nobody gets to watch the parade.

Last night I finally got around to finishing Donald Miller's "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years." (Great read, pairs well with coffee, ambition, and Fleet Foxes in the background.) In one of the final chapters, Miller was talking about his friend Bob who started a New Year's Day tradition in San Diego where anyone can be in the parade, but no one is allowed to sit on the curb and watch. Nobody gets to watch the parade.

That sentence really caught my attention. I really feel that that's how God works, and life in general really. Yes, God is really awesome. He heals hearts, works miracles, saves souls, basically he's superman. As followers of Christ, however, too often we prance on our floats in God's parade. The view from our float is great and all, and no effort is really made to bring them into this parade. I mean, we're here and they're there for a reason, right?

False. (Black bear. It's from The Office.)

Given the circumstances of Mr. Bob's parade, one has one of two choices: you can merely walk away and elsewhere from the parade, or inevitably be drawn in. If God is a parade, I am so glad that I inevitably found my place in his parade lineup. I mean, I've never regretted falling in love or standing in awe of my Saviour. I guess my thought here is that if people who say they follow Christ, fly his flag and all, shouldn't we all make a greater effort to bring others into his grace? Why is it so hard for us to live what we speak? (I'm talking to myself now really.) Why is it so hard to really carry our cross and give him and serve him with everything- no strings attached? A lesson that I've been learning lately is that too often Christians spend a great deal of time seeking the gift in his hand, instead of his face, and the core of his heart. I've been completely humbled by God telling me to seek his face instead, cause when I do, I see how great he is and how filthy my face is, and how desperate I am for him to clean it and make it whole again. I see how desperate I am to have a heart like his- a heart that loves the dropouts, the brokenhearted, the poor, the outcast, all of those that our society deems as unaccomplished and deserving of their state.
God still loved me knowing that I would fail him and be so poor spiritually that only He could make me whole again. Shouldn't I love all the same?

Back to Miller's story, in the end, the parade was just as Bob had wanted- no one was on the curbs watching. Everyone had become part of that tradition and family and the end was beautiful, but not easy to reach by any means.

Nobody gets to watch the parade.

what do i wanna do before i die?

two years ago i sat down and wrote down 100 things i wanted to do before i died.
now that there's a show on mtv about the same thing...my desire to do these things has increased exponentially.
so here is my list. i've never shared it, for some odd reason.

but just curious, what do YOU wanna do before you die?

What do I wanna do before I die?

1.     Ride a rollercoaster.

2.     Live in new york city.

3.     Write an album.

4.   Strike up conversation with a stranger.

5.     Perform a duet with Jon Foreman. Or anyone awesome like that.

6.     Be pulled on stage at a concert.

7.     Go to India’s red light district in efforts to reduce human trafficking.

8.     Swim freely in the open ocean.

9.     See the northern lights.

10. Make the most baller sandwich ever.

11. Fall in love or be happily alone.

12. Get over my fear of heights.

13. Help build a house.

14.  Get a college degree.

15. Donate blood.

16. Be in a protest.

17.  Give a stranger a substantial amount of money.

18. Host a charity event instead of an birthday party.

19. Live in nature for a week.

20. Climb a mountain.

21. Tour with a good band.

22. Give my parents a month’s worth of rent.

23. Adopt a child.

24. See a sunset on the west coast.

25. Volunteer my holidays at a soup kitchen.

26. House a homeless person.

27. Be on Ellen!

28. Start a non profit organization.

29. Run a marathon…maybe shorter than.

30.  Throw a surprise birthday party for someone.

31. Float in the dead sea.

32. Go scuba diving in a pacific island.

33. Live in australiaaa!

34. Write an important article for an important place.

35. Have a deep conversation with a stranger.

36. Meet a holocaust survivor.

37. Become friends with an autistic kid.

38. Volunteer at a nursing home.

39. Have the guts to ask the best guy ever out. Whoever that will be.

40. Sing the national anthem at a major game.

41. Learn to breakdance.

42. Visit a prison.

43. Trade places with someone.

44. Literally weave a basket underwater.

45. See a concentration camp firsthand.

46. Own a Martin guitar.

47. Direct a children’s choir.

48. See a surgery being performed.

49. See many saved by the amazing love of Jesus! (:

50. Bring the Cowboys Chicken Club back.

51. Tell someone exactly how I feel about them- good or bad.

52. Play a Steinway grand piano…a black one.

53. Host a walk for a cause.

54. Be nominated for a major award.

55. Write a book.

56. Start the #1 trending twitter topic.

57. Go to New York fashion week.

58. Be in two places at once.

59. Swim the ocean while its raining/storming.

60. Attend a Super Bowl

61. Have coffee with Jon Foreman.

62. Perform at Carnegie Hall. Or maybe just watch a performance there.

63. Break a world record.

64. Be a telemarketer for a day.

65. Write a song that someone else wishes they wrote.

66. Dye my hair a different color.

67. Donate an organ.

68. Learn to surf.

69. Help deliver a baby.

70. Run a small business.

71. Throw a huge, crazy party.

72. Choreograph a dance with a large amount of people.

73. Party with a rockstar.

74. Drive a tractor through a city.

75. Host a conference on simple living, against mindless cosumption.

76. Do something that someone says I can’t.

77. Invite an atheist to church.

78. Scream really loud in a library.

79. Pretend to be a hobo.

80. Organize a flash mob.

81. Sing in a subway station.

82. Audition for a Broadway Musical.

83. Attend the inauguration of a president.

84. Be a zookeeper for a day.

85. Experience exotic cultures.

86. Ride an elephant.

87. Live on a ranch.

88. Fulfill someone’s final wish.

89. Pay for someone’s groceries.

90. Go to an Olympic opening ceremony.

91. Walk the road to Calvary in Jerusalem.

92. Find a couple that’s had cheating issues and say something about it at their wedding when the priest says “speak now or forever hold your peace.”

93. Learn a third language.

94. Do missionary work wherever.

95. Have something named after me.

96. Take a kid on a toy shopping spree.

97. Skydive.

98. Help solve a crime.

99. Own an exotic pet.

100. Change someone’s life.

late night consolations.

hi there. i'm yutsil.
i like writing i suppose. mainly because i have way too many thoughts and they need to go somewhere. in a way, i guess its also kinda selfish, i mean, in the end i just do this to get things off my chest, and try to understand the way this world spins.
it's true really, i think more than the average person does probably. and that's not to say that i live in a sea of mindless people or anything...its just that i breathe, love, live, and think deeply. i'm terrible for small talk. i like me a good conversation. sadly though, the generation i live in is far more concerned with the temporary glitter and bling that lasts for the moment rather than the lasting stuff. i may be weird ( i admit it, i am) but i think way too much. about life. death. love. the lack thereof. god. this world. people. society. why plants grow and why we breathe in an out. why the worlds spins one way and not the other. why the world is the way it is today. why i'm alive and the reason i experience and feel things.
so this blog is mainly for me to let things out, to let some things go, and to let some things explain themselves to me.
if you get anything out of this, that'd be really awesome.
if not, that's cool too.

stay classy y'all.