Photos

Here are some random photos I've taken with my iPhone. The first is an advertisement for the Great Wolf Lodge (I liked it because of the two wolfies high pawing in the background). The next was taken on the asphalt outside of Carl Corder's house. The rooster and the t-rex was taken from a book in the children's section of Border's at Purdue. The last photo is a self-balanced blueberry snowman that I made at an after-church meeting.






Time for a few quick updates on my life:

I got the skateboards I ordered in the mail on Monday! This is the first batch of boards we've ordered to test and experiment with, and is consequently the beginning of King Size Skateboards. I'm pumped for the spring to really start hitting the skate community with the ministry.

And as for jobs, I'm still substitute teaching. I had my first job at the high school and I liked it the best of any grade so far (I've had every sector now: elementary, junior high, and high school). I got a call from a place called Kelly Scientific, and I have an interview on Friday with them! I'm pretty excited to see where this leads.

Creator of Biological Wonders

Today I spent some time marveling at the vast diversity of life, from bacteria to bats, amoebas to marmots, and poison dart frogs to duck-billed platypi. I thanked Him for squids and for tentacles. They're really quite interesting. He thought of all this and more and actually made it. Think about it. Not like when a man sits down and widdles a twig into a figurine. God uses atoms to create life. The closest we humans come to that is procreation.

Some might say that scientists have done that in the lab. But they've only used what God already made: He originally created it. He imagined birds, each in its unique color scheme, and then made it. Wow! I bet He had fun making this little guy in Grapevine, TX.


On a more serious note, my recent encounters with "cross" necklaces has been quite alarming. A month or so ago I played guitar for my friends' wedding in Mitchell, IN. As I pulled into the town, I noticed I was over an hour early. About the same time I saw some skateboarders going the opposite way down the street. I pulled over and asked if I could skate with them. I got out my board and we rode to the local bank and hit up a manual pad/gap. They had never skated with anyone from the "big city"; it was a good little session. One of the guys had a very shiny gold cross on his neck. I told him that I liked his necklace, and here's what He said:

"Thanks. Yeah, it's fourteen carats. I got it for seventy-five percent off. I banged the jeweler's daughter and she gave me the discount." Then he laughed.

That was not the response I was expecting. To say the least, it broke my heart.

I was subbing at my old junior high on Tuesday, and noticed quite a few young black men running through the halls and one in my class with long gold chains and thick, three inch gold crosses with embedded jewels in them.

I'm not saying that I am incapable of mocking the cross of Jesus, I'm just saying it's much easier to notice the ways others publicly demean it. Jesus said to take up our cross daily. It wasn't an adorn yourself with precious material and make sure everyone knows your status kind of statement. He carried His cross in obedience to God, who led Him to the hill of Calvary where He shed the last of his blood by being hung to death on a wooden cross that He was nailed to by the Roman soldiers who mocked Him. Is that what rappers like Lil' Wayne are doing? I can't say, but I know for sure that Jesus would not be inducing children to idolize and fixate on women in a completely carnal and perverted way.

He shed His blood. Not like when I get a splinter and there's a sliver of blood which I quickly cover with a bandage. He spilled blood. Imagine filling a large glass with water, and then spilling it all on the floor. Yeah, Jesus spilled His blood. He did it because He was being obedient to God. He followed in response to God. Carry your cross? Gold necklace that is completely overpriced?

I don't use this word often, because of it's strong meaning to me, but I mourn for the generation that is growing up idolizing popular culture icons like these. I am brought to tears for the reckless mention of satan/lucifer in society, and especially amongst young people.

For me to be a failure doesn't requisite that I have Jesus; He is required for me to be triumphant.

Skateboarding in the Midwest

California skateboarders are spoiled, but Praise God for the Ghetto Berrix! It's so nice to have a warm spot skate, even if it does get a little crowded. Yesterday was a great session for me. I landed three out of six frontside 360 ollies that I attempted, and I even landed a backside 360 ollie (but really a 270 with pivot landing). I'm getting better at fakie five-0's, and I landed a nosegrind-five-0-180 out on the box. It's a circus trick, really, but it's fun.

I'm getting excited, too, because I have a "show" this friday at the Starbucks in Avon. It starts at 7 and will go for around an hour or so. Today I'm going there to put up flyers for it. Say a prayer if you think about it.

Back on track. Living in Indianapolis and being a skateboarder can be harsh at times, only because of the weather. My friend Ryan is friends with Jireh Sports in Indy and they let us use their facility every weekend for skate sessions. It's such a cool thing, and we have some of the best skaters from the city coming there every weekend to skate with us. I'm praying that they spend that time in the presence of God.

Grapevine and Substituting

This is a video I put together from my family's trip to Grapevine, TX. There some footage from the Fort Worth Water Gardens, the Dallas World Aquarium, and the Grapevine Botanical Garden. The best part of the trip was definitely getting to see Christy for two and a half days.



Today was my first day as a substitute teacher; I worked at one of my old elementary schools (Robey) and filled in for the music teacher there. It was a handful. I had kids from Kindergarten to 3rd grade. I found that the older the kids were, the better I could expect the class to be. Thankfully, my schedule was only for the second half of the day. Kids were stabbing one another with sharpened pencils, crying because someone said that the kid was in love with one of their classmates, or running around and hiding. All we did in class was I put on some music and they colored for thirty-five minutes.

But one class was different.

I brought my guitar and played for one of the 3rd grade classes. At first, they all sat quiet waiting for what would happen. And when I started playing a little bit and singing, they all started laughing. I stopped, and wondered if I really was making a stupendous fool of myself. I asked why they were laughing and they said it was cool, they never had a teacher sing and play guitar before, so they were surprised. I finished the song, and played it two more times--at their request. One girl in the front row I could tell was really enjoying it. So much so that she drew a picture of me holding a guitar with hearts all around it, and wrote "I love your music, you rock, ya, the one and only Mr. Meador." And another girl drew me a big multi-colored heart. A couple of the boys before class was over asked me to draw a guitar and then asked for my autograph.

That was the high point of the day.

I don't have much to go on, but I think I'll enjoy teaching junior high math tomorrow much more.

Multiple Thoughts

This is a picture I took last week while driving by the Eagle Creek Resevoir at sunset with gulls everywhere:


I've been doing a little recording since I've graduated, and I haven't seen much product from it as of yet-- but there's still much work to be done. I have a lot of respect for recording artists. I'm trying to create some "good" recordings to have to maybe sell or hand out to people...

I get to see Christy in less than three days, and I'm really excited! It hasn't been that long since school got out, but she's someone I never want to be far from for very long.

Skateboarding is going well, I've been fine tuning the tricks I know and essaying to learn new ones. It's fun when you get on your board and it just feels natural--you land all your flip tricks and grinds, you don't have to force anything. Then other days it's like someone snuck into your room in the middle of the night and stole your mojo via syringe.

Writing music can be very laborious. It makes me sigh heavily, at times. I'm getting better at remembering why I write music when I get really frustrated; that is, to worship God with my music. It's funny, when I first started writing "praise" music it really sucked... bad. But my heart was in the right place. It's sad when I forget that God is my muse. I believe there's a harbor between the seas of worship and hard work, and I want to dock there.

I'm not into the whole "image" thing that it seems some recording artists are into. I'm not really trying to sell albums, but I also know that my desired demographic (Christian scientists/science students) would be hard to go platinum with considering their numbers. I've been told that some of my worship lyrics are "weird." I'm fine with that. What I'm not fine with, however, is the attitude of some Christians when they come into a worship setting. And it's sad really, I don't mean to come off as upset, because I'm not, but I know we can all get more out of worship than we are currently. To some who think they are far in worship, that may offend; and to those who are just learning, maybe they understand it all too well. I don't understand worship, necessarily. What keeps me growing in my RELATIONSHIP with Jesus is that I forget it's a real relationship. He helps me remember and change how I'm acting towards Him. Sometimes I'd feel better, I think, if God just demanded select things from us on a certain schedule; but He's not like that. He wants it all, all the time. And He deserves it, to be honest. I don't know where the line is though.

Jesus told us to pray that God's will in Heaven would be done on earth.
Right now.
Yes, next week.
But right now.
Yes, tomorrow,
but right now.
All the time.

So what does that mean? Generally people use the "medicine" example: I'm not going to take Advil for my headache, I'll just pray and believe God will heal it. *I'm not bashing this* But what about eating? Will we eat in Heaven? Is there anyone whose faith leads them to turn down all food believing that God will nourish their body? I've talked to God a few times about where the line is? It's unclear, at least to me. At what point do we rely fully on God, and no one else. Many people would be out of jobs if this really happened. No doctors, no groceries, no clothing stores, nothing. We would get everything from God. And that's how it's going to be in Heaven. So why isn't it like that here if Christians have been praying for over two thousand years that that would be the case? I can't tell you. I do know that God works through people, and I do know that God is the only reason that I have multiple shirts, food everyday, and why I haven't gotten polio or measles. Sometimes we just have to dig deep to see His hand.

I don't want to have to pay for health insurance when I'm out on my own because I have full confidence that God is able and willing to heal me of any disease or ailment. But what about the Christian who works at that insurance company who's trusting God to provide their salary. I'm just saying I don't have it figured out and I'm definitely confused about most of it, but I want all of Heaven right now. He told us to pray for it, and I want it. I just don't see it right now and it makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong or if that is something not available to us. I do wonder if my mindset about these things is worldly. I don't want to pay health insurance because that's a little more money per month I could give, and I would give it. Why should I pay for something that God provides? Maybe He wants to provide it through other people?

I'll quit rambling now. This is tough for me to articulate at times.