The Desert Song

Incredible.

The dryest state in all the land

So it's been raining here in Ada, Oklahoma for a while now...
and I'm getting sick of it.
I don't mean to just be a negative Nathan and complain about all this wetness,
but dag nabbit,
I can't do much outside whenever the streets are all wet.
Who wants to build an indoor skatepark?

The infant over to my left is Colsen.
He's awesome.

So my family recently came into possesion of a 4 month old baby.
Her name is Amy, and she's the biological sister of my other adopted sisters.
She's... a baby.
I'm not used to dealing with babies.
Last night,
I was working on a school project,
and she cried.
I get it, okay?
She's a baby... therefore she also cries a lot,
but dang it,
I've never had to deal with this kind of business before.

It made me wonder how I'll be as a father.
I'm lazy,
and I often put sleep at a high priority in my life,
but what I'm hoping,
is that whenever/if ever I have a child of my own,
I will have so much love for that human being,
that I will be excited every time the child wakes me up,
just so I can hold it again.
I don't know if this is what happens in real life or not,
but I know that it happens whenever we cry out to God.

I know a couple of friends that really didn't have too great of a weekend.
They are awesome people,
and they also love God with a deep passion,
but I know a couple of them had to beg for forgiveness, like we all should do from time to time,
and thought, "God is so sick of me asking for forgiveness. He's just fed up with me."
I can understand being sick of the peaks and valleys that come naturally with following God,
but know that God does not grow tired of you running to him.
He wants you,
and if that means you having to leave him for a while,
just to know what his love truly is.

This happens to everyone.

Let's just be real folk,

there's no way to stay within the Godly mindset 24 hours a day,

everyday of the week.

We're just too full of ourselves.

I dig looking at cameras on Ebay more than reading Phillipians quite a lot.

We get tired or something,

so we don't read our bible,

or we don't pray,

or we just don't care about all the daily responsibilities that come with trying to keep the life of the righteous.

But when you choose to come back,

when you choose to get up out of your little hole,

don't think that you are just wasting God's time,

or that He's become angry with you.

Come to him as when a child comes to his loving father.

In Luke 18:17,

Jesus says, "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

This is what I take from this verse;

Whenever you were a kid,

and you did something wrong,

did you ever feel the need to own up to it?

We don't want to,

because we're afraid to disappoint people,

and possibly losing the love we recieve from them

But we know that if we have God,

then there's no way His love can be taken from us.

So that just leaves disappointment,

There was a feeling I had as a little kid,

where whenever i did something wrong,

even though I was ashamed of what I did,

I wanted a fresh slate,

and I wanted to move on from it.

I didn't want it lingering in my mind anymore,

so whenever I felt like this,

I would approach one of my parents or something,

and without any pride in me,

tell them what happened,

ask for forgiveness,

maybe even recieve some discipline or something,

then move on.

It was done.

It wasn't even an issue anymore.

It was out,

and I was sorry for what I'd done.

The pride might be what get's us.

It's like,

if we admit what we did,

and ask for His forgiveness,

then He knows what we've done,

and we don't recieve his blessings.

Here's the problem with that one though,

He already knew.

He knew before we were even thought of in our mother's minds.

Before the universe was set into place.

And he still has blessed us in incredible ways.

If God worked in a way that was like, "You did something bad, something bad will happen to you."

He wouldn't bother waiting until we did it.

He's beyond time,

so to Him it's already happened and everything.

He would just fill our lives with a bunch of crap from beginning to end.

And yeah man,

that happens for sure,

God doesn't make everything comepletely awesome and incredible.

Following God sucks sometimes.

But we know the worth from it.

We know that following Him down that road that may suck really bad,

ends up taking us to a paradise.

So it's us.

Going back to God,

is a choice we make.

Drop that pride man.

Drop that ego about yourself.

It's only holding you back from giving into what he has for you.

Run to Him knowing He's the only way out of this biz that you've got yourself in,

or that the world has shoved into your life.

Don't you know that God is love?

....and so it pours.

I didn't take this picture,
just to let you know,
I cheated this time.
But I wanted this post to focus on the recent fires across Midwest City,
Choctaw,
and wherever else.
My dad and I drove around the outskirts of MWC today in my car.
We drove past the fire damage in a lot of the woodland areas.
There were areas where,
at one time,

you couldn't see five feet into it,
because of all of the trees and what not.
Now there's literally nothing there.
a bunch of skinny sticks coming out of the ground,
and black ash everywhere.
This really wasn't that bad to me,
I mean it sucks that all of those trees are gone,
but it didn't hit my core or anything.
but...

...then we drove to where some of the homes were had burned down in local neighborhoods.
It was pretty insane.
Some houses were burned in rows.
2,
3,
4?
But every now and then you catch a street where it's,
house... house... ashes... house house house.

"Wait,
what is that?
The fire doesn't even touch their house,
but mine is totally gone?"

That would be my reaction.
I might even go as far to try and question God's will.
Something like,

"What did I do?
Did I make you mad this week?
Is it because I chose not to read,
Or pray,
or something??
Didn't I do what I was asked?
I don't deserve this!"

I find myself,
slipping into thoughts like these once in a while.
Every now and then,
when something goes downward for me,
I'll look up,
and ask why.
Do you guys do that?
Sometimes I'll even catch myself not sinning,
just so God will allow me to have a good time at church,
or so that He won't rain on my parade during the day or something.
But that's not really what God's about.

You remember the points you used to get,
in school,
in church,
whatever,
when you were a kid?
Like,
"do this right,
something awesome happens to you.
do it wrong,
and you get a butt-whoopin'
along with getting a horrible day.
go!"
This whole thing jacked us up, man.
Now our God is a God of works.
We don't care about knowing God,
we just want to be close enough to him so that if suffering comes our way,
we think we're chill because we read our bible,
or because we prayed.
Then,
if something bad happens to us,
we sometimes think that we must've done something to make Him angry.
"Oh man, God must hate me,
my life has sucked for the past few months.
He hates me,
I don't know what I did,
but He's not happy about it."
Do you remember that God is love,
and Love keeps no record of wrong?

Now this is true,
you try to grow closer to God,
you might have some tools to fight off the basics of trouble,
but life will still sting you sometime.
You won't be able to just stand up right after you've taken a spill.
Life will take you out sometimes.
God provides a hope,
and a comfort.
My heart goes out to those who lost family members,
home,
pets,
anything else,
to the fire.
God provides a rain.
He is not cursing you.
You are not getting a cold shoulder from our creator.
Whoever you are,
I have no idea what kind of anguish you're going through,
and I'm sorry if I presented this post as if I did.
I meant nothing by it,
because I'm not strong,
my faith is worthless,
but someday,
whenever life tackles everything I have lived for,
for so long,
I want to look up at God,
and not ask,

"What'd I do?"

but I want to look up at God,
and ask,

"What are You going to do?"

Fully believing in his will.

The rain's on it's way to put out those burning flames.
Look for it.
God has nothing but love for you.
He has purpose for you.
Even if you think you've lost it all.
He doesn't need anything of this world to work His will in you.

Kent Cypert is on drugs.

Not really...
I decided that everytime I post a blog,
I'm going to add in a favorite photo.
This is not to show off,
but I'm hoping this will help me improve later on in the future as a way to look back,
and figure out what I need to work on.
I'm always up for some pointers,
so please tell me
if you think the picture is as worthless as the gum you stepped in today,
and what I can do to fix it up.
Thanks guys.
Now on to the blog.

I figured out a secret.
For some of you,
it's been in your head for years.
Haunting your dreams.
Some of you can get pretty lucky at solving the puzzle,
and have completed it before,
but you want to know how to do it again.
Good thing you chose to read Cheeseburger Jaunt.

Picture this scenario;
You're hungry, right?
you've been working,
exercising,
skateboarding,
loungin',
playing Foosball,
whatever it is that you do.
Your stomach is aching,
but you only have some change.
like a couple of nickels,
quarters,
dimes and stuff.
so you go up to the nearest Taco Bell.
if you think it's gross,
well then you tell that to the starving children.
FACE.

Everyone knows about that little game thing they have.
you drop the coin,
and end up wasting your time.
every now and then catching a burrito or something
but here's the tip;
you drop the coin,
it lands,
now what you need to do is slightly tilt that bizz in the direction you want it to go,
NOT TOO MUCH.
then you take the handle thing that goes through the cylinder,
and kind of make it hop up and down a bit.
that coin will slowly but surely get to the other platform
by way of being bounced.
you have to be careful with this tilting though,
or the coin will fall,
then you have to write me in all sad saying,
"Ethan, your idea didn't work! You have no idea what you're talking about!"
blame Donovan Strain or The Berrics,
okay?
now once you've made it down,
and you've got your food,
get that free cup of water,
and go mingle with some friends.

p.s.
Next thurday,
don't wear shoes.
not to school,
not to work,
not to your friends house,
not while your out walking in an alley way full of broken glass.
here's the why,
you've heard of Toms?
they are encouraging the whole world to go without shoes for one day.
let's do it.
it sounds rad.

Beg God to work in your life,
and He will.
Let Jesus show you love,
and He will.
Ask the Spirit to give you guidance,
and He will.
Keep those eyes open though,
the Trinity might work in some weird ways.

Explain the unexplainable.

Today was supposed to be really busy. I had been stressing out about it for a while, but it turned out to be one that I will put in the "Greats" category. Here's why...


Morning is the most stressful part of my day.
I'm always thinking I'm going to be late with something.
This morning was no different.
Tons of different things fell into a series of unfortunate events.
Mad stressed.

But then...

I drove myself and Josiah Biles to a volley ball tournament in Norman.
I watched a bunch of friends throw every bit of energy that they could muster,
into playing this sport.
it was quite fantastic,
but that's not what made my day.
Afterward,
I went with a few friends to Downtown Oklahoma City,
to watch Collin Lowe and his band
play at a Battle of the Bands.
They did great,
and I got some awesome shots,
but again,
not climax of the day.
All of us,
including the band,
went to Cuppies and Joe's,
which turned out to be my new favorite coffee shop.
Diamond called me,
and I got a chance to pray with him,
but let's keep going,
because that's not it either.

So here it is.
On the ride back to Ada,
Josiah, Bethany Cypert, and myself were in my car.
Josiah and I just randomly started talking theology.
We even discussed things that are a little sketchy with the "religious" world,
and Bethany jumped in.
This turned into a series of conversations that got my blood pumping,
and allowed me to pray with a skip in my stride.
I have know Josiah for a little while,
but until Spring Break,
never talked to the guy about anything I really felt was important.
Bethany,
I have only known for a short while,
but both of them on this night,
turned out to be two of my favorite people to talk with,
and this is why.
Though both are very intelligent,
and have awesome personalities,
people like that are everywhere.
The three of us had talked during spring break at one point,
and it was just so awesome.
I really had never known anything Josiah had gone through in his life,
or what he thought,
and man,
he turned out to be one gnarly human being.
The reason this car ride was so incredible to me,
is because God moved in our conversations.
Each of us felt something awesome that we couldn't explain.
Then we started listening to Lacrae.
Ooooo that did it.
Thanks my homey.
Each of us know that we made a connection because of something that moved in us.
Our conversations were so Godly inspired,
that for me,
it kind of allowed my mind to blow for a little while.
Knowing God,
knowing Jesus,
and knowing the Holy Spirit,
causes you to have moments in your life,
where things go the way they do,
and you just can't explain it.
I have another story involving Chantz Houston and I,
but that's another blog.
Things just happen.
Curtis Lilly would call them "God Things"
you want to call them coincidences,
or chance,
go for it.
I know it's deeper.
I know that coincidences never came so often until I started trying to figure God out.
Now I know what's really happening.
And it's just good.

Thanks for reading.
Listen to Phil Wickham.
He and Charlie Hall are doing a show together soon in OKC.
check it.