Just WOW

So recently I saw a few of my friends on Facebook posting anti-chick-fil-a pictures and boy-cot comments, something about being apposed to gay marriage. I didn't really know what it was about, but I assumed that it stemmed some where from being public about being founded on Christian principles. Today I saw that Chick-fil-a released a comment trying to correct the misunderstanding or fix their PR or whatever reason you want to say. So I looked up to see what started it all. I found a two paragraph article with a quote form the head guy at Chick-fil-a yes they were against Gay marriage and they believed in the traditional family (ie. one man one woman). Taking all this in there is just so much wrong going on here and it is frustrating. Maybe I will take on small stuff first.

1. Being against Gay "Marriage" does not equal hating Gay people nor being homophobic just doesn't. Some of the nicest people I have met have been Gay, do I agree with their lifestyle? No. Do I like them as people? Yes. And yes I did put quotes around marriage and that will be next point.
2. I don't understand why Gay people want to fight for a term and ceremony created and supported by an organization that is against their lifestyle. The church as far as my wisdom goes is the creator of what this country calls Marriage and that it is designed to be proclamation to others and a promise to each other and God that you will stay together. Now if they are fighting for the legal right to be in a union with another person and have all the legal benefits and responsibilities that is something different. I am not against people wanting to be in a union together and have the benefits and costs of all that includes, but I am against people taking something from the church and saying it isn't right unless you change it.
3. We are all messed up. I don't think I am better then any Gay person. I am messed up also, my crap might not be in the open, but it is there. Sin is sin, whether it is what we consider huge or small it still makes us imperfect and therefor unable to be with God, because He is perfect. Those two things can't mix. So in my view and my beliefs we all need help and forgiveness. The difference in all of it may be that I acknowledge my screw ups and would like to change them, where others don't think what they are doing is wrong and that is just the way it is. I as a Christian can't expect the world to conform to my view all the time, they simply don't know or believe because they views and ideas are of this world and the now, where my views and beliefs have changed towards God and what happens later.

So I have my views and others have theirs, I will continue to eat at Chick-fil-a  because their food is great and I am not apposed to anything they have said or done currently that I know of. They are sticking by their beliefs and I respect that. They will handle the push and move on, hopefully they don't compromise for monies sake, only change for beliefs sake.

Phone meet Water

Ok so it has been a pretty long time since I did anything on here...sorry bout that.

So there other day I introduced two of my friends, my cell phone and water. Needless to say they made a fast connection but it left my phone worse off then it was before. It is just a relationship that doesn't work out it hurts everyone involved.
Alright on to my real point. In trying to do cell phone cpr I went out and bought a small bag of rice (we didn't have any at the house) pulled the battery let it sit for a day tried to get it to dry out and hopefully work again. During this whole process I realized a couple of things that make me laugh now. On the days the phone was unresponsive, didn't want to turn on or anything I was really bummed and kind of upset (I lost all my numbers). Yet on the days that the phone wanted to turn on and do thing I was super happy and hopeful that it would make a full recovery.
Did you catch that word in there? Hope. The days that I believed that my phone had hope of working correctly for me I was lighthearted, happy and didn't let much get to me. The days I was without hope for my phone I was sad and irritated and disliked the hand me down phone that I am currently using.
This made me think about other things in my life and how I react to them. Relationships? When I am hopeful and see possibilities I am happy and nothing can touch me, but when I think things are hopeless....I act like they are. I was recently looking for a job, the days that I was hopeful and saw opportunity I was awesome and had a smile on my face, but the days I saw no hope I was a very pessimistic person.
Crazy idea huh? I know it really isn't and that when you sit and think about it that it is easy to see, but in the moments that it is happening it can be hard to realize.
All of this reminded me of a Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 13:13
^"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Think through all this it is obvious that those three things work with each other and having all three makes you take a different perspective on life. A positive one where things don't get you down the same way and you smile at least a little more then you used to.

Been a long time, long time

So it has been a few months since I have been on here and talked about what is going on. Well lets see, we got kids first session for five weeks, and had pretty good weather. It was definitely a learning experience because my cabin didn't go so well. Me and my co-counselor at the time really tried to learn from our mistakes and move on trusting we could fix some things in our next cabins. After that session we had some time at camp without kids where we cleaned up and did some training. Then we started second session I was helping in the class room this time. I really enjoyed it, I had thought about being a teacher previously so I was excited to see how I would do with my small math group. This session also had it's ups and downs that I tried to learn from and prepare myself more for my next cabin. We had Christmas break in the middle of this session which was nice because we could all get away a little but tough because we all got out of flow of camp, but everything ended well. After this session we again had some time without kids were we prepared and trained. During that time I flew out for my cousin Erica's wedding, I was a groomsman for her husband, it was a beautiful wedding and I know they will be happy together. This trip however made it really hard to get back into camp mode and had me struggling to focus when I got back a little. Which leads me to the third session, my new co-counselor and I were pumped we were really going to make our cabin rock and have tons of fun. The first week it looked like we might do just that, but as the week went on it slowing began to go down hill and everyone noticed. That weekend we talked, planned and even went out and bought some posters and other things for the cabin hoping to start to right the ship and really put our all into it. The week started and it was an uphill battle and we put as much into effect as we knew how to, but more times than not it did not go the way we hoped. This was capped off by a complete break down of the cabin on Thursday where everything went wrong and events I won't go into detail about on here. These events really shook me, so much so I lost all confidence in myself to do that job with those at-risk youth safely. In my effort to try and regain focus on my job I thought about if I should really be there anymore. After the kids went home for the weekend I decided that I didn't need to be there any long as I couldn't do the job effectively after 6 months of training and doing the job. Leaving didn't go quite as I had hoped but I can't change that. So here I am now in Oklahoma (a place I never thought I would have to call home) trying to figure out what I am going to do. I have resigned myself to changing my career path and am open now to pretty much anything I can find that will help me provide a real life for myself and hopefully a family one day.

I went where?!

So I picked up and left Arizona a couple weeks ago and headed to Arkansas. It feels weird to be 28 and totally uprooting and going out on a limb and accepting a year long job at a camp I had never seen or heard of before. However that worry has been calmed since getting here meeting the people and starting to understand what this camp is about. I am sure I will answer the question "what do you do?" many times and will probably leave people just as confused as before they ask, but I am pretty sure that when that question is asked I will light up and have a huge smile on my face as I try to explain and that will be a great change in my life. I am so used to feeling like I have a job that is a little embarrassing to admit to or one that seems way under me and my college degree and to finally have a job that I am not embarrassed of and one I  feel fits me is the best feeling.
I will update you more as training and camp go along.

I'm freaking out man

So I just accepted a year long position at a camp...in Arkansas. I am excited and totally scared. I have lived in the south before so that doesn't really bother me it is the fact that this is the first career decision that I have ever made in my life and it involves going halfway across the country.
The amazing side is that yes it is the first job I have had that is inline with what I want to do with my life. I won't be making a lot of money but I also won't be paying rent or utilities and at the end of the 11 months I get 5000 dollars towards student loans.
Well that is what is up, I will be leaving in about two weeks so I don't have too much time to freak out, gotta pack stuff, sell stuff and give stuff away lol.

That time of year...

Well I think spring is over but wedding announcements are rampant. It probably happens every year, though I think I had a few years off recently and because of that it makes this year stick out a little more. First there was the girl that was my first true love who started dating her ex again and was engaged a month later. Then the floodgates opened one of my younger cousins,a friend from high school, a good friend from college and another friend all announced engagements within a couple weeks of each other. Adding to this is the fact that I turned 28 this year which is the closest to 30 that I have ever been. For a guy who pictured himself married and think about kids by 25 this is a harsh reality. Pile on the fact that I don't have a solid job and I am still very single it can be depressing at times to constantly hear that everyone else (figurative yes) has what I want so badly. Well lets hope I can be patient and wait for my turn to celebrate.

5K 2.0

So I ran my second 5k this last Saturday. It was in support of the SLP Leukemia Foundation, which was actually started by a coworkers sister in-law (for her recently passed husband). It was only the 2nd annual but it is already an amazing event that had a decent number of runners. Well on to me. I finished with a new best time (hard I know being my second one ever) of 29:21 which is roughly 4 minutes faster than 6 months ago. Not sure where I was over all but I know I was 6th out of 6 guys in my age group lol oh well.
It was good time and hopefully I do more and get even better times.