*Cue Monday Night Football Music

Garfield is great.

He loves lasagna. He loves to sleep. He is sarcastic. Plus, he hates mondays.

I also hate mondays.

Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for every day I am given. Wouldn't it be nice to skip mondays though?

Rise and shine. What a joke! I am not a morning person. I need 15 minutes of nothing when I wake up just to be able to carry on a conversation. How terrible is the one day of the week that follows to restful days? No one wants to go back to work.

I was once told of a guy who skipped every monday his senior year of high school. Give that man a klondike bar. One, because he's awesome. Two, because I don't really like klondike bars so it's ok to be short one.

I thoroughly enjoy espn's monday night football commercials. They always show the terrible things that we so often see on typical mondays, which sounds like a terrible commercial, but then they offer a slight ray of hope.

Monday Night Football.

Whoever had this idea was/is a genius.

The majority of people don't like mondays. Why not add football to the terrible day in an effort to make it better? Sure the matchups aren't always the best, but it's so awesome to be able to watch football while I study or finish up homework.

Did you notice the random 'it' in that last sentence?

"but it's so awesome..."

I once had an english teacher that hated the random it. She argued that a pronoun must have an antecedent, and that this pronoun was lacking in the area. I think that is stupid. I completely understand her point and that she must teach us rules of proper english. But isn't it more important to communicate than to use proper english?

My dad always told his speech professors that he was "a communicator, not a speaker." I am the same way. Before my speeches this semester I have been sure to remind my teacher of this fact.

The truth is that I like to speak in front of people. I love preaching. I love speaking to youth groups. I hate being graded on speeches. A "proper" speech does not connect with the audience the same way a good speaker does. A good speaker does his or her own thing to get on the audience's level.

I really hate being graded on speeches on mondays...

Homeful

So I'm at home right now.

But really I'm at my parents' house.

I have lived in 5 different towns, all of which had some kind of effect on me. I really don't know where I call home.

I've been told home is where the heart is. My heart goes out to places I have never even been. So how many homes am I allowed to claim?

In Joe Dirt, home is where you make it. I don't like to see homos naked, so I really don't know how that helps me.

I love to travel, and I rarely have trouble sleeping in new places. My senese of home comes from my relationships with people. I am very close with my family. I have close friends all over the country. I quickly create bonds with people I barely know.

Maybe God has a purpose for my sense of home. Maybe I'm not supposed to feel at home until I am with Him.

While I feel nomadic, I am not homeless. I have many homes, which makes me...homeful?

"My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young--a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah."
-Psalm 84 2-4

Welcome to the real world; or, perhaps more accurately, an introduction

"Welcome to the real world."

If you are not familiar with the phrase, I'll guess you're not a senior in high school yet.

Yes, I am in my second year of college, but this phrase began to haunt me my senior year. People started asking me if I was ready for the "real world." I had reached a point where everyone felt like they needed to offer me advice. It seemed like I had just been born. My previous 18 years had apparently been some sort of fictional existence only used to keep me from rebelling against the machines...

...or maybe that was a movie.

Either way, I was about to go off into the "real world."

Or so I was fooled to believe...

Not long after coming to college I was informed that college is what prepares people for the "real world."

I was baffled. Was I not there yet? How long would it be before I got there? I didn't like the idea of living in a false world...

So what is the real world? A hit series on MTV that I have never actually watched? The world once you have a family? Or a job? Is the real world a war zone? Is the real world based on the economy like everything else seems to be?

The truth I have found is...

This is it.

No, not this blog.

But the room you are sitting in reading this blog. The people in the surrounding rooms. The choices and decisions we make every day.

The fact that my psychology teacher has no idea how much an A would help my grade. The fact that the last test in the class will probably keep me from that A. The fact that I shouldn't care so much about my GPA because (get ready for a big hit) God can use people who don't have a formal education. (I know, mind-blowing right?)

The real world is when we build walls around God and throw a steeple on Him and say, "Here God you can give me chill bumps in here, but outside is mine."

The real world is that it's okay that I am using improper grammar.

The real world is love. Cheesy love. Free love. Love for all. His love.

The real world cannot be defined. or predicted. or conquered.

The real world belongs to Him.

We are the real world.

We belong to Him.

I did not brainstorm before writing this blog. I did not make an outline for this blog. I had no plan of action whatsoever for this blog. This blog just came from my mind racing and my fingers typing. That is how I want to blog.

I was just thinking, and I wanted my thoughts to go somewhere.

So maybe this blog is the real world.