Last year:

• I traveled on a plane for the first time
• Made the 16-hour trip to Italy (first time in a foreign country)
• Walked the halls of Congress and met in a Senator’s office in DC
• Began my birthday in Capri, ended it in Rome next to the Pantheon
• Got a kiss from Paula Deen
• Worked in an African-American church
• Lived in my own house with Rich over the summer
• Worked with fatherless boys in Birmingham
• Booked concerts and met Andy Davis, Nathan Angelo, Matt Wertz, Drew Holcomb, and other cool musicians
• Spent some time in the great city of Ft. Payne, AL
• Witnessed the birth of my baby cousin
• Served on University Ministries Council with some godly, godly people
• Spent some time in Winston-Salem and Cincinnati
• Started a new relationship
• Simplified my life a lot

In 2010:

• Continue to serve on UM Council
• Spring Break in Cincinnati
• Reaching the halfway point through college (crazy)
• Possible trip to New Hampshire
• Likely partnership with Vertical Purpose Ministries
• Chicago w/ Grant & Jere to see John Mayer
• Passport Camps this summer
• Possible fall semester in London/internship with London City Mission

It’s been the most eventful year of my life, and next year looks to be no different. Praise God for continuing opportunities to live, learn, and grow.

Yesterday, Phil, Drew, and I took a trailer load of furniture and basic amenities to the apartment of one of the JIFF guys we are supporting. JIFF serves as a means to provide structure and support in the lives of young men with delinquent backgrounds. (http://www.jiffyouth.org/) The experience definitely brought me back to my summer of working with boys in similar situations through Team Focus Birmingham. The whole day was also a sobering reminder of how hard a place inner-city Memphis is. It’s encouraging to see that some of our brothers and sisters in Christ haven’t given up the fight yet. Kellie was an awesome young man, and I hope to get to spend some more time with him and Ryan, the director of JIFF Ambassadors.

It’s good to be back in Memphis for a while, for sure. I just realized that it’s been a whole year since I have lived in Memphis for any extended period of time. Wow. That’s crazy. I’m pretty pumped about getting to spend time with my new friends, as well as old friends. God has given me such great opportunities, and I’m sure it will only continue.

Break looks like it’s going to be a great time to chill and get refreshed. Looking forward to a great six weeks of working with the Veritas Project (http://www.theveritasproject.com), as well as time with good friends in the great city of Memphis. Bring it on.

Brite Revolution basically works like this: You pay $4.99 a month in order to gain access to the more than 40 new tracks posted by Brite artists each month. A portion of your monthly payment also goes to a non-profit of your choice, such as Blood:Water Mission, the Jimmie Hale Mission, Invisible Children, etc. It’s a great way to discover new artists or grab unreleased tracks while helping out people in need.  Definitely cool. Check it out.

I think a lot about how much I am influenced by my surroundings, especially here at school. I think the tendency is to give in to the expectations of others, especially when you tie so much of what you do to who you are as a person. When we are expected to perform well on a given task, we tend to equate success/failure with who we are as individuals. This is a huge mistake and understatement of who we are as Christians.

Let’s not kid ourselves: College is hard. At a place like Samford, ripe with competitive scholarships and new academic programs (Fellows, etc.), it’s nearly impossible to escape the brute competitiveness of the environment. Each project or paper is aimed at getting a better grade than the kid sitting next to you, edging out the competition in order to better position yourself for graduate school scholarships and other opportunities. Some would say, “thus is Life,” always about the survival of the fittest, proving yourself as the best man (or woman) for the job. And maybe life truly functions this way. But at the end of the day, there’s something so empty about defining oneself based on personal achievement.

If it were up to us to work our own way, we would always come up shorthanded. The paradox of existence maintains that we can never truly find an identity in the work of our own flawed hands. We must remind ourselves that we are beloved, and that is enough. Enough for a God to send an ultimate sacrifice to give us true identity.

In our dorm room, as I wake up each morning, the following words greet me and hold me in check as I prepare to carry on with a day of running around and doing:

“Do the truth quietly without display.” -Brennan Manning

It’s a solemn reminder that, as I carry on throughout the day, I must remind myself that I am not out to impress others or seal an identity for myself. My identity is not founded in the expectations of others, but in the blood of Christ.

“There were other things which occupied my mind in the company of my friends: to make conversation, to share a joke, to perform mutual acts of kindness, to read together well-written books, to share in the trifling and in serious matters, to disagree though without animosity—just as a person debates with himself—and in the very rarity of disagreement to find the salt of normal harmony, to teach each other something or to learn from one another, to long with impatience for those absent, to welcome them with gladness on their arrival. These and other sighs come from the heart of those who love and are loved and are expressed through the mouth through the tongue, through the eyes, and a thousand gestures of delight, acting as fuel to set our minds on fire and out of many to forge unity. This is what we love in friends.”

-St. Augustine

We are quick to say this: that God is a God of silence. But what if He is also a God of chaos?

*Also, a little bit of trivia: This video was shot at Oak Mountain Amphiteatre (now known as Verizon Wireless Center) in our own Birmingham, AL.  Too bad this was shot when I was in 7th grade.

I returned to Merton this week to find myself subsequently returning to this blog, of which I had nearly forgotten that it existed. Haha. I promise I will get better at this.

There’s something so very satisfying about being in the midst of where God wants you to be. There’s such a peace in observing daily confirmation of God’s movement, of His majestic breath. However, this peace does not necessarily imply comfort. I pray that I will never experience true comfort until I embrace my Savior at the gates of Heaven.

Last night, Matt Kerlin talked about Job, about how he worshiped God simply for who God was, not because he wanted God to improve his situation, not because he wanted something from God, but because God is God.  And I’m thinking of this: if all was stripped away, and all I had was God, would I praise him simply for who he is?  It’s a divine economy of worship. We tend to trade and bargain with God: “Well, I will worship you if….”; “I worship you so that you can help me do this…”; or, like the Jews in Isaiah 58, “God, why have we fasted and you have not heard?” As if we are worthy enough to demand anything from God.

I must confess, I have demanded some things from God this week. I have attempted to offer my spirituality as grounds to get what I want from God. A lot of the time, worship is not about getting what we want from God, but rejoicing in what He chooses to give us.

Something happens when you play with friends and commune together in worship.

Something happens when you celebrate a life, an influence together.

Something happens when you’re almost too weak, tired, and frustrated to stand.

Dying happens. Living happens.