Something Simply Different

Interesting

List of things that I currently find my mind wondering to throughout the day:

1. Last Space Shuttle Launch- Oh how I wish I could have watched.

2. How in the heck did Indiana pass a bill that halts the teaching of Longhand (Cursive)

3.  I have got to make time for more reading in my life if I am ever going to get to my four books in one year goal. (I don’t think you realize how hard this is for me) 

4. I wonder if I can run 100 miles? 

5. I wish you I could have a beard no matter what profession you were in.

6. Who invented professionalism anyways? 

7. I wish I hadn’t watched all the seasons of Scrubs so fast. 

8. Wonder what’s next and when it will come?

Passions

A topic that I am currently engrossed in thought about right now. What are my passions? What gets my blood boiling? What stirs my heart into motion? I think that it’s something that we as a generation are so good at identifying. WE ARE DREAMERS! We are obsessed with the stage of life that we can sit down with a journal and warm cup of joe. Ponder through the veins of our being, and savor the long drag of adrenalin that pumps through us when we dream. Selfish? Maybe? NO! I have a hard time believing that as long as our passion meets up with the Lords requirements for what is lovely and pure, that He didn’t have something to do with it being a divine installment. We were created by him right?

However, I am afraid that the lovely idea of a dream has become our “Achilles Heel” so to speak. Far to often I have seen people who i know to be some of the best and most passion filled dreamers sort of get stuck. What I mean is that we never end up leaving our coffee chair. Our journals keep growing but not with experiences. Ideas are great don’t get me wrong but, I know that they are meant to only be the starting gates of a long race called life.

I am currently in the process of trying to figure out how this passion fits together with my career, with my family, with my wife (someday….hopefully :) ) the Body, and ultimately the Lords plans. I have to admit I am really having a hard time discerning the voice of the Lord. Part of this problem isn’t being in the word enough and praying more often. But that still doesn’t keep me from wanting him to come into my bedroom and flat out tell me  WHATS UP. I also doubt I would be the first person that He might be speaking to in the silence. Here is to developing a discipline, a better ear and not getting caught in ruts.

Lists

Five things that I am absolutely loving about where life has taken me. 

1. Closer relationship with my wonderful aunt and uncle.

-It comes as no surprise to me that I now look to them as a second set of parent figures and am rapidly finding myself growing to care more and more for them each day. Thats what you get when you live in such a close proximity to people who really know what love is all about. 

2. The new friends that I have made along the way.

-It took me a couple weeks to get started and my feet under me down here in Nashville. But if there is one thing that The Good Lord has blessed me with through this whole experience it’s the new relationships. It always amazes me that I can find two or three solid guys no matter where I go but, this new step has meant that this time it’s going to come with a twist. Wives. Every single one of my close guy friends is married here. It often feels that I am the only one not married or in a relationship. Not bad by any means, just the stage of life I am in. 

3. Promise of new adventure! 

-Since graduation the Lord has done nothing but fling open doors. Some have closed but I am doing my best to keep as many open until Christ makes his plans for me as clear as a contact.

4. My church, 

-At home I am from a church that would be considered large for the area that I live in, however it is nothing compared in size to the one that I am apart of in Franklin. It weird to me to think that I could walk in on Sunday that no one would know my name? However I am loving the opportunities that this church has brought and this body that operates in such a different way than mine does in Canal Winchester, Ohio. Even cooler though that I can move 400 hundred miles away from my home and instantly be connect to a group of people by my relationship with Jesus. And that even though my church was different from the one I am apart of now, there is still a use for what I can bring to the table. 

5. I love being a Buckeye fan in TN. 

- Plan and simple my team is going to the sugar bowl playing in what could give the National Championship a run for its money in viewers and their team is going to the music city bowl. I think it’s one that they made up so their team could feel good about themselves later. :)

History

History part two will happen due to : Ben not really knowing how to run a blog program very well. If I were to resemble a cartoon character right now to express my current state of mind, I would be Calvin from Calvin&Hobbes. I would be all hunched over with my arms cross, a frustrated glair worn on my face and squiggly lines over my head that insinuates grumbling and maybe casual curses and swears. Sheesh………………….. 

So on to what I really wanted to say. History. I recently was tipped a dollar bill through my Barista experience at Starbucks. We receive tips there mostly because we put a bucket out and it’s convenient for people to toss their difference rather than carry that 75 cents around all day. Just so all you Starbucks customers know, you toss in about $400 a week. But thats neither here nor there.  I took this particular dollar bill out of my tip bag as I was splitting my money into the various funds that I have to make myself a more responsible saver when I took notice of red writing printed on the face. I have seen dollar bills like this before but, never explored what it was all about. The print is from an online website that allows you to track where your dollar bills have been should the current owner decide to go online and register the bill. It also gives you some bill stats. Example: the one I have came from a little tiny town about 75 miles from Franklin, TN where I currently reside. It was registered for the first time about 20 days ago giving it an average speed of 3.6 miles per day. Nothing like a good ol bill stat if you ask me. This whole idea fascinated me and I began to wonder why it was that I am attracted to this so much. The only conclusion that I can come to, is this bill has history. 

Every life in my opinion could be viewed as a picture in motion. Each looks different and also has their very own color scheme and complex to make it unique and for lack of better words “Them”.  I am attracted to History because I think it takes those paintings a step further. It gives depth, allows it to pop and maybe even refines the colors to make them more bold or soft. What I mean by that is, we all have similar experiences but our back rounds allows us to see them in different ways. So while you and I might have the same starting color of blue, things in my history might shape that blue to be more soft and almost reduce it to a grey, while your life experience is energetic and might allow you the throw some glitter on dat that blue. Still the same color but both appear very different. 

History lets us know where we came from, who we are, what’s important to us, who we are friends with, and if we pay close enough attention might be able to offer some hints on where we are going. I think that in some cases it’s something to be proud of, take pride in and rejoice. In others, that might not be the case. What one must must realize is that little choices we make everyday shape the color and depths of your pictures. I don’t know about you, but I want mine to be a picture that people stand in front of for a long time in a gallery. Not confused or guessing by what the artist was trying to convey. They are amazed by the beauty and inspired by the purity of the colors chosen. Hints of the artists handy work will be very evident, so much so that he wouldn’t even need to put his name in corner. The work accomplished would not only identify me with the artist but also with a family of other masterpieces. A family of masterpieces that has pretty impressive and attractive history. 

(Source: WheresGeorge.com )

History

I recently found a dollar bill through my Barista experience at Starbucks, that has been tagged with the WheresGeorge.com 

(Source: WheresGeorge.com )

Anonymous asked: I am confused by your "life lead by a true doer" What is a true "doer" Just wondering . . . .

By a “true doer” I was meaning that I am try to follow a path that has first been walked by Jesus Christ. Christ made his faith in his holy spirit evident everyday by interacting with the untouchables. A true doer in my opinion, will be someone who is not all talk. They get out and live out what they are saying. Like Jesus. He did a fair amount of preaching from what I read but, also I read that he did a fair amount of practicing what he preached. Does this help? 

Getting Started

First post is always the hardest to write I am assuming. However since this is first time writing online like this other than on Xanga when I was 15, I really don’t know that I have the credibility to say something like that. I must admit that it has been a nightmare going back and forth in my mind about what to put up for everyone to see. Will they really really read it? If they don’t is there even a point? Am I vain or suggesting to people that I think I have something to say worth taking up space on the World Wide Web? 

I have been a constant journaler for about a year now. Something that I am very proud of and will continue for hopefully as long as my hand allows me to write. When I flip through the pages of my journal, in my mind, it’s almost as if I am flipping through days in my life. Memories that are forever ingrained in my head now with more vivid detail than a picture can produce. I think that’s why I like it so much. Unlike a picture, you get a real sense of what the author is feeling, what they are smelling and the different interactions that are going on with people in their lives a the time. Writing reveals secrets that could otherwise be hidden behind the silence of a snap shot. While a picture is beautiful, I think that it is just the cover to what really was going on.

Since my first journal was started, I have started several other journals. Some to people. Some for spiritual life. Some for phrases, quotes and bible verses that I hear and fall in love with. This one is different from any other that I have because it has the potential  to have viewers. Allows for feed back and comments. Personally I would be shocked if anymore than five people ended up regularly following what I have to say because honestly I don’t think that what’s going on in my head is that interesting to most. However should you decide to read I hope that you feel like you are at home here and can say whatever you want. What I put on here will always be things that I am bouncing off the the thin lines of my head trying figure out how it fits in this beautiful and crazy life. I would appreciate any guidance that you might have. My hope is that I will start reading a little more of yours, you read some of mine and together we end up walking through some of life major problems, sharing news of our latest vacations, and what the Lord is currently trying to teach us. So instead of this being all about me and a blog that I write on, I submit that this could be one of the greatest team building exercises. Here’s to what could be!