Facing the reality of college life

Since I’ve been back at Mizzou, I’ve been hit with the reality of life and am now realizing how easy we had it at LT (comparatively). Toward the end of LT, I was pumped to get back to normal life and bring the same atmosphere of community, discipleship and love to the campus of Mizzou. I was thinking there was nothing that could stop me.

Well, from then until now, God has kind of brought me back down to Earth and showed me I need to calm down a little bit. Yes, I still strive to bring that kind of energy we had at LT, but things move a little slower in the hectic 9-month school year than they do in the 3-month summer that was committed to community.

The first couple of weeks back were a struggle for me because I wanted to jump right into having deep, meaningful relationships with all the new people I met, but I wasn’t getting that opportunity right away. I prayed about what I was supposed to be doing in terms of the Canvas Group and the new people we were seeing come to all our events.

The thing I heard most loudly from God was this: BE PATIENT! My soul had been set on fire for reaching college kids this summer and I wanted to dive in 100% right away, but the big thing I was glossing over was the need to just meet these new people and get to know them first. LT was easy because we were all there to grow and we could all lay it out on the line from Day 1, but college is a different animal for sure. I have had a hard time learning the differences, but I’m getting there with God’s help.

Because of this frustration, I have felt a little discouraged when it comes to what our canvas group has been doing. It’s honestly really dumb for me to have been feeling like this, but I have felt like we aren’t doing enough (are we ever, though?)! I thought this meant my excitement and passion for college ministry was dwindling a little bit after being on a fake, summer high, but after talking to my brother Cody yesterday, we both admitted we were going through the same struggles. It was comforting to know I wasn’t alone!

That conversation helped me re-focus myself on what is coming up with canvas group and how I can get ready to start using myself to let God impact lives. With the Fall Retreat coming up and core groups to start soon after that, I feel like things are about to pick up and God is still telling me to be patient until that time. I’ll keep doing what he tells me to do because he knows best!

Overall, the school year has honestly been great for the Dobbs Canvas Group. We’ve had 30 people consistently coming to our small group meetings on Thursdays, we have some really awesome and interested freshman who are already dedicated to our group and we just have a great group of people that I love being around! I can’t wait to see where the rest of the semester takes us!

GOALS

I’ve been back in Columbia for a little under a week, and while I am still settling in, I feel like this is the right time to finally get to the goals blog I have been planning to write for a while. I remember reading a goals blog that my friend Lindsay posted a couple of weeks after she got back from LT last summer. I liked that post so much that I thought I’d steal it and see what kind of challenging goals I could set for myself after an intense summer of growth.

I’ve never really been a guy who has taken the time to set specific goals or the type of guy who has worked really hard to accomplish tough tasks. Honestly, I have relied too much on my God-given intelligence and up until now, I have neglected my spiritual gifts way too much.

I have the type of personality where I like to just go with the flow, but I’m set on changing that a little bit this semester (at least to avoid laziness). I’m doing all I can to avoid post-LT depression that I have heard so much about and I really want God to continue to work in my life and everyone’s lives around me like I saw this summer. There’s no reason He won't do that if we all allow him to, which is the key part.

So, here’s a list of pretty specific goals that I have for my final fall semester as a student in college:

1. 1. Earn a 3.5 GPA in my four classes this semester (3 journalism, 1 religious studies). I have usually hovered around a 3.0-3.3 GPA in my first 6 semesters in college, but I want to finish school strong and actually give a crap about my studies this year.

2. 2. Dedicate at least 15-20 hours a week to my KBIA reporting class. It’s a great opportunity for me, something I really want to do and it would be great to get a good reference (Karen Mitchell) if I end up doing something with my journalism degree.

3. 3. Be intentional in tithing 10% to The Rock every week. That church (and God, really) has given me so much over the last year and I really need to praise God with my money (something I have never done). Should be fairly easy.

4. 4. Seek out a relationship where I can be discipled. If you’ve read any of my last couple blog posts, you know that discipling relationships were a big part of my summer, so I want that to continue into this semester.

5. 5. Once core groups start, I want to be a discipler (even if I’m not technically a leader). I can do this by meeting with each member of the core group weekly and showing that I truly care for each of them by showing God’s love as effectively as I can.

6. 6. See our canvas group grow to at least 30 consistent members. Based on what I’ve seen in the first week, there is no reason this goal should not be attained. We have a ton of capable leaders and if we all do our part, we could honestly see 40 people per week attending (which would be AMAZING).Numbers shouldn’t matter too much and I care much more about touching single people’s lives, but if we can increase attendance, we have a better opportunity to reach more people.

Six goals seems pretty good, doesn’t it? These are the things I will be focused on for the entirety of this 16-week semester and I will pray that God makes me capable to reach all of these goals.

What I learned about myself this summer

Well, I’m sitting here only a couple of hours from leaving beautiful Estes Park, CO (it’s especially beautiful today, of course) and I’ve decided to blog about what I learned about myself as a person this summer.

I already discussed what I learned about God at LT, which was a lot, but I feel like I learned a lot about myself as well.

One of the themes of LT was “Chazown” which means “purpose” in Hebrew. We were all united in searching for God’s purpose for our lives. I was really interested in seeing if I could find out what to do after college, mainly because journalism is kind of running it’s course in my heart and I only have a year to really figure out what other options I have.

Even with this hope of finding a “Chazown”, I didn’t think God would put a certain passion on my heart that I could transform into a career or lifestyle, but hey, God always shows up when you don’t expect it.

Through one-on-one meetings, project days and everything else that went on here at LT, I have felt led to consider going on staff at GCM church after graduating.

I discovered that I have a passion for helping college students find and pursue God with all of their hearts. I really want to help people avoid going into a spiritual rut if they were Christians before coming to college and I want to help interested people come to know the Lord. College is a great place to do this.

Needless to say, this passion has really got me excited for the upcoming school year. I am ready to go back and #dowork in the Dobbs Canvas group for one final year.

The reason I know that this is a real passion of mine is that I can’t see myself finished helping at the college level after this year. That may be a bit of selfishness coming through (who really ever wants to leave college?), but I really think that I am built to relate with college students and I can’t wait to see what God has for me in that area.

For the first time, I actually feel ready to help lead people in their Christian walks. I have considered myself a Christian for my whole life, but I would have never felt comfortable sharing my faith, helping others through faith issues, etc. Now after LT, I am more than ready, which is another thing I have learned about myself: I am good enough to lead.

One other thing I learned about God is that he is always making me new. I blogged about this earlier, but coming into the summer I was thinking: “man, this has been a great semester of growth, what else is there for me to grow in?”

That was an obviously stupid thought, but God showed up in areas I didn’t know were problems and helped grow me in those areas. I now truly believe that God is continually making his followers new, which is ridiculously awesome.

During a quiet time today, I read Proverbs 11:26. It says this: “People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell. (NIV)”

If you apply this to spiritual growth, it makes complete sense for me going back to school.

All of the things I have learned about myself have been great and I have grown a ton, but what good will all that growth be if I didn’t pass it on? How can I help affect other’s walks with Christ?

There’s one thing I need to learn about myself in the coming year: how to balance building others up with getting built up myself. But that’s for another blog post (coming soon!)

What I learned about God this summer

Wow. Talk about the longest, most challenging (but also thrilling!) summer of my life.

I came into the LT program thinking I would probably grow closer to God, grow as a Christian guy and have a pretty good time hiking some mountains. This all happened in my two and a half months in Colorado, but my experience was so much more than I expected it would be.

So what did I learn about God this summer? First I should probably tell you where I was coming into the summer.

I’ve always known that God existed and always believed with my head that he loved me, but I never knew what that love really looked like until last school year.

Last year was my first year plugged into a small group and a church at Mizzou, and it was the first year I really got to experience God’s love through other people. The people there truly cared for me and were always accepting of me, no matter what.

This summer took that love to another level. Before LT, I had never had a real good one-on-one relationship with another guy who could keep me accountable with things and challenge me to grow closer to God.

I finally got that kind of relationship this summer! Two guys really dedicated themselves to discipling me and helping me through trials, good times, or whatever the summer threw at me. These meetings and relationships were the best part of my summer, which has inspired me to share God’s love with younger guys by caring about them and discipling them (the #dowork movement is coming to the Dobbs Canvas Group in this way).

So basically, what this all means is that I have finally experienced God’s love consistently and it has been through other great Christian men and women. It's not just the people who have discipled me, but also through others worshipping God with all their hearts, giving everything away to God to find healing or just working really hard to love others.

This is not the only thing I’ve learned about God this summer. His love is insane and keeps me going when nothing else will, but I have also learned that he is indeed mighty to save anyone he wants.

Through hearing crazy testimonies of great redemption, I am convinced that no one can be considered a “lost cause” in the eyes of God and that we as Christians should reflect that thought by loving everyone we know, even if it seems like they will never love God.

Many times in my life, I have thought that I shouldn't really talk to people about God or what they think about spiritual things because it could be uncomfortable and I didn't want to be seen as "that Christian guy." Now I know my mission is to help show as many people as possible the love of God, no matter what sacrifice it takes.

God is love and God is mighty to save. Two pretty important lessons that I learned through the great Colorado LT program. I can’t wait to share more about my summer with anyone who wants to hear it!

Set a fire down in my soul

As I continue my growth in my faith this summer, my focus has been narrowed to one thing in past couple of weeks: to gain the skills necessary to become an effective leader of college guys (mainly freshman) in our campus church, especially during the next school year.

Before this summer, I had never had a mature, Christian guy my age that really focused on being a positive mentor and role model for me. That has changed in my first 8 weeks at LT with a great life group leader, staff guide and other people who have shown specific care for me.

I have had a ton of positive experiences with one-on-one mentorship at LT and I now feel like I will be more comfortable giving advice to younger college students because of the experiences I have had here. Because of this, I am super excited to be a spiritual mentor to people in our canvas group next year.

This kind of personal attention and caring is one of the better things that I have discovered about my faith in the past year. Honestly, what’s a more appealing faith than one that has people who truly care about you? People taking time out to meet with me just to listen to what is going on in my life has been one of the best things about LT so far.

I want to show this kind of Godly love to as many people as possible, no matter if they have been a Christian their entire lives, are just starting to think about becoming a Christian, or even if they are a non-Christian. I believe God has given me ears to listen, experiences to help people in tough times and a loving heart, so my passion and skills line up!

I don’t know if this means I want to stay at the college level after I graduate (sounds great to me) and help out a campus church somewhere, but I am certain I want to sell completely out for our canvas group next year.

Next year will be the first full year that I will be involved in a canvas group, so I am pumped to be there to reel all of the freshman in and start building into them. Seeing people you really care about grow in their faith is so exciting!

I’ve learned so much about myself and my faith this summer, all while gaining confidence in my ability to be a loving friend to other Christians.

When we started “Chazown” at the beginning of the summer, I didn’t believe I would truly find a solid purpose for myself before the end of the summer. I thought some of my better skills would be revealed and I would start to see my purpose coming to the surface, but I didn’t expect to have so many specific ideas in mind about where my life could be headed.

God provides and it is awesome.

Finding TRUE and EVERLASTING joy

Before last school year, I was living a life that I thought was normal, happy and above average. I had cool friends, most people that I met liked me, I had things that made me joyful and I felt like I was a nice person overall. What wasn’t to like? Some things weren’t perfect, but I thought that was normal and that I had to deal with my problems on my own.

I had attended the Rock (a campus ministry at Mizzou) a couple times in my first two years on campus, but I never dedicated myself to a canvas group (small group that hangs out all the time but only officially meets once a week) or attended the service on a regular basis.

After two years, I figured I needed something to change. There was something more than just sitting around, enjoying sports, hanging out with friends and being lazy. At the beginning of my junior year, I had a passion set on my heart to be more connected to the Rock, so I dove in, not fully knowing what to expect.

What I was exposed to changed the plan of my life forever. I saw people my age actually perusing a PERSONAL relationship with God. What the crap? I had never seen so many people united for one common goal: to know the creator of the universe as well as they possibly could.

I was hooked. I attended the annual fall retreat and got super involved in the Mark Twain Canvas Group (represent!). I kept falling more and more in love with the people in the group and more importantly, with God. I had always had the knowledge that God loved me, but I never really experienced it fully or personally.

This newfound passion for my faith helped me decide to attend LT this summer. If you’ve been following my life at all, you know what LT is all about, but I’ll explain it again anyways.

It’s basically a summer camp where we have to work 40 hour a week jobs, get in a canvas group-like group with people from other schools (Texas A&M, UNT, Kent State, Bowling Green, Ohio St., Harding (!), etc.), grow in our faith and get more comfortable with sharing it.

Talk about one of the better decisions of my life. LT is held in Estes Park, Colorado, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I’ve been able to hike so many mountains (35 miles so far!) while experiencing great summer weather for the first time ever.

Don’t let this beautiful weather and awesome attitude about the summer I am having make it seem like my life is now really easy and simple. That is so far from the truth. My life is just like anyone else’s: one with pain, sadness, loneliness, etc.

There is a running joke that LT also stands for “Lots of Trials. I have found this out to be true this summer, but I now know that through the trials, I have God’s joy, love and mercy to fall back on. What a great gift that anyone can receive with no strings attached!

I was motivated to blog this afternoon by all the love I have continually received from God’s people here in Colorado. I’ve never been involved a group that cares so much about each other or about their relationship with God. It is truly a beautiful thing that makes me smile whenever I think about it or experience it.

I may have seemed like a good Christian boy my first two years of college, following the rules and doing all the right things, but I never experienced God’s love and joy until this year. I want everyone to feel that joy now! I can’t wait to get back to school in the fall and help everyone I encounter experience God’s love.

I’ve got more topics to blog about, so hopefully I can get to those soon. Love you guys!

Three Words

3 Words

As the first month in Colorado has come and gone, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want this summer to be defined when I reach the end of it. A couple of friends have suggested that I try and think of three words that I could use to guide my actions during the summer and establish my goals going into next school year. Here’s what I came up with.

Brother

A big goal and passion I have for next year’s canvas group is to be one of the top male leaders while also being a guy that younger students can come to if they need someone to talk with about spiritual things. Over the past year (and especially this summer), I’ve learned how important that kind of relationship is and how helpful it can be in a young person’s walk with the Lord.

I want to be a great big brother to all my brothers in Christ, so I need to learn how that is done successfully. This summer has given me a number of great guys that I can go to if I need to talk about anything. Now I know how to show others that I care enough about them to help them with whatever they are going through and always point them towards the Lord.

Personal

This is the main spiritual goal and word I have established for the summer. For the first 20 years of my life, I didn’t really grasp the concept that our God is THE personal God, the one that you can go to with any feeling: joy, sadness, anger, etc. He can handle anything you throw at him, but I never really took advantage of that before this summer.

I am now reading my Bible mostly every day (reading the whole New Testament this summer) and giving myself daily time to talk with God on a personal level. This has helped strengthen my faith, exposed me to more intimate moments with God and has overall given me more joy in situations that probably wouldn’t be joyful without Him.

Purpose

Finally, I want to figure out my purpose in life. Who doesn't want to figure that out? We are going through a book called “Chazown” through the LT program out here, which means “vision” or “purpose” in Hebrew. I can say that I saw God working in my life personally when I heard that we were going to be reading this book.

I’m going to be entering my senior year of college and I don’t really have any idea of what spiritual gifts I have or how I can use my talents to serve the kingdom of God. I love sports journalism, but am I using my gifts to glorify God through that? I don’t really think so.

So this summer has been a time of exploration and learning about what things I am good at (on a spiritual level). I still haven’t figured out a master plan or anything (what things go according to plan anyways?), but I’m getting a clearer picture of what gifts God has given me and what I am passionate about doing.

Going into LT, I really had no expectations on what God was going to do in my life or what I wanted out of the experience, but now that a month has passed by, I see exactly why I am here and these three words help show those reasons in the best way I know how. I am so grateful for this opportunity and I'm doing the best I can to take advantage of it every single day.

What's wrong with me?

I’ve been meaning to blog for each of the past couple of days, but I never could find the right time to get all my thoughts down in an orderly fashion. Finally I have some time this afternoon, so here it is.

Everyone has been talking about how much they are enjoying LT so far. Celebrating how many awesome new friends they have made and how their experience is far surpassing their expectations in the first couple of weeks.

Sadly, I wouldn’t describe my experience in that way at all thus far. I desperately want to have a great time here while growing closer to God and learning how to be a leader in the church, but I just feel really disconnected to the LT program for some reason.

There have been a lot of activities that I have done in the last couple of weeks (three hikes in seven days, four putt-putt outings, an employee roller skating party, card games, etc.) but I somehow still don’t feel completely settled in. I have kept extremely busy and have done a lot of hanging around new people, but I can't escape this feeling of not fitting in.

First of all, I’m the only LT person working at the Rustic Café in the administration building, which has been both good and bad, but I can’t stop focusing on the bad parts of it.

The job requires me to work three nights per week, which has been a little depressing. Yeah, I get to sleep in a little bit and spend some time with God in the morning/afternoons on those days (which has been great for me), but everyone else who is working in housekeeping or food service with a lot of other LT people seem to be bonding a lot quicker with their co-workers and fellow LT’ers than I am. I feel like I'm being left behind and there is not a lot I can do to catch up.

Maybe God is trying to push me out of my comfort zone to make a better effort to bond with new people (something I wouldn’t consider myself good at). Maybe I’m just being lazy in trying to make new friends.I don’t know what it is, but hopefully my attitude will improve over the next couple of days.

I’m sitting here waiting to go to work from 2-10:30 tonight, getting depressed at the thought that I haven’t had a good human interaction with any LT person in the last 48 hours. Why is God doing this to me?

Please don’t think I’ve just been pouting and complaining the whole time I have been here, though. I have been enjoying myself a lot in the last week and a half, growing closer to a couple guys in my project/life group, but there is still this little feeling in the back of my mind that I can’t seem to ignore.

What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I make friends as quickly as others? Why can’t I have a good time when everyone else is? It’s just been so frustrating.

I guess I just need to accept the role I have been given here at LT and try to make the most of it. This summer is gonna be one of great growth, I just need to figure out how that is going to happen.

First Impressions

Well, now that I've been in Colorado for just over 24 hours (that's it?), I thought it'd be good to update everyone on how things are going. (Check out my Facebook for some pictures!)

After some complications on our second day of travel (sickness and a damaged front bumper at a gas station in Kansas), we arrived in almost one piece in beautiful Estes Park, Colorado at around 4:30 MT.

The scenery in Colorado is certainly awe-inspiring, as advertised. We are surrounded by snow capped mountains and as we were driving in, we saw three fully grown elk just kinda chillin by the side of the main road at the YMCA. I'm gonna have to get used to that, I guess! Even though it has been a bit rainy and cold here for the first couple of days, it's still just awesome to look around and see how great God's creation really is.

I have been really excited to come to Colorado for the last couple of months, but the first 24 hours have kind of been an up and down emotional experience for me.

Mostly, I'm confused because I have no clue why God sent me here. I feel in my heart that I am supposed to be here this summer, but He hasn't really shown me the specific reason why I am here yet. Maybe I'm here to make awesome friends, improve my evangelizing skills, push myself out of my comfort zone or grow really close to God. Heck, maybe it can be all of those.

I'm praying that God can show me how to best spend my time this summer. There are so many opportunities here which can make it kind of overwhelming, but I'm sure that there is a reason I am here and I trust that God will make this a very productive summer in preparation for my senior year.

Bt dubs, I just got back from the first meeting with my project group, which was fun. We ate dinner, heard a crazy story about some A&M people's car accident on the way to LT (everyone is safe!) and played some Catch Phrase. Our group is cool so far and I can't wait to see how God brings us together this summer!

Oh, I also found out that my official job for the summer will be working at the Rustic Cafe. It's kind of a Starbucks-type place on the YMCA grounds which seems like a nice place to work and was my most preferred job. PTL!

Ready for a new challenge

Tomorrow, I'll be headed out to Estes Park, Colorado to spend the summer with college students from all around the country, work at the YMCA of the Rockies and participate in LT, a program that helps create young leaders in the church.

I made my decision to go to LT early in the spring semester, so my anticipation for going to Colorado has been building for a while. I am excited to get out to Colorado for a number of reasons:

1. I will be challenged and encouraged daily to grow in my faith.

This year has been an awesome year of spiritual growth in my life. I’ve used this year to re-dedicate every minute of my life to the Lord and I’m doing all I can to be a great example of God’s love. The community that God provided for me through the Mark Twain Canvas Group and my core group was just what I needed to be motivated to live my life for Him.

With that said, there is still a lot of room for me to improve my relationship with the Lord and become more dedicated to serving Him daily. Being surrounded by about 150 Christian college students who have the same desire to grow in their faith will create an awesome atmosphere that will challenge me more than I have ever been challenged.

2. I will become more comfortable with outreach in preparation for next year.

As I look toward my senior year at Mizzou, I can’t help but be excited about all of the opportunities for outreach that we will have with the new Dobbs canvas group. That area of campus has been kind of neglected over the past couple of years, so a strong leadership group in that area will be necessary for it to be a prosperous canvas group.

With all of these opportunities to evangelize next year, I must use this summer to prepare myself to be bold and more intentional with incoming freshman. Even though I’m not officially a leader for the canvas group next year, being a senior means that freshman guys will naturally look up to me, so I have to be prepared to at least be a good role model.

The LT program is known for helping develop leaders (Leaders are developed at a leadership training camp? Who woulda guessed it?), so I am excited to see how I can finally become a true leader in the church.

3. I will grow closer to great people who love the Lord.

If I’m being honest, this past semester was the first time I really developed any relationships with people my age that were based on our shared love for the Lord. It was really the first time I realized what a true “brother” or “sister in Christ” was. Having people my age that can help me depend more on God with every passing day is something I have never really had in my life.

Whether it’s through encouraging words or just seeing what God is doing in other people’s lives, the power of friendships that are built on shared faith is undeniable. I’m really looking forward to finding more brothers and sisters in Christ in Colorado!

I’ve also thought of some specific goals for the summer: set out a specific time for God every day, read my Bible every day, learn to play the guitar a little better, be extremely committed to my project group, etc. This should be the best summer of my life, and God willing, it will be!

I’ll use this blog to keep everyone back home updated on all that I am learning and how I am growing in my faith! As you can tell, I'm extremely excited for what God has in store for me this summer and I hope some of you share that same excitement for me!

An ode to baseball

As baseball season kicked off just over a week ago, my excitement for what should be another great summer following my favorite team, the defending AL champion Texas Rangers, could not be contained. The Rangers' 9-2 record in their first 11 games has obviously done nothing to temper my enthusiasm.

Growing up, I was interested in all the sports that I could find time to watch. My mom said she knew Kyle and I had a “problem” when she came home to see us watching a random women’s volleyball match on ESPN2. We were only 10 years old.

As you can tell, sports have been my biggest interest for the majority of my life. There is nothing in the world that is more entertaining than watching highly skilled athletes competing at the highest level.

Each sport requires a different set of skills and each sport is awesome in it’s own way. If any kind of sporting event, you can witness greatness.

I love football. It is thrilling to attend football games because of the intense action involved and there is no comparison to the athleticism needed to excel in this awesome sport.

Basketball is great. While referees have clouded my love for the game recently, watching great players (Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, etc.) dominate at this game is one of the most awe-inspiring things that you can see in sports.

I have even begun to love hockey in the past four years or so. The game is so fluid, yet physical, and it is quite unique compared to other American sports. And of course, nothing compares to the intensity of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Even with how awesome these sports are and how much I enjoy them, none of them even come close to conjuring up the same kind of feelings that I have about baseball.

Maybe my early love for baseball is the reason it is #1 in my eyes. As a child, the only sport I ever attended consistently was baseball. Texas Rangers games were easy to go to on the cheap and it was a fun summer activity for our family.

During the time that we went to a lot of games, the Rangers always sucked. We always seemed to go to Rangers v. Devil Rays games and the Rangers would lose more often than not, even with how terrible those Devil Rays teams were. That’s how bad the Rangers were.

Even with many losing experiences, I still have many fond memories of the Ballpark in Arlington and it was always my favorite place to be during the summer.

One of the major reasons that baseball is the best overall sport is the relaxed atmosphere of it’s games. Yes, sports are supposed to be as exciting as possible, but there is just something unexplainably enjoyable about putting up your feet, having a nice tray of nachos and watching some baseball with the people you love.

It may sound cliché, but watching a baseball game is just a great way to connect with people. When attending more high-paced games like hockey and football, it is hard to really converse and get to know the people you attend the game with. Baseball is different in that it is very conversational and relaxing. Many great father-son relationships have been created around a baseball diamond, and that is no coinceidence.

Some people understand this love for baseball, but a lot of others find it odd that people could be so interested in such a “boring” game. It’s hard to argue against the fact that baseball’s action is slow-paced, but it is really what happens in between the action that makes this sport so interesting.

As the batter waits for the pitch, you can almost see the wheels turning inside his head, wondering what pitch the pitcher will throw next. Then you look at the pitcher, who is pondering what spot he can put his next pitch in where his opponent wont crush it out of the ballpark.

There is so much strategy involved in the pitcher-batter conflict. The pitcher seems to control the action with the pitches he selects, but it could be argued that what the batter does/is good at is what actually controls the action.

This battle (mental and physical) happens with every single pitch that is thrown. The pitcher thinks: ‘Do I throw a curveball in the dirt here and hope he chases it or do I try and sneak a fastball by him.’ while the batter thinks: ‘Don’t get fooled by a curveball, but don’t miss your chance to hit a good fastball…’ Who comes out on top?

The anticipation rises with each passing pitch because of the fact that it could be the one that decides the game.

Anticipation is also present during the action. A player strokes a ball to the gap that gets down and slowly rolls to the wall. The crowd rises to its feet as the batter rounds second to try and stretch a double into a triple. He dives in safely and the crowd goes into a frenzy. Talk about exhilarating.

These kinds of feelings are present in other sports, but baseball lives and dies with this feeling of anticipation, from pitch to pitch, inning to inning and game to game.

Another reason baseball is so uniquely awesome is that you honestly never know what is going to happen when you show up at a ballpark.

Bengie Molina, the slowest player in the history of baseball, could stroke a triple to the alley in right center to complete a cycle. Edwin Jackson, a guy with great stuff but terrible command could throw a no-hitter. There are so many ways greatness can present itself in the game of baseball, so each game is a mystery.

Things like this don’t happen near as often in other sports. Sure, a receiver could have a breakout game (Kevin Curtis’ 3 TD game in the opening week of 2007 comes to mind), but greatness occurs more frequently in baseball games.

Unique personalities also make this game interesting. Where else can you find a guy who throws an 85 MPH, side armed fastball be as successful as a guy who can throw 98 MPH?

These unique personalities help create so many awesome memories. Remember how the 25 idiots came together and ended a nearly century long World Series drought for the Red Sox? How about how the ‘Claw and Antlers’ phase swept North Texas last summer on the way to an unforgettable October? There is no team-wide bond like the one that is formed through baseball.

That statement is probably true because the game is played nearly every day. Teams spend all of their time together, on and off the field, so they have to have a special chemistry to be great.

The fact that the game is played every day is another reason why baseball is so great. People think that baseball could get boring in this way, but the fact that each day brings a new starting pitcher to the mound makes each game uniquely interesting.

Your team could get crushed 15-2 one day and come back the next day and beat the same team 8-1. This variance day to day makes the game easy to watch and makes it easy to say “Well, there is always tomorrow.” There is always something to look forward to during a baseball season and each day presents a different challenge.

This is always said when there is an explanation on why baseball is great, but it is so true that it bears repeating. The fact that there is no clock in the game makes it so unique and so much more watchable.

You don’t always have to be worrying about how much time is left and a team with a lead can’t just run out the clock. Each team gets 27 outs at the beginning of the game to play with, and whoever does the best with them gets the win. It is simple, yet extremely fair.

I could go on and on with the reasons why baseball is awesome (stats, prospects, trades, etc.), but this post could go on for a couple more thousand words, so I’ll just stop it here and end with a story on how rewarding baseball can be.

Even with how awesome I thought baseball was for the first 19 years of my life, my team never really rewarded me with any sort of success. We had never made the playoffs during the time that I was a die-hard fan and we rarely came close. I never thought of abandoning my team, but it was frustrating that the team would be so disappointing year in and year out.

My (and the rest of the dedicated fan base’s) persistence paid of in September and October of last year. The Rangers had a fantastic season and won the division for the first time since 1999. Excitement ramped up in the DFW area and the team went on an improbable run to their first World Series ever.

I’ve never seen a city get so far behind their team as I did last fall. The Rangers were riding a high wave of confidence and the fans were treated to some of the most thrilling and rewarding baseball games I have ever seen. To people who say sports are pointless and a waste of time, tell that to the 50,000+ people in attendance (plus an uncountable number of fans watching across the country) who were going absolutely nuts when Neftali Feliz struck out Alex Rodriguez to advance the Rangers to the World Series.

Poetic justice at it’s finest, and something that could only be produced by the great sport of baseball.

Gift of Life/Learning to Trust God

I've wanted to write this blog for a while, but life has been getting in the way in the past couple of weeks, so I’ve had to move the blog to the backburner. Now that I’ve pushed through the unstoppable rush of tests, research papers, online Spanish and work, I’ve got time to breathe for a week or so. PTL!

A major thing that has been on my mind the last couple of weeks has been the gift of life. I’m not just talking about the blessing of living in a country like the United States that has many freedoms (which is awesome and something we take for granted far too much), but mainly the idea that we even have a chance to have life on this earth.

This has been on my mind because it seems like over the past couple of months, a lot of friends and acquaintances from my high school years in Texas have been losing family members, friends, etc. It hasn’t just been losing grandparents to old age or things like that, but instead people from my age group or people that are my parents’ age.

For example, a couple of my high school classmates were killed in a car accident a couple of weeks ago, our high school’s long-time basketball coach died from cancer, etc.

Death hasn’t ever really been a huge part of my life, so this has been a bit of a shock for me, thinking of my own morality.

These events have made me think about how much we should appreciate life on this Earth while we still have it. We must treat life as our most sacred gift, because it simply is. You hear people say this all the time, but how many of us actually live that way? How many times do we get caught up in the trials of life and find ourselves with no joy or passion to do anything?

The fact that God even gave us life is one of the most amazing things to just think about. He didn’t need to make us to make himself happy, but he wanted to spread his immense love, so he created us! Awesome.

We constantly see people stumble through their days, complaining about the little problems in life, while not taking the effort to enjoy life itself. I’ve done it, you’ve done it, we’ve all done it.

One thing we can do to make sure that we can stay happy is by remembering that our whole life is all in his hands and he knows what he’s doing. If we can always trust that God knows what he is doing, we can stop wasting time worrying on if life will work out the way we planned it.

This brings up another topic that calls back to the Idols series we had at the Rock last month. If success is one of your idols, you will always chase after it but will never be satisfied, no matter how much success you achieve. If you put all your eggs in God’s basket, he’ll take care of you and direct you in the way you are supposed to go. Once again, much easier said than done.

This situation made me think of a song that really had a good impact on me once I got to college.

Ruin my life the plans I have made
Ruin desires for my own selfish gain
Destroy the idols that have taken Your place
'Till its You alone I live for,
You alone I live for.

-Ruin Me (Jeff Johnson)

We have to be willing to get rid of what we think is best for us and listen to what God thinks is best. It’s tough to actually admit that we don’t know what the heck we are doing, but the sooner we do that, the sooner we can trust God and find joy in him.

I wanted to talk about this because of my personal experience I've been having in the past couple of months.

In my first blog post I mentioned how I was really focused on trying to get a journalism internship this summer so I could feel better about my post-graduation job outlook. I thought that if I got a good sports writing internship, I could network and almost be assured a pretty good job coming out of college, which would allow me to do what I am passionate about, give me a comfortable life and probably good enough money. I guess God had other ideas.

Late last semester, God turned my attention to the LT program that our church is having in Colorado this summer (check the picture at the top). I don’t know how I got interested, but I guess I just was desperate for some solid plans this summer and God provided it. As I thought about my decision, I could hear God telling me that Colorado was the place I should go and that getting an internship probably wasn’t as important as I thought it was. I'm fairly solid in my belief that this is where I'm supposed to be.

This experience has taught me a good lesson: always trust God. You may think you know how your life is going to play out and what the best scenario would be for you, but God probably knows a little bit better than you.

He’s got it all under control.

He Makes Us New!

Has it really only been a week since the Super Bowl? That was a sad night indeed (that's me consoling Big Ben in the picture). Oh well. Life goes on and I’ve got 6 Super Bowl trophies to cry on.

This past week has felt like forever. I finished my first unit of online Spanish, started working more as a manager at Coldstone, applied for LT for the summer, played a lot of racquetball on the weekend and got closer to a lot of my boys/girls from the Mark Twain Canvas Group (represent!). It’s been a lot of fun.

I’ve done a lot of hanging out with Mark Twain peeps this semester, mainly because God made it clear to me towards the end of last semester that I was spending far too much time focused on journalism, internships, and stuff related to my hopeful future career. The idol of success had been grabbing a hold of me and I needed to get God back in the place he deserves: First.

I’ve been doing a pretty good job of keeping myself around God-like people for the first month of 2011, so it’s been a really encouraging semester for me so far. My core group has been awesome this year, I’ve been going to church instead of basketball games (say whaaaaaaa?) and I have been putting more of my daily focus on Him.

All this is really good for me. It’s fun and important to hang out and fellowship with other people of faith, but the thing that needs to come from that is growth in the Lord.

I think that’s been happening in the first month I’ve been back in good ‘ol CoMo. Putting yourself in good situations with people of the Lord helps you to always think of Him and your developing relationship with Him.

A song we sung at the Rock last night (“Beautiful Things”) really got me thinking at the end of the night. Here’s part of the pretty simple song:

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

Obviously these 4 lines (the main part of the chorus) are powerful. All we have and all we have become is because of Him.

But it’s the last part of this song that got me thinking.

You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new

Isn’t it crazy that no matter who we are or where we are at in our walks with Christ, we are always being made new by God!? Even if we think we are in a good place with Him, He can reveal something about Himself that we had never thought of before or have neglected to think about for a while.

Some things get stale, but our relationships with God can never get stale if we do our part. God is always doing his part. He’s always trying to make us new. We’ve just gotta accept it and become what He wants us to be.

I had spent the first couple of years of college not allowing myself to be made new by God. He was presenting me with opportunities to be more like Him, but I turned away in order to find “happiness” elsewhere.

Now that I recognize it, I’m doing my best to follow the path God has for me because He knows what he’s doing, right? He’s always making us new! PTL! (i this acronym)