bein' cool

IF you're still reading this blog I give you props. I have to admit, I hardly use the internet anymore! It all started when I lost my internet connection in June. After a few weeks of it, my appetite was curbed and I found that I hardly ever used it. I still read a few blogs now and then, but mostly just to see what stuff my friends are up to.

I don't know why, but my life has a lot of ketchup stories. On Sunday we were at Ruby Tuesdays eating lunch. I had left my cell phone at someone's house by accident (it fell out of my pocket). My girlfriend, Andi, got a hold of it and decided that I would have to do some dumb stuff before I got it back. When she went up to the salad bar, I went through her purse (I know, it's a crime in most states) and grabbed her phone (mine was being held hostage in another girl's purse). She didn't know it was gone and I later agreed to all the dumb things she made me do, like sing "I'm a little tea pot" with a british accent, and have a friend draw a smiley face out of ketchup on my forehead. I was agitated when doing these things for sure, but I got through them knowing that whatever she made me do I was going to double or tripple it for her when she figured out that I had her phone. Well the time came and I got my phone back. Then I told her that if I ever get a hold of her phone she better watch out, because I'm going to make it worse for her. She then proceeds out of parinoia to go through her purse looking for her phone that she had just earlier made a phone call on. The look on her face when she figured out that I had it, and had my phone back in my possession was priceless. Scott and Paul were giving her and all the girls such a hard time after she found out, it almost made me feel better that I had just put ketchup on my head. Almost. I let her squirm for a few hours and then I droppped it off at her parents house. She wasn't there, and they both watched me as I walked in the house. Man it was awkward. Anyway, you should have seen her face. She knew she'd been snookered!

teachin' me grace

God has been teaching me a lot about grace lately. Words always fall short.

I was part of a conversation with a person struggling with a drug addiction we ran into on Sunday after the fireworks downtown. God showed me a small snippet of his love for that person during the divine appointment we had with them. The backdrop was a gay bar we had parked in front of by accident. As I reflected over the backdrop on the way home, I felt sadness for them. I am reading a book on grace right now, and the following day, the chapter I read focused on the struggle of one man who struggles with homosexual tendencies. How he had divorced his wife and left his children. The book talked about the Christian culture and how hateful it has been towards these people. Last time I checked, Jesus wasn’t hatin’ on the outcasts and the people with struggles. He loved them. He extended grace to them. I didn’t ever read of him giving a high five to someone committing adultery, but he did love them in spite of their sin. Kind of like how he died for all of us, despite our sin, our position as enemies of himself. It has really made me re-examine how I’ve joked in the past about homosexuality. People are in an all out struggle with this tendency, I realize my need to extend more grace, more tact, more love. It is interesting for me to realize now that grace isn’t grace unless the one extending it pays a price. I think in the past I saw grace as ignoring a problem, bending the truth. Rather, I see it now as a sacrifice made with love for those who may not even want it.