My Apocalyptic Mind

Something pretty cool just happened to me that I wanted to share. First, I need to introduce the other person that was involved. A few weeks back I stopped by the local Wing Stop to order some food on my way home from covering a Baseball game. If you don't call your order in ahead it's usually a bit of a wait, so I ordered and then took a seat. The young man who took my order, he looked like he was around 20 or so, said he recognized me from the newspaper. We struck up a conversation about movies and talked about my movie reviews and my work in journalism. About ten minutes later the food was ready and off I went. It was a nice conversation with a cool stranger, which is always awesome.

Fast forward to today. In the newest issue of the newspaper I wrote a column about a website that has me freaked out. The title of the column is "the Future Freaks me out" and is about this website that gets super detailed laying out all of the things that they predict will happen in the world. Disasters, crisis, all sorts of freaky stuff. I've always struggled with having a fear of the future, of apocalyptic things happening in the world. I'm a Christian and I know that we're supposed to trust in God and that the Bible says those who believe in him are going to have a good ending, but it's still an area I've had a lot of struggles in.

So anyways, tonight I spent the evening at my family's house. I left around 11 pm and decided at the last moment to go to the gas station to grab a Dr. Pepper. I get there and was sort of lost in thought as I walk up and I notice someone is holding the door for me. I look up and it's the guy from Wing Stop. We exchange hellos and that's about it and I go in and he goes in. He checks out before me but when I walk outside he's standing there waiting for me. I say hey again and ask if he just got off work since he was wearing his work shirt. He then says "I read your article today." We talk a bit about it, and I mentioned that yeah, I was really freaked out by some of the predictions and what the future holds. Then he says "I'm a Christian, and as soon as I read the article I just felt God speaking to me and laying it on my heart that I needed to talk to you about it." He then goes on to, very politely mind you and not at all in a preachy or disapproving manner, quote the Bible about how God doesn't want us to have a spirit of fear and stuff like that. He then admits that the only reason he waited for me was because it was just so amazing that after feeling so strongly that God wanted him to encourage me about fearing the future it was crazy that we'd run into one another that very night. We shook hands and I thanked him and mentioned how awesome it was that this had happened, and we were on our separate ways.

The whole thing was just so amazing though. I'm a pretty logical person, so I can tell you that the odds of running into this one guy at random like that are pretty slim, especially considering how many 24 hour gas stations there happen to be in our immediate area. It was just such a cool and uplifting reminder that God cares. He used this amazing young man who I've only ever met once, laid a message upon his heart, and then directed both of our paths to end up at the same exact place at the same exact time that very night. And the thing is, I've been in his shoes before, and he seems like a shy type of person like me, so I know how hard it is, even when you've got this spirit of the Lord sort of urging you forward, to step up and actually follow through with a conversation like that.

Anyways, it may not seem like anything special to some people and that's okay, but to me it was just such a blessing and a much needed reminder that I need to keep God on my mind and rely on him for all things.

Contention

Today was a great day. It's been a while since I did any actual personal blogging, and I'm not really sure why that is. My days have been pretty full lately and by the end of them I haven't really been in a blogging mood. Whereas I once felt like blogging was my way of sharing my feelings with the world, over the past year my relationships with people around me have strengthened and I find less of a need for the emotional outlet of blogging. But, there are also wonderful people in my life that I don't see very often, or internet friends that I unfortunately don't live close enough to see ever, and the way in which we can all keep up with one another is through our blogs. But if I never blog personally, then the relationship can turn a little impersonal, and thus be weakened.

All that said, today was a great day. It was one of those days so gloriously not special that it became special. The kind of a day that reminds you that true beauty and joy and contentment isn't always super glamorous, and is often found in things like a chat with a friend, a trip to the store with your family, or an evening spent among family cooking dinner, joking, and playing games. My three nephews are like happiness batteries, being around them just recharges my joy and enthusiasm for life. I feel lighter after I've been around them, because being around them reminds me of what's most important in this world. My whole family does that, just reminds me what joy is and how lucky I truly am. They inspire me and make me want to do more in life, to keep working towards my goals and to never stop believing in myself. And yes, I got all of this over a six hour visit and a homemade taco dinner. It's nice to be this easily moved!

So, that's all super sappy, but oh well. What else am I doing these days? Writing, of course, working. Things at Hall Brothers Entertainment are going awesome. Sales of Undiscovered, our latest book, have just completely blown us away and exceeded what we thought we would be able to do this early in our company's life, so that's been amazing. We're only 5 copies away from a pretty awesome milestone, so if you haven't picked it up yet you'd be doing me a personal favor if you did so now (click here to check it out!). Scrolls, our second episodic fiction series, is going really well. I'm particularly proud of this creation, it's probably my favorite thing I've ever created and written, and it's great to see more and more readers showing up as it starts spiraling towards its season one finale'. My brother and I have also embarked on a secret project for HBE that we're not telling anyone about, so that's been fun too. It'll be quite some time before it comes around, but when it does I think it's going to be something special.

Anything else? I guess not! I hope you're all doing awesome and that you have a great weekend!

Ending with the beginning and beginning with the ending

Something strange occurred to me last week that really probably should've occurred to me sooner. There's an odd crossing of worlds in my life. I write pretty constantly, either at my day job as a journalist or at my other job as a creative writer. But here's the thing that occurred to me. These two styles of writing are in direct conflict with one another in one very fundamental way.

Okay, here's the example. The City Council here in my hometown has been in turmoil for months and they've ended up in district court over it. I've been covering it every step of the way, and last week I wrote up a story about the latest court date. My opening paragraph went something like this:

The ongoing issues of the local City Council have spilled over into District Court for the second time of 2011 as the Judge denied the motion that would see the three removed council members reinstated.

After convening at 9:00 am, the Judge allowed each side to...

And so on and so forth. The important thing to note is the end of the first paragraph, in which I completely and totally spoil the ending of the story. I've been a journalist for five years now and it never occurred to me that I was doing this. But for some reason, the wall has come down and now the creative writer inside of me has become aware that this is happening, and boy is he mad. Seriously, how can you spoil the ending?! IT'S THE BEST PART! If I was using my creative writing skills, the opening paragraph would've been something like this:

The judge studied the documents in front of him for a solid minute, seemingly unaware of the full courtroom waiting for him to begin the proceedings. Finally, mercifully, he looked up and addressed the tense participants.

"You all know why we're here," the judge said solemnly.

The defendant instinctively reached for the glass of water in front of him but paused, not wanting to appear nervous. His lawyer had no such hang-up and drank generously, doing whatever he must to avoid eye contact with the judge. Things were no less tense for the plaintiffs and hand wringing had begun in earnest. The court reporter cracked his knuckles and took a deep breath.

"Let's do this thing," he muttered to himself.

The judge smirked, having overheard his trusty court reporter. He let his eyes dance across all gathered in his courtroom, took a deep breath of his own, and then spoke once more.

"Let's dispense some justice."

That would be my beginning and the shocking ruling would be saved for where it rightfully belongs. Maybe I should just start writing all of my news stories this way and see what my editors say. I could revolutionize the business! Or be fired!

Anyways, just thought that was an odd thing to just now realize after half a decade on the job. Of course, now that I've realized it I can't unrealize it and so I think about it a lot now. But what's a man to do other than begin with the end when needed?