this is me.

It's been a while since I posted, a lot has happened. In the past month alone I have moved out of the home of gracious Rex and Laura Rains to my own quaint two-bedroom in downtown Galena, Illinois. I received and lost a high paying job at the Dubuque daily newspaper. My church has moved from a middle school to their own space, in the center of Dubuque. I had a flat tire coming home from Dubuque, and was left stranded in 9-degree weather along the highway. And now I have a new car, a Dodge Stratus.

And I haven't gotten to the best part. This deserves a paragraph all to itself.

While driving to our weekly college hang-out a few weeks back was talking to my good friend Amy Harlan from Birmingham; I wrecked my infamous and invaluable Kia. Here is how it all went down.

Driving talking to Amy from Alabama, with quite sounds of classical music play in the background; I see a car pass me and flash their lights at me. I think to myself, hmm, must be a cop, I slow down to the posted speed limit.

Driving some more, still talking to Amy.

WHAM…!

"Holy Cow Amy, I think I just hit…..a cow!" I yell -- then proceed to freak out.

"Calm down Patrick, are you ok?" Amy calmly questioned.

"Yes I think so, what should I do?" I yelled.

"Call for help."

"Good point, thanks Amy."

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that things like this happen to me. If you know me even in the slightest bit you know things like this happen a lot to me. Either performing CPR on a construction worker on the side if Interstate-90; or almost drowning in a river in West Virginia, my life is far from conventional.

I would be lying though if I would tell you that all the recent events haven't caused stress. I've had so much stress that it's hard for me to focus on anything lately, sitting down to write this blog is a hard task, let alone sitting down to pray and read my Bible.

I guess God has taken a backseat through all of this though. In church today if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't have a car, I would have left.

I can almost feel the hands of God trying to take control of my life again. I am definitely at a place where I am wrestling with my creator. I've been putting up a good fight, but I don't think God is playing around anymore. So much so, that he sacrificed a cow to get my attention. I know its God; I know he is pursuing me.