Branson

Hello, friends! I hope your summer is going well. Even though I’m taking a break from my usual blogging schedule for the summer, I’ve decided to write a few special blog posts to keep you updated on what I’m doing over the break. A couple of weeks ago, I did a post about my trip to Grand Rapids, MI, for Nationals. Now I’m here to tell you about my second major trip this summer: Branson, MO.

Last Thursday, morning, my family and I loaded up our cars and headed for Branson. It was a great trip. We stayed in a beautiful cabin on Table Rock Lake (pictured above) and got some great quality time together. As most good trips are, it was exhausting, but I’m really glad I got to go.

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Best go-kart track ever. (Side note: It was rock-and-roll themed.)

The first thing we did when we got there was check out the cabin. It was awesome. It had a really cool layout with a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and two bathrooms downstairs and two loft-style bedrooms upstairs. I ended up on the pull-out couch in the living room, but I didn’t complain because I was the only one who got my own room. Ha! The cabin also had a really cool swimming pool, so we spent our first afternoon in Branson swimming. Aiden even jumped in a few times!

That night, we went into town. We always like to check out The Track when we visit Branson because there’s so much cool stuff to do there. We rode go-karts on the multi-story track, had frozen custard, and played laser tag. Gavin, Jenifer, and I even did the Superman, which is hard to describe but incredible to experience. The Track is always a highlight of our visits to Branson, and this time was no different.

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Aiden was my go-kart buddy! We're wet because we just finished playing bumper boats (Aiden's favorite).

Friday and Saturday, we spent most of the day at Silver Dollar City, the giant theme park in Branson. We rode a ton of roller coasters, ate some wonderful food, and got to take Aiden to the kids area where he had a lot of fun, particularly in the ball pit. Silver Dollar City is a really cool place, and the lines were really short, so we had a blast. Drew and I even rode Wildfire five times in a row. (I wouldn’t recommend it.)

We headed back Saturday afternoon, and by the time we got unloaded, we were all exhausted. But no one wanted to go to bed because we all enjoyed each other’s company so much. It truly was a great family vacation, and none of us wanted to see it come to an end. I had to leave the next morning in order to get back to Waco for work, but the rest of my family was able to have brunch together the next day before going their separate ways.

I’m sad that it’s over, but I’ll always cherish this special weekend I got to spend with my family. It’s trips like these that make summer so much fun, and I couldn’t be more thankful. Thanks for keeping up with me this summer, friends, and I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to. Talk to you soon!

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Group shot at Silver Dollar City!

This is the second in a three-part blog series documenting my travels this summer. If you’re interested in shorter, more frequent updates, follow me on Twitter or keep up with my summer hashtag #WhereIsDevon.

Grand Rapids

Hello, friends! I know it’s been a little while, but I decided to take a break from my blogging hiatus to update you on what I’ve been up to this summer. My official summer break has only been going on for a few weeks because I took classes in May and June, but what a great few weeks it has been! As many of you know, I tend to do quite a bit of traveling during the summer, and this summer is no different. I just got back from the first of three major trips I have planned, and this one is going to be hard to top.

I spent the last week in Grand Rapids, MI, attending and serving at the annual National Association of Free Will Baptist conference and National Youth Convention. I’ve been working this conference for years and attending it for even longer, and it’s always a blast to get together with other people in my denomination from around the world to worship, see the kids compete, and talk about where our denomination is heading. But even though the conference was only four days long, I was gone for much longer than that.

Last Tuesday at 4:00 am, I set off with Johnny (the children’s pastor at my home church) and Mason (the church intern and Johnny’s right-hand man) in a church van headed to Goshen, Indiana. We made the thirteen-hour trip with only one stop. It was incrdible. There, we met up with Johnny’s wife Gail and spent a few days with Johnny’s sister Betty and her husband Fred. Everyone who goes to my church knows Aunt Betty. She is one of the sweetest people I know, and she and her husband were very hospitable to us when we stayed there.

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Rural Indiana is beautiful.

Side note: On the way , I received an email informing me that I had been awarded a scholarship that I’d completely forgotten about. It was a huge, unexpected blessing that really set the mood for the rest of the trip. I didn’t add this little note to brag or distract from the main point, but to keep you guys posted about something major in my life and give God the glory for blessing me in such a big way at such a critical time.

The few days we spent at Aunt Betty’s house were filled with wonderful homemade food, intense games of NERTS (a card game that’s so addictive you should probably avoid it if you’ve never played), and lots of laughter. I got to basically be a part of Johnny’s family as we met up with his relatives, shared meals, and simply enjoyed each other’s company. It was fun and relaxing, just what I needed in order to prepare for the intense week ahead.

We left Aunt Betty’s Friday after lunch and made the relatively short drive to Grand Rapids, MI. We stayed the first couple of days in the beautiful Amway Grand Plaza in downtown Grand Rapids, where there was plenty to do and even more to eat. We spent Friday night familiarizing ourself with the convention center and the area, and on Saturday, we set up the room where we would be holding children’s services for grades kindergarten through three.

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Our children’s service team: Gail, Johnny, Mason, Karinda, me, Ken, and Karen.

The theme of our services this year was “Give God a High Five.” Using five fingers as a visual learning tool, we taught kids five different ways that they could grow closer to God. I got to run audio and video for the services, as well as put together all the presentations. It was great to work with several different speakers to create a cohesive visual theme that was used to reinforce what the kids were hearing. All of the speakers did a great job, and I was honored that I got to work with each of them.

The other big thing I did at the conference was run audio and video for the children’s choir. Each year, Karen Brown directs a group of kids through three rehearsals followed by a performance in front of the entire convention. I got to help teach the kids the songs by playing the music, presenting the lyrics, and consulting Karen on the best ways to utilize the time, space, and technology we had to create the best performance. It was a blast working with those kids and seeing the progress they made in such a short time.

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Children’s choir practice was one of the highlights of my trip.

Sunday was probably our longest day. We had three different services (Sunday School, Sunday morning, and Sunday night). On top of that, we attended a huge luncheon for all the youth conference volunteers, and Mason and I moved our stuff from the Amway, where we had been staying with Johnny and Gail, to our own hotel room at the not-as-nice-but-also-pretty-nice Marriott Courtyard. It was definitely nice to have our own room where we could kind of spread out and do our own thing. And once all the Sunday services were over, we were able to get into more of a routine.

The rest of the conference involved watching competitions and attending lectures during the day, helping with crafts and choir rehearsal in the afternoon, and running services at night. It was a hectic schedule, but it was also a lot of fun. It’s great to see kids work hard and then show their Bible knowledge off in front of their friends and families. I only attended a couple of seminars, but they were definitely informative, and I’m sure that the ones I missed were great as well. The children’s services are really energetic and engaging, so there’s really never a dull moment. And each night once everything died down, I got an opportunity to spend time with my friends at the conference, which was also really meaningful to me.

Wednesday night, we had a combined worship service with everyone from the youngest kids to the oldest adults worshipping together in one big room. It was incredible to see so many people representing so many churches in the denomination coming together to worship God. Dr. McCullough’s sermon on the globalization of God’s word and the need to avoid privileging one’s own culture over another was extremely convicting. It made me proud of my denomination and hopeful for its future.

After service, the children’s choir performed (and did an incredible job!) and the awards for the various competitions were given out. I had the privilege of watching Johnny receive the Jim Lauthern Legacy Award for his work with kids over the years. He really deserved it, and I’m glad I got to be there. After the awards were given out, I spent a few more hours eating and playing cards with my friends. We knew we had an early morning and a lot of traveling ahead of us on Thursday, but we stayed up late anyway because that’s what you do at these sorts of events.

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Traveling is fun, but it’s always nice to see a familiar sight.

Yesterday, I got in a car with Ken and Karen, and we made the journey back to Arkansas. We did the entire drive in thirteen hours, which was pretty impressive. I was exhausted but glad to be home with my family for a few days before I have to head back to Waco. I’m so thankful that I was able to go to Nationals this year, and I am grateful for all the people who made it such a wonderful experience. It was long, and it was stressful, but it was wonderful. Now is the time for recuperating, reflecting, and preparing for what’s to come. Thank you for reading this little update, and I hope you’ll continue to join me as I document my travels this summer. Have a great day, friends, and I’ll talk to you soon!

This is the first in a three-part blog series documenting my travels this summer. If you’re interested in shorter, more frequent updates, follow me on Twitter or keep up with my summer hashtag #WhereIsDevon.

Taking a Break

I’ve been blogging on a weekly basis for well over a year now, and it has been a wonderful experience. I’ve had the opportunity to express myself creatively and to write about all kinds of subjects, from spiritual matters to my favorite TV shows. This blog has allowed me to connect with others and to work through all of the jumbled thoughts that are constantly swirling around in my mind. Blogging has been extremely helpful to me in my journey thus far, and I am so thankful for it.

But lately, the blog has deviated from what I intended it to be. It was supposed to be an outlet, a catalyst for my creative writing. I imagined that I would be overflowing with things to say and that getting them out on (figurative) paper would not only be theraputic to me, but would also hopefully be meaningful to you. And the blog has been that for a long time. But lately—and I mean very recently, not for a long time—I’ve started to feel like the blog is less of an outlet and more of a responsibility.

Instead of writing blog posts throughout the week for enjoyment, I find myself scrambling on Mondays and Tuesdays to put something together that is worth posting online and attaching my name to. And that’s not fair to anyone involved. It’s not fair to me when I’m stressing about what I’m going to put on the blog on top of everything else I’ve got going on. It’s not fair to you, my faithful friends who choose to read my posts every week expecting something insightful and meaningful. It’s just not what this blog should be. And so I’m not going to let it be that anymore.

After much ruminating and consideration, I’ve decided to put my weekly blog posts on hiatus for the summer.

I love my blog, and I’m not giving up on it. I’m just giving myself some time away from it to focus on other things and hopefully recapture my passion for blogging. For the months of June, July, and August, I’m going to focus my writing on other mediums. I’m not sure what that will look like yet. Maybe I’ll write a screenply or a short story or a sermon or two. Who knows? I’m just excited to try something new and see where it takes me. I’m also going to use this time to re-think this blog and what I want it to look like when I come back at the end of summer. I’m sure it’ll look mostly the same, but a little bit of change could be what this site needs.

In short, the weekly blog posts are going away for a bit. Not forever, but for the summer. There will probably be some sporadic posts from time to time. (I am a blogger, after all.) I’ve got some exciting stuff going on this summer that I’m going to want to share with you, and I’m trying out a new app on my computer that I’m itching to review. So I’ll still be around. And the plan is to bring back the weekly blog posts at the end of summer. I’m not leaving for good, just for a bit, and I think you’ll all see that this move was beneficial for the site when I come back in the fall.

Thank you all so much for reading these little blog posts. You have no idea how much it means to me that you would take time out of your busy schedules to listen to what I have to say. You guys are the best, and I’ll miss writing to you this summer. But I’ll see you again in the fall. Have a great summer, friends! I’ll talk to you soon.

Overwhelmed

Maymester sounded like such a good idea back in April when I was registering for classes. A whole semester in just two and a half weeks? Who wouldn’t want to get a whole class credit before summer even really starts? It sounded like an incredible opportunity. And it was. The problem is, fitting an entire class into two and a half weeks is extremely difficult. It means you have to work hard. Really hard. And I wasn’t fully prepared for that.

The first day of class, I came in wide-eyed and prepared (I thought) for anything. I figured I would do a little reading, take a couple of tests, listen to some lectures, and be on my way. But I was in for a surprise. Instead of listening to a lecture on the first day, I had a group discussion with my professor about what the class would entail, and it was vastly different from what I had expected. There was a lot of self-directed learning involved, and a much bigger time commitment than I had anticipated. This class was going to force me to work hard and stretch my brainpower. By the end of the first class, I was feeling totally overwhelmed. I had no idea how I was going to pull this off.

The truth is that we all get overwhelmed sometimes. Maybe we set our expectations too low and get surprised like I did. Maybe we just find ourselves in a situation that requires more of us than we think we are able to give. But no matter what the circumstance is, we’re all overwhelmed from time to time. And when that happens, the first impulse is to give up. To throw our hands up in the air, declare that we just can’t do it, and walk away. But that’s not the correct response at all.

Because usually the feeling of being overwhelmed is a temporary one. It’s a result of getting a wealth of information and expectation at one time and not being able to process it. Once we can step away for a second, breathe, and think things through, we find that things aren’t really as overwhelming as they seem. Yes, my Maymester class is going to take up every free second I have from now until the end of the month, but honestly, it’s not that different from regular school. I’m just spending all my time on one class instead of four. But it’s not overhwelming; it’s manageable.

And maybe sometimes we do find ourselves in situations that are truly overwhelming. In those cases, we have to learn to trim the fat and focus on the things that matter the most. Maybe that means some items on the checklist go undone and someone gets upset with us. If that’s what has to happen, then so be it. Ultimately, you can only do as much as you’re capable of doing, and being overwhelmed by too much expectation is something that happens to all of us.

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, know you’re not alone. I’m there now, and a lot of other people are there, too. If you take a step back, you may see that things aren’t as heavy as they seem. If so, carry on. But if you’re really in a situation that’s just too much for you, it may be time to think about things you can get rid of to get to a healthy place. Either way, feeling overwhelmed is temporary and can be dealt with, if you’ll do it in the right way. Good luck, friends, and I’ll see you soon!

Old Things

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post called New Things. It was all about how we should embrace change and be willing to try new things. They can be fun and exciting. They can open up new possibilities and opportunities. Plus, they’re just cool. Yes, I’m still a big fan of new things. But that’s not what I want to talk about today. Today, I want to talk about old things.

Last week, while digging through some stuff in my closet, I came across my old iPhone 5s. It came from a simpler time when phones actually fit comfortably into pockets and “phablets” were things only the tetchiest of techies carried. I was intrigued not only by how small it was, but by how intuitively I was still able to use it despite being on a significantly larger device (my iPhone 6 Plus) for a long time. It was like reconnecting with an old friend, and I really enjoyed it.

That experience got me thinking about old things and the place they have in our lives. I came up with a few simple thoughts on the subject, and I thought I might share them with you.

1. Old things are fun to revisit.

Once I pulled out my old iPhone, I didn’t want to put it down. I carried it around for a couple of days under the guise of “testing out the battery” and used it for everything I possibly could: texting, emailing, reading, tweeting, watching videos. I enjoyed using something different and revisiting something that used to be a part of my everyday life. Old things can be exciting and fun to revisit once they’ve been out of our lives for a while. It’s worth the time and energy to pull out old things and try them on for size every once in a while.

2. Old things are old for a reason.

As much as I loved playing with my old phone, there’s no way I’m going back to it full-time. It’s smaller size is cute, but I prefer my bigger phone for more productive activities. Plus all of the new software is being developed for the newer phones, so there are some features my old phone just doesn’t have. Old things become old things for a reason. They’re fun, but they aren’t always fitting replacements for new things. Sometimes new things are just more practical.

3. Old things can find new uses.

But that doesn’t mean old things can’t be useful, too. I’ve been thinking about how I can use my old phone, and I’ve come up with a couple of good ideas. I can carry it around and use it as a secondary device to record video or control presentations without tying up my phone, or I could pass it on to someone else who is in need of a phone. I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing with it yet, but no matter what I do, it’ll be better than just leaving the phone on a shelf. Because old things do have value and purpose if we’ll just take the time to find them.

I know this blog post is a little all over the place and maybe not the most relatable. I apologize for that. But that’s what I’ve been thinking about this week, and I thought I’d share it. Have a great day, friends, and I’ll see you next Tuesday!