YMCA

If you know me much at all, you know that I like to bend the rules sometimes, or not even follow them at all if I don't agree with them. Por ejemplo: making a U-turn when there's a "No U-turn" sign. Or, making a U-turn when there is a "No Left" sign, because a Left is not technically a U-turn.

When I moved to Richmond in 2005, I joined the downtown Y. They look at the previous years tax returns to determine how much I needed to pay per month, so I ended up with a super cheap monthly membership fee b/c in 2004 I was a student and I think I made a total of $100 (I substitute taught for 2 or 3 days nbd). The Y was all "Ian you are poor so we're not going to make you pay much" and I said "OK great I hope this lasts forever great thanks."

I now have a job and I make more than $100 a year. But!, the Y never asked me to re-evaluate my membership, and I never volunteered to let them know that my income has changed. Let a sleeping dog lie. I mean, don't punch a dead horse in the face. Wait, it has to be your dead horse.

But you see what I'm saying. I felt like I was workin' it w/ this membership thing, paying not much at all even tho if I were to join fresh as a new member, I'd have to pay more. Workin' it. Stickin' it to the man sort of.

But today!, I walked into the Y and the dude was all "ok Mr. Davis, looks like we'll have to re-evaluate your income situation" so my heart stopped for 3 minutes and I was all "hmm.... why should we go and do that?" - "b/c the time is up, time to re-evaluate. Please bring last year's tax statements."

So what am I going to do? Good thing I dabble in a little piece of software called MS Paint, and I've been taking MS Paint night classes from 5:30pm - 3am every day after work, so I'm going to use my 2004's tax return and just change all the 2004's to 2008's. It's a win-win...-win.

What is my goal? My goal is to pay even LESS than what I do now, to find some loophole in the system, or maybe even give them a coworker's bank account number instead of mine. Because this is what I do: I do my best to work the system.

Free Samples + Peace Not Anxiety

2 things have been on my mind today, and they are related I think.

1. I. love. free. samples. Today no kidding I went to UKrops, walking in the store fully intending to ravage the free samples, and I ate (count it) SEVEN pieces of sushi from the sushi sample plate. Seven, right in front of the Japanese sushi guy. It was so good and I feel great about it. Best decision of my life.
   
   
2. Speaking of decisions, another thought hit me. I am glad that my God is a God who works with peace and not anxiety, especially when his children make life decisions. So many times do I let anxiety dictate my steps and I end up making poor decisions. And I think, F that was dumb. But, I think it's perfectly fine to expect God's peace to accompany big decisions in life, for His peace to drive those decisions.

Point #2 is the main thing for this post, so I'm breaking off of the bullet thing nbd. More about the peace thing, so we have "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" from Colossians 3:15, which I think is a command more than anything. It's a command for us to truly let the peace of Christ rule inside of our hearts, our being, our thoughts. And the peace of Christ cannot co-exist simultaneously with anxiety. They cannot co-habitat. They would suck as roommates, even if they had a foosball table (I played foosball w/ my roommates in college 24/7).

And then we have another command: do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:6-7.

And I love this promise and I bank my life on it. However, it takes action from us in order to receive that peace. We are commanded to not worry about anything. That is on us.

So with all of that said, I fully expect God's peace to dictate my decisions, and to direct my steps. I hate HATE when people say "you know, maybe you just have this worry-thing going on in your life, this slight OCD where you over-analyze everything and anxiety gets the best of you sometimes, and you just have to walk with that as your crutch," because that is bullshit and God does not work like that. We're made in His image and Jesus doesn't have a worry problem. And I am happy to be called a child of God.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1.

Ps. one final thought, I love how scripture uses the word "lavish," just like God lavishes his grace on us: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding" Ephesians 1:7-8. When I think Lavish I think pouring down rain, where it completely covers us and we cannot escape it. It just keeps pouring down on us, and God's fully aware of it and it's very intentional (the "with all wisdom and understanding" part). I love that picture.

Today

In college a buddy of mine's parents told him as he dropped him off that the next four years would be the best years of his life.

And that made me feel so depressed. What about life after those four years? When I switched majors, I certainly didn't cram extra classes into the semesters in order to still make it under 4, because I saw it as an opportunity to make those "four best years of my life" into those "five best years of my life."

But

it

can't

be

so.

I cannot believe that life peaks when you go to college and after that it's like Crap, now it's just maintenance mode until I die b/c I had all the fun and excitement that I was going to have.

And I remember the first time I went back to visit campus. I stayed at my old apartment, and despair gripped me so tightly it took the breath out of me. Why am I not here anymore, I thought. Why am I not here with the close, deep community that I knew so well. Why am I now at a job that I loathe in a place that is not Blacksburg VA? It's been much better since that first visit whenever I go back, but it's still hard for some reason.

I just watched a NOOMA video where Rob Bell talks about this sort of thing, where if we're holding onto the way things were, then our arms aren't free to embrace today. He says that life is not static. Things change, friends come and go, people lose jobs, friends die, people get married, people don't get married, so on and so on. And that's the way it is.

He illustrated w/ the story of Jesus reappearing to Mary Magdalene after Jesus resurrects from the dead. This same Jesus drove out 7 demons from Mary's life, so you can imagine how excited Mary was to see him. She must have wanted for things to go back to the way they were.

But Jesus told her, "let go of me," and he tells her to tell everyone what happened. He gives her a role to play. He later gives his disciples the Holy Spirit and says Go, I will give you what you need in life with this Holy Spirit of mine, which is Myself.

So we are to receive this new Spirit, to receive whatever role Jesus is giving us, and we are to walk forward and embrace today.

Blackberries and Alligators

Sometimes I get annoyed when I'm talking to someone and they're playing with their iPhone or blackberry during the conversation. So instead of getting bummed out about it, I am going to start saying random things to see if they're paying attention.

"And then the alligator looked straight at me, and that is when I knew: today is the day I fight an alligator."

Love it when God interrupts me

God, what about A, B, C?!

"don't worry..."

OK OK thanks I won't.

...

But what about THIS?! Dahhhh!

"don't worry..."

But have you tho--"I said don't worry"

And that is my favorite part. When I keep asking/worrying and God finally starts interrupting me in my thoughts with a gentle, "do not worry, I told you, do not worry."

I'm glad he does that.

Switzerland Visit Day 7: Lucerne, Lion + Mirrors + Final Day

Last day in Lucerne. Woke up and had another good Swiss breakfast. Had 2 nutella-filled donuts this time. In heaven they will serve those.

Just up the road from our hotel there was this lion statue that is like the logo for Lucerne. Some war happened and this lion sketched in this wall of rock symbolized it in some way that I now forget. The lion was gigantic and had a spear in the side, and tears flowing from his eyes. It was majestic because I think both lions and horses are majestic.

Next to the lion there was a glacier museum which was pretty sweet. Back in the day Lucerne was covered by glaciers, so the museum contained remnants of these glaciers. Pretty amazing. They had these glacier potholes which were gigantic. There were also these super ancient artifacts. The common tool known as the "knife" has been around for a long, long time.

Towards the end of the museum, there was this room of mirrors. It was a maze that you had to go through. You have to walk 1 mph with your arms stretched out and if you're lucky you don't walk into 10 mirrors, and then get nauseous. They should have called it a "slice of hell."

After the museum we took the train that goes a million mph back to Gland. Trip to Lucerne = Success.

Switzerland Visit Day 6: Lucerne, Mt Pilatus - God Likes to Dazzle Us

Woke up and had some breakfast in the hotel which was amazing. Bread + nutella yes please. Donut w/ some nutella inside said donut, yes please. Also had some super tart grapefruit juice which was a good kick in the face. Loved it.

We took another excursion to Mt Pilatus, and the round trip involved 5 different modes of transportation: (1) boat to base of mountain, (2) super steep death train type thing to get to the top, (3) big container that goes on a line like that one episode of MacGyver, (4) mini version of #3, and (5) bus. (2) was my favorite b/c it was at a 48% angle and you look ahead of you at this track going straight up and you think this is my last day on this earth and you look to the right and see a drop-off and you again think, today I will see heaven because I am going to DIE. We did not die though. 48% angle by the way was the steepest in the entire universe said my Dad who did research.

So we made it to the top of Mt Pilatus and it was breath-taking. I think God makes these beautiful parts of the earth just to dazzle us (I think this idea is from To Own a Dragon by Don Miller, you should read it if you haven't). Mountains all around and there were these guys chillin' in little chairs with wings on them that were flying thru the air. I want to do that one day, maybe next week I don't know. But there they were flying around us, livin' the dream. Maybe the first time I go I'll go tandem with a professional, because I'm not sure if that's something you can just "feel out" when you get up in the air. Maybe you can.

At night we walked around the city, and I started to notice the swans. They are these huge gigantic birds and you can get real close to them but be careful b/c they're a little irritable. This made me want to mess with them some, to push their limits. I went pretty close to them but they did not attack my face thankfully.

At one point we heard some Ricola instruments playing and flocked immediately to the source of this beautiful sound. This group of Ricola players, Ricolists if you will, just gathered and started playing for passer-byers. I thought, yes I am officially for sure in Switzerland because this is what you do in Switzerland: start learning how to play Ricola at a very young age (3) and then become awesome at it and get together with other Ricolists and play for people in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Excellent day in Lucerne.