Dueling Blogs

Last Thursday, I found myself on a plane Chicago bound for the first time. I was travelling there to meet a dear friend, spending two days with him taking in all the "windy city" has to offer. It had already been a long day, with an early start at work to make up time for the flight that afternoon, but being in the air with a good book and seeing painted clouds pass by were perfect therapy. As the skies grew darker, the glue that keeps your eyes stuck to the pages became more dense. The great distraction of the clouds diminished, and my nose pointed to my book. 

I enjoyed several hours of turning pages, while the darkness swirled outside. All until a glimmer of orange and gold in the foremost corner of my window emerged. My book dropped. The light grew, and continued to grow till there was no more darkness. My sight was full of the radiance. All clouds were illuminated, and soon it was as if the plane was swimming through glorious heavenly colored clouds. The city was upon me.

My friend that I met in Chicago was Nick, a near-brother, that I would do anything for. He loves Jesus, is full of the Spirit and allows himself to be lead by Him. Let's say that if I had a group of people in my mind that I especially love and cherish and keep up with, he would be in that group. Of course, only hypothetically speaking...

The man, the legend:

Over the two days we walked miles upon miles all over downtown Chicago. We gained a few pounds from the incredible food, saw historic buildings and architecture, took all the touristic photos possible, and even got a chance to squeeze in time for a Garth Brooks concert. Cloud Gate, Navy Pier, Portillo's, Giordano's. We saw it all, and ate it all.

Most meaningful to me though, were the conversations we held during these endeavors. Our words were full. Meaningful. Centered on the things that count. We saw Jesus in the small things, took pictures of them, and talked about them. 

Over pizza on our first day, we were going through dreams and aspirations, what we wanted to do and enjoyed doing, all while taking glances at the Cubs game. Mentioning that I wanted to do more writing, and then looking at the game, Nick then had a brilliant idea which made my head quickly turn back. 

A blog challenge. With both of us having kept a blog in the past, he suggested for a year, that we each post a blog a week. 

I smiled quickly. 

We both nodded. 

Our arms stretched across the table, above our pizza. We shook firmly. 

We quickly finished our pizza due to monstrous clouds growing outside our restaurant window, paid and left. We had much to see and do with our time left in Chicago, all while excitedly talking about rules of the challenge and what our first few posts would be about. 

And it was done. The challenge was made and accepted, and this is the result, the first of a minimum of fifty two blog posts to be made this year. Nick, thanks for being the kind of friend that'll think of and do something like this with me. Thanks for being a friend that many dream of having. 

This is going to be fun, and challenging, which makes it all even better. The best of luck to you my good friend. I can not wait to read your words through this journey of creating. 

**if you find yourself reading my blog at times during this year, please read Nick's as well, it will leave you nothing but encouraged and inspired in all ways: theramblingsofaragamuffin.wordpress.com