Chris’ World

I’ve been going to church all my life. As a teenager, I spent most of my free time volunteering in some form or fashion. I lived at church. After I got married I drifted away and spent a good few years being bitter about who knows what at this point. My family and I casually returned to a different church and went there for a while before taking another break. We did this at another large church here in town and it also resulted in a period of non-attendance.

Not too long ago my wife started attending MOPS over at Castle Hills First Baptist, an older, but still quite large church here in San Antonio. After seeing how much the kids enjoyed it, we decided to start attending weekend services there. This was just a few weeks ago. I had been enjoying the new church, just as I had in the past, up until this past weekend. This past Sunday was different.

The message was about obedience and disobedience and the rewards you will reap for being obedient to God versus the curses you will receive for being disobedient. I could tell there was something going on that was different, something I hadn’t experienced in a long time. At the end of the service, there was an altar call to pray for the nation, our state, our city, and our communities and I felt led to go up there. When I hit my knees, a flood of emotion came over me like I’ve never experienced before. I could tell that God was speaking to me. He was telling me that it was time to let him back in control.

You see, I’m a fairly independent person. I’ve always felt confident that I could resolve any issue that came up or fix any problem. This isn’t how God wants us to live. He wants us to trust him to resolve our issues and our problems and I’ve spent the last 6 years hardening my heart against letting God have any say so in my life. It took 6 years to get there and only an hour for him to wipe that away.

I’m not big on discussing feelings and emotions so it’s a miracle that I’m willing to share this with anyone, but I’ve felt different since Sunday. I’m still stressed about the things I was stressed about, but I don’t feel like the burden is mine alone. It’s going to take a while to shift gears from “I can do all things through myself” to “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, but I’m confident I can get back to that and let God really use me for something great.

Life in General

Let me preface this post by saying that I haven’t seen Watchmen yet and I probably won’t see it until it hits DVD. That is the life of a parent of young children. That being said, I got an email this week to let me know about the upcoming release of WATCHMEN: Tales of the Black Freighter, an animated short film that tells the story within a story of The Black Freighter. The 2 disc set, which is dropping for DVD and BluRay, also features Under the Hood, a live action/CGI flim that tells a the story of Nite Owl’s first-hand account of how the hooded adventurers came into existence.

I’m not a big comic/graphic novel guy so I’m not all too familiar with the Watchmen, but I’ve got a copy of this movie on pre-order and I’m hoping it inspires me to check out the Watchmen movie.

For more information or to order a copy of Tales of the Black Freighter, you can check out Amazon’s product listing.

Full Disclosure: I’m helping promote this for one of the PR firms that I work with. I’m genuinely interested in this flick, but I don’t want anyone thinking my blog is on the take.

Entertainment bluray, dvd, watchmen

Carpe Diem is a phrase that many of us equate with the 1989 release of Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams. Williams uses the phrase to inspire a group of young students and leads them on a journey that has the boys awaken to their true potential. While that  is great and all you may be wondering what the relevance or significance is for that today?

I guess that all depends on your frame of mind. If you are content to float along, blissfully unaware of your own mortality, then the phrase is just something used as a motivation tool for young people. If, however, you consider the fates of people taken from this world far too early, then it may carry a much greater meaning. A co-worker of mine, one who started on the same day as me, tragically passed away in a car accident earlier this week. He was 27. Also consider the fate of Natasha Richardson, the wife of actor Liam Neeson, a 45 year old successful woman who tragically passed away after a minor fall on a beginner ski slope.

Carpe Diem, sieze the day.

Now re-consider the significance of the phrase. At the ripe age of 28 I’ve often taken for granted the idea that I’ll live a long and healthy life. I’m sure those that passed away unexpectedly this week shared that same sentiment, but there were other plans that kept that from coming true. Will that happen to me as well? Only God truly knows that, but how would you live your life differently if you knew you had 35 years on this earth versus 75?

Should the length of your stay change the way in which you live? I can’t say for sure, but my gut tells me the answer should be no. Whether you make it to 22 or 102, shouldn’t we be treating every day as a special and valuable time to embrace life and live it to it’s fullest? I think so.

Far too often we get caught up in the minor details of the world and forget what really is important. It’s so easy to lose sight of this when life is going well, but I think it’s something we should all consider on a regular basis.

Are you seizing the day?

Life in General carpe diem