Month of Writing

Hello all.

I am dedicating next month as "Month of Writing." During said month I will be posting a blog about every other day on average. The reason behind this stems from last years traffic on my page. A year go, November 3rd, I stated to my audience that in this particular month, I was going to be, quote, "writing a bit less because I am studying." I turned out to write almost every day. I will make it a tradition to do such when this time of the year comes around.

I feel that I wrote as much as I did because it was the hardest and most stressful time of the year. When I am stressed or emotionally compromised, I write. I express. It's just what I do. So...now that you know, expect more writings for the INTERNATIONAL MONTH OF WRITING EXTRAVAGANZA. Peace.

Eric

Taken Care Of

About nine months back, I was let go from my job. It was a good job and I love it. It payed well and I had good benefits. For a while, I tried to get a job, then gave up. My walk with the Lord started to spiral out of control and I became consumed in myself and schoolwork. One thing remained constant. I served in my church. We began to grow and have our own building. I came early every week to help set-up, take-down, and even run visuals for video and slide work. I offered any time I had to make sure the church grew. We did service projects, I helped with video intros and editing their material. I even continued to do this when the hardest year of my school career was undergoing and I was also involved in an internship. This is not a bragging fest. Hear me out. One night a week back, I got an email from Steve, lead pastor at The Edge. He wanted to take me to dinner to talk about some church stuffs and even something for me. We ate dinner and Steve started talking. He said he had an opportunity for me to become a staff member in the church and get paid to do video and visuals at The Edge Church. I would be getting paid more than my old job and doing what I already do for free. Steve told me that he wouldn't have offered this to me if I wanted to get paid, it was the fact that I was doing it out of the willingness of my heart and to bless the church that I was being offered payment for my services. Last night I had a dinner with Tony Woodall, speaking pastor at The Edge. We began talking about my insecurities as a Husband and Father (of which I am neither, it was for discussion purposes). Tony told me a story that would knock you out. It was spurred from one verse. "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." The context of this verse is Jesus telling his disciples not to worry about what you eat or what you wear...the gentiles worry about these things. Seek the kingdom...and I will take care of you. It was right then that an explosion happened in my brain. THINK ABOUT THIS. I never realized it while it was happening, but because of my faithfulness with the church, and seeking the kingdom FIRST, because I was seeking the kingdom of God, He decided to bless me and take care of my needs. I now have a paid position at my church and it is the biggest answered prayer in a long time.

Seek the kingdom FIRST, and the other areas of life (money, food, clothing, shelter, employment, sickness, your walk with Christ) will be taken care of. Learn this now, not later.

for the full post, visit: here

Technology Sucks. Yeah, YOU HEARD ME!!

So, to type this blog post is to enter into irony, but whatever, I need to get it off my chest.

Technology SUCKS!

Story Time.
One day (today) a man named Erich was on his computer and decided he wanted to check out some youber tubers. He clicked onto youtube.com and started to sign in. The password wasn't accepted anymore as the Googles were trying to cut back on the amount of passwords going around and de-clutter everything. This perplexed Erichk. Erickk began to try and sign into his youber tuber account, as many important preferences and saved themes, not to mention all of his work via youtube, was on that channel he was so desperately trying to sign into.

So He went from one forum to the other, changing passwords, un-linking accounts, and other various unimportant things. At a certain moment in time, Erikh began to get pretty aggravated. Lets just say it was comparable to this: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Ol1S5Njfc) He began to cuss out the computer, which is rare, cause he loves his Macintoshes. His anger began to rise to a volcano like level. He began to get red in the face. He could feel it rising up within him. He was going to do something bad! Breathe......breathe.......breathe......He calms himself down. Takes a bathroom break. Comes back. Round 2. Erickhg searches for a contact email to tell youtuber about his problem. One does not exist. Immediately: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGQi8Rr-W_8)

Erickhhcc is now going completely mental and decides that he is just going to leave at the mercy of the incompetent and completely demented Googlers (who owns the youtubes if you didn't know) and go to his internship.

On the way, Arich thinks about his outbreak, which is rare for him to go nuts over anything, and came to a very interesting conclusion...

WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING?!?! That, to anyone watching, would have been completely dumb, idiotic and pointless. How stupid of me to be so emotional over technology. Was youtube going to cure cancers worldwide? Was youtube going to offer me a job?? Was youtube going to Help the Helpless?!? DID YOUTUBE DIE FOR MY SINS?!!?!?!!?!!?!?! NOOOOOOO!!

My freakout, because that is exactly what it was, told me just this: Technology, as cool as it is, should never rule you and your mind. This is what The Terminator taught me anyway. But seriously people, think about it: Why do we freakout when twitter goes down? Why is it when facebook goes under maintenance, or asks people about new changes, DO PEOPLE GO MONKEY BANANAS!?!?! Why is it that the iPhone 4 made people cry in their sleep? People, we cannot become so dependent on technology that it becomes our life. Let me say that again: we cannot become so dependent on technology that it becomes our life. There is a whole life out there people, open your beautiful eyes, breathe in through your very unique nostrils, feel with your one of a kind fingerprints, know that life is about more than what we own, or what is on the screen. People, there is a God who loves you, and if we detached from our computer screens, tv screens, cell phone screens for one second and take a look at a sunset, tell someone you love them, hug a friend, HIS LOVE WILL FILL YOU. Be blessed people.

100th Post.

Ladies and Gents. Boys and girls. Moms, Dad's, Grandfathers, and Grandmoms...

Welcome...to my 100th Blog Post.

I figured that I would want to throw some words on this page as it is my ONLY post is September. Times are tough people. Alright, super fast update...Chronologically...Ready...Set....GO!

Starting Internship, University classes begin, much reading, much papers, projects for my church (TheEdge), small group, Eating very good food, Talking to David Goodwin about the most epic weekend of my life, Going to Cincinnati, Renaissance festival, hoffbreau house, video games, more epic food, leaving ohio, internship, class, my birthday, internship, class, lazy weekend, lazy Sunday...NOT!!!, LAUNCH SUNDAY FOR OUR CHURCH!!, sleep 16 hours, more reading zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, more internship, whooooooooooo, David Goodwin gets engaged to Jenn Bosma!, more class + internship, more eating and sleepingzzzzzzzzzzzz, talks with David about coming back to Ohio for the Highland Games, Ester Peters gets engaged the same day that Jeremiah and Sarah get engaged, feelings of loneliness, hahaha, just kidding, more papers, small group, dinners, late night movies, aaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddd, in the internship office writing a blog, DONE!!!!

See that wasn't so hard, stop whining. You sound like a squirrel thats been punted. come on people.

So I'm in the office, and decided to write this blog, hope you're happy, ha. This weekend I embark BARK BARK BARK, on a crazy journey to the Omazing Ohio. There...many things will happen to me. David Goodwin, my newly engaged friend, will be embarking BARKING, with me on this journey into AWESOMENESS, or Jungle Jims, either one. Prepare yourself....for awesomeness. Seriously, if you haven't been to Jungle Jim's, get on that, whats wrong with you?

Anyway, this is the Fall edition of Leave Smarter, and you've just been filled in. BOOM!

The Broadtrip

The start of this BROadtrip was epically awesome. I will have pictures to back, but for now you will just have the imaginative words of my mouth for imagery. Boom.

So Dan and Tyler came and picked Corbin and myself up at my residence and on we went. It. Was. On. The highway was our...highway. Much tune-age was in progress and AWESOMENESS insued.

When we passed over the Mississippi River, we stopped and checked out the Riverside. Well. It was as boring as you might have thought, ha. There was a giant propeller, like on the big River Boats....that was about it.

We got back on the road and played a game where we stuck our heads out of the car for 5 miles. Just a heads up, awesome game.

Iowa is turning out to be a very, well, surprisingly "not boring" state. I totally thought it was going to be a "Nebraska" of roadtrips. Not the case, more of an...Iowa. Yeah.

So we mapped out a Motel 6 with an indoor pool but no breakfast. Yeah, we passed by it. Fail. So instead of going back, we just kept going and tried to find another place to stay. Turns out we hit jackpot with a hole called, "Rodeside Inn" that is the same price as Motel 6, only it has a breakfast. And it was around EVERYTHING. Yeah, we rock.

So now I'm off to eat that breakfast and rock it out until I burst, so we dont have to stop and fill up on eats. Mmmmm. Peace yall.

August = The End?

Since When did the Beginning of August mean that it's the End of Summer? You getting that feeling too? Man, it's like everything that I wanted to do never was accomplished? [sniff, sniff] It's like Jan1 all over again...[tear] Just kidding though. I got a lot done this summer, and so did God. Man that few months was rough. I almost turned away at one point. But He carried me out and provided me what I needed. He never left, like I somehow always knew.

STILL, I would have liked to read more, ran more, biked more, saw more friends, worked more, blah Blah BLAH. Summer motivation is sick and not getting much better, ha. Still, I am ready to get my internship going and my life on track. I am still not sure if I want life to begin, but I know God will be there and so will my outstanding friends. They are so righteous! I love them so much. One came to the U.S., one came from OH, MI, IN, etc. They are the best.

Still I have the most amazing times ahead of me, and I can't wait. This is what makes my summer GOLD. In a few days, my buddy that I counseled with at SpringHill Camps is coming out and I could be more SIKED!! I haven't seen him in over a couple years. Then it's off to MI or Michigan with my best friend for 7 days of doing whatever we want at a Cabin...Then it's over a week traveling to Colorado for a wedding with some of the best guys I have ever known: My flatmates from Calvin College. Right after the wedding is over, we roadtrip it back to IL where I get ready for my senior year at Aurora University...the next day, ha.

This summer has been more than I could imagine. More has gone on in it than I could possibly put into a self-aware blog. These are some words that sum summer up chronologically: disappointment, excitement, relief, relax, laptop, anticipation, motivation, bored, fun, work, money, aches, rest, camping, water, pain, healing, celebrations, trains, thoughts, revelations, and writing and church throughout. It's not over yet. Do life people. Peace.

Soon to Come

Hey everyone. Seemed like a good time to blog. I woke up today refreshed and ready to get the day going.
6 days ago, I went to a water park with my friend Corbin and sat in the lazy river for an hour and a half. Probably the worst decision I've made this year, easily. Because as soon as I came home, I realize the gravity of the situation. My entire front half was literally...beet red (you can check my twitter, I posted a picture.) The next few days would become some of the most painful experiences that I can describe. Night one felt like my skin restricted movement and I could move very well. Add that my skin was on fire and extremely sensitive, and that's Day one. Day two consisted of my skin itching. Im not talking about a mosquito bite itch, no. This was a full torso, bugs crawling beneath the layer of skin itch. It did not relent for the entire night and no relief was in sight. See, I couldn't itch it at all because it was a burn and would shoot pain through my nerve endings if I touched it. I couldn't fall asleep and just stayed awake for 6 hours. Day 3 was better. Day 4 was...interesting. So what happens when you have a layer of dead skin attached to your torso and you begin to sweat? Imagination grinding its gears? Well, imagine the sweat building up underneath that layer of skin and creating bubbles of sweat. Yeah. At one point in the night, I was wondering why my shirt had blotches of sweat on it, and realized that it was because the bubbles were popping and leaking sweat out. Yeah, about an 8 on the gross meter. Day 5 all that skin began to shed in sheets. yeah...not flakes. sheets. And that leads me to day 6. Today. Where the sensitivity is much lower, the pain is minimal, and the flaking is in full season. This is the tale of the burned. The lesson is learned, the color of my skin has turned and the medal of pain I have earned. Now I will begin to bask in the days I have yearned, the end of the hot, yet cold it is not. Fall. Soon to come.

busy

hey guys and gals. so iv’e been really busy lately. I have not had a whole lot of time to post anything. from working on a wedding video and editing it, potentially another video to work on, up-keeping a website for a crusade going on right now in Rwanda, doing 30 hours of landscaping in 4 days, and trying to be social…i have to be honest with you…cause your my friends………..i forgot about my blog completely. im not even taking the time to capitalize many things in THIS blog. i still love you all and care about you. truly i do. peace for now, and until i find more time and become superhuman…i bid you adieu.

eric