The Adventures to come in 2014

I am very excited to announce several things I will be doing in the next year.

If you must know, I believe in dreaming big and planning little... Joke. But a lot of this has been on my mind and heart for the past few months. SO, here it goes. I will give you a general overview of what I Plan to do in the next upcoming year.

Social
1) The top number 1 plan of 2014, I am going to smile more. This sounds so corny but I have met with so many people the past two years who have NO CLUE that they are worth smiling about. It is as a professor once told me and later a Pastor "A smile indicates to that person, they are worth smiling about!"

It is my simple plan of showing people they matter.

2) I will get married this year. JOKE, but I have made a point to at least go on dates. I have not really made time for this in my life. I use to not really care, but recently, I guess you could say, I have started to care? So, needless to say, I have created a simple application for women to fill out.... Obviously that was a joke, probably came from my insecurity of talking about this subject publicly.

3) I am going to dance more!!  Seriously, I love dancing. NOW, I am not talking about the grinding their booty into my body dance. I want to look the person in the face that I am dancing with. Nothing is better!

4) I will try my hardest to see my parents, brothers and sister-in-laws, and all my nieces and nephews at least once every 6 weeks. I want to see them play soccer, go to school events. I want to see them grow up! Those kids really do mean the world to me!

4.5) I will try to see my extended family at a minimum three times in the next year! Even if it is for a day! (It does help that most live in Florida)

5) I will try to eat at one new restaurant and try some new food, once a month. Even if I find it to be repulsive, I will try it. Unless it is tofu. OK, maybe tofu.

6) I am going to cook a HUGE meal for as many people who can show up. It will be southern style. It will have sweet tea. And you will be invited!

7) I need to visit friends who live in different parts of the country!

Adventure
1) I plan to visit four countries I have never visited before. Here is the best part.... I am going to let my subscribers/facebookers/twitterers decide two of them. I am going to let my jr highers decide the other two. SO... Start thinking of places to send me. While I am there, I will have to do one crazy thing.... That you all will vote on as well.

2) I am going to hike a mountain. One in 'Merica, one not in 'Merica. Yes, I will conquer this fear of heights by hiking some pretty tall mountains. And, I will do so by bravely crying ever shaken step of the way. Unless my hands are cold, then I will just want to punch something out of anger, and no fear will be involved.

2.5) I will jump off a cliff into water.

3) I am going to Kayak for several days. I want to plan a several day kayaking trip where we Kayak pretty far (or by myself). I haven't kayaked since college, and I am craving it!!

4) I am going to fish. Deep sea fishing, shallow sea fishing, lake fishing. I will also learn to fly fish. I am excited!!

5) Jack Caron will be teaching me to golf.... I hope I do not swear during the process.

6) I am going to play soccer with some kids in the slums in one of the countries I visit. Naturally I will destroy them, but if they win, I will admit to a tie.

7) I plan to finish my reading list (about 16 books behind, currently in the middle of 5 books)

Missional
I plan to create two partnerships this year internationally, two partnerships domestically and two partnerships locally.

1) Internationally: International Justice Mission will be an organization that I partner with. I will also be partnering with an Orphanage. The ONLY problem is, I will probably want to adopt 90% of the children.

2) Domestically: I want to help a few friends who will be starting their Social Enterprise/Non-profit within the next few months. I will also be looking into

3) Locally: I know some areas that I really want to help in. But I am looking into groups like Tubmen, who help families who are displaced from their homes due to domestic violence. I also want to do more with Food Banks. SO if you know of areas needing help, let me know!

I want to also point out one thing, if none of these happen or all of these happen, I will be grateful to the fact that I went into this year having a family that loves me, friends that support me, a job, a car, shelter, and free flights....

Now... The question is... Who wants to join me? Who wants to add to this adventure? I am willing to change parts of this, invite you in on this and thoroughly enjoy every part!!

So, join me in the adventure of 2014!!

When we hate who we are Part 1

First and Foremost, Merry Eve of Christmas to you all. If you are reading this today, I hope this acts as an encouragement, not as a depressor. This is a powerful season that can often be misguided....

I got a message recently that says "Casey, I don't want to be me anymore...." Intrigued, I sent just a simple question back "Why is this?" His response, simple, profound and sadly, common. "Because if I can't accept who I am, how will others? I mean, I hate me. I hate how I look, I hate how I act, I hate so much."

I remember when I partnered with the Crisis Intervention Team years ago through one of my professors at college. We worked on a few projects together, and I helped when I could. I received a call, my first call ever, of a student attempting to take their life. I had read some of the messages she had sent to her friend. The first thing she says "No one would even notice I was gone, I am not like the other people...." There were an array of other messages, all pointing to this idea that they find no value, worth or beauty in herself.

The problem our society faces as a whole is often more of an inner battle. You see, in both of these situations, there was a

So then, we need to ask:

Do I accept myself? Better yet, what stops me?

If we fully address these questions, we discover a profound sense of freedom.

We often hold ourselves back more often then we should. We are afraid to confront who we are because we are looking for affirmation in any way we can. I think a lot of this stems from what we tie our value and worth to. For example, how many times have you heard a father tell his daughter "you are beautiful!" That is a remarkable thing, and more fathers should say that. However, it begins to tie the worth of the daughter to her beauty. It feels good to be praised, and when the opportunity comes to be affirmed, they will seek it out. A lot of times we go to great lengths to sense just a piece of that affirmation.

Same goes for guys. We tie our identity and worth to what we were told is manly: Strength. Being weak is frowned about. So we immediately created this complex and competition with in us that makes us strive to be the best in others standards.

Our belief about who we are matters. That the greatest commandment that we find in Matthew: "The two greatest commandments are this, Love the Lord your God with all you have and love your neighbor as yourself."

This can be taken in two ways, don't love yourself more than your neighbor or (as I take it) love yourself so that you may love your neighbor.

God knows that if we don't accept ourself, we will never accept others. We will envy them. We will compete against them in a negative way. We will constantly compare. We will not fully accept them as they are because we haven't accepted who we can be.

You see, you are beautiful, physically and spiritually. However, your beauty is not all you are. You are smart. But you are more than that. You are a joy. You are still more than that. You are needed. You are still more. I contend, if you believe in what scripture has to say about who you are, your worth will be infinite. You will recognize the freedom that comes from accepting who you are.

We fall into groups and stereotypes because it is easy. They tell us who we are. We know that if I fit in the nerdy group, there is a certain way to act. We know if we hang out with the jocks, we act like the stereotypical jock. We begin to mold our character to be accepted by that which attempts to define us. We become reserved and with holding of ourselves because of the fear that others will see something in us that could tarnish our acceptance.

This Christmas, I find great hope. I find this season to truly be a season of hope. We can find that hope in what is to come. We celebrate the Birth of Christ around this time of year. We point to this infant, born of a virgin, born into a world, broken, just like ours is today, and we discover that through the life, death and resurrection of this child, we have this amazing sense of freedom. You see, the life of Christ shows you, living passionately generates a faster rate of acceptance for yourself.

BUT you have to risk. You have to ask yourself, "Am I worth accepting myself? Am I worth it as a human?" I contend when you move past this, your ability to challenge and change the world becomes unstoppable. It is like a mustard seed, very small, but what comes from that is a massive tree. If you risk just enough, you create a tree. When you risk in relationships, it often hurts, mainly because the person you risk for, is typically in the same boat.

The problem is, we don't see it this way. We don't recognize that the life of Christ points to a life of freedom. Sadly, most of us stay rooted in the safety of our own routine. We fear what we can't see. We fear that we will be stretched in a way that hurts or worse, exposes us.

Take the story of Peter when walking on the water. Peter sees Jesus and decides to risk and walk on the water. It is going well, then Peter takes his eyes of Jesus, looks down and begins to sink. It would be easy to say the Peter lost faith in Jesus, but the reality is, Peter had no reason to lose faith in Jesus. Jesus was physically present. He did not have to believe there was a man named Jesus, for Jesus was right there. What happened to Peter is what happens to all of us. We lose faith in in how Christ can work in us. We sink because we forget who we are. We sink because the risk seems too heavy. We get caught up in the bizarre notion that no one will notice our absence. We get caught up in the idea that we are ugly, or stupid, or not good enough for people. We sink into a stream of invisibility because there we hope no one will notice the things we hate about ourselves. It doesn't have to be like that.

What I take away from this season is this: We celebrate the birth of a Savior that points us to a life of freedom. Freedom to love. Freedom to risk. Freedom to fail. Freedom to recover. Freedom to experience joy. We celebrate a Savior that shows us how to live, and to live well. We celebrate the birth of a Savior that believes in us as an individual and collective. Believes you can walk on water. Believes you can challenge the evils of this world. Believes that you can love well and be loved back.

We celebrate the Birth of a Savior that wants you, because this Savior knows all you can be and will push you to be that person. You are going to be missed, you are needed in our world, you do matter. This season is a reminder. There would be no way the birth of Christ would matter if God did not find worth in all of mankind.

My prayer is that we all know our worth, and that we show others just how worth it they are.

Merry Christmas Eve! I am grateful for a Savior that is leading us this year to challenge the evil that exists simply by being who we are.

In my next post, I am going to express a lot of my weaknesses. I get this feeling of frustration with who you are.

My thoughts on Phil Robertson, Sex Trafficking and Free Market Capitalism

Phil Robertson was recently suspended for sharing his beliefs in an upcoming issue of GQ. The comments were interesting and can be found here:  http://www.gq.com/entertainment/television/201401/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson

I will be honest. The interview is meant to highlight his system of belief. I think it could have been done better, but heck, I sometimes don't say things well.

I am shocked not by what happened to Phil, but the response. Countless numbers of christians are posting support Phil MeMes, creating blogs and articles to sync their beliefs to his, engaging in shouting matches about this topic.

The uproar of support however is unnecessary from people who support Free Market Capitalism. This is how the market works. A company does not care about your version of integrity UNLESS it brings them money. People who hate those who mock Free Market Capitalism, in the end hating Free Market Capitalism. Money speaks, and this hurts their business. A & E is a business. They don't care about any of those beliefs. If those beliefs were profitable, guess what, just like nearly all companies, they would practice them. However, Free Market Capitalism doesn't have a set of beliefs besides money decides. Not to mention, integrity doesn't bring in the money we think it does. All of those feel good movies that we see are a great example. Those movies fail every time in the box office. They are never huge successes. Listen to any interview about them, they don't last. So why bother if people don't care.

Which leads me back to Phil. Phil is a reality TV star who works in the free market. He made comments, and now he has to pay for it.

What is ironic to me, how can we support an upper class, super wealthy, reality TV star, need I also add white man, cause a MASSIVE uproar about what he says, get thousands of people to dress in camo, create countless numbers of groups on facebook, spout endless amounts of hate towards people while on every single day domestic violence against women in america is on the climb; While sex trafficking of minors is running a lot deeper than we thought (higher than 5,000,000 minors [unicef]).

Where are their photos? Where are the support groups for the 9 and 10 year old girls being raped by some slob in Kolkata? Where are the hashtags in support of the mother who is trying to protect her children from some abusive man holding them at gunpoint? Where is their support? We waste our time and energy defending who? Where is the hashtag for the innocent black man on death row?

If you can honestly tell me to my face that some white, wealthy, christian, reality tv man needs me to support him, I pray you have a vomit bag ready. That is so lopsided. That is counter biblical. You are showing favoritism, you are showing defense for a public figure who literally can pay for lawyers to defend him.

Phil doesn't need my support. If you think for one minute that he is having his rights trampled by A & E you are dead wrong. A & E is going solely after money. Money talks in Free Market Capitalism. What Phil did sadly hurts their business, so they tried to reconcile that by suspending JUST Phil. Phil can freely speak to any forum. His speech will be heard. However, just like when I was a child, I could say whatever I wanted to my parents, however, there are consequences to what I said. I never feared saying things, I just began to say things that were wise or accurate. I believe logically, Phil is the in the same boat.

Please, I am begging you. The orphans and widows of our world need your defense. They need you posting pictures of their faces. They need the masses to have their back. They need you to drive Free Market Capitalism away from them, because being enslaved to make us happy is not healthy.

I refuse to hashtag my support for Phil Roberstson in this cause unless he is truly being oppressed. I will however support the cause of International Justice Mission, or Sisters of charity, or Tubmen, or Community Violence Intervention Centers....

Please, I am begging you, if you place your faith in Christ, defend the cause of orphans, widows and the oppressed with the same energy as you do Phil Robertson.