Kelly, the story continues...

It was inevitable.

Kelly wouldn't stay in her cottage forever.

She woke up one morning after watching an entire season of Smallville on DVD. "I need a drink." said the little troll. So she began her morning routine. She does one sit-up a day; get out of bed in the morning, and get back into it that night. Then she eats breakfast. "Oh, how I wish I had some of Adumbug's delicious mushrooms." She said to herself.

Suddenly, she remembered! "I'm getting married to Adumbug!" She shouted in astonishment. "And he's sexy!!!!" She quickly took her monthly shower and sped down her garden path towards the villiage.

Finally, she burst into Troll Bock's, scattering some stools, and a few customers. She turned to the gaping bartender. "Humfish, I need a drink!" she shouted, nearly out of breath.

Humfish remembered himself and began his normal show of juggling glasses while preparing drinks. He's really quite spectacular if any of the customers pay attention. But they rarely do, after all, what's another juggling troll? "Fah!" he said regarding his un-appreciative audience, just as he misplaced one of his glasses and sent it flying through dodging patrons with a crash. "Ooh, stupid gravity."

As the disgruntled troll prepared the ale of the day, Kelly saw her usual morning group and moved to join them. Seated at the table were her friends, Samsung the squirrel, and Sethie the elephant (who was sipping his ale with his trunk). "Good morning!" she chimed.

"If it is a good morning" said the nervous elephant, eyes darting from side to side.

Samsung turned to Sethie and said "Ofcourseit'sagoodmorning!Everymorning'sagoodmorning
yousourpuss.What'snotgoodaboutit?Itcouldn'tbebetterifyouwere
pinkwithpolkadots.Dangthischaiisgood!!!!"

"You can never be certain." Sethie said ominously. "There could always be a dragon invasion, or you could fall into quicksand. There could be layoffs!"

Kelly sighed, "How could you think of that when Adumbug's in the world?"

"Themushroomfarmer?" asked Samsung, "Aye,he'sadreamyoneheis.Ohyes."

Sethie grunted. "The government is probably watching us as we speak."

"Yes," kelly said. "He's a studly troll."

Sethie shifted his weight. "They can probably hear us too..."

"Oh for heaven's sake Sethie, it's enough to drive a saint to drink!" she exclaimed taking another sip of her ale. "I hope you get your snout stuck in your glass again like last week."

"Yeah!Hehhehhehhehhehhehhehhehhehhehhehhehheh..."said Samsung

"Hrmph!" said the elephant, and resumed his suspicious scan of the crowd.

Kelly got up. "Ah! Well, I'm off to find my future husband, as he didn't show up for breakfast."

"Just watch out for badgers." Sethie said. "I'm sure they're connected to the forest mafia somehow."

"Uh huh," said Kelly. "Any pearls of advice from you Samsung?"

"Neverforgetwhereyouburiedyournuts." She replied."Itgetsoldafterawhile."

"I'll remember that. So long everyone!" she said as she left the pub.

"Fah!" replied the juggling bartender.

One of those nights

I'm longing.

My heart, body, soul, are longing for something.

For the life of me, I can't figure out what it is. Sometimes, I'm fooled into thinking I know, and then the tables turn.

My instinct is, "Oh, I must be longing for more of God," or "God must be revealing something to me." So I turn my focus on him.

When I do that, I wind up the same place I always do, "Cade, quit seeking for answers, God just wants you to seek him."

I ask him "What are you trying to teach me? Why have you allowed this hopeless feeling to overcome me?"

Again he says, "Patience. It's not your place to know everything about your life; I know, and that's enough."

I need to learn to let go. I'm not in control.

I must learn to be blind, to trust him to prepare my road for me, since he won't reveal it.

The world does not rest on my shoulders. They are all people too, people with free will.

Some days the feeling of searching is stronger than others, but it's always there.

God is teaching me how small I am. I have no choice but to trust and obey. Nothing else has ever made me happy.

It's not a sad feeling, but, more an anxious one. I'm waiting for the moment when it will all be clear, and I won't have anymore questions. But that moment hasn't come, and probably never will.

God grant me peace inside, and faithful trust.

Kelly

Here I sit with Kelly Rae-white. I ask her what I should blog about, and she says "Me!". So I am.

Once upon a time there was a troll named Kelly Finkle. Kelly was a very social troll who liked to visit with the other trolls over a nice mug of troll ale at the troll pub called "Troll Bocks."

On one particular visit, she approached a rather surley troll named Caders. "Caders, what's Caders precious?" she asked.

"D'know." Caders grumbled.

"Why it's your name silly!" she exclaimed.

"Facinating."

Kelly paused to reflect for a moment. Then she reached over and slapped Caders upside the head. "Snap out of it you hairy son of a camel!"

Caders lifted his head out of his ale and mumbled something about swimming stars.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" she asked.

"Schuma grfl wuma fluh, heeeeeeh..." said Caders

Kelly gave up and decided to find some more interesting trolls. As she scanned the pub, she came upon a troll lying close to the piano. "Oooo, what a sexy troll!" she said as she stroked her beard. "Lets go see if it's a guy."

Upon further inspection, she discovered it was none other than Adumbug, the mushroom farmer. "Are you a dude?" she asked after rousing him.

"Uh,...yeah. Um are you?" replied Adumbug.

"No. I am 100% chick." said Kelly.

"Oh good. That will simplify things." Adumbug paused for a moment. "Marry me babe." he said.

Astonished at her fast work, Kelly wasn't sure what to say at first. "Huh, yeah. Heck yeah!!"

Adumbug smiled as he laborously stood up. "Sweeeet." he said. "What's your name again?"

His question startled her out of her admiration of his considerable mid-section. "Belly! Er-Smelly, (shoot) I mean Kelly!"

"Iiiii like it!" he said.

So Kelly Finkle and Adumbug parted for the night as dreams of "I do's" and goat sausage floated in their heads.

As she skipped down the forest path, she came upon two people sitting by the road. "Hello dark scary lumpy people lying suspisiously by the side of the road at night!" she exclaimed.

"Yo." replied one of the shapes.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"We're drinking mountain dew and listening to a Hawkeyes game on our headphones." the other shape replied.

"At last! Someone else who likes the Hawkeyes! Are they winning?" she asked.

"Of course not. The Cyclones are winning...as usual."

Kelly was in shock. "Nooo! How could you say that? Who do you think you are?"

The first shape stood up. "Well I'm Bob, and I'm pretty sure this is Judy. We're elves."

"Ugh, who ever knew elves could have such terrible taste?" she said. "Leave the Cyclone fans for the Cyclone fans." Kelly quickly made her way from the traitors. She soon forgot the attack on her sports team as she began to take in the feel of the woods. Around the bend, she heard a slight noise in the bushes. "I've had enough of strange people in the woods for one night thank you." she said, and scurried along.

She didn't get too far before a raving lunatic lunged out of the brush shouting "Shiv you, Shiv you!!" and waving around a knife. She deftly stepped aside in time to send him careening accross the road into the ditch where he fell into a river. She could hear him yelling out "There can only be one! I'll shiiiiivvv yooouuuuu!!!!!"

She had heard stories about the dreaded Were-Malanaphy, a self proclaimed "ninja of the apocolypse" who darts around trying to "shiv" people in the kidneys. Until now, she could have never believed such a ridiculous idea.

But who could think about assassination attempts when there were future husbands to think about? She sighed as she continued on, thinking of her soon to be betrothed, Adumbug. She sat down beneath a willow tree to think about her future with the hot stud of a troll, when she heard a voice coming from above her. "What's on your mind?" it said.

She staggered back to see a face in the trunk of the willow. "This must be the Lauramac Willow" she said to herself. She looked up at the face and said "I was thinking of my future husband."

"How does that make you feel?" asked the willow.

"All...sparkly!!"

"Tell me more."

"Well, he's like, a big orange ball..."

...And so she told the wise willow all about her newfound hubby, and about her troubles on the road. But alas, soon they had to part for the night was not getting younger.

As the happy troll arrived home, she realized how grateful she was to live in such a quirky forest with so many people living there. Who knows what she may find the next time she ventures out of her cottage?




I'll have to leave her story there. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday.

Today...I blog.

At last!!

I have been trying to update this for the past two weeks, but blogger wouldn't let me in!! How obnoxious. Finally, after much laziness, I am going to post.




I just arrived back from camp. Wow, what an amazing week. A decent bit of revalation and reflection.

I didn't want this week to end.

It was awkward, because as dining hall supervisors, we were almost isolated from the campers and many staff. It was mostly a scheduling fluke, most activities were pretty close to mealtime and therefore we were needed elsewhere. A few old friends would come up to me and be like "Dude, where are you all the time? We never get to talk or hang out anymore." It's strange. I wish I could do something else there, but I know we're needed, and I'll do whatever I have to to be there.

Spiritually speaking, the week was amazing. The theme was Godly Passion. I can't tell you how much God worked in the campers and staff with this idea of passion. God was in charge of who was there to hear it.

One night, we were all discussing how we were all going back out into the world and coming off our spiritual highs. How do you maintain that spriritual furver when there's no more campfire, camp friends, or concert or youth rally or whatever? One camper gave this illustration: it's like taking a log from the campfire and throwing it into the wet grass. When the log doesn't have any other logs to burn with it, it quickly goes out.

I was reflecting on this when I realized something. One day, we won't have to seek out friends and brothers to help us on our journey. We'll be with them all the time. We'll all be together again in heaven.

Camp is a piece of heaven. A brief time out of the year where we are able to share in unbroken fellowship with other believers, in addition to the main event: a closer more intense connection to God.

Camp is magic. The true magic. It's a gift, straight from God. Just like our churches, our families, and in my case, my job. Only camp is different. I never realized how much of an impact camp has had on my spiritual life. I used to just think it was a cute social affair, but as I get older, I realize that it's so much more.

For those who have never been to a Christian camp, it's next to impossible to describe what it's like. It's a ppiritual vacation. If this is what a nano second is like in heaven is like, I'm even more excited to get there, and I'll finally get to see God face to face.