My Epic Journey

I am a big Kris Allen fan.  I was so glad that he won American Idol.

I recently came across the video and thought it good to pass along.  I love this song as well.

There are some things in life I fail to comprehend.

For instance, Simon Cowel on American Idol. Simon is easily pointed out as the toughest, cruelest, and meanest judge on the show. Every year I want to throw large inanimate objects at my TV when he says the following words “I’m not being mean, but…”

If you watch the show, then you know that the next words that come out of his mouth are somewhere along the lines of this:
“…that was the worst audition I’ve ever heard.”
“…you’re ugly.”
“…your voice sounds like the noise a cat jumping of the Empire State Building would make as it’s falling.”

Sad part is, that last quote is something he actually said on the show a few weeks back! Talk about harsh. Simon doesn’t like to think he’s mean–Instead he says that he’s “brutally honest.” Seems like someone’s just making up excuses to do what’s wrong instead doing what’s right.

Oh wait.

I do that all the time. Everyday, actually. I make up excuses for the things I do wrong–the sins I commit almost on purpose. Such as walking away from the clean dishwasher in the morning because “I’m late” or being mean to my brother because “he started it” or “he’s getting on my nerves.”

We all make excuses to work around our lifestyle. God gives us standards to live by, and when we don’t meet those standards we come up with excuses. Paul explains the need for perfection in Philippians 3: 7-14. To sum it up, he says that everything he thought was awesome or fine or so-so before is now junk. Nothing’s important but the love of Christ. Paul acknowledges that he’s nothing without Jesus, he needs him, and longs to become closer to him. To become closer to Jesus he strives to be perfect, yet realizes he’s never going to reach that goal. The less imperfect he becomes, the closer to God he gets. And that’s really all that matters.

If you know me, you know that I LOVE PAUL. Everything in the bible that Paul writes never ceases to amaze me. Especially this passage. It’s so wonderfully simple: give it all up to Jesus. It’s really hard to give up control, especially when it comes to things I don’t want to do (and thus, make up excuses NOT to do them). That being said, I’m confident, and know from other life experiences that when I do, everything changes for the better and my relationship with Christ grows.

Philippians 3 & 4 are my favorite, I encourage you to read them when you have the chance. And feedback is always fantastic. Thanks for reading!

Thanks to Debbie Jamieson, Anna and I along with four other EPIC leaders (Kelly Lewis, Leah Breakey, Taci Bleedorn and Angie Vallely) got the opportunity to get an early preview of the movie American Teen. 

Here is my review of the movie:

A MUST see for every parent of a middle school or high school student.  I consider myself fairly connected to the culture of students and even this movie shocked me to see it on the big screen.

Let me share with you why, as a parent, you should see this movie:

1. It will remind you of what is was like to walk the hallways of your school campus when you were a teen.
2. It will surprise you as to how, more hostile, students have become today.
3. It will, hopefully, give you a passion to sit down with your students and begin a conversation concerning labels and where they fit in with their peers.
4. It will help you construct a plan with your students as to how God wants them to love, unconditionally, those He brings in their path.

I was reminded of how hard it is to be a student and this culture is even more relentless.

Note:  I would NOT let your student see this movie without you previewing it first.  Due to the intensity of the setting, it is a lot for most students to handle.

Here is a review by the New York Times:

“American Teen” is populated by high school archetypes, kids who might have stepped out of the mists of your own adolescence or, if you’ve managed to suppress those memories, out of other teen movies, from the canonical works of John Hughes to, um, “Not Another Teen Movie.”

There is the blond popular girl, Megan Krizmanich, and her blond sidekick, Ali Wikalinska, young women who wield inordinate power over the social fates of their peers. There is Colin Clemens, the basketball star hoping to land a college scholarship and facing pressure at home from his ex-athlete dad. There is Hannah Bailey, the artsy misfit girl who dreams of becoming a filmmaker and who enters into a transgressive romance with a dimple-chinned athlete named Mitch Reinholt. And there is also Jake Tusing, a self-identified nerd with a bad haircut, serious acne and a heavy video-game habit.

They are all helpfully labeled on the film’s Web site — Princess, Jock, Rebel, Heartthrob and Geek — and then shoehorned into a series of senior-year narratives, each one turning on a predictable but nonetheless gripping question. Will the popular girl get her comeuppance, or see the error of her ways? Will the geek get a date for the prom? Will it work out between the arty girl and her mismatched beau? Will the team win the big game?

Not everything works out according to the teen movie formula. There are some odd developments and unexpected reversals — a trip to Tijuana, a breakup via text message — to complicate the anticipated narrative arc. There are moments of breathtaking cruelty, unguarded emotion and plain weirdness. And there are some genuinely scary turns, as when Hannah, brutally dumped by the boyfriend before Mitch, falls into a depression so severe that she can’t bring herself to go to school.

But the real twist is that all the characters in “American Teen” are real people, students in Warsaw, Ind.,

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