Goodbye, 2011

It has come to this. Two Thousand-Eleven is drawing to a close. This is the last Tuesday this calendar year will ever see. To commemorate the closing of this chapter as it prepares to be catalogued into the annals of history I present some thoughts I hope will take root in 2012 as well as some thoughts I HOPE won't follow us once the ball has dropped. 

What I have seen this year is a nation concerned. Everything that happens seems to affect our hearts one way or another. Revolts and uprisings around the world spurred a disdain for the status quo and certain appearances of unfairness in our own society. Foreign policies and entanglements caused military families and their friends to reevaluate stances concerning these issues. The almighty dollar has taken ill and is struggling to find enough faith in the general public to maintain his lofty position as the driving force of life. 

Each of these events has triggered thoughts in the minds of people across the globe. These thoughts have spawned critical ideas, musings, temperamental feelings and, above all, a desire for something better than what is currently available. The apathy that once reigned is beginning to give way to the tide of dissatisfaction sweeping across the masses. I truly hope that this hunger for stronger ideals follows into the next several years. I pray that the yearning for something concrete, righteous, and pure spurs fellow pursuers to reach for the lofty goals of holiness and noble character that have long been abandoned. I long for the days when peace, faith, love, honesty, and similar virtues are commonplace and not just an obscure spectacle to behold...

What I hope dies with 2011 is the attitude of subjectivity. My favorite syllogism is the argument that "we can't possibly know for certain" anything regarding truth. (I don't even know who I'm quoting; let it stand as a general statement embodied in the nature of the attitude/argument I'm opposing.) When this argument is turned to the realm of science it creates skepticism which can be a useful tool for even more critical analysis before blind acceptance of perceived facts. BUT, when this concepts purports to take on spirituality, philosophy and religious realms, it simply serves as a smoke screen for those who can't handle accountability. 

To say with any certainty that "there's no way to be sure," one must first be certain that there, indeed, is "no way to be sure." In finding certainty, the statement is self defeating. (Same logic applies to finding absolutes and atheists claiming there is no God.) In order to make claims regarding the absence of absolutes, one must know absolutely, objectively, omnisciently... (A characteristic commonly and solely attributed to God.) No, the argument of certainty is simply a scapegoat to the weak-willed, shallow conscienced individual who would rather pin the blame on ignorance and deny truth than to accept something as obvious as the nose on their face (which may or may not exist... along with their brain. No one can know for sure, right?).

I sincerely detest the failing that has occurred in our country the past several decades. In our pursuit for self-esteem and convenience, we have whored out our once thriving intellect for the comforts afforded by entertainment. More people know the intimate goings on of our national celebrities (Madonna, Britney, Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber [who really isn't even that popular...], and others) than they do about the founding fathers! They know more about pop-culture, movies and music than they do about where they come from... You don't need to hire an fortune teller to figure out why the majority of our nation's kids don't have a future! If you don't know where you come from, there's NO WAY to understand where you're going!

Knowledge is at our fingertips in ever-increasing measures yet the information we have continually chosen to assimilate and digest has no nutritional value to our minds!

"Schools are to blame!" the parents chant. The nation rallies to fix the problem with more funding. More organization, more programs, more efforts... People... the failing is not within the schools. The failing is with people! Parents haven't instilled the love of knowledge into their children. Children haven't learned to function within the parameters of society. The failing isn't on the uneducated, but on those who HAVE been educated.

Those who are educated either don't fight to win the battle of ignorance, OR they fight the wrong way and allow for the polarization effect to greaten and create an unpalatable situation between themselves and the very people that NEED the knowledge the former boasts. We casually accept the degradation of the English language without struggle. We idly allow a plethora of foul language, debase humor and unintelligible noises become the standard of comedy and literacy. We refuse to RAISE the bar, rather we lower it as to not offend the lowest common denominator... All in the name of popularity. Folks, if you continually lower the bar, why fool yourself with the nomenclature of "standards" at all? Why even have the bar? You will not EVER be able to raise it back without violent protests (probably with shoddy yet catchy rhymes).

I pray that the desire to once again capture the bright hope of enlightened education surges in the hearts of Americans. I long to see the day when a kid's dream is not simply to achieve a new high score on their playstation or scrounge enough money for a new tattoo, but that they'll take pride in having memorized Shakespeare and the Bible. I wish for the time when people could be contemplating astro-physics in line at McDonald's while choosing from the dollar menu, or engaging in a fast-paced game of chess over fries instead of pushing buttons on a brightly lit LED screen. Most of all, I long for the day when we cater to developing brilliance rather than coddling the dim and dull... simply saying "it's ok... you're still special." All the while our lies tack in another nail on wisdom's coffin. We stroke our egos while slowly poisoning our minds...

Truly, I pray for 2012 as a rude but necessary awakening. I desire the pompous pseudo-intellectuals to wake up! That they utilize the tools they claim to have learned to better mankind instead of building their own bubble of warped philosophical deludedness. Being smart doesn't make you BETTER than anyone else... It simply gives you the greater responsibility to extend and perpetuate the light from the bulb that appears over your head and ignite the dim and flickering bulbs of those around you. Illuminate 2012. Don't idly let it burn out...

My New Year's Resolution is to let my light shine before men both Spiritually and Intellectually. I want that people should become illuminated just from being near me. 

What's YOUR New Year's Resolution? You only have a few days to figure it out!

Christmas Eve Eve - A New Tradition

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! 

Ok, I know that celebrating the day before the day before Christmas is a little strange and redundant, but if you're as excited as I am about Christmas then you'll understand. (FYI, I'm one of those nuts who cheered when they had Christmas decorations coming out in tandem with the Halloween junk.) I won't appologize for it. I just love Christmas

Christmas is rough for the guy living single. Wait... before you jump the gun and assume that statement is going to lead to me qhining and pining about being alone, let me nip that thought in the bud and assue you that's not the case! It's rough because there are so many people I forget or am unable to say "Merry Christmas" to the way I would like. See, when I was still living at home my folks would help remind me who needs to be remembered and even supply gifts or cards to send to special someones (like Grandma... YIKES! I FORGOT GRANDMA!). Even in college, I had the excuse of "I'm in college." And that excuse is accepted without question. College students being just a step above the homeless in terms of social responsibility.

But living life on your own, you learn that in between the daily grind of wok and trying to stay sane after work, there remains little time (or energy) to go through the lists of people I know and determine who I should send Christmas too. I barely have the ability to keep my house clean, cat fed and laundry clean. Although, I did free up just enough energy to keep my place from being designated a disaster area by shaving my head. You wouldn't believe how much time can be saved by not shampooing AND conditioning. 

What's more, Christmas cards are EXPEN$IVE! Hallmark, I love that you captured my thoughts on Christmas and made a very nice looking card... but for $4.50 I could get a person a peppermint latte at Starbucks, which I think would be better appreciated that a colorful piece of cardboard that won't even be remembered come January. Next year, I wish Santa would bring me an inexpensive yet personalized way to remember and tell everyone I know "Merry Christmas."

Interjected story time! I have to tell you this. Consider it my Christmas gift to you for reading this quasi-holiday blog. Yesterday I joined a crack team of experienced movers to help relocate the Florida District office of the Wesleyan Church. Well, among the usual characters of heavy things that need to make it through a tiny door and into a U-haul (conference tables, desks, plastic trees, etc...) was this one particular object that I named "ARRRGHBINKHGFGDCGFDFJGKHOITURYT)(*&%^$#@$%^&*(." Ok, if you can't determine what that was from the name, let me describe it more articulately and then you'll understand. 

This item happened to be a filing cabinet. Not just any filing cabinet, no, this was Satan's filing cabinet. This filing cabinet was imbued with the added ability of being able to withstand fires. Apparently weighing 600lbs equals fire proof. The walls of this cabinet were so thick and sturdy that I have serious doubts that fires were all this thing could've withstood. I was willing to bet money that I could crawl inside and survive a nuclear holocaust quite comfortably. Needless to say, this beast was the prized portion of the day requiring 6 strapping men just to push it up a ramp into the truck... Thankfully no one was pancaked by this behemoth.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! Only a couple dozen hours stand inbetween the world and the joy of Christmas celebrations. Children, young and old, waking up on Sunday morning jumping with expectations onto their parents' bed begging to go out to the tree and share their love for each other by opening the gifts they've carefully chosen and wrapped especially for each other. The snow glittering from the sky bathing the world in purest white... well... I'm in FL, so I tend to romanticize that part of the experience of Christmas day. 

I love Christmas (you may have read that somewhere). I cannot sleep Christmas Eve night... I'm 24. I don't care about getting presents. I just want to see the joy on my family's face when they open up their presents. I've already received the greatest gift of all. I love when we remember the reason for the season as a family. Our tradition, shared by countless others, is to read the Christmas story found in Luke. We let our minds travel back in time 2,000 years to the birth of Christ. We allow our hearts to be touched by the greatest gift that man ever received - Jesus, salvation, reconciliation, LIFE!

I love Christmas because it represents the greatest moment in history, when God wrapped himself in humanity and came to earth as one of us. He humbled himself into the lowest of circumstances. Jesus lived for the purpose of death. A sacrificial lamb to pay for everything wrong I've ever done. Selflessly giving everything just so I (and everyone else) could have an opportunity for forgiveness and life everlasting. That gift is totally better than an iPad. The Christmas miracle is this - That God loved us SO MUCH, he would be willing to come in person to give us life. What do we deserve? I'm barely considerant enough to acknowledge that I forget people on Christmas. I don't deserve a gift like this... no one does. But that's not the meaning of Christmas. Santa demands you be good for presents. God gave us the best one even when all we deserved was coal. Sorry, St. Nick, I think you need to reevaulate your principles there. Amazing love. Christmas. 

So, this Christmas I'm hoping that everyone takes a moment to reflect on WHY we even celebtrate the season. I'm praying that everyone can appreciate and accept the greatest gift ever given. And I'm excited already to share the love and joy that is the natural biproduct of this amazing gift of God, Jesus Christ. 

What's YOUR favorite part of Christmas? AND, if you could give someone special the BEST gift, what would it be?

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL!

Do the Jitterbug

Faithful Readers, when I woke up this morning I realized that I had forgotten to do something incredibly important this week; speak to you about my life, my thoughts, my actions, my inspirations and my goals. I felt exactly like someone who forgot to turn the oven off or who just came to the realization that they left their phone or wallet at a restaurant. Read my post, forgive me and ease my panged blogger-emotional state.

I've come to the decision this week that the negative, gloomy and enigmatic melencholy posts will cease. I don't want to be the brooding blogger who begs for people to feel sorry for them. I want to inspire. I want to give food for thought that won't be vomitted back up from your cerebellum into a pile of black and white helvetica (I love that font, don't you?).

I'm sure you're all wondering what brought about this attitudinal change in the span between blog posts (I know it's not been a regular interval... my bad). Well, God works things out. It's true! just check out Romans 8:28. Once that began to be a reality, my perspective was free to shift back to the bight and sunn side of life. I like it there. So much warmer. Imagine your brain wearing shorts on a beach watching the sunset. What? That's ridiculous to imagine your brain wearing shorts? You'd rather imagine it naked?... pervert!

Anyway, with a fresh direction in life comes a myriad of thoughts. It's true when they say, "what you put in determines what comes out." The minute I determined to take the turn new thoughts and ideas burst through my brain like stormtroopers on a certain starship.

These thought aren't running through my brain to mess things up, capture thought, laser blast ideas and take names. No, these thoughts are taking my brain by force and liberating my thought processes from that "box" people are perpetually trying to escape from. You see, friends, when your thinking is trapped by what is, it's nearly impossible to accomplish anything of merit or value.

The mental place I'm in now, the place I want to be, the place I hope to always stay is in the realm of the impossible. I want to always dream. I love being able to look at what isn't and ask the most important question that has shaped progress in this world; "why not?"

I'm never sure how life springs this trap. You're going along, believing that anything is possible with enough hard work and determination and then something happens to knock the optimism out of you. What once seems clear and possible and in grasp turns into a dark and cloudy mirage... kinda like a painted rock formation from Looney Toons (you know, with Wiley Coyote and the Road Runner). All I know is that this trap needs to be avoided at all costs.

Now that I've somehow been freed from this line of thought, I'm determined to hang onto the wreckless, and sometimes naive, optimism that insists anything is possible. It's not enough anymore to simply accept that this is the best we can do (whatever the situation). The saddest thing it to never unleash the true potential of a situation or person. I want to see the best and, perhaps, I'm foolish enough to believe it can happen. All I hope is that I'm stubborn enough to make it happen.

With that optimism in mind, next week I'll share with you my new year's goals. BRING IT, 2012!

What are you optimistic about?

Oh Grow Up!

Hey, Faithful Readers, terribly sorry about missing yesterday. Life got me caught in a choke hold and I couldn't tap out. You know how that goes. 

I've been feeling a little bit ill the past week. Have a nasty cough that won't leave and shows none of the normal symptoms of congestion or anything remotely similar to a cold. It has managed to knock out my vocal abilities, making me sound very zombie like. Nyquil is starting to kick in so I'm just going to jump into a rant here and hope I don't pass out before I finish! (Hope you won't pass out before YOU finish either!)

Last week I commented on the things in life that change. A lot has happened in the days between weekendsand I'm still not at liberty to share all the sordid details of my experiences. What I can tell you is that I'm getting fairly frustrated with this whole "Growing up" thing.

Do you remember when you were a kid? Do you remember what was expected of you? "Try this." "Do your best." "It doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you play the game." Any of these sound familiar? See, when I was growing up, my parents certainly wanted me (my sister too... but especially me) to live up to my potential. But they, as good and loving parents, realized that putting immense pressure on a kid can cause them to crumble into a sea of broken dreams and shattered expectations. Of course, there's some rigidity in the pursuit of potential and many expectations that were expressed. But nothing along the lines of "do or die."

No, childhood was a very liberating time. The world was this exponentially captivating place. The possibilities were endless and all that was necessary to capture the options laid out at my feet was the simple desire to take a step in that direction. The rest would take care of itself. I was taught that if you just apply yourself, then everything else would fall into place. 

What happened between the ages of 12 and 20? What destroyed this perception of ease in life? How did something so simple and easily understood become a turbulent mess of choices and frustrations? Yeah... Google doesn't have any answers either. 

I don't understand how life took this awkward turn from being magical, exhiliarating and open to being depressing, draining and boxed in. 

I wish I could recapture the essence of my childhood perspective and implant it into my brain for today. I would love to look at the world again through the eyes that see nothing but possibilities. I wish I could live a life in which people only asked for my best. But this isn't the case anymore...

Now there are jobs with demands. Now there is an even greater absence of friends because they're all gone having similar draining and confusing experiences with life. Now there is a system that seems to say "fall in line, be quiet and stop dreaming." When did this happen?

Hmm... this is turning out to be a rather depressing rant. I don't have any answers or fun comments or insights to turn the emotional tide from this direction. I guess all I can do is choose to conform or rebel. And if I choose right, I may wind up in a great deal of trouble.

That is all. Naps are ensuing. It feels like work and naps are largely what constitutes my adult DNA at the current time. (I thought that preschool was DONE when you got done with preschool.) If this is what all the training was for, then there HAS to be more than this feeling, more than this stage in life. And I intend to find it... after my nap.

Begging for Change

It's a common sight. Whether you're driving into the Walmart parking lot or taking a light stroll downtown, it's not a surprising event to be stopped by a slovenly looking someone with a sign. Sometimes our first reaction is "OH gosh... not again." Our hesitation speaks volumes to our callousness due to the overabuse of people's charity. They go by many names, but I prefer just to call them "poor people."

They're the people on the fringes of society. And why? What caused them to take a chute right down to the bottom rung of society's ladder? Some are just out of luck, victims of circumstance. Others made poor choices; and still others actually choose to be poor... that's a whole other conversation in and of itself... But whatever the reasons are that brought them to this point, it's at this point where all they can do is beg for change. 

Jumping point! So, how differently would we look at these "poor people" if we were in their shoes? Often times, we ARE! We don't beg for the monetary change. We sometimes beg for change in someone's behavior, leadership style, attitude, perception, action, or emotions. How desperate have we gotten because we felt there was no hope for the continuation of life until something changed?


When we beg for change, we cannot complain about what we get. No "poor person" complains, "HEY! You didn't give me enough!" That'd be ridiculous. No, beggars cannot be choosers. We accept change as it happens. Sometimes, change isn't necessarily beneficial... or, at least, it doesn't immediately appear that way. 


I've had some VERY recent change happen in my life. Job related things that you don't care to hear, I'm sure. But I've been begging for change for a while now. These changes didn't happen according to my time-line and the actual circumstances are not exactly ideal, but I accept it. 


I don't normally share scripture on this blog (that's more of a facebook thing), but one passage that people often quote when bad things happen is Romans 8:28. This has brought me significant comfort in the past. It says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Change isn't always 100% pallatable when it happens, but God works it all out for good if we would just trust.


But what helped me more this week with these changes and the emotional frustrations attached to them was this verse hiding just before the more commonly quoted passage I just shared - "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." Romans 8:26

I'm experiencing a completely new situation in which I have no idea how to proceed or guage my expectations off of. But I know that in my frustration that God is pouring out his spirit on my behalf and praying for me. That's comforting. 


I've decided that I'm going to perceive this change in the way that I profess everyone should. This is an opportunity. This isn't the end of Jonathan David, this isn't the final chapter. While it's sad that this chapter is ending THIS way, the potential and amazing promise in the blank pages that lie ahead is exhiliarating! I'll tread forward taking advantage of every good thing that God puts in my path. Change, even detrimental change, can be worked out to create a bright and awesome future.


What changes have YOU been through that you initially thought were BAD but turned out quite nicely?