Epic

Have you ever done something really stupid, but at the time you thought it was genius? Welcome to my 8th grade year(s). That’s right, there is an “s” after year. And it all started with a few friends getting together and deciding to fail 8th grade on purpose. 

You have to understand at the time I was still a teenager who was still reeling from a recently divorced home. I also had a group of idiot friends who were also trying to stay afloat in their own shipwrecked families. We were young, angry, and tired of adults telling us what to do. Can you relate?  So we decided to band together and make a stand - one which we thought was absolutely genius.  “You aren’t going to fail me this time. I’m going to fail you!”  That was the message we thought was going to be remembered as we all failed 8th grade. We expected getting some flack. But what we got was not what we predicted.

The next year most of my idiot friends were expelled, leaving me and my best friend Paul to return to the gawks and stares of our new classmates - the same classmates who were the 7th graders we made fun of the previous year. There is nothing more humiliating and annoying than to sit next to them in a class you already had, with a teacher you still can’t stand. Our once bannered genius idea was crashing into the realm of stupidity - an 8th grade realm that lasted 36 torturing weeks. Even though we survived and passed the second 8th grade year, Paul and I were both asked not to return.  

To this point in my life, I had been forced to go to church and endure the predictable services. I reluctantly sang the songs from the back row as I played with the half pencils located in the back of the seat in front of me. But one specific youth service, I was thinking why my life was so difficult when I realized that I was part of the problem. It wasn’t just my parents or idiot friends. I was responsible. Then I realized I didn’t want to live that same way anymore. I was tired of lying, being angry all the time, and sick of the tension I always felt. Maybe you know what that feels like, too. It was then when I started listening to my goofy youth pastor, and that night I also started listening to God. That is where I met Christ. Cue the sappy music and we all lived happily ever after? Not even close.

Going to a new school was hard. Starting out your Christian walk at a new school and not knowing anyone can be even harder. So I still stayed in touch with Paul even though we went to different schools.  Soon I began making new friends. But these new friends were different than the idiot friends I used to have at my old school. They actually brought out the best in me, rather than what happened when I was at my old school. I was invited to play volleyball with a few of them and I fell in love with the sport. But in order to be on the team I had to keep my grades up. But here is the lesson I wish to share - something changed in my life. I actually desired to keep my grades up! I even graduated top of my class. Now, was it because I suddenly got really smart? It was because what I valued had changed, and my behavior changed to reflect that. It was because I valued my new friendships, my new volleyball passion, and my new relationship with God that the way I behaved and acted in everything else had to follow and reflect that. But that is how we all act, really. If you really value something you protect it, guard it, feed it, and enjoy it, whether it be a hobby, career, relationship, or even a baseball card. Because I discovered my value in Christ, I was able to discover the value of living a life that brought value to others.

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” -Jesus Christ

What in life do you treasure the most? Where is your heart? Is what you value the same as what God would want you to value in your life? What’s in your “wallet” in life?

P.S. If you are wondering what ever happened between me and my friend Paul, that is another life lesson for another blog…

Pastor Dani Karvonen

What’s up, Epic!

It’s time for another edition of Big G’s Weekly Thoughts. This week I thought it would be a good idea to get sick for a couple days just so I could enjoy the days that I am well that much more. I spent two days with that gaggy feeling where it feels like you’ve accidentally swallowed your Adam’s apple. You spit up a brown gelatinous matter that smells like a public bathroom’s urinal cake and have “runs” that Jackie Joyner Kercey would be jealous of. If you’ve ever been sick before, you know that when your stomach is turning, EVERY FOOD COMMERCIAL COMES ON advertising the most disgusting things you’ve ever heard of. I would be on the verge of vomit express and I would hear,

“Come by Sonic and try our new 40 oz MUSTARD MILKSHAKE!”

This would send The G into fits of uproarious hurlation which apparently would challenge the bowel echelon to a “who can produce the most” competition until I was a spewing fountain of misery.

This is a slight bunny trail from the being sick topic, but when I was in third grade, I had a crush on this girl named Lauren Caffey. I had to have her notice me, and I pretty much was biding my time before I emerged as her knight in shining armor. I saw my opportunity one day when we had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. In one brilliant flash of clarity, I saw a foolproof plan to get Lauren to notice me while gaining the respect and admiration of my fellow classmates.

My plan was to eat as much pizza as I could, crawl into the ball pit, gag myself, and throw up the contents of my stomach all over the ball pit. Looking back now I can see where my plan fell perhaps just short of perfection, but at the time I honestly thought that this was my best bet. Well, needless to say, everything went just as planned. I had eaten enough pizza to bankrupt the entire Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain, then manuevered my way into the ball pit and spewed a glorious geyser of love for my thought soon-to-be wife, Lauren Caffey.

Well, Lauren Caffey disguised her love pretty well by telling everybody that I was the most disgusting person to ever live and that she didn’t think it would be too bad of an idea for me to just go ahead and die right there. Well, I read between the lines, and know to this day that my flawless regurgatative love proclamation probably has about twenty girls from my third grade class unable to get over me. Oh well, such are the responsibilities of a natural heart throb.

Farewell for this week Epic, I’ll write you guys later on next week.

-The G-

Was hatnin Epic!

I thought I would write you guys a little and tell you guys what’s been on my mind this week. I’m sure that what is on everybody’s mind is the passing of Taylor Haugen. At times like these it’s almost instinct to question God. It’s the hardest when death hits close to home, and we just don’t understand why this was necessary.

What we have to understand is that God does not come to kill or destroy. But when somebody is taken from us, we have to have faith that God is bigger than death – We have to have faith that God is able to use any circumstance and turn it for His glory. It’s not as if God is in heaven saying, “Oh crud! Now what? Oh well, there goes my plan.”

For those of you that were at Epic last week – we saw just how big God is. So many times we, foolishly, try to shrink God down in an attempt to understand Him. The only thing we have to understand about God is that He’s perfect. If we understand this – that God is HUGE and God is PERFECT, then we can have faith that His plan for all of us is perfect.

All this being said, nothing like this is ever easy. To lose someone is hard, especially when we can’t see why. What’s even more is that we may never see, in our lifetime, God’s plan fulfilled. I believe, however, that will be an amazing part of heaven – to look back on hard situations in our lives and be able to see them in accordance with God’s plan. And see how even little hardships that we endured were used for the absolute glory of God.

I know a lot of you guys have questions and remember to please feel free to always call me and ask anything that’s on your mind. Also another reminder is that Epic is at the Destin Community Center this week at 6:30. See you guys there.