I’m in Atlanta…

I made it without dying, but now that I’m here, I might just die. The conference is about to begin in just a bit, and it is certainly an exciting adventure ahead.

I need prayer, and I need to see God in everything.

Day 1…

Part 1…

So the trip started out a little rocky. I left the house at 8 in the morning, after having woken up at a quarter after 5 and saying my goodbyes to the family. The first stop was Meijer, yes, the place that I love, and chatted a bit with people and then stopped at the gas station and talked with Gloria and Pravina.

I realized that I needed air in the tires and they informed me that the air pump was broken, so I tried another gas station, but that pump too was broken, so I went back home. As I was working on preparing the tires, it occurred to me that I had no idea what psi the tires needed.

Mother kindly turned me to the owner’s manual, and from there I figured out the information that I needed. After all of the detouring it was 8:50 and I was on my way…again.

The distance from home to Chicago seemed short and quick but there I also ran into a bit of a problem. I was warned about the highway surrounding Chicago, mainly where I-94 meets up with I-80.

It turned out that while I was stressing about making the correct highway I already had. Mapquest told me to stay left toward I-83 and the Torrence exit, and for some reason I interpreted that to mean that I should get off on that exit, so I did.

Thankfully there was a Mickey D where I had an iced mocha and yogurt parfait, called Andrew and Melissa- and subsequently Caleb Noble- and finally turned left because I realized, after consulting the cashier at Mc Donald’s, that’s all I had to do.

Part 2…

The distance through Illinois was fairly pleasant and uneventful. Iowa on the other hand was rather mind-numbing and horrible. There were several Antique Malls that were calling my name, but I resisted.

While traveling through Illinois I had to fill up the gas tank. I took the Mayesville exit and turned right, to find nothing. There may have been a gas station on the left side of the road, but I was too far on the road to want to turn back, which may have been my downfall. All I could do was drive and drive and drive because there were no gas stations!

I finally came across this little pump station that was sitting in the middle of nowhere. Cautiously I exited my van to approach the pump and inserted my card to pre-pay. It said that my card was accepted and that I needed to pump gas, so I grabbed the nozzle and nothing happened. I looked at the card reader, and it said ‘please insert card.’

I was extremely frustrated and looked around for 3 to 5 minutes and finally just left. I kept driving around Mayesville looking for a gas station, and there was nothing!! Nothing!! In the end there was a huge trucking station across the street from Iowa’s ‘trucking museum.’ Even then I took the truck entrance, taking a minute to circle around to the other side where I could fill up.

From here on it was smooth sailing. Really smooth sailing. Actually, too smooth, and boring. Iowa is the worst state ever. I never knew what people meant by that, but now I do, booooring. Missouri was quite a bit better, actual hills and stuff.

Here is not some of the exciting things I saw on my way, but all of the exciting things.

This is the McDonald’s I ate at when I got lost.

Stanberry met me at 6:30 that night. The warm yellow of the sign on the corner of the gas station/general store (Casey’s) told me that I was near my New Year home. Fifteen minutes earlier Andrew had warned me about their drive way and how I would need a ‘running’ start to make it up…I thought I new what he was talking about. In actuality, it took me three or four tries to make it up the drive way and into the car stall.

The street was iced over and there was such a huge bump and hill that one couldn’t even see into the stall. Even backing up to get a good start into the drive, Dodgis Caravanus could not grab any traction on the icy road. On the third or fourth try DC made the initial climb up the drive and we made it to the car stall safely and soundly.

Melissa and Andrew met me with a couple o’big hugs and I felt home. Thank goodness for the ability to stretch out! My legs were cramping from all of the excitement of I-80 and I-35.

I don’t remember what we did when I first arrived, but I do remember watching ‘Kicking and Screaming.’ It was definitely a Will Ferrell movie.

Andrew and I talked into the morning while Melissa slept on the couch. The shower I took that night was nice, but I left the shampoo and conditioner in the other room…oops. God, you are awesome and you are taking me on the adventure of a lifetime, and this is just the beginning!

My last day of Michigan freedom…

and it has been great!! We watched football, ate steak, crushed cans, and played Wii boxing (though my affinity for video games of any sort is FALSE!). Video of can crushing will be posted soooon. Goodbye Michigan, though I have two days remaining in your brisk embrace.

I am excited to be in Georgia, and for the Passion conference…God, you’re awesome.

Alanta, I’m coming…

in just two more days. More than anything is the excitement that is building. I am not good at preparing the things I need, but I know it will all get done, like boxing things up. God has a plan for me in Georgia and that’s good enough for me.

I still need a job, and a home, and friends, or at least acquaintances, but these things will come.

Blessed are those who mourn…

for they will be comforted. That’s the second beatitude, the second announcement of blessing.

There are crowds and crowds of people-pharisees, sadducees, zealots, gentiles, herodians-it’s just a mish-mash of society.

Jesus takes the time, as he was accustomed to doing, and began teaching the multitudes. Instead of giving new laws, he announces blessing.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who not only do not deserve the blessing of God, but those who do things to deserve His cursing. To those people God has given the kingdom of heaven; He has invited these people to his party.

Now, blessed are those who mourn. How does this look as an announcement of blessing? If it’s a new law, then that tells me that I need to go out and cry, and if i cry loud enough, then God will hear me. If I cry and cry and cry, then I can seek out God’s comfort. This then, is how we earn the comfort of God.
But what if it’s not something I earn. What if Jesus is saying to me, ‘Matt, life is hard, and there is tragedy, and there is sorrow, and there is injustice, and I am there. Wherever you go and find pain, I am there. Whenever life decides to beat on you, I am there.

I heard it said that each of the beatitudes is a paradox- seemingly opposite ideas that converge.

To me it was quite obvious that a loving God would surely comfort in time of mourning. That doesn’t seem paradoxical at all. What did it look like for the people to whom Jesus was speaking? The wealthy, the righteous, the outstanding people were the ones who had comfort. There were no worries for the tax collector who hoarded wealth, or the pharisee who claimed his salvation in his righteousness, but what about the regular jo-shmo?

I have also heard it said, “God does not console us by abolishing our solitude, but by entering into it, and sharing it with us.”

If comfort isn’t in the security of an earthly life, then it must be in the paradoxical life of a deity who became man. It must be in the death of purity on a shameful, sinful cross.

Our comfort is in the resurrection of Jesus, knowing that we have the blessing of God, that God is with us, joining us in the midst of our sorrow, and showing us the future glory He has planned for us.

Mark Shea: CatholiCity

they will know you by your love…

for one another. That is supposed to be the sign of our following Christ. A sign of knowing deity. Our sign is not our righteousness, it is not our perfection, it’s our love.

If it was up to our righteousness, singularly or collectively as the body of Christ, I would be scared. Righteousness is unattainable, unless it is through the love of Christ, and thus, again we are turned back toward God’s love.

picture phone…

or picture game or whatever it needs to be called. A bunch of my friends played the other night, and it was right on.

If you have never played this game, the premise is just like the telephone game where you sit in a circle, one person whispers something in the ear of the person sitting next to him and so on and so forth until it gets back to the first person. Usually the sentence is completely different.

With the picture game it is much more awesome! every person has several sheets of scrap paper and you start off with a sentence. Then you pass the stack of papers on to the person on your right and that person interprets the sentence with a drawing. The next person on the right sees only the drawing, and interprets it with a sentence, and so on and so forth. It is a rather quick game that is hilarious and fun.

beware the yeast of the pharisees…

‘Are you still so dull?’ That is one of my favorite quotes from Jesus in Matthew (NIV). I wished it carried over into Mark. Instead the author (or should I say translator) chose to simply state, ‘Do you still not understand?’
And that is what hit me when I was reading through Mark 8. ‘Do you still not understand?’ No, actually I don’t understand, can you please enlighten me. Those were my thoughts, and I must say, He certainly did enlighten me.

While reading through Mark my ear was itching, so I took it as a sign of God wanting me to stop and listen. I sat up and stopped thinking. As I was not thinking it occurred to me that there was a voice saying ‘chapter 8′ over and over. Sooooo, I did what you might guess, and re-read chapter 8, as I think you should do right now.

The disciples and the Teacher were in a boat after feeding the 4000 when Jesus warned the disciples that they should beware the yeast of the pharisees.  They were dense about the situation and thought he was referring to the fact that they had only brought with them only one loaf of bread.

16They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

17Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see
or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
“Twelve,” they replied.

20″And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
They answered, “Seven.”

21He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

It seems to be that what Jesus is talking about is an increase. That the yeast of Jesus is an increase, and the yeast of the pharisees and herod is a decrease. Think about it, when Jesus had the five loaves it became an abundance that supplied the needs of thousands. But in the hands of pharisees, it can only be what it is, when you eat the five loaves those loaves are gone.

clothes pin tag

clothes pin tag

Signage…

Here I have a series of 3X9 designs done for my Graphic Design 1 class. I’m not sure if these are going to be graded or not, they are not on the syllabus. They correspond to the assignments we have completed over the course of the semester- possibly to be used as signage for the projects posted from the semester. I am really excited about this sort of fake project because I have been able to play around with illustrator, which I now love.
I admit that it-illustrator- did hold my deepest animosity at one point in time. Now I keep learning new uses for it, and how to manipulate it to my will mwahahaha.

‘Graphic Design 1′ is the second design I did of the series. I created the typeface, albeit not completely original, from scratch, and done specifically based on the shape of a circle, which is why the shape is repeated throughout the graphic.

These are the ‘5 Principles of Design-’ Proportion, Unity, Emphasis, Balance, and Sequence. They are in no particular order other than what seemed to lend itself best to good composition. The colors are arranged in a way to try and trigger a response corresponding to each words meaning. Sequence is arranged in a rhythmic pattern, balance has the same weight of color on each side. Unity draws from each element in color and line weight. Emphasis is in the middle, and has red centering it directly in the middle of the word. Proportion was a difficult one, but each letter already lends itself to natural proportionality, and the colors are equally spaced and consistent in each letter of the word.

‘Typeface’ is probably my favorite out of the four designs. It is quite a bit different and unique in comparison, and is just plain more fun. Someone told me that it didn’t look good, and I did another version of it that looked clean and neat and smooth, but boring and cold at the same time. The background is filled with the character of every typeface I used that each spells out ‘typeface.’ There is a lot of character in this design, pardon the pun.

One of the final projects in the class was to do a ‘Color Wheel.’ Ironically, this was the first design I did for the signage series. This is where I first came up with the idea for the typeface, and was very proud of it from the beginning. The reflection was a joy to create, and the colors simply make me happy. It’s super simple, and super sleek, it just works works works for me =]

After having typed all of this, I can’t help but remember how much of this was not inspired by my creativity. God is the only one who inspires in truly creative and truly beautiful ways. Of course people can distort the creation God makes in man, but that’s another discussion lol. There is nothing that I can do that is apart from God, and if it ever comes down to me being on my own, and doing things on my own, then nothing will be fresh or satisfying or enjoyable. Thank you Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for the blessings of your love and kindness.