overproportioNATE

The spectacle Listening to Christmas music while people shove each other for $50 off. It is everything he wouldn't want. We are crooked souls trying to stand up straight. (SF) I'm not sure if I'm going to be a part of the spectacle, get a good deal, or just to see how crooked and fallen we've become. We all say we care about our fellow man, until our own desires get in the way. What a sight to see. I really shouldn't get excited about it, I'm sure he wants to turn His face away.

Back after being sick yesterday. Just finished John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars". A great book, depressing in many ways, because it refuses to shy away from the terminal quality of cancer. It's a look at a few kids who look more honestly at cancer, and the inevitability of our own demise that most adults are ever willing to be. It leaves me feeling like I should examine my life and determine if I'm being unfair to anyone, or if there's anyone that I would treat better, if I found out that they had cancer. Personally, I think I'm doing alright in this aspect of life. But it makes me think. The fault in our stars is a difficult thing to wonder about. Where does the fault for the difficulty in our lives lie? In our own decisions, or does much of it way on decisions and corruptions outside of our control. I think that a case can be made for both. Some lives are completely high-jacked by cancer at an early age, but many people choose to make their lives

Cell theory, one of it's laws is that all cells come from pre-existing cells. It makes me want to throw up my hands. If we, with all of our technology, with all of the effort we've given it, we cannot make life, even in the best possible scenario. So they say that it came from another planet. Well, how was it created on that other planet? I know, I don't think, I know, that scientists would love, absolutely love to create life in a tube. But it can't seem to get it done. I don't need any of that proven. I don't need it to believe, my faith rests more on scientific evidence. I don't ever doubt Him, I doubt myself.

I haven't seen her since '05. Amazing how when you're a child you might not just think you've got it all figured out, but you might in fact actually have some things figured out that we lose in adulthood. G.K. wrote about that. He said that there's something that we lose because of sin. That in our infancy we experience things early in life that we may not experience later on. And that maybe God experiences those same things because He wasn't corrupted by sin. Back to '05. That was the last I saw my grandmother. Not because she was passed away, or because she moved away, or because I had. I don't know why that was the last time I saw her. I was actually fairly sure as a child that I was one of her favorite grandchildren. And I cared for her. But once my parents split, I haven't heard from her. I liked being a kid. I never had to wonder why something like this happens. But I'm going to see her on Friday. Not to get after her about not com

I crawled through the incredible white to the innermost part of the alcove where the basecamp was located. I huddled up tight the the sheer wall, and closed my eyes for what felt like months and then years, but only one dark night passed. I didn't sleep so much as I shivered and then everything went black. I woke up, if you can call it that, clenching my bag around me with everything that I had. My eyes could only open as far as my eyelashes would extend, they were quite literally frozen together, I had to warm them with my cold fingertips until they gave way, and my eyes saw, one at a time, the newness of the morning. Still cold and frozen, but, morning. I didn't get out of my bag when I heard what sounded like a distant growing roar. Something scraping and digging in, high up on the mountain, almost above me. Closer and closer it came sliding down, until it flew down over the cliff, almost directly above me, just a few feet to my left. All at once it dropped from the edge.

Life Time Is that some sort of special time? Life time as opposed to overtime, or time on the clock, time to learn, time to play. You could say time is just a measurement. You could say that it is a space of reality set aside for a specific purpose. Whatever it is, I want it to be used. Nobody wants to give time that they don't feel is worth it. I don't even like the phrase "time is money". Time is more than money. I wish I could buy time with money, and so does anyone lying on their death bed. Time, so far as we know it, is one of the most definitely finite things that we have. Our lifetime is limited by factors beyond our control. How much money you have can directly correlate to other factors, the family you were born into, how hard you work. But your lifetime is beyond that to a degree. Would I realize that today. Live that way today.

Let’s keep them separate, melanin just can’t succeed. “Give me liberty… or something.” It’s better if you just don’t read. Crank your phasers up to “slaughter” Turn your wine back into water. When you play this song, Al Qaeda wins, and Jesus was American. The United States of Amnesia make us numb, make it dumb, anesthesia. Cut the cord, close the door, we don’t know ‘ya, it’s the zen and the art of xenophobia -Five Iron Frenzy, Zen and the Art of Xenophobia Xenophobia - fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign Wow, there's a lot of "Christians" that are pretty sure they've got it figured out. Yet "different" sure seems to freak us out. Giving into His calling to love others, means so much more than "others that we're comfortable with", or "others that we like". I think we need to accept that we've bit it as a whole. We've put our own fear of any pain or uncomfort ahead of the r

I was amazed at the speed of the rest of the camp. The swifter the wind, the more swiftly they moved. Like an anthill scattering to flee, so they went, headed down to the relative safety of the tree line and the town below. I was left there so quickly it left me angry, it left me more alone than I'd ever been. I couldn't leave base camp, not yet. Not with my parents so close. What if they needed help? Whatever help a seventeen year old could provide, I could at least try. Even the experienced crews on the mountain took everything. I was left with my tent, my own pack, and the few rations that I'd manager to tuck away in the fold next to my sleeping bag. With few options, and even fewer hopes, I looked to the summit as the frozen winds overcame me.

I can hardly remember reaching base camp. All I remember was that I had to breathe a little harder. I remember breaking through the tree line, the world switched from green to a mix of white and grey. My parents brought me there, they were on the way to the top. A mountain so vast and jagged, I was only told stories as a child of a few who had reached the peak. It was everything. Seeing the view from up there, brought everything into perspective. But you were going to need oxygen, and training, and more bravery than my 17 year old heart could hope to muster. Here as base camp, it wasn't all that bad. It was heavily populated, hundreds actually, most days. Far more would turn around and make the trek back down the mountainside, than decide to face it. The reports were near constant. Another climber, now two, now three, were caught on the way up, frozen against the rocks. Clothing and oxygen meant to sustain for just long enough to make it to the top, and then quickly to descend, s

I actually have quite a few things that I want to write about. It's nice feeling somewhat inspired. I want to start writing a story here, and maybe I'll start that tomorrow. But for today, I want to start what will hopefully be a new series, looking at some scary questions/statements. Should be fun. We read the first chapter of "crazy love", and the first chapter is called "stop praying". I would totally write a chapter in a book by that same name, just thought I'd get that out there. But stop praying. After reading that, I almost wish that I could have let that sit in my mind for a good long while before the author went on to explain what he meant by it. But of course, I can't stop reading, and so my mind immediately shut off that part that wanted to wander, and I focused on what he wanted me to take away. He wants us to do more listening. Stop talking so much and listen. Stop and think. There's so many more interesting ways to take &quo

Not much today. Life has been very eventful, but is now settling in again. The concert last night was great. "Consumed by Fire" is a band definitely worth checking out. I'm off to the Veteran's Day service in just a minute. Hope all is well with you, whoever you are.

My cats are loving all of this dried deer blood. Just thought I'd throw that out there. It really is the best of times, so much in life, particularly the parts of life surrounding the word "success" are going so well right now. My jobs all appear to be going really quite well. I am in good graces with my friends and my wife. It is deer hunting season. Awesome. But so much of the rest is boiling over right now. It drives me crazy, the things that I can't control, or don't want to. I'm not really quite sure what else to make of it, or what to write about it, but it's true. So maybe pray for that. thanks.

Where is God in the night sky? Where is God in the city light? Where is God in the earthquake? Where is God in the genocide? Where are you in my broken heart? Everything seems to fall apart Everything feels rusted over Tell me that you're there -Switchfoot, Vice Verses There's been a lot of positives lately, God has certainly been in some important things in my life. God has been in my ministry, in many of my relationships, in my own walk. But I think we need to ask God where He is in the things that aren't going well. Where are you God with some of my friends that are struggling? Where are you with my Dad? Where are you with my future? It isn't doubt. It's wonder. It isn't a lack of trust, it's a want for more.

Hindrance. Noun. a thing that provides resistance, delay, or obstruction to something or someone. The furthest I've ever needed trust to go, is to get me something beyond my expectations. I rarely need to trust to have simply what I need to survive. What a hindrance. I barely allow myself enough room to need. I so quickly get what I need without any sort of reliance. It's why we're entitled. It's why we're in trouble. Because we don't need.

Always There's so few instances where we use that word well at all. I will not always be available, or always be ready, or always be on top of my game. I won't always be the best friend, or live in a state of repentance. But we continue to use a word that we don't take very seriously (not that taking the word seriously is an absolute necessity for life). I once heard a message about how we need to take the word "awesome" more seriously, and should only use it when referring to God. Which, while not a bad idea, is also not the end of the world. I tend to believe that whatever word I use to describe the undescribable will fall short. But I guess if someone else believes that "awesome" is good enough, that is their decision. In some kind of conclusion, maybe we should use our words more cautiously, or maybe we should use less of them, or be more descriptive and use more. Or we could just let our yes be yes, and our no be no. Somewhere in all of it w

I feel like I have little to write today. It's been a long, good weekend, and I didn't even get a chance to post on Friday. But life continues to go along, with few new details. I'm excited about hunting this weekend. More for the comradery and stories than for the opportunity to take a life. Not because I am in any way against a deer giving up its life so that I can eat, but because it just isn't all that thrilling to me. I feel pretty strongly that I was put here to have dominion over other creatures. Genesis makes that pretty clear. Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” But death is part of the fall. It is a consequence of our downfall. We are surrounded by death and always will be.