So Nate, where have you been?

I waited a whole week to post again... I did this for a few reasons.  One is that if you've recently found that I have a blog that you would be able to get caught up to date.  The second thing is that I've chosen a few times just not to blog even though I've accomplished those "three blogging requirements."  I'm trying to find out what it means to have my life in order and not to let any single aspect take over everything else.

Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to allowing you to go through a journey with me.  God has taught me more than I even realize over the past few years.  I'd like to share some of it with you and allow each of you to get into my life.

If you are new to my blog please read two of my more personal postings

1. hardest-thing-in-my-life

2. My eyes

These will allow you to get into my life and to better understand what God has allowed in my life.

I praise God for His faithfulness and I'm only sharing these things so that God receives all the glory and honor that is due to His Name.

Blogged with Flock

Everything for the Lord

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:23-24).  These verses have been in the front of my mind lately.  IWhat does it mean for me to "work for the Lord" when I'm driving to work and I'm running late?  How about when I'm driving on 743 and I'm stuck behind someone driving 45 in a 55 MPH zone?  Am I driving keeping in mind that I'm doing it for the Lord?   How about interacting with friends? What about hitting that snooze button just one more time...? Exercise?  Can I do that "unto the Lord"  Just a few things I'm pondering...

Blogged with Flock

Fireflies

Yesterday I went for a walk with one of my best friends. We saw somefireflies so I thought I'd find a few pictures for all of you to enjoy.

Kusama-Fireflies-sm.jpg

MillenniumBridge/fireflies.gif

Three blogging requirements

As you can see I've been pretty obsessed with blogging in the past week or so.  I've realized that I need to balance this along with the other parts of my life.  Therefore, I've come up with three things that I must do before I can blog.

1.  Completely caught up with Bible reading (I'm reading the Bible in a year)

2.  Have I "blogged" with God today?  ie did I journal on paper yet?

3.  Have I exercised and generally taken care of my physical body yet today?

This should help me keep life more balanced.  Any suggestions or comments?

Blogged with Flock

Financial philosophy of debt

I've officially fallen off the deep end. About a month and a half ago or so I cut up my last credit card and closed my line of credit. I decided that I am sick of being a slave to this debt monster. I have a 109.73 payment for my student loans. This is what I call "legitimate" debt or something that is worthwhile.

I've now learned (sometimes the hard way), that I must delay gratification of always getting what I want, when I want it. Therefore, if I don't have the money, then I'm not going to buy it.

Tonight I had three options. First, I could have gone to see a movie in the theater and spent $7.50. Second, I could have gone to dinner and spent at least 7 bucks. My third option, which I took, was to go to The Harbour and get a bottomless cup of coffee for 2 bucks and support my local business.

Graduate School

I'm going to wait until the spring to start grad school.  This will help me to be able to focus on learning my new job first.

Blogged with Flock

My "Third" place

My home and work are the first two places where I spend my time. During the past two years The Harbour Coffee Shop has been my third place.

What is a third place?  This site should help http://user.gru.net/domz/third.htm

I think for me The Harbour has provided a hub for me to meet people whom I would not normally interact with on a regular basis.  It has also enabled me to get away from my work and home.

Where is your "third place"?

Blogged with Flock

Return to Russia long term?

I spent three months in Russia during the summer of 2003. I believe God has given me a passion to love and serve the Russian teens. I'm not sure if this is for long-term, but I know I MUST go back. How long and when this will happen I'm not sure. I don't think that I will spend the rest of my life in Russia, but I'd like to spend another summer there.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of this trip. This is a picture of my friend Vova. When I went to Russia I knew that I needed to only bring the things that I was willing to leave. One of the biggest things I brought was my camera. I felt compelled to give this camera to Vova because I knew he could use it so much more than me.

More thoughts about Russia to follow.... Have questions? Please ask. :o)!

Coffee freak?

I truly enjoy an amazing cup of coffee. For me, it's not just the great taste I have acquired, but the wonderful conversations that I've had over a good cup of coffee. For example, through working as a barista during the past year, I've had many meaningful conversations while carefully creating an amazing beverage. For me, it's not just a cup of coffee, but rather it's an experience. It gave me great pleasure to know what drink my customer wanted before they even ask for it. Believe it or not, I have put my heart into most of the drinks I made over the last three months. I will miss not making coffee... but I'll be back.. that's a promise. Whether it's working for an independent shop, starting up my own shop, I know I'll be making incredible espresso again someday soon.... :o)!

Blog time with God

I've realized that it is crucial to have my time alone with God in order to truly become the man God wants me to be. Balancing my social, spiritual, mental, emotional and intellectual time is so important. These are so interconnected. I'm not sure which impacts the others the most, but it seems like when my connection with God is weak then my relationship with everyone else is impacted as well.

One of my goals is that before I start posting on this blog, I'm going to "blog with God" first.

The hardest thing in my life...

The hardest thing in my life happened in July 2002 when my brother committed suicide... Wow... That's one thing that God has used more than anything else in my entire life.

So what have I learned from this?

1. God allows things like this in our lives to cause us to be more conformed into His image.
2. This helps me to understand more about the pain that people have in their lives.
3. God has allowed this to happen so I can help others through difficult things.
4. Lord willing I will write a book someday

Please feel free to write or comment about this. If you've been impacted by this PLEASE email me. I'd be so happy to help!

Learning disability

In school it always took me longer to do things than the other kids in my class. I was in learning support throughout my schooling until I graduated from high school. The amazing thing is that in college it didn't even matter that I had this "disability" because God has enabled me to overcome it. Basically, the way I did this was to spend the time that it took to learn the information. Even though this was challenging, I know that God used it for His glory and I'm proud that He enabled me to get through college without even mentioning this problem to my professors. The only exception to this was the second semester I had biblical Greek. That was a tough thing for me and I just barely made it through. However, this was the only time in my whole undergraduate career that I even mentioned this.

For me, I think the thing that made a tremendous difference was that I did not use this weakness as an excuse for not being able to do something. I used it as a way to overcome a huge challenge not for my glory, but for God's.

Something most people don't know...

I only look out of one eye at a time. This is something that I've just lived with so I don't even know the difference. When I was a child I had three surgeries to try to fix the problem. Physically it's been fixed, but my brain didn't make the change. I don't have any depth perception, but again I've learned to live with it and I don't know the difference. I don't often talk about this, but this a way for each of you to find out more about me in a non threatening way. Feel free to ask any question that you have for me about this. I'm open to talk about it. You can either post a comment or ask me in person. Either way works for me.

Highlight of my week

My passion during the past three months has been coffee. I have tried to learn as much as I could about being the best barista I could be. Therefore, when I have an opportunity to drive out of my way to get that "amazing latte" I'm willing to do it. I knew that even though it might take me an extra hour or two that it would be worth it. It was!

I had heard so much about Murky Coffee that I knew I just had to go there. I felt like such a dork though because after I ordered my medium latte to stay I took a picture of the art that the barista drew on my latte. Let's just say it tasted amazing. It was so nice to truly be able to enjoy the latte since I'm a professed "coffee snob."

To blog or not to blog

To blog or not to blog that is the question...
The question I must ask myself is "Why am I blogging in the first place?" What is my purpose? If I'm honest I really don't know the answer to that. For now, this site will probably just be "Nate's random thought's." I think the conclusion I came up with tonight is that a blog should serve the blogger and hopefully some people would be able to enjoy the contents. Am I blogging for blogging sake? More random thoughts to follow...