Tall trees

Tall trees
Roots planted
Deep deep into the concrete floor
Branches motionless, leaves still.
In the great wind of joy and change
Nothing.
The peace that passes all understanding. Does not understand why.
The house of God has become a forest full of deep rooted trees.
But those trees don't bend for no one, nor give praise for the leaves
they were so graciously given.

Dustin

Y can't we be friends ?

I got a question.... I need to ask somebody.
Why is it so hard to say hi? R people really as pissed off as they look and seem.
Filling out a application the other day I came across a question that said " in general do you think that most people are good."
What kind of question is that. Have we all really lost our faith in people?
Has it gotten so bad that we stop attempting to get to know people and smile and say hi just cuz its work and we're so "unhappy".
I believe that just because in the outside we see all the crap that the news and the presidential (both) candidates are spreding about each other and all the chaos on the world. That that in no means should be a basis on our and in general everyones life .
God created us as good God pleasing people.
In the very depths of everyone. Is a good person. Even the worst person has the ability in them to do something good.
A smile. Eye contact. Opening the door for someone.
A few days ago I held the door open for some older ladies and one of them replied " and who said chivalry was dead"

Let's learn to smile more. Say hello to people that you work with. Stop and hold the door open for someone no matter their age.

God is good to us. We need to respect his creation more

Dustin

This is your life. R u who u wanna be?

So this isn't a video blog but I m at work and was thinking.
Sometimes that is not the best thing for me to do but what can I say,

Its so strange how things happen. One day you don't worry about what's going to happen. Re next you start to question everything that got you to the the place your at now.
Y does that happen.
Why have I always been searching?

When you know what its like to know that your in Gods will then you start to compair that feeling with every other decision you make.
Knowing that your in that place is like nothing else you'll ever know.
Why have I not felt that for a while.
I have had so much growing inside me for the last 5 years that it really saddens me that I'm not making decisions that let me use those things .

Gods will be done in Everything I do. My next step. My next oppourtunity . My next move. Let it be you

Dustin

New Idea

Hey all, I know how much you miss my shining face so I thought that instead of just typing out my blogs, you could get to hear my voice and face and everything.

I'll be doing to video blogging the next few times to see how it'll go...
Let me know what you think.

WARNING.

These are going to be very heart felt blogs, not just random crap that most people talk about. NO POLITICS or anything like that. Just me and my heart.

Cleaning out the closet

So now is the time... today is the day...

I think that everyone needs a little closet cleaning from time to time. 

And today is my day.

There are alot of things that have been stealing my time, my joy and my life.

Things that don't take any effort of brain power.

Things that are not benefitting me in any way.

Those things need to go and need to be replaced with things that matter .

Why don't people learn another language? 

Why don't we memorize all the presidents

I have been cluttering up my life with to much crap. 

And I am starting today with that cleaning... 

I'll keep you updated.

Peace and love to all

I can't get no..... SATISFACTION!!!

Well.. it's been a WHOLE 3 months since I've up and moved to Alton, IL. And let me say, it's been a struggle.  A blessing but  a struggle. 

My biggest prayer is for my Job.... it started out as a blessing that i had a job when I got here but now anymore. I need a new job... REALLY bad. I can't be here  much longer. It has done nothing but make it harder on me to live. I can't pay my bills... I just need to be in a new place. 

I know that alton it where I am locationly supposed to be but The holiday inn is not the place... 

PRAY

WHAT A FEELIN

Well It finally happend.... Not more waiting. I went Skydiving and I was the most incredible thing I have ever done in my life. I don't know how to describe it. It is the most peaceful thing I have done. Praise God that someone came up with that. 

Sitting in testing !!

Sitting in testing !!
Everyone looks like zombies
Clutching their blue medical blankets
Awaiting the results.
Do I stay or do I go.
There are alot of people who still read. You think that with everything that distracts us. That reading would take to much thinking . But I see alot of big books. I guess that when there is nothing
else left. Reading I'd still ok.
Everyone wearing an ALT worries they r out unless someone does not make it.
1 grand is alot of change and help in peoples lives.
But there are many of us that will have to settle for 1 hundred bucks.
Please god I wanna be pricked by needles . I wanna pay my bills;)
I need this money to happen. Let this alternet go.

Dustin

I've found my calling........! People.

I'm the type of person that it takes slot to get me emotional. 99% of the time its because of God doing something cool in my life . And the past week its been just that.
I m so in awe of him sometimes. The best moments but also the most humbling ones are the times when something id already known Is reaffirmed byHim. And this week has been just that . On wed caleb preached at his church and talked about outreach . I m not to sure what it was that hit me so hard but I got so pumped up for some adopt- a- block and some real ministry stuff. Ive been thinking and praying about it all this week and yesterday it really hit me. People. People are my calling. Hurting people not the ones that are all put together and ready for the end. Not the holier then thou people. The ones that simply need to know that there is a God out there that loves them and wants what's best for them. The single mom who gives so much of herself to feed her kids that she goes without . The kids who go to school with a garbage bag for a back pack cuz they can't afford anything better. Those are my calling. And I'll be darned if I let Satan stand in the
way of that calling.

Y I love Him

I'm kinda getting in a rytham (spelled wrong) with this whole blogging thing. 

So I'm sitting in my kitchen, my roomies are out having worship practice for tomorrow night and I'm here alone....Y?, cuz I just didn't go. 

I had the day off and I sat and did a whole lot of nothing.... well I worked out with Billy Blanks and then went upstairs. 

WOW what an exciting life I live. 

But God is good. I love him Lots and he makes everything right in my life. 

There have been many times that I wonder why I chose to love God. It's not because my dad is a pastor.

It's not because I have to.

Or that I have some obligation to Love him.

I do because I can.

I do because He makes my life better.

He makes the sun shine and the grass grow.

He gives me the ability to have a purpose greater than myself.

To have a calling.

To lead and to fallow.

To sit and know that he is God and that he will never Give me anything that I can't handle.

Yes at times I get stressed and I don't know up from down, but he lets me feel him and Love him. 

And I love him and serve him because when I'm dumb, and make a HUGE error in my day.

He still has his arms open to me and welcomes me in for a big all consuming Hug.

With all the crap that is out there. all the things that I could be doing right now... The bad things that I could be getting myself into. 

I know that I have a God that no matter what. He is there. I'm so amazed by my God.

He is so great, is moves my soul to a deeper place. A higher place.

He's indescribable. He's my best friend. He gives and gives and gives some more. 

WOW... .really. I know my calling.

It's to love God, it's to always no matter what, wake up in the morning and sing his praises. 

He is in control. of my heart, my emotions, my love, my time and my MONEY.....:) 

I'm called to go anywhere and love him, I'm called to Africa and see his hand in the lives of people who don't have anything but love him more than life. 

I'm called to the one and only thing that keeps my alive. HIM. 

Peace, Love .... and God's grace.  

If I only had a......

Well Here I am, sitting at the St. Louis Bread Co. Pondering my next move.

I made this huge change in my life this past month moving to Alton, Il. I know that it's God but It's really taking it's tole on me. 

I've been getting up around noon everyday...I hate that. 

I've only been working like 25 hours a week. (not enough or what I owe)

And not really seeking out why? I'm here.

You know when you finally make a step in the right direction and then once your there, it does not seem like it was originally envisioned. That's where I am. I seem to just be thinking so much. I have a purpose. I have a calling. I have a goal for my life, To minister and do God's will but it's hard with all the pressures of the world around you. Now my pressure is money. I have all this stuff I owe (bills) and I go from a job that paid 10 an hour 40+ hours a week down to this 7.50 and not even 30 hours a week. I can not live off of that. But God is in Control. He always has been and always will be.

I really want to start speaking again. I sent out some emails to some churches around and so I'l see what happens. Also I am supposedto be going to Wapato to speak sometime this summer.. O how I wish it were soon. I miss speaking, I need to start writing down all the things that God has been doing in me and organizing them into sermons. 

Did you know that the hamberger patty was invented in the late 1800's but the thought of putting it on a Bun was not till around the 1900's. 

Way is it that we think that it just kinda happened. That someone sat down and put meat and bun and tomatoes and katchup together and that's how it has always been.

I'm really learning that God brings things together in HIS timing. Not ours. I might not be full completing and it might not even be YOU who does it all but it gets added to as the years go by. I german who made the Patty might not have even been around for the rest of the additions to it but it don't matter. It started with Him. 

This is only the begging of the story of my life. Alton is playing a supporting roll and back drop for this time a season but it won't end here.

I just need to find out why it's here...I know it is but not sure where and why.

The day has come

Well, The day has come....Kinda sad, kinda excited. 

I'm beginning to miss my family here already. The last few months (9 months to be exact) have been so incredible. I love my family even more than i did..

You know that you have to love family to some extent cuz they are blood but after you see them, live with them and see who they are for more than just a week vacation during the summer, you love them even more.

Kathy, Rick and Tara have been so incredible. I love them more then they could ever know. I know their friends, they are my friends now. I have lived with them and laughed with them. 

Being able to go to church with my grandma has been one of the greatest things of my life. She has a special place in my heart.

I know that all of my family out here will be here for a long time but Leaving them means so much more.

Grand junction (palisade) has become a home. It is an incredible place for me. 

God is so good, He moves in ways that I can not see. My aunt has given me some incredible advise the last months. She is so strong. God moved me here for a reason. At the time I had no idea what that was. Now I know. It was for my family. It was to be able to call them family and love them more then family. 

Leaving tomorrow means a brand new start. Leaving old things and creating new memories and times with God. 

I'm loving more then i ever have before , I'm learning more then ever before and Loving God in new ways. 

I take my whole life here with me. Leave the things that need to be left and take the things  that I have learned to my new home.

I"LL BE BACK!!!

I'm on it likfe blue bonnet

So I know that I have really slacked on the whole Blog thing. and I know that there are a lot of people that I don't get time to talk to that learn about my life through this.

So. here is a really good recap of the last like 4 weeks.

I was going to quit and the Holiday Inn and move to the Marriott back in April, so I put in my 2 weeks and told everyone I was moving hotels but then I had a Conversation with my friend Rachel and she asked me if I had considered going to Alton, Il where my best friend Caleb was and working at his church some and stuff.
So I started thinking about it and knew inside of me that it was right.
So instead of Rachel moving up here and us getting a place together, (which was so hard finding a place out here in Grand junction) we though, "what if we just moved to Alton and got an Apt.

So we talked to Caleb, I told the Marriott that I was not leaving and asked if they could find me a job out there.

I starterd looking a Apt's in and around Alton and was finding some stuff but not much. THEN, I went to craigslist.com and was looking at apts in St. Louis (not Alton) and came across a house for rent IN Alton (not St. Louis) 900 a month for a 3 bedroom 2 bath.

I text Caleb and he looked it up and by the end of the week, it was ours!!!

So as it stands, rachel will be here this friday, ANd on the 5th of June, we are on the way to ALTON!!!!

I'll start my new job the next week.

GOD IS SO GOOD> it's amazing what he puts in place when you willing to move (in move ways than one)

It needs to be done. He's my brother

So yesterday I had a guest at the hotel tell me that I should be in the Military... HA HA HA. I know that it's not for me. But there is someone in my life that I look up to a whole lot. My brother. He will always be a US MARINE and to me, he has saved my life. He keeps me free. Just was feeling very appreciated. We don't have to wait till Memorial day or Veterans day or some holiday to thank someone you know that served our country. 

Well sleep well, and while we sleep in our nice beds and feel like we slave away at our jobs.  There are men and women all over the world making sure we can live.

Its been a long time..

Hey all, I know that it has been a while since I wrote anything but I'v been workin like 60 hours a week. And tonight I am way tired. I got a lot built up inside me so I'll be back soon

Transitions PEOPLE Transitions are GOOD

One thing that I realized last night that people don't ever talk about is the transition time between the big stuff.

I was having a conversation last night with a friend and I began to realize that 

GOD LOVES TRANSITIONS.

I have heard many times people use the verse "going  from glory to glory" and that is great. But I think that people get into this routine that "glory" means BIG, HUGE LIFE CHANGE. I think that is a huge error.

We love thinking that we know what is going on and that we have control of our lives. 

I want everyone who reads this blog to do something for me right now.

STOP READING AND THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU WANNA BE IN 5 YEARS.

I know that people ask that question alot and if we think about it. How does it usually sound.

FINANCIAL SECURITY, FAMILY, GOOD JOB, NICE HOUSE, LIVING MY DREAM. 

It is not a question that only applies to kids and teens. It is something that we all think about. 

But rarely will you hear someone answer that question like this.

I want a 6 month period where I don't have a job. I want to know what what is going on in my life. I want to get into a huge fight with my wife and agree to not agree. 

I doubt it. 

Because we don't like transitions. We don't. 

WHY?

Because we want to get right into the next thing. We want to have no down time. We hate sitting around.

But I think that God loves the transitions of our lives because it makes us sweat a little. We hate down time. Some people say the love it but You know they dont. U think that you don't get anything accomplished with down time.

Lets use the example of a Broadway show. 

If you were watching a great show, paid lots of money to sit where your sitting . and after every scene, they stopped. Dead silence. and right into the next thing. No music, no dropping of the curtain. U just watched everything stop. I would hate to go from a hugely emotional scene where everyone dies but 2 people and then 2 seconds late be in a huge festival all loud and everything.

No one wants that. 

God Gives us transitions for a reason. To get us to slow down. To take some time to get ourselves together. Pay off bills, work. 

Cherish the transitions in Life. Just make sure you get something out of it and dont just get by waiting for the next 

GLORY

This one comes with a warning.... don't get hurt

If you are someone who reads this and think that it pertains to you then ok. But I'm just venting. This makes me feel better. So don't get hurt. Don't call me up and ask me y I wrote this. 

NOthing that I write means anything but what I am feeling at this exact moment. RIGHT NOW.

Tonight I am tressed. A little mad (at myself) and agitated. 

Y do I feel like I don't know what I am doing. No to be more honest. Why do I feel like the people around me don't think I know what I am Doing.

I struggle. With many things. But one thing I know and have made a point in my life is not running off of emotions. 

I pray against that fact that SO many people run off their emotions and get themselves in trouble. 

I just wanna run. Runaway. Run to a town where I know someone and just love God. Y can't I just love God and not get all chastized for it. 

Y? I don't get it

I know that I suck with money. I know that I could have stuff saved away for things I want but still be able to pay my bills. I know

I hate when people question me. NOt just me But question what God says to me. 

        REMEMBER DON'T GET UPSET

I just wanna cry and get it over with. I wann go to South Africa and just love God and love people.

Y do people gotta make that so Freakin complicated. 

I don't get it. 

Someone Tell me Y?

I wanna same and move and  get my own place and love God and pour into people and Live my calling. 

I never wanted a life of safety. BEING SAFE ALL THE TIME SUCKS!

I want to dare to love God and see what Happens. I wanna love him with everything and see what he DOES.

I don't care. I love the people around me but I hate what they say sometimes,

PRAISE JAHOVA that I can still love him.

Stop and ask for directions!

So I'm standing behind the front desk of the Holiday Inn in Grand junction (my Job) and wondering when I am going to get to move. I just checked in a man who is moving here but his house will not be ready till monday.
When will I get to move. I want out. I know that God brought me to GJ for a reason but for some reason I really feel like March or April will end my time in Colorado. You know that uneasy feeling you get when your not 100% sure where you are going? Well That is where I am at right now.
I hate when things change so suddenly Because I feel like It might just be me that is feeling that way not God.
But April would make it 6 months and that is way longer then I thought that i would be here in the first place.
The apt search is not going as well as I would have hoped. I am thinking about Chicago or maybe even Seattle..... I miss that City and I need to find a place that I can really get involded in. I know that that sounds like a bad excuse because I could get involved here but I know that this is only temporary. I miss ministry really really bad, I am going to put in my application in some places and see what happens.
I need to be somewhere else. It has nothing to do with my family or my job. I love them both. But I just turned 23 and there is this sudden urge to plant myself somewhere.

ASking directions never hurt anyone. Even guys need to ask from time to time.

WHY.....WHY!!!

Have You ever wondered WHY?

Ever just sat and wondered why

I am a sinner.

People sin. 

Everyone. You, me, Tommy Barnett, Joyce Meyers. We all do. 

We can't get away from it.

And you know what is so funny..... so shocking..... so amazing

That with every thing that we have done, every sin we have committed. 

Every thought, action, word. 

That God still loves us.

I just sinned. But he loves me.

You know when your mom and dad tell you they love you. Sometimes you know when they mean it and other times you know that they are doing everything in their power to not smack you. I know how it feels to believe it when my mom tells me she loves me at the end of a phone call. or when my dad used to tell me when i was little that he loved me. 

I think....no, i know that the biggest down fall of man is not adam, it's not sin.

It's the fact that we don't believe His love. I don't. I know that it's there, I know that it's true. 

But just cuz you know something might be true. We always have this feeling in the back of our minds that "until i see it or feel it for myself, I don't believe it"

I've screwed up, I still do. I know why I still do. 

I'm human. I screw up all the time. But as much as I can quote it to the people around me. I don't believe it. 

It's so hard. I kills me to know that I could be so much closer to the God that I love if I truly began to believe his love.

It's unconditional

UNCHANGING

INSURMOUNTABLE

INCREDIBLE

MIND-BLOWING

EVERLASTING

CONTINUOUS 

CALMING

EARTH SHATTERING

NEVER ENDING

 IT HAS THE ABILITY TO TAKE YOU FROM HELL AND PUT YOU IN HEAVEN

IT'S MYSTERIOUS

IT'S WARM

WHOLE

UN STOPPABLE

AND NEITHER 

LIFE NOR DEATH

NEITHER ANGELS NOR DEMONS

NOR HEIGHT OR DEPTH

NOR ANYTHING IN ALL CREATION

NOT MAN, NOT WOMAN, NOT DRUGS, NOT SEX, NOT ALCOHOL, NOT DIVORCE, NOT DEPRESSION, NOT LONELINESS, NOR FAMILY, OR FRIENDS

NOT EVEN YOU!

CAN SEPARATE ME FROM HIS LOVE. 

PEACE   

People! People who need people!

So I just got back from Disneyland tonight. I was there with my family for 7 days. It was so incredible to be around them and be in CALI. It also really got me thinking. 

On the way home I was listening to a sermon by Rick Godwin on my ipod and he was 

talking about successful people. He got to a part where he was talking about problems and the alot of people think that they are going to reach a point in their life where the fight will stop, that all the pain will stop.

Not true. He said "you will never not be going though something" When Moses was leading the people through the desert to the promise land many of them died and did not make it. They knew it was there but they didn't have it in them to make all the way to the end. 

I had a great time in Cali but even being back in Grand Junction for 6 hours.... it's all hitting me. I'm getting very bored and restless where I am right now but I know that there it more ahead. I know that because of what I have been called to do with me life, that I will always face something. 

Praise God that we have him to lead us and that "no weapon formed against me shall prosper" "nothing will seperate me from his love"

Just a short thing that was on my heart..