Beauty for Ashes

Monday, February 28, 2005

Rhythms of Heaven

An amazing weekend to be sure. There was never a dull moment. It was a God weekend, and those are the best kind. Well there was supposed to be all night worship at A Place for the Heart, but when we showed up that had been cancelled. So, we just hung out for a while talking to Johnny and Melissa. This quickly turned into worship and God showed up. We all got to pray over Johnny. Some really cool prophecy came out, For those of you who don't know, The Awakening is this weekend. Johnny is going to be recording a lot of his songs, and its just going to be a weekend of CRAZY worship. So we did a lot of praying for that. God was just there. Saturday was a lazy day filled with cleaning myself up, (a haircut, and my first shave in at least a week and a half). Then walked around on Mark's roof with Mark. Jamie and I then went and strolled around Oakdale, and were officially creeped out. Took some pictures of course. Then I went out to eat with my family and Lauren to celebrate my dads’ new job. Steve has been here for a while, and that's been great.

SUNDAY:
It was the Lord's Day like crazy. Went to Lauren's house pretty early in the morning, used my knowledge of the spare key to get in and wake her up. She fixed me breakfast, and we spent a good while together before she had to go to Durham. It was the first time we've really gotten to spend a lot of time together in over two weeks, and it also happened to be our three-month mark. It was a good time to just spend together. Then I went back to OFY for the first time in I don't know how long. The main reason I went was to see Songs of Water play. They were amazing of course and we got into some great worship and intercession for the lost ones in our lives. We brought Jonathan and he remembered the church, and Katie Held. We talked to Frank for a while and it was just a great time to catch up. The best part was that I saw my first best friend, Jonathan Sikes, we were best friends when we were like seven. I was actually thinking about him the other day. I would love to get back in touch with him. I think he's going to come to The Awakening. So, anyways I talked to him and Frank, took some pictures of some cool people, and around 9:30 it was time for Marshall, Jonathan, and I to head back to Boone. Well the weather wasn’t so good when I left, it only got worse. I was still at least 60 miles away when the snow started. You guys have to understand that I drive an ‘88 Camaro, V8, rear-wheel drive, 5-speed, about a 6 inch ground clearance, and what are anti-lock brakes? This car is not good in snow, but I still love her. Anyway, it snowed about 10 inches. I couldn’t see anything, I was sliding all over the place, and I was praying, a lot. Well, after a ridiculously long time, and several close calls including sliding a long about 20 mph, completely perpendicular to the road, I finally made it to my parking space. So, thank you Jesus for getting my Camaro and I up the mountain safely.

PS- All of you go to the Awakening this weekend, it will change your life.

Monday, February 21, 2005

Love is?

This weekend was wonderful and hard. I had a great time at the bonfire, with Stophen, Bingham, Marsh, Brian, Laura, Jake, Tara, Jessie, Kelsey, and Jamie. It was another night of wonderful memories made, and more late night eating at Carolina Dinner. But there was someone missing.

I think that love is seeing the other person, at least in some small way, the way that God does. It allows you to look past their flaws, and their problems and see who they are.

Well anyway, Stephen's here in Boone with us for the next few days.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Another Day in Paradise

Ah, Valentines Day. An enormously fat kid stands on a street corner wearing a suit. He's smoking a cigarette and holding a single wilted rose. Undoubtedly waiting for his girl. I came home this weekend and had a fantastic time. Jamie and I watched a hillarious old UFO video. No we aren't to weird about it, we just like watching the people mostly. Then Saturday Lauren and I went to an old Civil War ball in the basement of the Kernersville Library. It was the most fun I've had in a while. I have long felt about dancing the same way I felt about girls when I was 6. I had no use for it. I have grown up again. It was incredibly fun, and next year we're bringing as many of you guys as we can. I wore a Confederate soldier uniform complete with sword, and Lauren wore a beautiful dress with a big hoop skirt, which I repeatedly stepped on. After the dance, we made the rounds of places we wanted to show up wearing our stuff. (Pictures will come later). We had a wonderful time. Sunday we had our Valentines Day, I got her roses, very original, and we spent the day together. So, I drove back last night, watching the lights reflecting off the rain slicked pavement, listening to the constant thump thump of the windshield wipers.. Listened to U2 and listened to Copeland, talked to Lauren and talked to God. So here I am in Boone, my first Valentines Day with a Valentine, and I don't get to see her. Oh well, I have my Jesus.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Things Just Getting Good


Jake
Originally uploaded by Realistical.
Thought I'd let you guys see some prime Jake material. You know to get the camera out when Jake says something like, "you guys wanna put me in a garbage bag?" I'll be home this weekend. Jonathans dad is gonna be fine, thanks for praying all of you who did. Love you guys.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Please Pray

All of you who read this, (all two of you) please pray for Jonathan's dad, he just had a heart attack about 2 hours before this post. Thanks a lot.

Brown Eyed Girl

Jonathan likes to cook. This is a good thing, he made me pancakes at 3:30am on Friday night. And again during the Super Bowl. This time with bananas in it, and peanut butter instead of syrup.

So jonathan acquired a projector from church and brought it back to his apartment. We watched the Carolina game, Urban Legends, and the Super Bowl on it. I don't think he's gonna give it back, at least not until after the UNC - Duke game Wednesday.

While my memory is not the best, I believe that this weekend was the first I've spent in Boone this semester. There just isn't much to do in Boone. Well, I take that back. They don't call us the "Happy Appy" for nothing, but if you plan on staying sober, there's bowling or board games. One of which I did this weekend. Well anyway, Lauren came up on Saturday and it was wonderful. I have really been realizing just how lucky I am. She is an amazing girlfriend, and I am not a very good boyfriend, (not on purpose, it comes naturally). Yet, she stays with me.

So, I had a great weekend, again. Thank's to my sweet girl.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

A Picture is Worth...

It is my belief that the purpose of life is to worship God, and to bring him glory. With that said, a lot of the things I do are quite the opposite of that. However, many things that we do bring him glory just because he loves us. For me, I like to think I bring him glory through my photography. There are many things that fascinate me about photography, color, contrast, mood, tone, but mostly the human subjects. So, needless to say I love it. That's not to say that my photography's good, that doesn't matter. For instance, the Bible says to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. It doesn't say make a beautiful noise, or even a nice noise. Just a joyful one. My dad is very fond of pointing that one out. So in the same manner, I want to take "joyful" pictures unto the Lord. Whether the pictures are good or not are in the eye of the beholder. But they bring glory to God because I enjoy taking them. I love that.

A Picture is Worth...

It is my belief that the purpose of life is to worship God, and to bring him glory. With that said, a lot of the things I do are quite the opposite of that. However, many things that we do bring him glory just because he loves us. For me, I like to think I bring him glory through my photography. There are many things that fascinate me about photography, color, contrast, mood, tone, but mostly the human subjects. So, needless to say I love it. That's not to say that my photography's good, that doesn't matter. For instance, the Bible says to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. It doesn't say make a beautiful noise, or even a nice noise. Just a joyful one. My dad is very fond of pointing that one out. So in the same manner, I want to take "joyful" pictures unto the Lord. Whether the pictures are good or not are in the eye of the beholder. But they bring glory to God because I enjoy taking them. I love that.