Simpler times...

I miss blogging. In a couple of weeks, I plan on blogging like a boss. Until then, goodbye.

I Heard Rumor of a Time When Gas Was Only a Quarter Per Gallon

Five-lane streets at lunch time fill up with cars much like beaches fill to the brim with tourists once summer begins. Judge Ely is no exception, and even in the little town of Abilene, traffic thickens and frustrations facilitate from the motorists sitting behind their wheel. As I head to Little Panda, I am thrust into this very situation, dodging grandma drivers, frowning at speeders, banging the wheel impatiently at that guy who has the nerve to drop speed to 5 MPH before making a turn. For the love of Mother Teresa, why is there a tractor taking up two lanes? Why is my tank almost empty? I filled up a week ago! Man, gas takes a chunk out of a paycheck.

My stomach growls. I could really use a heavy dose of General Tao chicken. Time to bump up the speedometer to fifty. Crap, slow it back down, a cop is in that parking lot. Who is this guy driving 35 mph? Doesn't he know the limit is 40? Switch lanes, car in my blind spot, swerve back. One can never trust the side-view mirrors for this very reason. Why is that Hummer riding my butt? Fight the urge to hit the brakes and take her to court. Uh oh, the light turned yellow, and I'm at that awkward position where it would be one heck of brake fest to stop, but I had better gun it if I'm going to make the light. Pull the trigger. Eh... maybe I should have stopped. Too late now. Please, oh please, let their be no cops. And Nathan said, let their be no cops. And Nathan saw that it was good.

Hit the brakes again, I'm going ten over, and the traffic is picking up even more. I feel like it shouldn't take this long to get to Little Panda. But there's so many cars, all going to different places, all with a different human, a different soul, each soul with different amounts of millions of seconds of a life created by the thousands of relationships of thousands of ancestors who conceived at a specific time in history, a time that is absolutely paramount to creating this exact scenario, because if conception happened even a minute earlier, a different sperm out of the hundreds of millions produced by each male would fertilize the egg of the female, creating a completely different human being, meaning that this 'other' being would have a completely unique agenda, placing him or her in another place at another time, and all of these infinite variables converged into this chaotic moment, the moment in which I am trapped in traffic on Judge Ely.

My view is composed of the car in front of me, and the car to my right. Oh, and the Hummer riding my butt. My mind focuses on the brakes and the accelerator, pushing and letting off at appropriate moments. As the parking lot of United appears on my left, I ease my truck into the turning lane, and I can see farther ahead than I could before. In fact, the turning lane is relatively empty. It's a relief, a brief moment where the chaos ends and tranquility begins, a moment where the noise and traffic of the world falls away. This happens because few travel in the turning lane. And even those who do quickly turn out, back into traffic, back into chaos.

Few walk the road less traveled. The narrow path is, well narrow. The world travels in the wide path. The Gospel preaches on this pretty passionately. If one is to reach Heaven, one must take the narrow road. I hear Heaven is a wonderful place.

Growing up, I had heard this story many times. Growing up, I have always tried to travel the narrow road. In my present, I try to travel the narrow road, though often I turn off of it. Something about the crazy world always pulls me off.

Like a magnet.

For the majority of my Christian faith, I have always viewed the narrow path and the wide path as two separate paths, two paths that are in two different dimensions of spiritual space. It makes sense, where sex and and drunkenness belong on the wide path, purity and soberness belong on the narrow path.

Like oil and water.

I'm beginning to see these two paths in a new light. I see a vision of these paths as separate but intertwined. If we are to be lights unto the darkness, we must be in the darkness for our light to illuminate the darkness. How can we minister to those under the curse of sin, if we are prancing in the meadow with Bambi?

Light the meadow on fire.

Bad company corrupts good morals, but too much good company corrupts good Christians. We must learn to walk the narrow path right smack in the middle of a hydrogen bomb, like driving in the turning lane right smack in the middle of four lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic.

But in real life, don't stay in the turning lane... head-on collisions corrupt life. That means they can kill you. This is a metaphor, sort of like you shouldn't gouge out your eye if your checkin' out a fly lady. Just ask for strength, and high-five God for creating such a gorgeous woman. But in all honesty, I think this is a vision of the narrow/wide path story that should be considered. Let us who walk the road less traveled place ourselves in the road most traveled. The way of Jesus isn't an old country road, but rather the yellow stripes dividing the highway.

Just food for thought.

This General Tao is delicious, though I recommend using a fork. Chopsticks may make you look cool, but let's face it, a fork is so much easier and more efficient. How can the nation that invented gunpowder never evolve past two wooden sticks?

A Hobbit's Life for Me

There's a fire burning in my head tonight. I'm metaphorically banging my head against the wall, bedazzled by humanity. You see, I was recently involved in a situation of little importance, but as you know, the little things in life are what irks us the most, and tonight I am irked. Before I begin my tale, I feel like I must clarify that I am not 'picking' on anyone, and really the point of this post is much larger than the minute situation, whose only importance was really to get the wheels turning in my head. So if you read this, and begin thinking, "Nathan, your a jackass," chill, I still love you dearly, and in all honesty, probably love you more than you love me.

Tonight I will be ripping Christians as a collective group, because we all at some point fall under the umbrella of this post's topic. If you are offended, then you get offended too easily, which is another soap box entirely. But for now, sit back, grab a lemonade, and enjoy a classic Nathan-is-right-and-you-are-wrong- rant.

So a couple of nights ago, I was preparing to head out to a friends house to enjoy the company of some beloved friends who I have not seen nearly enough of this Summer. The night's events consisted of cookies and taquitos and an epic hearts tournament. I love hearts, but I'm not very good. I only have one speed, and that's running the tables, because I go big or I go home. I found myself going home most of the night. Let me back up. I'm getting off on a tangent. Before said party, I received a text from one of my esteemed friends. It said something along the lines of, "Hey guys, in order for a few people to come tonight, I promised them that y'all wouldn't smoke, so yah." To the casual reader, this may seem like a small deal, and I admit that it really wasn't a problem. The guys and I enjoy an occasional smoke on our distinguished pipes, and most of our friends know that. Not all of my friends enjoy smoking, which is perfectly fine. It's not for everyone. The reader must, at this point, understand our habit. I will re-emphasize the word occasionally, which basically means a few times a month. We don't smoke cartons of cigarettes a day, we smoke a few bowls of pipe tobacco, which is much more pleasing to the olfactory sensors that cigarette smoke is. The next important thing to know is that when we smoke, we do so outside, giving those who choose to have beautiful lungs the option to converse indoors where the air is clean. We do our thing, while also being respectful to those who don't like smoke. So what's the problem?

Here's the problem. The problem is that I have 'friends' who are placing conditions on our friendship. And not even good conditions. It would be one thing if we were smoking stogeys indoors, while sipping scotch, and playing cards, where the smoke would suffocate our more tender guests. But that's not what we do at all. We take our business outside. So, by careful calculations, this leads me to believe that the issue isn't the smoking, (how could it be? said guests are not even around the smoke), but rather the idea of smoking. Dun dun dun....... Like I stated earlier, I'm cool if you don't like to smoke. I don't enjoy yoga. But if it's the stigma... woa buddy. Some of my readers know how I feel about stigmas.

As I also mentioned earlier, this story is only a setup to a much bigger picture. The above scenario is meaningless really. But when the issues of the above scenario play out in Christianity, which they do, problems arise.

There's a lot of non-believers in this world. A compelling reason that I have heard way too many times is that NBs (non-believers) say that they can't follow a people who are so judgmental. When us Christians hear this, we scoff and say, "Pah, that's Ludicrous! We accept everybody for who they are!" Bullshit. No we don't. I bet there's a Christian reader of my blogs right now judging me for cussing. Get over it! I'm a nice guy! And it's the little things that set NBs (and me) off. Things like, "I can't hang out with you if your going to smoke." That right there is already batman-signaling your ignorance and unacceptance of a person, and when that person is a NB, they are associating Christianity as a bunch of bigots who think they are too righteous for the rest of the world. Why are Christians so afraid of nutting up and getting their hands a little dirty? For goodness sake, have you read about the places Jesus went?? For those who shudder at the thought of consuming a single drop of alcohol, NEWSFLASH: Jesus made gallons of wine (which has alcohol ;). And not your everyday-run-of-the-mill wine. He made some damn good wine, causing the guests of the party to comment on how the best wine was saved for last. I wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure there was more than one person who was hammered at that party, and yet we find the Son of God right in the middle of this crowd. What if Jesus was like, "Well, I'd come celebrate your Holy union, but.... if there's gonna be alcohol...yah I'm gonna have to skip out. If you were as perfect as me, you'd understand."

Language is another thing that Christians OBSESS over. But do you ever stop and consider why certain language is even bad? We lose our temper and say a curse word, and we better pray because we just sinned, but if we lose our temper and say a replacement word like frick or dang or crap, then we're safe. Shouldn't it be obvious that the real sin is that we lost our temper, not the specific combination of letters we strung together?

As Christians, it is high time that we stepped outside of our little worlds, trekked to the land of Satan, and looked back at our world from the point of view that everyone else sees it. Kind of like standing on the moon. Next time there's a wild party, go and have a beer or two. Don't get smashed, but get your hand a little dirty. Blend in, mix, show everyone that you except them, rather than saying that you do. You'll make a lot more progress in the long run, and gain the respect of NBs. If you do end up getting struck by lightning, my bad, that's totally on my soul. If you don't like smoke, deal with it for the sake of Christ. Nut up or shut up I say. DC Talk says that the greatest single cause of atheism in the world is Christians. Let's change that. Say a curse word today, talk to a person who would tarnish your perfect reputation in the eyes of your fellow bigot christian friends. It's funny, that we look at the material world and shun them for caring about the way they look, but really, we care about the way we look, so much so that we'll skip out on fellowship for the sake of not getting any dust on our shiny mirrors.

Have a sketchy day for Christ.

Suhbadicool

Hi.

I have not posted a single blog this summer. I apologize. I've been a busy man. That's not really true, I guess I'm fishing for excuses for my long absence away from Blogger.com. There's many things that I wish to say, but that is not for this post. This is simply a welcoming party to my revamped sight! Welcome to 'I Thought About a Burning Fire'. I got tired of the name 'The Enclave', because, although it was the birthplace, The Enclave just doesn't exist anymore, and one can't live in the past forever. I decided to move on, and thus landed on this title. Think of it as a child hitting puberty. It's the same mind, the same words, just.... older? Maybe this is a terrible analogy. The title comes from one of my favorite songs, 'About a Burning Fire' by Blindside. I find the title fitting because often as I write, my thoughts are difficult to decipher, not due to the complex nature, but rather to my ineptitude at untying knots. It's like a burning fire in my head. Cool, huh? So that's about all for this post. Here's to more posts in the near future. Enjoy the fiery colors. Peace.

Asian Sensation!

I am sitting in the library, surrounded by Asians. I'm not trying to sound racist. It's not everyday that I find myself outnumbered fifteen to one by Asians! I really love asians. Not in a creepy way. But they are just so cool! if it weren't for Asians, there would be no Little Panda for me to indulge in. Just the thought of no Little Panda... NO! I refuse to even think about it! We really owe a lot to Asia. Mulan is one of the best movies ever. Who doesn't want to walk the Great Wall of China?? We've already talked about their amazing food. We wouldn't have ninja stars or the the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Ninja's for that matter! And don't forget about Video games! Asians practically invented them. Austin Fleet is like a quarter Asian. What would I do without that guy?? They are swell people. If you don't know a person of Asian descent, then get up right now and go meet one and thank him or her for all of his or her contributions to this world.

Anyways, so I've been analyzing myself. I'm kinda at a point where I am kind of trying to figure out who I am. But honestly, I think that's a dumb question. Who honestly knows who they are? Sure, you can probably come up with characteristics about yourself like, "I'm funny, or I'm sophisticated, or I'm sadistic and twisted, or I'm just a caring person," but is that really who you are?? If that's who a person is, then I don't see the big deal in searching for yourself, because naming character traits only takes about five seconds. When people say that they are going to 'find themselves,' what does that even mean?? I don't really think you can lose yourself. Maybe you forget what you stood for, but lose yourself? Your right there! Why do you even need to know who you are? You portray yourself without thinking about it. It's not like 'discovering your self' is going to change the way you already naturally act right? I bring this up, because I have no idea who I am! It's a mystery, and I don't really think there's a set in stone answer. I think a better question is, "What the crap is God's plan for my life??!?" *dodges lightning bolt for saying "crap" and "God" in same sentence* That's a feasible question, because I feel like people mess this one up all the time. If you honestly know the answer to that, then you deserve a prize. The trick for me is distinguishing between my own thoughts and feelings and God's thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I have this insatiable urge to do something, and I think that it must be God, but then I'm like, "Well, this could easily just be what I want..." It's complicated! One of my pet peeves is when I hear Christians say, "God was just leading me here." You know what I'm talking about? Their eyes kind of glaze over and they use that airy voice in a minor key. It's ridiculous! What did God knock on your door and say, "Excuse me Mister, but you have to go to Canada next year." Probably not. Now I know this sounds cynical, and I'm not trying to pass judgment... But I just don't believe it's that simple. In fact I know it's not! I've seen people do some crazy stuff because apparently God came in a dream or something, and it ended up going all wrong. It's possible that maybe I'm just not looking and listening with the right perspective. I just feel like when God tells me His plan for my life, I'll know 100% without a doubt.

Well now that that's outta my system... haha sometimes I crack myself up with my rants. I don't even know if what I just wrote makes sense! Like it makes sense in my mind, but sometimes it doesn't translate well to words... My apologies if your left scratching your head :)

Have a baller week!

Endurance

There are problems that come with sleeping in till one in the afternoon.

A: I am wide awake.
B: I haven't even been conscience for twelve hours today.
C: I feel like a bum.

These problems, especially number A, get magnified when I am in a bored-and-want-to-do-something-but-don't-feel-like-doing-anything mood. You know what I'm talking about? Right now I have so much energy, but it's late and I don't even know what I would do if I even had the drive to do something. So my fortune-telling skills tell me that my future has an extremely late night, an early morning, and a beast of a nap on the horizon.

I wasn't completely unproductive today. I went for a 2-mile run, and I felt like I went at a pretty good pace. I ran pretty quickly after I ate, so I got like four stitches in my body, one of which was in my back! Has that ever happened to you?? It's never happened to me before. So that was..different. But rumor has it that Abilene is hosting a full-out Marathon this fall. There's this insane thought in the back of my head. The very, very back. I'm a little nervous to listen to it, but it's telling me to run it. For the life of me, I have no idea why I would do that! I ran a half back in December, and I hated it! So a full Marathon is crazy-talk. I hated the half because both my hamstrings seized at mile 11 1/2, and I had to stop for several minutes and stretch and work them out before they would function again, and that ruined my pace and shot my pride because I couldn't say that I ran the whole way without stopping. But my muscles seizing was my own fault because I didn't hydrate and I didn't stretch well before the race. I guess I feel like I could be a lot smarter about it this time. 26 miles... that is a long ways. I would need to start training in a about a month for it. Go big or go home right?? The hardest thing about training is that it takes up SO MUCH time.. but if I ran a Marathon, that would be an awesome accomplishment, and I feel like I wouldn't ever have to do it again.

You know who is crazy though?? People who train for triathlons, especially for the IronMan. If you are unfamiliar with the IronMan, let me break it down for you: First you have to swim in an OCEAN for 2.4 miles. Then you have to drag your pruny body out and hop on a bike and peddle for 112 miles. I can't imagine the blisters you would get on your butt from sitting for that long, especially when your wet at first. It would be terrible! And then you hop off your bike and proceed to run a full Marathon. If your like me, your mind just exploded. I had to carb up just to type about it. I met a guy who completed a triathlon. I think he told me it took him 11 hours. Wow. I don't know if there's anything that I would want to do for eleven hours straight, let alone doing the most insane workout known to man.

Maybe I should just stick to my 2-miles-3-times-a-week workout....

Nate's out for tonight. Sleep well and GO TO CHURCH in the morning!

Ps. Did anyone catch the typo in the first big paragraph??

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away.....

If you didn't know, housing numbers are being assigned on FRIDAY! While this is balla shot calla, it really drives home the point that Freshman year is only three and a half weeks away from being over. Wow. It's hard to believe that I am already through year one of my college career. I can remember how far off college used to seem, and it's a quarter over?? You gotta be joking! You might say, "Well Nathan, you still have three years left." This is true, but let's analyze this: First, I'm practically a sophomore. That means I'm at the half-way point. So since I'm a 'sophomore' that basically means that I'm almost a junior, which means that next year is practically my senior year, and there I am walking the stage to get my degree in Psychology! If that just blew your mind, I understand. But that is exactly how it's gonna feel three years from now. We are gonna look back and think, "Crap! I was hauling my furniture up the stairs to Mabee or Gardner yesterday! And now I have a crazy wife and a kid on the way and years and years of debt to pay off!"

Maybe I'm over reacting :) But real-talk, where has this year gone?? I need more time! An extra month! Sure summer's great, but I have things I need to do! I've started making new friends, and it kind of hit me that I only have like three weeks with these people until everyone moves away for three months, and who knows what's gonna happen next year. 3rd North just installed the most thug life sound system into the common room. I need more than three weeks with it! I can't believe how fast this year's gone by. If I could, I would kill time. But then I'd be a murdera. Hmmm that sounds familiar....

But since we are on the subject of the future, why not indulge a little, eh? Next year! Next year is already looking to be pretty epic. No curfew?? Fawkt. Nicer dorms? Fawkt. OXFORD, ENGLAND?? FAWKT! Let's talk about Oxford. Bloody 'ell! Pretty good, eh?? I'm working on my accent. I'd say it's almost perfect! Study Abroad will definitely be the experience of a lifetime. I can't really imagine anything better than spending an entire semester overseas. I can't wait to dine on the local delicacies, travel to exotic places, kick it C.S. Lewis and Tolkien style in the pubs. I think it will be beneficial to me, because I will legitimately leave home for college. I really hope I grow spiritually there, and that I can just let loose a little. Within the rules of course :) The only problem is going to be the flight over there and back... If you don't already know, I hate flying. Loath it. Despise it. I would compare it to having your best friend date your sister behind your back, cheat on her with your current girlfriend, and then running off with your mother afterwards. Then multiply that by ten. Ok, maybe it's not THAT bad, but flying really does scare me! It seems like an awful way to die... And I know they say that you are more likely to die in a car crash than an airplane, and that airplanes are the safest way to travel, blah blah blah, beh beh, blah blah blah, comin out yo mouth wichya blah blah blahs. Tell that to all the DEAD people in those airplane crashes that practically happen everyday! That's what I thought! You can zip your lips like a padlock. Maybe if the news would report on all of the flights that landed safely, I would feel better. But no. The news always has to look at the glass half empty, and because of these misery-loving anchors and their misery-loving viewers, poor Nathan is terrified of planes :( Sad day. BUT if I survive the flight, I'm in for a fantastic semester! I can't wait!

I need to do homework. I have a 23 page paper due in 3 weeks. Shoot me now! Or put me on a plane! Same result...

I hate to end on a negative note, so let me think of something funny...

I got it! So the other night, the Children of the Mist (my intramural team) played some vball. Before the game started, the captains met at the net to talk to the ref. I am our team's captain, so I went forth to fulfill my noble duties. The ref gave us the run-down, and then asked us to play paper, rock, scissors to see who would get ball first. Let's pause here to go over some details. The team we were playing was legit. A little too legit. We are not legit. In fact we suck. But we're cool with that. But this team was good, and they knew they were good. They had that swagger about them. Their captain was staring at me, no smile, cut-off shirt, obvi trying to look like a bad A. So I decide to play a mind game with him. Right before we started paper, rock, scissors, I looked up at him and said, "I'm going paper." We did the one, two, three, shoot, and as I promised, I went paper. This idiot went rock! I said, "I told you I was going paper!!" And then the ref said, "Yah he did say he was going to do that..." I laughed and went over to my team. We then preceded to get our butts handed to us.

But I won Rock, Paper, Scissors!

Good night :)