What I (Will Have) Did This Summer

Okay.  So I have been reading this book of Lovecraft off-an-on for over two months now and I just recently got to what I really wanted, the humble yet utterly horrifying beginnings of the Cthulhu mythology.  You must understand how frustrating it was for me to sit and read the 200 pages of stuff leading up to this, especially when you take into account that he is incredibly verbose.  I mean, Lovecraft is an intense writer with some prosaic (read: really tough) prose.  But it took me quite some time, and I was rather ready to finally read the words, "Cthulhu R'lyeh" when they came up (although I had some understandable trouble pronouncing them).  

Now I don't expect you to feel sorry for me.  And if you do, don't.  After all, I have had nothing but time since graduation in December.  Sure, I had a few obligations and such, things I had to do and just couldn't sluff off, but that took up no more than 5% of my time over the last five months.  Couldn't be any more than that.  The rest of that time was me sitting at home watching tv with my family, hanging out with friends in Athens (TLN, holla!), or just generally oversleeping.  

By this point I have successfully translated all of your pity into loathing, to which I say, "Mission Accomplished!" Because here is the point I am getting at:  

I AM SORRY!

(Hope the flash helps bring to light my obvious sincerity)
But seriously.  I am sorry.  I told you all (hey guys) a few weeks ago that I would be shortly preparing to post the conclusion to "Will Baker is Dead," and I still have not done that.  Of course, most of you will just tell me that you don't have the time to read it right now anyway, but your lack of enthusiasm and general concern is no excuse for laziness on my part!  I said I would do it, and I shall...soon.
Seriously, though, I plan on releasing the final chapters in the coming weeks after I have edited them.  And I will start this Friday.  My goal is to be ready for a new Summer Serial by the first Friday in June!  Yes, I'm sticking to that format again.  I like it and it worked pretty well for me last Summer, so why not?  Every Friday until August (Four in June and five in July), I will be releasing to you a new chapter of my newest Summer Serial: TBA.
Aye, that is the rub.  I haven't the foggiest idea what to write for you all this Summer.  It makes me sad, really.  Not that I don't have ideas I've been wanting to work on, but I don't have any that I think work well for this format.  But I want to do another one because it worked.  I had great success in actually consistently working last Summer, and I would very much like to experience that again.  So, this is where a little "Reader Response" comes in to play.  Tell me what you want to read.  What sorts of things do you enjoy reading during the Summer?  What stories do you want to hear?  I can't promise you that I'll cater to your every whim and fancy: I do have principles.  But I think your input and your ideas will help me winnow through some of the ideas I have floating around in the background.  I want to know what you want to hear.  And no, I am not above just giving you what you want to hear.  In this case.
So let me know!  Fill my inbox, leave some comments, for Heaven's sake, Tweet me!  I don't care how you do it, just let me know what you want to read for a Summer Serial in 2011.  June and July could be great, nay, watershed months for literature if you let them.  So tell me, and let yourself let me let you enjoy the great literature that you let me let you read.  Because it's coming.  I promise.
Also, I haven't been very good at general blogging lately.  Aside from the fiction I want to provide you with soon, I also want to get back to some all-around good natured, "Well let me tell you what I think..." writing.  You don't get enough of that these days, whether it be from me or from some freckle-faced kid with a shaggy haircut and a trendy gray laptop.  So I want to give you more of it!  My goal before has always been to post at least once a month (HINT: I failed in Jan. and April), so let's up the ante.  Now, fiction aside, I am going to post for you guys at least once a week.  Maybe.  If I can.  We'll see.  Let's just call it an outside chance, okay?
So there you have it.  My summer plans: write another book (one week at a time for all of you lovely people), write more blogs, and get a wax.  Except I didn't tell you that part before.  I just decided on that one now.
Also, in the time it took me to type the above, I've already gotten a few ideas as to what I want to write for y'all this Summer.  So, if you want your voice to be heard, you better start speaking up soon.  The first Friday in June is only...(leaves to check a calendar)...22 days away (and I'd really like to get started on this thing before then, if you know what I'm saying).

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Adam Wynn is a self-loathing writer who hails from Dacula, GA.  He also likes to speak in the 3rd person when writing unnecessary author's notes such as this.  He is a very social networker, making frequent appearances on Twitter (@42Cobras), Facebook (Adam Wynn), X-Box Live (UGAWynner), Xanga (J146), and MySpace (Kinda Forgot This One).  He is also the author of the "Internet Novel," Will Baker is Dead, which made it's debut on this very blog.  He is also an avid Netflix-er.  Y'know, in case you wanted to know.  

Lawn Maintenance vs. Life Maintenance (or "Why Moses Was Kind of an Idiot")

Ah.  The birds are chirping.  The trees are blooming.  The squirrels have resumed running out into the road.

And the grass is growing.

That's right, what many of you have feared seeing, the grass is growing once more.  Our perennial friend, the green green grass of home, has again started poking it's little verdigris head out of the ground, and it is our job to once a week decapitate the little punks.  And we do it with gusto.  Because we can.  I choose to do it with a John Deere 720 Z Zero-Turn hunk of a lawn tractor (or as I call, "The Pod Racer" as to how similar it is in design to the pod racers of "Phantom Menace" fame/infamy).

Well last week I was out on the Pod Racer cutting the grass when this idea occurred to me.  It went something like this: "You know, I used to hate cutting the grass.  Now, I kinda look forward to getting out here on the Pod Racer.  And I take pride in cutting this grass.  That seems really grown up of me."  It was something like that, except probably less formal and more blurb-esque.

But its true!  I used to absolutely despise cutting the grass.  I would take Dylan Thomas' sagacious advice and rage, rage against the machine (haha) that was the lawnmower.  But I would do it.  Now, ever since I've graduated to the big-boy toy and get to use the riding mower, I've calmed down a bit.  And, as I said earlier, I have even learned to take pride in cutting the grass.  When I finish the job, I look out on it and say, "My, that looks good.  I should do this professionally," and then I kick myself for ever thinking such a fool-hardy thought.

But right now, if you're a regular reader here (in which case I should say hi, two of you), you're asking yourself and me the obvious question.  "Where's the metaphor, Adam?  Where's the brilliant insight you gained from having this mystical thought whilst killing grass?"  And, if you're at least half astute, you'll have noticed what I said in the title.  But if not, here it goes.

When I thought about this transition in my life, this change from the immense hatred I felt for cutting the grass to the newfound joy I have in seeing a lawn well mowed, it occurred to me.  We do that with our lives.  A lot.  When we're kids, we have these grand dreams of what we will accomplish one day and what we can be.  We dream of being astronauts and we dream of being Presidents.  Or someone truly great, like a writer.  We dream of the grand things we will achieve in this world, and we envision the day that this world shivers when it sees us coming, because it knows that something powerful is about to happen.

Then, time goes by, and life falls a little short of our expectations, so we bide our time doing something else.  We bide our time as accountants or lay-people.  Or we take jobs that are not exactly what we envisioned ourselves doing.  We say it will just be a temporary thing until we get our life on the road, or until our ship comes in, which is odd because those are two completely different forms of transportation employed in that there metaphor.

And do we ever break free from the temporary confines of average citizenry?  No.  We find comfort there, and we learn to take pride in our work done.  We start performing life maintenance.  Now I get it, people grow, their dreams change, and they gain responsibilities.  They have to do certain things.  But I have to wonder.  In what order does that happen?  Do our dreams change, leading us to step down out of the batter's box and into the score keeper's booth, or do we accept our place and try to fit our goals to match it?

Now speaking of the title, let me bring up a little fellow named Moses.  Some of you, especially those of you who may have been in my Bible Study groups in the past, are probably familiar with my love for Exodus Ch. 3 and the story of the Burning Bush and God speaking to Moses through it.  Here, we move one chapter to the right and look at Exodus Ch. 4.  This past Wednesday night at "The Loft," Hebron's College and Twenty-Somethings ministry, our college pastor (there's that shout-out you wanted, Rando!) talked a little about this chapter and the lunacy of Moses' response to God.  Let's take a look.

Here is Moses talking to God I AM through flaming shrubbery.  If that alone wasn't awesome enough, God had already told Moses that he was standing on Holy Ground, turned the staff in his hand into a snake, then almost simultaneously struck Moses with leprosy and instantly cured it.  So Moses had seen the Power of God at work before his eyes, as potent and obvious as I'm sure the putrid presence of sheep smell was on Moses' cloak.  Yet look at what he says:

Exodus 4:10-13

But Moses pleaded with the Lord, "O Lord, I'm not very good with words.  I never have been, and I'm not now, even though you have spoken to me.  I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled."  

11 Then the Lord asked moses, "Who makes a person's mouth?  Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see?  Is it not I, the Lord?   12 Now go!  I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say."  

13 But Moses again pleaded, "Lord, please!  Send anyone else."

So let me get this straight.  The Voice of God had just literally and audibly (and I guess pyroverbally?) spoken to Moses and told him of the great thing he would do.  There was no question.  God had told Moses exactly what He was going to do through him and how, even going so far as to provide him with miraculous signs to show the people.  And what does Moses do?  He asks God to "Send anyone else."  Moses has spent the last four decades herding sheep up in the mountainous deserts, and he is not interested in taking on this great and wonderful task that God has asked him to do.  He has gotten so comfortable in just maintaining this life that he is not willing to step out and follow the call that God has placed on his life.

And I think we do that all the time.  As Rando said, God has called all of us to do great things.  Have you ever heard the saying, "What would you strive to do if you knew you could not fail?"  When we are acting in accordance with the will of God, moving as He has called us to do, we cannot fail.  And we will not fail.  We will not fail because the God of the universe has willed our actions to success.  God will not call us to do something that we will fail at, because He is calling us to succeed.  He is calling us to fulfill his plans, so why would He want us to fail?  If you still need convincing, look what happened when Moses stepped out and followed God's call.  He lead the people of Israel out of bondage, slavery that they had been kept in for over four-hundred years.  He was the toast of the town (until they got stuck at the river banks and the people doubted him and God again, but that's another story) and he was the heralded man of God.  Heck, we're still talking about him today.  All because he eventually was willing to follow the call that God had placed on him.

So what does this look like for us?  We're not all bound to be famous.  Surely not.  We are not all bound to be great statesmen or voices of healing to the masses.  Some of us will be, yes, and if that is your dream, and if that is the dream to which God is leading you, then my stars, go out and do it.  But if not, what should you do?

The simple answer is that you should seek God's call, and you should seek your heart out for it.  But the more complex answer looks something like this.  I graduated from the University of Georgia with two degrees, one of them in English Education.  For a full academic year, I spent day in and day out with people who dreamed of being HS English teachers.  They knew that they had been called to teach, and they were going to work their tails off to do it.  And they were going to be the best English teachers they could be.  It was their dream. For me, however, it was not.  I won't lie, I eventually came to the point of understanding that I was in that program where I should be, but it was not God's call that I spend my life as an English teacher.  I fully believe that my calling is to write and to let my words reach people and hopefully help them.  Does that mean that my calling is better than theirs?  Or that I am more important than them because I don't plan on teaching?  No.  Those people have dreamed of this day, when they would be called teachers, and they are going to be great.  It is on them to be the best teachers they can be, and they will change lives if they do it.  I did the math, even as an English teacher.  With an average classroom size of 30 students, spending a full 30 year career teaching, you will directly reach over 10,000 students (assuming you're working in a school where you teach five periods a day, as I was at the time).  That doesn't even take into account the other random students you will see on a daily basis but never teach.  With that alone, you have already been in contact for a serious amount of time with as many people as experts say most of us will have as acquaintances in an average lifetime.

But we don't want an average lifetime.  We want a great one.  We want a life where we are reaching people and changing their lives.  We want a lifetime where we are seeing things happen that defy human experience and expectation.  That is what we are to be striving for.  Moses grew up in the seat of royalty, expecting to have influence over countless numbers of people.  In time, however, he gave that dream up for the hills of the desert where he was walking around with sheep all day.  Now I'll admit that God had brought him to this place for a reason, and that Moses was even doing his best with the task God had given him, but it was not where he was supposed to stay.  And when God called him away, Moses was about to give up his true calling to be just another sheep herder.  Do you ever wonder how many chapters of the Bible could have been written about the people God wanted to do things who flaked out on them?  Do you want to other side of Moses' coin, when you have been asked to lead the people out of Egypt?  I sure as heck don't.  I don't want to spend my life knowing that God asked me to do a great work and I instead chose to do an average one.  I am not content with just maintaining, with cutting the grass.  To borrow a quote, I want to live deeply and suck out the marrow of life, if that is what God calls me to do.  I want to soar over the rooftops of the world and sound my barbaric yawp, and do it to the best of my ability as God calls.  I ask you to join me in doing whatever it is God has called you to, and doing it the way that only you can.  With gusto, and with greatness, engage the life God has for you.  Move beyond maintenance and into majesty.

Author's Note: Adam Wynn enjoys staring out into the fog of a mountain morning and sipping warm glasses of sweet tea over hot scrambled eggs breakfast.  He also spends time writing, blogging, and cutting the grass in his Dacula, GA home.  Except for that last one, which he actually does outside of his Dacula, GA home.  He is currently unemployed and spends his time editing the Southern style mystery thriller, Will Baker is Dead, which is available in part on this website.  He also spends the time working on other short stories and looking for work as a writer, a newspaper page designer, coffee barista, or whatever someone feels like paying him to do within reason.  He also tweets and would encourage you to follow him on Twitter at @42Cobras, or you can just connect with him on Facebook  at Adam Wynn (his name, shouldn't be hard to find).  He is a huge Georgia Bulldogs fan, along with most Georgia sports teams including the Braves, Falcons, Thrashers, Gwinnett Gladiators, and the like.  Adam also enjoys answering fan mail, so please feel free to leave messages on the blog saying what you think about it.  Also, please forgive him for typing this note in third person, as it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.  

Analyzing the Practical God (The Faith of Abraham, and What That Was All About)

A few months back, sometime in August I believe it was, I posted an entry about the Patient God.  In there, I promised to come back later with something about another aspect of God that I had grown to fancy, and that was the Practical God.  In that time, this idea of the Practical God has really been at the back of my mind, tickling the Biblical receivers in my brain (hey, I only got a B in Psych 1101, so forgive me if my cranial anatomy is a bit hazy).  Tonight, I am here to talk a little about what I've learned about the Practical God.

The first thing I want to say is that for the last however long that I've been thinking about this idea, I have become more and more convinced that our God is the most practical being in all the Universe.  Some of you may disagree with me, pointing to convoluted ideas in the Bible or complicated signs and wonders you've heard about, but I believe it and will probably keep examining scripture with this mindset for a long time.  Feel free to discuss that with me or leave comments below dis/agreeing with my ideas, either way, but I believe it and will try to convince you.

Now over the past week, my Faith had been tested and shaken.  I was hurting and I was in need of something.  I was in need of a miracle of sorts, and I didn't even know it.  Well as you can no doubt imagine, I received said miracle, and it was much easier to swallow than my last big miracle.  But enough of that.  Something happened that really just got to me and reaffirmed my Faith, reaffirming the notion that my God has my best interest at heart, and that He is there to provide the best possible life for me, His life for me.

I met an old friend of mine for dinner, and in the course of conversation we got caught up on where each other was in life and had been and was going.  We talked about my student teaching experiences and her new job and I just saw how all of these prior experiences in life brought each of us to our present location.  I thought about how these loose connections all came to a point, how they came to this point, and how they will inevitably lead to a prepared and protected future.  I saw how God was with me in a difficult place, how He prepared the way for me at the school last year and had set things up from the beginning.  I saw how God had provided in my friend's life, and how He had brought her to the place she needed to be.  I saw God's plan in perfect hindsight, understanding how and why things had fallen the way they did.

Without going too deep into the details of the thing (because as the saying goes, you just might find the devil there...haha), I came away from this meal with a renewed Faith and a renewed spirit in a time of weakness and doubt.  So, after rocking out on the drive home to my new favorite song of the week, RelientK's "Devestation and Reform" (go look it up right now...or finish reading first, that'd be better) and a resulting Genius playlist, I opened up my Bible App on my phone and went to a reading plan on Faith.

Which, of course, brings me to Abraham.  Now Abraham, as most of you know, was an old man with a very special son.  His son Isaac would go on to be the patriarch of the Jewish nation (and, really, that means Abraham was also the patriarch of the Jewish nation, but let's not split hairs).  Now this one time, God asked Abraham to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.  I encourage you to go look this story up, too, in Genesis 22:1-14 (okay, do that one now, I don't mind waiting.

There are a couple of important things to take away from this story.  One of them that often goes overlooked is the fact that God told Abraham to travel to a place that He would determine to sacrifice Isaac.  Let's examine this first.  So Abraham and Isaac travel for three days with a couple servants before God tells Abraham where Isaac is to be sacrificed.  Three days carrying wood and supplies.  Not an easy trek by any means.  Then, when God does show Abraham where to go, it is at the top of a mountain that he then had to climb.  Abraham had to walk with his son up a mountain carrying all this wood (the physical burden he handed to the youthful Isaac) and a torch and knife for sacrificing his beloved child (the emotional and spiritual burden he had to carry himself).  That is not an easy challenge by any stretch of the imagination.  Now Abraham had already heard the command from God to sacrifice his son, so at any point he could have stopped and killed Isaac as commanded.  But it wouldn't have been in the place where God commanded.  And for those of you who know the story, you know how tragic that would have been, because God never wanted Abraham to kill Isaac.  At any point, Abraham could have decided that he had trusted God enough and would not progress in His plan, but would just kill Isaac then and there and follow through half-way.  But he didn't.  He followed God's plan until the end, and both Abraham and Isaac were rewarded for it.

But why?  I can understand you not seeing any practicality in that whatsoever.  You ask, "But Adam.  How is this practical?  Was there not an easier way?"  Let us look, then, at the reason God gave Abraham on the mountain.  Let us examine why it is that God told Abraham He had asked the man to go through with this.  Upon raising the knife to kill Isaac, Abraham heard a voice from The Angel of the Lord speak.

[Gen. 22:12] -NLT-
"Don't lay a hand on the boy!" the angel said.  "Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God.  You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son." 

The first thing that jumps out at me, now, is the part where God says, "for now I know..."  Can anyone tell me why?  How many of you are familiar with the term, "Omniscience?"  Well, if you took Latin in high school or college, then you should immediately recognize a few things here.  Or, if you took a Bible class or attended Sunday School past the age of 10, you should just know the answer.  Omniscience is essentially knowing everything.  God is omniscient.  So when God says that this event proved Abraham's Faith to Him, how should we really read that?  I mean, God knew.  He absolutely knew what Faith Abraham had in Him.  But see, Abraham did not know.  He was clueless as to the potential for Faith he had, and so God asked him to partake in this impossible journey and commit this unthinkable action.

And even more than teaching Abraham what kind of Faith he had, it also taught him what kind of Faith he could have in God, in a God who will take you so far just to carry you the rest of the way.  Faith in a God who will ask the impossible of you, and then complete the impossible in you and through you.  That is the Faith that Abraham found when God stopped the knife in his hand from falling on Isaac.  That is the Faith that Abraham found at the mountain that people named "Yahweh-Yireh," or "The God Who Provides/God Will Provide."

Have you ever tried to tell someone that they were capable of doing something that they didn't think they were?  Most of us cling to our fears and perceived inadequacies like a wool blanket at a base camp on Mt. Everest.  They protect us from having to deal with the difficulties and responsibilities of pressing on to face the challenges at hand.  But when a person is tricked into realizing their own potential, like that scene in Shrek where the big green guy forces Eddie Murphy's Donkey across a rickety bridge, they are much more likely to realize what they are capable of.  God knows this.  He should.  On top of that handy little omniscience, he created us.  He knows our psyche better than we do (so he would probably have gotten an A in Psych 1101, excepting schools that offer the coveted A+, not that God covets).

And let us not forget, the patient practicality of God, as He did not just up and decide one day to task Abraham with an immense test of Faith.  For years, God had been preparing Abraham for this very moment and this very chore.  God was teaching Abraham and refining his Faith constantly, even through a few key mistakes along the road where Abraham learned that a lack of Faith would be most costly (SEE: Sister/Wife and "Call him Ishmael").  In steps, God showed Abraham the kind of Faith he was capable of, constantly building and improving the man he would ultimately become and the act he would become most famous for.  And this teaching moment was not wasted on an old man, either.  Isaac was present, and you can rest assured that no teaching moment is more permanently ingrained than the one that endangers and, simultaneously, saves your life.

So I pray that as you read this, God will restore your Faith.  Or if need be, He will refine your Faith.  As I tweeted earlier this evening (go follow me now: @42Cobras), "Faith untested is Faith unrefined."  We will face trials and difficult times, and we will often fail.  But, my God is Faithful to bring me through those times, and He will bring me through stronger on the other side.  And as long as He can be Faithful to me, surely I can manage to be Faithful to Him.

If you feel your Faith is faltering, take the chance and pray for God to refine your Faith.  Pray for God to show you what Faith you have in you and how He has been Faithful to you all along.

Adam W. "Is A 4-Point Letter on WWF" Wynn
Phil. 3:12-14

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So I recently finished "Will Baker is Dead!"  And by finished, I mean I wrote the concluding episode/chapter.  I technically am not done yet because I decided to go back and add two chapters, one of which will be only a few short pages long, so no big deal.  I am currently in the Critical Reading stage, or as I call it, the "Oh God, oh God, I hope they don't tell me my book sucks," stage, where I have friends reading it and compiling commentary for me to go back and figure out what needs to be changed and what needs to be kept.  In other words, yes, some people do in fact know the secret of what happened.  The chilling conclusion is now known to someone other than just me.  Too bad you will have to wait your turn.  In a few months, when I am hopefully working on the publishing process and we are entering summer, I will go back and publish the remaining chapters online.  Yes, that includes the as of yet nonexistent Episode 6 I always talk about.  The last published chapter on here was Episode 9, and the story will go up to Episode 13, so you only have five left to go when you remember Episode 6 (and how could you forget!).  I really do look forward to you all reading and enjoying the series, and hopefully buying the book when it hopefully gets published in a time period that is hopefully no longer than three years.  For now, tell me what you think of any other postings such as this one or any of the episodes of Will Baker.  And go follow me on Twitter!  Again, that is @42Cobras.  What else would it be?  

Abnormally Answered Prayers - An Experience in Brotherhood

I would have to say that one of the most incredible experiences of my short life so far has been the unexpected privilege of seeing Garth Brooks in concert.  When that man puts on a show, he puts on a show.  The music is, of course, fantastic.  The energy in the room (if it's not an outdoor concert) could power a small city for three weeks.  There is just no experience like seeing Garth Brooks in concert.  I have always been a fan of his music, and seeing him in person was perhaps the quintessential unreal experience.  He is perhaps the closest thing Country music will ever have to a rock god.
However, I must take issue with the man on one point.  One of GB's most famous songs is a touching little number called, "Unanswered Prayers."  It's one of those (okay, most songs would fit this category) where when he gets to it in the concert, every mouth in the arena was singing right along in near perfect harmony.  That's how well known it is.  If you're not familiar with the song, go now and YouTube it or something.  I'm sure there's an illegal version of it somewhere.  Don't worry, I'll wait.

[WAITING PATIENTLY]

[STILL WAITING PATIENTLY]

[KIND OF WANTING YOU TO HURRY, NOW]

Okay, good, you're back.  So you see, now?  Unanswered Prayers.  The overarching theme of this song (yes, English teacher in me coming out) is that God ignores us for our own good, expecting us to understand.  Aside from the obvious theological problems with the song, I take issue with the notion that this is God's greatest gift.  "Well what is, then?" you ask.  Well I'll tell you.
I believe that God's greatest gift to mankind is sometimes abnormally answered prayers.  "But...that sounds a lot like what Garth was saying, Adam."  Yes, I know that.  Which is why I used him as an engaging lead-in.  But bare with me for a second here.
When we pray, God always answers (SEE: aforementioned "obvious theological problems"), and he always answers in one of three ways: Yes, No, or my favorite, Maybe/Wait.  Yes is great, God answers our prayers and cool things happen or we're blessed in some powerful way by God right then, or at least pretty soon.  Good stuff.  No is okay.  God is usually protecting us from something we don't need or somewhere we shouldn't be, doing His best to keep us from screwing our own lives up.  That's who God is, and that's why He has the most difficult job in the un/known universe.  You want to make someone do something, tell them you're protecting them by keeping them from it.  But then is my personal favorite, and that is the "Maybe" or "Wait" answer.
Oh, the "Wait" answer.  It can be excruciating.  It can be nerve-wracking.  It can be tempestuous, at best, while we wait for God to answer our prayers.  And who among us knows why at the time?  All we know is that God doesn't like us and He doesn't want us to be happy, so he forces us to sit around waiting on something we really, really, really want.  Ugh.  But the reason I love this part of who God is is simple.  Because when God says yes or no to our prayers, it is usually pretty straight forward, especially with an answer in the negative.  It just doesn't happen.  But when God answers us with a "Wait/Maybe," He has the chance to get real creative in how those prayers are answered.  And that is the aspect of God I love seeing come to fruition.
Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not telling you that I jump up and down for joy when I feel God answering one of my prayers this way.  I am as impatient as the next guy, and I want it now.  But when I can see how God worked something in my life like this, that is when I get jazzed up, given the advantage of hindsight and understanding.  It's beautiful!  Let me give you an example.
When I was a little kid, I remember constantly praying for a brother.  That was the one thing I wanted.  I grew up with two sisters (who are both wonderful, but let's be honest, I didn't know that at the time and I didn't care), but really wanted a brother.  Always.  I can remember one time sitting in the back of Mom's van while leaving one of Amanda's softball games at the point of tears because I was begging God to give me a brother.  Now at the time, I did not understand the difficult processes and theologies that go behind answering prayers (SEE: all that stuff I was just describing to you).  So I just thought that God was ignoring me (Thank you, Garth Brooks).
Fast forward now about fifteen years, we'll say, although I'm not exactly sure.  I am still the youngest in my family.  I have not been given any little brothers, although Amanda has given me an adorable niece and an awesome little nephew.  Now, if you're a more attentive reader, by this time the question you are no doubt asking yourself is, "Where is the answered prayer?  I thought this was a story about how God answered your prayer after many years?"  It is.  I'm getting there.
Biologically, I am still brotherless.  There are no little male scamps running around with similar DNA to me, which also eliminates illegitimate children, in case you were wondering.  But that is not to say that I am without.  Some of you are no doubt familiar with something I've on occasion referenced called TLN, or Tau Lambda Nu.  If you follow me on Twitter (go now if not, @42Cobras), you've likely seen #TLN.  If you know me from UGA, then you likely either saw the old sign on our apartment door or you heard one of us reference said letters.
If you're not familiar with it, TLN is my fraternity.  Not a University sanctioned, "Pay us $1,000 and you can hang out with us," fraternity, but a fraternity nonetheless.  Me and three other guys (Rylan, Andrew, and Josh) lived together in East Campus last year and formed said fraternity.  At first, it was just a joke amongst the four of us.  We would kid around about it, and we would host TLN sponsored events (mainly just movie nights where people could come watch something on Rylan's inappropriately large tv).  It was a grand old time.
But over the last few months, ever since I moved back home while those guys stayed in Athens, I've grown to really understand how much of a brotherhood we were.  That's what a fraternity is supposed to be about.  Brotherhood.  I know that when I need someone, I can go to any of those three guys and (almost) expect them to lay their life on the line for me, as they know I would for any of them.  On more than one occasion, I've talked to one of these guys about tough decisions and troubles we're experiencing in life.  There is an unspoken pledge between the four of us that we would do anything for any one at any time.  I don't know exactly where this came from, except to say that in the year we lived together, and in the time since as I have frequently slept on their cat-ridden couch, we have built a brotherhood, and I cannot express how blessed I have been by having that relationship.  I thank God that He did not take the easy way out and just give me a brother, because now I have the closest brothers I could ask for.
And to be honest, although there is this core group of Tau Lambda Nu, I feel I can honestly claim that my fraternal relations extend beyond that.  There is a group of guys that I've known for the better part of the last four years, and some I knew before that, who have made my life what it is.  A man with many friends has a group that will entertain him, but a man with many brothers has an army that will save him.  I could not consider myself more blessed than with the brothers I have been given, and for that reason alone, I thank God for abnormally answered prayers.
So when you pray, do not pray like the ignorant who will receive nothing and believe they are being ignored.  Listen, and with faith, expect God's blessings to come somewhere down the road.  You may not even realize it when it happens, but the greatest thing God can do for you is give you a gift worth waiting for.  Trust me on that.

Adam Wynn is the author and proprietor of 42Cobras Publishing, namely the blog you are reading right now.  He is also the one typing this message in italics for the sake of humorously looking more important and pretentious than necessary.  He graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in English and English Education, both of which obviously qualify him to blog.  He is from Dacula, GA and now spends most of his time in his Dacula home writing and looking for a  real [sic] job.  He is also the author of the ambiguously popular serial novel, "Will Baker is Dead!" the first 8 episodes of which are available for free at 42Cobras Publishing, which is the blog you are reading right now.  The remaining episodes are in progress and will become available shortly after their completion this week.  In the meantime, he will continue to tweet voraciously, Facebook excessively, and blog randomly at varying intervals at 42Cobras Publishing, the blog you are reading right now.  Thank you, and have a nice day.  

A Very Merry Will Baker Christmas To All!

Well it seems that I've finished college...again. 
The ever-crucial grade went up last night and now I have nothing to worry about except which tie I should wear to the ceremony, and even that one should be wrapped up in a few hours.  So it is time to focus on more important things.
Like finishing "Will Baker is Dead!" 
I know that many of you (okay, so like three to five of you tops) have been worrying about this since August when I went on a very nearly permanent publishing hiatus, but the time has come (the walrus said) to fix this little indiscrepancy.  I, Adam W. (Don't ask) Wynn, am going to make a promise to you, my faithful reader(s), that I will finish writing the serial "Will Baker is Dead" by Christmas!  Mind you, I am not going to make the same mistake this time around.  I am going to write each episode by Christmas, edit them, THEN post them.  So you probably won't see the first episode until after the start of the New Year (Aud Lang Syne, everyone!).  Not to mention, I'll be up in Memphis (Go Dawgs!) for the New Year, so you'll have to probably wait until about Jan. 3rd or some date around then to get the first posting.  BUT!  Rest assured that I am determined and committed to achieving this goal. 
In the mean time, I encourage you all to go back and re-read the first eight episodes ("But why is the last one number nine, then?") so you'll be primed and ready when episode number ten comes along (yeah, yeah, I know). 
Also, I would very much like to improve the blog and use it better, starting with more regular non-fiction updates.  Any suggestions?  Please let me know what y'all think and I'll get on it.  I really do look forward to finishing "Will Baker" for all of you (and myself...I can't wait to know who did it!) so you can breathe easy once more knowing that this "serial" killer has been caught (see what I did there?).  Thanks everyone for your patience, and I hope you will enjoy the conclusion just as much with freezing temperatures outside as you would have with changing leaves and a little football on tv.  But to be fair, you'll probably get the conclusion around Super Bowl Sunday if I'm right about the number of episodes it will take to get it right. 
But for now, I'm out!

Adam W. "All I Do Is" Wynn
Phil. 3:12-14