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.