Fore!

Well, I'm sort of just in the mood to write, so I figured we'd take a shot at round two of this. I had a topic that I really wanted to write on, but it's a tough one to do and today gave me a different idea as well. So, even though I was hoping to devote this second post to the topic of regrets and past decisions, I think I'll just save that for later. Part of the reason is that I think most of what I want to say about regrets has been told to nearly everyone for almost their whole entire life (or at least since they've reached the point that they might have made some poor decisions).
Anyway, I've had a pretty good weekend. I had a great bunch of friends over yesterday for burgers, swimming, games and movies, and I really just had a great day. This morning we had a guest preacher, Rev. Mary Hulst, the chaplain at Calvin College. She had a very interesting sermon about all the different religions and how each has their own ways of being "made righteous", but the main point was how Christianity is different in that it's only through God's grace that we are saved. That it's His gift that brings us into righteousness. And I'm not entirely sure if it was just that I've heard the message so many times, or if it was just her style of delivering the message, but I honestly was having a difficult time paying attention. I still heard everything she had to say, and understood the meaning behind her message, but my focus wasn't really where it ought to have been. And I really don't like that.
Well, I might come back to that, but moving on... After a wonderful lunch and a few hours of reading/passing out in the sun out back, I ended up spending the night playing a total of 23 holes of disc golf with Dan and Zac. Now, I've only gone a few times, and I'll admit that it shows, but I feel like overall today wasn't a bad day for me. Then after disc golf, with a TBell break for supper, Dan and I ended up back at his house, where we played a nice game of Settlers with Greg. And after a good couple hours of that and an interesting chat, I headed home. That is why I started writing this at 1 A.M. (and I apologize if that causes it to be a little incoherent).
But on my way home, I was thinking over the happenings of the day and I sort of realized something. It may be that I'm just tired, but in a way disc golf can actually be a pretty good analogy for life. Now you're probably thinking, "Hey, wait a minute. Where exactly are you going with this??", but hear me out , this sort of makes sense. At least to me it does. When your discing - or even regular old golfing for that matter - there's a bunch of "holes" you try to reach, in as few throws as possible. Well, I see this as sort of like how in life we have a list of goals for ourselves that we try to accomplish in the most efficient way possible. But sometimes things just don't go as planned... Your throw doesn't go quite as far as you wanted it to, or maybe it even goes in completely the wrong direction. Sometimes you blame it on other things - I mean, it can't be your fault, right? - It would have been the perfect throw, but the disc just slipped a little early or if only that tree wasn't there you'd have a perfect lie. And we do this in our lives, too. So often, we try to pin our own shortcomings off on some other factor or person. We want to just start over, or sometimes just skip the hole completely. But in disc, you don't do that (with the exception of the occasional mulligan). You just shrug it off, go find your disc, and try extra hard on your next throw to make up for lost distance.
Alright, maybe that wasn't such a great analogy. To be honest, I really just wanted to make a semi-philosophical  post involving disc golf. But hey, it kind of worked and maybe you'll actually get something out of it.
Well, it's late, this post is getting long, and I kind of agreed to help Cari with landscaping at her grandmother's house tomorrow. So, I'm off to bed, but I'll leave you with one last thing. I've kind of gotten caught up with watching the show How I Met Your Mother lately and I've actually been getting quite a lot out of it. So, look forward to a possible future post about one or more episodes. And I may also throw in some random references from here on out, too.

Ta ta for now and may you all have a blessed evening (all 3.5 of you).

Mazes

   Yes, I have decided to join the blogging world, too. The title's kind of lame, but that may change. I think there's always been a small part of me that wished to do something like this, but a large part of my decision actually comes from the inspiration of a great friend. My friend Zac Baker, whom most of you will probably know, recently began blogging as well, and I've really enjoyed reading his perspective on things. He has some pretty awesome posts so far, so you should check them out here. My posts will be similar in nature to his; meaning they will simply be the random thoughts that come to mind. I can't say I'll be very consistent on posting, or even be consistent on consistency, probably having sporadic periods of blogging overload interrupted by vast droughts of nothingness. Also, I'd like to apologize in advance for any tangents that may be gone off on. I'm planning on not really planning. I'm just going to let my mind wander and let that flow down to my fingers. So, if it gets laboriously long and tangential, I apologize. If you can stick with it through that, I commend you.

   Now, the reason I decided to start this on this particular day, rather than any other, is that I came across a web comic my friends and I peruse on occasion. I'd seen this specific "strip" a few times before, but only today had it had the effect that it did. This will probably make a lot more sense if I start off by showing it to you, so here you go; Clicky-Clicky. When I saw this today, at first I just thought to myself what I thought every other time, "Ahhh, he's trying to say that we go through life from the moment we're born to the day we die and it's up to us to make the decisions that define what that looks like. We can make our lives as simple as we want - a straight shot from birth to death without much excitement on the way - or we can take twists and turns and create a somewhat chaotic, yet oddly beautiful, design of our lives." But then I started to realize something. It's not completely up to us to "fill in our maze" as Dante puts it, but rather it is a collective work, a collaboration, of our own choices, as well as those of the many people who come into our lives. Even if you wanted to have that simple, straight shot to the end kind of life, it's not really up to you. Every person we interact with has a profound impact on our lives. And sometimes when we're making a portion of our maze it just comes to a dead end. We feel like there's nothing left to do. We feel trapped. But then other people come along and help you open a new door, if you will. You can get out of that long empty corridor to nothingness and keep moving. And sometimes, when the best kinds of people come into your life, they open up a path into their own maze. And your mazes join together, and they truly become a part of your life and you a part of theirs.

   But one of the best parts about it is that God is always watching over the process. He's going to make sure that our mazes don't end up completely in dead ends. He'll always provide a way through to keep moving on. He guides our choices, and those of our friends, family, coworkers, figures of authority, and all others with whom we interact, so that our lives can bring glory to Him. I guess it just changes the way I look at everyday situations.

  Well, I feel like I could continually write on this topic, but alas the time has come for me to wrap this up. It's getting long and I have a mother calling me to do housework. So, farewell for now. And please, let the comments, good and bad, pour in like a monsoon.