Category Archives: regular

Catching Up

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So here’s something I wrote five years ago. It’s really interesting to compare where I wanted to be with where I am now. Much of this has come to pass and much is yet to come. I find it inspiring to both look back on these past five years and to continue to dream and reach for these goals as it seems they all remain intact…

I want to be meaningful. I want to love someone with all my heart and through that exemplify God and His love for us. I want be loved by someone. I want to be strong. I want to be real. I want to swear and love Jesus at the same time. I want to swear about how much I love Jesus. I want to quit my job at the bank, proving money’s not fun when I’m gone. I want to run a marathon. I want to get married and have kids. I want to teach my kids how to live rightly. I want to pray. I want to read God’s Word and hear Him speak to me through it. I want to fly in a plane. I want to go to Europe. I want to sing songs written by other people. I want to sing songs written by myself. I want to sing to God. I want to sing to my wife. I want to play in a band with friends. I want to get better at singing and playing. I want to help people who have less than me. I want to help people that have more than me. I want to see the truth. I want to find beauty in everything. I want to live simply and love deeply.

I want to live life in a way that pleases God and changes peoples lives for the better.

I don’t want to end up with a list of ‘I wish I would have’s.

The One About Liking Spring and Disliking Winter.

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Surprise: As I get older and more adultish I grow weary of winter far more quickly. With this little wave of warmer weather I have absolutely no desire to go back to anything below, lets say, 50ish degrees. I used to love winter and enjoy cold far more than hot. Though let’s be honest – there’s a chance in six months I’ll be saying the exact opposite of all this. However, I don’t think I will be and I’d say that my shifts in weather tastes are more due to my migrating hobbies and lifestyle than anything.

Throughout the winter, I’ve taken on a more active lifestyle that I’ve ever really had in my life – walking and working out almost daily. Kathy and I have been setting fitness/recreation goals and have begun training to achieve them. I plan to expound on this in future posts, but at a high level: I wan’t to (and have started to) lose a good amount of weight, ascend to the peak of a moderate mountain this summer, and ultimately I would like to begin the journey of rocking out a marathon by training for and doing a 5k or two (or maybe even whatever a step up from that is. – still not in that world yet so don’t even know what typical races are… 10k? 15k? whatever.)

The point is, it’s starting to get nice out here in The Nati and I couldn’t be more excited. If walk a mile for lunch in 15 degree whether every other day now, how much better will life be when I’m jogging there in sunny 60 degree  breezes?!? Mmmm spring….

A New One

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Wow, friends. It’s been a while. Life has been really great and really crazy lately. Been working with Molly and training her anxiety away, Kathy’s life has been getting insanely busy with her two jobs – all that prayer apparently worked because both of her jobs have taken off as far as hours go. So I have been trying to pull a Samwise Gamgee and share the load at home again. :) I knew the day would swiftly come that my little housewife would abandon me to her own bread-winning.

The insane hour I write this is explained by the insane shifts I myself have been pulling at work the past few days. Overnights are fun here but – as I am clearly noting, I am no longer a teenager or a youth leader – therefore it takes much more a toll than it used to. I will feel this in full force tomorrow.

Ok, I can’t think of anything else right now – just passing time on this ridiculous shift. I already beat the PS3 game that I had brought to play all night. Whoops!

Oh- Kath has been having back problems flaring up again so we took her to the Chiropractor today and it seems to have been quite good for her. Pray for her continued healing and strengthening. I can see what kind of wicked pain she’s in and it hurts me too. THX!

Much love and peace,

D

For The Love

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Falling for a city is an interesting thing. Before Cincinnati, I only ever called Cleveland home. I had an interesting relationship with her as she gradually grew on me. I suppose as I matured and was capable of love for my city it came sure enough. Though, I remember just how much I hated going downtown for the longest time. It was an absolutely miserable experience that thoroughly confused me and drove me to the brink of insanity.

When you aren’t familiar with the city, every street is a one way street just baiting you to turn down the wrong way. Every person on every corner is a pan-handler laughing at you when you do inevitably and errantly turn down this one way street and then waiting for that opportune moment to hit you up for “bus money”- not to mention they all have guns and are willing to shoot if you give them the wrong look. Continue reading →

New is the new Old

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Hey kids. here is the new site. I think you’ll find it much more fun than the last one. I have moved from tumblr to wordpress to offer a far greater level of customization. Here I can display photos, recent twitter updates, etc. I have imported the tumblr posts from the past few months, so those are actually a part of this site now as well. However, in the process most of the images from photo posts were misdirected. I am going to work my way back through them and update the links so the images show.

In short, this is a work in progress…. Continue reading →

Prioritize.

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Alot goin on in the mind but not much on the field.

We’ve pretty much settled on our new church home here in Cinci. http://www.echochurch.org. A bunch of mad-awesome peoples. It’s a small, young church… just like I like ‘em. So that is great.

Africa has been on the hearts of Kathy and I again. It’s one of those things where I can sense that we should be planning and going over there again soon. God has something there for us to do or learn or see. I don’t know… Continue reading →

Reblog:: Another Prayer Answered

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Wow, what a moment… I can’t even imagine what that’s like as a dad. My friend, Pastor Dan Grahmm has undertaken the courageous task of being a father, husband and church planter all at once. Crazy man, I know- there are a few of them left in these parts. I have had the priviledge to know him for a few years and he has been an encouragement to me in many ways- not even sure he knows it. This story about his son wanting to be baptized really blew me away. Check out his blog and what he and his family and new church(http://west.gatewaycleveland.com) are up to. Also lift them up in prayer, as often as you think of it. I know they can use it! Who couldn’t??

danghramm:

My son, Elijah asked me tonight at bedtime if he could get baptized on Sunday at Gateway!  We had chosen not to say anything to him about baptism because we weren’t sure he was ready.  I knew that he knew all the basics of salvation but I don’t want him trusting in a date written down somewhere.  I want to see him genuinely love God and commit to being a follower of Jesus.

So, tonight, after prayer time, he told me that he wanted to ask me something but wanted to wait until Malia and Jacob were out of the room.  He then out of the blue asked me if he could be baptized.  Blew me away!

We then used that as an opportunity to make sure that he understood exactly what he was doing.  Sure enough, he did.  In fact, Amanda spent some time with him just now talking it through and he said, “This is the third and last time I pray to ask Jesus into my heart.”  He then started crying and talking about how hard it is to be a good Christian.  What a great opportunity to talk about discipleship, even with an 8 year old!

If you know Elijah, you know that God has some cool things planned for him.  He’s got to or we’re all in trouble!

A few thoughts.

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Hey kids, I am toying with the idea of jumpin ship again to a wordpress based site. I have seen a few that lately that I really enjoy. So we’ll see how that comes out. I’ll play with it and promise a smooth transition if the case is made for a leap being necessary.

Also, we’re heading up to Cleveland tonight for the holiday. Turkey Bowl ‘09 at Olmsted Falls High School, 10:30am Thankgiving Day. Be there or be square!!

Still Alive

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Hi friends, I dont know if anyone still looks at this or not… (I suppose I could look at my google analytics, but I’m lazy) Haven’t had comments in a while. Mostly due to the fact that I haven’t posted in a longer while. But here is a brief update:

We’ve been keeping our heads down and pounding out the last few weeks of life down here in Cinci. Went up to CLE two weeks ago though in effort to see Leo off to boot, but… he didnt leave yet. It’s ok Leo, you may have unintentionally wasted my gas, but we had a super great time seeing everyone and hangin out. :)

As far as Cinci life itself is concerned, after a brief spell of extroversion we seem to have once again reclused* and taken to spending time at home and conserving budget space for things like groceries and gas to get to work. The search for a church has continued, and I think we just may have found a place that both K and I can agree on! It’s a newer church, only 4 years and is smaller. Reminds me of Gateway in alot of ways and I’m looking forward to going back and seeing what God may have in store there for us!

Speaking of God… Wow. He has been proving the snot out his faithfulness to us. I at least feel like I have been just as scattered as ever since moving and still trying to feel my way through this thing, but he has been carrying us and providing for us like crazy. I dont think I’ve ever before experienced the “no money left in the bank, bills due and a check just shows up in the mail” but it’s happened now.. a few times. And while I’m at it… I have an amazing wife. She works so hard and loves me so much and I don’t deserve her at all. I can’t believe we’re still married… I was sure she’d peace out soon after we started living together. I am thoroughly convinced that that too is all God’s doing.

Work is still boring.

I intend to purchase guitar strings and put them on my guitar and play it. If not today, then tomorrow.

That is all for now.

Love you all,

DillonB