Finding the Sacred in the Secular/ In the Sun

I reaaaaaaally need to start posting more frequently. Lately I have been seeing God working through so many people and in so many things. It could be something so simple as the beautiful weather, a few friends trying to check up and make sure that I'm okay or something like that. The two things that I really see God through are music and small interactions between people. I call this "Finding the Sacred in the Secular" because first off, I feel that God uses anything around us to speak to us. In my case, it's some of the secular music I've been listening to. I'm going to link the song at the end of the post so you guys can listen to it if you want, but I promise you it has nothing to do with the fact that the song has the word God in it. I just find it very easy to relate to, and through that relation God uses it to speak to us and convict us of great things.

The other thing that I see God in, is through small gestures that one would really not think twice about. But if you're open minded to these things and constantly try to listen for anything He has to say, you can get extremely blessed. In my case, an example I've been wanting to write about but got the chance to, took place two weeks ago at the Hillsong United concert. After the concert (which was amazing! :D ), the usual taking pictures with friends commenced. While I was taking pictures with friends, I heard someone scream my name and then I saw a body flying in my direction. I caught the person and struggled to hold onto my camera, and realized that the girl I had in my arms was from my home church. She's currently in high school, but when I was in high school and she was in middle school, she loved to do random things like jump into me, or onto my back and stuff like that. It was great to see her and a bunch of the little kids I know that have grown up soooooo much. But the thing that amazed me was that this little girl who I haven't seen in a long time, still had the faith to completely jump into me knowing that I'd catch her.

A few of you probably see where this is going but I'm going to continue my thought anyway. I honestly wish for that kind of childlike faith. To simply be in amazement of God and jump anywhere for Him, knowing that He will catch me. It's such an exciting thought. I desire for that kind of faith again! :)

Laugh all you want at me for over thinking about these things, but to be honest, if you try it, you might be surprised how God can bless you and speak into your life! :D

When I Grow Up I Want to Be a...

As a kid, there were so many things I wanted to be when I got older. Some of them are utterly ridiculous, and a lot of them I've experimented with only to later find that it was not my calling. Here's a small list (a.k.a. what I can remember) of some of the things I wanted to be when I grew up...

An Inventor- I wanted to be the crazy guy like Edison, or da Vinci, and create all this crazy stuff and do insane experiments, and have my contributions be something beneficial to society. To my memory, this was the first thing I ever wanted to become.

A Skater- After watching Mighty Ducks when I was seven, I wanted to learn how to skate. I've been through hockey, figure skating, and speed skating, and after ten odd years of training for it, it just wasn't for me.

An International Businessman- Upon entering college I entered school, I changed to International Business. My first year at AMI Revolution, God revealed to me how much I could do I followed this path.

Something something Advertising- My current pursuit. I really enjoy playing with the words and creating the pictures for the campaigns I get to work with.

A Lawyer- Something my parents want more than me. I could see myself doing it, but I'm really not sure how I feel about this yet. I guess it's something that definitely needs prayer.

While these things I listed are more of career pursuits, there are some other things that I've wanted to be...

A professional video gamer, an artists/designer for manga, pro chess player, musician, friend, husband, father, and *insert a bunch of random things to fill up this line*.

Today I add to my list... Passion inspired and now God driven... a photographer. While I have been playing around with cameras for a while, ( and while I am really still not that good at it) I really love photography and taking pictures. While I was killing time before going out to dinner with Marvel at Chima today, I was sitting around the bookstore and paging through photography magazines. I could not help but sit in awe, with my jaw dropped, as I saw all the amazing landscapes, and scenic views, that people have taken. The variety of colors and scenery that I got to look at was an amazing reminder of God's creation. It really made me want to travel, explore, and capture these things. To be able to show people scenes of God's creation and the beauty surrounding them throughout the world, seems like such an exciting thing. I really hope I get a chance to do this and continue to improve at it :)

Here's something I took when I was still using my D60 and an 18-55 VR AF-S lens. I love the smile on this boy's face as he's jumping up and trying to get the hula hoop over the tower of buckets. Also the contrast of the basketball court and the shadows on it is really nice :D

Pray Unceasingly / If It's Love

So I realize that I haven't posted anything in over a month and I know deep down inside, my huge readership is heartbroken but relieved to see that I am back writing. The past month has been insane. This month, I've had the weirdest sleep schedule, eating schedule, and pretty much anything else you can think of is just weird. I'm not saying that any of it is a bad thing. It's just...different? A lot of stuff has been going on and scary enough O-Show is later today.

This weekend was probably one of the most trying weekends for me spiritually. SO many things that could have gone wrong did go wrong. While I will not go into details because some of it involves personal matters for some people, I could not help but think of Murphy's Law.

Amidst all of this chaos and confusion going on this weekend, it became truly apparent how amazing God is and how He brings people together. Throughout the day, I've seen close brothers and sisters and relationships get tested. Whenever God blesses, there is always a spiritual attack close by. This past day was definitely one of those days. Even with all these things, God has shown me and taught me so much. To start, I feel that I have gained a better understanding of pray unceasingly. While it's simple to say pray as much as you can, today I tried to pray at every idle moment possible to calm my heart. I kept asking God for love, patience, peace, and kindness. And while, yes I know it is a basic thing to ask for the fruits of the spirit, I honestly felt that this weekend, it was something I was in desperate need for.

Today we closed Overflow with prayer as we usually do. Looking at the faces of my brothers and sisters, it was very easy to tell that we were all worn out and stretched pretty thin. But here's where God really blessed me. Aside from all of the struggling with one another and some bitterness, closing prayer was probably one of the most blessing prayer times I've had in a long time. To shout out and cry with brothers and sisters after knowing that only by God could the day have been completed, is something I will never forget. Today was such a desperate day for prayer, and God DEFINITELY answered and blessed me.

Another thing that I've actually let rot in my unposted blogs was this thought for the past two weeks. I entitle it If It's Love after a great song by Train. Sometimes things get tough and people feel like they're a burden or sometimes the activities may seem like a burden. But even though so much stuff has been going on, I can honestly say I don't feel burdened. If it's love, ITS SOOOOOOOO EASY to give it your all for whatever it is! And even while this epiphany was tested this weekend, I still firmly believe this. If it's love and God is love, we got this :)

I'll leave the video here for your viewing entertainment... :D