T brock

I just want to say that Tavaras is hilarious and awesome. Once he
decides on one girl, she will be very happy.

Christian Dating

I know people laugh when I write blogs about dating, mainly because I'm single. :) But c'mon, Jesus was single, Paul was single, well some say he might have been married at some point, but he was single when he wrote most of the New Testament.

So I was listening to Mark Driscoll's sermon on Christian Dating. He made a point that I find myself talking about a lot with people lately. Mainly to girls, listen, if a guy asks you on a date, it's a date, it is not marriage, it is not engagement, it is a DATE. It is only good for one night. If you go out, and hate it, don't go back out, and be honest and tell the guy no. Don't try an appease him, or don't try and feel like you have to go out a few times and think it will be like people describe beer to me, "keep drinking, you will end up liking it." No, I did not like the first one I had and I probably will not if I keep drinking it. We Christians takes dating WAY too serious. IT IS A DATE. If you are a girl, look at the bright side, this is a FREE MEAL! If the guys sucks, hey, you still get a free meal and you can check one guy off the list as NOT for you, you only have 48394839u548753 more :)

Girls, wait on a guy who will ask you out to your face or at least on the phone. Don't settle for a guy who asks you out on facebook, that's cheap. I probably offended a few people, sorry. Wait for a guy who has enough balls to take a chance and ask you out. A friend of mine recently got asked out by a guy at a bar. I watched it happen. I met the guy, he was clearly drunk. She walked away so excited about being asked out. I was like, WHAT! The guy was drunk. I told her that she was worth way more than that. She said that no guy had ever asked her out point blank. That is sad! Step up dudes and put it down. If you think the girl is worth it, sacrifice your pride, ask her out, if she says no, you can rest and know that, hey, you tried. Move on.

I think the main reason someone might be happy that a drunk guy ask them out is they really don't know their worth. If you are a believer, meaning you love Jesus, you should know that you are not just some girl, you are a child of the King of Kings, you are daughter of the ruler of the universe, and He thought enough of you to die for you. He knows you are worth something. You should too. Prove it to Him by waiting on a guy who loves Jesus, show you the love of Jesus by the way he treats and pursues you.

Dating in itself can be tough, that's why it is dating. :)

One thing I will say about San Diego, on a side note. There are so many things to do, Tavaras and I discussed that if you cannot come up with a cool date in San Diego, you have issues.

San Diego Pictures

San Diego and LA with T Brock

Tavaras is awesome, Stereotypes are not

A Personal God

So as I have stated, it is official, I am moving to San Diego. This is still a little surreal to me and nothing that I ever would have really planned. The neat thing is, God has always dealt with me in this really cool way. Any huge decision I have had to make, He always encourages me into it and just makes it so clear for me to know which way to go. You still 2nd guess a little because we lack so much faith, but then He always gives me this huge confirmation after the decisions are made, YES Justin, this is what I want for you, and I'll keep sending you things over and over to make sure you know. I really trust that when the time comes for me to spend some money on a rock and commit to one girl, it's going to be much the same way. Sure, Mary Addison will be in college, but you can still hope.

I started working my butt off this week, and put a lot of hours in. There is no such thing as a free lunch. I am going to be working so much out here, and I know that going into it. I have already had so many things just confirm that this is where God wants me to be. This is one of the biggest blessings I have ever gotten. It is definitely on the top 5. I sat down at dinner the other night with Tavaras and we prayed and for once in a LONG time, I think my prayer actually meant something to me. I thanked God for food, and for having good friends, and just His blessings. I think when God interacts with you and you know He is a personal God, it humbles you and you understand what a blessing we really have in Jesus, and our freedom etc. Everyday this week, I would find out just one more thing that would confirm the reason I am going so far across the country, completely on the other side of the US from my family and friends. God has something for me here, and He did a lot to get me here. I seriously could never have guessed in a million years that I would be in this place right now.

I am staying over this weekend to try and scope out some places to live. I never thought I would be thinking, "where should I live? ...on the beach....downtown....or maybe a little ways out..."...it's so crazy to drive around San Diego and really realize that I am moving. Tavaras and I took off from San Diego on Friday night to head up to LA to meet some of my college friends, Samantha Hoit, Ashlyn Bishop, Brandi Roe, and hopefully Brian Fellers if I can find him. We spent the day hiking Runyon Canyon. Talk about awesome! I did also confirm that brother do hike, T-Brock was seen there. We then set off to eat some good sushi down in Santa Monica with Samantha and Liz Lewis, another friend from college. Very good. Now T-Brock and I just checked into the hotel just north of LA and are going to meet the crew for some Tapas tonight in LA. We will head back down to San Diego tomorrow to scope out some more places to live.

I think I am only slightly beginning to understand what a blessing is and that we have it made as followers of Jesus, we have the God of the Universe who individually cares about us. Universe (One Spoken Sentence) Uni=one. Verse=spoken sentence. Pretty sweet.

Interestin' Day

Well, I woke up this morning and made my way with Tbrock to Columbia. We went to Chris and Kristie's shower, had fun, then headed from Columbia to Atlanta, well almost.

My tire blew out on the Rover and I found a surprise. I have no jack. So we waited a long time for some people to show up with a jack, needless to say we missed our flight and Tavaras' first voyage was canceled. We are booked for first thing tomorrow!

Diego Bound w/ T Bock

So I am heading out to San Diego for the week for work. I just found out yesterday that I was going and Tavaras got wind of it. He has the week off so he will join me for the week. Tavaras has never flown before and did confirm in his words that "brothers do fly." In many cases, Tavaras has made the point that there are "a lot of things that brothers don't do, like sky-dive, hike, swim with sea creatures etc." It was good confirmation from Tavaras that he will be okay with flying. This will be a good chance for me to visit the area and get a feel for it a little more and also to hang out with T-brock.

We fly out tomorrow evening so we can hit the zoo up this weekend :) Maybe Sea-world, I hope brothers go to the zoo or to see big animals.

This picture was taken at work, and for those of you who have seen the video, "it's business time."

San Diego Bound

It is official. I signed the offer letter today and I'm officially moving to San Diego, California for a few years. Thank-you to my friends out there that prayed for me while I made this decision. It's tough to leave everything you know, but after I went through everything, I realized it was good for me to jump out my zone for a few years and experience something new. I'll be moving as soon as an apartment gets set-up for me to move into. I am keeping my house in Tiger town, so don't worry, I'll be back!

Since the summer, I have wanted an Iphone. So to celebrate my new job, I reward myself with an iphone. I am going to try my best not to make this a tech idol, so far, I am trying not to love it. :)

I'll be back and forth to San Diego for the next few weeks, and then eventually move in a month or so. Keep in mind friends that San Diego has the the world's best zoo, Sea World, and lots of good beaches and places to eat. Tickets are cheap to fly out there, so I expect to see you all soon :)

Also, tomorrow is SAD day. Single Awareness Day, so if anyone wants to celebrate with me, do share. Otherwise, I'll probably hang out with Tavaras, not a girl, Rhett, not a girl, Eddie, not a girl, or some other person that is not a girl.

Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll has become one of my mentors and I don't really know the man. I don't know the man. He's a very good teacher. When your brain is primed, go watch this series on predestination. Watch all of them for that matter.

Mars Hill Church

Deal

I have now been in the bed for the 3rd day. It's amazing how much you learn to appreciate and be thankful for good health when you get sick. Some people are chronically ill and never get better, I cannot imagine.

I watched "Facing the Giants" tonight. The movie was quite amazing. It was funded by the church and everyone donated their time, talents, etc to make it happen. The movie does not have professional actors, as you will see, but it is such a good movie, you will quickly overlook. I had a few tears, I confess.

It's been a crazy past few weeks. How many books have been written on making decisions. It seems like everywhere you look, there is something written about it. I'm glad I have Jesus and although it is not always cookie cutter easy, He helps make things clearer. See, one thing I like about how God deals with me, is that, He knows I need things really really clear, because I'm really not that smart. Ray Comfort says that, in the Garden of Eden, God put Adam into deep sleep, the scripture never records waking him up. So it is possible that we men are still in some sort of weird sleep, this could help explain a lot.

Anyway, God knows that I need very clear paths, and even after clear paths, I need a little push. He has done all of that for me in the past few weeks and time will tell how this works out. I think we as Christians take ourselves too serious. I think God is so big that He could have us do 100 jobs and still be in His will.

He's not as concerned about our vocation as He is about our heart while we do it.

I thought today was Wednesday

It turns out it was Thursday all day. For some reason, I spent the day thinking it was Wednesday. I should have known because my favorite day is Jeans Friday. This is the special day at corporate America that you can wear jeans and be cool.

I wish I didn't struggle with this balance of my decisions and God's sovereignty. I guess if I really believed His Sovereign control, I would try to make wise decisions and ultimately believe that He would work all those things to good. Some people can just sit back and believe that God is going to make things happen. I believe that, to the point that I think He can put things in my life to make me get up and make things happen. Like, there is something out there that is mine, I have to go get it. Not in a selfish way, serving myself, but there is something He has out there for me to experience, I have to make moves to get there. It's really neat how we humans are, we tend to want to cling to people close to us when we go through seasons of decision. We listen a lot better during these times, we enjoy time spent with friends a little more, we eat a little slower.