Without Bitterness

PROUD MEMBER OF THE DAWG POUND RIGHT HERE! If you cannot tell by the HUGE BOLD LETTERS on the end zone, and the orange and brown decorated throughout the stadium, this past weekend was when I officially decided to identify myself as a Browns fan. Going to your first ever NFL game does that to you. Most of you take me as a bandwagon fan for any team that wins all the time. No disrespect to the other NFL teams, but one of the biggest reasons that I have become a Browns fan is simply because it is Ohio's NFL team! The TRUE Ohio NFL team. Better than those little kittens from Cincinnati. With that aside, allow me to entertain you with the story of my very first experience at an NFL Game. It all started this past Saturday at midnight. I was on a mini-vacation with my friends in what I like to call “middle of nowhere winter cabin forest” Ohio. My brother and a couple of his friends had an extra ticket to The Browns Game, and I was the missing link. So, my best friend and I arrang

To dream bigger is to wish for a life of grandeur and fantasy. Consider Gatsby: the rich, charming, mysterious, and influential character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless masterpiece. Jay Gatsby is iconic for not only his rise to fame but his tragedy and his downfall. He would always reach out towards the shiny green light of accomplishing his dream. In addition, he had everything and more. The roads being smothered in gold everywhere he walked. A legacy of his own, made by cheating the system of hard labor and climbing the imaginary social pyramid. Little did he understand the life that he had, and how he had become a king amongst men. Unfortunately, his dream and his own vision had consumed him to the point of blindness. His desire for one single woman was the foundation for everything he ever did. It was the cause of his downfall. His dream to put all of the pieces of life’s puzzle together is what led to his demise. Falling in love with a dream only lead to his death.  Or cons

This past week was an experience that I can only compare to heaven itself. For those of you who don’t know, I have been a part of a Bible Study in Xenos Christian Fellowship. I have been involved with one of their Home Churches for about five years now (which has been since I graduated high school). Nautilus is the name of it. Ever since that fateful day five years ago when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I have been learning how to develop real friendships and learning how to not only allow people into the inner chambers of my heart and trust, but plunge myself into the relational rabbit hole that other people have in their lives. So...you can say that I have been on plenty of adventures. I have loved a lot and I have suffered a lot. As the Apostle Paul says in his second letter to Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim 4:7). It’s what I am living for. It’s what I am fighting for. As a matter of fact,