Tough Times Call For Tough Love

I know there may seem to be a running theme with my posts, but I promise there will be other topics to come!

In my last post, I talked about storms. I mentioned what caused mine, what I needed to realize, and what (or Who) will lift me out of it. One thing I attempted not to touch was a surprise in the storm, or a roadblock if you will. Things that happen while you're going through a rough patch that are completely unexpected. Both the bad and the good. And it just so happens that both have happened to me! Who would've guessed, right? Those that know me well know that when I write, it comes from something(s) of extreme emotion. This is no different. Let's start where I left off last. I told you about my personal storms. Today, I'm here to tell you that I have found the person to guide me in that boat. Her name is Heidi, and we were both looking for people for our respective boats. Both of us love God, but never really had a faith-based relationship before. It's just shy of a month, but I feel confident that God placed her in my life and He placed me in hers for His glory. If I haven't brought her around to meet you yet, I most definitely will because she means so much to me. I cannot wait to see how He plans to use us together for the Great Commission!

Also, I titled this post for a reason. As those who read the previous post may know, I'm also searching for a job so I don't end up on the streets. I have been actively looking, but it's been brought to my attention by someone who I hold very close to me that I'm not looking hard enough. I'm not particularly proud of the way that I acted, but I did it anyway. The way I acted was that I wasn't appreciative of the efforts they put for me, that I was taking advantage. I was told off. I was so upset that I cried. I cried hard. I haven't had a cry like that in years. The irony in that is those tears to me symbolized the rough water that my boat was in. You see, there has been one story and one person from the Bible that I haven't been able to shake off since just the name was mentioned a few weeks ago in Sunday School. That person is Job. While Job's story is controversial to some, I find it so intriguing and somewhat similar to my current situation. Job lost everything. His wife, his kids, his livelihood. While I don't have kids (and everybody said amen! Haha), I did have someone I loved and I did have a livelihood. Within one month, that was ripped away. However, just like Job, I never lost faith in Our Redeemer. Not once. Because of that faith, I was able to find Heidi and find that partner, that love for someone again, and much greater than I've felt for anybody in my life so far, and I also know by trying my absolute best, and not just by trying I will be able to find my livelihood again.

If there is anyone reading this and would like to ask me any questions about my storms or want to ask me about how you can have a relationship like I have or like Job had with God, I will be more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability. If I can't answer them, I know some people that I trust so much that I can introduce you to! If you enjoyed this, please feel free to share it on social media and as always, I'd love to hear what you thought about it! Few free to leave a comment here or on social media.

Catch you on the flip side!

Dylan, aka Chauncey!

Which comes first, the storm or the calm?

In life, we all have "storms." Bad things or bad times in our lives. Recently, I've had what feels like a hurricane hit me. Within one month, the woman I loved left me and I lost my job, which as much as I complained about my job, and boy did I complain about it, I truthfully loved it. I loved my girlfriend. A lot. Before it all happened, I was so happy, so content to a degree. It was truly a "calm." I had the basic needs in my life, and then the storm began to brew. The Sunday after Christmas, my most recent relationship ended. For weeks afterward, I was devastated. I was in denial, to be honest. I didn't want to believe that someone could just change how they feel overnight and thought it was just a phase and after a couple weeks we could just pick up where we left off. Those couple of weeks went by, and thankfully I had work to take my mind off it. I wasn't worried about her or this situation any longer and I told myself that I wouldn't stress over it any longer. I have never been so wrong. Not long after that, I lost my job over, in my opinion, stupid circumstances.  Now it's been over two and a half months since the breakup, and a month and a half since losing my job and I've finally realized something. I remembered this quote that an old friend of mine once said after a local mission trip we did in high school, "don't tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big God is." That quote has always stuck with me, but until I had experienced a storm such as this is where I fully understand what that has meant. Along the way, I have been able to attend church more often despite my problems and the first Sunday night I was able to attend in over a year, there was a speaker who talked about these same storms, except for a younger high school audience ( the speaker was mostly for the youth). The speaker was telling the story about Jesus calming the storm in Mark: 35-41. To me, the most powerful words of that are the final ones in verse 41, which say "Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!" (HCSB translation) Through this, I have felt every range of emotion one could possibly imagine. Fear. Sadness. Anger. Rage. Emptiness. Loneliness. Depression. Relief. I feel relief because although I am alone physically, I am not alone spiritually, for our Father is with me. When I pray, I don't ask Him to take care of the storm for me because then I know He won't have a lesson for me. Instead, I ask for guidance to get me out of this. I ask for the perseverance to lead me in the right direction. You see, I am fully aware that I, along with most of us (although most will not admit it), am a "hypocritical" Christian. I believe in the Word, and do my best to live by it but fail. Sometimes intentionally because I fall into secular habits and tendencies. I say that because I know some of you will read this and think "well I know Dylan or I know Chauncey and he's just pandering. He's trying to garner sympathy or he's trying to be someone he isn't." I want those who will be "that guy" to know that you can think what you will, but I am who I am. In conclusion, I want to let those who may read this that don't know Christ that if you are going through problems, or you have your own "storms", that you don't have to go through these alone. Come talk to me, whether it's in person or over text/social media, and I will be more than happy to share the Word of God with you and together, we can discover Jesus. Hope you guys enjoyed the read! If you could, please tell me what you think! I'll be posting this on Facebook where most of my posts will be, and just leave a comment about what you've thought! Thank you so much for reading!


Dylan, aka Chauncey.

New Beginnings Round 2

A few years ago as an "angsty" teen, I started a blog that I'm not necessarily proud of and no longer exists. Now, I'm a few years older, and not very much wiser but I do enjoy writing and it's the best way I know how to express my feelings, so I'm gonna give it another go. What you all can expect from this blog will be real life stories and happenings from my life as well as original stories I've either previously written or came up with on the spot. One thing is for sure though, everything you read here will be passionate and emotional (happy and sad). Hopefully with what I will have written here, it will elicit some sort of emotion from you somehow because that's any writer's goal, right? Well I think that's enough of an introduction so be on the lookout in the coming days for my first actual blog/story!