Monthly Archive for October, 2009

When I packed everything I owned into my car and set out from Springfield, Missouri to come home to Washington state, I don’t really think I ever dreamed how tough the last couple of months would shape up to be — I had figured I would just head on over to Vancouver and find employment in a timely manner, get my own place and everything would be fine.

Boy, was I ever wrong.

As fate would have it, and as the national economy would indicate, it became insanely hard to search for a job. After a week passed, then two, then three, I began to realize I was staring the unemployment monster straight in the face and he wasn’t backing down.

I can’t even begin to describe how frustrating the job search became. Ninety-six resumes sent to potential employers turned into only two interviews. One ended up being for a seasonal sales position that would have guaranteed less than 20 hours a week and ensured I would remain on unemployment to some degree just to keep afloat…that certainly wasn’t going to fly.

Wasn’t it just a few months ago that I was shooting video for a newspaper’s website? And now here I sat, frantically trying to apply for any full-time job that would enable me to restart a “normal” life.

It’s really funny how I began to find fault with my current situation…yeah I’m staying at a friend’s house for now, I don’t have my own place and I don’t have the life I wanted when I moved here.

There was one day a few weeks ago that I was sitting at the MAX station near Lloyd Center and had a chance conversation with a homeless man. His story of how he fell hard and fast instantly served to change my perspective — to be more thankful of the small things and to be reminded that I am blessed day in and day out, no matter my plight.

Once my perspective changed, the way I viewed my Christian faith and also the way I prayed began to change as well. I began to pray more for the needs of others, and made sure to put my own needs at the end. The thought began to bond itself to my brain — I am second, no matter what.

It’s when you least expect it, or maybe it’s better said that when you are least concentrating on it, that a breakthrough in your life can occur. Monday brought about living proof of that as in the span of four hours, I received an offer of full-time employment with a local company and also secured an apartment of my own in Vancouver.

When bad times come, they hit you quick and hard. But the same is true for the good as well…the blessing comes and it is met with more blessings. I’d venture to say that most of the time, they’re not material or tangible…but it sure builds our faith when we are blessed with something we can see and feel.

For me, I had to first build my faith upon the very concept behind Christ coming to earth two thousand years ago in the first place — to bring glory to God and serve the needs of others. Once I truly began to even slightly shift my thinking that direction, the Lord blessed me with employment that I will need to bring in a necessary wage, and a living arrangement that will allow me to be close to that job and other areas of sustenance.

Tomorrow — well, today, since it’s 3:05 a.m. — is moving day. I’ll pack up my belongings into my car once again and head toward my final destination since I started my journey from Missouri two months ago…my new living arrangement in a new (to me) apartment. I’m excited and I’m thankful for friends that share the joy.

The excitement is almost too much to contain. Seriously…I have been waiting so long for something to turn in “my favor,” but it took awhile for me to learn the important life lesson that I am second, and I truly need to live as such.

I don’t do this on my blog much, but I’d like to ask that those of you that believe in prayer to act on that belief on my behalf. Please pray that I continue to serve God first, others next and myself last. Pray for direction in my life, as I have another major change in direction coming up as well. I want to be obedient to the Lord’s plan, yet proactive in a search for my place in the body of Christ.

I give thanks to the Lord, and to all of you who have prayed and helped me with words of wisdom so far. From friends who are Christian to friends who don’t profess a faith at all, everyone has helped in their own special way and for that I’m very thankful.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Vancouver, Washington is the place for me to be at this point in time. I plan on being here for awhile, now that I’m here for the right reason (as opposed to my time in 2006-07).

4 years is equivalent to:

48 months
1461 days
35,064 hours
126,230,400 seconds

Consider that it takes four years to get through high school or get a Bachelor’s degree. The Summer and Winter Olympics come around in separate four-year cycles. A presidential election happens every four years. A normal military enlistment term, one that I served from 2002-2006, is four years.

Four years is how long that it’s been since my deployment to Iraq. Already.

I arrived in Baghdad on October 28, 2005 with the sole purpose of assisting the American Forces Network in gathering news and completing special video projects. Though my time there was short, I remember most of it like it was yesterday.

It seems surreal that I was ever over there, especially when you take into account the history of the area. I walked by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers on more than one occasion, traveled past the ancient city of Babylon and even scaled the Ziggurat of Ur.

Also surreal were, of course, the numerous rocket attacks and various other insurgent activity we put up with. God kept his hand on me, inside the wire and outside it as well.

I don’t want to delve deeply into my time there…there are plenty of posts here on my blog that you can see for yourself that provide insight as to what went on, starting here. (Bear in mind that most links to video/audio are dead because I hosted the site on a different server then, and also that the last four years has seen a shift in how I view the war in Iraq.)

I just wanted to simply reflect on the starting point of a time in my life in which I was forced to grow up well beyond what I had been taught or told to do thus far…and a time in which I learned to put faith in God in action rather than in words.

In the above photo, my good man Jordache is pointing to the end of a line of Buffalo Wild Wings’ selection of wings from mild to wild…Spencer is looking on shaking his head in utter disbelief that we were all going to partake in a daunting task.

The task was simple: everyone must eat one of each wing, starting from the mildest and ending with the hottest. No time constraints, and ranch dressing being the only handicap. Two celery breaks were allowed, and drinks were as well (pop actually made it worse).

There were six of us in attendance at Buffalo Wild Wings in downtown Portland on Tuesday, and all six completed the task with seemingly relative ease. The suffering afterward, though, was a sight for sore eyes.

The back of my head and neck began to sweat like no other. Michael and Brian’s faces began to turn beet red. Jordache complained of intense stomach pain. Spencer calmly said how badly he hurt. Bill sat there and said he felt interesting. Ben showed up late and simply was amused by the whole display.

Jordache summed it up before we all took off that night: “This was the worst best idea I’ve ever come up with.”