A Day of Questions...And No Answers

My very lazy and non eventful day was interupted by a phone call from my brother, Joseph.

"Hey Joe Joe"

"Hey Amanda. How are you?"

"I'm good, You?"

He said he was fine and that he was getting ready to go to his Homecoming dance with his girlfriend. After some further small talk he asked finally got to the reason he called:

"Can you give mama my phone number and ask her to call me when you talk to her?"

You see our mothers birthday was on Thursday. One by one David, Joey and I tried calling her with the same result, her voice mail. We each left her a unique message and then the hardest task of all, waitng for a reply. One never came. And the three of us, under three different roofs, were all saddened.

It took all I had not to break down on the phone with Joe. I didn't know what to sao to him that could have comforted him. And I guess one reason is because I have the same questions that he has, and have yet found the answers. Deep down, we wonder why. Why did she do it? Why did it have to happen to us? Why?

I spent the rest of today just trying to answer these questions for myself so that I can try to begin to answer them for my brothers. And I don't even know where to begin.

We still have these questions...and no answers.

A Do Nothing Weekend

Well it is just me tonight. All I am going to do tonight is sleep (and maybe watch a movie). But needless to say, I'm on my own.

The weekend doesn't look to eventful either...maybe something will come up.

BED REST

This weekend, I was mostly in bed. I started getting really sick on Friday night. I had a bad cough, stopped up nose, sore throat, and a slight fever. I broke my fever late Saturday morning and finally started breething through my nose again by late Saturday night. I slept all day today and right now I feel so much better that I have been feeling all weekend.

So as I was surfing the internet for a picture to portray how I felt I found this next one. And the first thing that cam to my mind was Pastor Dan's FAVORITE song in the whole world.

Can you guess it?


I think I'm gonna throw up...

This last part was for you PD.

An Early Morning Laugh

Since I have to be up this early, I figured I could make it a little better and found this joke:

What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?


Pumpkin Pi

Point UAM

Volleyball is the coolest sport ever! Tonight the blossoms hosted the Tigers for another round of GSC play.



Kathy stood out tonight with a few kills and a couple of blocks. Kathy is from Panama City, Panama. She is the greatest person ever. (What a vertical she has)



BLOCK THAT BALL GIRLS!!!

Our girls are so good. We killed OBU tonight. The blossoms won in three straight games. The last of witch was a slaughter 30-11. What an exciting game.

Passion 07

You might have noticed the new banner in my side bar. It is once again time for passion registration. Passion this year is in Atlanta, GA. It is a great confrence full of college students who love God with a passion.



Ps- If you don't want to click the side bar, you can register here.

Fearless

Do you ever notice how kids between the ages of 4 and 9 seem to not have a sence of fear. And then the older one gets, this once aluring fearlessnes is replaced by a fear of almost everything. Now, I don't know if it is exactally fear, but more of common sence. Youth and adults know that jumping from the side of the pool and landing on your stomach hurts like crap, and don''t do it. Kids know that it will hurt, but think that if they do it enough times it will eventually stop hurting. I guess my point is, I wish I was more like a kid in this aspect and not an adult. I don't want to be fearful, I want to be fearless.

Photo curtesy of Christine (Kious) Hnat

Just ...

I do have to admit that i had a much better day today than I did yesterday (at least after I got out of Calculus). And I think that I laughed for the first time in a week or so. And no it wasn't at the picture of the horse.

A friend and I were alking to class and I turned to tell him something and he was gone. What had happen was as we were stepping over a wire, he caught it with his foot and fell. Well, it had rained last night and needless to say, his clothes were not clean when he got up. But what made it even better was that we were already five minutes late to class so he couldn't go and change. (I almost fell over laughing...but I didn't want to get muddy too!)

Everyone is Looking for a Mascot

Every single person is lookingfor their own private mascot. Someone to praise them when they do good and encourage them when things are looking bleek.



I know that I have fallen into this category, but I am not proud about it. Because I should know that i have a greater encouragement than any mascot could give me, and that is God himself.



Ps- The Purple Avenger was our mascot at Super Summer my purple school year (which was the summer after my Junior year in high school)

Remembering 9/11

Five years after that tradgic day, I take time to reflect on my thoughts and feelings about he whole ordeal.


I don't know about you, but i can remember everything about that day. I (along with four others) were sitting in Mr. Houff's spanish class. We had all missed a quiz on the prievious Friday and were in there before school to make it up. When I was down to question 7, Senior Houff ran in and told us that we needed to turn the television on because a plane had just hit the Wourld Trade Center. So we put our quizzes away and started watching FoxNews. About fifteen minutes after we turned the television on the second plane hit tower two. I believe that it was at that moment that we all realized it wasn't an accident.

As the rest of the students in our class came filling in, Senior thought the we should turn off the TV saying:

"Nothing else is going to happen."

So we went on with our normal activity. About ten minutes before the bell was supossed to ring a knok came on our classroom door. Mr. Mitchel (our principal) call Mr.Houff out and handed him a letter to read to us:

"Students and Teachers, as you have probably heard by now, the United States has suffered a great tragedy this Tuesday morning. Three planes have hit the WTC towers 1 and 2 and the Pentagon. Just moments ago, both towers fell. There is no telling the loss of life that has occurred this morning. As much as this news will affect all of you in different ways, there is no cause for alarm here. We will keep you updated on events throughout the day. May God Bless America"

This was when I stopped listening. I couldn't believe it. What was to be next? We spent the rest of that day glued to the TV. We saw in real time the towers collapse. We knew that our country would never be the same again.

Looking back on those events today, five years later, I am still questioning it. It is hard to fatom this wide scale attack. So many were killed, yet some survived. Their stories are unforgetable and life changing.

I was watching a documentary of 9/11 on the History Channel and the sights of that day brought back all the emotions that I felt that day. It brought back sadness for those that died. Happiness for those that survived. Anger toward those that perpetrated it and funded it. And confusion on weather or not it will ever happen again and what that looks like.

Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done. on Earth

as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our tresspasses,

as we forgive those who tresspass against us.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdo mand th power and the glory

Forever and Ever.

AMEN.

How many time have you said this in your lifetime? If you are like me, too many to count. We said it before every softball game (15 years worth), we said it before every marching performance, we even say it now after every intramural event that we participate in, but what is it.

Growing up, I htought that to pray we had to use the Lord's Prayer in every single one. That God would only listen if we said what Jesus said. As I got older it became a game, in a sence. As long as I kept reciting the Lord's Prayer, I would be fine.

I eventually got to a point when I started asking questions: When should we pray? What/who do we pray about? And should the Lord's Pray be anywhere in the mix?

It wasn't hard finding the verses that say we should pray continually. We should pray in trouble and in good times. We should pray for other believers and non believers. The sick and the
healthy. But I never found anything reguarding the Lord's prayer.

Jesus was giving us a model. Not exactally what to pray, but how to pray, or the order we should pray. We should start with praises to God. God is soverign and should be prioity in our prayers. Then we should pray for others (thier needs). We should end with ourselves (what we are struggleing with, what our needs are).

Did you notice where we ended up? Prayer isn't about us, or getting something for yourself, its about glorifing God. My prayer life isn't the greatest, but I want it to be better.

Prayer is the easiest way to get closer to God, as long as you aren't always doing all the talking!

This is How I Feel!

They say a picture's worth a thousand words.

What does this one tell you? I know when I see it, all I can think about is how I feel at this moment. Sometimes a good cry makes you feel better. So why are we afraid to show this emotion (and it's not just the guys that are afraid to cry either ladies)?

I have a theory. I think that every person wants to portray a since of strength. Even women want to apear to their male counter parts as srong willed. In our society, crying has become a sign of weakness and to cry would show that you are not that strong person you were thought of to be. Our pride gets the better of us and when we should cry, we hold it in.

I have been a culprit of this. I don't cry when I should. I bottle everything in and keep it to myself. So I vow from here on in, I will not let the act of crying be a sign of weakness but one of strength.

#2 Longhorns vs. #1 Buckeyes

I love it when college football starts.



Last week, the longhorns played North Texas. Their season opener was anything but an exciting game (Texas blew them out). Which is why this week's game is going to be so great. Texas meets Ohio State in what could make or break Texas' season. At this time Texas is raked 2 and Ohio State is ranked 1. this is the first time in ten years that there had been a #1 and #2 regular season game. This should be a good one.So hope fully by the end of this weekend, Texas will be in that covetted number one spot.



TEXAS. FIGHT. TEXAS. FIGHT.

A Spec in Light

I been thinking lately about the universe as a whole. I don't know about you, but I love seeing pictures of our universe and things that are within it (which is why my favorite website is Hubblesite.com). But what can we really learn about God from this vast, unending spance? If you really think about it, we are nothing compared to this universe.

Thats when it hit me. Even though I am unvathomly small, God sent his son to die for my sins. To think that God would do that for a World that is like a spec of dust caught in a ray of light (the pale blue dot) just reaffirms to me just how great God's love is for me.

God is awesome and I love learning more and more about Him everyday.

(The picture above is of a nebula. A nebula is an exploding star)

Glad to be Back

I am back at school in the 'Natural State' of Arkansas. I had a blast this weekend. Time to go and get ready for Cal 2.

Familiar Faces (and Feet!)

So today I got to see Amanda (from my first summer in Kennewick, WA...and the reason most know me as Rex). Amanda is attending South Western Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. We met in Greenville and ate some TCBY (like heaven in a cone). It was so great seeing her again. We are definatley going to have to make this one of those regular things (and I guess TCBY will have to be our spot).




I know what you're thinking, "I see three sets of feet." Well there is a logical explination for that. My brother Joey accounts for the last set. He made the trip with me from Texarkana.

On The Road Again

Looks like I get to go home this weekend...I'll update when I get back.

Ta for now