Mighty Mountains!

Oh man, Friday was a glorious day! I went into the Colorado mountains for the first time with the guys and needless to say, it was amazing! I absolutely loved it. Matt rented ATVs for everyone so we all loaded up the truck and trailer and drove a few hours for a day of amazing fun.
The mountains were absolutely beautiful! It was unreal to be up in them at the altitude that we were at (12,000ft). I also saw some ducks and turkeys, oh yeah and deer! It was legit for sure. I did learn pretty quickly that ATVs/four wheelers are powerful machines as it took me a few hours to get the hang of using them. I got stuck a few times, lost control many of times and I even went over a bump so hard and fast that it almost broke Matt's back. Whoops. Minus that and TJ's fall off the Tyler driven ATV, we all had a great time just being together, eatin dogs over the fire and doin some sick ATV jumps (I have video to prove it) I took tons of pictures that will find there way on here when I get back to Greenville.
When we got back to Englewood, I showered since I was wet and everything from the many streams and mud puddles that we crossed. It also snowed a lot in the mountains which made the experience 10 times cooler, literally. Haha. Dinner consisted of some awesome pizza and I chilled for the rest of the night with Matt. CSI and Fringe are legit shows. For realz yo! Matt told me some more stuff about the youth group at EA and everytime I hear about them, I get more and more excited about the summer. Apparently, they are excited more me to be here as well. Sweet! I can't wait til June comes. Its gonna be an amazing 2 months! God is gonna work like crazy in my life and the lives of the youth! Glory! Well its time to sleep some more. Lazy Saturday! Love you all Until next time...

Blessings
Joe
"The tongue, has the power of life and death..."

WOW, I laugh a lot.

Today was really an awesome day. Except for my morning run. I've been running a few miles a day for the past few weeks and today, running at about 5,000 to 6,000 feet in the air really was not fun. The air was really thick from like reallt when I took my first step. Matt and everyone told me that this will go away once I get used to the Colorado air. I hope they are right because I felt like I was gonna die. Haha. Jody, another staff guy for EA is super funny. We literally laughed all day long. It was so great. He might be the fnniest guy I ever met and I know a lot of funny people. Like super funny people. Jody had me rollin. Unreal!
I also had breakfast at the church and Matt cooked probably the best biscuits and gravy ever! So good. Breakfast was cool because I got to meet Darren and Don. Matt, TJ and Jody have talked everyone up in the church to be great people and it was cool to finally meet some of the people that I have heard so much about.
Matt, TJ, Jody and I talked about my internship a ton today and it was really a great meeting. I threw out so many ideas and they liked most of them. Haha. I can say now that June 2nd is when I will become a temporary resident of Colorado. Its going to be sweet! I have so many cool ideas that I want to implement with youth and everything and I basically have free reign to do a lot of awesome things. I'm so ready just to get out here and get to know all of these kids. God has such a great plan for this summer and today was a day where the Lord really started fleshing what He wanted to see me do with my time over the next few months. It's so cool!
Lastly, we had a cookout at Matt's house and I saw so many old friends and new people from EA. It was a real fun time to just fellowship and hang with the people that I will see everyday for the next 2 months. Real exciting. It's super early right now. Like 5am so sorry if I haven't been more specific with my thoughts.
In a few hours, I'm going ATVing and hiking in the mountains with the guys. It's going to be amazing. Today is going to be a sweet day. I have to make sure I get batteries for my camera because these pictures will be must-see for real! Well time to spend some time with the Lord Almighty. Until next time folks.

Blessings
Joe
Proverbs 10.19

TV in the air!

So today my day started super early because of the serious load of homework that I have with the year winding down so Im really tired right now but today has been an awesome day so I have to blog about it. Class was class, work was work but after all that I got to head out to the St Louis airport to go to Colorado. Yep bloggin from Colorado folks. Haha. The airport experience was kinda cool, kinda not cool. Here's what I mean...

The security checkpoints are extra annoying. I have to take my belt off? Really? But I do know that the likelyhood of someone stabbing me or taking over my plane is pretty low

The food is real good but why did I just pay 12 bucks for a fast food meal?

Why is it so hot in airports!

See you get the good and the bad at airports but when I got on the plane, things started to get better. Frontier airlines will be my airline of choice from now on since they have Direct TV! Yep folks, I watched American Idol, the yankees game, womens bowling and minute to win it while 30,000 ft. In the air. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Matt, my intern director picked me up at the airport and we talked about Englewood Assembly which is the church I will be interning at all summer, the whole way into Englewood and let me just say this. I know the Lord wants me here. EA is all about the broken people, the convicts, the drug addicts, I mean you name it, they want to touch their lives for the Lord. I'm pumped to meet them all over the next few days. I'm also really excited to really grow in my walk with the Lord this summer. This will be a huge preperation period in my life and its really is gonna be a great summer.

After some great burgers and tons of laughs (mainly by me) at Freddy's with TJ, Tyler and Matt its time to hit the hay. Tommorrow is gonna be a great but long day but I'm pumped to see what God's gonna do this trip. Glory! Until next time...

Blessings
Joe
Proverbs 10.19

Miracles

Random thoughts from today

1.School is almost finished and I'm gonna be swamped with stuff until next weekend
2.I'm going to Colorado tommorrow, so that will be a legit break
3.Lakers are in the Western Conference finals
4.Running after not running for a few days sucks
5. Life without facebook and twitter makes my life 10 times more productive

So today in my COR class, we talked about miracles and it was honestly one of the greatest class periods I have ever experienced for this class. My prof, Dr. Iller asked the class if anyone had any "miracle" stories to share. At first everyone was playing it scarred and not saying anything but then the stories started to flow like crazy. One guy said that his dad got electrocuted and lived thru it. Another girl said that her best friend had water on her brain and was supposed to be brain damaged for the rest of her life but instead she is an amazing singer and dancer. She also is going to college next year. Another guy said that he was diagnosed with an incurable heart disease when he was six and it almost killed him. The disease was supposed to prevent him from playing any sports. Well he plays soccer at GC. One girl said that her father was on life support for 4 months and her friends prayed for her dad everyday at church camp and he was somehow healed. Now all I can really say to this is, GLORY TO GOD. Science tries to tell us that these events can't a possibly be more than a coincidence but the Lord is not a God of chance at all.
I started to think about all of the miracles in the bible. Jesus turning water into wine. Healing the blind man with spit. Raising Lazurus from the dead. I mean really there are so many unexplainable occurances in the bible that can be classified as miracles. It's amazing. In the mist of thinking about miracles, I thought about the fact that, so many times in life we are faced with things in our lives that seem impossible but God can make anything happen. Maybe you need a miracle to work in your life and if you do, keep praying because God works in mysterious ways and ultimately God always shows up and makes the blind see or turns water into wine in your life. Whatever way that needs to be done is up to the Lord. I'm writing a term paper on Miracles so I'm pumped to get to learn more things about miracles and how it affects and relates to my life.
Colorado is tommorrow and I'm so excited to hang out with my internship director and all of the other great people that I will be hanging with over the next few days. I'm even more excited because I have my mom's digital camera so I will hopefully be uploading some sweet pics for all of you to see. I'm looking forward to really dialoging about the internship this summer. If you don't know I will be interning at a great church near Denver. I will mainly be working with the youth so it will be a blast. I'm pumped to say the least. Well I gotta hit some serious homework so that's all for now. Until next time everyone. Love you all


Blessings
Joe Canady
Proverbs 10:19

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Who are you Lord.

So first of all let me just say that this weekend was so great since I got to be at home with my family for mother's day. It was so refreshing to be with my family and really just get to hang out with my best friend Luke as well. I hadn't seen anybody from back home in almost 2 months so it was awesome!
Sunday was a great day since I told my mom a few weeks ago that I wanted to bbq at the house. My mom or any of my other family members knew that I could cook let alone bbq so they were all putting an entire mothers day dinner at stake without knowing the outcome. I suprised everyone though with my amazing ribs, chicken, burgers, brats, pork chops and hot dogs. I was extremely proud of myself and happy that I could bless my mom, family and some of our closest friends. It was such a great day. Especially since the Cavs lost, much to the delight of my mom. Haha.
Well today I made the long trek back to Greenville and during the 4 hour trip, I thought about this question that my pastor, Paul proposed a few weeks ago in a message on doubt. The question is "Who are you, Lord" I really thought about who God is to me and here are some of the things that came to mind...

Healer
Redeemer
My Everything
True judge
God of Justice
King of Glory
Amazing
Lover of my soul

Now really God is so much more than what I can put into words and I've been really realizing this more and more over the past month. I've been going through a serious storm over the past few weeks and as I said in a recent post, God has really been moving in my life in an incredible way through this. I hate that I can't be super specific about what's happening in my life but I hope in the future I will be able to cause its really amazing.
But what I want to end with this...my Lord is really someone who can't even be put in words. It's really unexplainable how God works and I have no clue what's gonna happen in the next few months but it has to be HIS way and not my way. I know if its his way, I will be fine and he will get the Glory in the end. That's what its about, guys and gals. I truly believe that if we are obedience to the Lord and fall into his plan and desires for our life, God will supply your every need and he will be glorified in your life. I have to rememeber that all the time, these days because of how hard, painful and difficult it is to just be silent and helpless in my situation at times. Obey and God will get the Glory. When times are hard, Obey and God will get the Glory. When it becomes too much to take, Obey and God will get the Glory.
It's pretty easy for me to say that but its hard to do at times because when you want something so bad, its hard to not have it and not know whether or not your going to have it again but its getting easier because of how great my God is. We serve a God who will never leave or forsake us. A God who is always right. A God who loves us more than we can every imagine. I know the Lord always has my back so I have to choice to obey his will for my life. Every single day is a choice. I thought about this a few days ago and its so true and its how I will say goodbye to you all til tommorrow. Love the 3 people who might read this...
"Everyday is a battle, but my Lord fights for me"

Blessings
Joe
Psalm 37.4

MOM-Oh yeah, I love her.

So this weekend is mother's day weekend and I'm so excited to go home and see my mom and grill out for her and all that good stuff. It's gonna be amazing. I truly have to say that my mom is the best mom ever. See she raised me and my sister by herself for the most part and I would say she's done a good job. Don't ya think? (shoot, that was corny) So many things about me can be attributed to my mom. I love meeting new people and hanging with friends. Like for real its super awesome. My mom is the queen of having friends. She knows everyone! My mom's laugh is extra, extra loud. My laugh is loud but my mom's laugh blows mine out of the water. I know its hard to believe but its very true. My mom also loves the Lord and really kept me in church all of my life. It's great because she supports my career path and my relationship with God. I kinda realized this a few days ago when I was thinking about going home, and honestly my mom was one of the main reasons why I never missed church all thru high school. Despite us going to 2 different churches from when I was about 11 til now, she would always get me up for church cause I would be super dragging from my usually long Saturday night. "Terrell (my middle name), you goin to church?" I can hear it in my head now. She would always make sure that I wouldn't oversleep. I didn't realize at the time how important that was for me and how much my mom has always supported me. Every sermon, i've ever preached, she has been there in the front row. Every bowling competition (yes, I was a beat bowler growing up), she was there. Football games, band performances (sometimes on the same day), she was there. I think about it and I realize how blessed I am because of my mom. Through the Lord and my mom, I want for very little things and for that I am eternally grateful and this weekend and everyday, I want to show my appreciation to the Lord and also my great mom.
I want to encourage everyone to truly take this weekend to honor the special mom in your life. Bottom line, is if it wasn't mothers, we would exist. Dishes wouldn't get done, laundry wouldn't get done, kids would get nurtured. Moms do alot and really are probably the most important part of a successful family. It's such a blessing to have strong mothers in this world that sacrifice for their kids and their families in every way. I LOVE YOU MOM and I can't wait to be home with you this weekend. Well hopefully, my next blog post will come from Da Brook but if not I will give a weekend recap on Monday. Until next time...

Joe Canady
Ephesians 4:29

Uncomfortable

So this will be a bunch of random thoughts that have been rollin through my head over the past few weeks. You've been warned. I think they all come together at some point.

So the past few weeks have been unbelievably challenging. I've had to walk through things that I have seen others around me walk through and really I've worked extra hard not to have to deal with but hey at a moment of weakness, I straight up opened myself up. I don't regret it but at the same time I don't wish the feelings and emotions that have ran rampid in my life on anyone. For Realz.
I never thought of myself to be an emotional guy at all until a few weeks ago and even now my desire is to never be vunerable and never put my self in a position to look weak. It's crazy how God breaks you down and works some crazy healing in our lives. Broken, confused, rejected, striaght up feeling worthless, I mean it was all me a few weeks ago but through the love, grace and mercy that God showed me over the course of a few day I started to realize how I have failed the Lord in a lot of areas in my life and he had to break me to get me on track in my life. Tough stuff to say the least but in the end, I'm so thankful for the last month of my life. I've learned so much more about the plan and the purpose and the calling that the Lord has on my life. It's so crazy. God is good.
What really has been on my heart the past few days is the fact that alot of my life the past few weeks has been super uncomfortable. I mean, I am honestly helpless in the situation that I'm in right now because when God delievered me from the brokenness and the terrible place that I was at a few weeks ago, I promised Him, some of my friends and myself that I would give the situation and everything else that is going on in my life, completely to Him. WOW, I can't even begin to tell you how this makes me feel from day to day. I second guess what I'm doing everyday, but then I have to say things to myself like, "God is in control" "He is seated on the throne" "If its meant to be, it will be." "If it's not God's will, then let His will be done" Now I can't truly say that this makes everything 100 percent better what it does do is it makes me realize more and more that if I can't trust God to take care of me in every way then He isn't who He said He is. And I know that ain't true at all
God is the ruler of everything, He makes no mistakes. He loves me more than anything and he has a plan for my life. (Jeramiah 29:11) I mean in the bible God promised Abraham and Sarah a boy and then Issac came along. Later on God, asks Abraham to sacrifice Issac and Abraham is willing to obey God. How uncomfortable is that? For real? Your gonna kill your son? WHOA? How in the world can I not be obedient to the Lord in this situation when people like Abraham would give his son, in obedience to the Lord. I am humbled beyond measure by stories like this all over the bible and what I know for a fact is that God never leaves us, nor forsakes us and though this situation is hard and difficult I know that God has a plan and I have to fall into it with reckless abandon. Easier said than done people.
I will close with this. I was on my morning run yesterday and I felt God speak this to me...."When are you gonna start being uncomfortable?" You know what in life, especially as a Christian at a Christian school, there aren't to many times were my life requires a ton of uncomfortableness. These past few weeks have been real tough but outside of that, what in my life is uncomfortable. I sit in the front row in every class. I sweat hard in front of girls at times. See what I know that these next few months will bring for me is a level of uncomfortableness. This summer I'm going out to Colorado to intern at a church and I will not be comfortable. I;ve already decided that. My life is not my own, and it's really time to start acting like that. You want to know why people cry about things like the health care bill or gas going up, or tithing? it's because we believe that what we have on this earth is our own and we don't want to be uncomfortable. For some of us, not knowing about what healthcare is going to look like in the future is uncomfortable. Having to pay more money for gas or paying our tithe to the Lord instead of going out to dinner those 3 times a week or getting that extra game for the xbox on a given week, its uncomfortable.
The bottom line guys is that God has called us to live uncomfortable lives. Jesus lived an uncomfortable life all the way up til he dies on the cross. Eating with tax collectors, loving on people no matter what. Jesus was perfect but in all reality we can look at situations like that to be uncomfortable. Not the norm. Jesus died for us. He dies on a cross for us. Uncomfortable. I'm not by any means a legit uncomfortable guy but I'm working on it every day. For me, holding my toungue right now about certain things is super uncomfortable because for so long I have just said whatever to get a laugh or looked down at others when I'm no where near being perfect. Now, I throw out Ephesians 4:29 and God is working to move my uncomfortableness to a feeling of being unstoppable. Folks when we start being uncomfortable in our lives, we become unstoppable because the Lord empowers us to do things that we never even dreamed or could have ever imagined. The Lord is God and I live each day to serve him and praise his name.
I'm so glad I'm blogging again because I really love it and I pray that I can continue to pound out one a day. My thoughts are really what gets me through every day because God speaks and downloads some crazy things in my life and I pray that it really starts to move me into action. well I gotta attempt to do some homework now. until next time...

Joe Canady
Ephesians 4:29