It's gettin' hot in here

So, apparently we're doing some thing here at FBC to reduce costs and save money on things, or something of that nature, because I've been getting emails for a few days now about helpful ways to not spend the church's money.
Yeah.
I'm sure I was told somewhere along the line what these emails are for, but I've long since forgotten, so I won't attempt to fill in the why.
Anyway, here's the one I got today, well, synopsized.

" Today’s tip for reducing operational expenditures is to dress appropriately for the seasons and the comfort level of your work area. Keep a sweater in your office instead of adjusting the thermostat.
According to Baylor University, (for heating) you will save about 3% on your heating bill for every 1° that you lower the thermostat setting. For example, if you normally keep your thermostat set at 75° all the time, and you lower it by 3° to 72°, you will save about 9% (3x3%) on your heating bill. In other words, you will save about 9 cents for every dollar you spend on heating costs.
The opposite is true for cooling. So, adjusting your body temperature rather than the room temperature could easily allow for more money to go to missions and ministries."

Then, a bit later I received this email:

So, a 3° change in the thermostat can save us 9% in energy. If we were able to reduce energy consumption by 9% across the board, we would add an additional $18,530 to the church’s budget. No additional tithing required!

Umm, I'd love to unpack my thoughts about this, but I won't. Just know that I find it funny.
Simply funny :)

It's the end of the world as we know it

But I don't really feel fine.
I'm going to have to say something about this before it kills me inside and out. It's really bugging me.
One of my friends has, apparently, had a crush on my best friend for...quite a while now, evidently. I had no idea about it until sometime midway through last semester when I accidentally stumbled upon it. I shook it off and said it wouldn't change things and still kept on making every attempt at keeping the relationships normal.
Well, some time early this semester things got weird. All of a sudden, my best friend's schedule cleared right up and now he has plenty of time to spend hanging out with people. Well, seeing the opportunity and doing what any normal person with a crush would do, my other friend began to call my best friend nonstop to hang out.
Where does this leave me? Screwed, pretty much.
My best friend became free about the same time my year got really hectic, and all of a sudden I don't ever get to see anyone anymore. It gets worse, from my perspective, when every time I stumble upon either of these two friends they seem to be not far apart.
I don't want or mean to take away from their friendship, but I'm not an idiot. She's got it bad for him, and so she's going to make more of an effort for him, especially since she knows he's available and isn't tied down with class and other commitments on campus.
I'm happy that he's got free time, and I'm happy that she's getting to spend so much time with, evidently, the guy she's been dreaming of for quite some time now. The only thing is, I've been in the middle of this watching it happen, and now I'm left out. I've tried talking about it and addressing this specifically and all I've gotten is a "No, Geoff, things won't change, we'll still be friends." And yet, you know what? We're not. She does not even call me anymore.
Oh well. I guess if I wasn't a good enough friend for her to keep me around when things get tough for me and sweet for her, then I'm better off without her, but the thing is I really thought we were.
I'm not saying all these things to sign off a friendship that used to be pretty good, I'm just trying to get my feelings out. I've tried talking about this with several people, and quite honestly nobody wants to listen, or the people who do listen to me won't do anything about it to help me. I'm not fishing for pity and sympathy or encouragement or compliments or anything real specific of that nature, I just want to get it out and off my chest. Because right now, as it stands, I feel as if I've got one real friend left that I can talk with. And unfortunately, for the both of us, I can't tell him this secret. Because it's about him.
That
Just
Sucks

I Dare You to Move

I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said something like "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
There are several ways you could unpack that. As it pertains to me, it means you could be getting the same result each time and are looking to get a new one. With this clarification, let me make one thing clear.
I have, apparently, gone insane.
For the third or fourth time now this semester, I have found my way back to doing the exact same thing I have been doing for a while now. I may have strayed from it into a path of anger for a brief period of time, but I eventually come back to wanting the same thing; and thus doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
To be honest, being insane -- by this definition -- is kind of weird, and maybe a little bit fun. For a while I considered that either I was crazy and everyone else normal, or I was the only normal one left and everyone else had lost their minds. Now I know I need to rearrange my mental furniture back to sanity. Hmm. That's fun to think about.
But, what about this thought? Jesus loved and loved and loved over and over and over again. That didn't stop him from going to the Cross. That didn't stop him from rising again. Jesus did the same thing every day, ushering in the Kingdom of God.
I guess you could say "Well, Jesus knew the heart of men, so His expectations each day were different because He knew everything that would happen. So, He wasn't really insane."
True, very true. But I'd like to believe that at the very least, Jesus had hope each day that the Kingdom would be just a little bit closer when the sun went down. And that He faced each day with enthusiasm that the world could be a better place. Maybe that's not complete insanity, but it does seem crazy, at least a little bit.
So for me, what do I do? I don't know. Try to go crazy, I guess. Try to face each day with some kind of enthusiasm that has hope and love for the world that it will be a better place by the time I go to bed at night. What do I do?
I hope. I love.

1st Corinthians 13:13
"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

The earth was shaking in the dark

So, I've listened to Phil Wickham's "True Love" almost a million times in the past week, and I bought it just Sunday.
Umm.
I'm going through a particularly painful and dark season of life. If I were to put it in terms of God painting on His canvas, I would say these are the dark strokes that clearly define where and who I am, and where and who I am not.
If it weren't for Passion this weekend, I'm not sure I would be able to make it through without being consumed by my anger, pain, frustration, and bitterness. But because of Passion, I know that God is taking care of me, and I'll be fine.
I've been reading a lot lately in Hosea and Luke. I plan to read all of Luke by the time Easter rolls around, and I'll finish Hosea whenever I do.
If you could pray for me, that's all I ask. I know not many people read this, and those who do have a tendency not to take me seriously, but that's your loss and I won't account for that, but I would ask you to pray for me.
Thanks

Go on and fold your menu, take a glance, and then you'll be our guest!

I'm listening to Disney music. Yeah, I am.

So, a new season of Lent is upon us, and in true Protestan tradition, I have given a few things up for 40 days, or about as long as I can last, really.
Two years ago I gave up eating fast food so I could start losing weight and save money. Unfortunately, the Saturday after Mardi Gras my family drove to Galveston to board our cruise ship and we ate at a Wendy's for lunch. Goody goody. And on the drive back, we stopped at some generic Dairy Queen. Yeah, I know, a generic Dairy Queen? Dairy Queen is pretty offbeat itself, but apparently there are people in Central-East Texas who want to copy their style.
Fortunately, I made it the rest of the season without eating fast food, but I don't think I lost any weight. Oh well. I think I did it as a pairs thing with my 5th grade PAL. I can't be sure, but I think I am right.
Last year, I gave up fast food, again, for the same reasons. This time I did save money, and I did lose weight, however I didn't last the entire time. I think I made it all the way up to about a week before Easter before I broke down and went to Whataburger. But in my defense, I was in a bad mood, I had been up since about 6 in the morning, and I'm protestant, so it's not like I had to confess anything to anyone.
This year, to further help myself, I have given up about three things. Fast food, again, carbonated beverages (cokes, pretty much), and shaving. Yes, shaving. I don't know why, but it's fun to say, plus Easter Pageant is coming up, so it'll be nice to see how hairy I can get by that time. I know I've outgrown Josh Hobratsch -- Jesus in this year's Easter Pageant -- about twice in the facial hair department, but I've never let growth set on my face for 40 days. We'll see.
I hope and aim to lose at least some weight this year, save at least some money, and have a wicked scratchy face. Of those two, I think it'll be the latter, though I do have a conditioning class that starts about half way through Lent this year, so maybe I will lose some weight.
On a side note, I love Spring. It's my favorite time of the year. March through about...September are my favorite months. October, November, December, January, February, and the first little bit of March have never been my favorite times of the year.
So maybe, just maybe, this Spring time will be even better. Maybe I'll stick to my fast for once. We'll see.
We'll see.

Ode to an Ice Cream Sandwich

I wrote this little diddly today after I left the SUB, with an ice cream sandwich in hand.

Ice Cream Sandwich, in my mouth
Ice Cream Sandwich, this is what it's all about

Ice Cream Sandwich, you taste so good
Ice Cream Sandwich, you're my favorite food

Ice Cream Sandwich, all on my fingers
Ice Cream Sandwich, I love the taste that lingers

Ice Cream Sandwich, so chocolatey and sweet
Ice Cream Sandwich, I don't need any meat.

Okay, I'm done.

Tomorrow is Another Day

Yeah, a country song for the title of my blog. Never thought I'd see the day.

So, recently I started wearing a purple wrist band (like the ones Lance Armstrong made with LIVESTRONG on it) that had 2:14 written. This is to remind me of Philippians 2:14, or to remind me not to complain or grumble. It's called the "2:14 Challenge," or something like that. You wear the wrist band around your wrist and the challenge is to go 21 days without grumbling or compaining -- the experts say it takes about 21 days to develop a habit. But, whenever you grumble or compain you're supposed to switch it over to the other wrist and start over on a new day 1.
So far I've made it to Day 1 about 8 times, but the good news is I'm only switching it about once a day. And if you've read any of my blog, you know I like to complain, so for me to be cutting back to about once a day is pretty good!

In the wonderful world of sports -- of which I am a fan, although somewhat passive -- the New England Patriots choked on the Super Bowl. Khang, say whatever you want about the Mavs or the Cowboys, but I'm pretty sure NEITHER of them ever blew a perfect season at the 'ship. Brag all you want about how you hate Dallas, but Brady and the boys had their chance to write their names on history and greatness, and instead they choked. There were no ridiculous fouls or penalties, they just gave it away.
The thing I'm looking forward to most in all of this after the fact that the Pats choked and lost, is all the cool commercials that will be coming out with Peyton and Eli. I mean, think about it. Two brothers win back-to-back Super Bowls. Don't tell me the media won't like that. We have Charles Barkley and Dwyane Wade making commercials for T-Mobile because they've both played basketball at some point in their lives, we will be seeing something of the Manning brothers and their back-to-back rings.

In other news, I hate school. I have a class in just over an hour that is disastrous that I don't want to go to. Yeah. It sucks. Biblical Backgrouns. I guess now that I've complained about class it's time for me to switch my band.
I am also suffering through an epidemic with friends. Not just the usual sickness that is going around and extra-bad this year, but a lot of my friends are scattering off into weird places in life. Some have built relationships with people out of insecurity, some have become exclusive and snobbish, some have just become people I don't even know anymore. It's kind of sad, but I'm grateful and glad for the friends who are still here with me.
Thanks guys.
One thing that I've learned here recently is something Kevin said a while back. Life doesn't get easier. We have to get stronger. As we grow up and travel further through life, we have to get tougher or else we'll get knocked down and never get up. Instead of praying "God make tomorrow easier," we should be praying "God make me stronger for tomorrow." For a while now life has been too much of too much, and not enough of the things I'm needing. I've been praying "God make it easier on me" and "Why God, why?" a little too much and not enough of "God, please make me stronger for what is to come." I don't know why life doesn't get any easier, but it just doesn't. And it until it does, I guess I'll be praying to be stronger for what is right now, and what is to come.
Okay, I'm out.