Bucket List

So I got this fantastic idea to create my bucket list before the year ended. Here are the top 75 things that I want to do before I "kick the bucket." I challenge you my fellow bloggers to post the top 25 things (or more) that are on your bucket list! Different people mean different views and ideas. Here's mine:

1.      Create a well for fresh water in a third world country

2.      Help out in the Peace Corp.

3.      Help build a church in Africa

4.      Visit Africa

5.      Top 200 mph

6.      Save a Life

7.      Start a church

8.      Buy a helicopter through the church for mission trips

9.      Hike the Continental Divide

10.   Hike the Appalachian Mountains.

11.  Visit every state

12.  Visit all the major National Parks

13.  Attend the World Series

14.  Write a book

15.  Bring at least one person to Christ

16.  Start a blog

17.  Pilot a plane

18.  Discover a cure for a disease

19.  Become the President of FCA

20.  Lead a large Christian activity

21.  Record my own music CD

22.  Make it on the TIME’s Top 100 Most Influential People list

23.  Visit Bethlehem

24.  Broadcast with ESPN

25.  Star in a movie

26.  Drive a NASCAR stock car

27.  Save a forest

28.  Have a road named after me

29.   Play at Pebble Beach

30.  Play in a PGA event

31.  Have lunch with John Maxwell

32.  Have dinner with Francis Chan

33.  Become a pastor

34.  Play golf in December

35.  Have lunch with Max Lucado

36.  Discuss religion with Gabe Lyons

37.  Meet Bill Cosby

38.  Wrestle an alligator

39.  Explore the Amazon

40.  Empty an Adoption shelter

41.  Compete in a Triathlon

42.  Compete in the Boston Marathon

43.  Go water skiing

44.  Climb Mt. Everest

45.  Save the World

46.  Inspire someone

47.  Get a Hole in One

48.   Host Saturday Night Live

49.  Get married

50.  Get shot and live

51.  Stop a bank robbery

52.  Ride an old railway

53.  Live in a cabin secluded from the world

54.  Learn to fly fish

55.  Spend SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA!!!

56.  Star in a Sherwood Pictures Film

57.  Learn fencing

58.  Ride in a hot air balloon

59.  Participate in a 365 day challenge of something

60.  Learn to cook

61.  Learn an instrument

62.  Attend an opera

63.  Learn 6 different dances

64.  Feed an elephant

65.  Visit the African Safari

66.  Discover a new bird

67.  Scuba Dive on the Barrier Reef

68.  Ride a bull

69.  Repel down a canyon

70.  Ride a motorcycle across the United States

71.  Be in 0 gravity

72.  Bring one child back to their parents that has been missing

73.  Compete in the Missouri 340 River Race

74.  Drive the entire Route 66

75.  Rebuild a Tucker car to do #74

Seven Days in Utopia

            “How can a game have such an effect on a man’s soul?” This was the opening line to a movie I recently saw called Seven Days in Utopia. The movie was based on the life of Luke Chisholm who is an avid professional golfer. In the movie Luke has a metal breakdown while playing golf at a tournament to qualify for the Texas Open. In his anger and frustration Luke finds himself at a fork in the road while driving home. Its Luke’s decision to make a right hand turn that ultimately changes the course of his life, forever. After Luke wrecks his car he finds himself in the care of a stranger named Johnny, in a place called Utopia. It’s here in Utopia where Luke begins to find his “game” again through the help of former PGA golfer and mentor Johnny. Through those seven days Luke encounters several different lessons for golf. In the end though Luke finally surrenders control of his own life to a higher power and begins a fresh start in his golfing career. After reading the book and seeing the movie, I couldn’t help but think how some of the lesson’s Luke learned don’t only apply to golf but to my life as well.
            Conviction; this was Luke’s first lesson. I laughed this entire chapter of the book, because I couldn’t stop thinking of my writing journal. The entire chapter and part of the movie, Luke focused on “whys?” “Why do I hold my club this way?” Why do I stand the way I do? I couldn’t help but think of the purpose of the personal reflection section of the writing journal is really to focus on the “whys” of my life. Why I am the way I am? Why I made that decision and what effect it had?

            The second lesson Luke learned was about controlling one’s own emotions. See in golf if you let emotion win over a bad shot then the whole round is lost. It takes control to let the bad shot go and not fret over it to be able to continue playing that round and do a great job. This doesn’t apply just to golf though, if we let emotions win over bad decisions in our lives then we begin to dwell in the past all the while forgetting that life doesn’t stop for us. If we learn to control our emotions and not let life get to us, then the world might become a better place. Suicide rates would go down, homicides and crime would follow. In my life I try to control my emotions daily and not let the little things bug me. I’m not saying that I’m perfect, I’m actually far from it, but I am saying that we should all strive to be better.

            Luke’s next lesson involved painting a picture, the basis behind the painting was to take a step back and look at the big picture. To truly see the beauty within life sometimes all we have to do is stop and take a step backward. Then we need to ask ourselves is this really the road I want to head down. This lesson tied back to controlling the emotions, if we let emotions run our live then we will never head down the right path to happiness. I believe this is the reason behind the Round River Journals in T. Millers class. Sitting out in nature for an hour allows for stress and anxiety to disappear, and ultimately allows for one to look at the big picture.

            Breaking tradition was the next lesson. In golf traditions are sacred, however every once in a while an athlete or a company will break that tradition to form a new one. It’s because of the breaking of tradition that athletes or equipment become better. In history and life there have been many traditions. For instance the idea that the father worked while the mother stayed at home and did the chores, now the women workforce has increased and less and less mothers are staying home. I remember a commercial in which the advertisers posed a question “what if we had settled for the first of everything?” they then preceded to flash images of ‘first’ things, like the first radio, first car, etc. The world would definitely be a different place if we had settled for “firsts”, just like the world would be different if we didn’t challenge and break traditions. There would be no Rock and Roll, and we’d all still be ruled by a king. Personally I’m glad that our ancestors pushed the limits of their traditions.
            One of the last lessons Johnny taught Luke was how to prepare for emergencies. In golf sometimes we find ourselves in less than ideal conditions or locations. A skilled golfer will use these problems to his advantage, and that’s what Johnny wanted to teach Luke. In life we are often faced with decisions that seem less than ideal. We can complain about the situation or we can put forth our best and use the condition to our advantage. Luke learned that to prepare for emergencies he had to apply what he had learned earlier.
            “See it. Feel it. Trust it.” That was the main idea that Johnny wanted to teach Luke. See the big picture and weigh the options. Imagine how the swing or decision will feel. Then trust it. Trust that you made the right decision and see the decision through to the end. As a reminder to do all three before each swing, Johnny proceeds to write SFT on Luke’s ball. Each time Luke gets ready to take a swing he is reminded to see it, feel it and trust it. In life when we make a hard decision it’s very easy to not commit to it, which results in failure on our part, because we did not follow through. Never second guess, and don’t live in the past.

            I’ve taken what I’ve learned from both the book and the movie and have begun to apply it to my own life. At first I thought it was going to be difficult but now I realize that I had already been doing most of that to begin with. The new concept of SFT to me was new though. Now all my golf balls are marked with it as a reminder to live out those words. Now to answer the question “how can one game have such an impact on a man’s soul?” Let the game control you and you will lose against it. Control the game, and you will control your fate. Such a simple concept, yet so hard to live. At the end of both the book and the movie, Johnny has Luke bury some of his lies; lies that Luke had based his life on. Some were “My golf scores are a reflection of my self-worth… Failure in golf is failure in life… The opinions of others are paramount in the choices I make… Tradition is sacred and never meant to be changed.” After reading over his entire list I decided to look at my own life and see if I could make a list. I put a lot of thought into it and finally came out with a list that was ironically similar to Luke’s list. I believed that a failing grade was failing at life. I believed that you are not to challenge tradition.  I also believed that the opinion of others was far more significant than what I thought of myself. A failing grade on a test or piece of homework I now realize is not failing at life. If I continue to get the same grade on other assignments it’s only a failure at study habits, which can be changed and improved upon.  Tradition is meant to be changed, and it’s meant to be challenged. Man would never have been able to fly if it weren’t for a challenge in tradition. If I believe differently then somebody else then I’m going to challenge them and the way they think in an attempt to change their mind. While I do love my friends and the advice they give me, sometimes it’s better for me to be myself. Influence is good most of the time except the times when the influence is intended to make me become the person they want. From here on out it’s my life. 100 years isn’t all that long, the big question for me was whether or not I was going to be in charge of it or let somebody else run my life for me.

            “How can a game have such an effect on a man’s soul?” How can one person’s opinion affect your life? How can one bad relationship ruin all the others? They can’t. It’s a matter of choice. I can choose to let that one bad comment ruin my day or I can listen to the other 5 compliments that I got and enjoy my day. The decision is mine. My decision is final. I’m taking back my life from outside influences and placing it within the hands that I know I can trust. My decisions will affect how my life goes, not somebody else’s decisions for me. My life is no longer a golf score that I’m trying to birdie; my life is what I make of it.

"Doorknobs"

            I don’t think I will ever be able to put this book down and stop using it as examples for my writing journal. I love this book, 97 by Justin Lookadoo. I read his outlook on doorknobs, and I have to say I will probably never look at them the same. I mean seriously who would ever take the time to stop and think about a doorknob.

            “I think the doorknob is the most underrated part of the whole house. In fact, if I could be any part of a building, I would want to be the door handle. I bet there are a lot of knobs and handles that are pretty upset. They are sitting around waiting to see what part of a building or a home they will be, and the builder is like, ‘you…you’re a doorknob.’ Can’t you just imagine some of the reactions? ‘Oh, c’mon, man! A doorknob? Dude, I have so much more to offer than just a doorknob. Just take another look. Give me a shot. How ‘bout a hi-def TV? I could do that. Too much to ask? Okay, how about a table? Stick some legs on me and I’ll make a killer table.’ ‘Nope you’re a door handle.’ Seems like a little bit of a downer. Oh, but no. Door handles control the world. Don’t believe me? Then think of a world with zero door handles and zero knobs. You wake up tomorrow and they have all disappeared. You get up to go to the bathroom and you can’t get in. the door is shut and there is no knob. You go to the store and you push the door right open without a problem. But when you try to leave, problem-there’s no handle. You have to wait for someone to come in and push it open so you can sneak out before it closes.”

            I never thought about that. Door knobs and door handles are extremely important. We take so many things for granted that it’s hard to remember a lot of the small stuff. Like well I’m thankful for a house and a family and a car, but do we ever take the time to be thankful for having a door handle, or even a door. I know my door is the only thing between an open invitation into my home and privacy. Or walls, do we ever take the time to be thankful for the walls that keep our home up and give us an even bigger sense of privacy from members of our own family. How about light? I’m so thankful for light. I mean there are people out there that in order to get light have to spend countless minutes rubbing two sticks together to make a fire. All I have to do is get up and go flip a switch.

One of the big things have a problem with is voting. Here we are in America, the land of the free. We get to vote in elections to determine who rules over us. Yet a large majority of the population chooses not to. Do we know how many people would kill to be able to vote and determine the way their government was run? Yet we throw away our voter registration cards, because we don’t have enough time to go out of our way and have a say in the way our nation is ran.

Oh how glorious it must be to be a door knob. It’s probably the single most important used tool in the entire house. Some may argue that a fridge is more important. Let me ask them this then, what if your fridge breaks down and you need a guy to come and fix it. How is he going to get into the home, through a window? No, through the front door of course! In order to open that door one must first turn the…doorknob. The same situation would apply for a furnace, or a washer/dryer system. Let me also pose this question to the ones who still argue that a fridge is far superior to a doorknob. How would you ever get into that fridge if there were no door handle? It would be quite the task, and quite entertaining to watch. Oh the glories of being a doorknob. To all you doorknobs out there, we salute you and your glorious power to be locked for safety and opened for publicity. Here’s to you Mr. Doorknob keep on doing your job!

"Gate #32....."

      
              There are so many stories in the book 97: Random thoughts about Life, Love, and Relationships by Justin Lookadoo. I found one about Justin boarding a plane. “I was going through airport security with my skydiving rig. I had it packed in a bag-for some reason people get nervous when you hop on a plane with a parachute strapped to your back, so I packed it up. Now the way the reserve parachute is rigged up, it looks like a bomb in the X-ray machine. There’s always a big fuss. It has to be X-rayed several times. And then they will pull it out of the bag to make sure it really is a parachute. I knew it was coming, so I was ready for it.” Here comes the good part. “As I went through the metal detector, I told the lady standing there that the bag the man was about to look at was my parachute. She told me to go tell the guy. So I got his attention and told him about the rig. And in the rudest, most arrogant, jerk-face way he snapped, ‘I know how to do my job. I don’t need you to tell me how to do it.’”

Later on in the story Justin recaps what happened. “This dude just popped off that he knew how to do his job and he didn’t need any help. If he stopped to call someone to check what he saw, then he would look like an idiot. See, your pride is the only thing that can make you an idiot.” He then goes on to explain how confidence is cool, but cockiness is not.

I once heard a line that went “Egotism is the only disease that you can get, that makes other people sick.” I will always remember that line because it’s so very true. If I let my pride or my ego stand in the way all I’m doing is setting myself up for failure, as well as making the people around me sick of me. If all I do is focus on myself then nobody will want to hang out with me because that’s all we’ll talk about is how great I am.

That seems to be one of the main problems in high school is all the egos. The football team thinks they’re better than the cross country runners. The cross country runners think that they are better than the football players. The swimmers think that they’re better than everybody. Everybody thinks that there sport is better than swimming. It’s a never ending cycle. Do we really have so much pride in our sport that we forget that all the sports here at Kearney High School are for the representation of the talent we have as a school district? It seems to me that we have forgotten the big picture and instead have broken it down into smaller pictures that we can focus on individually. There are even different teaching departments that even though they seem to be joking are seriously playing against each other. There are even some posters that announce it. “Thou shall not place any other school work before math.” “You are to place no other subject before science.” Everybody thinks that the things they are interested in are far more important than another person’s interests. While I believe it’s good to have a joking relationship and a competitive lifestyle, sometimes it’s good to place other people first on our priority list. I know back during 8^th and 9^th grade year it was extremely hard for me to become number two and let somebody else become number one. I loved the feeling of being on top. I still do, there is nothing more rewarding that having a great pride in yourself, or the work that you do. It’s when we begin to let the pride blind our eyes that’s when problems start happening. Our friends and family start disliking us because everything we do is for the glory of ourselves. Its one thing to have others lift you up, it’s another to start lifting yourself up.

I know that I was going somewhere with this reflection, but I can’t remember where. Maybe I was just tired of hearing “you would not believe what the football boys just said about running cross country…” or “that shouldn’t even be considered a sport…” Maybe we should all grow up and realize that there are other people out there with different opinions than us!

"Cheater...."

           Yet again I have found myself comparing life to some of the thoughts and questions posed in the book 97 by Justin Lookadoo. This particular section of the book was more of a rhetorical question section. “Have you ever cheated at a game? Maybe you’ve played the game so many times that you know how to win it. Maybe it’s a game where you find a way to cheat so no one knows. At hide-and-seek, do you peek while you’re counting and everyone is finding a place to hide? Do you deal from the bottom when playing cards? Do you abuse the rules so they work best for you?”

He continued on. “How about school? Have you ever cheated at school? Maybe you spent all night watching TV and didn’t study. Maybe your best friend is a genius at math, and she happens to be really nice to you. Maybe she owes you a favor, so you ask if you can see her homework. Or maybe you don’t even ask. Maybe your eyes wander on quizzes. Maybe.”

“Have you ever cheated on a boyfriend? “Have you ever cheated on a girlfriend? What they don’t know can’t hurt them, right? Maybe it was your one shot to be with that guy. Maybe you’ve always liked that girl, and now that you’re dating someone, she’s interested. Maybe it didn’t mean anything because you didn’t love the fling. It was just a one-time thing. Maybe. All of these words can be found in the thesaurus for the words cheat or cheater: burn, con, crook, deceive, defraud, double-cross, dupe, mislead, rip off, scam, swindle, trick, victimize, false, two-faced, hustle, faithless, and treacherous.”

As I read over this page, I couldn’t help but find a situation for each one of these questions. I remember back when me and my oldest brother would play the game Battleship. If he ever guessed the right place for one of the missiles to hit my battleship, I would always tell him “miss” and then move my battleship to a different spot on the map. It was just the way I played. I won’t say that I “didn’t mean to” cheat, because cheating doesn’t happen on its own. Cheating takes an action. Someone has to go out of their way to review the rules, think of a way to bend them, and then they have to act on it. By saying that I didn’t mean to cheat, it’s a whole lie in itself. Cheating is intentional.

There were also several times back during my sophomore year in World History with T. Marshall that I would find a way to bend the rules. On our assignments instead of everybody doing their own individual assignment, we’d work in large groups in an attempt to get the work done faster so that we could use the extra minutes to talk at the end of the hour. The idea of working in groups on an assignment wasn’t the problem. The problem was that every time we did it this way one person would get all the sheets together and write down all the answers on his/her sheet then the group would pass it around and copy down all the answers. There was absolutely no learning or remembering involved. This caused me to get several bad grades on quizzes. Finally I started actually reviewing over the sheets that we got and my grades improved as well.

Relationships are always a prime example of cheating now days. I don’t think the media could go a single day without gossiping about this person accusing that person of cheating on them. That’s all we hear about. Well until today I thought that it was ok to date someone and still have feelings for another person. In short, have feelings for two different people. After reading this page in 97 I understand now that the entire time I was dating that person, and having the same feelings for another I was cheating in my heart and in my mind. I had never looked at it that way, I’m sure glad I realized that now instead of further down the road, perhaps when I am married.

"Duck"

            Once again I was reading 97: Random thoughts about Life, Love, and Relationships by Justin Lookadoo and I came across another story that I had to reflect on. The story was about Justin’s first time out golfing. “The very first time I went golfing, I hit a duck. In the air. In mid-flight. Don’t think that this bird was just sitting on the water and got startled as my golf ball skipped in the pond. No. This bird was in the air, flying, as my golf ball thunked off its side.” “For the rest of my game, I kept thinking about that duck.”He goes on to talk about how his thoughts about the duck affected his performance out on the course.
            Close to the end of the story Justin begins to wrap up the purpose behind it all. “Ducks are going to fly in front of your shot from time to time. It’s part of the game, but you have to realize that your whole game can and will suffer if you spend the whole time thinking about the one incredibly crazy shot that you couldn’t possibly have predicted. There were more holes on the course than just the one with the pond. But because I couldn’t get past it, my whole game was ruined. When you have eighteen holes to play, you can’t lose focus on one bad shot.” How very true this passage is! I remember several times in my life where I focus on that one bad shot or bad decision and it affects the rest of my life so much in a negative way that it would’ve just been easier if I would’ve moved on.

I remember a story from a dad that went along with Justin’s story. The father had a son and a daughter and one nice day he took them out to a baseball diamond to hit a few balls. The son was older and of course was more into baseball and sports so the dad let him hit first. The dad said that he pitched to the sun well over 100 times and the son was just hitting every single one of them. The son wanted a break for a little bit and the little girl decided that she wanted to hit a few. So the dad helped her to place her hands on the bat properly and they did several practice swings together before the dad actually threw a ball. After the girl had taken her stance the father threw the first ball, the little girl swung and missed the ball. She didn’t give up though even though she missed the next 50 pitches. The father then announced that it was time for them to go home, the little girl protested saying how she just wanted to hit one more. The father agreed and told the girl to choke up more on the bat. The little girl did and once more took her stance over home plate. The father tossed the last ball in her direction and to both his and his son’s surprise the girl hit the ball. She actually hit it with so much force that the ball landed in center field. She was so overjoyed that she didn’t even run the bases but instead ran to her dad.

Both of these stories reminded me that if I continue to focus on all the bad decisions, and the bad things that happen in life, then I might miss my opportunity to hit one out of the park. Life is going to beat me down sometimes; there will be times when I’m so close to the ground that I might be laying down. Then there are times when life is going to try and lift me up, but if I become so scared because of things that happened earlier in my life that if I don’t stand up I’m going to miss my chance.

I try to live a very optimistic life style. For others my age it saddens me. Some of them live in such a negative lifestyle it’s almost pathetic. I believe that being depressed is completely optional. We can focus on the past and all the bad things that have happened to us, or we can choose to stand up and fight back. It’s a choice. I can choose to live in the world of “what-ifs” or I can choose to go out and embrace a new activity, new idea, or meet new friends. I’ll never know if I continue to live in my protective life. It’s time to branch out and embrace the new without focusing on the “what-ifs”.

"Retreat....I mean Charge!"

             I once read a story out of Justin Lookadoos’ book 97: Random thoughts about Life, Love & Relationships. The story was of one of his dad’s friends. “A friend of my dad’s received the National Medal of Honor for bravery in combat. He laughed when he told us what happened.” A summed up version of the story was that the friend was up on a hill. Several yards away from him there was a machine gun nest. The entire battle was uphill and he had found himself closest to the nest while the rest of his company was further on down the hill. According to the story the man found himself running low on ammo and taking “a lot of heat”. He decided to retreat down the hill to the rest of his company and see about restocking his ammo supply. He jumped up out of the hole he was hiding and proceeded to run down the hill. Once more according to the story the man was shocked to see the rest of the company charging at him. Instead of running to them he turned around and the entire company charged and took over the nest. Later on the man said that several of his buddies came up to him and congratulated him on leading the charge. To this day he has never told his buddies that he was actually retreating to them.

This story kind of reminded me of the posters that some teachers hang up; the one that pictures the fish swimming the opposite direction in a school of fish that are swimming in one direction. I used to see that poster all the time, and think that I was like that one fish swimming in the opposite direction of my peers. The more I thought about it though the more and more I began to think how I actually was more like one of the fishes in the school. I had never really done anything to turn around and go the opposite direction, but it might have been because I had no reason to. I enjoyed my status on the popularity scale, why would I want to give that up to go a different way?

The more and more I thought about this the more I realized that while during freshman year I was part of that large group something happened between freshman and sophomore year that changed me. Suddenly all the friends I thought I once had turned out not being friends at all. Everybody was being invited to all these cool parties while I was at home. What had changed? Then I remembered that between my freshman and sophomore was when my life took a new course. I had found Christianity, and my “friends” had found out about it so they didn’t want to impose their beliefs on me, they would just stop talking to me all together. Maybe it was the fear of me imposing my new beliefs on them; bringing them down to earth instead of having their heads all up in the clouds.

None the less though I had changed and they did not want anything to do with me. I was out on my own heading a different direction than all my “friends” were. They were swimming to parties while I was swimming to church, and related activities. I was shocked when I finally got out of the school to see just how many fish had broken away as well. Turns out I was not on my own; all I had to do was break away. This whole story, reflection thing got me wondering just how many times in my life have I been faced with the decision to “charge” but instead I simply retreated. Then I wondered how many times have I been faced with the option to retreat but instead I charged. I spent the rest of the day puzzling over these two statements.

How easy it is for me to look at a situation and think “I can’t do that”. Luckily for me I had the chance to experience several situations in which I looked at the big picture and thought “I can’t do that” yet I still had to do it because I did not have an option. That’s one of the achievements I got out of basic training, taking that I can’t do it spirit and forcing myself to overcome the obstacles in my way to achieve success.

CBRN

            CBRN sounded like the name of a radio station the first time I heard it. It also sounded like a T.V. station. Little did I know that it stood for Chemical, Biological, Radiology, Nuclear Chamber. It’s more commonly known as the Gas Chamber. It was all part of my training at Basic Combat Training for the Army.
            It was a hot summer day when we loaded up onto the cattle truck that would take my platoon to the small brick building that would cause so much temporary pain. We had already reached heat category five at 10 in the morning. Our Colonel had already signed off on the papers necessary for us to continue our training. We had been briefed early that morning on safety and just exactly what was going to happen while we were in the chamber. We learned how to “clear” our masks and put them on our faces properly. It was about mid-afternoon when we loaded on the trucks. We were already hot but having 58 people cram into a very small truck made it even hotter. We arrived at an open field, the only building in sight was a small rectangular brick building that sat underneath a giant tree. Behind the building was a big tire pit. From the beginning of the time we were there we knew that this would be no easy task.
            Our entire company lined up by platoon. My platoon was chosen to go through first only about 10 could go through at a time. I was in the third group and anxiously waited as the first two groups went through the torture first.  I was nervous due to the screams we heard inside the chamber. There was no running from this task it was necessary to do for me to complete my training. I stood right by the entrance and could feel the chemicals touching my neck. It felt as though my neck was on fire, yet I hadn’t even entered the chamber. When it was time for me to go in the door opened up and a Drill Sergeant yanked me in. It felt as though I was thrown to the opposite side of the building as my other nine buddies followed my lead. My neck definitely had to be on fire there was no other explanation for the burning I felt on my skin that wasn’t covered. There was a weird smell within my mask; I quickly realized that I must not have placed my mask on right. Never in my life have I moved so fast to breath, I re-cleared my mask and was noticed that the smell had almost disappeared. About that time I heard the entrance close shut, we were in there for good now there definitely was no escaping.
            I listened intently to the instructions we were given. The first instruction was that we were to break the seal of our mask and clear them once more placing them back on our faces. Once that was done, and everyone’s mask was checked, we listened to the next instructions. “Take off your mask and hold it high above you in your right hand, and breathe while reciting the Soldiers Creed.” We were to breathe in the chemicals; it was the fastest way to get out of there. So I did. I yelled at the top of my lungs until I felt the burning within my lungs. I began coughing and wheezing like the rest of my buddies. I felt as though I had entered a miniature Hell.
            After being inside the chamber for what seemed like forever we were allowed to leave. Once outside we were yelled at to begin flapping our arms like a bird and run around the big tire pit. The idea was to get the remaining chemicals off of our uniforms. Many of our friends were pointing and laughing at us forgetting that only a few minutes earlier they had looked the same way. I will never forget how fresh air tasted in my mouth. It was much better than the taste of CS gas in my mouth. It was such an adrenaline rush that many of us wanted to go back through, call us crazy but it was an amazing experience and we didn’t want to leave. Now I brag to my friends that I got to experience something that they never will. Honestly not many people can say that they went through a gas chamber and felt so awesome afterward that they wanted to do it again.

Assistant Principal for a Day

            There was once a time in which I was the Assistant Principal for the day. It all happened back in preschool. At an early age I learned to make friends easily, one of my “friends” happened to be Brian Sloan. He was the Assistant Principal of the intermediate school, or what is now known as Hawthorne. We were best buds and (from what my parents have told me) he took a liking to me. It was about second quarter when he proposed to my parents the idea of having me come into school early on a Tuesday, and be with him in his office. I remember my parents asking me if I would be interested and of course I said “yes”.

            About two weeks later I remember waking up extra early and getting dressed up. One of the rules of me being the Assistant Principal was that I had to dress up exactly like Mr. Sloan did. That meant I had to have my hair spiked just like his. I had to wear a nice shirt and tie. That morning my mom picked out for me a nice blue short-sleeve shirt and a red tie. I wore jeans because I didn’t own any slacks or khaki pants. It was the first time I ever remember dressing for success.
            Around 8:30 in the morning my mother drove me to the school. I had never been to school that early since there were two preschools sessions per day. I had always been part of the afternoon session and so school at that hour of the morning had never crossed my mind. All the kids there seemed really big. In the afternoon I never had to worry about the older kids because they were never around. We walked to the office which at the time was located right in the center of the building. I remember waiting in the office for Mr. Sloan to get back from checking on a class. He had a huge smile on his face when he saw me dressed like him. I hugged my mother goodbye and proceeded to follow him into his office.
            The office was huge, at least from a little kid’s view it was. The office had blue walls and behind his desk was this giant bookshelf I remember that I was talk enough to have my arms on his desk, which to me was a huge accomplishment. Part of that morning I spent sitting and spinning in his big black chair, the other part of the morning I spent sitting around the small table in the corner of his office. I remember actually getting to see him talk to a kid while I was in there. He seemed really calm, the kid on the other hand seemed rather nervous. He talked to the kid while I sat in his chair and played with the toys I had brought along. Looking back now I’m quite shocked that he permitted me to stay in there while disciplining a kid. I’m really glad that he did though I remember that he showed the kid a lot of compassion, I don’t remember what the kid did to be in the office, but I do remember that he received no disciplinary action other than losing a single recess. I only spent the morning with him since I had class in the afternoon, but I remember sharing with all my friends about my experience that morning. I was the cool kid that day (not to mention the best dressed as well) everybody was asking me questions of what it was like to spend the morning with the Assistant Principal.
            To this day Mr. Sloan and I remain friends. He eventually moved onto selling used cars after my preschool year, and then recently returned to Kearney to become a principal. We had our picture taken by one of the secretaries and both of us have copies of it. Apparently he framed his picture and has it in his office. My mother placed my copy of the photo into my album. We still talk about those days, and as I said before still remain good friends. Every time I look at that picture I can’t help but laugh, I looked so ridiculous with my hair spiked up (it’s definitely not my style). I am very grateful that he had the idea of letting me spend the morning with him. That morning was only one of the few events in my life that would help shape me into becoming the person I am today. For this one event I am extremely grateful.

The Wall Locker

            During the 10 weeks that I was at my Basic Training, we used a wall locker as a place to store all of our equipment and uniforms. It was a rather simple idea. Much like a wardrobe it had two doors that opened up to the inside where one could hang their uniforms. Inside of it was also a small dresser. The dresser had three drawers to it and along the side was a little hatch that could be locked to where none of the drawers could be opened. There was also a shelf in the locker where clothes and other gear would be placed. Inside the front panel of the wall locker hung a photo of what the inside of it was to look like. Every ones wall locker was to look exactly the same. Everything had a place, whether it was inside of one of the drawers or hanging up on the rack. Everything was to be kept neat and clean within the lockers, because our Drill Sergeant would do wall locker inspections and if it was a mess they would pull everything out and throw it on the ground.

            On top of keeping the locker clean and in order, it was also a requirement to keep the locker locked at all times. If we didn’t and the Drill Sergeants walked by and saw that it wasn’t they would have quite a good time ripping out everything. I remember once leaving to go to chow and returning to find one of my buddies had left their wall locker unsecured. The Drill Sergeants had discovered it and had thrown all the clothes on the ground; they then proceeded to spill out all the laundry detergent on top of the clothes. Written in toothpaste a little ways past the clothing pile was “Sucks 2 be you”. From that point on I never forgot to leave my wall locker “unsecured”.

I also remember that we had to have everything cleaned up within five minutes, which meant it had to be spotless. If it wasn’t our Drill Sergeant said that we would be “smoked”, which is a whole other personal reflection in itself. I remember another time in which a wall locker was “cleaned out”. It was week eight of our training, one of our privates who was constantly screwing up was outside doing some “corrective training”. We were inside talking with one of our D.S. about this private who kept screwing up. In an effort to make an example out of what a bad soldier looked like he walked over to the window where the private was down below moving sandbags and yelled at him. The window happened to be located directly next to the privates’ wall locker. I remember him laughing at the private saying how he will always be a “screw-up”. Then he turned and faced us making a joke about how he even bet that the private’s wall locker was unsecured, even though it had a lock on the locker. He pushed down on the lock only to be surprised at the click that it made as the lock came undone. Then we all managed to start laughing as both of our D.S. proceeded to dump out all of his clothes, pour laundry detergent on them, along with a bunch of personal hygiene products including toothpaste, and mashed deodorant. After laughing for a few more minutes we as a platoon (minus that private) proceeded to pick up all of his clothes. We were then yelled at to leave the clothes alone because the private was going to pick everything up by himself. If he was going to act like an individual we were going to let him be one.

It was such a simple concept yet such a hard habit to break in. I would have to force myself to go back to my lock and check it a second time before going anywhere to make sure that it was locked for fear of having my stuff ripped out of it. By the ninth week anytime I didn’t check my lock twice I became overwhelmed with fear. Looking back now I’m glad that the wall locker became the symbol that it did. It became a symbol of security and a reminder of how important personal belongings are. Something worth fighting for without a doubt; who would’ve thought that by learning to secure a wall locker, a lesson would be learned?

New Idea

Well I have this new idea to share some previous thoughts of mine pertaining to the things of the unknown! Make sense? Or course it does! Recently I had to complete a writing journal in which I had a section called Personal Reflections. I plan to share some of those reflections with you BLOGGING WORLD! PREPARE FOR AWESOMENESS!!

Life in 3G Part 3

            Welcome back to FCA. This week we’re wrapping up a series called Life in 3G, and the whole idea behind the series was to get more spiritually connected with God. Now there’s a reason that we do this. There’s a reason why God gathers us together. It’s because there are people all around us that need to know that God loves them and that he wants to have a relationship with them. There’s a reason why we grow ourselves up in the word, that we can grow ourselves in our relationship with Christ. And it’s not so that we become biblically smarter or that we feel holier than the people at work, or here at school. It’s so that the word of God can transform us and change us from the inside and so that our old selfish nature within us can be put to death. It’s so the nature of Christ can come alive in us, so that when we go into the world every day, that we see the people that we interact with, we’ll see them the way God see’s them. And then we will love them the way God loves them. See we Gather every week, we Grow every week so that we can Go into the world everyday and be the church. The church is not a building; the church is you and me. We are the church.  So we Go every week and we’re surrounded by people in our everyday lives, but the question is; do we see them? Do we really see what’s going on in their world? Do we take the time to care or are we so wrapped up in ourselves and our agenda that we miss God’s agenda for our lives? When we eat lunch, do we see the girl or boy that sits all alone and nobody goes and talks to them? Do you know what’s going on in their life; do you care? Maybe nobody’s told her about God, and she doesn’t know Jesus. Everyday there are people at our workplace (for those of us that work) and we run into coworkers and start talking with them and of course they’re there, and everything looks good in their life. They seem happy. What do I need to talk to them about? But what we don’t realize is that coworker is supporting their family. Maybe they’re a single mother, or a student helping support the family. And maybe they don’t know who to turn to for help in situations. You know maybe there are people in our lives that aren’t going through a lot of problems, instead they’ve had a lot of successes but they’re longing for significance and God-given purpose, and what if God has placed you in their lives to point them to him, to help them know that he loves them and that they have a purpose. What if God is the one that has placed you in their life to help them realize that it’s not about the religion but rather about the relationship? Let’s move on, what about that guy or gal that runs around your neighborhood? Who’s going to talk to them? Because see they just got the news that the cancer is back and they haven’t told anybody, and they don’t know what they are going to do. The situation the doctors say is hopeless, they’ve tried everything, but see what that guy or girl doesn’t know is about a man who works miracles and brings hope to the hopeless. And then there are those random encounters that we have in public with a girl at the library or the FedEx guy or some guy we see walking down the street and we have this opportunity to talk to them about God, but do we take the opportunity? Do we seize that moment? Are we going to be the ones to tell them? See Paul says that somebody has to tell them. In Romans chapter 10 verse 13 and 14, “For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’ But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?” Somebody’s got to tell them. They’re not going to just figure it out on their own. Someone’s got to tell them who God is, and what he did for them. They’re not going to figure it out if you say “God bless you” when they sneeze. Sorry that doesn’t count as sharing your faith. How will they know if you don’t go? How will they know about Christ if we don’t go? This week I want to challenge us all to go. Share the good news with somebody, spend that extra time talking with that guy you pass everyday between 4^th and 5^th period. Show concern for that family next door that seems to be falling apart, or that elderly lady up the street whose husband just died. Be the light in what can seem like a dark world this week, but not just this week let’s do this for the rest of our lives.

Life in 3G Part 2

  You know there was a time when cell phones just made phone calls. Believe it or not that’s all some of them did. (Talk about first phone) But now a day you can do so much more than that, you can text, roam the internet, download movies, find a nearby restaurant and make a reservation for yah they’re amazing right? A lot of us even have our bibles on our phones now. Most of us probably have at least one version of Angry Birds as well. My phone has the little 3G thing up in the corner, and when it pops up I know I’ve got fast, solid connection to do everything that my phone was created to do. And through this series the idea is to be spiritually connected with God, in a way that is strong and vibrant and growing. You know I was driving the other day and I was going north toward Maryville, and there was one time during my trip where my phone started going from 3G on down to 1 and then to searching, and I stopped in a little town to get some snacks and at that time when I looked at it, it said forget it! Absolutely nothing! And it kind of dawned upon me how much we rely on technology, and how much we don’t want to be disconnected. The same should be true with our relationship with God we should never want to be disconnected; we never should be disconnected, even though sometimes it happens. So life in 3G, we’re going through the three basics that help us keep our connection with God and our Christian friends strong and healthy. Last week we talked about the importance of gathering and the idea was also a promotion for See You at the Pole which was awesome! What we also learned last week is that gathering is foundational for all the other things that God wants us to do in our life. How is somebody supposed to come to church or FCA if they are never invited, so gathering is the foundation. So every week we gather here well most of us! And every week we try to grow. This week were going to talk a little about how to grow spiritually. You know God doesn’t want for us to remain a spiritual infant, he wants us to be mature, and he wants us to grow up. Ephesians Chapter 4 verse 15 “God wants us to grow up…like Christ in everything.” He wants us to grow up. Verse 14 actually reads “we are not to remain as children.” When we come to Christ we come into a relationship with him, that shouldn’t just be our goal. Salvation is not the end goal. It’s simply the starting point, because from there we start building this relationship with him. We grow deeper, we’re called not to just be followers, and we’re called to be disciples. We’re called to learn his ways, learn his heart. First things first, Spiritual growth is Intentional, it’s not automatic. It doesn’t just happen; you don’t just wake up one day and go “whew I am spiritually mature” You have to be intentional about it. Death is automatic growth is not. If you buy a plant and set it in your kitchen, and you don’t water it, what’s it going to do? It’s not going to grow its going to wilt and die. So spiritual growth is intentional, but spiritual growth is also personal. It’s your choice. I can’t make the choice for you; nobody can make the choice for you. You’ve got to make the decision to personally grow. See you are as close to Jesus now as you want to be. You’re as close to God as you want to be, not as close as your parents want you to be, not as close as your church wants you to be, you’re as close as you want to be. So the question is, are you going to grow yourself, or are you going to stay the same? The good news is you don’t have to stay where you are, you can commit to growing yourself. See I can say that I want to be a great golfer, but if I don’t make the time to go out and practice then how am I going to get better? I have to be committed to going out there developing and perfecting my swing so that I can grow and become better at that sport. The same is true with my relationships. I can say that I want to be a great friend or a great boyfriend but if I’m not committed to spending time with that person, whether its listening to them, talking with them, or hanging out, there is no possible way that I’m going to grow and become that great friend. Spiritual growth is also incremental. It’s not going to happen overnight. Growth happens over time. You see that with a plant, it goes from a seed into a stem, into a flower. It doesn’t just go from seed to plant in an hour it takes days even months for that to happen. The same is true with our spiritual lives as well, it’s incremental. Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t see the amazing growth in one month, give yourself sometime. So let me ask you all, this question here today. What are you doing to grow yourself? How is your connection with God? Is it lagging in connection? Is it still searching? Or has it finally said given up? Hopefully today, everybody’s connection is 3G but that is not always the case.

Life in 3G pt. 1

            What I want to share with you today is all about what God has for you. This isn’t about what God wants from you; this is about what God wants for you as his children. See God has allowed us to meet in this place, and has allowed us to gather here as a family. A place where you can belong, a place that you can call home, a place where you’re loved, and accepted just as you are. It’s a blessing that God gives us this, and at the core of this gift that he gives to us is the truth that we find in scripture that we are family. The Bible has created us as family, a family through Christ; we’ve been created as a part of God’s family. Ephesians 1 verse 5, Paul says this “His unchanging plan has always been able to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.” From the very beginning of time God had planned to adopt us into his family. And that is a beautiful picture when you think about it. A picture of God saying I choose you; I want you to be mine. 1^st Peter 1:3 says this “God has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God’s own Family. You know when you were born you were born into a physical family, and when you were born spiritually you were born into a spiritual family. And since you and I were created for eternity what that tells me is that our spiritual family is going to far outlast our physical family. Think about it physical families last while we’re here on earth, some of them unfortunately don’t even make it that long. But our spiritual families have been created to last forever. For eternity! Now some of you are like getting terror in your eyes as your thinking about that person that might be in heaven that drives you crazy. Your thinking oh no they’re going to be there, oh no or oh dear! Well heaven is a big place so you can go find another place to worship God and they’ll be sanctified and delivered by the time they get there. But we’re going to spend eternity together, as God’s family. Ephesians 2:19 “You are members of God’s very own family…and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.” It’s where you belong. You know I believe that down deep in the heart of man we are all created with this longing to belong. In Romans 12:5 it says “In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” See all through these scriptures were seeing that it’s not just about believing but it’s also about belonging. We are called to belong not just to believe. When people say I believe in Jesus, I’m like awesome, but God has so much more for you than that. He wants you to find your place of belonging. The church isn’t an organization, the church isn’t an institution, the church isn’t a campus; the church is a family. The church is not a building that you go into, it’s a family that you belong to. See I think for some of us we hear the word family and we have all sorts of different emotions going on, because that means something different to all of us. Some of us grew up in great families, others of us grew up in pretty good families, and some grew up in not so good families. What we need to know is that there are no perfect families. Nobody had a perfect family; nobody’s got a perfect family. And our spiritual family is not perfect either. We’re not perfect. You know someone once said that if you find the perfect church don’t join it because you will mess it up. See we’re not perfect, we’re not perfect students. We’re just a bunch of imperfect students trying to love God the best we can and love each other in our own way. You know since we as a spiritual family were not perfect. There are going to be times that your brothers and sisters in Christ do things that just…get…on…your…nerves. They just annoy you. They may do something that lets you down; it’s going to happen I promise you that. But doesn’t that happen as well in your spiritual family. Don’t you have relatives or siblings that just get on your nerves? I’m sure my sister and brother would probably say that I get on their nerves as much as they get on mine. It’s almost like its part of my duty to annoy my younger brother and sister. But just because in a family you have struggles or you upset each other every once in a while, you don’t quit family, you don’t say well you annoy me so I’m just going to pack up my stuff and go live with the neighbors. Now here’s the point, spiritually speaking just because somebody in your spiritual family upsets you, lets you down, or doesn’t do what you think they need to do, it’s no reason to go leave the family, it’s no reason to quit family. You stick it out you work it out, you don’t walk out. We work together in this, because we’re a family. I believe the picture that God wants is a picture of a healthy family. When you think of a healthy family you think of, how a healthy family has all generations Grandparents, parents, teens, single adults, etc. And you think of the older generation helping out the other generations. Just like it works in a normal family the same should be true for our spiritual family as well. So the main idea here is that we all gather as one body in Christ. We all meet here on Thursday mornings not because we have nothing better to do (or at least I hope that’s not the reason) No we gather here because we all love God. See gathering is all about a Relationship with God and God’s family.