We Used To Play Music Together....

So yesterday I read some very exciting news... Blink-182 is back together!!!! Now I know this may not be that exciting to most of you but you do not know my story. I Love music, and this love for music started one day when I found a cd on a sidewalk. That cd was Blink-182's Dude Ranch. I was a very excited seventh grader. I went home and put it in my cd player and fell in love. Now, being a pastor's kid, I made sure to always listened to Blink with my head phones. When my parents found out about blink and their lyrics they were not the happiest and gave me a talk. But they lost the arguement because my dad was also a pastor's kid who loved Elvis (same story different musician). So when I pulled the Elvis card I won.
I was obbsessed with Blink, they were the reason I picked up the guitar and started singing. When blink would go on tour I always wanted to go but there was always something stopping me. One day when I was a Sophmore in High School, a friend at school offered me a free ticket with a backstage pass and my mom said I couldn't go because it was Mother's Day weekend! Now don't get me wrong I love my mom, but let's just say I wasn't a happy person that day and I may have voiced that in some way. Then the years passed and in my senior year Blink went on tour again and they were coming close to home on May 16th. Now I was so excited because I could drive and there was nothing that was going to get my way. When I asked/told my parents I was going they said okay! I was so excited!! Then when I told them when, my mother sadly told me that that was the same day as my graduation. I told her that they could mail me my diploma because I wouldn't be there. Well to make a loooooong arguement short, I didn't get to go. My dad said, "Jason ... it's Blink-182, they are going to be around for a while!" Right after that tour, Blink was no more.

They broke up in February of 2005 and it was a day that would live in infamy...or so I thought. This past Sunday at the Grammt's, for the first time together since the break, Blink presented an award for best rock album of the year. Right before the did this, Travis Barker, so "excitedly", announced that they were back together for good. They are to have a cd out this summer!!! Oh and no matter what happens...I will be at this tour!!!!!!!!!!!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrVSlZm4K9g

Old Habits Die Hard... or You Can't Teach a Dumb Dog New Tricks!

So it is 2:15 am and I just finished a paper that is due by 5 pm tomorrow. Here is the problem with that, I have to be at the church in less than six hours for our winter retreat, and I still have not packed!!!! For some reason I decided to take my sweet time and write my paper as slow as possible, letting every little thing distract me. In my adventures of procrastination tonight I found a cover of Brittany Spears' Womanizer by The All American Rejects. They dress like hillbillies and claim that they did it better so I watched, and they did ha! 

I am part of the worship team this weekend at camp and I know it is going to be an amazing weekend, even with no sleep! I will be joining the Third Format team for worship, which makes me happy because I love those guys and tara (the girl drummer). It will be a fun time. I will also be leading a small group. which makes me happy because I miss the guys that were in my small group.

Please keep us in your prayers as we do camp in the Cold. Pray that God does amazing things this weekend! I will tell you how it goes when I get back!

Kansas City to Denver to Phoenix!

I am currently in Kansas City sitting in the airport, the smallest airport in the world! For those of you who do not know, I am a student at Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan Kansas, but I now live in Mesa Arizona. I took an internship position last May and they asked me to stay longer. So, after a whole month of prayer I felt that this is what God wanted me to do, so I stayed. From time to time I fly back to Kansas to take a class or to knock out some school related hurdle that stands in the way of me getting that amazing piece of paper that will get me my dream job with low pay! This has been a difficult year though because my I am doing something that my school has never done before. It is actually a huge pain in the butt!!! I have about two classes that the school doesn't think I can do long distance. But you know what they say, "Doing God's will is usually not that easy!" I can hear in the administrations voices, how much of an "inconvenience" I being for them, but to that I say change is never easy. I am single handedly changing the future of my school and it is tough but they will end up thanking me for being the inconvenience so that this can be convenient for students of the future! In thirty years I will have finally graduated and then will have school paid off when I hit the age 85, but I know it will be well worth it ... I hope! 

So, I am now waiting to board my flight and I have about an hour and a half. I got here so early because I have been conditioned to the chaos that is Sky Harbor Airport security and baggage check. The airport in Kansas City is about the size of your grandma's trailer park, and I forgot, so now I must wait. However, I am extremely excited because after I fly to Denver and then to Phoenix, I will get to hug my amazing girlfriend!!!!! Happy six months Kristen!

Hero or Villain?

I am 23 and I still have the desire of every 10 year old boy: I want to be a super hero in the worst way! I have always wanted to be part of this amazing world where people can do things that make them anything but normal. But my dream, after so many years of waiting, might be coming true, and I find my self at a cross-road! Here is my story:

This past fall I started watching seasons of Smallville and began having strange dreams at night. I would dream that I had the powers of Clark Kent and people were always after me. I would always wake up right taking care of a bad guy or two, and these dreams started to become addicting. After a while I found myself turning into Lex Luther (the villain in the story); I found myself wanting to get back into the story. But this lifestyle started to leak into my everyday life. I would find myself in staff meetings trying to get a pen to slide across the table into my hand, only to feel defeat. Well, as Smallville went downhill after season 6, I started to watch a show that introduced me to the hunger, leading me to my crossroad. That show was Heroes! If you have no idea what this show is about, all I can say is PLEASE WATCH! 

Watching this show introduced me to the hunger, the hunger for power! There is a character in this show known as Sylar, who for some reason I developed a liking for. Sylar is the villain of this story, who has a hunger for other people's abilities. After watching this show and being introduced to the hunger, I went to my girlfriend's house. While jumping on my girlfriend's trampoline I decided to lay down and relax. All of a sudden I started to notice something: I could hear static electricity surges building up while the hair on my arms started to stand up, then I felt the charge. After feeling this energy coarse through my body, I decided to try something that I had attempted before. I put out my hand, focused, and then it happened. There were a couple of leaves and after hard concentration, they slid across the trampoline and floated to my hand. NO JOKE! I finally had it, the power was mine.

Keeping this secret to myself, my girlfriend and I went to Wal-Mart. While we were walking around, and thinking about what had happened, I reached out my hand again to touch my 

girlfriends arm and thats when it happened. ZAP! I shocked her and I saw the charge leave my finger and she let out a loud OUCH! Was this because of the trampoline? I wasn't sure, so I tried again....ZAP ZAP! She yelled again. It wasn't a dream, I had a power... I could produce electricity! We walked around Wal-Mart for almost an hour, and every time I touched her or anything metal I could see and hear a shock. Then when I explained what had happened to me, she touched me and she was shocked as well. Sadly, after we left, my power was gone.

But now I am in Kansas, and it's back!!! I touched my friend's washer and dryer at the same time and I could feel electricity pulsing though my body... this time, it hurt. Soon afterward, the zaps started again. Now the hunger for power has returned, leaving me with a question: What is my destiny, Hero or Villain? I guess I will just see what happens. 

You may feel like you have been hit by an Mac-Truck!

So today I received a flu shot at work that could kill me. After I received the shot the lady told me that for the next two weeks I might have flu like symptoms and feel like i have been hit by an 18-wheeler! Now, it only seems logical that if a person was hit by an 18-Wheeler, it would kill him! So I guess I just received a shot of death!!!! So it was nice knowing everyone, I am glad I got to know you, but apparently in two weeks I am going to be a human pancake. When people ask how did he end up like this the crime scene investigators will most like say "He was hit by a truck that just Flu by!"

I'm Nicodemus!

Today I started reading the book of John and something really stuck out to me. I realized that I am more like Nicodemus than I am John the Baptist. What I mean by that is this: Here is John the Baptist telling about the one who will come. The one who John says he is unfit to untie Jesus' sandal. John knows what Jesus can do and he acknowledges that without a doubt. He is paving the way for Christ and his work. Then you have Nicodemus who goes to Jesus and says that he knows that Jesus is the teacher from heaven because of the signs he has performed. Jesus tells him no one can see the kingdom unless he has been born again, and Nicodemus tries to see the logic in that and becomes confused saying that its impossible for a grown man to physically be born again!

When reading this today it really hit me that I am like Nicodemus! I am always trying to make sense of everything and not really taking time to understand what God is telling me, I always cut him short with a question of doubt. The statement that really cut deep is when Jesus is explaining all of this to Nicodemus, Nicodemus throws in another question asking, "How can this be?" Then Jesus says in John 3:10 "You are Israel's teacher, and you do not understand these things?" Every time I read this verse I can hear Jesus' heart breaking and picture a tear swell up in his eye. It’s kind of like Jesus is say WHY DON’T YOU GET THIS!! This hit home because I am a "teacher" as well and sometimes I don’t get it, I don’t always have the passion for Christ like John the Baptist.

Another thing that convicted me was a song that I recently listened to. This song is about how Christians have exchanged truth for a lie and that our biggest sin is our religion. The line that hit me was "I'll just read a book, I got no time to walk the narrow path." So many times we as Christians read how to books about living like a Christian and we just don’t live like a Christian! Well, at least I know I have that problem. I have read so many books about this that I should be a super Christian but I think we tend to use that I gaining knowledge and growing in the Lord card. Now I am not saying that there is anything wrong with Christian living books, I like them, but I think we need to put down the books for a little bit and show the world who Christ is. At least I need to!

Christ didn’t call us to read he called use to Lead!!