I’m listening a band called Everyday Sunday. I think that’s their name. Good stuff.
It rained last night, and it’s cooler outside. I have all the curtains with the sun shining through. I am storyboarding the motion on lifeteen.com…I feel like I am creating a cartoon. I have skateboards hanging on the wall, wearing a T-shirt I designed. I am going to the Jersey shore this weekend. When I get back, Candyce will be here.
A few months ago, I started designing T-shirts to wear on the Real World Road Rules Challenge. So where do I start? What is worth promoting?
I’ve always been against buying a shirt that say: “Jesus.” I am not ashamed of the name of Jesus, but ashamed of how people use the name of Jesus. If you read scripture, God is pretty clear about His name. “You shall not take the Lord God’s name in vain.” This is important enough to put in the same list as “You shall not kill.” It’s not that God is on a censorship tirade, but He’s letting us know that the name of Jesus is powerful, holy, and to be respected. We ignored his commandment, and look what happened: “Jesus Christ” has become a curse word. That’s messed up.
Many proclaimed Christians are doing the most damage. “Jesus Car Fresheners” insult and cheapen the Name of the Saviour. There are other acts of evil: “Christian” breath mints, flip flops, and T-shirts.
Let me step down from my soapbox. I live in this world, and I know that T-shirts are walking billboards and an extension of our image. That’s why teens unleash billions each year to identify with clothing brands. Is there place for the Gospel on a T-shirt?
I want more people to experience God’s love like I have. I know teens experience Christ through Life Teen. So promoting Life Teen is promoting a conduit to God’s love. There is a place for the Gospel on a T-shirt.
God isn’t lame, so my T-shirts couldn’t be lame either. God is beautiful, He just gets twisted as we try to communicate Him to the world. So here was my game plan: design shirts that are so cool, everyone will want one. It doesn’t matter if you are a Christian or not. You just can’t help but want to wear one…you are jealous of those who wear the shirt.
P.O.D. did it. Millions of non-Christians listen to their music. They don’t mind that the band members are Christian, and their music is evidence of their faith. Why do people listen to them? They rock. Period.
All for the glory of God.
:::
Candyce was wearing the “Sacred Heart” shirt while she was out shopping for a beach cruiser bike. The rough and surly guy behind the counter said, “that’s a cool shirt; where did you get it?”
I’ve been bummed because we don’t have enough money to pull;Version 2 of lifeteen.com together. I feel like we’ve been building a bridge across a wild river, and we only have a few sections left. There is a parade of young people marching across the bridge. I am standing here panicking.
Phil invited me over for dinner tonight. He has three kids under the age of seven. Their emotions were running high after a crazy day. The youngest is three, and she demanded a story about Tinkerbell. So I explained how earlier today I was working on the website when I heard a gentle tap on the door. I got really goofy and started making sound effects and funny faces. I didn’t know it could–
(Okay, this girl on TV is singing to her fish. Like, whelping singing to a pond of gold fish in her living room. I’m an advocate for eccentricity, but this is dorky.)
–I didn’t know it could be so fun to tell stories to little kids. They were laughing and slapping their hands against their face with excitement. It was so funny.
So today I solved a design problem on;Version 2;of lifeteen.com. Basically, the internal pages were real good looking and glossy. They are mostly text, so what little graphics I added looked slick. But the main page is loaded with information, and I didn’t want many slick graphics to slow down the page loading time.
Then finally I said screw it. I loaded the page with slick graphics and…oh it feels so good. I mean, my mom and dad in backwoods Georgia have DSL, so the rest of the world can’t be too far behind. Design for the fat pipe!
It’s actually coming together–the whole thing. It’s wonderful.
Guys. If a girl was asking about you, would you want your lady friends to describe you as a “nice guy,” or, “Oh, he’s dangerous, but in a good way.” Which one would you rather hear?
I’ve had no trouble being a nice guy. It was never a goal, I am just a nice guy. But to be dangerous, now that’s…
There’s something tattooed on the soul of each man that us DIE for adventure, danger, a mission. That’s why we buy fast cars, beat each other up, and listen to hard music. That’s why we chase girls out of our league.
That’s why I savored the RW/RR Challenge: I was on a mission. Getting physically prepared was a good chore. But I knew that the physical challenges on the show weren’t always physical. Getting ready for everything else–the unknown–was the real challenge. Being on a mission, as a missionary, was rock ‘n’ roll.
I find myself getting wuss. It not just the obvious stuff, like wining about bumping my head, but less obvious, but very real ways.
I don’t have to carry a hammer and ride a Harley to feel like a man. You can take any male and dress him up like a bad boy, but that’s not masculinity. You can just as easily dress him up in a tutu and make him soft.
Masculinity is understanding what it means to be a man…knowing your role in friendships, families, and society. This book, “Wild at Heart”, has kept a fire in my belly for weeks now. I’ve always been a guy, but I’ve never been so excited to be a man.
This is what I got done today:
So now I am lying in bed, looking around at my new and improved room. Now that I think of it, tonight is the last night for the kids on the RW/RR Challenge. Tomorrow is the last (and biggest) challenge. Tomorrow night everyone goes home. Wow…it’s been a long month.
My life is in and out of suitcases. An hour ago, I finally emptied and stored five bags. I didn’t know a clean floor could be so beautiful. I guess this is the life of a jetsetter.
Three years ago when I left the Real World house, I would’ve felt insecure writing a journal about doing work around the house. I was a in fifteen minutes of fame, and it’d be humiliating to report such an ordinary to-do list. It was vain, but I’m not embarrassed. I remember talking to a Real World agent in an airport in Philadelphia. He laid it out for me: “One day you’ll be doing your laundry, the next day you’ll be signing autographs and riding in a limo.”
I could go into how “the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.” I could also write about how the “Jones” only exist if you create them. But I’ve already written too many journals about that already. Instead, I’ll read a book. I love being home!
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