Here We Go Again...

Could it be true?

Will I never learn my lesson?

Have I taken leave of my faculties?

These questions have been prying at your collective heads for more than 10 years now, probably unrelated to anything else. 

But fortunately for you, I have the answers at last: it is, I won't and I might!

It is true that I am a college student again. 

It is true that if I had learned my lesson the first time, I won't ever learn my lesson.

It is true that I have taken leave of my faculties. I barely know anything about faculties anyway. 

But it is so, my dear friends and gentle hearts, that I begin again where this blog began yet once: in the night during the churnings of a young college student looking for his outlet of loquacity and goofiness. 

I enter grad school full of bewildering naivety and churlish hope, ever excited to learn and terrified of earning less than a B+. I certainly require your prayers, and would welcome a kind word or three. 

Who knows, maybe I'll finally figure out how to use words good. 

Today's Forecast: Rain with a high chance of God's Mercy

 All across California this week, heavy rain has been making our roads soggy, and our hearts and minds yearn for soup season. If you hang around me at all, you know how much I love the cold rainy season in California. 

In the Bible, rain is often a symbol of God's mercy, as rain is crucial to crops: providing nutrients that are hard to come by even when watering artificially. Don't ask me the science, that's another post for another bowl of soup. 

I get to thinking at times like these that rain keeps me from taking God's faithfulness for granted. The Bible says His mercies are new every morning. That's the same cadence that my stupidity renews also, so I'm extra thankful. 

 As the cold rain falls and cleanses California of the summer heat, God's mercy on sinners like us falls when we call out to Him, and when He cleanses us, we are cleansed indeed.

The cold rain does something else to us too: it prompts us and compels us to search for warmth and comfort. That can be everything from a bowl of fresh tomato soup, or a tall hot cup of Pumpkin Spice Latte. Have you ever felt the pull to be near and close to God when you contemplate His mercy? That's how it's supposed to be. 

After all, were we not created to have fellowship and communion with Him? Just look at Genesis: when everything was perfect, Adam would walk and talk with God every day. Once sin separated us from God, we couldn't just walk and talk with Him anymore. But that's still what we've been created for. 

As you snuggle in for the remainder of the cool autumn rain, spend some quiet time with your Heavenly Father, and give thanks for the amazing gift of His never-ending mercy. 

And if you're planning for a night of tomato soup, please send me an invite. 

Mr. Big Shot

Hard to believe that ten years ago, I sat down at a keyboard and plunked out my first blog post. 

What transpired was ten years of wonderful, magical, inspiring, brain-rotting drivel. And yet, here you are still enjoying it. This is why we are best friends. 

Sometimes, chasing clout (a new, young-people term for doing things just for the attention) really pays off. But other times, I had to get a real job.

I will say, I'm quite blessed with the jobs I've had. If you hadn't Sherlocked it down yet (a new, invented-by-me term that means you used your brain to figure out something), I am a man of many words; some of the words I have are great, and other words I have not be great. It stands that a lot of the past jobs I've had were word-centric. 

Here's some free advice that I learned the easy way: if you are a word person and like people, go into the field of Marketing. It has been pure fun since I began being a big shot professional. 

A brand new venture has come to my desk that I have really enjoyed. You are now reading the blog of one of the members of the Greater Orange Community Arts Theater Board of Directors. 

That's me: Mr. Board of Director member. Calling shots. Making decisions. Making motions and seconding others. It all might go to my head. 

 But fortunately it doesn't. I really recommend getting involved in orgs, associations, and causes that benefit your community and neighbors. It's a great feeling to build buildings, bring people together, and watch ideas take physical form.  

Mr. Big Shot really comes back down to earth when he looks around and meets people who are just like him, in all walks of life. I sit around large tables in a coat in tie, then come home and have to empty my trash cans. I look over financial sheets and plot fundraising activities, then come home and still find holes in my socks. 

I guess being a big shot is really more a frame of mind than anything else.