The Case of the Missing ID

Here are the facts: Saturday night I used my ID card to get into my hall. I stopped in the laundry room to move clothes from the washer to the dryer. I went to the bathroom area to change into pj's. The next morning my ID was gone. I don't remember seeing it after changing clothes, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. My roommate and I tore our room apart and put it back together looking for my ID. It wasn't anywhere. We knew it had to be on the hall somewhere, we just couldn't find it.

How would the Hardy Boys solve this mystery? They would get kidnapped, pull something random out of their pockets to cut their ropes, discover an espionage plot against the government, pull something else completely random out of their pockets to help them capture the bad guys, get rescued by their dad at just the right time, then realize that my ID was in one of the boxes the bad guys had.

How would Scooby-Doo and his gang solve this mystery? While consuming large amounts of food, Scooby and Shaggy would stumble into a hidden passage in my hall - filled with ghosts and no one else would believe them when they got back, every one else would be trying to scientifically figure out what happened, then Daphne would get snatched by the ghosts, Velma would lose her glasses, Fred would come up with a plan to catch the ghost, the "ghost" would be unmasked to reveal the villain, who would have my ID in his pocket and would have gotten away with it if not for those meddling kids and that dog too.

How would Sherlock Holmes solve it? He would stand in the hall for a while staring at the carpet, then stand in the laundry room staring at the washers, then stand in the middle of my room for an eternity, then declare to Watson he knew exactly where my ID was, then explain said location using large words.

How would Perry Mason or Hercule Poirot solve the mystery? Well, those are stories for a different day.

Sadly, none of these great mystery solvers showed up to lend me their skills in locating my ID. Instead, I had to go a week working off the kindness, patience, and loving-mercy of my roommate and the cafeteria people until the school got more ID cards in.

Day 3: My View on Drugs and Alochol

I feel this topic has been wildly over-blogged about, but I shall faithfully do it anyway.

I don't really have a lot to say about drugs that doesn't sound preachy. The Bible doesn't specifically say anything about drugs specifically, but it does say lots about authority and submitting to it. As Christians we are supposed to submit to the authority because all authority is given by God. God has placed rulers above us for a reason (Yes, even the horrid rulers - How many times did God use Nebuchadnezzar to punish the Israelites?), and submitting to His authority brings blessing. Also, submitting to government authority means you can sleep at night with a clear conscious, with out having to worry about whether or not you are going to get arrested tomorrow. All that being said, drugs are illegal in the U.S. As such, we shouldn't use them.

Even if you don't think submitting to authority is a good enough reason not to do drugs, the Bible also says that our body is a temple that the very Spirit of God lives in. Drugs do horrid things to people's bodies, which is in turn destroying something that God values highly. Therefore, doing drugs makes God sad.

Alcohol, on the other hand, is not a bad thing when used in moderation. When you drink so much that you are dog drunk and have lost all sense of yourself and what is right or wrong and are killing brain cells by the second, that is taking something good and blowing it so much out of proportion that it becomes a bad thing. People who are that drunk kill innocent people. People who are that drunk destroy property. People who are that drunk have sex with random people (which they wouldn't have done otherwise). People who are that drunk say things they regret in the morning - if they even remember it. Drinking out of moderation is flat out wrong (and stupid to boot).

Does that mean that it's wrong to have a margarita with your dinner? Or to have a glass of champagne at a wedding? No. Jesus himself drank wine - he even turned water into wine. Clearly, if wine were wrong, Jesus wouldn't have condoned it so frequently. He even mentioned how he was going to drink wine with God the Father once he ascended back into Heaven. That's a pretty clear statement that wine in moderation is okay.

So here's the skinny: Don't do drugs, it's dumb. Drink some wine with your Italian dinner, just don't get drunk.

Day 2: Where You'd Like to Be in 10 Years

Ten years from now...Honestly, I have no clue where I want to be, if the "where" is referring to a specific physical location. If the "where" refers to more of an idea, things I want to have accomplished, then I know a little more of that.

Ten years from now I want:

• To be happily married
• To (hopefully) have some kids
• To be teaching English in a Texas high school
• To be engaged in ministry at church, in whatever capacity He so desires me to be in
• To be living in a house (as opposed to an apartment)
• To have a dog (preferably a black lab)

That's all the plans I really have, for now. I am trying to let life just happen as it happens, go with the flow and follow His direction.

Day 1: My Current Relationship

Where to begin talking about my wonderful relationship? Perhaps at the beginning...Yes, the beginning is good.

New Year's Eve 2009. My best friend, Justin Chapman, and his family invited me over to bring in the new year with them, instead of me sitting home alone like I planned on doing. After hours of family game time, we watched the ball drop in New York and "WOOHOO"ed our way into 2010. Even the moon celebrated the new beginning by shedding her usual silvery light and trading it for blue.

Par family tradition, we had communion to start the year off focused on the One Who Makes All Things New. During the personal prayer time after communion, Justin and I both simultaneously felt Him speak to us, telling us we would marry each other. This hit us out of nowhere - neither of us had even contemplated the idea of dating each other, let alone getting married! We stayed up until 5 A.M. discussing the idea of a relationship and all the ramifications of it. Our decision was that we would not make any hasty decisions, but spend time discussing it and praying about it. One week later we started dating, and we have been together ever since.

Some things only happen once in a blue moon, and she was definitely blue that night.

Over the past year Justin and I have continued to work on our relationship, growing closer to each other and to God. We've had our ups and downs, but we're stronger than ever and can't wait to see our future together.

This New Year's we celebrated one year together. It was the most beautiful night of my life.

30 Day Challenge

Today while skimming through my friends' Facebook posts, I received a challenge: To write a blog every day for 30 days on a predetermined topic. A year ago I would have shrunk from this challenge faster than a lion pounces on a deer. Now, however, I believe I can handle the challenge - more than that, be able to grow as a writer from it. So here goes. For the next 30 days I shall blog daily.

Kinda Blah

I don't know that anyone ever reads these blogs, but should anyone read this particular one, I apologize now. This is going to ramble and not be very coherent.

Technology is amazing. It puts the world in our pocket, it saves us time, it makes life easier. It runs our lives. Think about it. 5 billion of the earth's 6 and a half billion people own cell phones. The cars we drive have computer chips in them, without which the cars cannot operate. Computers hold the records for businesses, schools, churches and governments. The majority of homes in the US have at least one television, and many have more than one. The movie industry (a multi billion dollar shebang) uses fancy schmancy equipment to film and edit the movies they make. The very fact that you are reading this means you own or have access to a computer of some sort. Technology is everywhere.

I love technology. I personally own an iPhone, iPod touch, Dell Inspiron, Mac Mini, TV, blue ray player, and a host of other gadgets too large to name here. I have internet access on my phone and both computers, and I am online every day, most of the day. I text my friends all day every day. I listen to music in my car and on my computer all the time. I watch tv/movies pretty much every day. My life is steeped in technology, and I love it.

But every now and then I just look at my life and say, "What the hell am I actually doing?" There is nothing tangible to show for all the time I spend immersed in techy stuff. It doesn't *really* strengthen my friendships or relationships; in fact, it makes a lot of them weaker. When I see all this stuff, it makes me want go live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, with no electricity or anything super modern. Sometimes I just want to turn everything off and either listen to the quiet or actually DO something. Something like spend time with my friends or make something.

I don't really have an ending to this, because there was never any direction to it. This was my vent, and since I have now run out of things to say, I shall stop writing. Maybe one day I'll find the happy balance between technology and real life.

The Terrific Ms. Trish

Atmosphere. It was good, surprisingly. Having never been to any type of collectible card game tournament before, I didn’t know what to realistically expect. To be safe, I prepared for the worst. I expected the venue to be seedy, and the coordinator to be a greedy person trying to get as much money from me as possible. I expected the other players to be completely win-driven, determined to win at all costs – even if it meant cheating. I expected the items for sale to be ridiculously high-priced. And the expected atmosphere? Well let’s just leave it at “unpleasant” to be nice. Thankfully, I have never been more wrong in my life.

I arrived to find a small but neat anime/hobby store, run by a middle-aged, lively woman affectionately called Ms. Trish by all the regulars at her store. Within minutes it became evident to me that she genuinely cared about every single one of the close to twenty people present – myself included. See, that’s what blew my mind. How could this woman who only just met me care so much about me? Logically, it doesn’t make sense. I pondered this as I mingled and got the feel for the game I was about to play.

The people gathered there that day were of a wide assortment of ages, ranging from 10 up to about mid-thirties. I always considered myself a nerd for even liking anime, let alone for playing a card game based on one. These people, however, seemed to be of a completely new breed to me. Nerd I may be, but not to the level of these people. These are the people who know the ins and outs of every single card ever made, they know the manga and anime forward and backwards, they do things by memory that I have to look at an instruction sheet for, and they do this all with more than just one game. They are the outcasts of today’s society. But that’s not all they are. They are also kind, generous, highly intelligent, and willing to help pretty much anyone. They reminded me of things I should do in the game, things that ended up hurting them. They didn’t get mad if they lost, and they didn’t gloat if they won. They patiently explained things I didn’t understand. They’re the kind of people you want to know your whole life.

Between the rounds, I wandered around the store looking at the merchandise Ms. Trish had for sale. Surprisingly, the items were not expensive. In fact, they were equal to or cheaper than identical items for sale at other places, even places like Wal-Mart or Target. There were also things for sale there I’ve never seen before at other stores, things that would make playing the game much easier. I began to get excited, and quickly realized I could spend multiple hundreds of dollars in the store if I wasn’t careful.

Even though I had a blast playing the game that day, that is not what made the day fantastic – Ms. Trish is. Her outstanding character and evident love for her “sons and daughters” is mind blowing. She runs her store, The Castle, not to make money, but as an outreach center. She provides a safe environment for the outcasts of society in Tyler, Texas, to play and grow and find acceptance and love. She gives her products away like they don’t cost her any money, and she seems more interested in making her “kids” happy than making money. She hosts movie nights at her store, and provides free video game time to any person who walks in her store. She immediately accepts every last person she meets, regardless of their situation in life. I believe she would give you the shirt off her back, if she knew you really needed it.

When I left her store that night, I was refreshed and uplifted. During my three-hour drive home, the main topic of conversation was Ms. Trish and how wonderful she is. How did Ms. Trish make this much of an impact on me? She has such an intimate relationship with Jesus and is so full of His love that there can be no other result than it spilling over to touch every person she comes in contact with. She has been given the gift of hospitality, and she is utilizing it to the fullest. She is Jesus with skin on. Even though I only spent eleven hours in her store, Ms. Trish has left a lasting impression on me. I hold her in the highest esteem and have more respect for her than I do for many people I have known for years. I will never forget her.

If you ever find yourself in Tyler with a few free minutes, you should stop by and get to know this amazing woman of God. (Visit her website at http://the-castle.yolasite.com)