Photo(s) of the Week!!

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to Ann Arbor, MI with some friends just for some time to enjoy the beauty of Michigan autumn! These are just a couple of pictures from the trip, but I thought they would serve as an awesome depiction of the day trip! A lot of the areas and parks reminded me of the beauty of Boone, but I have to admit some areas of Ann Arbor and the surrounding area give Boone a run for its money!

Be CONVINCED

       I guarantee you have heard it before, it is a tried and true statement that appears this time every year and with a certain vengeance every four years. I have heard it about a1,000,000 times in the past couple months, and don't worry if you have been living under a rock, you will probably hear it in the next 50 some odd days until the election. You may be curious what the statement is, here we go, lets take away the suspense: "people have died so you may have the right to vote". 
      I have no issue with the statement itself, really it is not so bad, but what gets to me is why it is needed...The times that I have heard this statement seem to be at the end of a long tirade trying to CONVINCE someone to vote. Yes I capitalized "convince," I do that because it is just darn frustrating! America must be convinced!
      Earlier this week I was at a panel discussion called "The Democracy Panel." The above statement was thrown around several times and it really sparked a certain idea in my head. It is amazing to me that people must be convinced to give their opinion. Granted I know America is by no means perfect (no where close), but what kind of ignorance and apathy does it take to not even try to remedy a hurt and somewhat broken society? Don't get me wrong I do not believe that just voting will remedy everything, but I feel that everyone must have an opinion, so why not share it?
      A story for the closing: During the panel some of the issues of the previous presidential election were discussed. One such issue was people showing up to the wrong polling area and then deciding they just no longer wanted to vote. Laziness. Pure laziness. Why is it that we have become so lax with the responsibility to have our voices heard. As people all around the world clamor to have their voice heard, some simply say "its not worth getting all the way back in my car and driving down the street," or even better its not worth actually reading my voter registration information to find out where to go. Laziness. I am not sure where you stand with the candidates, but I pray November 6th you are educated and ready to cast your opinion along side 314,000,000 other people!
     So I have heard that saying many times, but I will continue hearing it and continue to think about it. The line simply tries to evoke some sort of desperation, some motivation, to put into perspective the importance of adding what seems like a small voice to the chorus of millions. Lets add our voices.

Cucumber Soup

Well I just thought I would share a lovely picture with you! This is cucumber soup...I am just stinkin proud out it because I've never made anything so odd and well it turned out pretty okay!!

I know I know doesn't look too appetising though, but its not bad! Score one point for the day!

Photo of the Week- Big Week!

So this week I recieved my Michigan ID! I have to admit I was pretty stinkin excited about it, and unlike my NC ID it actually does not look like a mug shot...as much haha But now I am actually registered to vote as a Michigan citizen and I can vote on the local government also. Fear not I am still very loyal to ole North Carolina, saldy though that ID now has a corner cut off of it...

On another, more personal note: The beard is still coming in! I have not trimmed it down since I have been here in Detroit! Why you ask? I do not know, just seems like the thing to do for now...

I hope you are having a great Sunday! I have some great stories started I hope to get to the coffee shop soon to post them sometime early this week! 

A Prayer of Humility, Motivation and Determination

Today I would like to share a prayer that I am sure some of you have read before or at least heard before. I heard this prayer for the first time a long time ago, but I have lately used it for a bit of meditating. I have just tried to mull it around in my head as much as I possibly can. I think each time I read it, it will instantly recenter me and essentially humble me. At different times of me reading it different parts speak to me. Maybe you can get something out of it too! Check it out:


May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you will live deep in your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice and exploitation of people and the earth so that you will work for justice, equity and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer, so you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so you will do the things which others say cannot be done.


I think so often in we feel the need to be needed. I think we even see this with the LORD. The idea that God needs us... I find a good bit of issue with that... I think that by looking at things through that lens we can so easily give ourselves an ego boost that can be detrimental to the service that we are called to do. We are called to be humble, to be unrelenting and to be determined. I think this is what this prayer teaches me (of course among other things haha). Read it again, what do you get from it?

Photo of the Week- A View!

So this week's photo of the week is pretty simple, a beautiful view. This picture was taken at the top of the Renaissance Center this week. I feel I have been working one on one with just so many amazing people and hearing so many awesome things about the city of Detroit, to catch this view right at sunset was simply awesome! In this picture you can see Bell Isle in the middle of the river and in the far off distance is Lake St Claire. This is mainly east Detroit which you see and well I think sometimes it is important to simply sit back and look. To not try and understand or try not to even think. Instead just look at the view and behold the beauty of creation (divine creation and the creation humanity has constructed). So thats this week's photo, maybe try and do the same where ever you are, find some high up place and just take it in, its kind of cool to feel small!

Where is the cartoon Moses in Exodus?

So I have a really short idea that I would like to throw out there today and it has been brewing in my head since training ( over a month ago)  but has come to a point in the past couple days...

So I was speaking to a friend a while back about the stories that we find in the Old Testament Bible. These stories often times paint vivid pictures of how people related to God in different ways. However, as someone who has grown up in the church I went to Sunday School and in the mornings I heard these different stories, I watched those movies and I imagined what happened. Now I do not at all wish to get into a discussion of taking the Bible literally word for word or anything like that, but I find I have a certain image of what these stories look like. And the best way I can describe this image in one word is "clean."

Since I have moved to Detroit I have begun reading through the Bible more regularly. I am currently in the middle of Exodus and around chapter 15 of Matthew. And well I am finding some conflicting images. See I for some reason cannot get these 3rd grade Sunday School images of the stories out of my head, but as I read these stories and these accounts of mankind's interaction with God and each other I find these to not be so accurate. As a child I saw The Prince of Egypt and other little cartoons of these characters and to be honest it was when I was a child that I heard a lot of these stories. So upon hearing these stories, watching these clips and seeing these cartoon like pictures on the walls I formed an idea of what happened. Now of course there may be the random sermon that may read over a portion of a story like the burning bush or the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, but I have failed to see these stories in their entirety. Why?

My mind is so confused in making images of what I am reading and what I have so deeply instilled in me. The image of God as an old white man with a white beard who is up in "Heaven" (aka the sky) looking down on me smiling, or who is angry and about to "smite me" (whatever that means) continues to haunt me! I want so badly to pull away from this boxed in image of a creator and these rigid, unemotional, questioning, but never REALLY doubting people who follow this God. Reading through some of these stories at this point in my life lights a new fire in my understanding of what it looks like to see the Old Testament as living breathing work that I can continue to learn from. I suppose in one word if I were to describe these stories and the image they leave me with now is "dirty." 

So it is quite the change. I feel it is my duty as one who claims Christianity and claims to somewhat understand the ins and outs of scripture to actually read it. I can no longer rely on these concepts of God that I formed when I was a child. Concepts where killing a man was him accidentally falling (like in Prince of Egypt) when in the scripture it says Moses "looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand" (Exodus 2:12). Now I am not inferring that it was bad for a 3rd grade Brandon to see those cartoon stories and video clips, of course it makes sense to depict the stories in that light. However, I am frustrated with the 22 year old Brandon for allowing himself to continue to rely on those thoughts solely. Through out my undergrad I was challenged with these thoughts and challenged with knowing the Bible, but maybe I haven't made the effort, maybe I haven't been as passionate, maybe I was so much more concerned with reading the Bible as a textbook and not as a book that can provoke REAL life change. Maybe I was putting the Bible itself in a box. A box that was full of cartoon characters that fit neatly into my 3rd grade theology, right next to that big old white bearded God. So now I will keep reading, I think I am falling in love with the stories of people with real doubts, failures, pains, triumphs, fears, mistakes, victories and real emotions. I suppose in short I am falling in love with these people obeying, ignoring, failing and all the while desperately doing all they can to get to know the creator. Shouldn't we do the same? So here we go, onward through Exodus, coming with?