Petite Cocoa Batons

I have an unhealthily relationship with a snack food. When I started working at Trader Joe's I knew I was going to get rocking abs and korean street cred but I didn't know I was going to become an addict. For a mere $1.50 you can get 5oz. (142g) of what I feel like Mana tasted like in the desert. Seriously the Israelites would go crazy for this stuff. They would say, "Quail again, bummer, I want Cocoa Batons from heaven!" Because of this obsession Sommer has banned them from me. She told me this week that I could only eat one box. I agreed because my wife is smarter than me. I didn't want to but she is much much smarter than me. After we pinky swore to it she said, "Michael can I trust you to do this?". This question made me think a lot about trust this week. I think if we made two lists, one with people we trust completely and the other with people we can't trust I think the second list would be 5 times as large. People have just stopped trusting each other. Working a grocery store I know this to be true. Every time I finish ringing someone up the first thing they do is check the recite. It makes me sad that someone can't even trust that I only charged them for one 19 cent banana and not two.  It's only 19 cents but sadly I don't blame them. In a world with identify theft, high divorce rates, scamming politicians, TMZ and Deadspin.com everything and everyone is questionable. This isn't how we are supposed to live!  Matthew 18 talks about how we need to never stop forgiving people. It describes how to bring resolution and we need to follow that example. Tonight is New Years eve. The last day of 2010. Instead of making a list of resolutions that say you will lose 10 pounds or be better with money I say make a list of people you need to forgive. People who in 2011 you are going to give a fresh start to. Personally I think the first person should be your local grocery store clerk, but it's your list, you do your thing, but know it's not as easy as you think. Open yourself to letting God move in your life as you take a hard step forgiving people that don't deserve it.

Thank you God for moving in my life in such a way that causes growth in me!

I told you I wouldn't write long blogs. I meant it this time.

P.S. This whole time I was writing this blog I have been eating Cocoa Batons. I have 5 days and half a box left. Lord give me strength.

P.S.S Thank you all who are reading and telling others to read my blog!! So far 4 country have checked in. Shout out to whoever is in Malaysia !!

Joo-Geen-Dah,

Marriage is, "Joo-Geen-Dah" which is Korean slang for "awesome".  It literarily means "killing" in Korean which is kinda funny. I mean I'm Joo-Geen-Dah-ing marriage, marriage isn't Joo-Geen-Dah-ing me. Also, to answer your question, yes I do have Korean street cred. Confused? me to. Anyways, now that I have been married for two years and few months marriage is the best thing ever!  I love my wife. She makes me happy, she makes me mad, she makes me crazy, she makes me sane, she even makes valentines day cards with nothing but candy bars some times. With all the things she makes me the most important thing is that she makes life unexpected. I came across a quote the other day, “The best things in life are unexpected - because there were no expectations.” In this season of life I'm learning more than ever I can't put expectations on life and God. 

Here is a great story about an unfair expectation Sommer put on me recently. Last Tuesday Sommer and I got to sleep in. This is an amazing thing that doesn't get to happen anymore because of our schedules. We both got up at 10am and like the 21st century couple that we are we both got on our laptops and explored the limitless possibilities the internet has to offer. I found an illegal feed of ESPN and watched Sportscenter and Sommer looked up all things crafts and dog clothing. At about 10:30 I was hungry and got a bowl of raisin nut bran and went back to bed. I got cozy and went back to my happy place. After a couple bites of my breakfast I looked over at Sommer and saw a face that no husband wants to see.  Guys, I got the sad face. A real - sad - face.  My heart dropped and I did what any other man would do. I tried to fix things. My plan, apologize for everything and hope something will stick. I'm sorry for not doing the dishes. I'm sorry for farting and blaming it on the dog. I'm sorry for plugging your nose and mouth at the same time while you were sleeping to see what happens. She stopped me and with those puppy eyes looked at my now soggy bowl of raisin nut bran and said, "Michael" in a way only she could.  She continued to explained that when we get to sleep in I'm expected to make breakfast in bed. What?!?  I'm sorry I didn't know you wanted breakfast in bed you should have told me. That dog just don't hunt. We went back to our computers both upset with each other. Later that day, after I took her to Sprinkles to get a cocoanut cupcake (nailed it, tottally made up for breakfast) she apologized for putting an unfair expectation on me. We talked more about expectations we put on life and on marriage and had a great rest of the day.

When we expect things from life, and even God, we sometimes end up disappointed. At times life throws us a bone and we find a hamillton on the floor at the mall (happened on tuesday, count it) but at other times we are the one who lost the hammy and now don't have any cash to get an Orange Julius. This is an example of how life happens, good and bad. With random things in life we can't expect anything. We have to go with the flow. This is even more true with God's plan. When we expect God to do what we want with no concern for what he wants we will always end up disappointed and frustrated. I have said a few times in the last couple months, "God when is it going to be my turn".  By saying this I'm telling him to do what I want and expecting him to do it. I'm treating God like he is some sort of remote control car and I'm holding the controls. The moral of this blog is that God moves outside of us and we need to be thankful for that. In the times I thought it was my turn, it wasn't. Looking back I see that clearly and am thankful. At the end of the day I'm most happy when the story of Nunan is all about the story of God. In this holiday season it is going to be very easy to put expectations on life and on God. My encouragement to you is to have faith in a God that moves outside of us and be thankful! You won't be disappointed. 

Thanks God for moving in my life in such a way that causes growth in me!


See you next friday after christmas!! Merry Christmas!! 

I promise that my future posts won't be this long.  I dislike long blogs. 


I mean it this time. 


Thanks. 

So I suck at this.

Here's the deal, I'm bad at writing. I have never been a good writer ask my mom. I am sure I have good thoughts, thoughts worthy of a blog with subscribers in the teens, but putting those thoughts to blog is hard for me. Like P90X hard, but something I have learned from God lately is that God moves when we are faithful to him in things that are hard, things that don't come naturally to us. So be forewarned, this blog will be extremely flawed grammatically with little to no use of correct punctuation. But, know that this blog is my effort to see God move in a way that new to me.  I know overlooking my literary shortcomings will be hard for some of you but this is the Story of Nunan not the story of how Nunan got a D- in 7th grade English. Please look past the grammar and please see the story of God at work in this time of my life where I'm seeing him in ways I never thought I would.

A little background, the title of this blog comes from a conversation I had over a burrito bowl a couple weeks ago. This conversation happened after a brutal week for me. This week was in the top 5 of worst weeks ever for Michael Nunan.  Even above the week I got Pink eye as an adult. In this particularly hard week I was tired. I was angry. I was lost. I didn't know what God was doing and felt forgotten from a God that I thought loved me. To the rescue was a friend that spoke to me out of truth and experience in the feelings I was having. He told me two things I will never forget. 1, "Don't waste your pain". I needed to use the experiences in my life for growth and not for pity. I needed to stop being upset and start thinking of how I can use this unique and rare opportunity for change. 2. " Don't forget to tell the story of Nunan". In my times of doubt in myself and the character of God I need to remind myself of what God has done and all the things he promises to do in my life. I needed to be faithful! This title represents me being faithful to God, reminding myself how much he loves me despite whatever circumstance I'm in.

Youth leaders growing up always gave me opportunity for life changing choices at special youth functions. This meant for me that Christmas, Church Halloween Party and April Mexico Mission Trip was the tri-fecta of transformation in my student calendar growing up.  Whatever sin in my life or bad habits I had going would have to wait to be resolved until one of these events. This made for many poor choices in September and March for young Nunan growing up. Choices that at times developed character but mostly developed double standards for me as an adult when I tell my kids they can't throw waterballoons at cars from the top of the Malls parking structure. As I have grown up I have learned it doesn't take an, "event" to change my ways. The men of God that we all look up to in the bible, the men that showed us what it means to be faithful to God didn't wait when it came to following God. When they knew he was calling them to something new they acted immediately!!! They had a sense of urgency to their faith so that they wouldn't miss a single second of Gods power working in them.  In an effort to have that same sense of urgency in my faith I am not waiting until new years to start my new years resolution.  I declare that my December 17th resolution is to every Friday update this Blog.  Like I said before blogging is against my nature,  I suck at writing, but like I also said God moves when we do things that don't come naturally to us, things that we aren't good at.  I know that God has plans for me in doing this so I'm going to be faithful. I hope you enjoy all future posts and please comment if you have anything to say. I would love to hear your thoughts.  So, that's all for now. 

Thanks God for moving in my life in such a way that causes growth in me!

I promise that my future posts won't be this long.  I dislike long blogs.  Thanks.