Beauty of Relationships

Possibly one my favorite songs, I love the opening verse:

"There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard,
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things,
Like a shoebox of photographs,
With sepiatone loving,
Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart ,
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy,
And sometimes life can be deceiving,
I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together"

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Hey, hey! Don't jump to conclusions! I'm talking about relationships in general! Yeesh!
This is just something I personally take for granted everyday. In a weird way, our interactions with others come done to one thing: the investment of time.

I can break everything down, money invested = how much you made in given time with your given wage. When I tip a waitress, I don't necessarily think of a dollar amount, or percentage of the bill, but how grateful I was that she took the time to be my server. (It's her job, I know, but continue the thought with me...)

Watching a parent raise their kids, if you're ever ungrateful to your parents for what they've done, just take the time to think about how much they've sacrificed for you to be where you are today. Simply, meeting the necessities of a infant are draining enough, but to invest in their character leads to a grueling amount of work.

When a friend takes initiative to help you out. When you read that note you received in passing period before English from your girlfriend. When your guts are spilled all over the table and you look around and you're not the only one trying to pull the problem together. Honestly, if you sit down and think about it, just talking with someone and having others take the time to encourage you is a beautiful thing.

So, speed! Tickets only cost money, you can't buy back the time you waste driving the speed limit! Just joking, think about it, though. Maybe you'll get excited about these things like I do. If not, whatever. *Sigh* Time to move on, I get it. Haha.

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Luke 9:61-62 (NIV)

⁶¹ Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." ⁶²Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

This reminds me of when I'm driving at night, and that annoying person with their high-beams enters the freeway behind you. Sometimes, I just want to rip my rear-view mirror off and throw it at them. It's time to get to work! We are a new creation, there's no reason to look back because God still isn't done with you yet! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Don't think about where you've come from, focus on where God's taking you. I don't think I really need to say much, Jesus says it better, anyways. Read it up! Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

All right, now I'm done for the day. Keep it classy, San Diego.

-Joe

Near Death Experience

I've wanted to blog this out for ages, and, because I can't sleep, here I go!

My friend Wayne, who I met here in Blaine, is a very adventurous man. When I first met him, he was finalizing his preparation to join a Mission team to Mongolia. The summer before he met me, he went up the summit of a peak, the North Face of the Twin Sisters
and had a blast, surely I wanted to join in after describing how beautiful it was up at the summit.

It took weeks of planning, but I was incredibly willing to see how far I'd go. Wayne was telling me how much stronger he was than last year, and knowing how much stronger I am than Wayne, I felt more than ready enough for it. So we drove out, and began our trip.

To get to the base of the mountain we had to drive some back roads to the gate of a logging development. From the gate we had to navigate through logging trails to the trail head. From the car to our camping spot was about... 8 miles. Quite the hike with our abundance of supplies (probably about 40 pounds in gear, each). Pretty scenic hike. I really enjoyed it, actually.

As we actually climbed up the mountain, however, it was awesome to see the changes in the vegetation we ran into. Trees began to shorten and look more rustic. The shape of plants were different, it reminded me of Lord of the Rings. (I spaced on taking pictures, at times...) As we approached the camping spot, Wayne noticed a difference from the last time he were here. Less snow. We came at the end of Summer, whereas he came in the beginning of Spring the year before. No big deal. After about a two mile hike, we came to a patch of snow. Gathered the snow into some bags and brought them back to camp. After a little supper (De-hydrated Sweet and Sour Pork, I think... it was delicious!) we went to bed.

The campsite alone almost made the whole trip worth it. Clouds would come and brush over the ridge we were on. It was awesome looking into the distance and barely seeing the ocean we drove two hours away from. Breathtaking. I wish pictures could truly recreate what your eyes pull in.

The next morning, we woke up a little later than we planned. But we were excited to summit. After a little prep of our summit pack and a bit of breakfast we began the scramble. (Oh, Wayne and his tea... delicious tea!!)

It was pretty hectic. I'm going to be brutally honest, I'm excited about trying this again next year, but it was very dangerous. Make every movement count, remember the three points of contact rule, and think about your movements! I felt great the whole time, Crossfit has definitely paid off! Running into 'false summits' was aggravating, but it made the actual summit all the better. There were times we had to back track and if we made mistakes, it could have been fatal. Over-all, Wayne and I were quite patient and nothing was too tough for us to handle... :)

The Summit was awesome. The guessing that ran through your mind as you approached 'false summits' was absent when you actually got there... you knew this was the summit. We both ran separate ways to race up there, and I ran the long way. I ended up looping around and running to where Wayne was, haha. From the summit we could see Mount Baker pretty much at eye level. Awesome. Gazing over to see the South Face was breathtaking as well. I we could've stayed there all night taking it in. After our time admiring the summit, we decided to head back to camp and head home. Wayne was pretty excited to show me how to glacade.

This is the rough part for me. Wayne and I began shuffling down the actual North Face of the mountain. (Background information, the north side of a mountain receives the least ammount of sun, therefore it's covered in snow. Theorhetically, we should be able to just slide down the snow, and hike a bit horizontally and be at the camp in about 1/3 the time it took to climb up.)
What happened was, because it was summer, the snow wasn't the gentle pack it would've been if we came in the beginning of summer. It was actually quite packed and solid. I planned on jumping onto the snow and waiting for Wayne to show me how to glacade, but as soon as I landed onto the ice I began to slide.
Gaining in speed I frantically tried digging my hands into the snow, but to no avail. I screamed a bit, but quickly quit. In my head and heart I said, "All right, Jesus. Here I come."
I probably slide about 70 yards down ice, and probably rolled down about 30 more yards of rocks, afterward I just sat there and waited patiently for Wayne, hoping he'd find me. I didn't think I would make it out of there alive.
Wayne, came up and handed me my hat (my brother and I got making hats on my birthday, I love that hat!) and told me it's time to head back to camp and get me to the hospital. We made it to camp, I probably had to sit and rest every 10-15 minutes, but Wayne kept pushing me on. At the campsite, Wayne let me eat the rest of the food we had left from Breakfast, and we began hiking back toward the car.

Remember, we had to hike over to the campsite, and from the campsite 8 miles back to my car.
Additional information: I drove in with my manual transmission Mazda. Wayne doesn't (didn't... haha) know how to drive a stick shift. :) He quickly learned. We ended up showing up at the hospital around two in the morning. We walked in, my face covered in blood (head wounds bleed like crazy), and I jokingly said, "I need help." The receptionist quickly arose and said, "Yes, you do!"

The rest of the night was smiles. I was joking around with everyone, nurses, the doctor, and everyone I knew who visited me. It's weird how much you appreciate life after moments like those. I also found out that my relationship with Jesus is real.

I'm literally going to copy and paste this onto my blog site with a few edits. Hope it doesn't seem too impersonal from your perspective, know I wrote it here, on email, first. Also, on my blog I'm going to throw in my pictures that I took. Be careful, the last picture Wayne took, he said, "You have to see how bloody you are!" ... Thanks, Wayne.

Yeah, I don't need to edit it... it's the same story, either way. Hope you enjoyed it!

Technique vs. Technology

My Nike Shox look gnarly covered in mud...

Oh! Basically, I've been learning a lot about running 'properly.'

My question is, do you rely on Technique or Technology?

Forces in Running?
Gravity, Ground Reaction, muscle elasticity, muscle contraction, torque (the re-direction of energy), and, finally, momentum or inertia.

I'm not an expert on this, I thought it was be an awesome picture, so I jumped on it. If you fear running because of the 'risk' or injury (soreness, etc...), you should ask yourself the question I started this blog with: Do you rely on technique or technology?

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Goodness. I've been thinking about this workout for a while... I think it's going to kill me. It looks a little something like this:

Workout:
'Scaled Up' Angie
50 - 'Zen' Pull Ups (A deadhang pull up performed with legs in criss-cross apple-sauce.. haha)
50 - Ring Dips
50 - Band Rotations (Each side, I would've done KTE, but my back doesn't agree with the movement right now...)
50 - Full Squat Tuck Jumps

I sliced the reps in half and threw on 10# ankle weights.
Basically, one of the toughest workouts I've ever done. The hardest part of the workout, surprisingly, was the the band rotations with the 5# ankle weights on each arm.

Artwork

I have tons of pieces, but these are the only ones I care to share... haha.
Enjoy!

You already have their love, now earn their respect!

Goodness... Can't sleep! Sleep cycle is messed up because I stayed up so late last night blogging, too. Oh well!

Ephesians 6:1-4

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

At times, I felt like telling my dad all of these verses. How did that go? It sucked. The problem was, as he said, "I'm the father, you're the son." Simply, I didn't need to tell me dad this. That's not for me to do. What I was supposed to do was obey the first verse... That's it!

My dad has made me cry more than anyone else on this planet. I love him SO much. He's taught me so many life lessons, and showed me how to love without saturating everything in emotion (something I still barely understand). My dad and I are opposites in the personality spectrum because I received a lot of my characteristics from my mother. As I age, however, I'm learning desperately to be like my father. He's such a great dad, and I want to share what I've learned from him to my son.

What I am trying to get at with this blog is this:
You don't gain the respect of your parents by parenting them; you receive respect from your parents by shutting your mouth and being an obedient child.

Honestly, there isn't much to say at all about this subject. All we can do now is pray for the Spirit to help us obey!

Hey, Jesus, thanks for my dad. I love that guy to death, and You know how hard I've worked to try and earn his love, and all the while it was there. God, help me to listen to all he says to me, because I earnestly believe he's my... 'parent from the Lord' as the verse describes. Lord, bless his relationship with you so we may get this father-son relationship down for once. :) Thanks for everything, Jesus.

Anyone who knows about my relationship with my papa knows how much this song makes me... CRY!



"What a wonderful Maker
What a wonderful Savior
How majestic Your whispers
And how humble Your love
With a strength like no other
And the heart of a Father
How majestic Your whispers
What a wonderful God"

-Joe

Getting Involved

'Comfort Zone Shadows'

I've been thinking about this for a while. There seems to be... less and less mentoring going on today in the upbringing of individuals. I really think a lot of concepts are being lost because of our generation's inability to teach, AND listen.
It's a tragedy, really.

There's a couple of things I think could help resolve this issue, I like to think of it as 'comfort zone shadows.' Think back to your years in school... branching out, trying to grow in character and popularity. There was a need to hang out with someone who was bolder than you. They stretched you and challenged. More than anything, they equipped you with skills to be successful. All of your best friends may have been major dorks, but there was something about them that you really enjoyed. I bet you can now think of the hundreds of ways you emulate other people. Like your high school best friends, there's a need to surround yourself with people who are successful where you're passionate. The same also applies for areas that you're extremely weak in.

Need for maturing youth - A wise generation.
1 Timothy 4:12-13 Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.

Cliched, I know, but let me continue this idea with:

2 Timothy 2:22-26 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Paul was trying to lead Timothy to be more than a young man. This took a lot of work, probably years of investment, and Paul wasn't exactly your empty scheduled man. He planned YEARS in advance just to visit Churches he shared the Gospel with, all the while sharing the Good News. Examples in Speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. Must be able to teach, not resentful. Pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Sounds like a lot more than a lot of men I know today.

Beauty of Mentoring - Apprenticeship the old 4-Year Degree

I guess there was a time where Paul's story with Timothy was a common occurrence. I don't need to know the Bible inside and out (though it's an effective tool...), there's a lot things I can learn that aren't exactly spelled out in the Bible. Jesus calls us to the great commission, saying, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." My question is, "What does that look like?"

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Basically, I want to get involved at a Foursquare Church in Bellingham. Over the last... year I found a thousand ways to talk me out of doing anything, but it's pretty clear what I should do. This song is my favorite song on the c.d. because it speaks something to me. Check it out:



- Joe

I threw my back out... AGAIN!?

I threw my back doing a workout, here's what it was SUPPOSED to look like...
Workout:
10 Rounds
3 Weighted Pull Ups
6 KB Snatches (Each Arm)
9 Goblet Squats
All exercises performed with 20# Kettlebell



Threw my back out doing a KB Snatch, so I ended up doing a load of muscle ups... *sigh*

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Reading this morning in Romans good stuff!

Romans 1:11-12
I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong -- that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

I'm not 'gifted' by any means. Sometimes I feel discouraged entering a room filled with Christians, "What do you have to offer, Joe?" I don't have anything at all.
I was looking up OC Supertone songs to throw onto this blog, and of course you ready comments, and I read that a gentlemen said,

"I admire those who are christian, people with faith tend to be all round nicer people (real christians, not those ****** who call themselves followers but cannot hold the sentiment it represents.... I.E George Bush Etc.)
I personally believe Jesus and God are just symbols of hope for people to look up to and live for "

More and more, I think I'm growing to be more and more calvanist. It may be that I feel like there's no way to win that man to Christ. See, I have faith (Now faith is being sure of what I hope for and certain of what I cannot see [Hebrews 11:1]) that Jesus more than a symbol. He happened, and time cannot de-value the gift that He offers for me. I want to lay down the best thoughts I can muster, but this conflict baffles me. How do you encourage someone who doesn't have any faith at all?

Sweet Supertones song I ended up deciding on... it's a cover performed by some tall guy... haha.



- Joe

Getting back into the swing of things...

When I first moved out and lived with my brother I felt I was progressing... I was COMPLETELY independent of my family, I would often use quite a bit of my extra money to help my sister out, I was doing well in school (I could actually afford tuition fees), and every workout I did (Crossit, Oh yeah!) seemed to bring exponential growth.

Now it seems like I'm stagnant:
My devotional life sucks.
I can't afford to do anything. (Medical bills, BACK TAXES?, Freggin' Utilities)
I pushed school off two quarters to make enough money to go back... and it seems I've accomplished nothing there.

The only thing that seems 'all right' in my life, is my physical fitness. And even this I'm pushing aside because of my back issues. I don't want to fulfill a 'to-do' list, I don't want to merit my life back into shape... I just want to get back into the swing of things: pay my parents back (at least a bit... haha), finish up school!, learn how to swim proficiently, and learn how to dance a mean Samba.

I'm going to enlist in a year and that's final! Hopefully, I can take two classes this summer... at least! I'd love to get back into school in Spring (1-2 weeks?!) Jesus, that's where You come in :)

I keep smiling, I don't know why. I haven't been this stressed since those first two weeks of me moving out: living with my brother in the Frat house in B-ham, taking care of tuition, books, and basic enrollment all by myself, and working like man in Capitalist America! Tough times, but then I had everything to gain. This 'venting' isn't getting me anywhere... I'm going to file my FAFSA and see when is the earliest I can go to school.