Retrospect 05'

2005 was a huge year for me. I look back over the course of the last three hundred and sixty some days, and I am amazed at life. It has brought cool new experiences, shocking truths, surreal circumstances, and a whole slew of other things.

Heres a quick rundown of the major happenings (not in any specific order):
1. I bought a house
2. I broke up with my girlfriend of two years
3. Brother gets engaged, brother gets married, brother and wife have a baby. I am an uncle, my mom is a grandma, my dad is a grandpa. Feels weird, but cool.
4. I leave Immanual Community Church, my church of five years, to be part of a core group for a new church plant.
5. I make Canyon Ridge Baptist (church plant mentioned above) my new church home.
6. My cousin in Cheyenne was shot and killed in a confrontation with police
7. Other stuff I don't even feel like writing about.

On top of those major things there were also a lot of minor things, like adjusting to the graduated life and work being a crazy but rewarding experience. I've met a ton of new people, and have experienced a ton of new things. I don't usually stress but I have stressed. I don't usually worry but I have worried. I don't usually cry but I have cried. Im not usually melodramatic but right now I am being melodramatic. I promise to stop very soon... I guess this is really the first year I've felt the pressure to act grown up. Things like making house payments and working the 8 to 5 just don't seem as natural as ditching class to go fishing and taking naps in the afternoon because I was up till 4 the morning before. I have nothing against maturity, I just never want to get the point where I do things just to do them. I know that probably sounds pretty vague but it makes perfect sense in my mind. God designed life to be an adventure, and I feel sad for people live only for the things they are required to do. I feel sad for the people who don't know God and don't understand what the true purpose to life is. I feel sad for the people who do know God and are so stuck in tradition and pre-defined thinking that they never get to experience the dynamic and aliveness of who He really is.

So, since Ive rambled so much, Im going to sum up what this year has taught me in two statements:
1. Life is not a constant, but life is GOOD. Good things happen, bad things happen, but God does not change. He is alive. He moves. He works. He changes hearts. He gives. He takes away. He wants us to be happy, but happy in Him. Look for happiness in Him and the rest will follow (and keep in mind happiness isn't always based on circumstances).
2. I'm as grown up as I want to be. If life requires more maturity than this, then I guess I will have to settle for lack thereof.

Coming soon: Prospect 06'