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MCMLXXXII… that would be 1982 in roman numerals, in case you were confused or just wondering…

in ‘82 i came into this world with little more than a few hairs on my head and even less knowledge in my 3 lb. brain (fyi… 3 pounds is the weight of the average human brain!)

you would think after 25 years i’d know a little more (maybe a lot more) than i actually do… regardless of how little or how much i think i know, there is plenty of life ahead of me and i hope and pray that i can soak it up and enjoy this life and live it for the right reasons… if i can just keep my focus where it should be focused and just show up each day and allow God to use me and shape me as He sees fit i will be just fine…

side note: i feel like the past few blogs i’ve posted haven’t made much sense, not sure why, but if they really don’t make sense than just know it’s not intentional, i’m just in a funk…

having said all that, i’ve been bored and felt like researching a few things about good ole ‘82, so without further guilding the lily and with no more ado here for your informational pleasure is nineteen eighty-two…

• the world population was roughly 4.6 billion
• the average life expectancy was 74 years
• Ronald Reagan was president
• the average household income was about $20,000
• gas prices averaged about $0.97 a gallon
• milk cost about $2.24 a gallon
• new houses averaged $83,000 in price
• new cars averaged about $8,000 in price
• first class stamps were $0.20
• the US went through a brief but severe recession
• the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series
• the 49ers won the Superbowl
• Rocky III, E.T., and Annie hit the theaters
• Michael Jackson’s Thriller toped the music charts
• AIDs was discovered
• MRI machines made their debut in Britain
• the first artificial heart was implated in a human
• the first execution by lethal injection was carried out in Texas
• the first Toyota Camry rolled off the assembly lines
• the Commodore 64 (old school computer) was released
• Time magazines “Man of the Year” award was given to a non human (they gave it to a computer)
• Ben Roethlisberger, Jessica Biel, Landon Donovan, Danica Patrick, Kelly Clarkson, Kirsten Dunst, Apolo Anton Ohno, Prince William, Ryan Cabrera, LeAnn Rimes, Andy Roddick, and of course myself were all born
• Keith Green, John Belushi, Will Lee (Mr. Hooper from Seasame Street) and a whole lot of people i don’t know passed away
• Sony releases the very first CD player
• Epcot Center in Disney World is first opened to the public
• the smiley a.k.a.  was born
• here’s a funny one… A man in the UK climbs over the fences of Buckingham Palace and reaches the window of the Queen where he sits and speaks the the queen, even asking for a cigarette before security takes him away
• wow, another great one… Larry Walters, a.k.a. Lawn Chair Larry, flies 16,000 feet above Long Beach, California in lawn chair with weather balloons attached
• the first Rubik’s Cube World Championship is held
• Cal Ripken starts the first game of what will eventually become his record-breaking consecutive games played streak of 2,632
• the Weather Channel airs on cable for the first time
• Wayne Gretzky scores his 77th goal of the NHL season, breaking the previous record of 76. He would go on to score 92 goals that season, which remains the record
• The Tylenol scare is sparked when 7 people in the Chicago area die after ingesting capsules laced with potassium cyanide

and a TON of other things happened… way more than even i want to read right now and i am way way bored (incase you couldn’t tell from this insanely long and mostly pointless post)

it’s after 4:00 finally… 2 more hours till freedom for the day… hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week… holla!

ct

i’m not here complaining or attacking any one person… i am stating something that is quite obvious to me and way too common among Christians… we are soo stinkin good at talkin the talk, but when it comes to taking action and living the life, we just never measure up…

now, i know that we all fall short and we are human and yada yada yada… i get that… but part of taking the name of Christ as your own (calling ourselves Christians…) we need to live a different life… we need to talk the talk and walk the walk as Jesus did… and yes, i know, i’m at fault here too, i can always always always do better, speak better, think better, LIVE better…

let’s put a focus on praying for each other today and onward, that we can truly live this life of difference and not just be full of all the right words…

k, i’m off my soapbox for now… back to work!

ct

33 “A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. 34 You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. 35 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.”
[matthew 12.33-35, NLT]

…that nothing–nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable–absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

[romans 8.38 & 39, the message]

that’s as good as it gets… this verse has just kept coming back to me for the past few days… had to share it…

ct

so i’ve had this itch to get out and start hiking/climbing/exploring, whatever you wanna call it, i want to get out and do it more… right now i don’t have anything at all that i could wear or use to go hiking or anything, i just haven’t had a chance to go in so many years i’ve had no reason to own anything… so i figured i’d start my “hiking/outdoors wish list” at the bottom and work my way up… so here we go, the Merrell Chameleon boots, they happen to be the same ones (or at least same company) that Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild uses… not sure if i want the navy or the grey ones, but i really want a good pair of hiking/multi terrain type shoes/boots and i’ve heard these things are awesome… hopefully i’ll be able to save up and get a pair of these and all the other necessities of hiking so that i can go out later this summer or early fall… anyway, that’s my latest want right now… gotta run

ct

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium…

i want this for my MacBook bad… real bad… lately i’ve had this itch to go into graphic design/marketing/advertising-ish career especially if i can do it for a church… i think it would just be fun to toy around with graphic/visual design stuff and call that my job… i dunno, but whether i go into that or not, i love graphic design and i’d still do it as a hobby…

i’m praying that i can save up the $$$$$$$ that i’ll need to get this and that it will work well and that i’ll learn to use all the really really awesome tools that it has in it and use it all to glorify God

gotta get back to work now we are picking up a bit

ct

why do we as Christians treat each other so crappy? that’s a retorical question because i know no single person can change that fact… it’s just the sad reality that we beat our own wounded…

i’m having a very bad day…

…pray

ct

Look around what could i do
This place is unfamiliar and new
So i try to look beyond what’s right in front of me
Hope to be found how could this be true
Comfort came and left in such a hurry
So then what’s on the other side of this tragedy

You wake up to find that you’re right where you’re supposed to be
Trapped in uncertainty each day’s a mystery
You wake up to find that you’re right where you’re supposed to be
The past is unveiled and you see you’re right where you’re meant to be

[Jadon Lavik, Meant To Be]

lately i’ve been randomly listening to music i don’t listen to much on iTunes when i’m sitting here at the computer playing spider solitaire and this song came on and really fit my post from earlier tonight so i figured i’d share it… good song for any hard time in life you may be facing… God’s got you right where He means for you to be…

i’ll try to post more often during this time of transition and let everyone know how i’m doing and all that’s going on and developing around me….

before i go for the night, our pastoral staff is having a meeting tomorrow for the better part of the day just planning and brainstorming, bouncing ideas off each other and so it would be really cool if anyone reading this tonight or in the morning or whenever would just pray for West Cabarrus church and the transition we are in as a church body there… a lot of awesome things are in store for us i’m sure, God works big, we just need to show up, be available and willing to be used to paint this masterpiece He has been painting…

goodnight!

ct

i’m sitting here in the Learning Center at my church [West Cabarrus] where we hold our Thurs. Night college gatherings on Thursday nights (the name makes sense huh?) and i’ve been thinking about the different seasons of change i’ve gone through in my life… i’ve been through plenty of typical ones… the ones you expect and are prepared to face, nothing out of the ordinary… but every once and a while one will sneak up on ya…

i’m facing one of those right now… seems like change comes and goes together too, at least the sneaky ones do… today at work [New Creation Christian Stores] we went public with our closing down of our Concord location, which happens to be the one i work at… we’ve known since last Friday (July 6, 2007) but we didn’t plan on making it official until today which we did… i had the day off so i wasn’t there to really interact with everyones first impressions, but i can imagine what they were like and i do work tomorrow and Saturday so i’m sure i’ll have my fair share of talking and explaining and interacting with customers then…

i’m really not sure where i’m going or what i’m going to do come August 31 which is our last day as a store, but i do know that trusting God is the one and only place i can go and hold on to and i’m 100% sure and confident that my God will take care of me as He always does and will place me right where He needs/wants me to be for the next season of my life… along with that huge change i’m facing several smaller ones which were and still are unexpected but good because God is at work and God is good! so that’s pretty simple logic for me… anyway, i’m out, need to finish setting up for our gathering tonight…

hope and pray that everyone has an amazing night and weekend…

ct