweats and reading mock drafts over and over again.

So you may be wondering why I am posting about football. Well the reason behind this post is that the NFL preason has begun! Now I know there have been a couple of games on already but the preason doesn't officially kick off until my beloved Cowboys open up their preseason against the San Diego Chargers tomorrow night at 9 p.m. I cannot wait for this game to get underway and if you need to talk to me then it will have to wait until Sunday because I will not remove myself from the TV during that game. I will be tuned in the entire time and I suggest you do too. Forget the Olympics....be a true american and watch some preseason football.

Shout Outs

So I have a lot of people on my blogroll but there are a lot of people that are jumping into the blogging world that I must send some shout outs to.

The first person would be my mom. My mom recently became a Christian and has been shooting some crazy thoughts out lately. She is a really smart woman of God and that makes for a pretty exciting blog so I figured I would post the link here. You guys go check it out...she is pretty much incredible.

David Stippick is a good friend of mine. He is freakin hilarious and does whatever it takes to further the Kingdom of God. He is about to head out on a mission year (major props to you bro) and try to take the world by storm. His blog is here and you can go check it out as I'm sure he will be updating you on how he is doing on his mission year.

And last but not least, Michael Pittman is an incredible student from Lockhart. I have had the pleasure of chilling with this guy for the past two summers and am a lucky guy for getting to meet him (and his entire family....you should start blogging Dustin). He is an awesome worship leader and is using his talents to fulfill God's will for his life. You guys can keep up with him and check out what he has to say here.

Back Home

I finally made the move back to Stephenville. It has been a long (but awesome) summer and now I feel pretty good just getting back to life here in Stephenville. I will miss all of the students and all of my friends in Lockhart and Jenna but I also missed just chillin here at my apartment (probably because I wasted close to $1400 by not living here this summer). Anyways the last couple of days have been pretty slow but they have been fun. I have finally caught up on my XBox playing this week. I know all of you think that we did absolutely nothing during the summer but we were actually pretty busy and so that left little time to get my XBox 360 fix. I also have gotten to hang out with my roommate the past couple of days *on a side note...Epi is finally getting a facebook effective tomorrow so you guys should search him and add him*. Right now I haven't gotten a chance to meet with my boss at the library since she has been gone and so I am still not working over here yet. Epi is applying at a couple of places so that he can get another job and so right now all we have been doing is sitting around, playing XBox, and helping our friend Reed move. I am finally aobut to finish up my summer classes within this next week and guess what? I FREAKIN PASSED BOTH OF THEM!!! Now I know what you guys are thinking..."Two classes, is that it?" Well forget you guys...they were pretty hard and I am proud of myself for actually doing some work and getting that crap done. Anyways, I am really looking forward to having all of my friends come back here to Stephenville and finding out what happened during their summers but until then I think I will sit back, chill, play Xbox, and maybe catch up on some reading.

Summer 2008 w/ Team Spidermonkey

Today was my last day as a youth ministry intern at First Lockhart Baptist Church. Even though I didn't really show it on the outside (since I only have one emotion....rock....that one's for you Nic) it was a freakin hard day. There were a ton of students that showed up for our "send-off" breakfast. I love every single one of those students, even the ones that didn't show up this morning. Every single one of the students have impacted my life to be a better leader for them. They have opened my eyes to see the kind of person God wants me to be. I have had a great time trying to lead them down the path that God is calling them to follow. I really appreciate every single one of them and can't wait for the next time I can hang out with them again.
This summer has always been cool because I have made two more absolutely incredible friends. I knew Dusty and JMob before I came back to Lockhart but after this summer I feel like they could definitely take up some spaces on my MySpace top friends list. They are a couple of awesome guys that I will remain friends with from this point forward. I just want to say to you guys directly, "I can't wait until we serve the Kingdom of God again together at some point."
This last paragraph is dedicated to my boy Nic. Now Jo, you know that I love you and you mean a lot to me but this one is to Nic. Thanks for letting me come on staff and help serve your students. Thank you for allowing me to stay in your home all summer and for all the food you provided. Thank you so much for teaching me everything that you have taught me and just for always being there when I needed you. I know that we butt heads a lot but that is the way that God has made us. It's pretty interesting that He would put two stong willed guys like ourselves together so that we could "storm the Gates of Hell" together. I appreciate everything you do for me and I can't wait till we are serving together side by side (as opposed to me being under your authority all the time). I love you man and I am constantly praying for you.

My Madre

Today my mom took her last test to get her nursing degree. My mom has always been a hard worker. I remember when me and my brothers were growing up she would always work her butt off so that she could provide the best for us and she never failed. She is the greatest woman I know and the perfect inspiration as I go through my life. My mom decided a couple of years ago to start going back to school to get her nursing degree. She started classes and ever since then she has totally dominated every class and test that was put before her. She is completely incredible and I am so happy for her. I am more proud of my Mom for pushing through all of this crap and finishing school. She went to school full-time, worked, and took care of my pain in the butt brothers the whole time she was doing this. I am so happy that she is finally gonna do something that she enjoys and actually be banking for it. I could go on forever about how awesome and great my Mom is but I will shorten this and say this directly to her (even though I know I am gonna get a lot of crap and hear a lot of "mom" jokes because I hang out with people who don't know how to grow up (Nic!)).

Mom, words can't describe how awesome you are and how much you have impacted my life. I am so proud of you and I hope that you have a great time finding that high paying job that will help to pay for all the student loans I have taken out. I LOVE YOU!!!

On The Street Interviews

Today was an awesome day at the office. Nic wanted to teach on a particular subject so we based our interview on that and used JMob's magical mind to do a couple of live interviews to put together a video. We got some great answers and met a couple of cool people (as well as freakin retards). The best thing about the day though was when we were doing an interview and someone came up and started talking to Nic. He asked what we were doing the video for and when he heard that it was for our youth group his response was "Well, I am not very religioius. Will that be alright?" Our response...."Perfect, give it a try!" Our entire purpose for the project was to see what society thought about the topic that we had planned. A lot of the time we get so caught up dealing with "religious" people. I HATE THAT! I hate the way that religious people are so fake. They act like everything is going great in their lives when really everything may be falling apart. That is terrible! It is alright to tell people every once and a while that your life sucks. A lot of people may think that I am a jerk. You guys may get offended by a lot of the things that I say, but you will never see me telling you that my life rocks if I am going through a hard time. So for me it was a great day to be able to get out there and see what REAL people thought and how REAL people answered and what REAL people thought about our religious views. At the end of the day it was refreshing to get out and interact with people that don't give a crap if other people think they are living their lives right (especially all of those people that told us that they couldn't answer our questions because they were too stoned). I look forward to how JMob puts it all together and you guys should look forward to watching the final draft either here or on JMob's blog.

Tithe

Last night J-Mob, Jenna, and I made the trip to Austin to visit Austin Stone Community Church again. So we made the trip and got there a little early and listened to Spur58 rock a new song that we had not heard yet. It is called "Healer" and the message behind the lyrics are absolutely incredible. Stone is doing a series right now called "Money Matters." I am not normally a guy that likes to hear a message on tithing. I would rather hear that one story in the Bible about that one guy dying on the cross for my sins but last night since we had drove 30 miles to go to this service we didn't really wanna get up and leave. Now, I don't want you to think that I leave every time some preacher talks about money. I simply do not like to hear talks about money because I don't have any. Anyways, we sat through the sermon and I instantly felt conviction from God about this message. I don't want to go in to detail about the sermon because I have been trying to shorten my posts so I will provide the link so that you can go and listen to the sermon yourself. Click right HERE. So today we headed into the office and we were sitting around and we were messing around on our computers. Lately I have been fascinated with Perry Noble and the things that his church, New Spring, has been doing. So I check Perry Noble's blog quite often and came across this incredible story. It is pretty obvious that God has been calling me to not only start giving more of my time to Him but it is also time to start honoring my Father with my finances as well. Often I start thinking that because I give up a summer to come and work for free (or pretty much for free) that I have been giving 100% to God. That is bullcrap. God has opened my eyes to tell me that I have been doing nothing with my finances and in that I am dishonoring God by holding back what is His. Hopefully you guys will go check out some of the sites that I have linked for you in this post and if you haven't been obeying God's command with your money as well then I hope that you are convicted. Just a few thoughts for you.

Camp 7*8

I have been gone for quite a while and that is partly my fault but also partly because I just got back from Camp 7*8. Camp 7*8 is our Jr. High camp that we have out at Hi Line Resort on Lake Buchanan. It was an absolutely incredible week. We took about twenty jr. high students and just had an awesome time on the lake. We rented jet skis and a boat and took our students tubing to make sure that they had a great time. However, I don't think that our students would tell you that that was the best part of camp. Our students had a great time just worshiping God in a place where distractions of the outside world weren't present at all. I mean NOWHERE to be found. There were three places at the entire resort where any cell phone service was available and you could just forget about trying to get Internet. Anyways, our students were led in worship by an awesome band called In His Hands....you guys can check out their website here. Also there was some speaking by Corey (and I only put his first name because I don't think I heard his last name at all during the week...so he is just Corey). These guys did a great job of joining us to worship with them and I greatly appreciate everything they did for our students this past week. Like any jr. high camp a lot of commitments were made and a lot of things were prayed about and said. The only thing that we as youth workers and parents can do is to pray that our students don't get sucked back in to the world again. That they wouldn't follow what the world has in store for them but that they would take the much greater road and continue to follow the path that God has started them on in result of what they learned from a week on the lake. Let that be our prayer.

Prayer Request

Last week while doing Mission LTX at the Southpark Apartment Complex the manager of the apartment came up and talked to me a little bit while the kids were doing Rainbow Express. She told me that the previous day during Rainbow Express the owner of the complex came over to inspect the apartments. She said that she saw the kids doing Rainbow Express in the hot sun and was so impressed with what we were doing she told the manager that whatever we asked for just to give to us. Now that is a pretty big deal considering on Monday morning we didnt even know if they were gonna let us knock on doors at that place. Anyways, the manager asked us to go to another complex in town that they owned and do RE over there the next week. Never being one's to turn down an awesome opportunity for God we accepted. We have been over there for two days now and have some pretty awesome kids so far. I just want to ask all of the readers out there to be praying for the entire city of Lockhart but especially for the Southpark and Springfield apartment complexes. We as a youth staff feel that God has really big plans for that place and we just need prayer to make sure that we see what He wants to do with it and for us not to get in the way of that. Thanks for the prayers and I will be updating about Mission LTX Part Deux as soon as we finish out the week.

Mission LTX Recap

This past week was absolutely amazing. Sometimes when you work with students every now and then you start to realize that students really annoy you and that sometimes they may be good for nothing at all. Then there are times (like this past week) where students can just incredibly blow your mind!!! The things that our students did for the community and for the little kids in the apartment complexes did was nothing short of incredible. They each payed money to come and teach kids the love of Christ and then show the love of Christ to the community by doing various work projects. It was a perfect image of "The Great Commission." Words really can't describe what took place this last week in the community of Lockhart, Tx so I will just end by telling you that JMob made of video of last week and it is posted on YouTube (search "soundman23" and you will find all of his videos) and it is also posted on Nicky B's blog. It is an incredible video and may be JMob's greatest video to date but it is the only way to get a glimpse of what our students did last week so I would HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest that you link to one of those two places and check it out.

Mission LTX

So this week our group has started a project called Mission LTX. We go out in the community in the morning and have a Backyard Bible Club for the children of two different apartment complexes in town. In the afternoon we have been doing work projects for people in the community including clearing out a burned down house for a family that lost all of their stuff in a fire. We have been clearing it out so they can build it back. I will give a better recap at the end of the week but right now brinner (breakfast for dinner) is being served and so here are just a few pictures.

Time To Think

It is officially the middle of the summer for the First Lockhart Baptist Church youth group. I apologize for not blogging for so long (not that it's a big deal Mom, since you are the only one that reads this thing) but we have been crazy busy and I am exhausted. I am actually so exhausted that I took a week off this week to go on vacation. You are probably thinking where I would be able to go on a youth interns salary, well, the answer is Stephenville, Tx. That is right, I took a week long break and came to my apartment in Stephenville just to get away from everything for a while. The past two days I have done nothing but lay on the couch and eat Chicken Noodle Soup. It may not seem like a glorious place to go to rest but I am thoroughly enjoying it and while I am here I have had time to review some points of the month of June. They are as follows:

1. I had an awesome 21st birthday thanks to my wonderful girlfriend. I had a great day and she did everything she could to make sure it was like that. THANK YOU JENNA!!! I wanted to thank everyone that wished me Happy Birthday and let you guys know that I appreciate you all.
2. Our two summer trips thus far (Beach Break and Mission Arlington trip) have gone absolutely incredible. I have had a great time trying to minister to these students and hopefully they are getting something out of what we do this summer.
3. I am having an incredible time working with Nic, Dusty, and JMob that I work with. It is a major drawback of my vacation that I don't get to hang out with them this week. They are some awesome people to work with and even just greater people in general. I become better friends with all of them over the summer and look forward to not only working with them this summer but for future projects.
4. I have my family reunion coming up this weekend. There are not a lot of families like mine (unless you travel to Mississippi or Arkansas or somewhere like that). I really do like hanging out with my family especially in the big gatherings like our family reunion. I am looking forward to seeing my Granny for a couple of days as well as the rest of my family. Also on a side note I would appreciate a lot of prayers for my Granny as I don't think she is doing very well.
5. Finally, while sitting here in Stephenville and listening to nothing but music and the television it really make me realize that I absolutely love what I do. I would not trade my job for anything in the world. If not for my reunion this weekend I would have already headed back and started hanging out with students again, especially for The Attic. Please be praying for our students. Pray that they would lose themselves over the summer and just be fully aware of what God has in store for them and let them know that it is better than what is going on in their stupid little everyday lives.

Thats all I got for now but hopefully it won't be as long before I post again.

Radical Living

This summer I have started reading several books and one of them is this book by Shane Claiborne. The book is called "The Irresistible Revolution" and it is about living as a radical christian in a world that is completely corrupt. There are a lot of incredible things that Shane says throughout this book but there is one paragraph that has really caught my eye and has gotten me thinking.

I know there are people out there who say, "My life was such a mess. I was drinking, partying, sleeping around...and then I met Jesus and my whole life came together." God bless those people. But me, I had it together. I used to be cool. And then I met Jesus and he wrecked my life. The more I read the gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything upside-down. I am still recovering from my conversion. I know it's hard to imagine, but in high school, I was elected prom king. I was in the in-crowd, popular, ready to make lots of money and buy lots of stuff, on the upward track to success.

Wow. This is pretty a pretty crazy paragraph. This world has convinced us of the american dream. We are supposed to grow up and get a good paying job. We are supposed to get married and have kids, a dog, a big house, and a nice, white picket fence. That is what is put into our brains from day one. To be honest with you guys, this sounds like a great life. I would love to be able to do some job that isn't very hard and make a lot of money. To be able to come home to a wife and kids and just lay back and watch TV. It sounds like the perfect life.

Then this Jesus guy came along. We are always on the track to getting that perfect life and this Jesus guy comes into our lives and totally messes everything up. We realize about the love of Christ and realize that God is calling us to something different than going to our perfect job and perfect home. God is actually calling us to something that is a lot greater. God calls us to the plan that He has set out for us and that is greater than above all things. Yes, I know that that last statement sounded like the same old, stale church answer that we get every Sunday morning. Sometimes, however, the church leaders kinda know what they are talking about and we ought to listen.

Now is the american dream wrong? I think not. I think that it is good to strive for. However as Gandhi said "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." The moment that we actually take this quote in and learn what it truly means is when I will believe what Jesus meant we he said "To love your neighbor as yourself." Christ meant to take care of our neighbors when they were in trouble. Help them out in time of need. We get so caught up in what we can do for ourselves or how much money that we can make and we always forget that Jesus calls us to love the poor as we love ourselves. Just something to chew on until next time.

Great Quotes

You must be the change you want to see in the world.
-Mahatma Gandhi

Lately I have been reading up some on the historic figures of the world. When I say lately I actually mean today. It's not because I want to be insightful and seem smart to other people either because I think I lost that opportunity a long time ago. But I did pick up the Shane Claiborne book "The Irresistible Revolution" while in Hastings earlier tonight. I have also been lucky enough to actually go and hear Shane Claiborne speak and for those of you that have no idea who Shane Claiborne is then you should Google him right now because he will turn you upside down. His way of living is totally bizarre but is exactly the way that I wish I could be. I unfortunately am not ready to give up all the "things" in my life such as he has. Anyways Shane Claiborne has gotten me interested in historical figures (Gandhi, Mother Teresea, etc.). So I was ready about Gandhi and I found this quote by him. And if this doesn't speak volumes to all the Christ Followers out there then let's be honest....you just aren't passionate about the Savior. So many times we think that we can just sit back as Christians and let the Billy Grahams, Shane Claibornes, Tony Campolos, and the Shirley Phelps-Ropers (that one is a joke...haha) of the world spread the news of the Creator and we can just complain about how the world is going to hell and we just cant believe that this is happening. Well its time that we all got off of our butts and actually did something because the world will only change when all Christians decide that we are passionate about the one that saved us. Anyways...I didn't mean to try and get all preachy about this stuff because that certainly is not my gift but some things just get you fired up and that was it for me. I would like to leave you with another quote from Gandhi just to get you guys thinking.

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
- Mahatma Gandhi

Time for review

So I am sitting here on the couch with absolutely nothing to do because the people at Dish Network have decided that they have no idea what is wrong with our channels. I have decided that after taking a couple of days off I am now going to go ahead and blog about the following week. Also after looking at my other blog posts and looking at Nic's blog posts I have decided to use the numbering system (just to be a little different) so that it will look more organized

1. We took a great group of kids that really have the ability to turn their school and their town upside down if they would just take the time to pull their heads out and actually start listening to what God is trying to tell them
2. The worship services progressively got better as the week went on. I was not impressed by Toby's speaking at first but as the week wore on I think that he started to get more comfortable and the kids started responding to his stories more, making it easier on everyone.
3. The band rocked out and even though there were a couple of problems with them they did a great job of joining us to worship with them and was exactly the right type of music for the kids to listen to all week. I think everyone really responded in the worship through music part of the camp.
4. I had to most amazing Tribe ever. I have included a picture of my Tribe for everyone to see at the top of this blog. For those who don't know our "Tribes" this year were our small groups. I led mine with Tommie Burkland and I thank her for all of her help that she provided me with. But our Tribe (Krunkawa) was pretty much incredible. All of them have a passion for God and did a great job of talking with each other when we were in our small group time. I will definitely miss hanging out with them this week.
   
5. The morning worship time was really cool to listen to. All three of the guys that spoke (Doug from Pflugerville, Nic, and Bill from Connections) did an incredible job of getting the message that God laid on their hearts out. I got a lot out of every morning worship time and am glad that I got to be a part of it.
   
6. This is the last point and it is about the most disturbing but best part of the week. Those incoming freshmen guys. If anyone read my twitter updates through the week you noticed that I sometimes can not stand any of those idiots. But at the same time I love them all to death. They are some great kids but really need to reconsider what they are living for. Every single one of them has so much potential and if they could just live up to it then this world would never be the same. I hope that those guys took this week seriously and that they learned something. Please be praying for all of those guys as they go back into the real world this week and living their life among people who dont always have the same beliefs as our camp did.

So that was my review of Beach Break 2008. It was a great week and if I hadnt of gotten sunburned and possibly fractured my left foot then it may have been the greatest week of all time. Now if you guys have time I would suggest that you follow my link list over to JMob's blog where you can see a video of a media guy and a fat guy trying to skimboard.

Day One Down

So today was the first full day of Beach Break 2008. It was a pretty amazing day. It was pretty interesting to start out. We woke up early and had a quick breakfast and all of the kids spread out for their morning quiet time. It was a good time to get away and start a new chapter in my "Lord, Save us from your Followers" book (more to come about that book btw). After that we went outside and sat on the grass to get read for our morning Bible Study time. Apparently they don't enjoy Christian gatherings because the sprinklers turned on right in the middle of the Happy Birthday to Julie Tate ballad that we were busting out. So we moved to the pool where we had worship through music and listened to Dougie speak. He did a cool thing where he taught from the middle of the pool. He did it just so that everyone could hear him but it was really cool consider that the theme of the week is to PLUNGE so I thought that was cool. We then got in our Tribes (go Krunkawa) and had some talkback time and had rec time. We did a scavenger hunt that was pretty cool. After that we ate some lunch and headed to the beach and pool for some free time. It was really hot out today and a few of us got a little too much sun. By the time worship had arrived we were all pretty worn out. Toby did a decent job and the band did a good job leading us in worship tonight. We had some more talkback time and then had our church group time where our kids got to share what God has been teaching them over the week. Even though we have only been through one day it is pretty cool to see the beauty of the ocean and the beach and all the creation of God. Please just keep praying that God would enter into the lives of our students this week and that He would totally destroy everything that they think is more important than him in their everyday, minuscule lives. Show them that all the other crap just isn't important. More to come about our week here.

Beach Break 2008

Tonight was pretty nuts. Nic's family came down for the day to hang out so his Mom, Brother, and Cousin came down and were chillin in the house while we were all trying to do our last minute packing for camp. I am so pumped about this upcoming week. I have been praying about this week for quite a while now and I hope that all of my readers out there have been doing the same. I am really looking forward to see what God is going to teach our students this week. For those who don't know what Beach Break is it is our high school camp. We head down to Port Aransas for the week and hang out with each other. We bring in a band and a speaker and have worship services at night while we fellowship during the day. After a lot of failed attempts to find a decent camp while I was in Nic's youth group he decided to start his own. We have been doing our own camp for four years now and every year it gets bigger. We are going with two other churches this year and plan on taking somewhere around 120 people. It is a great idea that Nic had to start his own camp at the beach. It is a great time to get away from the pressure and temptations of everyday life and just admire the beauty that God has given us. There is nothing more spectacular than walking on the beach at night and listening to the waves and realizing that the same God that made all of it cares about us and knows us by name. If that doesn't excite you then I don't know what will. Anyways I ask for all of you to be praying for our students this week but also for our adult sponsors. As much as the kids learn on these trips I always feels that God shows me twice as much. So I gotta finish packing but will be updating throughout the week so be sure to check it out.

Wow...

Every once in a while you I think God smacks us upside our head and seriously asks us what we were thinking. Lately I have been thinking that I deserve a new truck. If any of you have seen my current truck then you may see why I may want a new one. But I have been telling myself that I deserve a new truck and that I should start getting the funds together to buy one. So I have talked to a couple of people and even gone to some dealerships to test drive a new truck and then this morning I met with a student for some breakfast and a talk about life. I don't know what it was about that meeting but it left me thinking about how stupid I have been acting lately. I sometimes get this feeling where I have actually accomplished something. I kinda think to myself "Wow, I am an intern for a youth group and I help kids in their daily walk with God. God should really bless me for that." I sometimes get in that mindset and start thinking that I deserve things that I dont really deserve at all. So after I realized what an idiot I had been acting like I have decided to put together a list of things that I have that I don't really deserve....and here it is.....

1. I have an incredible family that helps me out no matter what I am going through. My mom has worked harder than anyone I have ever known so that she could provide for me and my brothers and I thank God that He blessed me with such a wonderful family that I am so close to
2. I have awesome friends that I don't even come close to deserving. I am probably the biggest jerk that anyone has ever met and these people choose to put up with me and all of my crap. At least with my family they are kind of forced to but with my friends they make the choice to put up with it. I'm not gonna name all of them here but you people know who you are.
3. I have tons of THINGS that I dont deserve at all (truck, phone, computer, apartment, etc.). I sometimes look at these things and think about how I could use a better "fill in the blank". The truth is that I should consider myself lucky that God has seen fit to provide me with these things and not take them away from me.
4. I have a good job that I don't hate at all. The office part gets tedious but it has to be done. I am lucky to have Nic, JMob, and Dusty to work alongside with for the summer to make the office part manageable. When I am not in the office I am hanging out with students and doing my very best to mentor them in a Christlike lifestyle and there is nothing else in this world that I would rather be doing. It is my passion and I thank God for giving me the opportunity to do it for the summer.
5. I have an incredible girlfriend that puts up with me more than anyone. There isn't anyone that has to put up with more crap than her. She is there through it all and even though she gets upset sometimes she never gets tired of it. She is the one that keeps me in line and keeps me from doing some of the stupid stuff that most are used to seeing from me. Thank you Jenna.
   
6. Finally, and this is the most important one, I have an amazing God that loves me despite all of my screw-ups. Even though I deliberately defy him he still takes me back every time I need him. He is a God of compassion and a God of love and there is nothing that I could ever be more thankful for.

These are just a couple of things that I don't deserve but I have decided to recognize but certainly not all that I have.

It has begun....

After my Scrubs plug from the other day I will actually be blogging about things that mean something to everyone else. So today was the 1st official day of summer. It started off at about 8:30 this morning with Nic and I heading up to the office to get a head start on what we had to do for the day. We jumped on all of the stuff that we had to do and were joined shortly after by Dusty and JMob. We worked right up until lunch and went and had a great meal at McDonalds. Afterwards Nic went back to the office while he gave the interns the task of taking a couple of students to the river for the day. We all headed to San Marcos to do a little swimming for the day and had a great time. Cody Datesman, a youth here at Lockhart, was with me and we went to Walmart and changed clothes and then headed over to Johnny Carino's for an early dinner with Jenna. It was really good and I was very happy for the chance to get to see my girlfriend for the day. We headed back home and I fell asleep on the couch after such a long day. I woke up when Nic and Jo got back from the Pittman's house and we watched Cloverfield and then the Great Debaters. I really have no idea why would we stay up this late seeing as how Vacation Bible School starts tomorrow and we have to be at the church at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. I am not looking forward to that at all but there is a lot of work that needs to be done this week so we must press on. Our high school camp is next week and we are leaving on Sunday. Everyone keep us in your prayers please as we start this very busy time of the year. Also be praying for VBS (yeah I said it) and Beach Break. Be praying that our students would be ready not only for an incredible week at the beach but most importantly that they would open their hearts and be ready for what God has to teach them during that week. Let them realize that there is a lot more important things that go on in life then what happens inside the walls of Lockhart High School. Also be praying that us as adult workers and youth minister that we would be prepared for what God has to tell us because this is a crucial time for us to be still and hear what God is trying to tell us.

Very Excited

I am a huge fan of the amazing television series Scrubs. I always tell people that if I had watched that show when I was in high school then I would probably be in medical school right now and I would handle my bedside manner in the same way as Dr. John Dorian. I own the first six seasons of Scrubs on DVD and completely plan on buying the 7th season when it comes out on DVD. So after hearing this you can imagine how sad I was to hear that NBC was going to end its contract with producer Bill Lawrence and the greatest show to grace a television set. However, I am a frequent reader of Zach Braff's blog online and I have recently seen that ABC has signed a four year contract with Bill Lawrence so that they can air a season 8 of the comedy. I am very excited by this news and can not wait until the new season is produced. I know that many may not feel the same passion as I do about Scrubs or television in general but I would have to say that if you get a chance then you should definitely check it out. It is incredible.

For you Clay

So my boy Clay Taylor recently started blogging and while I must say that I don't agree with his rant about officials (because I am one dude and it is harder than it looks) I must certainly tell everyone that they should read it.....there is some really good stuff on there....if you are lookin for it then it is in my link list so give it a looksie

Lord Save Us From Your Followers

So Nic ordered this book from Amazon with a couple of others and while he started on one of the other books I started this one. I am only a couple of chapters in to it so far but until this point it has been incredible. Dan Merchant does an awesome job of opening my eyes to how stubborn Christians can actually be. He talks about as Christians we are always preaching the gospel of love, which is what we are called to do, but we are pushing it on people without hearing their side of the story and if you do that then you will never build relationships with people. Then instead of drawing people in you actually push them away. It is an incredible book and Dan Merchant can explain these things a lot better than I can. It is a very good read and I would suggest that you guys check it out if you get a chance. I will leave you guys with a paragraph from the book that has been on my mind all day......Dan Merchant talks about on his way into church he sees a bumper sticker on a car outside in the church parking lot that says "Lord, Save Us From Your Followers." He talks about how he found the sticker humorous and then he says this.....

As I walked away from that bumper sticker, something else stirred in me-I imagine it was God tapping me on the shoulder-a realization that far too many people have been one of those Followers and I have been one of them too. My heart sank. I had to admit there have been far too many instances where my selfishness, impatience, ignorance, arrogance-you name it-has pushed people further away from God rather than closer to Him. It's a bummer to realize I am one of them. It's kind of a drag to realize that I am part of the problem-it's much easier simply to blame those I don't like. Do you recognize yourself as one of them too?

Back to Texas

So tonight I am going to drive to the airport to pick Nic and Jo up after their week long trip to Washington D.C. It was kinda cool to relax before the summer started for real but I am really glad that they are coming back. I miss them something awful and I can't wait to hang out with them again. It's also pretty exciting because now the summer is about to start and we get to dive in headfirst with VBS starting next week. I think I can speak for all the interns when I say that I can't wait. Anyways if you have read Jenna's blog then you will see that I am wanting a new truck and if you would like to sponsor that then just give me a call. Also if you have a rich family member that would like to purchase a truck for me then that would be cool too. Alright, well I gotta go get ready so I can look my best for when my family gets back.

Aren't they so cute?

The Austin Stone

On Sunday I took it easy all day after I taught jr. high sunday school. JMob, Dusty, and I decided last week that we wanted to go over to Austin Stone Church for their Sunday night service. So about 4 o'clock on sunday afternoon I headed over to the Pittman's house and we loaded up. JMob, Dusty, Dusty's two brother (Micheal and Brooks), Lucas (a kid in the youth group), and I all loaded up and headed on our way to Austin High School where the Austin Stone holds their church services. Austin Stone has an incredible history and if you want to learn more about it then I would suggest that you go visit their website. It is run by their pastor Matt Carter and their music minister Chris Tomlin. The church has incredible services and is very contemporary. Tonight the pastoral intern Ronnie Smith got up and continued their look at 1 Corinthians. He talked about how a lot of the time we mourn over things in our lives but then we overlook the most important thing that we actually should be mourning. He talked about how we had been saved by grace and that our sin against God, even after He saved us, is the worst thing that we could do but we don't mourn over it. We simply shrug it off and thank God because He died for us so that we could wipe our slate clean time after time. It was an incredible message and the band did a great job of inviting everyone to worship with them. It is incredible to see what all Austin Stone has done in the short time that they have been a church and to see how they set everything up and continue to grow despite the fact that they don't have a building. I would highly recommend that if you are ever in the Austin area that you swing by and check out one of their services.

Fun while it lasted

Well for both of you that actually read my blog you guys know that Nic and Jo are out of town at some conferences in Washington D.C. I am glad that they are having a good time but I am even happier because that means that us interns get a small break before the actual summer starts. So after Bible Study on Wednesday night I headed back to Stephenville so that I could just sit around and relax. And let me just say that I definitely did relax. I went back to my apartment and I just slept and was lazy for two days pretty much. It was incredible and for you guys that know me, you know that I wouldn't rather do anything else. I hung out with a Reed, a friend of mine that lives in Stephenville, and we watched some TV. Then yesterday I got to go to lunch with Sawyer, he is a really close friend of mine and just an incredible guy to hang out with. Other than that I just sat around and relaxed until I got that text message asking if I could teach Sunday school. I accepted and headed back to Lockhart where tomorrow morning I will teach Jr. High Sunday School and await the actual start of summer. God be with us......

So lately I have been on a huge tear about church planters and their blogs and everything else. It pretty much all comes from just listening to Nic all the time and him talking about how awesome these guys are but I have started doing my own research and have found that they truly are some amazing men of God. But over Disciple Now weekend Nic showed me this video by Mark Driscoll and it totally blew my mind. I don't know if Nic posted this on his blog and I am sorry if you did buddy but I felt the need to share it on mine. Driscoll basically rips the men for not being there for the church and tells them that they need to step up. The video is about ten minutes long but it is a great video to watch if you have the time. Mark Driscoll took a lot of crap for not talking about the ladies but that isnt the deal here and if you watch the entire video you will see what he is talking about. So here it is.....enjoy!

An Awesome Wednesday with Great People

Wow....today was an incredible day to be alive. The day started with me going to set things up for the Attic. I had to turn the air conditioners on in there so we didn't all get heat stroke by the time Bible Study rolled around. After that I went to the office and worked on my Bible study for a little longer. I listened to a couple of speeches by Mark Driscoll and also listened to some audio sermons by J.R. Vassar. Both of these guys are incredible communicators of the word and I would definately suggest that you search for their stuff online. The best part of the day was when one of my best friends in the world showed up to offer his support while I was teaching tonight. Chris Gist is one of my best friends and we have known each other a long time. We grew up together and his family has always been so incredible to me and I thank God for blessing me with them and his friendship all the time. But Chris drove down to Lockhart from Goldthwaite to hear me teach and just to hang out for the day. It was really good to see him and when he got here we went and grabbed some lunch at Dobb's Chicken. After we left there we went back to the church and grabbed JMob and then headed back to the house. Dusty met us there and we spent the next hour just talking and hanging out. After a while we headed up to the Attic. When we got there we were surprised to see a whole crew of kids waiting for us to open it up. Last week Nic preached an awesome message about actually living for Christ and really getting involved within the student ministry. So this group of kids decided that their way to give back was to come and clean the Attic before everyone got there. It was incredible to watch them clean the entire place and just see Christ shining out of them. After a while all the rest of the kids started to show up and we hung out and talked to everyone for about an hour. We started the service and the worship band did an amazing job just like they always do. Then it was my turn to get up there and do my thing. I was pretty nervous but prayed for God to speak through me and I really feel that that is what happened tonight. I spoke to the kids about religion vs. relationship and even though everyone told me that I did a good job I think that Mark Driscoll does an even better job of explaining this and I would HIGHLY recommend that if you have the ten minutes to spare that you should click on Jenna's blog under my links list and watch the video that she posted about this very topic. It is an incredible message about what we have turned religion into. Anyways the night ended and everyone went home and I got the chance to head over to Mr. Taco and eat with all the people that help make wednesday night at the Attic possible. It was a great time to sit down and visit with everyone and spend some time with good food and even better people. Once we left there Chris told me that he had to head back to Goldthwaite and he took off that way. I am so glad that God has put so many awesome people in my life to help keep me on the straight and narrow but also just to have fun with as we live this life. So to all of you guys that helped me today and always stand by me.....Thanks a lot, I couldn't have done it without you. Oh and by the way Nic and Jo, even though you guys arent here it definately includes you too.

New Blog

So after a lot of reading of other blogs I have decided to try this thing out. I don't really know how this is going to work out because I tend to get really excited about stuff and then two weeks later totally forget what I was doing. Hopefully though with enough encouragement and pressure from other people wanting a look inside of my crazy thoughts.
So far the summer has been pretty busy. I have moved to Lockhart, Tx to start interning for my boy Nic Burleson. He is an incredible youth minister and I look forward to working with him again and letting him disciple me this summer. I also get the chance to work with two awesome guys in Jonathan Mobley (or J-Mob as we call him around the locker room) and Dusty Pittman. These guys are incredible men of God and I look forward to hanging with them this summer and serving in the ministry alongside them.
This past weekend I tagged along with Nic and Jo as we went down to Corpus Christi to hang out with Jo's family and watch her sister graduate from Texas A&M Corpus. While we were there Nic and I checked out the place that we would be staying for high school camp this year. I would describe the way that these places looked but it only brings up bad memories that I have tried to erase from my mind since last saturday. We were kind of disappointed but we knew that God was still going to do amazing things for our students. Saturday night we left Corpus Christi and headed back to Lockhart for church the next morning. We woke up on sunday morning and went to church where Jenna and I tag teamed the Jr. High Sunday School class. The class went very well and it was really cool to see how the kids responded. For the main service Nic preached in front of the church because it was senior sunday. He preached about acquiring a pig's lifestyle and the correct ways to avoid that. The rest of the day was spent bumming around and going to see Prince Caspian in theaters.
This week JMob, Dusty, and I will be working on some stuff for high school camp while also putting on wednesday night bible study. Nic and Jo are out of town at some church conferences and for some reason they left us in charge. I am teaching Bible study this wednesday and for anyone that knows me, you guys know that I am gonna get pretty nervous so definately be praying for me about that. Also be praying for our students and that everything will go well so that we dont get yelled at when the boss gets back.