Altared Perception

The other day, my coworker's wife brought their two dogs into work. The older dog they call Grandpa, even though he's a mere 3 years old. Grandpa is a brown mutt, but incredibly well-trained. The other dog is a 5-month old Golden Retriever named Pickle. Pickle and Grandpa live in the same house, have the same masters, and eat the same food. But one very big thing sets them apart. Pickle is a Paws with a Cause dog. Paws with a Cause If you're not familiar with Paws with a Cause , they're an awesome organization. Their mission is to "[enhance] the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities nationally through custom-trained Assistance Dogs." They provide service dogs for people with physical disabilities, hearing impairment, seizure disorders, and some children with autism. Lots of people want a Paws dog for help, and the organization partners with lots of volunteers to raise them. They are called Foster Puppy Raisers , and they gi

It's been about 3 years since I last posted...and a lot has happened since then. I started dating a good friend, and we got married 6 months later. Besides adjusting to marriage, I finished an engineering degree and have settled into my job! And my wife and I have moved twice on top of that. We also lost 3 loved ones in the last 3 months. Lots of life. Lots of death. Lots of change. Now that the dust is settling, I find myself thinking about potential blog posts again. So I'm going to jump on board the blog scene once more! Stay tuned for new posts, and God bless!

Over the last three months, I've had four loved ones pass away. Three were family members, and the other was my dear friend Lyman. I love my family members who passed away, but I was probably closest to Lyman. We met every two or three weeks, and we would talk about...well...anything. Lyman and I had many conversations. There is something cool about talking to someone almost 70 years older than you. You learn about how the world used to be. How culture has changed. How events shaped people. I learned a lot from Lyman. But there's one thing I learned from Lyman that I think is more important than anything else: hope. plastic hope I've realized something about hope. We, as First World, modern Christians, have forgotten how to hope. We hope the Tigers make the World Series. We hope traffic isn't backed up. We hope that lottery ticket will pay out. We hope the flu shot will keep us healthy. We hope...or maybe we are just crossing our fingers. Perhaps we

One of my favorite animated movies is called "The Emperor's New Groove". Its humor is very dry and witty, and while I don't care for David Spade's voice acting, he can't possibly spoil the movie for me. It's a classic. The movie follows Emperor Kuzco, an arrogant ruler who cares about nothing but himself. He quickly established his self-preoccupation in the opening scene , dancing in the limelight and basking in all praise people give him. In the middle of his dance routine, he accidentally moon walks into an old man, and has him tossed out the window for "throwing off his groove." He is self-absorbed, and is willing to dispose of anyone who gets in his way. (Don't worry, the old man ends up being fine...except for a little psychosis...)   I have to admit, there's a groove I try to get into. The one where your heads in the game, and you know how to win. You are aware of what you need to do, and you know exactly how to get i

Sometimes relationships don't work out. Sometimes we're ok with that. And sometimes those breakups are hard to deal with. Sometimes we feel devastated, or humiliated, or frustrated, or bitter, or depressed. I wonder if these feelings would be easier to deal with if we took a moment to step back and ask this question: What is the goal of dating? It's a reasonable question right? But I don't think many people--even Christians--have given enough thought to it. I would guess most Christians would say the goal of dating is marriage. If dating leads to marriage, success. If dating ends in breakup, then the relationship failed. We just have to remind ourselves that sometimes it doesn't work out, it wasn't God's will, and we'll meet the right person in his perfect timing.  Maybe another person will come along who will blow us away. Or there's always eHarmony... Soon enough we'll start another relationship. And hopefully that one will e

I am a Christian. I have worshiped with other Christians my whole life. You'd think we'd all have it down. But God help us, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we know what the gospel is. Sometimes we live and bask in it. Sometimes we let it set us free. And sometimes we don't. One area many Christians struggle to surrender to the Gospel is sexuality. Let me give you an example. Growing up, I always heard that sex was dirty. We don't joke about it. We don't think about it. And by golly, we don't do it--at least before marriage. It was simple, really. The goal was purity . I was told to remain a virgin until my wedding night. And there were two underlying assumptions behind this: 1) If you save yourself for marriage, sex will be awesome. 2) If you defile your purity before marriage, you are dirty and worthless. Regarding the first assumption, let's just be honest. Any married person will tell you sex is not easy. It's compli