DStilled

My Grill is Mackin’

January 27, 2006 on 4:15 pm | In Blog | 21 Comments

“Hello and welcome to Macaroni Grill. Is this either of your first times here? My name is Daniel and I’ll be your server. Let me write that down for you. Have you had a chance to look at our featured items? Can I start you of with a Mushroom Ravioli or some of our house wine?” I say something like that at nearly every table that I come up to working at Macaroni Grill. I was certified yesterday to officially start waiting tables (and getting tips!). I get to dress up, wear a tie, and smile a lot. I haven’t quite figured out if I’m still in the “blue collar” world or not.

After a record setting Comment section last post, I’m glad some of you took my advice and participated. However, it was pretty much the same people commenting. You Virginia people should step it up and get in the game.

I have been slacking in my reading lately due to my studying of Mac Grill knowledge and it has been saddening me. Now that my schedule will be a little more regular and less pressured, I will be able to catch up. Especially on my read the Bible through stuff.

William and I went to a place here in Lex called Whatsa Futon? and the guy working there has these snakes as pets. They are all non venomous boas and pythons so they were pretty cool. As long as you don’t mess with their faces they will leave you alone. But I got to pick them all up and experience the coolness. He also has a giant scorpion that I won’t touch. Snakes I can do, but yikes! on scorpions.

Many of you may know that I like to travel. I have been to 38 of the 50 states pretty much all on my own accord in a car. Money willing (and God has all the money), I will go to every continent and do missions work. I love Google Earth, star-gazing, and anything astronomical. But the new way for me to discover things is through Discovery HD Theatre. Ryan (the guy I live with this semester) got HD cable for his HD TV and it is boggling. They set it all up at a middle school science level and really blow you away with the visuals. NOVA on PBS was always amazing, but Disc HD is blowing its socks off. Some of you may know that I don’t like TV. The primary purpose of a TV set is to watch movies. Well, programs like these are developing a caveat for my premise.

God Days

January 9, 2006 on 5:15 pm | In Blog | 35 Comments

It has come to my attention that some people do not understand how to use the Comments portion of this website. If you click on “Comments” then a small pop up window will show you who wrote what comment and when. If you would like to add a comment, simply start typing; it’s pretty easy to use. Oh and BTW, there is now a new Lex and UVa picture gallery.

Christmas was great. My siblings and I chose to sponsor another family so those kids could have Christmas presents. I got a blanket, an LL Bean bag, clothes, and a great candle. Being home was kind of weird at first and even now I’m still not exactly used to it. I’m living not at home anymore but at Ann and Ryan Frith’s house. They have an extra room and bathroom for me so the deal worked out well. Once again, Jehovah Jirah, the Lord provides.

Now the news. I’ve been busy/gone for a while now and today was the first day in a while that had a sense of normality. On December the 27, I packed up and drove to Charlottesville to spend the night. I showed up at the AFC (UVa gym) in hope of wireless and ended up shorting around on the basketball court. Kelly Scott happened to be there and offered me a place to sleep (instead of my car). Then next morning I rolled out to Arlington, VA, to the Crystal Gateway Marriot where Christmas Conference was being held.

Campus Crusade for Christ every year puts up a regional conference and Virginia’s lies right outside of DC. There were a few hundred people there to worship, learn, reenergize, and enjoy some sweet fellowship. There were about 30 of us students from UVa there for the week. Tommy Nelson led most of the talks in the conference. He spoke on how man must have God to be a true human. (Luke 10) He told us that the answer to “Who is my neighbor?” is anyone in need. “If Jesus can wash feet (John 13), I can ______.” Be a servant. (Luke 15) He spoke of how we love it when animals or stuff is found, but God rejoices when people are found. “When you rebel against God, you rebel against reality.” (Luke 16) And he spoke about the shrewd manager and how we must live so passionately that money becomes our servant used for eternal things. Use money to take care of people’s needs and to make friends.

It was great to see lots of people that I won’t see in a while as kinda my swan song from UVa. I’ll still keep in contact with some of them and I know I’ll make a visit sometime down the line. As I noted in the last entry (see Archives), I will miss them greatly. The last night there was New Year’s Eve and we prayed out 2005 and praised in 2006. The greatest moment was when someone mentioned that 2006 might be the year that Jesus comes back in all His glory!!

The next day I drove back to Lex and slept. I woke up, went to my church, and hopped on a bus headed toward Nashville for Passion Conference 2006. 18,000 people descended upon the Gaylord Center in the heart of Nashville for one of the most inspiring and rockin’ events in the world. David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, and Matt Redman led music during the sessions while Louie Giglio, John Piper, and Beth Moore gave the talks. The theme of the Passion movement is found in Isaiah 26:8 which says, “Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.” John Piper is famous for an idea called Christian Hedonism which basically means that God is all about God, all about His glory, and the way we can give Him the most glory is to be most satisfied in Him. Desiring God is his breakout book that describes these ideas more fully.

Giglio spoke on making God our satisfaction the first night. “Who gets the glory where I am satisfied?” “Our satisfaction and God’s glory are the same thing.” He then extended a fantastic metaphor from Jeremiah 2 about the well of living water. We have forsaken the well-spring of life and dug other dry wells for satisfaction. All we get is dirty. “Just put down the shovel.” The other two talks Louie made were on how BIG God is and how tiny we are, and we need to live our daily lives fusing secular and “sacred” in a way that what we do and our careers are done to the glory of God.

Piper talked about grace and suffering. “The universe/all of creation exists to display the greatness of the glory of His grace and that grace is shown most supremely through the suffering of His Son on the Calvary road.” He also spoke on how we will join Jesus in suffering to the glory of God’s grace. “Christianity being true causes us to choose pain and suffering.” “Christ’s suffering was for propitiation, our suffering is for propagation.” When Beth Moore spoke, she spoke on reaping and sowing. “Be deliberate for what you want your life to be about.” Don’t sow haphazardly because the present has profound consequences. “If we eat the seed – we will be full and it will taste good – but do not sow it into our reality, we won’t be changed.”

Passion is a conference designed to reenergize college students for a heart for their campuses. It was impossible not to be hyped for God at least once during the week and I know God gave me some nuggets to chew on as well. I’ve committed to reading the Bible through this year cover to cover. I hope to go to seminary this fall so I’ve bumped up the pace to reading it through in 8 months. It is still only 10 pages a day! If you’ve never read the Bible through, I would highly recommend joining me on the journey with Him.

Now I’m back in Lex and the settling down has begun. I hope to have a job secured by the end of this week and in the mean time I’ll be reading, hanging out, and sleeping. Last Saturday, a bunch of us went out to Sam’s granddad’s land and shot guns at a computer, a VCR, and some other fun targets. He was very safe with us all and did a great job at leading it. I spent about twice as much time with the bow and arrow simply because I found it to be much more fun and cool. Guns are powerful (thus destruction can be cool), but I’d prefer them be completely outlawed. I did shoot each type of gun (semi-auto handgun, revolver, and civilian assault rifle) once for the experience. There are two movies as well as pictures from this past Sat in the Lex gallery!