Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Today was just a normal day during this Polar Vortex. But I was literally overwhelmed by love today, and I can't even say the love was FOR me. There is a lot going on at my home church at the moment, and its really taking a toll on people. As we come to terms with what is going on, a group is standing up to take lead, and also pray for our task at hand. It is sooo wonderful to see the youth take a part of this. Its not just our leaders, but our young students as well! To see the potential these students and being able to watch them grow is truly an honor. I know this may cause a few to stumble and possibly begin to make people question their faith..  But I also believe this will cause a "Movement" in the students to help them see the potential I (and many of our other leaders) see in them! They will be able to rely on God and lead others. And ultimately, thats the goal right? To pour into others. To have students pour into their peers and start something amazing. God moves in big ways, but sometimes we are so zoomed into whats happening around us that we just need to step back and have a new perspective. Good or bad, God knows EXACTLY what He is doing.

What we WANT may not be what we NEED. So, lets just sit back and let God do the driving (and if you are a backseat driver, do me a favor and relax. Its pretty nice to not worry about everything.)


Random last thought; be kind to anyone you meet today, you never who needs it or what that random act of kinds did for them. I'm not saying go give someone a million dollars or hug a complete stranger. But a nice smile, or a small "pay it forward" could do wonders for people.


Blessings!


P.S. Sorry my thoughts are everywhere, I should probably do an outline on a piece of paper before I actually start typing..

Once again, The Fighting Irish win...

Once again, not the most philosophical post ever, but today Bluetree and Nathan Jess lead church in worship. It was so moving.. To feel Gods presence and see everyone come together as one church body all loving God and praising His name. Although most Sundays involve me going home and unwinding I was able to hangout with Hannah and Marissa. Charlie even joined us for a bit of pizza and fun. Did you know its apparently outrageous that at my age I have never seen the Princess Bride? So, That happened today... Kristin had us over to her house to play games with the Irish folk again.. Listen, we may be super legit in the Olympics, but when it comes to board games, pingpong and outrageous word games, the Irish have us beat.. HONESTLY. WHAT IS THAT?! On the plus side, Hannah finally made a come back for us Americans and beat them at "Boxers or Briefs." Regardless, we had a great time and even though we are on totally different spectrums I feel like I can say I met some new people that I call friends. And thats what its all about isn't it? We aren't meant to deal with the daily struggles of this world alone.. God didn't create us to do that. He wants us to lay our burdens upon him. Matthew 11:30 says "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." The dictionary defines yoke as " a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to pull." Jesus wants us to share our burden with Him. By that exact definition of yoke, they use two animals TOGETHER to pull the load so it doesn't stress out one, and the workload is a lot easier. Doesn't that just sound better than doing it all on our own? How much can man (or woman) really help us? We are flawed people with the ability to lie, deceive, and hurt others. Not saying that we don't have other great attributes as well, but I like knowing that I have someone I can count on to not let me down or hurt me (more on that later.) I love my friends and I love all you strangers out there that find this blog.

Thanks  for hanging tough with me!
Blessings.

P.S. below are the links for Nathan Jess and Bluetree again :) Really, take a listen.
P.S.S. Ruzzle is a fun game that I found out I can beat them at, nbd.




Nathan Jess's main page
Nathan Jess's Facebook


Bluetree's Facebook
Bluetree main page

The fighting Irish; The Northern Irish win!

Although my title is "Phallon's Philosophy," who says I have to be philosophical ALL the time? My friend Marissa thinks I have interesting stories which is why she helped me come to the conclusion that I should INFACT blog. I'd like to think she did a pretty good job at setting all this fancy stuff up.
Anywho, today God blessed me with a pretty freaking wonderful day! Bluetree (an Irish Christian band) and Nathan Jess (also an Irish Christian musician) came to our church to worship with us! Seeing as I have some pretty great friends, I was able to spend the day getting to listen to sound the sound check, play ping-pong (which America was not exactly represented well, considering we lost BOTH times we played against the Irish folk. Which is why this post has its title ) and just really enjoy getting to know these guys. Apparently, something about me seems to scream "please pick on me, I am extremely gullible," so with these guys being down to earth, and me being awkwardly strange (and gullible), it was basically inevitable to have anything but good laughs. I have come to the conclusion that I am going to fly to Ireland just to buy scarves because Nathan Jess was wearing a pretty wicked scarf and tomorrow he is going to wear a different one just to continue to rub it in my face that his scarves are better than mine.. But don't worry, while I'm there I will go on adventures. So, although that story probably wasn't the funniest, it isn't philosophical, and you are probably regretting reading this.. Check out these great musicians. They also have some GREAT ministries they are part of! The links are posted below, and I mean WAAAYYY below. Enjoy the pictures! :)

Just for the heck of it; Ladies and Gents, its time to realize our extreme potential to change the world. God has blessed us all with wonderful gifts :) Lets utilize them! <<just to keep going with this philosophy stuff..


Thanks all!

Truly blessed to have spent the day with this wonderful group of people!! 

Praise God. Worshiping together, even when weather conditions are not the best! 

Not exactly sure what was going on with my face... 

Bluetree's Facebook

Bluetree's official website 

Nathan Jess's official website

Nathan Jess's Facebook

If all you ever really do is the best you can

I'm no blogger... Well, I wasn't until just now. I'm not exactly the most creative person in the world. I usually just do a spin-off of some other piece of art I've seen, which ends up being something completely new because 1. I tried to recreate it and ruined it and 2. because everyones "brush stroke" is different. I guess that makes sense when it comes to art and life. Everyone has their own special things that they love or that they are good at. Not everyone knows what that is right away, you could spend all your life trying to figure it out. But while you are doing that, don't let the fact that everyone else knows what theirs is, keep you from being happy and living your life. I spent a lot of time feeling like I missed some sort of "bandwagon" that all of my other friends seemed to have taken part in. People still think I'm odd because I don't partake in drinking, drugs or sex. But its just not for me, and  I won't lie, its hard to not doubt yourself or want to give in, but lets be honest, the instant you forget who you are, stop standing up for what you believe in, or forget about your morals in general that nasty feeling you often get in your gut is always worse than that initial feeling of being "different." I just think that doing whatever it is that makes you happy should be enough. Who says you have to go out and be like everyone else? I mean, your friends liked you for who you were originally, right? And if they are your real friends they will continue to like you and respect you. If they don't, then maybe in the end figuring that out would be exactly what you needed. Don't let someone or something stop you from being you and accomplishing what you want.

If all you ever really do is the best you can, then you did it. What more could you or anyone else ask for?


Thats it for my first post, blessings to all!
 Lets see whats next!