Sweet Chaos

It's definitely one of those mornings where I'll need a second cup of coffee before I begin writing.

This weekend was crazy.

This weekend was awesome.

This weekend was the most fun I've had in a long time.

And this picture pretty much summarizes it:

Sweet, sweet chaos. That's the only way to describe it.

We spent the past weekend hanging out with a lot of people we had only ever met once in our lives, and a lot of other people we had never seen before. It didn't matter, though. Love was in the air. It was a different sort of love, though. A sweet, chaotic, beautiful love - one only possibly born of God.

How else can you explain this situation? 

30 people, all unrelated, gathering together...

In the name of adoption.

In the name of love.

In the name of worshiping God, who has brought us all together, regardless of geographical or biological distance.

For their children, whom they love with all of their hearts.

For their children, who may be a little tanner than the rest of us, but are the most beautiful sight in the world.

For their children, who were alone, but now have a place they can always call home and people they can always call family.

This weekend was a picturesque portrayal of God's love. It was out of control, chaotic, fussy, messy, and a little cranky at times. But there has never been a more beautiful, more sincere, more passionate love among a group of people. And it is that love which pulls my heart-strings. It's that love which brings me peace. It's that love that moves my heart toward adoption, toward love.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. [Ephesians 1:5]

I believe this weekend gave God great pleasure. He saw his children, adopted through his Son, caring for his little ones, who they had chosen to adopt in love.

I can't wait for the day that God leads us down that same path. And it's coming soon - my heart can feel it.

How have you experienced adoption in your life? Has it been a positive or negative experience? Do you have relatives or friends that are adopted? How has that shaped who they are? Have you ever considered adopting a child? Why or why not?


I'd love to hear from you about this (or anything else!). Just leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail!

Oops, I Did it Again

I'm not sure what's with all of the song-inspired titles lately...

Today I'm going to do something daring. Something crazy. Something a little wacky.

I'm going to break some sort of unwritten blogging code and hope the blog police don't come for me.

I'm going to, once more, grovel for guest posts.

I received some great responses the first time I posted about this a couple of weeks ago, so I just wanted to throw the opportunity out there once more for anyone who might have missed it or maybe had just forgotten.

I need some awesome, epic guest posters!

That means YOU! 

So, for the sake of not writing the exact same blog post twice, I wanted to share a few guest posts with you to help inspire you. Consider this my Shameless Plugging for the week, so I don't seem completely self-centered and self-promoting.

"Beating Writer's Block" by Jon Acuff - This is the most recent guest post that I've read and has some great advice for writers from Jon Acuff, a Christian blogger and author. He posted on a blog site called Money Saving Mom, which sounds completely out of his realm, and I thought that was pretty gutsy.

What I learned from this guest post: You can guest post anywhere. All you have to do is ask!

My Guest Post at My Husband Ate All My Ice Cream - Alright, this is pretty self-centered and self-promoting, I have to admit. But this is just another example of a guest post that may have been in a realm that doesn't necessarily line up with the one I normally write in.

What I learned from this guest post: If you guest post, you're guaranteed to sound funnier and smarter. I'm not sure why, but that's just the way it works. Sort of like when you eat someone else's ice cream. It always tastes better than it would have if it was your own.

"My Average Day Mostly Sucks" by Jamie, the Very Worst Missionary - I'm not sure what it was about this guest post, but it is one of my favorites. Jamie took F.U. Question's theme and flipped it on its head and then made a great guest post out of it!

What I learned from this guest post: I will never, in a million, bajillion years, be able to write as well as Jamie Wright. Sometimes, you just have to know when to admit these sort of things.

What I actually learned: You don't even have to run with a blog's theme when writing a guest post. Which means you could actually write a guest post for Life Before the Bucket explaining why you don't have a Bucket List or why you hate making goals. You just never know what I could go for!

Hopefully this has encouraged you to think about guest posting not only here, but on your other favorite blogs as well! Let me know if you're interested in guest posting here through a comment or in an e-mail and we'll make it happen!

Everybody Loves a Good Cheeseburger

Today's post is a book review that I'm doing as part of the Blogging for Books program. Enjoy!

On the day that I received Bruce Wilkinson's You Were Born for This in the mail, I also received a McDonald's cheeseburger for free. And though I didn't see it at the time, God was probably laughing at me as I bit into my burger and opened my book. You'll understand why shortly.

You see, when I opened this book, I wasn't sure what to expect. I saw somewhere that Wilkinson had written The Prayer of Jabez, so I figured this couldn't be that bad. Unfortunately, I hadn't read Wilkinson's best-seller (which he was very adamant to plug for the first 50 pages of this book), so I had no clue what I was getting myself into.


Reading You Were Born for This was a lot like eating that McDonald's cheeseburger I mentioned earlier. I'll give you one guess as to which I enjoyed more, and let's just say you should choose the latter.

First of all, a cheeseburger has ingredients that, in and of themselves, are probably decent for you. Meat, cheese, bread. Good stuff. Wilkinson's book, in the same way, has a couple of things that, in and of themselves, are good things. For instance, Scripture. Scripture is definitely good for you. Unfortunately, just like a McDonald's cheeseburger, some people can ruin even the best of what's good in life.

Wilkinson twists, turns, stretches, recomposes, and revamps Scripture to develop several sets of "keys," "secrets," and other mystical sounding jargon that can be found nowhere in the Bible. However, he claims he is giving us a peek into how things work in Heaven, so he's gotta be telling the truth, right?

All in all, Wilkinson's You Were Born for This is nothing more than an infomercial in book form with poor penmanship to boot - it wasn't even an enjoyable read! And like my McDonald's cheeseburger, I knew I had to finish it, no matter how much I simply wanted to ignore it and let it rot away in the back of my fridge.

Thank God I got through it - talk about a miracle. Of course, I didn't follow Wilkinson's 4 steps, 7 keys, or 100 fundamentals, so maybe I'm a little off when it comes to my idea of miracles. After all, it seems that Wilkinson has it down to a science that the rest of us can't quite seem to understand without his help, even if it is what we were born for.

So, much like a McDonald's cheeseburger, I warn you to steer clear of this book. Spend your time doing something more productive, like sleeping, and save yourself a headache. Heck, it might even lower your cholesterol!

(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.)

Have you read a good book lately? What about any bad ones? I'd love to hear about it (or anything else)! Just leave a comment or send me an e-mail!

Grateful

So my breathing machine broke and I had to replace it. The thing I'm most disappointed about? It had really cool stickers on it.

It's Thursday... err... I mean... Friday! 

This whole 4 day week thing has thrown me for a loop.

And, as you should know (if you don't, I'll forgive you this once), Friday means something pretty special around here!

It's time for Five Minute Friday!

Here's the 411 (courtesy of The Gypsy Mama), in case you're new to this:

First Rule - Write for 5 minutes flat with no editing, tweaking or self critiquing.

Second Rule - Link back to The Gypsy Mama and invite others to join in.

Third Rule - Go and tell the person who linked up before you what their words meant to you. Every writer longs to feel heard.

Pretty simple, eh? Give it a shot!

This week's prompt?

Grateful

On your mark... Get set... GO!

There's no way on God's green Earth that this is fair. I need 50 minutes to write on this, not just five!

Gratitude is something I've been taught by God since I began a relationship with him. A lot of pretty crappy, sucky stuff has happened over the last few years, and that grateful attitude that he taught me early on really helped push me through (and is continuing to help me to this day).

Something I learned early on was the habit of making lists of things I was thankful for. I've definitely fallen out of that habit (I don't remember the last time I did that), but it's really cool to look back and see how many good things God gives us each and every day.

So today, since I'm only allowed five minutes to talk about how stinking grateful I am, I'm going to make a list!

Here are just a few things I'm grateful for:

You. Without you being here to read all of this gibberish, I wouldn't be able to keep writing. I love writing, but more than anything, I love communicating, and that's a two-way street.

My wife. If it weren't for her, I'd be curled up in the fetal position most days, hiding in a dark corner waiting for someone to find me. Just kidding. But she is pretty awesome.

My fam.

This new medicine that has helped so much.

My new doctor.

My internship.

My education.

My wealth - both worldly and spiritual.

My life. I'm reminded each and every day that I'm alive for a reason. God didn't have to help me fight through these diseases if he didn't want to.

STOP!

Okay, not fair at all. I had a million things running through my head, colliding into each other, causing all kinds of chaos in that five minutes. And I didn't even get to mention one of my favorite things to be thankful for...

COFFEE!

Suffice it to say that this blog wouldn't exist without coffee. 

Anyway... That's my Five Minute Friday for this week! Give it a shot... if you're up to the challenge!

What are you grateful for today? Are there things in your life that you sometimes take for granted that are there every day? What are some of those things? I'd love to hear from you about this (or anything else, for that matter!). Just a comment and/or shoot me an e-mail!

Whoa, We're Halfway There

Yes, I like a little Bon Jovi. Don't judge me!

On Saturday, something extraordinary happened. Did you feel it? Did you see it? Hear it?

If you didn't, no need to worry. You're not going blind or deaf. Well, actually, you might be, but I'm no doctor, so don't take my word for it.

Seriously, though. On Saturday, something pretty epic happened. At noon, to be exact.

Any guesses?

Okay, fair enough. I'll spill.

We passed the halfway mark of 2011!


Crazy, huh? I'm pretty sure that's why everyone shot off fireworks on the 4th. I mean, they would have done it on the 2nd, but it was the weekend, and they were too lazy. Or maybe I'm a little off on this one.

In all truthfulness, it seems that the halfway point of the year is, for the most part, overlooked. I mean, we celebrate the end and beginning of old and new years. Why not the middle? I guess this explains why middle children have so many issues. I would too if I was overlooked. Thankfully, I'm an oldest child.

As I lived through the halfway point of the year, though, I wondered whether the first half of this year was truly productive. Am I becoming more of the person God wants me to be? Am I accomplishing the goals I set out at the beginning of the year? Have I really done anything worthwhile with the time I've been given?

I'm not really sure of the answers to any of those questions. However, I did notice something pretty neat. As I passed the halfway point of 2011, I realized that I'm also right at the halfway point for the number of pictures I'm supposed to take this year!

For some odd reason, I told myself that I wanted to take 5000 pictures with my camera this year. A bit ridiculous, if you ask me. Looks like I'm on pace, though!

I guess it just goes to show that you can't be afraid to set the bar high when you're setting goals for yourself. After all, what good would it have done for me to have set a goal to take 10 pictures this year? I would've finished before the first day of the year was over! So I set the bar pretty high, knowing that even if I fell short, I would have a lot of epic pictures to show for it that I wouldn't have otherwise.

So we're halfway to 2012, which begs the question: how are you doing with your goals for the year? Do you need to reevaluate? Try harder? Start over? Trust me when I say it's never too late to set some new goals for yourself. It's only too late when you've stopped trying.

What goals are you currently working on in your own life? Have you set any new goals recently? Have you had to adjust any of your goals for the year? What about any goals that you've already completed? I'd love to hear from you about this (or anything else)! Just drop me an awesome comment or shoot me an e-mail!

An Open Letter to an Extrovert

The medicine I'm taking right now tastes like soap. Fifteen minutes straight of inhaling mist that takes like soap.

Dear Extrovert,

Hey! How are you doing? You see, I ask you that because I'm genuinely curious, not just because I'm polite and know how to banter. In fact, I really do like you a lot and think about you regularly. Sometimes, though, I think you misunderstand me.

You see, I'm an introvert. You know this well, and you accept me anyway - for the most part. However, I can't help but think that you have some sort of ulterior motive when you're talking to me. It's almost as if you're trying to convert me. Or cure me. I'm not sure which. As if I have some unspeakable disease that I'm suffering from, slowly dying from.

Allow me to let you in on a secret: I have no disease. There is nothing wrong with me. Frankly, I like how God made me. Introversion is not a disease - it's a piece of who I am.


I know that sometimes, since I'm quiet or reserved, I may appear to you as someone who thinks more highly of themselves than others. And granted, you're probably right part of the time - but only because I'm human and we all think that way from time to time. However, just because I'm quiet does not mean that I need to be "fixed." Just because I keep to myself does not mean I have a "problem."

It has also come to my attention that, since I'm a Christian, my faith and my personality type do not mesh. As a Christian, I know when I said I believe in the life and resurrection of Jesus and submitted my life to his Kingdom, I also said something to the effect of "I will be as loud and obnoxious as possible, showing myself off and partying like it's 1999." However, I must withdraw my words (which I seriously doubt I ever said).

Being a Christian is not synonymous with being an extrovert.

You see, I am a an introvert. And a Christian. And, whether you like it or not, God made me this way. It's who I am and who I will always be. I realize that I will never be loud and up front like you. And I'm quite glad for this, though I'm sure you believe that I'm distraught over my lack of supposed "leadership" ability.

Instead, I'll flounder in the background, doomed to a life of servitude and under-exposure. And I'm sure, in your mind's eye, you'll wonder why my gifts are going to waste, when they could surely be used to "lead" (see also: command, order, yell at) people closer to God. I'm sure you'll pray for me to change, and though I appreciate the concern, allow me to ask you for one thing: to stop.

I like who I am.

I like who God made me to be.

Please stop trying to fix that.

Sincerely,
An Introvert

Guess Who's Back?

Why, yes, the title of this blog post is an Eminem reference. Whether or not I like his music is up to you to decide...

Ah... It's been a week. A nice, long, refreshing week. Have you missed me? Because I've definitely missed you. I mean that it the non-creepiest way possible.

Over the last week, I managed to achieve oneness with God, devise a plan for world peace, and actually heard and understood every word my wife said to me. 

Just kidding.

My week wasn't nearly that productive. In fact, I, for the most part, sat around.

Sat. On my bum (which I hear is pretty much non-existent to begin with). Ate. Slept. Sat.

See what I'm saying? It wasn't exactly the greatest week of my life. But trust me when I say I needed the break. While breaking from blogging, I also took off from work, in hopes that the extra rest would help my body in the healing process that I hope it's in the middle of. I'm not hedging any bets on that, but it's worth a shot.

I did actually learn something this past week, though. Something pretty interesting. I read 3 books, so you would hope that I have something new going on in my noggin.

I learned that, apparently, (some) writers don't actually like to write.

And I breathed a deep sigh of relief.

I thought to myself, "Hey Self, you mean I'm not crazy when I get up in the morning and don't want to hammer out a new blog post? That doesn't mean I'm not actually a writer? I'm not alone?!"

Self did not reply, in case you were wondering.

You see, sometimes, I do like writing. But more often than not, I like having written even more (which is something else I learned is pretty typical of writers). I like it when the words are already there, neatly aligned, well-thought out, and somewhat coherent. I just don't like to do the work it takes to get there sometimes.

And apparently, that's okay.

Whew. Maybe I'm a writer after all. Or maybe not!

If not, I'm joining the circus.

(Maybe I should just stick to writing for now.)

What do you think? Is it unusual for writers to dislike writing? Or do you think that's normal? Do you consider yourself a writer? Why or why not? I'd love to hear from you about this (or anything else!). Just drop me a comment or send me an e-mail!