I can finally say this without getting tagged as a mopey, bitter man

I do not like Valentine's day. 


I've never been allowed to say that, because I've always been single on V-day.  And if you say you hate valentine's day while you're single, people automatically assume you're bitter and lonely.  They would have been so right, because I was always so bitter and lonely on V-day.  Every year.  Boy, was I miserable.  Not. 

I just never got why it turned into such a big deal.  Couples automatically got all mushy come this time of year and went to great lengths to have the perfect valentine date.  Single people moped around and whined about how they didn't have anything to do on valentine's day with anyone special.  It's stupid.  Why does a certain day of the year have to bring that out?  Life is normal, then suddenly its February 14 and most people freak out like they're either getting married the next day or they're going to die alone because on this one day out of their whole lives they don't have that someone special right now. 
Maybe i'm just cynical.  sure i guess it's nice for people to be able to have a special day.  it's a good reason for some quality time with your significant other.  I just don't like what it does to the single people.  Or more laccurately, what they do with it.  I was single for every other valentine's day  of my life, and i was fine.  Me and my (non-taken) boys would treat it just like every other saturday  night when the other guys had dates.  We survived.  Somehow.
 Valentine's day should just be less of a big deal.  But as long as ads can suck consumers into chocolate and flower spending sprees,  I don't think it'll die down.


then again, there's  a giant basket of cookies and candy on my desk from my mom. 

maybe valentine's day isn't so bad.

I guess I DO have a loyal reader

Jordan Vogel is awesome.

Something Catchy to Grab your Attention

Well..I was finally going to put the link to this on facebook to draw in a huge fanbase and loyal readers and stuff.  And then i realized that when i added the link, it showed my latest blog.  Whose first words involved "Core 100".  At that point, I thought to myself, "Wow, what a great way to make anyone at Dordt College lose interest in my blog immediately."  Hence, this post.  Just filler.  To suck you all in to read this.  And in this case, "all" likely consists of three people.  Maybe four if I'm lucky. 

The other day I realized that most of the time when I write in here, my blogs talk mostly about blogging.  And here I am again, blogging about blogging.  I'll try to stop that.  But no promises.  Please keep reading?

Redemption's Song

This was for my Core 100 project.  I know, I know, its Core 100, I didn't need to try so hard, but once I got started I wanted it to be good.  Whether it is or not is debatable and up to you.  As with that other super long thing I wrote, this is meant to tell a story, so the rhyming might be subpar.  Oh, and this is exaggerated to make a point.  So when it seems extreme, thats why.  and stuff





Just below heaven and right above hell

Mankind is caught in between where he dwells

We are the children of Adam and Eve

Who’ve followed their footsteps by being deceived

Created and cared for by God’s loving hand

That kept us from falling before we could stand

But we took the promises given to us

And threw them away and we tore down his trust

We turned our backs on the hope that we had

And left him behind as we never looked back

We lost ourselves wandering through the night

Stumbling further away from the light

Refusing to listen to that guiding voice,

We’ve set all our traps on our own legs by choice

You come to us, begging us only to stay

But you find us crawling the opposite way

You’ve offered us hope in return for our lives

A chance at rebirth and an end to the fight

But our swollen eyes are too blind to behold

Our one chance at rescue from this hellish hole

You stand at the top of the pit where we lay

Where we’ve dug out holes that will soon become graves

You’ve thrown us a rope and you’ve offered us help

But we take the rope and instead hang ourselves

We’ve burned every bridge made for us to get home

And instead choose to drown in the waters below

But in comes the mercy that holds us afloat

And grace like a viper that won’t let us go

What once seemed irrep’rable begins to mend

When Angels like ambulances now descend

Cherubim sing like the sirens that sound

“What once had been lost is eternally found”

They wing me above from the hell down below

And pick up the pieces of me as they go

Ascension so swift and so far from my death

To places much greater than from where I left

Broken and beaten, I’m laid on the clouds

And brought up above where a voice cries aloud

“My child, what is it you’ve done to yourself?

What is this disaster you’ve brought on yourself?

I formed your frail body when you were conceived

And made you like me so that you could be free

So what are these chains doing tied ’round your limbs

And whose are these shackles that bind up your hands?

I gave you a life and my love from the start

But you took my promise and tore it apart

I made you, my child, but now you’ve gone astray

You lived in my fold but you wandered away”

At this I cry out as I fall to my knees

“Oh God, can there be any mercy for me?

You gave me your all and I gave you my worst

Your love I’ve trampled and your name I’ve cursed

I’ve broken your heart and betrayed you again

I’m sorry for everything I ever did”

But from his right hand came a man much like me

With holes in his hands and scars on his feet

He looked at me sadly as tears wet his cheeks

He stepped to me as he spoke these words to me

“I know who you are and I know where you’ve been

I’ve walked down the same beaten path you once did

Temptations you’ve felt and the choices you’ve faced

I’ve walked through those trials, but never betrayed

And though you have faltered and fallen instead

I’ve helped you back up time and time again

I wept for you, bled for you, suffered and died

Only so that I could give you new life”

“But how can you love me with all that I’ve done?

I’m no more to you than your prodigal son

My voice yelled loudest to urge your arrest

My hands held hammers that nailed through your flesh ”

I looked at Him hopelessly, turning away

He turned me around and he stopped me to say

“My love for you has no beginning or end

I’ve cared for you since long before time began

And now that you’re here, you won’t ever forget

The mercy I’ve shown you that canceled your debts

So lift up your head, wipe the tears from your face

Son, you’re forgiven for all your mistakes”

I cannot believe all these things I’ve just heard

I cannot describe what I’ve witnessed with words

I stand before God and the angels above

Amazed by the reaches and depths of this love

The judge and the jury are at my defense

And show the accusers my new innocence

The curse has been lifted, the devil brought down
Hell and her fury cannot touch us now

Never again will I come to see harm

Forever I’m held in my God’s loving arms

Choirs of angels sing redemption’s song

While my father faithfully carries me on

The end