Mockery

So I was discussing with some people the other day of what a true gangster was.  Immediately they jumped to rappers and how they are so "gangster" because they have guns, "sling the rock", smoke weed, lived in a tough part of town, and/or had rough parents.  What makes them even more gangster is if they kill people.  The more people they kill then the more gangster they are because that shows that they don't put up with anybody's bull crap.  Lil' Wayne, Lil' Boosie, 50 cent, Eminem, and all those other ridiculous name that start with lil, fat, shortie, etc. were all examples of gangsters.  A girl said, "Lil Boosie is a real thug cuz (that is how she said because) he straight up killed those people."  So I responded with, "Sure, he is a real thug who is about to be put to death at age 30ish because he is so thug."  

What a thug-gangster, dead at 30.  He is livin' the baller life.

(Side note:  Apparently Lil' Boosie was convicted with being behind six murders and is now facing the death penalty in the state of Louisiana.)

What people define as a gangster just irritates me.  The more they kill they badder they are.  If that is true then Adolf Hitler, Stalin, and Ghangas Khan are the most "gangster" people who have ever lived, but I don't hear people mentioning them in the average "Who is the baddest gangster ever" talk.  I mean Adolf Hitler killed almost anyone he came in contact with, that pretty much makes him the most "gangster" person ever.  

I also want to talk about what people are wearing right now.  These necklaces with crosses on them.  Earrings with crosses on them.  Rings with crosses on them.  It seems that the cross has become one of the most popular jewelry products ever invented.  

Are you freaking kidding me!

The cross that was a fearful symbol for thousands of years to all those who looked upon it is now our jewelry market, ridiculous.  I heard a lady the other day talking about a necklace or a bracelet with the nails from the crucifixion on them.  She described them as "precious" and "cute" looking.  

I almost puked.

To me the nails and the cross bring a sick feeling to my stomach.  I almost block it out because of the pain it inflicts.  Every time I see it reenacted I flinch at the sound because I can almost feel the person's pain who is being nailed to the cross.  I believe that is how it should be.  Christ died a death that should make us queasy to discuss.  Look at what the thought of it did to Him.  He began to sweat blood and felt to the "point of death."  The cross to Him was no jewelry piece.  It was fate.  It was death --- and it was life.  To Him the victory far outweighed the pain.  

I am so thankful that He is so much more of a man then I could ever be.

So you might be thinking right now, "Frank, how did you go from rappers to the crucifixion in such an effortless motion?"  Well, the answer to that question is just flat out talent.  

You are welcome for showing you how to make it look so easy.

But seriously one could be thinking, "How did you go from rappers to the cross?"  Well, rappers are always wearing those stupid big crosses on their necks with the diamonds in them making them look all "pimped out."  So once I was talking about rappers I began to think of the 24 karat crosses they are bringing around and that got me on the ridiculous jewelry we are wearing nowadays.  

Lastly, I want to make a blanket statement that if you are one of those people who wears a cross around your neck everyday or has a piece of jewelry with a cross on it and you are offended by what I have said thus far and are thinking, "Well he doesn't know me, how dare he say I don't know what the cross means or meant to Christ!"  I am not saying that you don't know the meaning behind the cross, but that you should be reminded of why you are wearing that cross around your wrist or neck everyday and it should bring the somber and amazing thought of Christ fresh to your brain.  If you are one of those who wear the cross for the "looking good" aspect, go read Matthew about the crucifixion.  I hope it blows you away. 

A Couple of Nonsense

So there are a couple of things that I would like to discuss today that are just some really aggravating me right now.  The first is the phenomenon in the music world right now.  Ke$ha is a huge success, Mumford and Sons are slowly becoming a household name, and people like Rebecca Black are being allowed to release music.

What the crap is going on.

Ke$ha, the Black Eyed Peas, any rap being released right now is all just sucking.  All there is now is a good hook, an okay beat, and a below average to terrible singer who just happens to be hot enough to "overcome" the no-talent obstacle.  Are people too scared to tell them that their music is awful and that in most countries they would be shot for what they are putting out?  Because I say that all the time.  I will actually say it right now.

Their music is awful.  There I said it.  I'm glad someone could finally do it.

But whatever happened to good bands that put out good music that were mainstream.  N'SYNC is a good example.  And if you say that N'SYNC was an awful band I'm am sure that somewhere in your house your mother has pictures of you dancing to "Bye, bye, bye" or singing "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You".  So shut it.  Another example I will give you is Creed's first album.  I know what you all might be thinking now...

"Creed, really Frank, that's thick!"  Thick guys, really.  (Shout out to Dave Awalt for that joke.)

But seriously we were all singing "I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking..." in his deep Kermit the Frog voice.  Those were good times and good bands.  The next thing is this ridiculous Rebecca Black "phenomenon" (as MSN is calling it) going around right now.  Her song is like the movie "The Ring."  Once you watch it you may die in seven days.  And I digress....

Lastly, Mumford and Sons becoming a well known band because of the Grammys.  I absolutely disdain people who ask me after watching the Grammys, "Have you ever heard of Mumford and Sons?"

I just want to punch them in the face after that.

Of course I have heard of Mumford and Sons!  Are they not good music?  If you listen to good music, meaning anything not falling into the paragraphs above, I most likely listen to it.  So if you feel the necessity to ask me if I have heard of a good band, don't.  Keep your question to yourself and go revamp your bejeweled Ipod with good music.

The Experiment

I would like to share a story about what happened to me the other night.  I was over at a friends apartment with a group of around twelve and we were all just sitting around having a casual drink.  Well we decided to play a game the name and rules of which are irrelevant.  The only part important about this game was that I ended up having a partner, which we called our date, and whatever happened to that date happened to me.  If you know the name of this game congratulations.  So I had to now make sure that two people in this game didn't suck so that we would win because me begin Mr. Competitive does not lose.  Ever.  So we are playing and having a good time and then all of the sudden my date decides to have another date, making us a freakin triple date.  Well, I decide to start kidding around with her about making us a tripod and she just did not think that I was funny.  Her and her friends just started looking at me like I was a jerk.

Real quick lets rewind for a second and tell you a little nugget about me, I love sarcasm.  Some say that if sarcasm was a love language it would be mine.  Well people who do not understand sarcasm and that I am the most sarcastic person I know besides Dave Awalt (name drop, you're welcome) see me as a jerk.

Therefore, she and her friends saw me as a jerk even though it was hilarious to everyone else around them.  Well, in this awkward moment of them staring at me like I was the Devil in carnet I began to think about why I was not funny to them.  This thought process led me to this experiment:

Over the last year or so I have began to notice a trend, people being called funny who are in no way funny.  I will give you an example - Matthew McConaughey.  That should require no explanation but for those of us that are a tad on the slow side let me explain.  If the shirtless wonder himself were to walk into any college classroom or business in Ruston and say anything remotely close to a joke people would immediately laugh because it was Mr. Shirtless saying it.  He truly wouldn't have to do anything but speak and people would probably laugh.  Why, because its him saying it?  Yes, that is the answer to the question.  Simply because a half-naked, ignorant actor said something automatically makes it funny.

That just pisses me off.

So I began to wonder, what makes someone funny?  Is it their physical looks or appearance like Mr. Shirtless mentioned earlier, or is it the way they deliver their jokes like a Jim Carrey, or could it be a sexual attraction between two people like we have all gone through.  Maybe its a girl that you thought was smokin hot or a guy that looked super cute, but we all thought to ourselves, "Okay I'm just going to laugh at her (ladies insert his) jokes so that maybe she'll stick around a little bit longer and I can get some make-out action tonight."  We are all looking out for the old number one (ourselves) whenever we do this.  However, we end up doing harm to the other girl or guy by giving them a false sense of being funny all because we wanted a little tongue.  This leads me to a similar thought from before.

That just pisses me off.

So, I am going to begin an experiment that tests these certain things about being funny.  As I proceed through this experiment I will update everyone with the hard facts of what it takes to truly be a man or woman of funnyness.

I just made up a word for this experiment.  Funnyness.

Overall, I hope this experiment leads me into new light about life, love, and happiness, but I'm sure it will just end up with me pissing people off as I point out why they are laughing at certain jokes.  Which I am fine with.  Either way I will be blogging about something.
 

Noticeable Difference

So tomorrow March 2nd I begin student teaching at Ruston High School for my final quarter at Louisiana Tech University.  I am excited, scared, nervous, and extremely ready to graduate...but there is something else.  I walked out of after my final last Wednesday and thought to myself, "Wow, that was the last time I will be doing that...ever."  I mean don't get my wrong, I will take more tests.  I will be a teacher it comes with the job.  But I will never be in a college classroom again taking a test with 50 other people going through their college experience.  It was an unnerving feeling to tell you the truth.  A feeling like graduating high school but this time that feeling was on crack cocaine, because there wasn't a safety net of more school that was going to catch me.  All that I have left now is - life - and that to me feels like free fall.

No more big college classrooms, lunch in Tolliver, sitting at the red tables in the bright sunlight of a nice spring day (even though those days seem to be few and far between here), and no more casually sleeping in until 8 or 9 depending on how late I got to bed the night before.  As Pampers says, "I'm a big kid now!" I now have to be up around 6 and get ready to begin a fun filled day with hundreds of students who do not want to be at school and really don't care what I have to say for the most part.

Sounds depressing once you think about it.

But I will enjoy this last quarter as a Tech student and embrace all it has to offer.  Because as of now, I have around 100 students (5 classes, 20 students each class, you do the math) who cannot run away from me no matter what they think of my teaching and that to me is a pretty solid mission field.  I will be their light in the darkness, their safety when all fails, their rock in times of trouble...WOW what am I saying...sorry I got off on a Batman speech rant right there.  Any who.  God has given me a great mission field for my final months in school and I am thankful for it.

Life is noticeably different (you like how I put the title of the blog in here, you're welcome) now and I am ready for the adventures ahead.

Stop Me if I'm Lying

I sit here in an empty house as my two roommates Emile Frey and Logan Dugard begin their trek around the globe to an unreached people group in India with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  What a mission.  They are living out the call of Christ in Acts 1:8 when He tells us to go to the "ends of the earth." I am immensely proud of them both.  Their journey has been one of hardship and amazing beauty.

I wish to give you a glimpse into this journey.

Around October of last year the news was brought to them of a possible mission trip being taken by Crossroads church to India.  For ten days a group of normal men and women would be going to unreached parts of India to share a message that was essential to their lives.  Christ.  They both liked the idea and began to ponder over the possibility of them actually going.  Well this pondering turned into action as they began to attend the India meetings discussing what the trip was about and how it would look.  Except there were a few problems.

Going to another country for upwards of double digit days is quite expensive and college students aren't known for their abundance of money.  But this was not to stop them.

They began to write letters.  Hundreds of letters asking for help in raising money.  Unknowing if people would give or not but just simply trusting that the Lord would somehow produce money where it seemed money could not be produced.  People donated that had never met Logan or Emile but believed that what they were doing was to the benefit of the Kingdom.  It was a beautiful picture of miracles happening day in and day out.

Secondly, there were medical issues, logistics, and training times that go into trips like this.  Much time has to be invested in going to the doctor, in planning what to bring, and in learning about the culture.  They invested this time and more.  They read, watched, learned, and trained so that they would be as prepared as possible when the time came.

Lastly, there was the simple problem of not becoming overwhelmed.  Looking at all the issues of this trip by themselves can overtake anyone with a feeling of inadequacy and the inability to complete them.  To see how short they are on money with a payment due in two days, to fill out medical form after medical form until they didn't even realize what they were writing, or to constantly be reading and attending meetings even when they had school work due.  These are the things often overlooked in trips like this, but are often the most likely cause of someone not following through and completing the mission.  Emile and Logan showed amazing resilience in this area and I admire them for it.

Their ability to leap when they could see no end in sight is an amazing testament to me.  To trust in all times, to persevere, to obtain the goal no matter what the cost, this astounds me.  And this is what God calls us to.

Stop me if I'm lying here.

God calls us to jump in the pitch black of our lives and to believe that He not only knows what is ahead, but where we will land.  Every step is planned, calculated, and sovereignly chosen to bring Christ glory. Do you take the steps willingly like Emile and Logan did and are doing?  Do I take those steps willingly?  I pray we do.

I am so proud of the men and women leaving their homes, comfort, and families in order to be uncomfortable for the Gospel.  That action in itself is showing Christ.  When someone is willing to step out of their lives in order for others to know what life is all about is when people become truly changed because they see how real the Gospel and the God of the universe is.  And that my friends is a beautiful thing.

A Serious Moment

Today I have been challenged with a fact that I have not seen in the same light for many days now.  It is a simple yet profound truth which affects every aspect of our lives:  how we talk, how we act, what we watch, what we read, what we seek, and how we seek it.

God loves me.

Astounding.

The God of the universe, creation, all that is, will ever be, and ever was, the King sitting on the throne of Heaven, the Lord over all humanity...loves me.  The impact of this truth is more then just a simple emotion, it is an action, He pursues me, He wants me, He longs to love and know me.  I bring nothing to the table but a broken sinner deserving of hell to the highest degree.  I don't offer more glory, more love, more mercy, more grace.  He supplies it all and then some.  Apart from Him and I nothing more than a man sinking in his own sin.  Yet, He chooses to save me.

I find myself most days not even noticing a glimpse of this love.  I see the beautiful world around me and shrug it off like it is normal.  Like everything that is happening is happening because it is supposed to happen.  No cause.  No reason.  Just happening.  Yet, Romans 8:28 states that the world is groaning in anticipation for the coming King to reign again.  The world is alive because of its hope for the second coming of the King.  That is the best purpose I have ever seen.

So, a question that has been bothering me is, "How can I sit and look at a world that groans for the Father all around me and yet live as though the world exists for my pleasure and my wants?"  I know in my head that I am supposed to be groaning for the second coming, however my actions do not seem to point in that direction.  As Brennan Manning says in The Ragamuffin Gospel:

"When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes.  I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty.  I am trusting and suspicious.  I am honest and I still play games..."

I believe that He is the all-forgiving Savior but my actions show doubt.  I hope is His coming and yet I get discouraged by His timing.  These are just a few examples of these truths in my life.  There are many more.  This leads me to think of one of my hopes in college.  I wished that at the end of my tenure at Louisiana Tech I would leave and have people only know me as the guy who loved the Lord and loved others.  Now it seems that Facebook is what people know me for, or sports, or playing music. I am not saying that these things are bad, but when a professing Christian is known for things over the Lord something is wrong.

 Something must change.

My view of this monumentally earth shattering belief that can change an entire world.  His love.  I wish to consume myself with it, to breath it, to drink and eat of it, to wash in it, to love through it.  I want God to blow me away with His love because His love is existence.  He exists to be glorified.  I glorify Him through His love.  Its a beautiful existence and it is an existence He wishes everyone to have, we just have to realize it because in the end this simple statement is where everything began and where everything ends.

God loves me.

Positive or Negative

Throughout life people always consider themselves to be one of two things:  a positive person or a negative person.  AKA: optimist or pessimist.  Well I am here today to discuss what I am, the third choice...a realist.

People often mistake me as a negative person when I tell them candidly that they will most likely not complete a certain assignment or be able to perform a certain task.  Let me give you an example...

Me and three of my friends are at a football field and we are kicking field goals for kick and giggles (thats a pun) and one of my friends decides to try and kick a 30 yard field goal.  Well this friend is not the most athletic person and spends a lot of time playing Call of Duty and such so I say to him, "Chances are you are going to miss this. You are probably going to be short 5 or 10 yards."  Well my three friends immediately start harping on me about how I am always so negative and should be more positive and supportive.  So to appease them I say, "Ok.  Don't suck."  Because if they don't suck and miss the field goal then everyone will be happy.

I might as well interject for a moment that I could have said that a little differently and I admit that.  I could have said, "Do well." But let's be honest, if they are doing well then they aren't sucking and if they aren't sucking then they are doing well so they are both equally good statements.  Apples and oranges you know.  

Well, once the harping was over my friend eventually kicked the football and missed.  Coincidentally he was short 5 or 10 yards...who would have thunk it?  So, let me ask you, was I negative or just real?  I believed he could do it because I never said he couldn't, but I knew that statistically speaking he was going to suck really bad and miss it.  I have a belief, it just based on realistic life.

Or we could look at that my first original comment should have beefed him up to make him kick the ball harder to prove me wrong.  I was playing the "I'm going to say something to make you really mad to make you play better" card that some coaches do.  Call me Bob Knight from now on.  Except with no thrown furniture.  Life can be seen through many different eyes but I just choose the most logical.  

This makes me think of a serious thought.

Faith

Someone could read this and say, "Hey how do you believe in Jesus if you only look at things realistically, because realism leads to science and science can't work with Jesus?"

First off I would like to say that this is possibly one of the dumbest questions ever asked because science alone points to Christ 100% of the time.  Secondly, to look at the questions through my eyes of realism we must ask ourselves what the statistics of God are.  Well, He is right...always.  He is wrong...never.  Statistics show God as the logical choice not the other way around.  The faith aspect comes not in mere belief but in the control.  I know God is real, but to let Him control my entire being a life, my circumstance, my finances, my relationships...that is faith.

(Thought of people reading this..."Wow this blog really got serious quick. He was all humorous in his other blogs but now he is all mister serious guy...")

Well have no fear because I am stepping of the box that holds soap now.

In the end people are either Positive or Negative...well, I am neither.