Hello?

I'm going to start updating this thing again. Just you watch.

Top 10 Albums of 2008

10. David Crowder*Band - Remedy Club Tour (live)
9. Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord & Melody
8. The Jealous Sound - Got Friends
7. Edison Glass - Time is Fiction
6. Straylight Run - Un Mas Dos
5. David Moore - Breaking You Down
4. Secret & Whisper - Great White Whale
3. Anberlin - New Surrender
2. Emery - While Broken Hearts Prevail
1. Search the City - A Fire So Big the Heavens Can See It

Details coming tomorrow.

My One Word?

I've decided to start keeping a journal this year, and here is the entry that I wrote today:

1/4/09
Ah, another year, and with it comes another word. Last year my word was "present" with the idea that I needed to enjoy the present and not worry so much about the future. Looking back, this may have been a pretty safe pick for me. I've never had all that much trouble enjoying the present. Sure I had some issues with work and with money, but not nearly to the level of many other people that I know personally. So this year I want to challenge myself a little more. At church today "self-control" popped into my head and basically stayed there for the length of the service. I'd like to come up with a few possibilities before I make my final decision, so here we got with number one:

Self-control: A lot of the things I'd like to change to become the person I envision start with self-control. I'd like to become slower to anger, especially in sports. I'd like to work harder at work and slack off less. I'd like to be more habitual with my gym routine and with limiting my portion sizes when eating to become healthier. Same with trying to floss regularly for my oral health. But most of all, self-control will help me with my spiritual health. I need to be more active in our small group activities and lessons. I need more time for journaling and quiet time. I need consistency in prayer and reflection. All these things can be accomplished if I show a little more self-control.

So when I got home I figured it'd be a good thing to see what the bible thinks. I said a quick prayer that God help guide me to a word that will cause positive change in my life and then opened my bible to the index and found:

SELF-CONTROL
shown by ability to hold your tongue . . . . . . . . . . . . Prv 13:3
** needed to grow spiritually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Pt 1:6

** Sort of my exact focus!

2 Peter 1:5-8
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perserverance; and to perserverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure; they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen!
(No idea what I'm taking about? Check out www.myoneword.org.)

Hmmm.

I should really update this one of these days.

10 Things Keeping Me Sane This Month

This has been a stressful month for some reason. Money issues, family issues, work issues, not to mention it being so friggin cold! Rather than harp on the negative, here are the ten things keeping me sane this month:

10. Sweaters
Yeah, it's really cold and that really blows when I'm walking from the bed to the shower, but at least I can pull out the sweaters! I have way too many of them. I think every year I buy a bunch on sale at the end of winter and then forget about them until the next year. Then I realize how many I have. I do this ever single year.

9. Looking forward to Courtney's Flotilla party. Good food, good drinks, good people, and of course, sweaters! Really, I'll take any holiday party, except Verizon Wireless's "Winter Celebration."

8. Cinnamon. I'm obsessed at the moment with cinnamon anything. Cinnamon muffins. Cinnamon lattes. Cinnamon buns. I'm such a spice dude, and what spice is better in the winter than cinnamon?

7. Anberlin. I've been listening to their entire catalog pretty consistently this month. They get better ever time I listen to them. Their best song by far is Fin. It's amazing. We need more boys' choirs in rock.

6. Back to the gym. I'm finally going to the gym consistently again. It took way too long, but better late than never.

5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Less than 50 days until opening weekend. I'm not one of those movie dudes who goes to a whole bunch of movies and get all excited for any crappy film, but I will be in a seat the weekend that it opens? Why? It was directed by David Fincher and that's all I need to know.

4. My small group. Really they help me get through plenty of months, but I feel like we're starting to make some serious progress and starting to look outside of our group to spread hope and good will. If you would have told me 18 months ago that I would be typing that sentence, I would have laughed in your face.

3. Pela - American Graffiti. Too bad it was released last year, or it'd be really high on my best of 2008 list. It's the best album I've heard in months, maybe even all year. Thanks Dave!

2. Winter holidays. I can't wait to spend Thanksgiving with just Kristen and I, shopping at ridiculous hours on Black Friday, and going home for Christmas. It really is the most wonderful time of the year.

1. Kristen's breakfast sandwiches. Really, it's just Kristen in general. She's the greatest wife in the world and the sandwiches are just one of the many, many things she does to prove her love for me every day. She gets me through every day. Don't get me wrong, the sandwiches are great, but she's even better!

No Strings Attached

This may be a bit of a shock to those who read this blog, but believe it or not, I'm pretty much into anything David Moore has touched, influenced, looked at, or thought about, and one of those things is The Chevy Downs Band. They're a bit of an Indiana mash-up band featuring Sonny Downs (Moore), Jesse P. Downs (Seth Greathouse - Bassist on Chamberlain's "Exit 263,") Beauregard T. Downs (Tim Jones - Vocalist of Old Pike, a band known best to me as being fortunate enough to share three-fifths of the only split album Chamberlain has ever released), and other Downs, whose backgrounds, I'll be honest, I'm not so sure about. Anyway, the album is not the easiest to fine, as I'm still unaware of a location offering downloads, but was easily worth the fifteen bucks and the wait of the postman delivering it to my door.
So you're probably wondering, "what's the deal with the No Strings Attached title?" After one of my late night Google sessions I actually hit the jackpot, a full Chevy Downs Band set offered FOR FREE online. I know, I could hardly believe it myself. I mean, let's be honest, I'd probably pay an insane figure for a full live set, so to be able to download it for free, that's almost too much to think about!
Now, if you're anything like me, you've learned to fear the "live download." Normally it sounds as if some person decided to record the set on one of those little tape transcription device thingys and then decided to sing along off-key during the entire set leaving you bashing your head into your keyboard while you painfully listen to your hopes and dreams be crushed within the opening notes of that first song. Disappointed, I know. I've been there. Multiple times.
This is not like that. This was recorded directly from the sound board (I'm assuming) and it rocks. It could be the best live album I've ever heard, and it's not even on an album. It's ridiculous really. No one should come across such a musical gold mine for free. There should be pain involved. And tears. And twenty dollar bills. At least some "holier than though" music snob you've gotta deal with in order to get him to send you a copy. I'm tempted to withhold the link from you, just to make you work for it...

...

...

...

Ah, I can't do that to you. I'm too nice a guy.

Oh, and you're already sold, I know, but as if it couldn't get any better, it includes versions of Chamberlain's "Hey Louise" and "The South Has Spoiled Me." Incredible.

The Worst Thing Ever

Reading through your old blog posts and finding spelling and grammatical errors. Grrr. I should hire an editor. Or maybe an editer.

May 5, 2009

Looks like May 5th is shaping up to be an exciting day. Chuck Palahniuk's eleventh novel, Pygmy is slated for release and is already available for preorder on Amazon. I'm surprised that it's coming so quickly as his last novel Snuff was just released this past May. I thought Snuff was a bit weak compared to his other work, so I'm hoping for greatness with this new novel. An exciting day indeed.

The Good Ol' Days

Hey look! It's my 1970 yearbook photo! I haven't seen this picture in years! That would make me what, 56 years-old?

The Most Awesomest Thing Ever (Today)

(Words are so unnecessary.)

Rumors! Rumors! Rumors!

Rumors abound on the web (like here and here and here) about Verizon Wireless and Apple teaming up for an iPhone in 2009, possibly even by MacWorld 2009 (second week of January for those who follow the Gregorian calendar rather than the Applearian calendar). This would be insanely awesome for me as I'm an employee of the former and an unashamed fanboy of the latter. If you're like me, and having trouble waiting for such a collabo (as the kids would call it these days), perhaps I could interest you in some coasters?

My New Favorite Letter to the Editor

I suppose I never really had a favorite letter to the editor, so forgive the title, but for whatever reason, this letter moved me a bit. Maybe it's because of my upcoming fatherhood, or my dad and I talking about baseball every chance we get. For whatever reason here it is:

I am among the countless Dodgers fans who, as a boy, slept with a transistor radio under his pillow, furtively listening to Scully. After I confessed my disobedience years later, my father feigned surprise and then said, "Son, why do you think you never had to change the batteries?"
Steve Ross, Sherman Oaks, Calif.

This was in this week's Sports Illustrated in response to an article about Vin Scully, the long-time radio announcer of the Dodgers. Good stuff.

What Happened to Fall?!?

So fall was here for a week, and now that dreaded summer heat seems to be back. I really need more than a week of fall, I need three months of fall. I did get to enjoy the weather though. Kristen and I took a weekend trip to West Jefferson, NC and rented a cozy log cabin to celebrate our third anniversary. It was the best weekend I've had in a long time. It's always interesting to me how many couples seem to dread spending time alone, but Kristen and I can think of nothing better than a weekend alone, no phone, internet or TV, just each other. The highlights:

Hooded sweatshirts! That's right, it was cool enough to wear a hooded sweatshirt without sweating through it!

Cafe Breves at Bohemia. Kristen and I have spent a weekend in West Jefferson each of the last three years and we have had a Cafe Breve at least once every day that they've been open. (They're closed on Sunday. This always makes me very sad.) I alternated between pumpkin spice and cinnamon spice and they were both awesome. Of course, how could a beverage with half and half as its base not be awesome?

Organic veggies! Our cabin shared land with an organic farm. Friday night we enjoyed steak and salad consisting of heirloom tomatos and arugula that we picked ourselves that day. Delish!

Speaking of food, Kristen made cheese blintzes with blueberries one morning, and homemade chocolate waffles the next. No one does breakfast like she does.

We did dinner in Blowing Rock on Saturday and it was awesome. I had cornmeal dusted trout with a fresh tomato garlic aioli and Kristen had spinach and mushroom ravioli. We also started out with calamari. My mouth is watering at the moment.

We also drove down lots of dirt roads, breathed in copious amounts of fresh mountain air, enjoyed the hot tub, completed crossword puzzles, took naps for no reason, and just enjoyed the company of each other. I can't wait to go back in only 51 weeks!

Cha Cha

Has anyone heard of Cha Cha? Sounds like a cool idea. Call them or send them a text message (to 242242) and ask them anything. They will text you the answer and the source within minutes for free! They have a network of 25,000 "guides" who work whenever they want and are paid between $0.10 and $0.20 per answer. They only use pre-approved websites to find the answers. Pretty neat idea, right? So I decided to test them with a question no one would know off the top of their head (except probably my dad) but could find pretty easily. Here's what went down:
Q. What is Mike Mussina's career win total and career ERA?
A. Mike Mussina career average ERA is 163. Chacha on.

Only took about 2 minutes to get my response which is nice and speedy. The problem is that my-two part question only had a one-part answer, and that one-part answer was wrong. Mike Mussina has 263 wins and a career ERA of 3.69. What makes this worse is that you are also sent a link with the source of the information (in my case, baseball-reference.com, a perfect choice.) I was able to find the correct information on this page, why wasn't my guide?
Chacha=FAIL!

Totally Awesome (and Probably Delicious)

Tell me these don't look tasty! And only 8 gigs of sugar each!

Things That Iritate Me To No End

I'm a positive dude, I swear, but these 10 things drive me crazy!

1. Dudes who walk into an empty bathroom and use the middle urinal causing me to walk into a nearly empty bathroom and break the "don't use a urinal next to an already occupied urinal" rule. Hey, don't make it look like it's my fault when you're the rule breaker!

2. Technology made to make my life a tad bit simpler, but ends up making my life way more difficult when it doesn't work. For example, remember when you used to be able to turn a knob and water would pour forth from your sink? That wasn't so difficult right? Now while I'm in the bathroom at work (after being forced against my will to break the urinal rule) I have to wave like an idiot under each faucet hoping at least one will work long enough to dampen my hands. Thank goodness we've done away with those insanely difficult knobs. Life is so much easier now!

3. Bluetooth head sets. No explanation needed.

4. People with a total inability to utilize their vehicle's turn signals. Now I don't know about your car, but in my car I have an easily-manipulated lever located conveniently right next to my steering wheel that I can use to communicate my upcoming actions to other drivers around me. It's really a pretty remarkable device. You might know that your driveway is only a block and a half away, but without a turn signal, I have absolutely no idea why you are driving eleven miles an hour right now.

5. 24-Hour news channels. If you have no more details since the last update six minutes ago, then why are you giving us an update? I guess it is maybe a tad bit entertaining to hear a CNN anchor say things live on camera like "we're really just guessing here," or "we can't tell you why police are chasing this man, but we do have blurry video for you."

6. This new thing where you pay for something like an umbrella with your debit card and they give you a slip with a line for a tip. Why would I tip you? Why must you make me feel cheap when I'm forced to enter a zero on the tip line as if I'm starving your family? If you want a tip, cut my hair or deliver food to my table or something. Am I wrong here?

7. The radio. How do people listen to the radio for longer than eight minutes without going crazy? Do they realize that with an iPod or a CD you can listen to music that you choose without listening to 45 minutes of ads every hour? Finally, some technology that really does make our lives easier.

8. Football absolutely dominating anything sports related on the radio and TV when baseball is in the stretch run and the football season hasn't even started yet. Why do I need to know about the Dolphin's third string quarterback options two months before the season starts? I'm pretty sure Tom Brady just proved why preseason guessing games are worthless.

9. Mock drafts. I'm a dude and a sports fan, but I just don't understand why every single employee of ESPN, from the lunch lady to Stuart Scott needs to give us their mock drafts every day. Here's an idea, if the draft is tomorrow, let's just wait and see what happens tomorrow. I bet it'll even be accurate!

10. Writing checks. Unless you're over the age of 90 or you're paying a utility bill in the comfort of your own home, you should NOT be writing checks. Certainly not in public. Its called a debit card. Look into it. No really, look into it.

Since I'm not a totally negative guy, here are 10 things I like:
1. My wife's guacamole.
2. Brollie and Eva when they wake up from naps and their heads are extra cone head-like.
3. Skippy natural peanut butter with golden delicious apples.
4. Long walks on the beach. No, seriously.
5. My MacBook.
6. The 13000 songs in my iTunes. (I love each of them, much like a parent loves each of their children.
7. Watching 72 episodes of Lost in a month with Kristen.
8. Flaming Amy' burritos.
9. Iced coffee.
10. Lists of things.

12 Albums That Have Shaped My Life

1. Aerosmith - Big Ones



I guess for a list like this, I've gotta start at the beginning, and what better way to do that than starting with my very first CD. It was Christmas morning some time in the early 90s, and after opening all my other presents and failing to find the CD player I had been hoping for, my mom asked me to get something for her from my room. I can't remember what she asked me to bring her, but I do remember the ginormous box wrapped and sitting in the middle of my room. It was a Sony 5-Disc stereo that I still have today. And what's a brand new stereo without any music to play in it? I then unwrapped my final gift, Aerosmith's Big Ones. I played that disc out for years. My parents probably got so sick of hearing "Crazy" and "Amazing" over and over. Until I got to my hardcore stage. Then I'm sure they missed those songs.

2. Face to Face - Don't Turn Away



This album did more to influence the next 13 years of my life than anything else. I was in Brad Davis's basement in the summer of '95 and he tried to play off this album being his band. I was blown away when I found out that there was this whole underground scene of music that I was completely ignorant of. Brad is now in The AKAs (Are Everywhere) doing the whole Warped Tour thing and I'm training people on how to use Verizon Wireless's data services. I guess our paths turned out slightly different.

3. Strife - One Truth



Ah, my hardcore days. This really should be a three way tie along with Earth Crisis's Firestorm and Snapcase's Lookinglasself albums as I originally thought that only Victory Records released hardcore albums. Then I discovered:

4. One King Down - Bloodlust Revenge



What? There are other hardcore labels? No way! I'm going to be really poor now!
(Side note: God bless my parents for dealing with this stage of my life. They must have HATED these albums.)

5. Chamberlain - The Moon My Saddle



If you know anything about me musically, then you already know about my unwavering obsession with all things David Moore. Of all the albums on this list, I still listen to this album on a consistent basis. If this was a Best Albums of All Time list, this would be at the very top.

6. Texas is the Reason - Do You Know Who You Are?


Much like Chamberlain, I have devoured anything Texas is the Reason related in the last decade. From Solea to New Rising Sons, House + Parish to New End Original, if a former member of TITR is in the band, you'll find it in my collection.

7. Saves the Day - Can't Slow Down



I know, I know, Saves the Day like totally ripped off Lifetime and I'm losing all the respect you had for me by listing this album. See the thing is, and it's embarrassing to admit it here, but I discovered Saves the Day before I discovered Lifetime. It was my sophomore year at IUP and I met this dude named Kiersten who was all about New York hardcore. We'd hang out in his dorm and listen to Madball, Blood for Blood and the rest of the DMS crew until one day he played Saves the Day and from those first chords of Deciding I was hooked. To this day, this is still the album I go to for that first day of summer, when you're driving around with the windows down. This is that album.

8. The Juliana Theory - Understand This is a Dream



So it's still my sophomore year of college, and I'm rooming with another straight edge hardcore kid named Mike, and suddenly our musical tastes start drifting apart. He's still completely into metal and hardcore and I'm starting to seque into the more melodic (aka wussy) emo genre of music. Now don't get me wrong, I was still all for the late night mosh sessions where we'd turn the lights down, blare the music and practice our circle pit moves (totally not a joke, I thought I broke my hand one night when I went windmilling right into our bunk beds. Not cool, but totally awesome at the same time...). I can't tell you why, but suddenly he was also into the Juliana Theory and I got to play my wussy emo music a little more often. I'm pretty sure he even started cuffing his dark jeans and wore his glasses a lot more often. Those were fun times. But just when you'd think we'd lost our hardcore edge...

9. Ignite - Call On My Brothers



Ah, southern California's hardcore poster children. For a long time I kept a list of the top bands I wanted to see live and Ignite held the top position on this list for at least three years. That's when Mike and I saw the fliers. Ignite were performing during IUP's annual finals week concert. This is still the most unusual concert I've ever been too, and probably one of the best. It's easy to get the attention of one of your favorite bands when only two people in the crowd know any of the words. Long story short, Goldfinger headlined the concert and the fire alarms went off in the middle of the concert moving everyone to the parking lot. I had lost my copy of this album and had planned to buy a new copy but all the merch was inside, so I just walked up to Zoli in the parking lot and he gave me his personal copy. I won't be losing this one.

10. Last Days of April - Angel Youth



I was really into this album during the summer after my junior year of college. I was interning for a computer software company and had to share an office with someone a few pegs higher than me on the corporate ladder. I listened to this CD with the volume as low as humanly possible and basically looped the album over and over (cause that's what I do) and I thought I was all nice and stealthy about it until he finally turned around and said "you really like that album don't you?" Whoops. I'm still a rabid fan and buy all their albums direct from Sweden.

11. Say Anything - In Defense of the Genre



A double disc, and my vote for the album of 2007. It's obviously the most recent album on this list, and possibly the most popular (except for Aerosmith of course) but it is a phenomenal genre melding piece of work. Max Bemis will write a song specifically for you for a price (which I can't recall at the moment) and it could actually be worth it. The dude can sing about anything and make you think it's the best song you've heard in years. Hopefully he's got plenty of songs left.

12. David Crowder*Band - A Collision



I was actually given a mixed tape (really a CD, but mixed tape sounds so much more indie and cool) by a friend to discover the greatness that is the DC*B. This mixed batch of songs opened my eyes to the idea that religious songs could still be well-written and worthy of a listen. A lot of things have changed in my life in the last year, and this album has influenced quite a few of those changes. You can scroll through some older blog entries to find out more. My wife gets sick of me listening to DC*B ALL THE TIME but it could be worse. Much, much worse.

Honorable Mentions:
Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
New Found Glory - Nothing Gold Can Stay
Mae - The Everglow
The Gloria Record - A Lull in Traffic
Silent Majority - Life of a Spectator
Jimmy Bufett - Songs You Know By Heart
Bane - Holding This Moment
The Hope Conspiracy - Self-Titled
Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety

Fourteen Days

When I started blogging, I had stuff to say all the time. Then I create a blog, and never have anything to say anymore. It's weird how that works. I still don't have anything to say, so instead, here's a list of what's happened in the last two weeks:
1. Found out some huge, good news. Let's just say someone I know is going to be a father within the next, oh, nine months or so.
2. We got slammed by Tropical Storm Hanna. That's a lie. She snuck around the city early in the morning on Saturday, knocked out our power a few times for a couple of minutes, and then ripped the gate off our fence. Then she was gone. I haven't seen her since.
3. I made some peanut butter ice cream for a friend and it's my new favorite flavor. RIght now I'm waiting for a batch of vanilla to finish churning for our small group/ice cream sunday party tomorrow.
4. I have a slight ankle sprain which totally blows. I did it on Wednesday playing volleyball at lunch. It's still sore, and being that it's Sunday, it makes me a bit nervous. Good thing I have two volleyball matches starting in fifty minutes. That'll probably help the ankle out.
5. I ran a mobile camera today at PC3 and it was a blast. Much more of a creative outlet than the studio cam. Hopefully it's not my last experience.
6. My song of the week has been Cannons by Phil Wickham which the band performed today. Good stuff.
7. Today has been a good day, but started disastrous. For some strange reason I woke up ten minutes before my alarm clock (5:04am) so I decided to get up and eat breakfast. I then proceeded to find two piles of dog poop in the living room. Gross. So I bag it up and put it outside the door. Then I go to eat my frosted mini wheats and find out the fridge door was never completely closed last night. So I had lukewarm milk with my cereal. Gross again. Then as I was leaving for church, I take the bags of dog crap to the trash can and find the lid absolutely covered in maggots. GRRRROOOOSSSSSS. From that point on the day has been good. But oh, what a stomach churning start.

Sunday

I'm sitting in the video control room at Port City Community Church between the 8:30 and 10:30 services. Today is a pretty special day for PC3 as there will be five baptisms on site for the first time. We've all definitely been blessed with such an amazing place to worship and to serve, and such a phenomenal staff to guide us in our walks. If you told me a year ago that this is what I'd be doing right now, there's no way that I'd believe you. In fact, I'd probably think you were crazy.
God has done amazing things in my life and in Kristen's life during this past year. I'm so thankful for this change in my life, and so excited to see what's next.

Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost

What do those three things have in common? If you said that they are the things that scare Jimmy Buffett the most, you'd be correct!
There's a second commonality, however, which is the reason for this post. Until recently, I wasn't sure if any of the three existed. Although I've still never seen a mummy and I've yet to be bitten by a vampire (probably due to all the garlic Kristen and I consume) I think the holy spirit and I have crossed paths. Probably multiple times but once in particular that comes to mind.
Now this story involves two main people. I write this blog and therefore am totally cool with the idea of this being online for all four of you to read. The second person I'm not so sure about, so he'll be referred to as simply "friend." Creativity at its finest.
So this friend of mine has had a rough couple of years. Some issues entirely in his control, others entirely out of his control. Kristen and I have been praying for guidance in his life as he seems to be lost as far as walking with God is concerned. Totally understandable to me, as I was a bit lost myself just about a year ago. So we had been praying for guidance and change in his life and then found out he was coming to visit for a long weekend. My prayers quickly included my own guidance as I was unsure what part I could play in the situation. With my background, the last thing I want to do is start preaching to someone who isn't ready to hear it. This happened many times in my past and if anything, caused me to take a step back rather than forward. I prayed that God take control of the situation and use me however he saw fit.
So the visit happens and we have a good time. Good food, the beach, conversation, all that good stuff. Sunday comes and we go to Port City as is always the case and he enjoys it. Mike's message that day is about starting or continuing your walk with God. Fitting, don't you think?
That night he goes with Kristen and I to volleyball and then to Dairy Queen (can I get an Amen for Peanut Buster Parfaits?). On the way home we somehow got onto the topic of a friend of his who passed away a couple of years ago after being hit by a drunk driver and how this ties into the Christian idea of everything happening for a reason. He was struggling with this for obvious reasons and was questioning a God who would let these things happen.
Without thinking I asked him three questions:
How many people where positively influenced by her death?
What kind of life did she lead up to her death?
If there is indeed a heaven, is it safe to say she's in a much better place now?
His answers:
Hundreds, a great life, yes.
I pointed out that maybe this was God's master plan for her. She led a great life, influenced hundreds of people with her passing and now is enjoying paradise in heaven. I much prefer this explanation than the alternative, that she was killed for no reason. He was nodding in agreement and thinking about this idea.
So where does the Holy Spirit come in? Well, during our small group meeting on Monday night I told this story and talked about the fact that it could have influenced my friend's walk with God, but also talked about how the things I spoke about surprised even me. This idea of everything happening for a reason has been a struggle in my life and now here I was, explaining this to my friend and in the same breath, explaining it to myself. I wasn't sure where these ideas even came from. One of the guys in the group explained it pretty clearly for me. "Now that," he said, "is the holy spirit working in your heart." Well said John. Well said indeed.