Jury Duty

Often we get stuck in our own little bubble. We go about life doing all the things that we think matter, the things we need to do, the things that give us pleasure. But do we think about how the things we do affects the others around us?

I got called to jury duty. Yes, it was my first jury summons, and I ended up sitting as one of the six jurors. It was a fascinating experience. The judge was both stern and understanding (and really cool). The district attorney tried the case like she was on a TV drama. And I had the privilege of working with five other first-time jurors of various ages and backgrounds who were all very nice and concerned about making the right decision.

But while I understood the scope of what I was doing, it was right when I was about to check the 'guilty' box on the verdict sheet that it really hit me what an impact I was making. My simple 'X' was going to have lasting consequences on the life of this person. Because of the decision I made along with my colleagues, this man would have to serve punishment for a crime.

Now, as in any serious matter, my natural reaction is to pretend the concern doesn't exist. It isn't a happy thought, and it's comfortable to live in blissful ignorance. But the reality is, I made a decision that affects a man's life in an unfortunate way. Although (according to our deliberation) he deserved it, the fact remains that his future won't be the same because of my actions.

Jury duty provides a very clear and undeniable example of how my actions impact others. But actually every single decision we make affects other people's lives. If I walk down the street and smile at a passing stranger, I have altered the course of that person's life. It may seem inconsequential, but what if that person was having a rough day? What if I was the first person to even acknowledge her existence that day? Even if she thought I was a creeper and turned just slightly, this has made an impact. As an example, imagine we were walking through an open field where there were no buildings or obstructions of any kind. Say my awkward smile caused the person to turn three degrees (out of 360; remember geometry class?). It may not seem like a lot, but if that person walked for another one mile in a straight line, she would end up 277 feet away from where she would have been had I not smiled at her. That's more than one standard city block.

So this is why we need to consider how our actions affect others. We have little control over most of our actions' consequences, but there are plenty of opportunities to really consider the impact our decisions make. Should I go hang out with that friend tonight? Should I do what my mom asks me to do immediately or put it off? Should I be rude to my boss today, even if he's been rude to me? Fill in the blank. Just don't wait for jury duty to consider how your actions affect others. It may literally mean life or death.

God Alone

God has done, and continues to do, such amazing things in my life. But I have to ask myself today: Is my focus on the gift or the Giver?

Sometimes it is just too easy to focus too much on what God is doing. Oh, focus on this is valid, since what He's doing is kind of the most important part of my life I can experience. And He wants to teach so much through these experiences.

But I should never forget that the reason He does these things and teaches so much through them is because He wants to draw me to Himself. He wants me to know Him more and to place all my trust and cares on Him.

The sad part is when I get so focused on the things He does I lose sight of Him. I pray all about seeing the miracles and the victories, I fail to bow down before the victor and miracle-worker and give Him the praise He deserves. I forget that even if He didn't do these things or reveal Himself to me in this way, He is still worthy of the praise. He is God, and that never changes.

Fortunately, He doesn't chastise me for getting off track. Instead, He gently draws me back to Himself. It is a beautiful thing how He shows his grace and mercy so clearly. He wants to draw me back so that I can behold the majesty of who He is, be awed by the fact that He would do such amazing things in my life, and then proceed back into His marvelous plan together.

In Exodus 20:3, God says, "You shall have no other gods before Me." We usually think of this as meaning abstaining from idol-worship, or even more broadly any form of faith that is not the worship of the One True God. But the gist of it is that anything that is not God becomes a "god before Him," even the miracles He does. We need to make sure we are worshiping God alone and nothing else. The other wonderful things should just draw our attention back to being in awe of God and worshiping Him more.

Lord, thank You that you so mercifully look past my misplaced focus, and that You graciously draw me back to Yourself. Let all my attention be focused on how great You are, and let every thought seek to worship and glorify You, the Author of all things bright and beautiful.

The Threefold Righteousness

Ah. What a relief. What a great feeling that now I can take the time to write about some God stuff here while not feeling guilty that I'm not doing my homework. That is, because I have no homework anymore! What that means is that I can actually take the time to write about what God is teaching me. Or what projects I'm working on. Or coffee. Or the Oregon Ducks PillowPet that is sitting on my sofa. Basically, whatever I want! But this time, I have some really deep stuff about what it means to be righteous.

Righeousness is a really easy concept to understand, but it is really hard to adequately apply it to the framework of our lives. There is a seeming contradiction between the need for righteousness and the sufficiency of grace. If grace is sufficient to cover all my mistakes and to get me into heaven, why is the existence of righteousness so emphasized? Why does it matter if I do things the "right" way?

The answer for this that God has shown me comes from what my mother has learned and therefore taught me. She takes a good 45 minutes to an hour every morning to read her Bible and ponder the depths of knowledge that each word in Scripture brings. She likes to share these with me, which means I often get stuck listening to what she has to say for 25-30 minutes longer than I really want to. While it is a tad frustrating because I kind of do want to start my day eventually, the wisdom and knowledge that I have gleaned from those times has really exposed a lot of the mysteries I have pondered. Many of these things I will likely share with you here. It would be a shame for all her learning to end with me.

The question that my mom asked me was simple: "What was Jesus' purpose here on earth?" Logically, I gave her some of the most basic and well-known answers: die for our sins, rise to give us life, lead a godly example, fulfill prophecy, heal the sick, call others to follow Him, etc. All of these answers were correct, of course, but it wasn't the answer she was looking for. She was looking for something that was the underlying reason He did all of these things. The answer? To do the will of the Father. If you think about it, Jesus purpose was only to do whatever the Father willed. He spoke in multiple instances about how He didn't do anything by His own initiative, but because it was what the Father wanted Him to do (Matt. 11:27), and when He was in agony in the garden while He prayed before being arrested, the thing that drove Him to continue was the fact that the Father's will was what came first and foremost (Matt. 26:42; Luke 22:42). (I know it may be a bit confusing, considering that Jesus was God and the Son and the Father were and always will be, in fact, completely the same thing. But, a discussion on the Trinity is not pertinent right now. Just look at it this way: Jesus' will was to do the Father's will, which makes their wills the same, in essence.)

A few weeks later, the thought came to mind about what my real purpose is here on earth. I have been able to see God begin to use me in some radical ways lately. Many of these things are defining who I am. But when I asked myself the question, "What is my purpose here?", before I could respond I was bombarded with the prompting to use the same response: To do the will of the Father. This means that I am here to do whatever God wants me to do, to be used as a tool for whatever purpose He has. This means I don't have to know everything or where every path is leading, all I know is that every day I need to seek to do the will of the Father. This will result ultimately in God being glorified, and blessings to fall upon anyone who God wants to bless because of it (see also Matt. 7:21, 12:50; John 8:28, 14:13).

So then the next logical question is obvious: What is the will of the Father? This is a topic worthy of a blog post of its own, specifically about looking for the Lord's leading, the importance of prayer and Bible reading, and the spiritual gift of discernment that all believers should crave. But the simple answer is to follow the pattern of Jesus by having an attitude of openness to the Father's leading on a minute-by-minute basis. When we seek God's leading, we find out what He wants us to do and what steps He wants us to take toward whatever goals He has laid out in the grand plan He has written for this world.

What does all this have to do with righteousness, you ask? This is the answer to the question I posed earlier: Why should we do things the "right" way? Because it is the will of the Father that we follow Him and act as He would act. We can't honestly think that we will be able to do amazing works for God's kingdom if our minute-by-minute actions are not in line with God's standard. We were created completely righteous, but then after that we sinned. Then the law was given so that we could see what God's standard of righteousness was, but it was a standard we never could attain to because of our sin. So Jesus came to set us free from that bondage and offer us grace so that we can seek righteousness without the penalty and bondage of sin holding us down. Grace is not a license to sin, but a permit for the pursuit of righteousness (Rom. 6).

I know this is something that sounds so great. But I also know that often we think that there is no way on earth we could ever attain to the righteousness that God desires of us. When we have fallen in a hole of our own sin, it looks like we will never amount to anything righteous. And even when we are at a very good and strong place in our walk with God, it looks like "our best" will never be anywhere close to what God would deem acceptable.

Trust me, I have been there too many times, and I know every Christian has been there as well. But the great news is that our righteousness is not dependent on us! Jesus has made it so that our righteousness is solely dependent on His faithfulness. In Phillippians 3:8-9, Paul declares that he has put off all worldly garbage so that he "may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith." As we seek God, we grow in faith, and faith produces righteousness in us. Therefore, the righteousness we desire is made possible through simply seeking God, and as that faith produces a salvation that is dependent not on us but on Christ and His work, our righteousness is possible solely because of what God has already done and what He is going to do.

To prove to us how confident we should be in the righteousness He has provided, He has surrounded us with that righteousness in such a way that we will never be outside of its hold on us. This concept of the certainty of the promise of righteousness to those who believe is something I call the "threefold righteousness." Simply put, the righteousness of God is established in our past, present, and future.

1. The first righteousness is the righeousness that is imputed on us immediately as we accept Christ into our lives. When we invite Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, we accept His sacrifice on the cross as covering our sins. He then takes His righteousness and imputes (attributes or ascribes) it on us. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives at conversion, He changes the "lens" that the Father sees us through; instead of seeing us based on our own righteousness or lack thereof, He sees us based on His own righteousness. God has literally changed the way He sees us. He no longer looks at us and sees our sin; He looks at us and sees His own righteousness. And that can never change. (See also Rom. 3:22,26, 4:5-6,24; Gal. 2:21)
2. The second righteousness is the righteousness that we accrue as we follow Jesus. Obviously, we will never be perfect as long as we are on this earth, because of the sin that still resides in our flesh. But because of the mercy and grace that Jesus brought through His blood, we can pursue righteousness here on earth. We pursue righteousness by seeking to know God more, primarily through His Word and through prayer. It's like getting to know a good friend: the more you know who that friend is, the more you become like that friend (assuming you actually want to be like them). This is why the most important thing you can do every day is to read your Bible and pray; through these you learn who God is and you can conform your life to Him. And while we know we will never reach perfection here on earth, we can aim for that perfection and strive for that standard. Because while we will never reach it, due to his mercy and grace, we can never fail. (See also Rom. 6:13,16,19; Eph. 4:24; Php. 1:11; 1 Tim. 6:11; Heb. 5:13)
3. The third righteousness is the righteouseness that we are promised in heaven. When we die (or are raptured) and make it through the pearly gates, we will be perfect! This is something that is so hard to fathom sometimes, but it is the reason for everything God has done for us: to live with Him for all of eternity in holiness and righteousness, having experienced His love and grace. It returns us to the state in which we were created, except that we know what it means to be completely loved by God. Somehow, our bodies will be transformed into pure, sinless bodies, and our minds will be washed clean. Galatians 5:5 says, "For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope." (See also 2 Tim. 4:8; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev 19:8.) No matter what happens here on earth or how far along the line of perfection we make it, we are promised pure and perfect righteousness for all of eternity in heaven. Nothing motivates me more to press on and finish the race than knowing that, no matter what happens, I will soon be completely, 100% righteous. (Hallelujah! All praise and glory be to the one and only Savior and Redeemer. Amen.)

So no matter what happens, we are surrounded completely by righteousness. This is by God's design, so that no sin can ever separate us from God's love and salvation, and so that we are always encouraged when we are down about our earthly state. We will make mistakes here, but we have been covered in righteousness, we are constantly growing in righteousness, and we are promised perfection in eternity. It sure makes our failures seem small and weak compared to the might and power of an amazing, holy, faithful God!

Don't Worry

I am a college student. Well, not for much longer, but since I still am I can use it as a legitimate excuse for why there hasn't been activity on this blog in months. Certain things have been classified as low-priority, much to my dismay.

I have been active on my bus blog, primarily due to Lane Jensen's absence from the blogging world and my attempts to fill that hole. I still view this blog as more important, but unfortunately I haven't had the motivation to write anything. This is a bummer, since God has been teaching me a lot lately.

Maybe I should just rename this blog, "Rantings of a Really Lazy Blogger." But that would just be ripping off Al Margulies's blog name, and really, my blog ain't that funny.

On a side note, to the one person who read this blog on November 6, I thank you. Your efforts of pageviewing didn't go unnoticed. Really. It's kind of hard to miss the only pageview your blog gets in two months.

But back to whatever I'm trying to say here, I am a college student. Until December 12, I am a college student. After that, I will be just a guy. A guy with a certain amount of work lined up for me. I'm not talking about a job in my field of expertise specifically. I just know that God has something lined up. It will all work out. I'm not worried.

Hey, let's talk about worry! I can talk a lot about that! Not because I've worried, but because I haven't been. Or mostly haven't been. I don't know if I told you my story about my phone in Denver yet. Telling you that will make this paragraph make a lot more sense.

So, I was on vacation in Denver in June. I had a lot of high expectations for some really awesome things to happen. I had been there four days or so, and I had already been stuck in a tornado shelter, calling to the Coors Field bullpen, proving that TriMet's fare structure is truly unequitable, finding the best intersection in the world (Taco Bell, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Chipotle, light rail, and bus mall, all at 16th & California), and spending time with my grandmother. It had been way more exciting than I had even expected was possible.

It was Thursday, and I decided to go meet up with my youth choir, Priority, as they sang at a retirement home. Yay! I get to see Priority (which wasn't certain in and of itself). Then our director threw me a t-shirt and had me sing in the choir. And then I spent the whole rest of the day with them, going to the mall, hanging out with all my friends, and getting the honor of being included in the selection of tour dates (long story). And I got a ride back to Grandma's from one of my heroes and best friends in life, Jon. Perfect day, and I hadn't even reached the day of utmost excitement, the epic theme park day (which was kinda the reason I "happened" to be in Denver that week [shh..don't tell anyone...]).

And then that night, in all my wonder at how awesome that day had gone, I had a great shock come upon me: where is my phone? I had it in the van ride to Grandma's, but I couldn't find it anywhere in my room! Could I have dropped it in the street? The yard? Did somebody take it? To make matters worse, the battery had just died on it, and I needed it for the theme park day.

Then I heard that inaudible voice that comes from time to time speak clearly: "This is a test." So I sat there on my bed thinking about how everything had gone so perfectly according to plan so far, plus some. I thought about how God had been continually proving His faithfulness to me throughout the trip. And I kept getting the sense of a voice saying, "I have made everything go right so far. But now things are not certain. This is a test. Will you trust Me?" So I declared that I would not worry. I basically told God, I know that whatever happens will be the right thing, but if I get my phone back (charged), I should never worry ever again. And so I went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up and realized, hey, I could just call Jon on Grandma's landline and ask him if he found the phone in the van! Maybe he could get someone with the same phone the charge it! So I picked up the phone and dialed the number (his being the only Priority number I knew by memory). And..."(cue the three phone tones of terror), Please enter the 4 digit long-distance access code." Long distance access code? Well, so much for easy. And with no phone, it meant I had to call the transit district to get scheduled times for a bus I didn't have the printed schedule for. So, wad of paper schedules in hand and a confident smile on my face, I walked out the door of Grandma's house.

Of course, since this is not TriMet, all the buses ran perfectly on schedule. I got to see some really cool parts of town I had wanted to see. Even one of the drivers went to the church that Priority had done a service project at. It was a bus trip of a lifetime. I arrived at the hotel. I said a prayer: "Lord, this is it. I trust You." And I walked in the door to find Jon in the lobby.

"Hey, Jon," I said. "Did you happen to find my phone?"

"Yeah, I found it on the floor of the van. It's charging up in my room."

And that day ended up being probably the best day of my life so far. Phone in hand, I spent time with my friends at the theme park, having a total blast. And the rest of the vacation continued to be just as awesome. A weeklong trip, where nothing went wrong.

So, now I say: should I worry? I'll admit, there have been moments since then where worry has attacked me, but either God wakes me up and points out His continued faithfulness, or I just remember all the things He has done, relax, and watch Him work. No, things haven't always been comfortable, and no, things haven't gone "my way" all the time. But God has never failed me. Everything has worked out. And I can proceed knowing that He will provide, even when it seems impossible.

So, yes, God has shown me that I don't need to panic about getting a job right out of college. I'll work for my family, which will give me some much-needed time off to recover from this term. And there are plenty of opportunities on the horizon. But earlier this year I worried a lot about this time of my life. Now I just have faith that God is in control of everything. And this gives me confidence.

Because, really, why should I ever worry again?

A Hope And A Future

" 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.' " - Jeremiah 29:11

I feel like I have gotten off on the wrong foot. If I am going to share life with you on this blog, I probably should define what my life is first.

God likes to teach me things by creating a high-level theme and then explaining how each detail fits into the big picture. I have grown to understand such concepts as grace, mercy, love, and joy over the years through these learning periods. It is a shame that I wasn't blogging then, because it would have been wonderful to have shared these as I learned them. Though I will definitely fit these into the posts as I go along, it is more prudent that I tell you about what God has been teaching me about lately: faith.

Faith can be defined in many ways and has many applications. Read Hebrews 11 if you want to see what faith in action looks like. The most pressing component of faith that God has been revealing to me over the last few years has to do with trusting in God's faithfulness and then acting accordingly. This is how faith is best defined in my life.

Back in 2011, I was going about my business when, suddenly, God felt it appropriate to make me two really big promises. The first year or so after each promise was made mostly consisted of me trying to prove that these were really promises of God and not some figment of my imagination. But, alas, they most certainly were of God, for there is no way that these things could just happen or remain happening over the long haul in the way they did if they weren't of God. This was one component of faith I learned: trusting that what God said was actually what He said. This is most important in light of His Word, but He also makes promises to people, either through His Word or through other means, and it's up to us to remain faithful to believe in the truth of those promises.

I would love to go into specific details about these promises. However, due to the world-wide nature of the world-wide web, it would be in my best interest to wait until they come to fruition and then tell you all the details. Besides, it will be even more faith-building for you when I can say "This is what God promised, and here's the fruits." While I can't tell you right now exactly what these promises were, I can tell you some interesting comparisons between them that will help you see how God works.

The first promise was something like this: "This is where I am leading you. I am not giving you an instruction manual on how to get there. Instead, just trust Me to lead you along the way. You will get there. Just trust Me and follow Me."

I think many of the promises God makes are like this. We can see the destination, and we know that we are guaranteed to arrive there on time. However, the road is foggy and the map is torn to shreds. Therefore, we just have to heed the promptings of the Holy Spirit inside and follow where He leads. This seems so difficult, especially because we like to reason out the possibilities of success or failure. But I have found the truth that God is faithful to His promise, and that doesn't change regardless of the situation.

So, how's the journey going so far? Well, it's not exactly what I was expecting. I am in a totally different place than I reasoned I'd be at this point. But where I am is so on track and is making a difference in the lives of people that I can tell that this is where I'm supposed to be now. And anyway, this is only part of the way along the timeline to the destination. There's still a ways to go. But I thought I would have to wait a long time to see any fruits of this promise; instead, I'm already seeing part of it coming to pass.

The second promise is totally opposite from the first. I was minding my own business when God made the promise to me in sentence form, as He spoke in my mind so very clearly what exactly was going to happen, it might as well have been audible. I was taken aback, and I laughed it off. Again, I heard in my spirit the same words, (to the equivalence of) "This is going to happen." So I started to pray and listen, as the Casting Crowns song "Already There" started playing over and over in my mind out of the blue. And instead of giving me the destination and just telling me to trust Him with the details, God began to list out the details of what would happen along the way. It all made sense, it all was logical, and it even made other things in life make more sense. But what I was left with was a set of answers to some serious prayers I had prayed and a detailed list of what would happen over the next year.

So a year later, after all the things God had told me would happen came to pass perfectly and on schedule, that's when I came to the full understanding that this was, in fact, going to happen. My faith finally caused me to totally trust in the words that He had spoken to me. You may wonder why God doesn't just explain what will happen and instead opts to leave you out of the details. I have found that, contrary to popular opinion, it actually requires way more faith to believe when the plan is laid out, because that is a lot more information to trust God to make happen perfectly and on schedule. It makes the "trust me" promise seem like no burden, when I've seen the "here's the plan" promise work exactly as planned, and even blessing me along the way above and beyond my wildest expectations.

I served as counselor this year at Royal Family Kids Camp. The camp verse for the week was Jeremiah 29:11, and the challenge was to just rest on that and not worry about anything. Why should I worry? Why should I fear anything? God has promised in His Word that He knows the plans He has for me, plans for a hope and a future. And, for some reason, he has chosen to reveal a few examples of these plans to me, which have built my faith extremely.

After completing the first year of the second promise, God chose again to outline the next 12 months. These included some very extreme events that challenged my faith to an even higher level. But, I'm eight months in, and everything is again on schedule according to that plan. I speak with certainty concerning the validity of the initial statement, because the probability of everything happening according to this plan without providential intervention is about the same as seeing an actual pig sprout wings and soar away. But here I am, my faith strong and indestructible. Even when the arrows of Satan attack me, that shield of faith protects me and helps me to grow even more, regardless of the circumstances. And it makes me see how faithful my God truly is.

So I'm excited to share with you about God's faithfulness to these promises going forward. And in a few years, I will be able to tell you what He actually promised.

Bluetooth Keyboard

My blogging as of late has been next to nonexistent. Until I realized I just needed some sort of tool to make it more convenient.

A few months ago, my mother bought me a small keyboard for my phone that connects via Bluetooth. It seemed cool at the time, but just like many of the other cool things, it ended up sitting untouched in its box for a few months.

When I got my phone back in January, I knew that I had no excuse for not blogging because of the convenience of my Blogger app. However, while the portability of the app did prove to be convenient, typing on the touch screen keyboard added a level of annoyance that made the experience less than pleasureable. And while the voice recognition made it easier at home, when I was away its use was obviously impossible. So, therefore, the blog entries both here and on my Transit Rider PDX blog dwindled.

Jump to last night. I had an epiphany. This cool little device sitting in its box somewhere downstairs would make typing up blog entries on the go a whole lot easier. So I packed up the box and took it to work with me today to charge it and see if it connects. And behold, it works! It's still a bit slower typing than on a normal keyboard, but it sure beats the touch screen. (Plus it has arrow keys, which my Galaxy SIII's keyboard doesn't.)

What's the big deal? Well, I know that God has made it clear that both of my blogs are super-important to His big plan. I've known this for years. But every time I go to make the effort, something comes up that holds me back from following through and writing blog posts. These hindrances have taken many forms, from failures that make me think I'm not good enough for writing, to just how to get the picture of my phone onto this post. (Obviously, this requires use of another camera; this conundrum caused the delay of another day while writing this post.) This is even the third incarnation of this very blog: the first lasted seven posts and then went away, while the second never saw the light of the WWW day.

I have already seen how God has been using my bus blog to make a difference in both my life and the rest of the TriMet world. However, I have always known that this particular blog is one of my primary ministries, as it is a place where I can speak about all that God is revealing to me and all the incredible things that He's doing my life. So it behooves me to make the effort to follow through with this blogging, as it is way more important than what it may seem when I'm doing it.

I should be posting at least twice a week here. If I'm not, shoot me a comment on a post and ask me where I've been. Because unless I'm at Royal Family Kids Camp where we only have access to our phones for three hours a day, I have no excuse for not posting to this blog. It's part of my ministry! 

Denver 2013: Day 1

I decided that it would be a cool idea to make a daily log of trip to Denver this year. I mean, somebody out there would probably find it interesting. And from what I've learned about vacations, they are rarely boring. So here is my Denver travelogue. I hope you enjoy it.

Ahh, my first ever plane flight by myself. See, whenever I fly, I have to take decongestant pills so my ears don't explode. So when I was getting ready to board the plane and realized my pills weren't in my pocket, that wasn't exactly a welcome realization. Providentially, the pills I had taken earlier that morning and the night before were sufficient enough to keep me from having ear fireworks. Or maybe it was because I landed 5800 feet higher than when I started.

I found it funny that there were signs in Denver's airport directing passengers to tornado shelters. I mean, that is something that will never be seen anywhere in Oregon. So when the announcement came over the intercom that the National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning that included the Denver International Airport, I was rather shocked. Next thing I knew, I was spending 30 minutes in the men's restroom (the tornado shelter) hearing the same annoying pre-recorded announcement about the tornado warning over and over and over again. I called my mom, the tornado stories television program connoisseur, to inform her I was in a real-life tornado situation (much to her obvious shock). Also, my aunt was on her way to the airport to pick me up. All this, and I had only been in Denver for less than an hour.

After about 30 minutes, there was finally a new announcement saying that the threat of a tornado was no longer. Turns out that three tornadoes had actually formed and one touched down, but apparently it didn't do any damage. Eventually, I was able to retrieve my luggage and meet my aunt who took me to my grandma's house.

It's always nice to see family you rarely get to see, so the rest of my evening was mostly just visiting and catching up. But as my aunt said, I have just arrived and it's already a vacation that I will never forget.

You can keep up with my Coloradoan escapades by searching #psdenver13 on Twitter, or following along at @pstanley92.