Palm Sunday

So in the Methodist Church (born and raised by the way) we have this thing called Palm Sunday.  I don't know if other denominations have this, but this Sunday straight rocks.  As a kid, I absolutely LOVED Palm Sunday.  If I had to rank my favorite parts of Easter or the Lenten Season as a kid it would be: 1) The Easter egg hunt at church. 2) The Easter basket on Easter Sunday morning. 3) Palm Sunday.  On this Sunday everybody got a palm branch leaf thing.  I always looked at all the possible branch options to pick the best one possible.   The kids got to walk in at the start of the service waving their palm branches in front of everyone and lay them at the alter at the front of the Sanctuary.  Then after this I would always have an extra one stashed away to play with during the service, which always ended the same way.  I would always get in trouble for hitting my brother with it or just detroying my palm branch and leaving pieces everywhere.  Of course, now that I have grown older and understand things in the Christian World a little better, my favorite parts of the Easter or Lenten Season have now changed.  They now consist of: 1) Easter Sunday. 2) Palm Sunday. and 3) Ash Wednesday or the Lenten Season as a whole, it is a tie. Palm Sunday has raised in the ranks.  Even though now I know why we have this Sunday, I can't help but feel like a kid every year on this particular Sunday.  Today, while in church, I found myself sitting in my pew waving and messing with my palm branch (which I stole from my parents because theirs was way better than mine.)  I waved it around as the kids walked in and then proceeded to mess with it the entire service.  But since I'm older, I am way better at multi-tasking. So don't worry Preacher, I listened.  These days, I hold on to every moment that makes me feel like a kid again kind of like this morning.  One reason I love Palm Sunday is because I get the chance to be a kid again, or at least act like one.

Home Sweet Home

People say, "Home is where the heart is."  Even though most of my time is spent away at school these days, my heart belongs to my home town.  Tonight was just another reminder of why I love my home town so much.  I came into town for the weekend to get away from school.  I spent the day lounging around the house and took a nap (you'll come to realize napping is one of my favorite past-times).  For dinner, I ate out with some friends of mine that I haven't seen in a while.  We ate and laughed and laughed.  We sat and talked till we were the last people in the restaraunt.  Of course, we talked about all the good "dirt" that was going on.  My favorite story of the night was a little drama on one of the high school's sports team.  Let's just leave the story at someone was kicked off a team and that someone took some of their clothes off in front of a whole lot of people.  Great story, right?  My home town seems so interesting sometimes.  To an outsider looking in we probably seem like a bunch of rednecks that don't know anything.  While we do have our share of those, we are so much more interesting than that.  There are unsolved crimes that everyone continues to talk about; there is the 20 some-odd teenage girls pregnant at the county high school; there are the local sports teams, and oh don't forget about the 5 stores that have "dollar" in the title.  While we have our share of drama and fights (probably more than our share actually), we love each other dearly.  Everytime I come in town for a weekend or whenever I have a break from school, I get to come home, where my heart is.  I get to hang out with some of the best friends in the world and get all caught up on the goings on in this small town.  Some of the things that happen never cease to amaze me.  Home is definitely where my heart is.

So This Guy Jesus...

So this guy Jesus once said, "Don't be afraid; just believe" (Mark 5:36, look it up).  Today, I kept coming back to this verse.  I kept thinking and thinking about it.  It seems so simple.  Just a short 5 word sentence with no hidden agenda.  It means what it says.  But if it is so simple, why then do we, as Christians, make it so hard?  It seems like this part of this verse is kind of one of those "easier said than done" sentences, like "I can put together a car" or "I can ace this chemistry test."  All it takes is faith in Jesus, but we constantly find ourselves second guessing ourselves and Jesus.  We find ourselves thinking or saying things like, "But what if God can't" or "There is just no way."  But right after Jesus said this, you know what he did?  He raised a girl from the dead.  Pretty powerful stuff right?  Inside our hearts, no matter the questions in our head, we know that God can do anything; he is, afterall, God.  According to Jesus we just have to believe.  If we believe in Him, anything is possible.  And without Him, nothing is possible. 

Like Sand in an Hourglass...

...so flows the days of our lives.  Well some lives atleast.  My life, on the otherhand, flows more like water in the Ocoee River.  With twists and turns, rapids and calm spots, my life is anything but boring and definitely nothing like grains of sand going from one end of an hourglass to another.  There are times when things get rough or exciting, and there are times when things just seem to slow down and everything is just peachy-keen.  Each moment in my life has its pros and cons.  Some moments outshine the others, and some seem to define me in the eyes of the world.  I find delight and joy and excitement in most moments in my life.  In others I find sadness and sorrow; these moments I try my best to avoid.  I've been through a lot, though not near as much as some people.  While specific moments in time may seem to fill this blog and at times you may find yourself laughing aloud, I hope that somewhere in between the limrics and the anecdotes you may find something inspirational or at least useful in your own lives.