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So I went on a little road trip this weekend.  A buddy and I took our 49cc scooters and drove from Tacoma, WA to Cannon Beach, OR taking all back roads due to the fact that we topped out at about 30 miles per hour.  A 200 mile trip never took so long on a motorized vehicle.  We packed our sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tools, snack food and other essentials, strapped them to the side of our hogs and away we went.  We stopped just outside a little town of Elma, WA for the night and slept in the back parking lot of the First Lutheran Church of Elma.  When we awoke in the morning, it was foggy, cold and our tummies were growling so we went into Elma and stopped for a nice breakfast at the Bee Hive Restaurant.  When we entered the locals all looked at us as if we were from outer space.  They have probably never seen two young men drift into town on bikes so small.  But soon after they continued their 12th cup of joe and forgot we even existed.  This is when something happened to me. Read the rest of this entry »

What is it about the words of affirmation from another that are so powerful? Why do our hearts almost jump out of our chest when someone looks us square in the eye and says something about us that we thought no one else knew but wish they did? How can a relationship with someone go so deep so fast in the midst of real community and honest talk of one another?

Well, those are great questions Read the rest of this entry »

I am caught this morning. I feel as thought I have been given an opportunity to see something today that I have seen my whole life but with much more clarity. You see I hate injustice! I can’t stand it in my life or in anyone else’s life. Not to through a pity party for myself but I have experienced a fairly large dosage of injustice through the years. I don’t need to go into details. I just say that to say I can spot it a mile away. I can smell it coming like a thunderstorm rolling through the Texas plains. And when I see it I still haven’t overcome all the obstacles that stand in the way of dismantling the power of them.

Here is what I mean. When I see some sort of injustice taking place in my life, whether it is intentional or not, I have a really hard time saying anything to the person in which this encounter is taking place. Basically I get offended and hurt and the enemy of my soul sees and takes advantage of the situation and starts with an onslaught of lies about the person, myself, my life and God. It sucks to be honest and usually takes a day or so and a miraculous encounter with the grace and truth of God to get my equilibrium back. When I see it in someone else’s life I fall into insecurity about 8 out of 10 times and say nothing in defense of the person until later when the are so bound up by it they need a prayer team to help them walk through it because I might just get a little on myself. Or worse yet feel like I if I help I will be associating with someone deemed lower on the social pecking order than myself thus lowering my own position. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a problem. And the problem is that I have to fight to be wherever it is that I am. Let me explain. I have this tendency to be always looking towards the next thing. What is going on next? Where is the next happening party? Where is it that I am going to find the next round entertainment or social interaction? Or where is it that I can go to encounter God next. Can you see the problem in this kind of living?

This is not new news to me. I realized I was behaving in this kind of pattern a long time ago, but never really knew why let alone how to change it. Well then it came to me. See, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever right? (Hebrews 13:8) Well if that is the case then God is outside of our sense of time. He lives without the barrier or constriction of time. In other words, to us, He is always in our now. He comes in from with the knowledge of the past and future and interacts with us in the only time we can engage in. He is always in present time, past time and future time but interacts with us in the now or present time because that is the only time that we can be part of. We cannot go into the future or take a step back into the past as much as we wish sometimes that we could. Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently in a state that was absolutely crippling spiritually and mentally that in turn sent my emotions into a tailspin.  I couldn’t tell which way was up or down, right or wrong, good or bad.  I hate these times because usually it is because there is some sort of injustice that takes place and knocks me off mental equilibrium and then spreads throughout the rest of my being like a shock wave of an earthquake.  I know that I should be past all this offense and realize that it is probably the enemy of my soul taking advantage of one of the weakest elements of my and maybe all of our personality, our past.

All growing up we have been opposed because of the greatness that has been interwoven into the fibers of our being by the loving, gracious and foreseeing King we call Jesus Christ.  The enemy of our souls has worked all of our lives to break us down mentally so that we cannot see our lives being the way that they ought to be or God in the way that Adam first saw him, as a friend without barriers.   He has tried all of our lives to blind us from noticing the Lover wooing us into the greatest of intimate relationships.  With all of the enemies works he is trying to steal a healthy perspective.  Read the rest of this entry »

You got it, I was thinking! And realized that I had no outlet for what it was that I have been thinking about. So, my good buddy over at Ainsworth Studio, (a website and graphic design firm) Josh Read, set me up with my very own blog page. Now I can get all those thoughts that I have been thinking, out. And who knows, something I say may just inspire, challenge, provoke, or maybe just anger you enough to look out into this great world that we live in and want to go and do something to improve it. Or maybe not. Either way, heres to writing, thinking, and living passionate.

happy reading,

Jay Chick