JohnnyBGamer

Grasping at Something Tangible

This is one of those days where I know I need to post because it is New Post Thursday; one of those days where I’m not sure what to share.

Have been dealing with the thoughts and emotions of the new adventure my family is on. Trying to grasp what the unknown looks like. Wondering how it impacts my family and what life will be like afterwards. This is one of those deals where I have peace, deep down, over the “adventure”. But I think I’m trying to control all the details, trying to grasp at something tangible.

Little things, such as someone asking me to do something, feels overwhelming. I don’t like that.

I am grinding my teeth at night.

I am dreaming crazy dreams… when I can actually sleep.

God is teaching me that I have to push through being overwhelmed by that “one more thing” feeling. That I have to learn to deal with stress differently. He has also been reminding me of who I have been blessed with, my family, and what makes us unique.

I am thankful for how God prepares us for things; thankful that this new “adventure” will take time. His time.

How do you deal with stress?

Let me know in the comments below.

From Across the Net – “My Frustrating Journey to Find a Perfect Pair of Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons”

I was finally progressing through Hollow Knight when one of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers decided to disconnect. I paused the game and fought with the controller, trying desperately to get back to my game. After a few moments, I succeeded in pairing the controller with the system. Success! Only to have the controller disconnect again minutes later.

Matt Kim, with USgamer, wrote about this last week in an article titled “My Frustrating Journey to Find a Perfect Pair of Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons“.

The Nintendo Switch came out in March 2017, and though the console was a huge hit critically and commercially, the launch wasn’t entirely pristine. Key issues have to do with the Joy-Cons disconnecting from the console, and “drifting,” meaning the reticle would move further away from the center, even if the thumb stick wasn’t being moved.

These two problems are largely separate from one another, but there are several articles from March 2017 from news outlets, YouTube channels, and tech forums about the left Joy-Con disconnecting issue, and how to fix it. Various technical breakdowns showed that the reason the left Joy-Con disconnected so often was because of the way the antenna was designed in the first place.

You can read more here

I am upset to find out that this is still a widespread issue. Nintendo and quality hardware go hand-n-hand in my mind. Nintendo, you need to make this right. I shouldn’t have to worry about controllers not working after owning a console for a year.

From Across the Net – “4 Painful Lies Stay-at-Home Moms Tell Themselves”

Jasmine Holmes, writing from The Gospel Coalition, has a great article titled “4 Painful Lies Stay-at-Home Moms Tell Themselves“.

I’m a stay-at-home mom because I’m striving to obey God’s calling on my life. He’s given me gifts, talents, and abilities that I steward while devoting most of my time to my family. We prayerfully made these decisions for our family; they’re not a judgment call on yours.

The stay-at-home mom life doesn’t define me any more than my professional life defined me—Christ’s death on the cross does. Staying home isn’t the most important detail about me. My identity as Christ’s daughter is.

You can read more here

I’ve also written on this topic before here

Someone, Please Save Us, Us College Kids

During my junior college years, I listened to “College Kids”, by Relient K, on repeat:

Someone, please save us, us college kids!
What my parents told me is what I did
They said, “Go to school and be a college kid.”
But, in the end, I questioned why I did

I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I knew I wanted more than the part time restaurant job I was working. Surely there was more to life than general level college courses, commuting, and serving food/busing tables. Add on top of that friends moving away for school, girls/dating, and not being sure of who I was in the church (or the church having a clue of who I was)… this was a huge transitory time for me.

(Oh no!) Not for me, not for me
Call it torture, call it university
(No!) Arts and Crafts is all I need
I’ll take calligraphy and then I’ll make a fake degree

I am thankful for those that God stirred up and called into my life during that time. He is faithful. I just didn’t always see His faithfulness as I clearly do now in retrospect. Little did I know that He was preparing me for bigger things. Bigger things like:

Moving away from all that I ever knew (family, friends, etc.).
Texas. TEXAS. The shock of Southern/Bible Belt culture.
My wife. I met her within a month of moving/going to school.

For those in this period of transition, the church (as a whole) does little to help with the confusion. Once students leave the comfort and safety of the youth group, they are launched into church oblivion. This oblivion is somewhere between graduating high school and marriage. The church, inadvertently, preaches that marriage is the pinnacle; once married, growing a family becomes the next prize to be won. But where does that leave those in college? Forgotten.

Eighty grand later, I found out that all that I had learned
Is that you should show up to take your finals and your mid-terms
The party scene is kind of mean; I think it’s sick and twisted
The Navy showed up at my door and claimed that I enlisted

Some churches see the need and build college, young professional, and singles ministries (all of these are totally different ministries that should not be paired together) to bridge the gap till marriage. I am thankful for churches who see this need.

College kids want to be recognized, listened to, and accepted in the church. They do not want to be treated as second-class citizens who serve as babysitters. Nor do they want to be treated as the “forgotten”, in-between singleness and marriage. We, as the Church, have to do more. We need to change the messages we are silently/subtly preaching through our actions. We also need to point to the stable foundation that is Scripture. College students are hungry for truth (scripture), faith that has depth, and delicious food. And maybe even a chance to come over, hang out, and wash their clothes.

We can do better. I’ve learned that Satan speaks into the silent places the church doesn’t. So let us speak and do.

On My Radar – Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

While I’m not playing video games as much these days, I’m sure a AAA Star Wars game from Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall, Apex Legends) could put a controller back in my hands.