Why would I ever want anything to be routine?

I keep telling people lately, "things are really busy, it will be nice when my new position at work settles, BCM gets into the regular stuff, and I get all the little things I've been meaning to get done, done." WHAT!!!??? What have I been thinking? Why would I ever want things to "settle" into a "regular" routine? The routine of things is exactly what I get tired of in my life. I apologize if I have said any of these things to you. I realize that some people say that it is good to get into a routine of some kind. Sometimes with lets say a "quiet time" or reading your Bible, you know for consistency. But I say that nothing should ever ever be a routine, not even and especially reading your Bible or spending time with our Lord. Gosh I hope that everyone can see what I'm saying and know that I'm really just preaching to myself and thinking "Jon why have you thought that a routine would make you happy?" If things were to settle down at work then I would just get really bored. If things with BCM would get back into the "regular stuff" then we would be saying, "God we don't want you to do new and exciting things in our ministry we like the same regular stuff." And will I ever get every little thing done that I need to get done? NO. Because there is always more. I'm not being pessimistic just logical. There will always be more to do, always. And you know what? That is ok with me.
Thank you Lord that my life isn't boring and thank you that things are never the same day after day. Please never allow my time with You to become routine.

Jon

Clarinet at the BCM?????

Let it be known in all the land!!!! I am now posting once again. Clarinet? In my home? What? How could I have let this happen..... Well when you live in the Student Center anyone and everyone can come to your house and study or watch TV or..... Yes it is now true PLAY the clarinet! She is playing her clarinet right now. At least she will admit that she's just learning and that she's not that good. SQUEEKKKKKK ... There she goes again... Well I think shies getting better at least. Well I have a long shift at work today . Not that any shift at work for me is hard. I work at a book store. What could be easier. Well except being an ice cream taster. I bet that would be pretty fun. Unless I had to taste really strange flavors. I still have to say that about the best job out there would have to be...... hummmm.... yep it's official ... Ice cream tasting astronaut yes that is definatly the best job ever.. well it's time for work.... bye.
Jon

And then God created naps!

Man my weekend has been...Nonstop, well except for this 45 minute section on Friday when I got to pack to leave town. Get this I got to... Sit yes that's right you may not believe me but it is true... I sat down. Please don't tell anyone because this may wash out everything that everyone I know thinks about me.
Here's how the weekend went. Thursday I went to band practice and afterwards we installed a video projector in the ceiling. This was a very interesting project that involved putting a foot long hole in the ceiling. Not by accident either. Any way it took until 4:00am only to end in finding out that we were misinformed about how far away from the wall the projector should be. Never believe anyone when it involves putting a foot long hole in the ceiling, even if he has a fancy little device that calculates how far away it should be from the screen!

Thursday: in bed 4:00am
Friday : breakfast w/Mike 6:30am
work 8:00am-3:00pm
sat down 10 minutes
left for Alabama 5:00pm
did concert 10:00pm
bed time 2:30am
Saturday :left for Foley 8:30am
Ashley's B-day 10:30ish
Times ashley's
mom hinted
towards hooking
up with Ashley : (Not able to calculate) LoL sorry I had to!
Left Foley 3:30pm
Work 4:30pm-9:30
cleaned up BCM 10:00-2:00ish
Sunday worship service 11:00am

And that my friends is why God created the NAP!!!

Suffering for the Lord?

I was recently given the opportunity to join a group of international students from the University of West Florida on a trip to Disney World in Orlando. I was completely open to going to Disney World all expenses paid for the weekend (suffering for the Lord) but I was a bit uncomfortable with the fact that they couldn’t speak my language very well and I didn’t speak their language at all. I gave in, and looked past my fears and American laziness to discover that God didn’t care who I was but about whom he was and what He can be if I make my selfish self available. I found out that I went on this trip to learn some new things that God wanted to show me about my walk with Him. God arranged an appointment for me to share my faith with one of my roommates, Pippen. I didn’t even have to try to start the conversation. The young guy, from Taiwan, picked up the Gideon Bible from the nightstand and asked me if I read the Bible. Completely surprised, I pulled out my Bible from my bag and thought; I can’t believe I almost forgot my Bible the night before. Since every Gideon Bible has John 3:16 near the contents section in many languages, I had him read the verse in Chinese and then I broke it down for him in English. He was very interested and asked many questions, but wasn’t to the point that he saw the big picture enough to want to accept Christ. One of the things he was interested in that evening was prayer and I did my best to explain to him what prayer was to me. The next day God decided to do something I didn’t expect. I call it a spiritual punch in the face, or a wake up call. Pippen asked me if I had prayed that morning yet. I thought, Prayed! What! It was 6:30 in the morning! I’m a college student and I never get up that early so why would I have prayed already! I heard the old Batman and Robin sound effects going off in my head. BAMM!! POWW!! My brain wasn’t even working yet, but I mustered up all the Christianized lines I could think of. I came out with, no I haven’t, but I will be throughout the day. Wow! Good save, I thought. But what did I accomplish by getting myself out of just saying, “No I forgot”. God was saying to me, Jon where were you this morning? Punch! Jab! Ouch God, that hurt! But that’s one of the reasons I went on this trip. I was allowed to go on a fun filled trip to Disney World, so that God could speak to me through a person that doesn’t know Him, and hardly speaks my language. I thank the Lord today for a spiritual punch in the face, and I hope there are many more to come.

OOL See there's no P in our POOL

And let's keep it that way too. I am going back to work at the pool. Wow I can't believe I'm saying this. You might be saying.... Hey what's the deal so you work at an indoor swimming pool as a lifeguard and you look at girls in swim suits. What could be hard about that ? And the answer is nothing, absolutely nothing. Except..... Old ladies in swim suits.... That's right wrinkles and all. I hope you all get a visual picture right now so that I don't have to suffer alone. Why do I work at a place like this you may be asking yourself. It's the money! They pay really well. So I find that I would rather suffer at the pool than flip burgers or wait tables. That is my rant story of the hour so just soak it in.

An Amazing Weekend!

Wow! I never thought I would ever be riding in a bus for ten hours straight with 33 other people, of whom two actually spoke understandable English. This was an experience. I volunteered to go to Orlando, all expenses paid, with a group of international students here in the USA to learn English. I was so nervous. Yeah I wanted to tell them about Jesus but I was so nervous. I mean they would probably talk about me in their language the entire time and I would just have to smile, laugh, and grin like the village idiot that I sometimes can be. Well It ended up being a great experience. They were so easy to get along with, and they always have questions about some of the most simple things in life. Of course I did not regret this trip at all. This trip got me out of a lot of comfort zones that I never really new I had. I do have to ask my self would I have been willing to go if I had to make more of a sacrifice? I mean come on free trip to Disney..... I'm not exactly suffering here. And I was only missing one day at work so no loss there. So to make a long blog slightly longer but conclusive. Wow thank Lord For opening doors to experiences that I never knew were out there.