dustinvail.com

Dustin's New Blog

2009-07-23T18:15:00.003-04:00

Check out Dustin's new blog:

dustinvail.wordpress.com

please click...

2008-06-18T02:05:00.001-04:00

here

for my current life.

2007-09-08T10:52:00.001-04:00

jtlyk...

2007-09-08T10:16:00.001-04:00

this is going to be a short little blog. i need to start using this bc i need to start keeping people up with my life, and what a better design than this (with the exception of vlogs. i wish i could get the nerve to do a few)

so since my last post - 6.21.07 - a quite a bit has transpired...

- i've fallen in love more and more everyday with a pretty incredible girl. sure, we poke at each other once and again, but i love it.
- bc of the previous, i decided 'what the heck' and asked her if she wanted to do the previous for the rest of our lives. she didn't say anything. she just nodded her head for quite a while with a great big grin on her face. it was one of the best moments of my life.
- we decided that we need to go somewhere. i've been looking at a bible school in california since about march and we checked it out on labour day weekend. it looks like we could be there by january.
- because of the previous, we decided on a shot gun wedding (11.11.07), to sell her house, to quit her job and eventually mine, pack up things in a car that we need to buy, and then...head west.
- we've honeymooning in italy. pimp.
- also, just for important date reasons (and so far this is all we have): wedding shower for nell in fay on 09.22, bach party for me - fly fishing on the white - 10.26-10.28, wedding is 11.11, and honeymoon is 11.12-11.21. we still have a lot to figure out, huh? suggestions are welcome!

driscoll's challenge

2007-06-21T18:33:00.000-04:00

so, as i'm going through nehemiah these days, i like how drsicolls settles in on tangents and challenges me. today, he went through ch. 7, where, pretty much, nehemiah goes into the jerusalem phone book. but driscoll went on to explain that the culture would live to leave legacies for 7 to 10 generations out. he challenged me to live in light of that.
like, what if we lived and prayed that our children and their children and theirs and theirs and theirs would have interaction with jesus and live under scripture's authority and fight oppression and evil in the name of christ? what if we're in heaven one day and this guy comes up to us with the same last name and told us that they lived for christ because of the prayers and pleas i made with God that echoed generations away?
it's an interesting thought. so many of us live for our 401k's, ira's, and social securities. what if we lived for out children's children's children's souls? what does that look like?

nehemiah, prayer, and memaw

2007-06-08T14:59:00.000-04:00

so, i just started mark driscoll's series on nehemiah. when i ran into it, my immediate thought was how little i spend diving into the old testament. it's rich. and he's good. if you're a podcaster, it's under one of the mars hill bible churches.

god's teaching me a lot about prayer. nehemiah is key on that (maybe a reason i'm enjoying this series)... but it's more than that. a few weeks ago, the eddlemans, nellie and i went to their grandmother's house in columbus, ms for memorial day weekend. i enjoyed it and we walked away with a few hilarious moments, but there were two things that really stuck out to me. 1) meemaw's walk. her realness, prayerfulness, and longing for christ. you could see it in little moments of the day when she'd stop and just pray. or when she just stared off, you could tell that she was thinking deeply or praying or engaging something bigger. that challenged me. the second thing that stuck out was one morning while i was up earlier than everyone else, i was outside playing with the dog and she came out and in the middle of small talk, she looks dead at me and speaks some major truth into my life regarding some big time struggles i'm dealing with. (i know that was vague...) i guess that taught me more about prayer and the engagement of the spirit... it was powerful.

cowboys

2006-11-20T20:19:00.000-05:00

i went to dallas this weekend with 14 other dudes. maybe 15.
we did nothing but watch football.
except we played football.
and traveled to a sports bar to watch more football.
we met some dallas cowboys.
we played on texas stadium field.
we went to the village church(.net).
i'm sold on the church.
we saw the colts end a 9 game winning streak.

letters

2006-11-15T19:13:00.000-05:00

okay, so today i was working. and was bored. and complained. i was told to have fun. "be balance like the chinese." so.. i did. kinda. i found a box of letters that you put on signs outside companies and stuff. so...

first i organized them

then, i thought i'd be balanced

who says that? me. but it is..

...might could maybe.. wanna

bring back the 80s

like i warned, this is anti climatic. but i did have fun. thanks.

...and dewitt's in the hospital

2006-10-09T16:47:00.000-04:00

okay so dewitt's in the hospital...

yeah, that's not normal.

something about viral meningitas. i don't know how to spell that.

for those of you who don't know him, he's one of my best friends and my accountability partner.. he's been sick the last few weeks then decided to ride 100 miles on a bike.

so now im sitting here on the floor of his room blogging from my phone and watching 'yes,dear' reruns.

i bought him a giant frog balloon.

its huge.

i'll keep posting fillin ya in on the action

2006-10-07T00:05:00.000-04:00

i was on my way today to prairie grove. usually, it's not normal... but from today on - it is. my sister and bro-in-law moved up to nwa today and their choice of residence - down the street from a glorified civil war battle field. on my drive down i was looking at the ozark hills that forced the road to curve around. i was begining to see a redish tent in them. it was 70 degrees outside, my windows were rolled down and johnny cash's american v was a better breeze than any of it. his soft, crackled voice of his old age singing the sweet lyrics, "if heartaches brought fame in love's crazy game i'd be a legend in my time."

it's october.

it's fall.

fall is nothing more than the fruition of summer sweat and life. many believe that fall happens as trees die and hibernate for the winter. while horticulturally that may be right... i like to think of fall as the birth of summer's labor pains... the beautiful product of heat, sweat, and hard labor. fall is a time to gather the fruit because it's ripe and alive more than ever - not because it's at it's worse... but at its best.

johnny was at his best today. you can't help but feel his release in this album, american v: a hundred highways. you can feel him sitting there in the recording studio with his eyes shut, singing from his soul, "i never thought i needed help before; i thought that i could get by - by myself. now i know i just can't take it any more. with a humble heart, on bended knee, i'm beggin' you, please, help me."

johnny died shortly after he recorded this album, his autumn, if you will. many think that his best was in his early years. and while musically that might be true, a young, egotistical man couldn't have sang, "i'm beggin' you, please, ...help me." and to me... that's shows the best of a man.

comradery

2006-10-04T09:40:00.000-04:00

so i just got done with a support raising "boot camp" (another way of saying "intense 2 day seminar). it was great and really stretched my vision for my ministry. there's something about mobilizing people to be on board with you're personal vision. thing i've learned lately is the worst they could do... is say no.

so life here in fayetteville is good. last night, i met up with a bunch of people from the "boot camp". we went to common grounds and sat on the back patio and i had on of the best nights in a long time. it was, perhaps, we were from so many different places.. enjoying the comradery of each other who have a jesus vision for the world. there was jeremiah from connecticut. jonathan from virginia. randi and susan from idaho. lisa from pennsylvania. and anna from fayetteville. they had the jesus vision - the vision to spread his name... and fellowship with people like that is priceless.

we talked a lot about the church and where it's going... moving. ...where is the pendulum swinging these days?? ...who's on the move? ...are we more relational than doctrinal as a generation, or are we both? ... are we relational people who cultivate truth and see no place for unnecessary jargon or religious practice?

yes. maybe. i don't know.

i don't think we landed on a either side of the coin, which, i guess, leaves the coin still floundering in the air. is that bad? no. is that good? not necessarily. but hindsight is all ways 20/20. or 20/15. or 20/10.

honestly, i don't think i would have cared a flip about what we talked about. they were great people. one was a missionary to china. one was a musician. one was an facilitator. one was a mobilizer. two loved kids. and i enjoyed it immensely.

john g paton, part 2

2006-08-14T07:36:00.000-04:00

the love stories

in the first chapter of this autobiography, he tells the stories of his parents and grandparents and their love stories. i love 'em. the reason probably lies in how "braveheartish" they are. what's more interesting is that as you read on - you think he's not married, until he arrives in the southeastern asian shores and mentions a mrs. paton, his wife, of whom he speaks little. this is somewhat baffling. but he seems to really love the stories of his grandparents and parents, so let me tell you those...

(a funny thing: all the women seem to be named janet. both his grandmothers and his mother. if any of you are scottish, or have been scottish in the past, or have been to scotland and know the reason for this - please embark)

"On the other side, my mother, Janet Rogerson, had for parents a father and mother of the Annandale stock. William Rogerson, her father, was one of many brothers, all men of uncommon strength and great force of character, quite worthy of the Border Rievers of an earlier day. Indeed, it was in some such way that he secured his wife, though the dear old lady in after-days was chary about telling the story. She was a girl of good position, the ward of two unscrupulous uncles who had charge of her small estate, near Langholm; and while attending some boarding school she fell devotedly in love with the tall, fair-haired, gallant young blacksmith, William Rogerson. Her guardians, doubtless very properly, objected to the "connection"; but our young Lochinvar, with his six or seven stalwart brothers and other trusty "lads" all mounted, and with some ready tool in case of need, went boldly and claimed his bride, and she, willingly mounting at his side, was borne off in the light of open day, joyously married, and took possession of her "but and ben" as the mistress of the blacksmith's castle."

(on his mother and father's meeting)

"[Mother's] house was on the outskirts of the moor, and life for the young girl there had not probably too much excitement. But one thing had arrested her attention. She had noticed that a young stocking maker from the "Brig End," James Patton, the son of William and Janet there, was in the habit of stealing alone into the quiet wood, book in hand, day after day, at certain hours, as if for private study and meditation. It was a very excusable curiosity that led the young bright heart of the girl to watch him devoutly reading and hear him reverently reciting (though she knew not then, it was Ralph Erskine's "Gospel Sonnets," which he could say by heart sixty years afterwards, as he lay on his bed of death); and finally that curiosity awed itself into a holy respect, when she saw him lay aside his broad Scotch bonnet, kneel down under the sheltering wings of some tree, and pout out all his soul in daily prayers to God. As yet they had never spoken. What spirit moved her, let lovers tell - was it all devotion, or was it a touch of unconscious love kindling in her towards the yellow-haired and thoughtful youth? Or was there a stroke of mischief, of that teasing, which so often opens up the door to the most serious step in all our lives? Anyhow, one day she slipped in quietly, stole away his bonnet, and hung it on a branch near by, while his trance of devotion made him oblivious of all around; then, from a safe retreat, she watched and enjoyed his perplexity in seeking for and finding it! A second day this was repeated; but his manifest disturbance of mind, and his long pondering with his bonnet in hand, as if almost alarmed, seemed to touch another chord in her heart - that chord of pity which is so often the prelude of love, that finer pity that grieves to wound anything nobler or tenderer than ourselves. Next day, when he came to is accustomed place of prayer, a little card was pinned down against the tree just where he knelt, and on it these words: -
'She who stole away your bonnet is ashamed of what she did; she as a great respect for you, and asks you to pray for her, that she may become as good a Christian as you.'
Staring long at that writing, he forgot Ralph Erskine for one day! Taking down the card, and wondering who the writer could be, he was abusing himself for his stupidity in not suspecting that some one had discovered his retreat and removed his bonnet, instead of wondering whether angels had been there during his prayer, - when, suddenly raising his eyes, he saw in front of Adam's cottage, through a lane amongst the trees, the passing of another kind of angel, swinging a milk-pail in her hand and merrily singing some snatch of old Scottish song. He knew, in that moment, by a Divine instinct, as infallible as any voice that ever came to seer of old, that she was the angel visitor that had stolen in upon his retreat - that bright-faced, clever-witted niece of old Adam and Eve, to whom he had never yet spoken, but whose praises he had often heard said and sung - "Wee Jen." I am afraid he did pray "for her," in more sense than one, that afternoon, at any rate, more than a Scotish bonnet was very effectually stolen; a good heart and true was there virtually bestowed and the trust was never regretted on either side, and never betrayed.
Often and often, in the genial and beautiful hours of the autumntide of their long life, have I heard my dear father tease "Jen" about her maidenly intentions in the stealing of that bonnet; and often have heard her quick mother-wit in the happy retort, that had his motives for coming to that retreat been altogether and exclusively pious, he would probably have found his way to the other side of the wood, but that men who prowled about the Garden of Eden ran the risk of meeting someday with a daughter of Eve!"

how great is that? i know it's long... but so good. the following story isn't a love story, but an epic of his father's father, and the great escape he made from the french. i though you guys might enjoy it a bit. that is, if you're still reading this...

"My father's mother, Janet Murray, claimed to be descended from a Galloway family that fought and suffered for Christ's Crown and Covenant in Scotland's "killing time," and was herself a woman of pronouncedly religious development. Her husband, our grandfather, William Paton, had passed through a roving and romantic career, before he settled down to be a douce deacon of the weavers of Dumfries, like his father before him. Forced by a press-gang to serve on board a British man-of-war, he was taken prisoner by the French, and thereafter placed under Paul Jones, the pirate of the seas, and bore to his dying day the mark of a slash from the captain's sword across his shoulder for some slight disrespect or offence. Determining with two others to escape, the three were hotly pursued by Paul Jones's men. One, who could swim but little, was shot, and had to be cut adrift by the other two, who in the darkness swam into a cave and managed to evade for two nights and a day the rage of their pursuers. My grandfather, being young and gentle and yellow haired, persuaded some kind heart to rig him out in female attire, and in this costume escaped the attentions of the press-gang more than once; till, after many hardships, he bargained with the captain of a coal sloop to stow him away amongst his black diamonds; and thus, in due time, he found his way home to Dumfries, where he tackled bravely and wisely the duties of husband, father, and citizen for the remainder of his days. The smack of the sea about the stories of his youth gave zest to the talks round their quiet fireside, and that, again, was seasoned by the warm Evangelical spirit of his Covenanting wife, her lips "dropping grace."

long, i know. sorry. more to come. be blessed.

d

john g paton

2006-08-13T17:17:00.000-04:00

i’m a big fan of biographies. i don’t know what it is, but there’s something awesome about the human existence and it’s potential. and when someone can tap into their potential and communicate it in such a keen and literary way, i really, really enjoy it. …some what dorky, i know.

john patton was born may 24th, 1824 and raised on the southern shores of rural scotland. he is most known for his mission work in the cannibalistic southeast asian islands - the new hebrides, where he saw the whole islands come to Christ, and left a great legacy of believers to continue the church leadership.

i'm in myrtle beach this week (aug. 12-19), and while i'm here, i'm going to try to throw some excerpts your way of different parts of this mans life i find fascinating and why. he's an incredible man with incredible parents. (remember that as you read, this guy is writing in the late 1800s and he's scottish. it's not to hard to follow - in fact much easier than i thought - but a word or two comes up that may puzzle you, just think old school. ex: betwixt = between)

today is on his father's prayer life...

Our home consisted of a "but" and a "ben" and a "mid room," or chamber, called the "closet." The one end was my mother's domain, and served all the purposes of dining-room and kitchen and parlor, besides containing two large wooden erections, called by our Scotch peasantry "box beds"; not holes in the wall, as in cities, but grand, big, airy beds, adorned with many-colored counterpanes, and hung with natty curtains, showing the skill of the mistress of the house. The other end was my father's workshop, filled with five or six "stocking-frames," whirring with the constant action of five or six pairs of busy hands and feet, and producing right genuine hosiery for the merchants at Hawick and Dumfries. The "closet" was a very small apartment betwixt the other two, having room only for a bed, a little table and a chair, with a diminutive window shedding diminutive light on the scene. This was the Sanctuary of that cottage home. Thither daily, and oftentimes a day, generally after each meal, we saw our father retire, and "shut to the door"; and we children got to understand by a sort of spiritual instinct (for the thing was too sacred to be talked about) that prayers were being poured out there for us, as of old by the High Priest within the veil in the Most Holy Place. We occasionally heard the pathetic echoes of a trembling voice pleading as if for life, and we learned to slip out and in past that door on tiptoe, not to disturb the holy colloquy. The outside world might not know, but we knew, whence came that happy light as of a new-born smile that always was dawning on my father's face: it was a reflection from the Divine Presence, in the consciousness of which he lived. Never, in temple or cathedral, on mountain or in glen, can I hope to feel that the Lord God is more near, more visibly walking and talking with men, than under that humble cottage roof of thatch and oaken wattles. Though everything else in religion were by some unthinkable catastrophe to be swept out of memory, or blotted from my understanding, my soul would wander back to those early scenes, and shut itself up once again in that Sanctuary Closet, and, hearing still the echoes of those cries to God, would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal, "He walked with God, why may not I?"

i really want to be like this guy. someday a husband and father who's children learn "to slip out and in past that door on tiptoe, not to disturb the holy colloquy" because of the necessity i see in prayer and the example i show my children.

this is one of many times in his autobiography that paton menstions his father's prayer life. it's a quite fascinating read.

if you want to read some selections from this specific chapter, check it out.

okay, hopefully, we'll have more to come. be blessed.

the point of no return

2006-06-09T11:31:00.000-04:00

so, it's been a while. in the past month, a lot has happened. i went to honduras. it was fun. i came home. i was tired. i'm finishing college with a lot of summer school. i study, i sleep, i repeat.

something afresh has awakened in me that i'm extremely thankful for. i seem to have focused, in the last couple of years, on the academic and theological framework of God. His story. His grace. His history. His reason. ect... establishing His place/Word in my mind.. instead of the unstable non-vertebraeic (not a word, i know) religion of emotions and 'whatever sounds good to the soul'. i had grown sick of being tossed and turned by the wandering preachers of the western culture. teachers that found more responsibility to grab people's attention by media or stories rather than an exegetical explanation of the story of God in His words, not theirs. i was tired of being pointed to them, their stories and lives and words and not His story, life, and Word. it was exhausting and unfulfilling. so, i went pseudo-academic (i'm a marketing major... no equivalent of a theology major or biblical scholar in the academic world of christendom- which i am very thankful for, but academic enough for this layman). i have acquired a sense of the framework of the workings of God. i stop short of saying that i've "figured it out" or "have pinned it down" but i will say my awareness is greater and my hunger for the knowledge of the holy has ever so increased.

it has been a good time for me, but recently i've found that i need to find balance. balance between thought and action, theology and application, academia and practice. paraphrased, 'the map of theology,' as lewis once said, 'is useless and boring if all you do is study the map and not engage in the beauty that the map leads you to.' in other words (back to my opening statement that something afresh as awakened in me) i can read and study all the things i can about God, and store up for myself great and wise proverbs about the God that reigns, but if i don't use them in my day to day strides, then i've done nothing to enhance the kingdom, nothing to glorify God, and nothing but put God in a box of academic jargon. i don't want that.

what has awakened afresh in the last few weeks for me is to begin using the framework that the Lord has built in me these last few years and take on the great challenges of the Words of God - taking risks with my life, my money, my relationships, my time, ect. to begin to seek out and live up to biblical challenges that glorify God, enhance the kingdom, ect. these calls make no logical sense and require a radical heart to embrace radical sayings like...

phil 1:29, "for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,"

or john 12:24, "i tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. but if it dies, it produces many seeds."

or hebrews 12:1-13.. especially v.2,3, "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

academics, intelligence, or great thinking can't produce that - a life of endurance, suffering, and dying for the name sake of Christ. it may lead you there... but unless the Spirit awakens a heart that rejoices in these challenges, academia will analyze them, logically break them down, and maybe even appreciate them... but never engage the body and soul to partake of them, tasting and discovering their beauties.

i want to be a child of Christ that radically loves, radically hungers, radically gives, radically thinks, radically chooses, and radically believes - to the point beyond rationale, logic, or understanding. to the point i can rejoice in anything calling me to be Christ-like... enduring, dying, suffering, running and not growing weary, walking and not growing faint...

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
- Psalm 63

chalk up another random moment in the life of dvail...

2006-05-08T23:55:00.000-04:00

okay, so... may is officially random. the whole thing - it's random.

i'm going to honduras... in four days... for a week.

it all happened the last two days. yesterday, a lady from a.a.o. (arkansas athletes outreach) approached me and told me she's taking some people down to honduras and their worship leader backed out and they need someone to go lead worship and asked if i wanted to go and lead...

24 hours later... i'm in. i really need this. i need to go and serve and work and worship and pray and think and journal and write and pray. i need the word. i need people. i need perspective. i need guidance. i need to get away from all things academic. i need... God. and He's sending me.

so, i'm going. i'm going to lead worship by worshiping. i'm going to encourage and be encouraged. i'm going to suck up central american heat and enjoy friendship. i'm going to be humbled, broken, beat, weary, and tried. but more, i'm going to hear Him. i need to hear His Word and ravish myself with it.

the crazy thing is... i'm actually skipping graduation to do this. i hope the parents are okay. who skips graduation for central america? apparently, i do... anyway, chalk up another random moment in my life... and have a good may.

good ole fayetteville...

2006-05-08T09:41:00.000-04:00

so, i've recently been reminded how much i love fayetteville. it hits me as i'm running or cycling and i pass a honeysuckle bush and it mixes with the freshly cleaned air after a rain. it might be the best moment on the earth... until fall. then fayetteville becomes magical. vibrant colors combined with an extravagant layout... there's no place like fayetteville. i'll do my best to explain why...

this is fayettville in the fall... actually most of these pictures are. this is a picture of the southern part - the university and historical districts. the towers are old main, the first building and original college of Arkansas Industrial University, now University of Arkansas. the towers are the tallest building in fayetteville and there's a law that says no man made complex can be build at a higher elevation than old main, so our sports complex are halfway buried.

oh, this is the buffalo... just about an hour to hour and a half away. not many people think of this when they think of arkansas, but this signifies more of fayetteville's surroundings than the rest of the state. the ozarks are beautiful and very different in contrast of the delta. i think this is jim's bluff.

ah, the square. the square is awesome. filled with shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and bars, it's a very lively place. it's definitely one of the more unique things of fayetteville. this picture is great, thus why i used it, but horses aren't normal, except only in december when the square is lit up. they use so many lights, if they stretched them out, it'd span about 70 miles.

the square again. this was a picture taken by a friend of mine, murray williams. every tuesday, thursday, and saturday morning, local farmers bring their trucks and participate in a farmers market. every farmer that grows their product must be present and it must be home grown. every once in a saturday morning, you'll run into a guy like this playing some great jams, probably blue grass or blues.

the square. this is pretty typical of southern fayetteville - they've done a great job of preserving the old parts of the city... to which, i am thankful. it makes for such a unique environment.

here are a few of my favorite buildings. this is the public library they just finished. it's got a coffee shop inside and is one of my favorite places to go to escape. it's sits on a hill that over looks the southern most part of fayetteville and it's surrounding hills. this library cost about $6 million to build and was recognized as the number one library in the nation for 2005. it's great.

i was thinking through favorite buildings and this can't go unnoticed. this is donald reynolds razorback stadium, seating around 80,000 (i think.. maybe a little under that)... this is a saturday morning sanctuary, however frustrating the team is.

my freshman year, i was watching the local public channel and i somehow got drawn into a city of fayetteville town meeting. they were discussing plans to build a biking/walking network of trails over the next several years. this is one. i think this is down south of the university... whichever, i love them. the trail i use runs along side a rather large creek and is extremely family friendly. they plan on building more of these to promote reduced reliance on cars. i love the idea.

i can't help but say that probably the best part of fayetteville's scenery is just driving around it. the city is huge on conserving trees, and for good reason. sometimes you feel like your in pleasantville. most of the streets have overhanging trees that make for incredible springs and autumns. and the fall here is insane - look at these colors.

so, that's fayetteville... i wish i could have more time to zero in on somemore aspects of it (dickson street; bikes, blues, and bbq festival; lake fayetteville; beaver lake; ect), but there's just not time during finals week. alright, on i must go to study. wish me the best of luck, and have a great may. ...d

Photos provided by:
http://www.americainbloom.org/urban_forestry.asp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/murdog/sets/72057594114040748/
http://www.fayettevillear.com/
http://www.uark.edu/depts/silc/ark/fayette.htm
http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t17072-100.html

i'm about to have an anxiety attack...

2006-05-07T07:53:00.000-04:00

why? a few reasons..
uno) the simple fact that i'm in the heat of finals rights now and my head is about to explode.
dos) reason numero uno causes dos.. i can't read. or write - well. i can't read the stuff i really want to read nor can i write the best i know i can. starting this blog when i did was not the best thing in the world.. but hopefully i won't forget about it between now and a week from now.
tres) there is a tres; i forgot what it was.

anyway, God's teaching me a lot right now. and it's humbling.

my friends and i went to go see MI3... not bad. it's pretty tense, but my favorite part about the whole movie - finley and brooke robinson showed up. i know, it's insane. usually if you want to see them outside of their house you have to go to church or a big-time wedding of the weekend. (ps, it's not like they're homebodies and don't want to get out, they do, they just have kids and can't.) but it was a sheer joy to see them out and it made me think of how incredible i think they are and how i wish i could hang out with them. i mean, i do live with his parents - you'd think that'd be enough. oh well...

anyway, have a good may.

chicago rewind

2006-05-02T16:54:00.000-04:00

so.....

...eddy...

...and i...

...went to chicago...

...we had fun...

...and saw shane and shane...

...and met them...

...but i don't have a i picture of that...

...so i'm just going to show you pictures of chicago...

chicago

2006-04-27T22:30:00.000-04:00

so, i'm going to chicago tomorrow. i'm going to see shane and shane in concert as well as see a long lost friend - lindsay (see 04.25 post).

i'm not going to lie, i don't need this. i don't need to go. i've got to much going on - it's just not healthy - in any way. whatsoever. but i'm going. and i pray that i make it out of college.

keeping me on my toes...

2006-04-26T11:15:00.000-04:00

i've never met this guy, i was introduced to him by katie. but i like his blog. a lot. i like what he writes about. perhaps its the fact that he has a personal email from john piper posted on his blog site from 02.2006. yeah, i might just like that. anyway, check out his blog, it's good. http://theologica.blogspot.com/

a great man passed today - jake phillips. i can recall meeting him briefly once. but his effect on my life, while inadvertent, was great. this is because he discipled mike compton, and mike compton has discipled me. it's a day of mourning here in NWA for all who knew him.

just yesterday i was talking to a friend of mine about losing people - in general. losing them in church, in leadership, or in life. i began thinking about the people that i would be affected by the most. my heros, my mentors, my hebrews 13.7s.

if john piper passed away, i would be greatly sadden. his influence on my life, has he would put it, has been simply incalculable. his christian hedonist doctrine that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him" was mind blowing when i first heard it a couple of years ago. i couldn't get over the fact that God's supreme need to be glorified and my God given longing to be satisfied where not at odds, but were beautifully interwoven and compliments of each other.

mike compton. upon meeting mike about two weeks before i met john piper, we connected instantly. i was draw in by his articulation, eye contact, but mostly, his trademark beard. we've grown to be friends over the last few years, me probably needing the friendship more than him, but nevertheless, he's taught me much. he's taught me how to be a man. a man of skill. a man of passion. a man of character. a man of vision. he taught me how to blizt people with intentionality and spread the word of God's heartbeat, namely, missions. i love this man, he is great.

of course, my father. my father has impacted me more than anyone in the world. sometimes, i'm not sure he knows it. since i can remember, he's encouraged me that i can be anything i wanted to be. he's believed in me. he's my friend, my confidant, my mentor, my partner in crime, my roommate, my professor, my sensei... he's my father. and the best. i can't wait to see what God has planned for us through the next several years. i hold our conversations close and we dream big. we're a good team.

if i lost these men, it would devastate me. but their thoughts, words, and teaching resound in my head day after day. i guess you could say they haunt me. and they will continue to - keeping me on my toes.

the second...

2006-04-25T22:43:00.000-04:00

so, my friend lindsay (the girl on the right)

called me today and said, "don't be a grandma." and i was like, "i'm obsessed with shane and shane are they staying with you at your house this weekend" and she was all, "yeah" and i was all, "i'm coming and i'm sleeping at the foot of his bed" (followed by hearty laughter) so, i may. we'll see. i'm not sure how it'll work out, but we'll see. there's a shane and shane concert and it's pretty ridiculous how i don't need to go at all, but i might - i haven't seen her in five years... but it might be rad... (i just said rad ...terrible).

we were camp friends back in the day. i think we were 14,15,16,17... and now, we're 22... big deal.

the first

2006-04-24T15:47:00.000-04:00

dvail is online. get pumped, i'm coming hard. or seldom... one of the two...