Fear

fear is a liar

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

Over the past year I have entered the new phase of my life of being a parent. It’s an exciting and amazing thing to be, and I have always wanted to be a dad. Sweet little Violet is such a joy, and this past weekend we got to play around in the snow and watch her experience a brand-new thing. Seeing her eyes filled with so much wonder and excitement, taking in all kinds of information for the first time in this exciting world.

I often forget to look at the world like this. Either stress of the busyness of life can get me distracted from the true joy around me.

Then there is fear, now fear is something that can often steal a lot from me, and I let it do that all too often, but the truth is, fear is a liar.

Continue reading →

Facing Fear, You Created

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

Welcome back to another lesson from a b-movie! Last week I talked about a recent movie, but today we are looking back to the 80’s with a pretty obscure choice. I love doing this series not only because talking about how to face fear is important, but I also get to share about weird movies not many people know about. When we talk about fear, it’s often about the fears of things done to us or things we worry about happening in the future, but sometimes, they come from our own actions. This is something that I have been thinking about recently, there are moments in my past where I’ve made a bad decision or said something I wish I didn’t, and those begin to hold me back.

Continue reading →

Face Fear with Friends

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

I love this time of year. October brings with is the true fall colors and weather, it also happens to be the month I was born. I love this season, plus I always love the spooky movies that make the feel even better. Now, I don’t love the intense horror flicks, but I do love b-movies. The term “b-movie” is an old film term, theaters would have a-movies with the higher budgets and star power in the old nickelodeons, but the b-movies played much later. They were low budget and often were spooky in nature, but seeing the strings on a flying saucer doesn’t really make you terrified. Every October, I like to write about these cheese-fests and talk about some lessons we can all learn from how these movies tackle fear inducing situations.

Continue reading →

i will rejoice

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

Every so often I like to re-read the book of Habakkuk. I read it because often I find myself in the same place as Habakkuk, he was a prophet and watching the world around him fall into chaos. Habakkuk is watching an army invade the land of his people, and he starts to lose hope in what God is doing. He starts to lose faith in God.

I love this book because it is such a raw emotional place, and in that state, Habakkuk cries out to God in hopes of finding his faith in the midst of uncertainty. In my own life, I find that there are seasons of unknowns and growth, and in those moments, it becomes increasingly difficult to have faith that there is a plan in all of this. What I love about this scripture, is that Habakkuk turns to God in his struggle.

Feelings are okay. Talking to God about your feelings is okay. Being vulnerable with God, is the point of a relationship with God.

Continue reading →

Love God, Love People

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

Spooky season is almost finished, which means this is our finale to the b-movie series here on the blog. Today, since I like to keep you on your toes, we will not be looking at a movie, but a TV show, and a specific episode. The Twilight Zone, created by Rod Serling (who also narrates each episode), sets a spooky tone in every episode with wild scenarios, all based in real issues we deal with. The episode we will be looking at today is titled, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” the setting takes place in a suburban neighborhood and suddenly a flash in the sky appears and everything stops working. The neighbors gather in the street confused about the power outage and strange flash, and a little boy suggests it could be aliens infiltrating the neighborhood. Panic starts, then fingers are pointed at one another power comes on in certain houses, driving the people to become more and more untrusting of one another. The anger leads to a death, then the street erupts into chaos.

The final moment of the episode shows two aliens watching these events, and they simply say that all they need to do to conquer earth, is create confusion and the humans will destroy themselves.

Continue reading →

Never Go It Alone

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

One of the biggest tropes in horror films, is when the gang decides to split up. Almost every classic b-slasher movie has a moment where the teenagers decide it’s a better idea to split up and go get help, and we as the viewers want to scream at the screen because we know this is the worst idea! I always think of the Friday the 13th series, because they all pretty much follow the same formula. Jason shows up and then everyone else runs in the opposite direction, just not together. It becomes a free for all and doesn’t end well for pretty much anyone, until the end when the final people figure out a way to stop the mad man. We watch this and get so frustrated, asking ourselves, why wouldn’t they all just work together to stop this killer? The truth is though, that we ourselves do this same thing.

Continue reading →

Fully Known

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

This season has been absolutely wild. From a pandemic, injustices, natural disaster, as well as the personal struggles we all face can be taxing on our mental health. It can be easy in the midst of our struggles to feel alone. There was a very distinct feeling of isolation a few months back, and even still limited interaction causes some fear. One of the hardest battles, is dealing with mental health alone. I’ve written in the past about my own struggle with anxiety, and the worst part was feeling alone. You can know that others struggle, yet at the same time, feel like no one can possibly understand your pain. What I found was, that I needed to be vulnerable with others, and the truth I found, was that I am fully known and loved.

Continue reading →

Fear: King of the Monsters

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

It’s finally my favorite time of year! The start of the fall season always brings me joy. The crisp air and the changing colors, well, not really here in Florida, but the season always makes me so happy. A great part of this season, are all the spooky b-movies that I devour. Goofy, yes. Cheesy, absolutely! I always love watching b-movies, and October seems to be the perfect fit for them. I also love movies because they can teach us a lot about our own lives. So, today kicks off my b-movie series here on the blog, today we’ll be looking at the king of all monsters.

Continue reading →

Faith in Fear

/ Joshua Thomas / 1 Comment

This is a pretty scary time to be alive. From a little over a week ago where there were scattered stories of this virus, it was easy to distance ourselves from the reality of it, and now, it’s here. We’re in self-quarantines, learning to social distance, and being extra careful about the need to go out and how to operate in the world. It’s a pretty giant shift to culture. While it has been a blessing to many, to have time to unplug and press pause on the constant of work, many of us have the fear in the back of our minds. To be honest, I was not too worried at the start. It was a virus, I just had to be mindful of washing my hands more and not touch my face. Then more and more reports started coming in, it wasn’t just deadly for the elderly, but for people my age as well. Then Disneyland shut down, and we knew it was only a matter of time before Disney World would close as well.

The voice of fear started to get a foothold in my mind.

Continue reading →

i may not know what’s next, but i choose to trust the adventure.

/ Joshua Thomas / 1 Comment

The first month of the year has now finished. It feels pretty wild already; I’m not sure about you, but it feels like so much has happened. Yes, the world has had some crazy things, but in my own life, it feels as if a million things have happened all at once. I started a new position at my job, which is requiring me to have some very late nights, so my head feels off. I do well with consistency, things I can plan on happening in a certain order, but when your work schedule is new every week and you don’t have advance notice of those times, it starts to drain on you. My dear Danielle was in a state of flux since her program ended, getting random shifts and then finally, getting confirmation of a part time position. We’ve dealt with drastic Florida weather changes that has been creating lovely sickness, weird neighbors getting mad at how loud we are (cause those early morning toilet flushes are just us being so mean), and a sense of unknowingness about the future.

Continue reading →