This Bird's Word

So I have been riding my bike a lot lately. It does more for me than just burn calories. For some reason that seat has a connector to my brain that just gets it going.

I sit down. Pedal my feet. And BOOM! There my head goes, sailing away into an emotional bliss of thoughts. Sometimes I solve all of the worlds problems. Sometimes I create a billion dollar idea. Often I win the lottery and spend the next thirty minutes deciphering how I would truly spend that money.

But I had a thought the other day. I was thinking about how awesome it would be to be the best cyclist out there. You know, like the Lance Armstrong of cycling. Wait…whatever you get what I’m saying. So I’m sitting there (pretty sure I was climbing a hill at this point) and start imagining my life lived out as the best cyclist on this rock we call Earth. Then I remembered all those times my elementary school teachers told me I could be the best.

“(Insert your name), if you put your mind to it, anything is possible. You can be the best _______,” (Insert your 4th grade teacher’s name).

For some reason I have a problem with this. I mean, yeah we can try our hardest and eventually we might be the best coffee artist, the best bee farmer, or even the best golfer. But won’t there always be someone better? Let me answer that for you. There will always be someone better.

I don’t think this is a depressing idea at all. I think this is extremely freeing! We don’t have to live up to anything. Are we not called to live out John 3:30? “He must increase, I must decrease.” It’s so simple. Allow Christ to be the best, and all else will fall in place.

Let us strive to represent Christ as the best. The number 1 in our relationships, the reason we succeed in our endeavors. He has blessed us with these gifts. Live them out! Push yourself. Make yourself better. But always remember.

The best is yet to come.

Waiting for that Day

Bird

Everyone has one (or two). And they all stink.

Armpits.

Well that might just be me because I don’t wear deodorant…welp that’s out there! I had a reason at first…now I just chalk that decision up to laziness.

But forreal. I have found myself making excuses lately. And way too many of them. My excuses range from the ordinary…

I don’t have time! I HAVE to get this done first. It’s too late to start now. I’ll do that after I finish this. Well, I thought about it, it’s the thought that counts right?

To the not so ordinary….

Honestly I can’t think of any “not so ordinary” excuses. But I’m sure I’ve come up with a few. The point of this post is to encourage myself to stop making excuses. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

IF I DON’T HAVE TIME NOW, I NEVER WILL.

This isn’t so much to tell you (more importantly me) to do something crazy. I mean, I really want to skydive….like really bad. But I think that can wait. I do want to start eating healthy. So I’m going to stop making excuses. I do want to spend more time working towards tangible goals. I am going to make a list. I drive a lot. I want to start making that time useful. I’m going to download some podcast. These are just a few. Since they are out there for all the world to see/the handful of family members and close friends who read this, I am asking for accountability.

ASK ME IF I MADE THAT LIST.

Thanks guys. You’re the greatest.

Bird Excused

So I am sitting here working on a very large paper, that is a very large part of my grade, in a very important class, that has much weight on whether or not I graduate. So naturally…I am going to update my blog instead.

But I felt like I should get this down somewhere because it has had a large impact on me and I am IN it right now. Now I know that there is some merit to waiting things out, reflecting on them, and seeing what you learned through the process. But I also feel that to reflect, I must see how I was feeling in the middle of the ‘situation.’

Lately I feel like the Lord has been putting prayer on my heart. I sit here with tears in my eyes, much like the entire day has gone, because for some reason the Lord has burdened me greatly today. I have had many conversations where prayer has been either brought up, or has been the topic of the entire conversation.

So often I forget that prayer is not just an extension of our belief, but it is an essential foundation to what we believe. If I truly believe that God has created me, loves me, and wants to KNOW me. Would I not desire to speak with this being every minute of every day? Yet instead, I get on facebook, or twitter, or instagram, or look through my iPod for music I have yet to listen to. I fill the void with mindless noise. Continually over-saturating my life with chatter. A noise that consequently blocks out the one voice that my heart truly desires to hear.

I do desire to know God. I desire to speak with him, to listen to him, and to seek his face. A love that covers all my imperfections is a love worth knowing. And prayer is MY CONNECTION to that. To that love, grace, forgiveness.

There are many situations that I cannot change. Some that have happened in the past, or some that are out of my hands. But God does not work inside the same parameters that we do. His hands are not controlled by the flesh that stops mine. He is timeless, eternal, universal, unstoppable.

I write this entry to remind myself of the power of prayer and to encourage you to tap into the endless flood of love that God has for us. He is waiting. He is knocking. And most importantly, He is listening.

So pray on, and we will seek His face together.

Bird

I guess it is weird that I am writing, typing, blogging, spouting (insert whatever you want here) today because today doesn’t exist. Or does it?

I’m honestly not sure what that^ came from.

I have decided to fill you in on the past month in one of my speed paragraphs. I like these for a couple reasons. 1) It helps me remember what happened this past month 2) It is therapeutic (as are many things in my life) 3) You don’t have to sit through a lot of me rambling on and on

So here we go!

I was training for a marathon. I broke my femur. Joking. I messed my foot up a month out. Not joking. But I am back to running. I went to Austin to watch my bros dominate that 26.2. I laughed. I cried a lot. I was very proud of them. I have put off homework. Not okay. Been learning about that (John 21:3). Riding my bike, that makes me happy. Went to Atlanta. International Young Life conference exploded my head. So good. Kind of hard. Learned a lot. Patience is a word in my life right now. Loving my high school friends. They teach me something new everyday. Honestly. Learning to take myself out of the equation.

So that is the past month of my life.

I was floored by a lady on the airplane coming back from Atlanta. She sat down next to me, after talking my ear off about how much she hated flying, and insisted on conversation. I was kind of tired from the weekend so I was making a lousy effort at small talk. Then she said something that woke me up. She offered me some puzzles to work on (don’t ask, just go with it) and I told her I wasn’t any good at them. Her reply was this,

“If you only do things you know you are good at where is the fun in that?”

Not verbatim, but close.

Close enough to smack me in the face. I think I am gonna start trying to do things I am just no good at. I think life will get exciting.

I’m a New Bird

Chirp Chirp Chirp

Apparently they say there is no time like the present. I guess that could be true.

We probably won’t ever experience this EXACT time right now ever again. The feelings, emotions, physical state, mental state, and opportunities around us are most likely going to only accumulate to this exact time once in our lives. As I write this, that time is escaping me.

Is it worth it to sit by and let it go? We are called to live life to the fullest! To cease the day. Live like your were dying. Never give up.

All of these cliches are out to help us. But I guess I have just become desensitized to the idea of living every day like it was my last. However, I do like the idea of not letting life slip by. Everyday we lose a day. But we gain a tomorrow.

Often times we say we will get to it tomorrow. But tomorrow is just that. It is tomorrow. And it will continue to be tomorrow for the rest of our lives. If we don’t do it today, it will get done tomorrow. And that just won’t happen. If we save it for a time that is right. A time when we have ‘time’ then that time will never come. If we get around to it next year, that year will once again escape us.

I say all of this because I have had some conversations lately that have taught me that there honestly is no time like the present. Now is the best time to get it done. I want to encourage you (and when I say this I am encouraging myself, it’s therapeutic for me, just go with it) to go do what you set out to do. Don’t put it off any longer. You won’t regret it.

Another time!

Bird

So I started spin classes up last week. Sometimes I forget why I ever stop and do anything else. Those things are awesome, but so intense! If you don’t know what a spin class is, then let me indulge you.

Everyone in the class hops on a stationary bike, grabs a towel, and grips those handle bars for life and spins away for the next 45 minutes to an hour with an instructor yelling demeaning slurs mixed with encouraging interjections. Okay, that seems a little extreme. But it is E-X-T-R-E-M-E. We are riding for our lives out there!

Maybe I am trying to make myself feel better about usually being the only guy. Aside from the random middle-aged man who always seems to have run a marathon or won a triatholon? I usually just feel like THIS GUY. I mean, maybe not to that intensity, but forreal, it can get real awkward. Especially when the ‘leader’, or Spin Nazi, gets going, starts yelling at me to spin faster, increase the resistance, GO GO GO!

Which brings me to my next point. Usually I just block out whoever is yelling at me. But the other day our instructor yelled something that actually stuck with me. We were coming up to the apex of our workout, (heart rate was up, sweat was falling, and my legs were dying) and she yelled out “Come on, 3 minutes! That is NOTHING compared to your whole life!”

I was like, dang woman, philosophizing on our spin bikes huh? But really. I think if we approached life like that more often, we would be surprised at the outcome. Attack life and live it to the fullest! I have already forgotten what those three minutes on that spin bike felt like. I can recall the memory of being dirt tired, but the actual pain has subsided.

I think I let fear rule my decisions too often. Matt Damon has a great line in the movie “We Bought a Zoo.” He’s talking to his son about a girl, but I believe that this line speaks to much greater purposes in our lives. He says,

“Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, just literally 20 seconds of just embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it.”

Think about that! What if we all lived out our lives with encourage like that. I think we could all pray to have that kind of courage.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

In the words of a friend of mine “GO CONQUER THE WORLD!”

Feeling Courageous Today

Bird

To the few of you who read this, it may appear to you that I have neglected my duties as a pseudo-blogger. But do not be so quick to judge! This was all part of my tactic, give you some updates, then leave you wanting more. It is my ploy to make $millions$ off this site…

Okay. Fine you’re right. I definitely have been neglecting this. Good news is that I have decided to change my strategy. Instead of long “monthers” (blog lingo for only updating once a month…okay actually I made that up) I am going to start updating more frequently, but with much shorter entries. I am really good at staying on task so this will go over really well. Maybe that isn’t true, but I do hope that this will encourage me to update more, because when I go this long without updating I always tend to leave stuff out!

After that little intro, I would love to start our conversations back up. But now that I am taking on this new task of shorter and sweeter posts, I will have to update you much quicker than usual. Here we go:

Right after my last post I took off for a ski trip with Young Life. Here is a little video I put together of the trip: as they say, videos speak louder than pictures and are worth a thousand actions. Or something like that.

Young Life Kamikaze Ski Trip

I then returned home and school started! Sigep had its “Capture Week” where pledges and members chase each other around all week. Then following that we had Initiation week. The good thing about that is it is all super secret stuff and I don’t have to write about it on here Haha but you probably don’t wanna hear about all of that anyways…

Last weekend we had our date party and it was the most fun Sigep Date Party I have ever been to. For those of you unfamiliar with the infamous (apparently it isn’t infamous if you haven’t heard of one) date party then it is when you ask a ‘date’ and go to a dance together. However, my roommates and I all went stag. Probably one of the best ideas we have ever had.

Well it appears as though I am reaching that short and sweet length so I shall stop myself before I digress too much into the ridiculous word vomit that may ensue.

Good to be back, and you should be expecting more updates from me soon. I am still looking for that “nitch” that this blog fits into the ever expanding universe of webness, so until then it may just continue to be more ramblings from this busy bird.

Chirped Out

Bird

Once again, the year has come and gone faster than we all expected. Even though it’s happened over and over, the years go by faster and faster. I can only imagine what they will be like later on in life. Maybe that’s why we get slower as we get older, trying to squeeze life out of every second that we can.

Before we talk about the new year, I have to share with you my Christmas Family Extravaganza. It is self-titled. But that’s what it felt like. My family arrived in a whirlwind: from California, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, and the distant Norman, Oklahoma. Home base was more or less Norman though. Every night for a week we had family events, not just dinners. These things lasted for hours on hours. It was some of the best quality family experiences that I have had in a long time. Every night brought forth new experiences, whether it was our birthday mashed-potato bar for my little cousin, or authentic east Indian food cooked by my uncle. While the nights were full of dinner and merriment, the days consisted of various activities.

One day we went and toured the Devon boat house and the finish line. Many of the out-of-towners headed down to Langston’s to buy some legit cowboy boots. Another day we all went paintballing. Yes. The entire family. Mom and dad, aunts and uncles, cousins, spouses, the whole sha-bang. And it was a sha-bang for sure. We had a blast shooting paint at each other and releasing all of those emotions that can’t be said out loud. Okay..maybe that was just me, but boy did it feel good. Haha just kidding. But we did have a fun time, and no one got TOO bent out of shape.

The nights rolled on and before I knew it my family was gone. They had come and gone and left some fun experiences and quality conversations in their wake.

This is the part where I write about family and everything that it has taught me. But I’ve been sitting here and don’t know what to put down. It’s hard to transfer everything that family has done in my life into some short sentences comprised of my inadequate vocabulary and over-used adjectives. So I will leave ‘family’ to reflect on later in life, because I don’t believe they are done influencing my life just yet. For now I can say that family has provided a group of people who are comfortable enough with each other to spend a full week of dinners and chill time without awkward silences or uncomfortable situations. They are a rock in a sea of unrelenting turmoil.

Immediately after their departure, the wedding festivities of a long time family and personal friend began. The time has come, and people are getting married. Well, okay, people have been getting married for quite some time, but now they are MY age and that’s scary. It excites me and scares me. It fires me up for my friends who are jumping into an adventure that will no longer include an individual doing life, but that they now have a partner to plunge head-long into a life full of uncertainty and commitment. Someone who will hold their hand while they drink their morning coffee and check in with them at the airport counter. They now are one to fight the battle we call life. What an exciting adventure they have before them! But it also scares me because I am no where close to that.

Life has me in a different stage and I am okay with that. I know that the place the Lord has me would not provide time for a relationship of…that caliber. Haha so it is scary to think that people my age have reached that point. Because out of the 3 weddings I will be in, in the span of the next few months, I believe each and every one of them has reached that point. I’m just not quite there yet

Following the wedding, I hit the road Jack, or more like the sky Ty, and flew off to Florida. Following a 5 hour delay, I arrived in Orlando at the change of the New Year. Waiting for me were two of my friends that basically carried me through my experiences in China. We had a week full of laughing and remembering. Of future plan-making, and current match-making. Family bonding and dance battling. Lots of dance battling. It was refreshing being surrounded by people who reminded me of my time in China. The Lord has put that place in my heart, and I don’t believe it is going anywhere soon. Not only was their love for China encouraging, but the fervor that they approach the Lord in their lives and the fire that burns deep inside each one of them is contagious.

I am back in Oklahoma and about to take off one more time. I leave for Colorado come Sunday, after my boy Burget gets married of course. If anyone needs an usher, I will have been the most experienced one out there. Whether it’s grandmas, or spouses, you can trust this guy to get them down the aisle.

I am praying that Colorado will be another time full of friends and fellowship, of powerful conversations and spirit-filled experiences. A time that the Lord will be reigning over and teaching us what he has planned for 2012. Another year already! Whew.

Hope those new year resolutions are coming about just swimmingly, as for me, I haven’t gotten around to making any. I guess it’s too late, so might as well start planning for my new year resolutions in 2013. But I’m sure we will talk before then

Bring it on 2012.

You got nothing on this Bird.

P.S. I’ve been reading “The Hunger Games”. Aside from only seeing little girls and mothers reading it in the airport, it’s actually pretty good. But that can be our little secret.

I wanted to get a post in before Christmas for two reasons. One: because it has been almost a month since my last post, and that is just unacceptable! And two: because I know that there will be a good post coming up after Christmas and all my festivities that will be going down. But first, let’s back up to the beginning of December.

It has been a great month. I substitute taught quite a bit. During one of the Fridays I was at the school, the school was having their annual student vs. faculty game. And guess who was the MVP?? Ha not me that’s for sure, but I did get up in there. Got myself two points on the board. Pretty sure the teachers cheated (my team) because somehow the clock stopped and we had two extra points that put us ahead…oh well

Along with December came the cold bitter winds of my futile efforts to concentrate on my academic virtues while maintaining the senseless efforts to expel all thoughts of joy and happiness.

Just kidding. That was one of the most depressing lines I have ever written. In all seriousness, December does bring about that dreaded ‘dead’ week, where the only thing dead is everyone’s social life. School kicks it up a notch, and classes start to take a little bit more precedence in my life. However, I hammered it out and things seemed to fall into place.

Yes, I hammered out my school work, but sadly my running fell to the wayside. I was doing pretty well during dead week, had one of the best runs of my life. Ended up running around for almost two hours, got lost a few times, but I had my dubstep (Levels (Skrillex Remix)(<–just a taste) to get me through the run.

I really enjoy listening to music while I run. I read an interesting article about music and running/exercising. And how it should not be your source of energy, but how it can be another avenue through which that energy comes out! I just think it can throw some more adrenaline into the mix if a really good song comes on. However, I do often find myself doing a bit of a dance while I run if a really catchy song pops up, probably not the most energy-efficient way of training. Whatever, I like it and I’m not stopping!

So post dead week was finals week, and with that came…finals. Bleh. If I haven’t said it before, I think that there is more to school than academics. I mean, don’t get me wrong, classes are important! Heck, they cost thousands of dollars, so I would hope they are important. But I do feel like there is something else that is important in college. And that something else is…well everything. Sometimes I feel people can be so consumed with performance and grades and papers and exams that we forget about the world around us. I have already prefaced that classes are important, so don’t get me wrong on this, but those exams won’t last. School will be over, classes will end, and there will be no more scan-trons or blue-books. Yeah, those grades may help you to get a job, but what is it that we are really striving for?

Success. Approval. Acceptance. Power. Dominance. Superiority. Pride.

I’m as guilty as the next. Pride can weasel its way into our lives through any different avenue it chooses, and whichever we allow it. I find pride in myself in more ways than I could put down on this paper…I mean screen.  But I think I realize this more during finals week, because for me, school is something that is easy for me to put on the back burner. Which is good in a sense that I do not allow it to become my all consuming desire to excel, BUT it is bad in a sense that I put school on the back burner ha…

I guess I’m just rambling on about this because this semester has been one long lesson in pride for me. How dangerous it can be for myself, and for all men and women. It is a sneaky lil creature; crawling and creeping around in our lives. Looking for holds it can attach itself too, all the while lying to us that it is what we need. One area I am lied to is the aspect of relationships: the more relationships I develop, the more friends I make, the more I will be happy. But this is another one of those lies.

If I were to treat God with the energy and effort I do with the worldly desires of my heart, oh the things that we could accomplish! My eyes would see clearly what true joy and happiness is. I would encourage us all during this season, to re-examine our lives, where do we allow that creature to slide into our souls?

It’s almost a new year! And according to the Mayans, our last. So let us live it as our last. Strive for those goals we were too afraid of before, go after that girl that seems to always escape you, and have that conversation that has always scared you. Because, we only have one more year, so why not live like it?

Keep those you love close to you, and remind them how important they are to you. Merry Christmas to all and have a fun New Year! I will see you on the other side.

Another year, another chance.

Bird out.

Alright, So I have waited long enough. I was waiting to tell the world because I wanted to make sure it was do-able. Basically, I wasn’t confident in myself. But I feel like, with the help of a couple buddies, I have reached that confidence level. So here it is! Two of my friends and I have decided to run a marathon. Eeee. See, now that I told you I HAVE to do it. I can’t back out now. It’s out there for you to hold me accountable to. That’s scary.

We are officially over a month into training. I think we have reached the point that there is no turning back. We now know that it is possible, achievable, and obtainable. (See what I did there? I used three synonyms to make my point sound more dramatic. But they all mean the same thing) No excuses!

Other than running a lot, my life has been going fairly smoothly. I have missed China a lot but I am working on being present in the present. Like wrapping a smaller gift inside a bigger one. But the gift is life, and I’m inside it? I don’t really know where I was going with that one…

I have been on a sort of “reading ADHD binge”. I think I’ve started three different books in the past three weeks and haven’t finished one of them. But I am going to be more intentional on getting to that last page.

One of the books I am reading, ‘Tender Warrior,” by Stu Weber, talks about how a man should have a vision. That is something that has been fairly difficult for me because I live so much in the now, and don’t necessarily plan for the future. Like my professor always says, “Use the lessons of the past to make decisions in the present and plan for the future.” I drop the ball on the latter. I am really good at using my lessons from the past. At least I would like to think I am. And I’m all over the present. You know, my whole gift-life analogy I used up there^ really exemplified that.

But planning for the future. I am still working on that. I believe that the Lord has a plan for me, so I take that for granted and don’t act on the things that I should. Just because God knows what I will do, and has an incredible life planned for me, it still requires that I take action to achieve those goals. So, that is something I will be focusing on. Planning for the future, while still living in my life-wrapped gift.

On a lighter note, there are only three weeks left of school! Then I will be coming down that home stretch of the college life. Whew. Almost there! I can just see it now…

Watched the “Art of Flight” movie the other night. If you haven’t heard of it, it is one of the greatest snowboarding documentaries ever made. Probably because Redbull made it and they are insane. There was a line at the very end of the movie though that sparked up a conversation between my brother and I.

There was an older man, comparative to the twenty-somethings in most of the movie, and he talked about how ever since he was 12 he knew that he would be snowboarding for the rest of his life. And we thought, man that would be fun. Hanging out with your bros, shredding some pow, going hard all day, then kicking back and relaxing whenever.

And yes. That would be “fun.” But having thought on that, Where is the purpose in living a life like that? Who are you bettering other than your own selfish desires? And this is in no way placing judgment on this one guy. For all I know, he could be impacting the people around him and sharing his story with those he rides with. But for me, I know I would get caught up in myself if I were chasing something like that. I am going to strive to change the world by changing the lives around me. Hey, who knows?! Maybe it will be by snowboarding…but probably not.

So if you ever hear of me snowboarding my life way. Come find me, slap me in the face, and break my board in half.

Okay, well don’t actually break it. But take it away then sell it and use the money for something that betters someone’s life. How bout a kid named Peter. I’m sure you could find a Peter somewhere out there that needs help.

So let’s all join in in helping Peter. He’s out there waiting. Go run to him. And give him a snowboard.

Bird Out!