A Return to the Blogosphere

I have been away. Not physically, but I obviously have not so much as posted a blog in over two months. For that I apologize. I have no good reason for why I have been so absent. If you must need a reason, chalk it up to laziness (which is coincidentally what I have given up for lent). Please, allow me to catch you up on some of the highlights for last quarter and try to point you to where I expect to be going.
Let's see, last quarter I got a new co-leader for my bible study, in which I saw three guys really bond together and grow. I applied for a summer project, but that will be mentioned below. I went to my first engagement party for one of my best friends which was a blast. I went to class after class and passed them all again, by the grace of God alone. I experienced new things, learned a lot, baked and cooked a ton of new things. I saw my Clippers go up, and down, and back up again. Boy, where the heck did ten weeks go? The quarter was not all rosy though; each quarter brings with it a new set of unique struggles and gentle ambiances. I got rejected by a girl that I care(d) for a lot. Twice. I went through a period where I felt unable to feel, as paradoxical as that sounds. I was under spiritual attack through most of it. However, God rescued from all of those things. He gave me two amazing weekends out of IV with people I Love. He taught me about my interests and my plans. I experienced so very much Grace. It was a quarter to be remembered that will no doubt blur into the rest as more quarters come streaming along.
I'm on Spring Break currently. It's a time to look ahead, without forgetting to enjoy the place that God has me in currently. I'm still not totally sure about summer, but I do feel like I have a clearer picture of where God wants me and I expect to know fully before this weekend is done. This quarter, this spring quarter, features so many unique opportunities that I look forward to so much: I'm taking another film class, science-fiction film. Avengers comes out, a movie I have been very much looking forward to, just two days after my birthday. I have been baking a ton, going through ingredients at astonishing rate (we're talking 20+ lbs. of flour in under 5 weeks). I get to live, for ten more weeks in IV this quarter. I get the opportunity to see how all of my BotA planning will pay off. And I get to see a community come alive once again. Yes, this quarter promises to be an exciting one, followed by a summer that will be growthful for all sorts of reasons. But through it all, the underlying theme is to trust God, with all of me. My theme verse for this next quarter is 1 Corinthians 10:24-"Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others." That is what I want my life to be characterized by this quarter, a selfless, humble, God-centered yet others-serving approach. Stay tuned.
~Good Luck and Good Eats

How to be a Child

It's back to business in IV. I say that but most people would gladly come to this place, the beach and the people and all, even if it means getting back to business. Personally, I had a great break, caught to catch up with people not seen in many moons, but boy is it good to be back. I cannot explain all of the emotions that I experience the first week of any quarter-my mind races back and forth, shuffling through the classrooms in an attempt to find mine, I see faces, one after another after another of people my heart leaps for. I get to spend time individually and divide my time in my own mind of how to see and properly experience all of the wonder that these people bring me, each in their own way. All of that, while trying to sift out what God is telling me and trying to take time to stop and listen to my savior whilst catching up on basketball and crashing classes left and right. I need those times to just sit with my Father, listening and talking. Otherwise, I so easily feel overwhelmed with the magnitude of it all. Yeah, it is overwhelming, a dashing start to a quarter with only moments to stop and catch my breath.
The one thing that God has been showing me in all of this is how to be a child. I think last year I developed a strong desire to become a man, a MAN. This is a good thing, however I think that I, like many people, got so caught up with being an adult and trying to effectively be a man of God that I lost sight of what it really means to be a child of God. I have been thinking a lot about childhood this week and how a child wholeheartedly depends on his father, assuming he has a father and that the father is indeed a true man. The child will not cross the street without holding his father's hand, he will not stay up late without first informing his father, when he is in a conundrum and needs advice, he goes to his father, he trusts his father to provide for him without trying to constantly second-guess if there is a better way to act. All of this is very applicable to how my relationship with my heavenly father should be. I need to rely on Him, to provide, to make everything better, to watch me as I cross the street, to stop me from making dire mistakes while letting me make the ones that teach me greater lessons. I literally need to emulate the attitude of a child towards his father in order to learn more fully how to act towards mine, my Heavenly Father. It's only in this that I will learn more fully what a child of God is.
Treats of the week: Oreo-pudding cookies. Absolutely divine.
IV Peep of the week: Goes to the girl I met at traitor joe's who told me she had class the next day and then did not remember me when she sat right in front of me.
~Good Luck and Good Eats
Cody

Another Year Gone By

Well, it's official-the year is 2012. It feels weird even typing those words. The point of a new year is not simply to celebrate, to drunkenly enjoy the turning of another day, the point of a new year is to first be thankful. We must not forget to be utterly, humbly thankful for the way that God's grace has shaped our lives in the past year. God's grace has been everywhere in the past year, and has made a definite, tangible impact on my life. Secondly, the point of new years is an introspective one, an opportunity to take a look at past events and try to become a better, more cohesive person.
For me 2011 was an interesting year, to say the least. The beginning of it was winter quarter last year and the beginning of OLF. Ever since the start of 2011, I've allowed God to work within me more than at any other time, I have cared more about God's opinion than anybody else's opinion. I was more broke in 2011 than in any years recently prior to it, but also cared less than ever before. I declared a major, philosophy, and bogged down my schedule accordingly. I led three seperate bible studies, with three different people, all amazing in their own right. In 2011 I learned how to bake, and then I learned how to bake better. June of 2011 saw me galabanting off to Santa Monica to tell people about the greatest gift ever given and in the process watched the Dallas Mavericks decimate the Lakers and then dispatched the Heat in the NBA finals. I met one of my best friend Chris Radford and many people I got to know much better, a trend I most definitely hope continues in the next 365 days. I'll list some of the names of people whom I feeel have made an impact in my life that I did not know in 2010 or prior. Conner, Lindsey, Kenny, Angie, Jessica, Andrea, Keila, T-Crown, Andrew, and many otherr, I do not have close to enough time to name everyone, those are just the names currently in my head. Ultimately, 2011 was such a joyous year for me, and that can only be on account of me allowing God's Love to seep into more parts of my life. I definitely have more exciting times ahead in 2012, but I nonetheless will not readily forget the people or events that allowed me to have so much Joy and divine communtiy this past year. The older I get the more I love people, the more I love people, the more I love being alive and where I am. I am so thankful for Who God has made me into and how he continues to shape me, and use me to shape others. As well, I started this blog this past year, and I hope that you have enjoyed it as well, it will continue this year, undoutbedly.
Restaurant of the week: Fonda Don Chon's. A delicious mexican buffet. Probably the best type of buffet.
~Good Luck and Good Eats

What now?

The time after Christmas but before New Year's always seemed very strange to me. For a month and half everything about our country-economy, popular culture, music, etc-all builds up to one single day. But it is just a day, 24 hours in length, which passes with the same veracity as any other day. Sure it is a special day, filled with children's joy, large portions of food, and seeing people otherwise we would not, but my point is that it is one day, one day. After those 24 hours pass it seems like the only appropriate response when I wake up the next day on the 25th of December, is to say, "What now?" What do we do now? It seems like our country kind of says that as well. There is still another holiday but a week away, and a month and a half of build-up left in 24 hours. I know that now is when God can do the most work in me, now that the massive distraction of the 25th day of december is gone. Of course, what the day represents is so much deeper than what we make it.
I sometimes wonder what December 26th (or the equivalent because there is almost no certainty that the Christ was actually born on December 25th) was like after the savior was born. That had nine months of build-up, more if you factor in Sarah and all of the angelic visitors. And yet it still passes in just 24 hours. How different were the lives of those two people, who had checked into a manger, were after just 24 hours. I wonder if Mary awoke the next morning to the sound of her Lord crying and thought to herself 'What now?' What would she do-with a baby and yet not even married yet? People would still talk; I think so often the courage of Mary is overlooked, everybody knowing that the baby was born outside of marrige.
The reality is, it is not just 24 hours. The difference for Mary between the two days was that her little child, this world's Redeemer, had come, the long-prophesied, long-awaited day had arrived. Surely she asked herself, 'What now?'
Treats of the week: A berry cobbler for Christmas, mint inception cookies, peanut-butter marshmallow chocolate pudding cookies.
Restaurant of the week: Souplantation. Nothing more needs be said.
~Good Luck and Good Eats and a Merry Christmas.

The Little Things

Although I do not profess to be a hardcore fan, as my masculinity would take quite a hit if I did, I do enjoy a few of Colbie Callait's songs. One of them, entitled "The Little Things" begins with the line, "The little things you do to me, are, taking me over, I want to show you..." Combined with a kind melody the song ends up being exactly that-melodious. This post is not really about the song, I just want to give a little bit of a backdrop. I think that we should take Colbie's advice to heart, and let the little, little things that God does take us over, transform us. We, and as an extension I, tend to pray for God to transform us, we pray and hope for large, grand things in the hopes of seeing and experiencing something actually wonderful. However, although there is nothing wrong with praying big and we should never cease in doing so, we often get lost in looking for the magnificent and fail to see how God uses the mundain to transform us. God often repeats exatly the first lines of Colbie's song in our lives, and uses small, seemingly inconsequential things to make us look more like Him. For instance, a few days ago I got an early Christmas present-a new jacket. A new jacket is really nothing at all, now please do not misunderstand me, I am incredibly thankful for a much needed new jacket, I'm just saying that a new jacket is simply that-a mechanism for keeping me warm. The way that God can use something so simple and eternally insignificant is awestriking. As I wear the new jacket I feel more confident, for seemingly no reason. I have not worn a new jacket in nearly two years, and the wearing of a new one helps me feel more like a leader and have more faith in myself, something that I have beem earnestly, humbly praying for. God has been using so simple an item as a new jacket, to transform my view of myself and answer a much-needed prayer. As well, just by bumping into my dear old friend Yassir, the largest man I have ever known, God encourages me. Simply running into this man encourages me while I am away from home, even though we made no further plans to hang out, simply exchanged phone numbers.
All that I am saying by all of this is to encourage you to continue to keep an eye out for the small things, the "little things" that God uses to do big things inside of us. Yes, God uses big things to change us, but be thankful for the little events that God uses, the tiny little things that appear at first so insignificant, but later reveal their true value, inside of our lives. All of it means one very important, very little yet ever so vast statement of truth: God Loves us more than we could ever fully know.
~Good Luck and Good Eats.

Missing

Something's missing. I guess it would be better said that something is missed, or someplace. I miss IV so much it is absurd. I finally now see so much more that IV, SB, Real Life, these are my home. You don't miss someplace as much as I do IV, or people as much as I do the inhabitants, without having an invested part of your life there. My heart is in IV, and that part of it I miss. Yes, I am on Christmas break, seeing people I have not seen in months, years even. I'm seeing friends and family and God is using that to refresh me in new and vibrant ways. I have been having a good deal of fun on break, and have been able to keep myself busy for at least the fist weekend. However, there is still such a strong part of me that wants so badly to be back there, with my community. I wrote a bit about this in "Christmas Sadness", but that was much more anticipatory. This is experiential. God is using the absence of community to break my heart of it all over and again. It's interesting, I have a theory that God sometimes intentionally takes away our blessings and gifts in order to allow us to stop taking them for granted. I think this current lack of community is doing just that for me. Understand, I am far more invested in my community than most others and my heart is broken for it with great intensity every morning when I wake up , but it is still there, I still take it for granted, as I do with many of Christs' wondrous blessings in my life. It's given me new visions for the community and has me stoked on it all over again. I sincerely Love each and every person in this wonderful community. Again, understand that I do not use words lightly. The word wonderful should not be used casually, and I do not do so. I honestly believe that this community is truly, uniquely wonderful. God has thankfully been building my confidence over break, or perhaps showing me confidence that I did not really know was there. I plan to use this and the way that God is teaching me to view myself as a leader, when I go back to continue to pour into this community in new ways, God willing. Like I said, I do not use words lightly. To miss means something so much deeper than how we think of it. I actually miss the community though. I want it back.
Something is missing.
Restaurant of the Week: Del Taco. Taco Bell's cousin, but better, more quality and cheaper.
~Good Luck and Good Eats.

Thursday Post-Concrete Waves

It's dark out here. I used to be a fisherman so I am well aware of what it is like to be out on the waves at night, with no lights in sight. That life seems so far gone; now I am a 'fisher of men' as the teacher called it. All twelve of us are. I'm not sure where He is now. He told us to get into the boat and go on toward the other side. That was last night; it's now nearly dawn. Walking with Him, following Him, has been so different. I used to be a fisherman, trying to catch fish to sell and feed hundreds. A short time ago He used a few fish to feed thousands. Who is this man? We ask ourselves this daily, curious as to who can do such things.
We have been out on this boat all night, the winds making hard to travel. We are all exhausted from the strength it has taken to steady the boat. All around us is nothing, nothing but darkness and ocean all around, in every direction. Wait, what is that?
"John, what is that?" I motion toward the figure, still quite a ways out, but undoubtedly heading for our boat. Instantly a quiet murmur starts among us twelve, oars and sails dropped in favor of anxious gaze. Some say it is Him, others a ghost, all are terrified. I have never seen someone traverse the waves like they are Roman-paved roads.
We cannot see its face, just its shape. The only noise out here is the battering waves and the frightening whispering of twelve men, trying to undertake a task that goes far beyond our lives. Thomas was first to speak something audible.
"It's a ghost!" His deceleration causes a commotion among us all, none quite sure how to react to the news.
"Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." This voice comes from the figure. The voice is somewhat muffled from the waves around me, but that gentleness is unmistakable. The calmness despite utter darkness and terror can only come from Him. A hush has fallen over us, nobody knows whether or not to believe.
"Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water." My mouth shapes the words, but this cannot just be my spirit speaking.
"Come," is His one-word response, an invitation to get out of the boat and walk to Him. All of the others' eyes are fixed on me, waiting to see if I have the faith to obey the Teacher. Hands shaking, I grab the edge of the boat, I climb down and onto the water, and miraculously do not sink! I start to walk, cautiously towards Him, not knowing how this is even possible. I take one step, then another, the waves are like concrete. Suddenly, the waves catch my attention, I see them crashing against the boat, and just a few feet shy of the Teacher, I take my eyes off of Him. I start to sink as I feel the icy liquid beginning to traverse my body. I do the only thing I can think of and call to Him.
"Lord, save me!" He grabs my hand, and lifts me out of the water, helping me back to the boat. I don't know what to say, I cannot even look at Him now. Then He speaks.
"You of little faith, why did you doubt?" His words are demanding, yet forgiving. Thought-provoking, yet not condemning. As we climb into the boat the winds die, the others worship Him. I look, not wanting to face the Teacher, or the others. He touches my back. With one touch I feel forgiveness, I know that He will not send me away from this. All I can do is fall on my knees with the others, in tears, and try and hash out some praise, to the only one, who is Worthy.