A Reply to The Matt Scott ladies and gentleman.

So my friends blog is being a little sketchy so this post is actually a reply to his Post... Make Sense?  

OK!

Before you read my reply, read his post, it is very very.... You guessed it... interesting. 

Matt Scott's Post: Conversing With The Other

Enjoy

Matt, is interesting to hear you say that you struggled to listen and hear what others say. Well only sort of now that i really think about it. One reason being the fact that your wife loves you for being so open to hear her thoughts and opinions on things as you grow together. But i also understand how you could consider yourself struggling with that with the desire to question everything (most everything) and not just listen.  

But it is fun and actually really cool for me to hear you are a part of a group, a cohort as you put it, of diverse people with multiple views. Excited and wish i had something of the sort. (Hint hint) i mean i would just like to visit, but that is off point.  

What i am trying to say is that i am sure you could realize at times it is hard for me to just listen. Just listen and not offer advice or thoughts or whatever i feel i should, but then i just rest and am still and God has grown me in that. One last thing, just a thought, bullet point number two seems contradictory to itself and the blog. Maybe i am just putting a different light on it. But... lets discuss.

Freedom

Freedom isn't really free, ever heard of those cheesy quotes.  I mean sure they could be true and some would say they are but lets be honest... free or not, we really don't live with freedom.

Christian or not, we really don't live in freedom.

American or not, we really don't live in freedom.

This thought of what if i really lived in the freedom that i was given has hit me hard.  I find myself falling into the same traps, snares, (sins) over and over again.  I find myself putting back on chains and shackles that really have no locks to hold me down.  I find myself reverting back to my old self, to my old ways when there is so much joy and brightness ahead of me.  I find myself living in slavery.

It seems kinda funny that most people that get the taste of freedom never want to go back to slavery, but over time they slowly realize that with slavery their was guarantees of what was going to happen and what you could expect.  They realize that with some forms of slavery there is comfort and short term pleasure.

Now don't hear me saying that slavery is good and people loved and African Americans should still be picking cotton because that is not what i am saying at all.

If you look in the old testament, when freedom got tuff, the Israelites complained and wanted the comfort and guarantees of slavery.  If you looked at anyone around you, even after they escaped from their addictions or corrupted actions, you still find them struggling not to turn back to their old self and go into the sureness of their highs and problems.

Slavery is an evil demonic thing.  Slavery goes beyond the physical and goes into the spiritual realm.  Slavery goes beyond what we can see and into the human psyche.  Slavery corrupts and makes you see roses when really it is all thorns.  Slavery makes you smell fresh Krispy Kreme Donuts when really it is a vile putrid rotting carcass.  Slavery makes you see beauty instead of the pain, hurt, guilt, remorse that really comes with it.  Slavery is corrupting and easy while freedom is life giving yet so hard.

Slavery... Freedom...

Which are you living in?

How different would we be if we really lived in freedom, if we let love when out.  I keep falling back into slavery, but in all honesty... I AM FREE!  I WANT TO LIVE IN THIS FREEDOM! I WANT TO BE FREE, and yet i am... but still live in chains that i put over myself.

Do you want to be different?  Do you want to live in the freedom that Christ died for.  Heck if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, do you just want to escape from the pain that these short term pleasures bring you.  Do you want to live in the freedom that each one of us is given, or in the slavery that has been taken away from us.

Slavery it goes beyond the physical, i hope you realize that, and i hope you choose freedom, but don't just say it... act it out.  Lets see if we can hold each other to this freedom.  Ehhh, sound good?

Climbing with the Bro's

So yesterday after picking up one of my great friends from the Ritz in Buckhead i went climbing at Escalade climbing gym with my brothers minus one of them.

Erik and Michael went climbing with me and it was a ton of fun.  I am just glad that we got to bond and hang out a little.  Little sad that Conrad couldn't come because his church went long but hey... maybe next time.

Well, it was a blast just showing them the ropes, pun intended, of Escalade and letting them try out all of the different routs.  They did pretty good and Erik even had some hidden skills and Michael had some endurance in his arms, maybe it is from working at PCE.  Any who, i just wanted to let you all know that it was a blast.

I mean even if Mike did fall, fly across the room and slide on the floor and gently hit someone, we made up a rout.  Any who, we did a lot of climbers and i feel that i was able to be better at gripping all of the stuff.  I mean i have been working towards that.  I still didn't complete some routs that i would have loved to, still need to build endurance and hand grip, but hey, that just means i know right where to go from the beginning so i can bust it out and rock it.

Well that is all, hopefully there will be some more posts in relation to me and the brothers hanging out. 

I miss him.

I know this blog is going to sound... peculiar but i am WAY ok with that.

I MISS Andrew Walden.  Let me explain why...

He got married this past weekend to an amazing woman now known as Claire Miller Walden.  I know i know, great last name.  So any who, i am beyond pumped and excited for them and this journey that they get to share, even a little envious, but i know i am supposed to wait, and i am sorta ok with that.  I can't wait to discover who my beautiful bride is.  But none of the last few sentences have really shed any light onto this missing of Andrew Walden.

So during the wedding i was talking to a friend named Greg Britt and we mentioned how are relationship with Andrew is going to change, and the amount of time we see him will change.  All things that are ok and i am good with... even though i hate change. 

All this to say that this whole marriage thing has really set in for me and i just miss Andrew, so much so it is making me not even care about Call of Duty (COD), and i love COD.  I mean we used to play at night and last night around 11:30 he had twitted that he had gone to bed, and on a normal night before this weekend he would have been bright eyed and bushy tailed playing with us.

I just miss him

But, i would hate for him to choose games or us over his wife, not because it is the first week of marriage but because i mean really, lets be honest, she is way more important.  So Andrew i am sad about the changes, i hate the changes, but i love them all at the same time. 

 Enjoy the youth and beauty of your bride.  I am pumped for you and welcome the change with open arms.