I Will Blog...To Save My Family!

    I was just told that if I don't blog something soon, someone would, "Cut out your tongue and disembowel your family."

    Um...does this count? Please???

    Joking!!! JOKING. PLEASE DON'T HIRE SOMEONE TO CUT OUT MY TONGUE AND DISEMBOWEL MY FAMILY. I WILL POST SOMETHING WORTHWHILE SOON. I PROMISE.

    While we wait, here is a terrifying cake.

    I actually can't tell you how much I love everyone who bothers to read this blog. I haven't had much inspiration lately, but I have many almost finished products lying around that just need some love and attention. One of them will be posted soon. 

    I say soon because it is non-committal and vague. I suppose by "soon" I really mean, "You won't have to wait many more days or weeks or months for me to post something. You most likely will not have to wait more than a week."

    Stay frosty.

    P.S.
    I love you.

     

True Story

 
    I got home from work really late and it was a beautiful night, so I went into the backyard. Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and a small black box plopped right in front of me. Although it was steaming, it was cool to the touch. On it there was a screen and two buttons: one red, and one blue.

    Text flashed onto the screen. "Congratulations!" it said. "You are one of many random citizens of Earth from many different points in time to be selected for the opportunity of a life time! You may press one of the two buttons. The red will take you forward in time to a random destination, while the blue button will take you backwards in time to a random destination. Neither can..."

    Before it had a chance to finish it's instructions/warnings/blah blah blah's, I pressed both buttons simultaneously. I'm not sure why I did that. Curiosity, I suppose.

    Anyway, nothing happened for a few seconds, and then the machine started to shake. The words "TEMPORAL ERROR" started to flash across the screen, and the shaking grew stronger and stronger. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the box disappeared.

    However, floating a few feet above the spot it had appeared, a swirling, whirling, glowing, pulsing, throbbing, spinning, roundish orb...thing. It seemed to make the opposite of noise. It almost absorbed it, in a way.

    Then I realized that it was the noise from around me that had stopped. The animals had ceased their mating calls. The wind had stopped blowing. The grass and trees had stopped growing. It was as if all of nature knew something was terribly wrong, and was waiting with me to see what would happen.

    I stared at the orb thing for what seemed like hours until I realized that it was - ever so slowly - expanding. It was widening in all directions, and it's point of origin was only a few dozen feet from my house! I had no idea what would happen when it made contact with anything solid. So I decided to wait and see.

    I watched as it crept outward, inching it's way through space. It was like a perfectly spherical balloon.After another expanse of time (I have no idea how long, we'll get to that), the edge of it came in contact with the ground. Immediately, the grass burst into flame and incinerated right before my eyes.

    I ran inside and looked at the clocks, but to my shock and horror, they were stuck at the same time as when I had pressed both buttons down and the mysterious cube had disappeared. I sat down in my kitchen at the counter and thought. Hard. I ran through all of my ideas in what was probably a few minutes. Most of them involved throwing various objects at the sphere to see if it did anything to slow it down.

    I went and tested my theories. I threw socks, plates, crayons, pennies, sticks, DVDs, paper airplanes, and even baking soda directly into the vortex of nothingness. They were all incarcerated. All except the baking soda. Well, that burned as well, but it burned green. Maybe one of you science types can make something of it.

    Anyways, long story short: I think I accidentally the entirety of space and time. If you have any ideas about what I should do, send them my way.

 

Free Hugs

    Tomorrow, at 3:30 IN THE MORNING, I arrive at the MPLS airport. My destination? San Antonio, Texas, home of the Alamo, the Alamo Dome, and this years Lutheran National Youth Gathering. Tens of thousands of kids from across the United States will gather in one city to worship, learn about God, and serve the community together. It's going to be fantastic.

    I attended the last Youth Gathering in New Orleans. I was a little freshman who didn't know the next thing about socializing with my peers. The vast crowds of other teenagers intimidated me. Everywhere I looked there was either some beautiful girl or some weird looking guy I didn't want to know or some adult that looked out of place amongst the throng of youngsters.

                                                                                                image: thinksquad.net

It was like this, only with infinitely more hormones. 

    However, there was one stupid little trend that was happening that helped me come out of my shell and become the slightly more extroverted introvert that I am today. There were these guys with signs that said "Free Hugs." They were all over the place. Every day I'd see more and more of them.

    That's it. It wasn't some lesson by a famous speaker that inspired me to be more open to people. It wasn't some spiritual revelation, either. It was just these dudes with signs.

    I've always enjoyed a good hug, no matter who is giving it. For me, hugs are a way for people to say whatever I need to hear at the time, even if they have no idea that I am even struggling with something. Hugs are a universal way of saying, "I'm right here if you need me." Plus, they just feel really nice.

    I decided to make my own "Free Hugs" sign, because I lack originality and there were a lot of cute girls. That day, I got dozens of hugs from strangers from all walks of life. I quickly realized that this whole "interacting with strangers" thing wasn't nearly as horrifying as I had originally thought it might be. I didn't get as many hugs from cute girls as I had originally planned, but that selfish reasoning had fallen by the wayside. I was now in it for the feels. The feels you get when you make someone else feel happy. 

                                                            image: theturtlehairandprincess.com

"You aren't terrible, and I appreciate your existence."
"Aw! Thanks friend!"

    My cause did eventually become a contest between my female friend and I to see who could get the most hugs in a day. She won because she's a girl and guys are lame. However, I had decided that for the next Youth Gathering, things would be different. I would try to change people's lives in the way mine was changed during that wonderful week.

    Over the past few years I have obtained many close friends who like hugging nearly as much as I do. Most of my friends, male or female, have so much affection for one another that we don't care how stupid we look when we express it. My guy friends and I often start our conversations with, "I love you.", and it isn't awkward and no one goes, "Lol, gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay." It's just how we talk. We genuinely love each other. And we hug. All. The. Time.

    I really am blessed to have such wonderful friends, but some people don't have those kinds of supportive and caring relationships. Many people out there never, ever get hugged, and that makes me sad. Which is why I am making it my mission to go out of my way to hug people. I even made a t-shirt!

Front

Back

    Now, one of my friends raised a legitimate point. He told me that I'm not the first guy to come up with this idea of "Free Hugs". "No offense," he said, "but you know that girls find 'those' people to be annoying and creepy, and the real reason guys do that is because they just want to feel a girl..."

    Sadly, yes, there are a lot of those douchebags out there who only want hugs from cute girls. I already admitted that that is how I started out, and I totally feel embarrassed by it. And I realize that a lot of people will probably see me wearing the shirt and be put off by it. I'll get weird looks and raised chins, and many people will feel indignant towards me.

    And you know what? That's okay. If I make only ONE person's day?. I'll feel validated. If I change ONe person's life? It'll  be the best decision I ever made.

    If you really think about it, that's what Christians are called to do. We are called to share Christ's love no matter what people think of us. I will be surrounded on all sides by fellow Christians of the same denomination as me, and I'll still probably be looked down upon. Lutheran's, especially LCMS Lutherans, are not really known for their free-spiritedness.

    Now, this is where I ask you people out there to try my little love experiment. Whether you are on your way to the Youth Gathering, or are reading this after the fact, or, most likely, you are not involved with it whatsoever, I call on YOU to give a genuine hug today. And tomorrow. And forever.

    You don't need a nice little t-shirt to give hugs. Just do it. Do it because you care. Do it because you love people. Do it because hugs feel nice and everyone deserves to feel nice every once in awhile.

"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

                                                                          image: preciseisnice.blogspot.com