COMPLEXITY

 Although I have only been on this planet for eighteen short years, I have seen some pretty amazing things. Some more surprising than others. Some more hysterical than others. I am here to tell you about a few extraordinary events in my life! Throughout this, I encourage you to sit back and picture the same things that I describe for the full effect. Some of them are kinda crazy so good luck. Without further ado, here it comes (IYKYK).

I had the opportunity to go to England and play football (soccer) for a few days. That trip took so much preparation. I had prepared and worked to finance for at least six months. I would go from school, yard work, and then football practice. The preparation was such an exhausting period of my life, but I was finally on the last connecting flight. It was my first flying experience and it was pretty dang awesome. As a part time adrenaline junkie, lifting off is probably one of the best feelings ever. Though I had just found a new found love, this last connecting flight was the worst. I had a middle seat for eight hours. The plane landed at seven in the morning and we immediately got off and went to a training session. So, I wanted to be rested and ready to go. I tried my best to sleep the whole way, but I slept for maybe two hours. We were probably about an hour out and I finally dozed off a little, but I was woken up for some reason. I look over to my left and the girl sitting next to me (who wouldn't make eye contact or talk to me and was definitely terrified of flying) had opened up the window a little bit. Wow... I was in literal awe. A sun rise over Manchester, England. I had never seen something so beautiful in my life. There was nothing to say or do, but to just be in awe of what I was witnessing. All I could do was look through that tiny airplane window and see the plethora of colors in the sky over the foggy city. The most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen.

In eighth grade, my grandmother (Mawmaw) passed away. It was one of the most dramatic and hard hitting moments of my life. She was my best friend, and I was still so young that I didn't really understand the emotion or what was going on. However, now I look back at the moment my family and I were in the hospital room, and all there was to see and hear was weeping. This was such a hard moment for my family. I had never seen people this distraught. I had never known or felt such a way.

Now I know what you are thinking, "Jackson, what the heck? I thought this was going to be about beautiful things, not make me cry!" I think you are just looking at it wrong. Through all of the sadness and weeping, there was something very beautiful growing in all of our hearts. We all found what a family feels like. Before this moment, our family was good, but we were missing something. We were able to see what relying on each other looked like. We had never hugged each other like that. We had never shared what was on our hearts like that. There was so much to that moment. So many emotions and so many lessons.

Throughout my junior and senior year in high school, I had attended and help lead so many retreats and camps. One of my favorite parts of any camp or retreat is this thing called "quiet time." Well I am sure you have guessed what it is by now, but if not I will tell you. Quiet time is a time where everyone in the camp spreads out and enters into... (you guessed it) quiet time. It is up to each individual to what they think, pray or do in that time. At Camp Covecrest, they gave us a whole hour of silence. What an amazing experience. I think the only time I have ever been in such silence is when I am asleep at night, so this was amazing. I remember sitting on a small hill just gazed up at the very tall hills (some call them mountains) and being in awe once again. I just remember looking at the trees and rubbing my hands through the grass. I thought about how through all of the darkness that goes on in this world, this place is still so beautiful. All of the anger that tears our home in half still has no match on the beauty it offers.

On another retreat, I went camping with a few friends and we decided that we were going to do this sixteen mile hike on a saturday. This hike was awesome, except for the fact that we had to be back at the campground at a certain time. This meant that we had to run parts of it. Sometimes, the group of around ten guys would just start sprinting through the woods so that we can cut the time down. We also ended up taking a wrong turn and made the hike into an eighteen mile hike (those two extra miles sucked, don't @ me). We were so pooped by the end of it, but we made it with enough time to take showers and get to church.

The next day, we had a hike that was only a mile and a half. No problem right? WRONG. Our tired legs and little sleep hit us hard that day. Although we were gassed and ready for a long nap, we pressed through and made it down this hike and found ourselves in front of a gigantic waterfall. It had boulders (no we didn't ride them like Spongebob) that we could jump across to make it to the waterfall. Water falling down probably two hundred feet, creating these crazy craters and a big pool of water. So beautiful that I could set up a chair and just watch it all day long.

Literally right before I decided to write this, I was watching these guys surf down a sewage drain and then I decided to read a little bit of the Bible. I laid down on my floor with some music in the background and read some (currently reading through the Book of Mark, 10/10 would recommend). After I finished reading, I closed my Bible and laid my head on it and just laid there thinking about life. Then something caught my eye. It was a giant wad of shedded dog hair from my dog Dallas. This is going to sound weird, but this wad of hair is why I write to you. I continued to look and it and noticed how complex this wad of hair was. There was so much hair in this wad. It started to make me think of all of the complexity I have seen in my life. Then I started to think about where that complexity came from.

There is so much to this world. From a rushing river to the stillness of a pond. All of the creatures in the water and on land. Each of them having a specific role and special genetics. The sun that not only provides heat and food for us, but it gives us the most beautiful sights. How each human being is so special in the way it works. The intelligence of a brain. The emotion in which our hearts cry out. The complication of the human body.

The complexity of all of these things makes me go to the story of creation. Genesis 1. God began to make the Heavens and the Earth. Continued with day and night. Then the sky, land with all of the plants and Earth forms, and all of the seas and oceans. Then God made living creatures to roam the Earth. He called all of these things good. Creating all of these things shows how big our God is. How smart and beautiful he is to make such a complex world. He made such a place and called it "good." However, God said Earth was good, one thing was missing.

We were what was missing. So, Our God made us. He made man and said it was "very good." Created in his image he says. A God of love, beauty, and perfectness made you in his image. The most complex thing there is on this Earth. Your DNA alone is a book written just for you, written by the creator. Never feel unloved or not worth enough, for you are very good. Our Heavenly Father says so.