1.28.14

Breakfast: bacon, eggs and pancakes
Lunch: turkey and cheese on sourdough
Dinner: a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch

Mason Jar Faith

I have this thing where I don't like mason jars unless they are full of jams, moonshine or flowers. There's not much logic to this preference of mine, it's just the way I feel about the situation. Like it's very trendy and grass roots these days to use mason jars as glasses or cups in a household or restaurant. Nashville, specifically, is all about this. How pinterest?

Like I get that they are this cool affordable alternative to real glasses or cups, but it just rubs me the wrong way. Suck it up and go buy real glasses. Because, quite honestly, the rim of a mason jar was not engineered for optimum sippage. I spill on myself almost every time I sip from a mason jar. Seriously. I mean, I know it's glassware and I know it'll get the job done, but sipping from a mason jar is so hard and we all pretend that it's not just so we can appear to look cool or something. What's even worse is that nowadays they actually make mason jars with handles, which means these have been specifically designed to be used as cups. BUT THEY DIDN'T FIX THE RIM PROBLEM. That's like getting in a major car wreck and only fixing the stereo.

Let me put this into context so you can better understand my mindset on mason jars...

Modern day faith is sometimes used as a guise. There are people who join churches every Sunday for plenty of reasons other than Jesus. Growing up I always knew guys who came to church to chase girls, play sports or just to get away from their parents (I was one of them). Nowadays I know people who go to church because the coffee is good, it's the place to be seen, and because it's a fashion show.

Similar to how we've neglected real cups as a logical tool for achieving maximum sippage and instead have settled for mason jars that will help us look cool while "getting the job done," we've started neglecting true faith that allows us to experience maximum Jesus-age and instead have settled for the guise that let's us drink coffee and wear pants that "fit." How human of us?

But the beauty is that God is still ok with this. He still works through this.

Whenever I'm drinking out of a mason jar I get frustrated and end up using a straw. And I think that's what Jesus does with mason jar faith. He takes our "this will help us look cool while getting the job done" attitude towards church and gives us a straw that says "I'll help you out with the rest." You might have shown up looking all elegantly disheveled hoping for a chance to catch the eye of that really cute girl after the service, but at least you made it and God's going to work through that.

Something I've learned over the last few months is that it all really is that simple. Jesus and what he has to offer really is that simple. The redemption, the hope, the joy; there's nothing complicated about it. Jesus comes in a tall smooth glass engineered perfectly for maximum sippage. We just happen to complicate it sometimes by trying to put him in a trendy, difficult mason jar.

Praise the Lord for straws.

1.21.14

Breakfast -  blueberry pop tarts

Lunch - turkey bacon cheese (homemade playa!)

Dinner - chicken alfredo

I'm addicted to my phone. I have no problem admitting that. It's 1am and I'm blogging... On my phone. Why? Because it provides me with a feeling more soothing than sleep itself. And that's how I know I have a problem.

I am making a conscious decision, right now, to take steps towards becoming less dependent on this thing. A lot of people are doing this and I want in. So here are my steps:

1) Less texting, more calling : this will remove the focus from a screen and reposition it on an actual human, not just a "..." sign.

2) Leave my phone in the car whenever possible. Walks with the dog, bike rides, dinner with friends. I don't need this. In case of emergency, I'm sure everyone else has their phone on them so I'll just borrow one. And yes, I still remember the important phone numbers by heart.

3) Battery Life. I charge this thing multiple times a day. Some of that is work related. A lot of it is twitter, Instagram, snapchat and Facebook related. I'm limiting myself to one charge a day.

4) Expectations. I'm a communicator and I expect people to expect me to communicate in a timely manner. I've worked hard to create a reputation as a person who is available and accessible to communicate at the disposal of others. But this is a PSA to manage your expectations. Unless it is work related or urgent, I am giving myself permission to neglect your text; to take my time in getting back to you. Not because you're not important, but because I'm missing out on right now.

That's the lie I've tricked myself into believing (my friend Harris III would be so proud). The lie that missing out on texts, tweets and filtered photos is more important than missing out on the present. And that posting how much fun I'm having to prove how much fun I'm having is more important than the fun I'm actually having. Guess what guys? I am a really fun guy. I do a lot of fun stuff. And that's all you need to know. Want to know more? Give me a call. FaceTime me. Come over and we'll bake cookies. But don't expect me to tweet about my dance parties in the kitchen.

My dog looks at me a lot. Half the time it's a look that says "Dude, com'on, it's time to put on some pants." But the other half it's a look that says "Be with me." 

Put the phone down and be with me. 

And I love her more than I love your Lo-Fi latte. Sorry, not sorry. Here's to taking an iBreak.

Adios

1.20.14

Breakfast - 4 eggo waffles
Lunch - skipped it
Dinner - half of a Little Caesars pizza

Father-Son-Bonding

Today I tried reading and writing again to keep up with this resolution. Read more, talk less. This is really not an easy task for me. I mean the book I'm reading is really really good. I actually crack up laughing out loud when I'm reading it. But the problem is that this book is about action. It's about doing things. And I am a doer so it makes me want to do stuff. And by "stuff" I mean pretty much anything other than sitting around and reading. So I didn't last long this afternoon.

The thing that did me in was when I read this chapter about 10-Year-Old Adventures. Bob did this thing with his kids where he took them on a trip when they turned 10. Anywhere they wanted to go and anything they wanted to do, Bob made it happen. No planning, no itinerary, just pure adventure. His daughter wanted to go to "High Tea" in London, one of his boys wanted to hike Half Dome in a snow storm and the other wanted to ride dirt bikes across the desert. Pretty adventurous 10 year olds. I think when I was 10 the only thing I cared about was ice cream. Kudos, Goff kids.

So the theme Bob relates to us in this chapter is how he tried to be a father in the way that our Father is a father.

Every day God invites us on the same kind of adventure. It’s not a trip where He sends us a rigid itinerary, He simply invites us. God asks what it is He’s made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds the deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made. And then, leaning over us, He whispers, “Let’s go do that together."

So I closed the book and left the coffee shop. I couldn't sit there. Not with God whispering "Let's go do something together and experience the richness of the world." I mean, I know for some people sitting and reading is totally what God is whispering to them about. And that's their thing. But today, my thing was going for a bike ride.

Now I know I didn't last long at the coffee shop, but here is how I justified ditching out. A year ago I could not have gone on an intentional solo bike ride. I could have gone on a solo bike ride, but not an intentional one. Because a year ago I didn't know anyone here to not invite on a bike ride with me. Today was different. It took a lot in me to intentionally exclude my friends from this adventure and keep it between just me and God. But I succeeded and thus quiet time continued.

God and I rode about 10 miles thru East Nashville and together we grew mustaches and drank craft beers. Just kidding. We only rode 8 miles. But seriously, it was awesome.

I  believe in adventure and in seeking it daily. I think Bob would agree with me. He took his 10-year-olds to do rad stuff because he wanted to teach them to pursue adventure on a large scale. But I'm sure, as a father, he also taught them to pursue adventure on a small scale. My dad used to do this thing with me and my brother called "Father-Son-Bonding." He would walk into the room and say, "Boys, it's time for some Father-Son-Bonding" and my brother and I would stop what we were doing and follow him. He would lead us outside, we would sit down, and he would bust out some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. And that was our adventure. We would sit outside and eat Reese's Cups together. I'm 24 years old and this is a thing that still happens. I love it.

Today my Father whispered in my ear and said "Son, it's time for some Father-Son-Bonding" and we went for a bike ride and it was awesome.

1.12.14

Breakfast- Blueberry Poptarts

Lunch- McDougals chicken fingers

Dinner- TBD

Bigger or Better

Today I picked back up with Bob Goff's Love Does. This book is great. It makes me want to write my own book someday, which I seriously plan to do. But that's a different story.

The chapter I read that stuck out the most to me today was called "Bigger or Better." Bob tells the story of how his kid played this neighborhood game where you start with a dime and walk from house to house asking for something bigger or better. Long story short, the kid starts with a dime and ends up with a car. That's just cool.

The theme he relates here is the idea that God wants to take our dime size faith and turn it into something bigger and better, as long as we are willing to give him our dime.

Everyone's dime looks different. Sometimes our dimes look like a lust for power and when we give it to God he gives us a bigger, better heart of service. Sometimes our dimes look like a longing for acceptance and when we give it to God he gives us a bigger, better ability to love others.

My dime? Mine looks a lot like fear of loneliness.

Being completely secluded and alone terrifies me. I love people too much. I love meeting new people, learning their names and connecting with them in the simplest ways. A social atmosphere is my comfort zone. But at the end of the day this can all be very surface and unfulfilling. I can go out, meet 10 new people, remember all of their names and have a great time, but it's all very fleeting and temporal if I never see them again.

So I think God wants me to surrender my fear of loneliness so he can give me something bigger and better. I'm not sure what that is, but my dime size faith says it's the right direction to take steps in.

So what does surrendering my dime look like? For me, I imagine it looks like keeping up with this New Years resolution of reading more and talking less. Intentional time alone where I calm my heart and quiet my mind. Putting the phone down, unplugging from the world and retreating from environments of worldly stimulation. And definitely more prayer.

I guess my hope from this would be to experience God in new ways. For a long time I've allowed my faith to function under the idea that I experience God best through interacting with people. Which is true and there's nothing wrong with that. God definitely shows up in small interactions where simply remembering someone's name can add value to a life. But I think I've been too content with this method of experiencing God for too long, causing me to miss out on experiencing God in new and different ways. Quiet, pensive and alone ways.

Here's a quote from Henri Nouwen that I'll be drawing on for encouragement in surrendering my fear of loneliness.

“It is this nothingness that I have to face in my solitude, a nothingness so dreadful that everything in me wants to run to my friends, my work, and my distractions so that I can forget my nothingness and make myself believe that I am worth something. The task is to persevere in my solitude, to stay in my cell until all my seductive visitors get tired of pounding on my door and leave me alone. The wisdom of the desert is that the confrontation with our own frightening nothingness forces us to surrender ourselves totally and unconditionally to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Someone wise once said that the world puts you in the desert when they want to isolate you, but that God puts you in the desert when he wants you to listen. So here's to surrendering my dime and listening.

1.8.14

Breakfast- 2 Frosted Blueberry Pop Tarts
Lunch- Homemade turkey and cheese on sourdough #respect
Dinner- Alice Springs Chicken and the worst garlic mashed potatoes from Outback

I love maps.

I love them. I love looking at them, studying them, and then exploring and watching them come to life.

Not a fan of GPS and Siri. Cause they take all the fun away. The whole point of travel is the journey. But with GPS and Siri you don't get a journey, you get directions. I don't like directions. Unless they're cardinal directions.

Actually, I'm really good with cardinal directions. Like you can blindfold me, drive me into the wilderness, drop me off, and I'll still be able to find my way home. I always know which direction is North, South, East and West. I tell people it's because of the 1/32nd Comanche in my blood. Basically I'm an Indian tracker. That's real. I really am 1/32nd Native American.

I love a good paper map. Most people don't even know how to fold a paper map these days, and that's absurdly depressing. It's also unacceptable. Everyone should have at least one paper map in their glove compartment, even if it's not of the state you live in.

For me, I like maps because they allow you to travel and explore without going anywhere. An imagination is all that you need.

When I was 3 my parents got my brother and I a globe. I loved that globe, it's the first map I remember owning. You could plug it into the wall and it would light up. Then there was this magnifying glass attached that you could slide around to "peak" into different parts of the world. The view it provided was a snapshot of the culture in that city. Hawaii had a dude surfing a wave, China had the Great Wall and Australia had kangaroos. Same picture every time, but when you're 3 you imagine it changes when you're not looking. You imagine every time you take a peak, you are really seeing that part of the world, in realtime.

The globe also had texture. You could run your fingers over the various mountain ranges (though it always looked more like bubbled defective plastic than it did intentional "mountain ranges"). And it had color. It was mainly just a blue ball cause of all of the water, but the deserts were always sun burnt orange and the rain-foresty areas were always a lush green.

I loved that globe.

There are two main reasons why I love a good map. I think the first reason is because maps provide perspective and context. They let us know where we are in the world and help us to see where we can go... think about that for a second.

The second reason is because, for me, a map is the epitome of opportunity and adventure. You look at a map and you realize with this in hand, I can do anything. There are places I can go, things I can see, people I can meet, and this wonderfully simple little tool is the key to it all. That is pure excitement.

I'll be the first to admit I don't travel as much as I'd like to. I mean, I think we all would admit that. But traveling is expensive and we all have responsibilities that we unfortunately can't neglect. Also, I did not grow up in a family that took extravagant vacations. Instead of going to Europe together and snow skiing every winter, we built a pool and hot tub in our back yard. And I sure don't hate hot tubs.

But a map. A map lets you peer into the magnifying glass and see yourself there. It gives context to the opportunity for future adventure. Right now I have responsibilities that I can't exactly neglect, but this map shows me where I will someday go and what I will do. It allows me to familiarize myself with a place I have never been and gives me comfort that that place will always be there, right there, waiting for me.

The excitement for potential adventure that a map provides is enough to tickle the itch that will someday need scratching. It's enough for right now. I know someday, when the time is right and my bank account is favorable, I'll be the one surfing the wave in Hawaii, scaling the Great Wall and boxing with kangaroos down under. But until then I'll just let my 3 year old imagination do the trick.

I love maps.