Anxiety

As a kid I had problems with anxiety.  My worst moments were in the fifth grade.  I was so afraid to go into this teachers room because I hated to hear him yell at my fellow students, which he always seemed to do. The anxiety literally made me sick to the point where I went home a few times.
Over the years I have learned to control my anxiety and basically stop worrying about a lot of things that I used to.  I think the moment a person realizes they don't have a whole lot of control over things anyways, why worry about those things so much?  Those understandings have helped me a lot.
This past week was a rough week for me and for the first time in a long time I felt some anxiety.  This I take as good and bad.  My anxiety was over being able to go to confession.  I went so far as to check all the churches in town, then re-check, and then check again the church I was planning on going to.  So that's the good part I guess... confession/reconciliation is an amazing Sacrament that I have only in the past few years really begun to understand my true need for.
The bad is that I even needed to go to confession so desperately.  It frustrates me how easily I fall into temptation and how many times I don't think I fight against it as hard as I could or should.

At the end of the day though, and as the priest reminded me in the confessional, I am good.
God loves me more then I can imagine and if you haven't experienced the feeling of leaving the confessional and feeling the weight of your sins being lifted off of you, I highly recommend it.

Peace all

My New Hobby

I guess this is not my new hobby, it has been about a year since I bought my first mountain bike and it has been all up hill from there.
At this point I have two main bikes.
The first is an older Rocky Mountain full suspension free ride bike... RM6 to be exact.  I bought just the frame and then built it up from there to what it is now.

Its fun to ride and since it's already beat up a bit I don't worry about being tough on it.
The second bike I just finished.  Same deal as the first; I built it from the frame up.  I started with a Santa Cruz Chameleon frame and did something a little different with it.  The frame is designed to use 26" wheels, the standard mountain bike wheel size.  Well, my first bike, that I bought last summer and have been parting out for my other bikes has 29" wheels.  So, I took the front 29" fork and put it on the Chameleon to make what they wall a 69er... 29" wheel in the front with a 26" wheel in the back.
I call it the "Sexy Lizard"

The cool thing is that these bikes are never really complete.  Parts wear out, I feel like upgrading or changing the look... it never ends.
My only worry is that it distracts me from the important things, mainly God and what I need to be doing for him.
At this point, I think I am okay.  As I keep learning more and more about bikes I know I will be able to help other people with their bikes.

Peace all

It's About Christ Jesus!

I have stopped being surprised by excuses people come up with for anything.  I quit letting most of them frustrate me and honestly I laugh a little inside when I see the ridiculousness of most people.  What still gets me though is excuses people have when it comes to God and His Church.

When it comes to a persons faith, that faith should rely on God, in my opinion, and not on people.  When people make excuses like "I don't like that priest" or "I hate the politics of the Church" and all the other things that people come up with all I can do is a face-palm! 

It's not about individuals, it's about Christ and your relationship with him!  

If your faith is affected by other people to the extent that you use it as an excuse then you have a lot of strengthening of your faith to do.

I understand to a point.  I had a confession that was just frustrating.  The priest acted like he just wanted to be done and sped through everything.  At first I felt let down but as I though about it, I remembered that Christ was the most important one while I was in the confessional.  As lack luster as the priest was, at the end of it all, Christ was still there and He forgave me.

The Church is the bride of Christ.  The Church is not perfect and the people that make up the Church are far from perfect.  If people expect all the people that make up the Church to be perfect they are going to be constantly let down.  On the other hand, if people realize that the Church is not perfect but Christ continues to work through all members of the Church perfectly, then what is there to worry or make excuses about?

I am proud to be a part of the Church and I hope I can help people see its not about what makes us perfectly happy it's about our relationship with Christ.

Peace all