February 2012
1 post
Life Gets Better
I was out last night getting drinks with Mike (you know him as MasstaaMike) and we were talking about how we’ve know each other since we were both 7. Coming up on 15 years. Mike is one of my oldest friends and I took something away from our conversation last night… we couldn’t help but realize something. Life. Gets. Better.
Wanted to keep that with me so much that I made a...
January 2012
1 post
September 2011
1 post
Two Weeks Left
… and the dangerous summer is over.
And then begins… a new season.
August 2011
22 posts
MANsion Reunion
I can’t be too long. I need to get back to the campfire.
I just wanted to share you all what it’s like to fall in love with your friends. Two of these guys are married. One is engaged. A few more like me are single. Some of them are heading to countries far away. Some call home somewhere on the California coast. Right now though, this is home. This is the stuff money can’t buy...
One Day You'll Fall In Love...
It just won’t be what you think.
You’ll be driving over the border between Arizona and California asking yourself why you’re alone only to realize every city you pass through, you have a group of friends who gave up a bit of themselves to watch you grow. You’ll realize that the highways aren’t the only thing that stitched together these towns but that there are...
P&P The Forum: Afterward
There’s much I want to write on regarding last night but I think this is the most important.
I feel blessed to have been there, with all of the MANsion guys. I think we all took a little something away from last night.
A huge thank you to the love dungeon. We love you guys.
More coming in soon.
P&P: The Forum Prelude
Before this all goes down I feel like I need to say this:
I have many reason to be bitter… but those are far outweighed by an uncountable amount of reasons to have joy.
Joy isn’t conditional. It’s not countable. But to some of you, it has connotation. Tonight, you need to turn off your entitlement. I’ll keep on my open mind… even if you don’t. My season is...
Philippe is getting everyone together for this...
I’m learning now that peace isn’t about winning the war…
It’s about fighting for the right side.
“I’ll be coming home and when I feel those butterflies I’ll see that I need to find a better way just to believe you’re gone; so long. Some day I’ll find the strength to move on.”
Where Did You Go?
3 of 3
“Let’s go back down to the bank of that river where we can dive right in and forget about the worries and the world outside. You know my world; my world is not over because I have angel on my shoulder”
Violet
Violet I met earlier tonight. I challenged her to front flip one of the water slides with me in the back yard. We cut open our fingers and backs doing it. But smiles were found in the end
Violet I have heard about since the beginning of the dangerous summers. She gave Chelsea a home when no one else would. I asked Chelsea if this was the same Violet I had met tonight. She is.
Violet is...
Making Peace with Finding Love
“When you’re in heaven, I won’t know what you’ll look like, but I will know who you are”
Allison
Allison is an old friend. I met her a few thanksgivings ago with her boyfriend Danny.
Allison is allowing me to sit in on a conversation between her and Chelsea. Their conversation is real. They are clearing the air. Their honesty is refreshing. I have never witnessed two people working so hard to find peace. These two girls really love each other. They are in tears over the pain that has been...
Parker
Parker was kind enough to open his house to myself, my sister Chelsea and one of my best friends, Justin. He has thrown us a party in full Tucson fashion. This time the back yard of his house has been converted into an inflatable water park.
Parker is a few drinks in. He is a bit silly but he pursues you. He loves the people around him. He isn’t foolish with his relationships. I watch him...
Q&A
The questions friends both new and old are all asking tonight… “Where, and what is home.”
Everyone here is looking for something. Even my phone continues to fall in and out of service…
And it reminds me, We are all “Searching…”
“Oh that just got me thinking about this feeling that I can’t describe because as I try to get this all out I realized Im not better off at all.”
“I’ve come to this conclusion that I was foolish when I thought that if I just put my trust in coming home that I’d be better off”
Holiday
2 of 3
“…in a second let me tell you about this feeling I can’t describe because as I tried to get this all out, I realized I’m not better off at all…”
“You’ve got me walking through the back door hoping that I’ll find you sitting there. You know I will find you somehow, and I better be well prepared…”
Better Be Prepared
There are 3 songs by Valencia that keep playing through my head.
Let me introduce you to the first:
“I’m making my way to cities and towns just trying loose myself in skylines and forget that I lost my mind when I could hold her and now that I feel all the weight on my shoulders I fall…”
A Generation
I’ll make this quick because right now, Michael Stock is out in the backyard making bacon wrapped hot dogs with Jeff Pauls…
It’s a really beautiful sight though. This idea that The MANsion would truly be about being men after God’s own heart. Jeff is the oldest member of The MANsion and Stock is the youngest. They met for the first time yesterday. Immediately they clicked....
Finale
This weekend, I will return to Tucson, AZ.
If you can pray for me, please do. I don’t know what I will find there.
One thing is clear, this is the beginning of the end. This summer will be the last dangerous summer…
July 2011
6 posts
An Open Letter
Dear Mark Driscoll,
I want to start this by saying I don’t know who you are. I see one liner quotes that supposedly belong to you retweeted/posted/quoted by my friends. It is quite annoying.
I googled you and I couldn’t find any information pertaining to Jesus… I just found a lot of web pages with your name followed by words that end in -ology.
I don’t know what to...
Dangerous in Encinitas
We are here in Encinitas, CA. We, just happens to be myself, Jaclyn Devi Smith and Sean Robert Berkshire. And we are joined by Sean’s cousin Nick. And… Well, there’s just something about being with your friends. On the beach. Listening to blink182. Telling stories. I can’t help but be reminded of a blessing that I have yet to fully understand. My Friends.
This is the...
Everyone Left
I was talking with a close friend last night. You can learn something about yourself by having good conversations with the people you love. Right now, at this rate, this song is perfect.
Are they slipping through? All of those messages I sent. I will cart across to every city and their states. When you hardly have a heart but you need it just to break. When I haven’t let my guard down; just...
June 2011
3 posts
4
If your life. If all your plans. If everything you had hoped for had fallen apart and you had to come back home. Your friends. Gone. Your Bank. Empty. Your Body. Fatigued. Your Spirit. Broken. Your Faith. Shaken…
Would you be ready for the next adventure?
If your life was for something bigger. If you didn’t rely on your plans. If your hope was beyond yourself you can see home wants...
9 Days: Count down to Dangerous
I woke up this morning in The Villa, my Families compound in Chula Vista, CA. The compound is modeled after old hispanic architectures an sports earth tones, arches, french influenced doors and spanish influenced lighting. It’s a stones throw from Mexico but here it feels like we’re already over the border. In a good way.
The day was well spent on Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, CA....
10 Days: Count down to Dangerous
Last night I got into San Diego around 11pm and checked into a hotel by the beach in Encinitas with Michael Hiney and a couple other friends… and this morning I woke up around 5:30am and went down to Moonlight beach. The surf was incredible. The sun was looking for somewhere to poke out from but the coast line is socked in. We’ll probably get some sun later today.
A couple days ago I...
May 2011
8 posts
Story always goes opposition opposed
Now they’re after my life
Everyone tellin’ me to get right
Not Good Enough for the church girls
Not Bad Enough for the world girls
No place for me so I stay out of sight
Then the pages turn and words reveal
A Dangerous Life you can’t conceal
Bring me nothing and I still have something
Bigger than Nations or Generations
Worth turning on the...
Mike to the Front
Mike Thorne (known better by the alias MasstaaMike) is one of my long time friends. We’ve known each other since the 2nd Grade and ever since I’ve known Mike as the friend who’d could look at anything and find a smile in it. Last month Mike started a blog, MiketotheFront. While I periodically check in with his blog as I have with all my friends, I took some time tonight to go...
My God, My Savior doesn’t sit idly by in the sky. He takes a stand in the sand with me. He delivers me from deserts. When the clouds come in and the tide is cold, I just have to remember I’ve been given a dangerous life…
April 2011
1 post
Game Changer
Christ is Crucified and death is conquered.
The only King who could clear his people’s debt. Done.
Everything changes; but this changes everything.
And here we are…
March 2011
1 post
I Have Hope
If I have hope, it’s that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, “Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.”
- Donal Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
February 2011
6 posts
25 Stories
I used to blog about music. A lot. I guess it made sense. I was in a band. My friends were in bands. We listened to music. It meant a lot to us. It meant a lot to me. I wish music felt like it did. I think one day it will.
I was going through my iTunes library tonight a visited a playlist I haven’t sat down with in a long time. Top 25 Most Played. I rebuilt my Mac just a month before I...
The Projects
One of my resolutions this year was to blog more about what I’m doing on the computer hardware side of things at home. I live with 5 of my friends and we’re pretty blessed to have people in and out of this place non-stop. I decided last year to create an enterainment setup that would invite with excitement and cater with class. This is a work in progress. A project. I don’t think...
Stupid Joke
When un-installing a dictator, remember these helpful tips:
Remove all .plist files at the user and system levels.
Remove frameworks that other applications are not dependent on.
Clean up frameworks that are resources to other applications.
Restore ACLs and Permissions to a healthy set with global awareness.
Check your ports to ensure no back doors are open. Inspect all service’s...
Half Empty. Half Full
Every girl that you ask out on a date can ignore you, lie to you or better yet try to encourage you that there is someone else out there for you. And that’s the stuff that can really get you down.
I’m blessed though. I work with and come home to some of the best people I know. My friends.
It’s really not about how much you have but how you choose to fill your glass.
My Brothers on the Seaside
It’s another beautiful day in Santa Barbara, CA. I’m sitting on a grassy hill overlooking the harbor. Beyond it is the Pacific curling over the horizon.
I was just trying to clear my head. Three guys around my age sat down within listening distance of me. They were then joined by a fourth. The three began to discuss about the ocean and the birds around us. They were admiring the same...