Zaza - Houston

i fly to houston tomorrow. i am staying and have a meeting in the city at hotel zaza. i thought some folks might want to see how crazy this hotel is just in case you want to fly in for a few days... also i am swimming with the Rice University Masters literally across the street at their outdoor pool. thank you state farm.

what i am.

so its been a bit since i have updated people on what's been going on. i actually don't even know where to start. i will, however, keep the seemingly unimportant things at a minimal.

last summer was probably the best summer of my life. i spend a week in the cayman islands with a big group of folks here from BloNo. i spent most of the time on the island getting toasted, but found some incremental time for scuba and your run of the mill tomfoolery. my first 100+ foot dive found me 10 feet from a nurse shark, which was so incredible. the trip rounded out with a ocean race against some elite swimmers from around the world. i met some awesome people and gained new friends. cayman will be a mainstay in my annual traveling plans going forward.

i returned state side for a few days before heading out to hawaii for a week and a half. generally it would have made more sense to take a break between the two, but that is just the way it worked out. hawaii... awesome. so different than cayman though they have many similarities. i was able to swim with some locals and found another ocean race where i was able to fend off the locals for a course record, though the local hero drafted off of me for the last 1/4 mile. there wasn't much down time during these trips, but my mind was running the whole time. so much to take in. how could i ever go back to illinois?

now to the good stuff... yes, that's right. i want folks to know that i am not the guy you may have known in high school or even in college. oh yeah... i totally still have the charming personality and witty one liners. i want people to know me for who i am now, not who i was. as i expected, moving from charleston, couldn't have been a better idea... though i was so much more than i expected. is my social life sooo much better? no. do i have so many more friends? no, but i gained the most important friend. God. never would i have thought that my saturday mornings would be spent in coffee houses reading the Bible and never would i have though that i would be there not only yearning to learn, but also praying for strangers whom i have never met. he doesn't always give me what i want or tell me what i want to hear. he is just. he is loving. and he has his own schedule that makes a lot more sense than my own.

i used to think that material things were going to make me happy. not that people don't want nice things but i had always envied people with limitless bank accounts. with money comes mo' problems (yes... PDiddy) also i used to worship swimming. shock, i know. i put it at the top of my world at the expense of relationships. i worshiped what it made me. i didn't even acknowledge the gift and what a tool it could have been.

today is different. things are so much more simplistic. i've got food, shelter, a job, and good friends. i am filled with passion, saved by grace, and i want to everyone to have the same opportunities that i have and you don't need money for this. just need to be able to seek out the truth. today i get excited to see people coming to God... how weird that would have been for me to say 5 years ago. i am in the midst of some good things with my church's college ministry of over 400 students. so many amazing things are happening.

though i long for a family i have learned to love my free time. there is so much to read. so much to see. so much to be.

life isn't easy. you live. you laugh. you learn. you hurt. you cry. you pray. you forgive. you are forgiven. you smile. and most importantly you love.