I'm Frustrated

I'm in a bad mood. What better way to make yourself feel better than to list of every single thing that you are angry and frustrated and annoyed with. So here it goes.

I'm annoyed with paying tolls.
I hate speed limits.
I am tired of trying to make people happy.
I'm tired of cleaning up crap that's not mine.
I'm frustrated with my truck breaking down constantly.
I'm tired with all hinges in the world squeeking.
I'm pissed of about those stupid birds chirping at 3am for 5 hours.
I hate that I can't seem to get my motorcycle in working order.
I hate that I am constantly out of money.
I hate my credit cards.
I hate doing homework.
I'm tired of following all the rules.
I am annoyed that my laptop keyboard doesn't work and I have to lug around a keyboard to use.
I hate having to pay rent.
I hate that I have to eat to stay alive. Why can't we just plug ourselves in for energy like our cellphones?
I hate worrying about my future.
I cannot stand when people drive slow.
I hate how expensive everything is.
I hate FEES!
I'm tired of people in charge making stupid rules.
I hate how expensive gas is.
I'm frustrated that they make nearly all scissors right handed.
I'm frustrated with all of the sickness and pain in this world.
I'm frustrated that my cigarette lighter in my truck wont work.
I hate green beans.
It's annoying how hard it is to change the battery on my 12 string guitar.
I hate struggling with the same crap year after year.
I hate it when batteries seem to die at the most inconvenient times.
I hate power cables.
I'm frustrated that I dont get good reception for my phone in my house.
I hate when you text somebody and need an immediate response yet the dont reply (even though they usually reply instantly, except not when you need them to).
I hate not having enough time or money to do the things I really want to do.
I hate some people's attitudes.
It's unreasonably annoying when the circuit breakers trip.
I hate that every radio station claims to have the best music or greatest variety, yet they just play crap.
I hate that there's barely any public access to the lakefront in Illinois.
I absolutely despise Illinois traffic.
I hate potholes!
I hate how much work it is to make food.
I hate how quickly food spoils.
I hate that I'm a picky eater.
It's annoying how easily people get offended.
I hate dirty socks.
I hate it when I get holes in my shoes.
I hate that sugary food is bad for you.
I hate pimples.
I am annoyed that going to school at Trinity is $32,000 a year.
I hate it when people cannot say "yes" or "no" and stick to their plan.
I hate advertisements.
I hate that I always feel so busy.
I hate owing people something or feeling indebted to somebody.
I hate having to pay to park.
I hate waiting in lines.
Its frustrating having a bad memory.
I hate deadlines.
I hate having to fill out applications.
I hate when people can't just get over crap.
I hate chapel.
I hate when technology doesn't work when I really depend on it.
I hate overpriced food at movie theaters and sporting events.
I hate making deals with people and then forgetting about them.
I hate having to bathe. Why can't we sweat the scent of delicious?
I hate when its cold and snowless.
I hate working hard on something and having it not pay off at all.

Just to keep the hatred and angry feelings going, here are some things some of my friends hate:
-when you go for bread just to find out its the stupid butt
-band
-the midwest
-prius'
-vegetarians
-people who eat healthy
-people who eat organic
-doing dishes
-chores
-80s music
-country music
-overuse of dubstep
-cold weather
-Obama
-homework
-school
-people constantly making annoying comments on everything on fb
-political conversations
-super-religious christians and nominal christian and the like.
-gangstas
-weird people
-justin bieber
-long engagements
-being poor
-cats

I feel a lot better.

Sleepy on my Motorcycle

Don't really know what the deal is, but for the past several months I've been worn out. I get tired at like 7pm. Not just like "Oh, I'm kind of worn out." But like "I feel like I've been awake for days. I will fall asleep instantly." On days when I get to sleep in it's a little better. But I still am ready to go to sleep way to early. Not so long ago I could be up until 2am with no problem.

The problem could be many things. I've been contemplating what it could be, and I have not discovered anything yet.

You might not think it's that terrible, but when I get up for work at 7, get ready for work and go to work, and get home about 6 or 7... you see it's one entire day of just work. I got no time for anything else. I'd be fine going to bed at 7 if I was done with work at like 2 so I could do other stuff. It's not that I hate work or that work completely wears me out.

I dunno. I'm tired right now. You can see this post is after 7pm. Far after 7pm. So I'm like a zombie right now.

Now for my motorcycle.

I purchased a motorcycle in the fall for 300 bux about. Haven't done any work on it until a few weeks ago. I knew it had a bad oil leak. Long story short, it was the clutch push rod oil seal that was bad and was a pain in the butt to figure out how to replace it. Finally got that in.

Missing a turn signal light. John Erwin had one that he gave me. All set there.

Battery was shot. Got a new one. Realized I had to put the fluid in the battery myself. Kind of an awkward experience filling a battery with acid for the first time. Got that charged and ready.

Then I just needed to change my oil. No big deal. Until I went to put the oil plug back in and I discovered that the oil plug itself is not stripped, but the oil pan is stripped out. So I ask around and get a few ideas. I snatched up a few universal oil plugs to try them out, find out which one works. Out of the 2 I got, neither worked. Frustration. Then I went to the store and snatched another style. Didn't work either. So I put some thread lock crap on the oil plug and screwed it in to whatever insignificant threads were in the hole and I'm letting it dry now. I'll throw some oil in it tomorrow and see what happens.

I think I'm going to end up just buying a new oil pan. I heard they're like 30 bux on ebay.

And that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Zombie out.

Indianola

I'm out in Indianola, Iowa visiting the Dueys and Jeremy. But what exactly does a typical trip to Jon's house look like?

• Twizzlers
• Sparkling Grape Juice
• Sarah's Tacos (including Ice cream tacos)
• Disc Golf
• More Twizzlers
• More Sparkling Grape Juice
• Jimmy Johns
• Old Country Buffet or Texas Roadhouse
• More Sparkling Grape Juice

So pretty much we just eat like there's no tomorrow, drink sparkling grape juice like we haven't had anything to drink in weeks, and play disc golf all day long. One trip here for 4 days, Jon and I went through 18 bottles of Sparkling Grape Juice. So my vacation to Jon's is pretty much to gain as much weight as possible. We're doing great so far. Time to go eat some more food.

New Years Resolutions

Yes. I made a few.

• Drink something other than pop.
• Read my Bible everyday. At least one chapter.
• Do some exercise on a somewhat regular basis.

I would like to make it known that on Jan 1st, I failed to do all three. But that's no reason to give up! I'll do my best to make those happen.

Fancy things

I was just looking at how long I have had a blogger account. Since May of 2007. That's 5 years, 7 months. That's 60 months. Roughly 24,455 days. I was looking at how many blogs I have posted. 272 blogs posted. Break it down, it's about 1 blog every 90 days.

Just thought that was interesting.

Christmas

I sure do love Christmas.

Christmas Music.
Christmas Movies.
Christmas Carols.
Christmas Cookies.
Christmas Candy.

It gives me such a sense of joy. And peace.

Christmas is not like it used to be. Or maybe I am just viewing Christmas through different lenses than when I was a kid. The holiday has lost it's magical-ness. It was great because there was 100 feet of snow on the ground. I would get tons of candy and gifts for Christmas. We would get what seemed like a whole year off. We'd get to go have a great time visiting family in Iowa for what seemed like a month.

Now Christmas comes and goes. I dont get as excited about the gifts. Santa isn't real anymore. It seems like its rare to have snow on Christmas day. Christmas break gets shorter and shorter. The trip out to Iowa seems shorter and shorter.

From a a book I'm reading called "The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask" comes the quote:

"With the addition of years, most people begin to see through the empty promises and short-lived pleasures of the current order."

The promises of Christmas that I used to have faith in are fading. Not that those old parts of Christmas were bad, but I rarely took note of the root of the holiday. Maybe I can get joy and peace and happiness now from understanding what Christmas really is. A celebration for the birth of Christ.

That is what I'm going to cling to. My new joy and peace.

Summer Thus Far

It's June 16th. So I've officially been away for 17 days. It's one of those things where it feels like it's been longer, yet it feels like the summer is flying by. So what exactly have I been doing with my summer? I'm the video guy for Silver Birch Ranch. Two years ago I was the audio guy. So it's slightly familiar being back here in the tech department, but different because, well... obviously video is a little different than audio.

What kind of work does being the video guy entail? I am basically responsible for any video stuff that happens this summer. Filming, editing, burning DVDs, packaging DVDs. Each week my goal I'm working for is a 7-10 minute "Week in Review" DVD of footage of all of the events that take place at camp. The more events, the better. The more campers, the better. Just a few hours ago I just finished burning out the Master Copy of my first "Week in Review" DVD. It was for Junior Camp #1 and Middler Camp #1 (two camps combined into one week). It was on the longer side: about nine minutes and 40 seconds. I was told to aim for 8-9 minutes. But I think I did pretty awesome for my first video. It literally was my first real video. Before a week ago I had no experience at all with video editing. So I've really been thrown into a new world this week. It's funny... two years ago when I was the audio guy, I was also officially the tech director, which was a whole new world at that time. I knew basically how to run a soundboard, so its strange that they threw me in that role, plus the leader role. But it worked out alright.

So I've been here for nearly 3 weeks, but only have done one video. That's because the first week was a Family Camp. There are a total of four family camps this summer. We don't do "Week in Review" DVDs for them. I dont really know why, but I'm okay with that. During Family Camps I will be working on SBR Promo Videos.

Actually the whole time I've been here, I've kind of been a puppet of the Program Team. I don't mean that in a negative way. I just mean I've been working for them and helping them get the summer started. Oh, where would they be without me?!? They'd be lost!

May not sound like I'm doing that much, but I've had a lot of busy busy days. Been staying up late and getting up early. I'm exhausted! I am really worn out. I need a break already. Sad thing is, I'm sure there are people here who work harder and longer hours than I do. Mad props to them.

So I'm tired. But I'm serving. Having a good time. Learning. Growing. I miss family and friends. Don't miss school one bit. Don't miss spending money on gas. I miss having real food. So I guess that's that.

Church Notes

Gotta love it when you go to a church that hands out the little half sheet of white paper with a basic outline of the message with blanks to fill in!

I went to Great Lakes church in Kenosha, WI today and for some reason just feel like sharing my notes and my thoughts. Italics are my thoughts.

Title: Elephant in the Room... Greed
Speaker: Dave Nelson

Greed
-Greed says, "Life is about me!"
Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Philippians 2:4
-Greed is tamed by taking an interest in other people.
So encourage each other and build each other up... 1 Thes 5:11

Encouragement
-Encouragement brings change
Then he asked them "But who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Now i say to you that you are Peter (which means "rock"), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. Matthew 16:15-17
-Encouragement creates confidence
Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Ephesians 4:29
-Encouragement is a constant "yes" in a world that says "no."
...What you say flows from what is in your heart. Luke 6:45

How to encourage
-Proactively look for good in other people.
...bring Mark with you when you come, for he will be helpful to me in my ministry. 2 Timothy 4:11
If we are unfaithful, God remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is. 2 Timothy 2:13
-Find multiple and creative ways to communicate the good you see in other people.

o Starting point: Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.


The focus of the message was more on encouragement than greed. I really would have liked to hear more about greed. And my first thought (or second or third thought) is not to match greed and encouragement as opposites.

Anywho. One thing that stuck out to me was Philippians 2:4 which says "Don't look out ONLY for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too." What happens if you take that "only" out? It becomes "Don't look out for your own interests..." Honestly, I think of Christianity as being something where your goal is to be as selfless as possible. Like watching out for numero uno is a no-no, a sin. But when I read this it was like a shock to my system. I was like "Wait... so we can care about ourselves?" I really honestly think one thing that holds me back is the thought that I am supposed to be selfless. That one word "only" changes things. God says to me, "You have much to learn, my young apprentice..." and He lifts that burden from me.

Turn Signals

Now here is something I'm passionate about. Turn signals. Turn signals are one of the greatest inventions in the world, yet they are so unused and under-appreciated. They are used incorrectly and sadly misunderstood.

Have you ever been driving down the road when out of nowhere somebody you're behind starts slamming on their brakes for no apparent reason? And you're like "What the heck are they doing?" As they almost come to a complete, then they flip on their turn signal. Oh. They're turning.

Or how about this: You're sitting on a side street, waiting to turn out onto a busy main road. All you want is to make an easy right turn, but there are just so many cars. Then you see a break after these last 4 cars pass. But the third car is slowing down, but it doesn't look like they are going to turn at all. Before you realize it, you see their turn signal as they race on to your side street, turning so fast that they almost go on two wheels! If you only knew they were turning, you would have had plenty of time to pull out on to the road. Great. Now the break you were waiting for is gone, for there are more cars here.

Why do we have turn signals? What is the purpose of them? When do we use them? Obviously nobody knows! Well, I've got good news for you. I know the secret to turn signals. I know the answers! Are you ready for them?

We use turn signals to alert other drivers that we will be changing lanes or turning soon. We're supposed to use them before we start braking, so that people know why we are braking! So we don't start braking, and then as we are turning quick flip it on. Yes, it is a law in some states that you must use your turn signal when changing lanes or turning. But did you know you're supposed to put in on at least 100 feet before turning? Some states require 500 feet! And you retards flip it on as you're turning.

Now changing lanes is the same thing. But changing lanes is a whole other blog. I don't have room to go into detail about that.

So when it comes to turning, people, please, use your turn signal. It will save lives. To help you use your turn signals, I have a plan. Each time I see you fail to use your turn signal correctly, I will write down your license plate, and soon as you get 3 strikes, I will accidentally drop my cell phone on the floor, bend over to reach for it, taking my eyes off the road, and I will gently smash you off the road.

You wanna keep your Lexus? Well, make sure you use those pretty little turn signals.

Can I get an 'amen'

Around Thanksgiving time I submitted an application to a new CostCo they just build by my school. From what I saw on their website, it looked like they would be paying more than minimum wage and there would be benefits. I was sure they'd hire me.

A week went by. No call. Ten days passed. No call. I figured they would have called me by then if they intended to even interview me. So I simply have given up on that.

But I really need a job still. I have a good amount of free time, plus I could really use the extra income. Actually, I straight up need more income.

So last night at a Bible Study I was at, they asked for prayer requests. I simply said that I need God to provide a job for me. So my highly respectable man of God prayed for me.

Lo and behold, I received a phone call from CostCo! I have an interview Friday. Now, I know I don't have the job, I still need to pass the interview/impress me session.

At the Bible Study we talked about what the deal is with 'hope.' The simplest, main thing I got out of it is that hope is a joyful expectancy, an assurance of what is to come. I am confident this is an answer to my prayer, and I hope that I get this job.

But there is a slight down side. Just today I had become comfortable and excited about having a month off for Christmas. And if I get the job I will probably have to work. Sad face.

But praise God for answering my prayer so quickly! What an awesome God.

One man... one mission... one vacation... one city...

In an unknown land, one man is on a mission so adventurous words cannot describe. The land is not entirely unknown, simply unknown to that man. That land is what modern folk call "Memphis, Tennessee." This man was in this city on one mission, which can be described in one word: vacation. But actually it really wasn't just vacation, because he was also there to visit his friend. He was really just there to visit his friend, and it happened to be during the man's fall break from school, so he just called it vacation. This man was there to visit another man, namely named "Super Suave." What an epic name. They say the Super Suave once defeated an army of people with dandruff in one single shampooing. Unbelievable.

That man is me, Tony Nelson. It's true. I went to Memphis, Tennessee to visit my friend/superhero, Super Suave. I rode a megabus down there. The megabus itself wasn't bad, but the 10 hour ride wasn't too pleasurable. The one down there left Chicago at 10:15 PM. The returning bus left Memphis at 11:15 PM.

However, everything else about the trip was just dandy. I really didn't see anything special about the city itself, except for the fact that there was a pyramid and a prominent police presence. But just being there with Super Suave was fun. I had a good time. Here's some of the stuff we did:

• Ate BBQ nachos
• Skipped rocks along the Mississippi River
• Walked along a 5 block long replica of the Mississippi River in a seemingly deserted park-like place on Mudd Island
• Went to Hope church, which has it's own recording studio (which I got a nice tour of), and a sanctuary that fits like 5,000 (and I got to see their video control room)
  
• Spent 2 hours at Guitar Center
• Went on an adventurous hike in a park, ended up on private property checking out abandoned farming vehicles, and getting about a billion of those seeds that stick to your clothes stuck on my shirt.
• Went to Texas Roadhouse and stuffed myself (right before getting on the return 10 hour bus ride... not smart)
• Ate pizza while sitting on a fence
• Watched Law Abiding Citizen
  
• Got semi-lost looking for a disc golf course
• Went disc golfing on a dusty course

I think thats most of what we did. It was a good trip. I'll probably go back. Super Suave, you're my man.

New Read

Just started reading The Barbarian Way by Erwin Raphael McManus. Just finished the first chapter, and I gotta say... I love it so far. I am definitely tired of how ritualistic, institutionalized, and lethargic Christianity and the Church has become. I want to embrace a barbaric faith that is real and untainted, true and passionate. Lets just say, I look forward to the rest of this book, and I look forward to seeing God make some changes in my mind and my heart.

Not Impossible. Inevitable.

Procrastination. I wonder how many times I've thought, prayed, blogged, complained, and struggled with procrastination. Each year at the beginning of the school year I plan to battle against the procrastination from within myself.

Every year I lose the battle miserably.

Procrastination is completely inevitable for me.

Homework always ends up being done a few minutes before its due. It ends up being finished halfway or skimmed through. It ends up being late. Or it ends up not being done at all.

But for some reason, which I can't explain, as of this moment I have done all my homework. I do not owe any work for any class. I am not behind. Everything has been read and done.

So maybe this is this year where I gain an upper hand. Maybe this is the year where I let procrastination rule me no more. This is the year I rule the air.

Who do we pray to?

Sometimes when people pray, I hear them pray to God. That's great. Sometimes I hear people pray to Jesus. That's cool. And sometimes I hear people pray to the Holy Spirit. And I wonder... are we supposed to pray to the Holy Spirit. We are to pray in the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26), but do we pray TO the Holy Spirit. Technically, the three are one. But still... do we address the Holy Spirit directly when we pray? I think about this from time to time, but I've never taken the time to investigate.

Back to School

It's the end of the summer, so you know its time. School is back. With a vengence. As of August 15th, I owed Trinity like $4,000 for last spring. So I wasn't planning on going back. Then comes August 16th and I find out that one of my relatives planned to help out with the money. God doesn't provide late. But He doesn't provide early, either. I actually didn't know if I should go back to school, with everything that's going on with my family, ya know. But here I am. Thursday, September 2nd, enrolled in school, a week of class gone. As of right now, I'm not positive if going to school was the right choice or not. I'll know in about 2 months. I know this semester will prove to be one of the toughest semesters of my life... maybe I should just say busiest.

Class List: Pentateuch, Life of Christ, Elementary Greek, Pauline Epistles

Book List: Handbook on Pentateuch (Hamilton), Basics of Biblical Greek: Grammar (Mounce), basics of Biblical Greek Workbook (Mounce), Jesus the Messiah (Stein), Jesus I Never Knew (Yancey), Writings of New Testament (Johnson), Paul's Letter Collection (Trobish), Paul (Wright), In Praise of the Inexpressible: Paul's (Paillard).

"Remember Me"

What gods do I serve? Really an easier question would be which gods don't I serve. I'm a slave to the seven deadly sins. And then I'm a slave to a thousand false gods.

In the Old Testament, people go astray when they forget. The simple truth is I forget too. I forget all the time. Everyday.

Right now after reading God's words to me, I feel loved by Him, I feel love for Him. Right now I want to serve and worship him. But in 30 minutes when I forget about God's heart for me, then I will not want to serve Him.

I don't want that to happen. I pray that I remember God.

Summer

Is it just me or is this summer flying by unbelievably fast? I blinked at June was gone. There were a couple things I wanted to start this summer and haven't been able to because I've been so busy doing other things. I need to shift some priorities around for sure.

It's definitely been weird being at home without Jeremy, Jesse, or my Dad. But now Jesse's back home, so that should spice things up a bit.

This summer I had a few things I wanted to do, and some things I have done, some things I haven't done so well at so far:

• Spend time with Faith
• Go to Six Flags
• Go to SBR
• Start a Bible study with my family.
• Do my email bible study
• Clean and organize garage and basement
• Do a personal computer tutor for Greek
• Pay off my credit cards
• Lose a bit of weight
• Repair some things around the house.

Check in later to see if I've improved.

Rules

I recently got a ticket for not wearing my seat belt. It cost me $55 for the ticket at $8 for a cashier's check (because the city doesn't trust personal checks I guess). Obviously I wasn't too happy about that. I almost would have preferred if I got a speeding ticket. Why? Because I think the seat belt law is dumb.

You see, I have no problem following rules that make sense to me. It's when there's rules that I don't understand or I think are dumb that I don't follow. For instance, it makes sense that not speeding is a good rule to follow because you are endangering other people (I don't always follow the rule, but I think it's a rule that should be enforced). It's a good rule not to drink bleach...because it will kill you. It's a good rule to clean your bathroom every week... because it gets frickin nasty if you don't. It's simple. I follow rules that I get.

Maybe not all people agree with my logic about which rules are right, but I think the idea behind it is true for most people: follow rules that make sense.

For years I've wondered why I repeatedly fail at reading my bible and having a real prayer life. I'm beginning to think those are rules that don't make sense to me. After all, my life is pretty easy most of the time. Pretty stressless. Why do I need Jesus when my life is going fine, or when I am completely capable of handling the problems in my life? Why do I need to read the bible or pray? Why do I need Jesus now?

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

1 Thes. 5:14-22

But his answer was: My Father is still working even now, and so I am working.
John 5:17

who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father
Galatians 1:4

Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Galatians 2:20

What else needs to be said?

I'm in a mcdonalds waiting for my brother to get done with work, so i'm just blabbing.

It's about that time of the year. School will come officially to a close May 14th. It's not going to be an easy ride for these last few weeks. I've got two big papers and a mammoth project to work on. I am really looking forward to school ending. I just don't have the discipline to get my homework done so that I can enjoy school better. Even though I've put these assignments off, I am trying to be disciplined in doing them before the day they're due. But next semester I'm really going to work on it.

I've officially been a leader in the youth group at Faith. The high school group is called "TEAM" and I dont know what it stands for or what it means. The boys are divided up into jr/sr and then sophomores and then freshmen. I started out with the jr/sr. small group, which already had two leaders. The past few weeks I've been with the freshmen small group tho. I'm not sure if I'm going to stay with them (I'd like to). Some of the guys like to do parkour, and thats pretty sweet. I like to parkour with them. Soon I will learn flipping.

This semester I've gone to like 5 different churches. I've visited Redemption Bible Church, Northwestern Family Church, and Faith. I've regularly attended Baptist Tabernacle and Crossway. I really don't like going to a different church every week, so I recently decided I'm going to cut it down to two churches. One for when I'm at school and one for when I'm at home. I don't really know what it is about BT, but I'm just tired of it. So for home I chose Crossway. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do about when I'm at school. It would make sense for me to go to Faith, since I work in the youth group. I went there for their sunday morning service for the first time this past sunday. It reminds me of BT. So I'm kind of repelled from that. Didn't like Northwestern, so I'm leaning towards Redemption. Not really sure if what I'm doing is right. I should probably stay at BT because that's where my family goes. And I should probably go to Faith, because I'm already connected in there. I just want to go to a church that engages me, a church that feels alive and is growing.

I owe 4100 for this semester of school. It was due last wednesday. I dont have money for it. Anybody want to pitch in?

This summer I'm going to be working in the mail room and maintenance at Trinity. Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be mail room, and Tuesday/Thursday will be Maintenance. I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or not. I'll have to drive down there and back about every day. But I get about 24 mpg in my truck, so it's not too bad. I was thinkin about takin the train, or even riding my bike.

Oh, what to celebrate?

I wrote this on the ride home from Iowa this past Sunday

What is the purpose of holidays? A holiday is to remember an event, right? To remember and celebrate?

Well, today is Easter. The holiday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There’s nothing better to celebrate, except for maybe the birth of Christ, which is just as important. But today, outside of church this morning, nothing was said about Jesus. At least nothing that I heard. The focus was on the Easter ham. We didn’t even pray before we ate today. We may celebrate on this day… but we certainly didn’t celebrate Easter.

Jesus simply wasn’t part of Easter this year.

Being with family during holiday’s isn’t wrong. Pigging out during holidays isn’t wrong. But when you don’t celebrate with Jesus, it’s meaningless I think.

So what did you celebrate this Easter?