Nashville had a snow day

Well, Nashville had another apocalyptic snow day yesterday. I’m sorry if you were in Nashville or nearby and had to deal with this traffic:
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I was determined to stay home, although how long do you have to be in one place before it’s officially called cabin fever? I had only been home since mid-afternoon Thursday and I’m only slightly exaggerating when I started looking like Jack Nicholson from The Shining.
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But all in all, we had a fun day. My dogs and I romped in the yard, chased frisbees, wore our Christmas presents…

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Asia chased her frisbee, something she’ll do no matter the weather.


I wore my new pea coat I got for Christmas from my parents and I gotta tell ya, I will forever wonder what life was like before I had this coat. It’s so warm. It’s so classy. I just need to figure out how to use the pockets. They’re still sewn up, I think??

Before the cold day came to a close, I managed to get the car out of the driveway and down the semi-steep and icy road and I went dancing. Nothing will warm you up on a cold day like dancing with your friends.

Stay warm and stay cool!

-Out of the Wilderness

Nature’s lesson on: Gun safety

I’m starting this post off with a little information about roadkill, but hang with me because it’s relevant to the topic of gun safety.

So there isn’t a centralized datasource on what the most common roadkill is, but according to this map deer, possum, raccoon, squirrel, and armadillo are up near the top. On the interstate, I’d guess deer as the most common.

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What don’t we see on this map? Any sort of bird, and the one I want to focus on here is the crow, or vulture (because on the interstate specifically, these are the birds most commonly seen).

crowMy theory is that the reason we never see dead crows on the side of the interstate is because they’ve learned what to do and not to do, not by avoiding the interstate altogether, but the exact opposite. Hanging around and becoming comfortable and aware of the danger. Familiarity.

I think this kind of behavior can be applied to gun safety as well. The more you’re around these weapons, learning about them, shooting them, the more comfortable and aware you’ll be of their danger. Familiarity. To avoid them altogether is like a deer approaching the interstate. Unaware, uninformed, unfamiliar with the danger and risk.

The example of the crow can be applied to other areas of life as well. I’m thinking about sex education (the more you know, the better decisions you can make). Instead of ignoring the topic completely, talk about it, discuss it, become familiar with what sex is and isn’t.

Sports. The more you’re immersed in a sport, the more you’ll know, maybe the better you’ll be at playing. If you avoided watching football, reading about it, hearing about it on TV or radio, how familiar will you be about it? Not very.

There are all kinds of real-life applications of the crow on the interstate story.

There is no mystery to the crow about the interstate because where there is mystery, there is mistake. And I can’t recall seeing any dead crows (or vultures) on any interstate I’ve ever travelled on. They don’t make mistakes.

For gun safety, become familiar with them and in that way, you’ll be aware, informed and avoid the mystery that can often times lead to mistakes.
sigsauer-Out of the Wilderness

 

And my theme for 2017 is……

I don’t always have a theme for the year, but when I do, it’s awesome.

So last month, December 26th to be exact, I was paddle boarding in the Gulf of Mexico on a 4-mile round-trip excursion. It wasn’t exactly dangerous per se, although it was in the ocean and it was rough and there are sharks typically lurking nearby.

I’m also trying to sound really cool right now. Did it work? Anyway, I absolutely love being out on the paddle board, especially in the ocean simply for the mystery of what’s underneath me. For example, I saw all this just the day before:



Paddle boarding doesn’t scare me. I’ll do it as much as I can. But this theme I’ll be using all year came to me when I thought about what I was doing. Paddle boarding in windy, blustery conditions with a current going against me, and at any second having the possibility of falling into the ocean. I thought to myself, “Try everything.”

It may sound corny or too ambitious or too vague, but I don’t mind that because this year I want to do all the things I love, and then remember to “try everything” even when something comes up that scares me. That’s the plan!

So far I’ve used it twice. Being somewhat of a loner, I went to a New Year’s Eve party where I only knew a few people. The next day I went out to lunch after church instead of going home. So that one time going out to eat after church already surpasses how many times I did that last year after church.

Adventure. Growth. Daring.

Try Everything.

-Out of the Wilderness

Top 3 Christmas songs of 2016

Lights coming off the house. Decorations packed and moved back to the attic. Not a machine open at Planet Fitness. That’s right, another Christmas season has come and gone. It’s already January 3rd, for Heaven’s sake! It goes too fast, right? It seems like just yesterday people were black Friday fighting in Wal-Mart and now when I walk in, they’re back to their normal 37 closed registers and two cashiers. Where does the time go, friends?

Well, besides the mayhem that often accompanies every black Friday, there’s a lot of great music that hits the radio on that day, as well. I’m not ashamed to say I listen to Christmas music year-round, but still, something about the listening to the holiday songs during the actual holiday season makes it even more enjoyable. So what were your favorite Christmas songs this year?

A handful stood out to me so I’ve ranked them in order for you. If you’ve not heard these yet, I hope you enjoy and add them to your list for next year!

3. Phil Wickham “The First Noel”

2. TobyMac “Bring On The Holidays”

1. Band of Merrymakers “Gather Round”

Happy 2017!

-Out of the Wilderness

 

…yet He was compassionate.

In the Bible today, I read Psalm 78, the number reminding me of the year I was born, 1978. The chapter, although maybe not familiar, covers an idea or a pattern that is familiar to you if you’ve every heard any stories about God’s people in the Old Testament.

Basically their story goes like this: They screw up over and over. Then they screw up some more. Just when you think they’ve got it under control, they screw up. Here and there they get it right, but then they mess things up again.

So this particular chapter in Psalm rehashes some of the history there. How God reaches down to rescue them from slavery, deliver them from enemies, the parting of the Red Sea, He feeds them, gives them water to drink from rocks, basically takes care of them. They are thankful for a second, then guess what happens next? They screw up!

They get to wondering where God is, why He isn’t helping them, doubting His ability to help them when they think they need it most even though He literally brought water from a rock. Or food from angels. Or split a giant sea.

So then I get to verse 38. “Yet He was compassionate…” It jumps out at me. After all the doubt and what I would call disappointing behavior, God has compassion.

I find so much encouragement there! Gosh, He’s so much better than me. He is amazing for relenting on His anger, for having patience with people that have such short memories. He must’ve felt like He was walking on egg shells with them! But hello, only a couple of chapters before it says, “Your arrows flashed back and forth. The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; lightning lit up the sky.” So I don’t think God recognizes egg shells anyway.

He will do what He wants, when He wants. And let’s be grateful a lot of times that includes having compassion! My prayer today is that He will yet be compassionate. In all our messiness, in the moments I choose anything other than trust, Lord, I beg you to have compassion on us, on me, and love us still!

Happy December!

-Out of the Wilderness