Oh Jake.....

New name

by on May 25, 2008

I think that the original name for the blog was kinda…ghetto and cliche. I’m not good at picking cool names, and I realized that I was using the same emotion-provoking wording that I generally despise…So I redid it. The reference for this one is when you’re talking smack with someone and you get a comeback like… an hour later. That’s never any fun, but it illustrates the way I think (and therefore blog) perfectly well. I wonder how long I’ll keep this one!

Oh Jake.....

Even When We’re Ugly OR, Salad Out the Nose

by on May 24, 2008


So all day today, I’ve felt nauseous on and off again. I thought I was going to puke when I woke up nasty early for work, but didn’t. Then I thought that I might throw up while I was working, but lets be honest, I thought that was just an attitude thing. And truthfully, some people order the most disgusting coffee drinks ever, so I naturally gag at those. From work, which I got off later than I needed to, I went straight to class. I was less animated than usual, and very careful while I taught, the interns didn’t need a show of Jake vomiting. Anyways, I make it full circle, go home again, and take a long nap and wake up feeling amazing. I thought I had the flu, but now I’m thinking food poisoning. Not sure.

Anyways, my amazing friends Shane and Kirst invited a couple of friends and I out to dinner. Of course I had to go, I was feeling better and I don’t turn down a chance to spend time with these people! Besides that, they offered to pay, so why not!

Donnie Mack’s is a white-trash themed restaurant, but don’t let that fool you. The place is amazing. Very well put together with “lower-class” all-American paraphernalia that you should remember seeing as a kid. The menu is good too, they’re a gourmet burger place, with lots of great things to gorge yourself on then take a fat nap. In spite of this glorious food, I decided to take it easy on the stomach and just got a tuna salad.

The conversation was amazing, the salad was good, I managed to drink a soda too, and it was great! Shane and Kirst have the greatest kids ever! Bubba is all boy, and holds nothing back. He ran circles around the restaurant and even showed us all his crazy mad pitching skills while his little sister, Sissy screamed “Yay!” after praying, eating, drinking, songs ended, and anything else that caught her attention. She added a flourish to this exclamation with the hands clapping above her head. I was really enjoying myself, but then it was time to leave, and then it happened.

We were all going to our separate cars when I felt it. The salad was on its way back. I hid my face behind one of those concrete cylinders that the parking lot lights are anchored in, and let it fly about five or six times. Let me tell you something about puking salad up. It is messy. Lettuce wants to get caught on your teeth, your tongue, the back of your throat, everything in its path. When it couldn’t all fit out of my mouth, it came out the nose. Again, lettuce sticks to stuff.

Here’s how amazing my friends are though, they all kept their distance, but waited to make sure I was going to live. Shane was even willing to drive me home. Nice people.
When I was younger, and before I was a Christian, I was a partier. I was good at it too. And first, I’ll say that throwing up beer is easier than throwing up salad, but the people I drank with were never incredibly concerned about my well-being, especially when I was vomiting. I know I’m making a big deal out of this, but I just really felt loved on the drive home (fortunately, I live relatively close to the restaurant, so it was quick too). I smiled through a dirty mouth most of the way home.

God loves us when we’re ugly. When we’re hateful, angry, sinning, and stupid. Romans 5:8 says, ” But God demonstrates his own love for us in this While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

How much love is that? Like I said, when we’re ugly in our own sin, God still loves us. It’s amazing. I love God, and I’m grateful for the people that He’s put in my life.

P.S. I still feel great, I just threw up, that’s all!

Oh Jake.....

Fighting About Christian Culture

by on May 21, 2008

Dark blue jelly balls drifted in and out of pink slush, only to be caught up in the current underneath my straw. The newfound direction was straight up, into my teeth, where a massacre happened.

I tried bubble tea for the first time today. I met with a professor from school for really no reason at all. I just like him, had his number and texted him to see if he wanted to get coffee. I had my friend KC with me, she’s a lovely girl. Really funny, really open to listening. Along with one of her friends, we walked over to this really trendy (in the untrendy way- they served “Leninade” -c’mon!) coffee place next to a board shop and a tattoo parlor.

I was a teacher’s assistant for this particular teacher this semester, and more than anything we talked about Christianity. He claims to be a christian, emphatically with a little “c”. I don’t fully understand what he means by this. I think that sometimes he’s ashamed to be a Christian. He has no problem following Christ, but when it comes to certain elements of the culture that has developed around our faith, he’s not pleased. I wouldn’t argue with that sentiment. We make huge mistakes, like making a ruckus about the fat naked fish lady on the Starbucks cups. Would you rather see her, or be forced to read “How I see it, #936,384,123,” from some random guy that you don’t give a crap about? My curiosity gets the best of me, so I couldn’t not read those.
In the course of our conversation, my professor began making fun of Christian music, modern worship (he is a professor, so obviously, he’s old!), and a vast array of other things. He wants people to be a force for change in the world, but never likes the means that we take. Anyways, I was thinking about the facets to Christian Culture that I don’t like, such as song rewrites. The blog, “Stuff Christians like” does a great job with that topic. Then I thought a little longer and decided that there are elements to my friends and family that I don’t like. What’s the difference?

I have family members who are functioning alcoholics. I do what I can to be there for those people when they make themselves sick, or to pick them up, sometimes even yell at them. It doesn’t matter though. I still love them. They’re family.

Why don’t we look at our Christian culture that way? Yes, there are dumb songs out there. There are bands that should be kicked off the air quite frankly, because they’re ridiculous! The same is true for secular media too. We have our idiots like the rest of the world has theirs. We can make fun of them like we do secular musicians, actors, artists, etc. Why not? Just adopt it and live with it, if you really are bothered by it, work on changing it. I think that it’s a mild undertone that is working on going trendy to dislike Christian culture even though you claim the faith. It annoys me, even though I admitedly don’t like ALL of it either. Nobody’s perfect, and neither is any culture.

1 148 149 150 151 152 154