Sermon

This was a sermon I wrote and read at church last year for Youth Sunday. I meant to post it last week but things happen and I became very busy. The sermon is about the passage John 9:1-41 

The first time I heard this story was about a month or so ago during Sunday school. Then last weekend during the youth winter retreat we found out it would be our scripture text for youth Sunday. We went through several exercises and different methods of learning the text, including acting it out in two different groups. I will never forget the long awkward pause as Jeff rubbed imaginary mud into Jordan’s eyes. But for the first time I had spent a weekend really looking over one story of the bible. And with each reading you look deeper into it and see things that may not have jumped out at you the first time around. 

The second time looking at the text that weekend we were told to get into small groups and answer some questions. Among the list of questions  was : who in this story is blind? Well the first thing to pop into my head of course is, well the man. That’s what the story is about. But as it was brought up in my group. I took another look at it. I made a sort of jokingly rebellious mark about how it was the Pharisees who were blind to Jesus when I realized there was actually some truth to that. 

While the Pharisees may not have 20/20 vision they can most likely see. But as I am sure you can tell I am n not talking literally about their sight. But more so their inability to welcome a new idea, one that while it goes against a lot of what they believed, offers hope. When they first hear of this man being healed some say that Jesus cannot be from God because he worked on the Sabbath, while others think that no sinner could perform such miracles. For me nowadays I have always found it hard to imagine no one working on Sunday. So it requires a strong imagination for me to understand that this guy is doing a big no-no worthy of one heck of a time out.. But even so couldn’t they get over themselves and realize: man was blind - now sees - happened on a Sunday. They were so deeply rooted in that he did one wrong, they completely overlooked the right. 

It was a year or so ago when I heard what was at the time dreadful news. The Followers were to switching rooms. We would be leaving the room that I and am pretty sure at least 15 years worth of followers have found a home in, to go the kids room. There were a few reasons why, a big one being that the group would be getting larger. But I and a few others wouldn’t stand for it. Sure I had only been in there for four years but that’s not the point. It’s the Followers room, our room, the room we would try to sneak peeks in before we were in the group, only to be shoved out by that age of Followers. Not to mention the walls adorned with writings of Followers past. We can’t just switch rooms. I was quite against the idea and that showed during Youth Council meetings. Although against my wishes the switch happened any way. I just couldn’t realize small room, big group, we won’t fit. 

We need to open our eyes. Change is all around us and will be for the rest of our lives and we don’t have time to get hung up on every little bit of change that is wrong. We need to open our eyes and look at what good change can bring about. What if the Pharisees looked deeper and noticed this man who walked the earth with the ability to heal the weak. The could have helped spread his word like no other. It has been 6 months since Followers practice started this year. Now I can safely say, thank god we had a bigger room available. With high turnouts and way bigger youth group than before there would have been no way we could have fit everyone in the other room comfortably. Change happens, lets open our eyes and be a part of it.

[News] Plans

I was thinking it might not be a bad idea to share some more plans for this site. As mentioned in the first post I am really wishing that somehow this will spread and many people can read my works and respond, letting me know what does and does not work. However there are many different things I write that could very well fit on here and I feel that I will over time post them. Here are some categories (Will also appear as labels):

Creative Writing Assignments: These are stories I have written for class such as "Knock Knock" there are too many of these right now.

Original Creative Writing: Things I write without an assignment and just for fun. In all honesty there aren't too many of these but thousands of ideas in my head. I might write some simply for this blog.

Newspaper Assignments: I have written many of these assignments but not many fall into the creative writing area. I might upload a few on a case by case basis.

Sewers of Change: My choose your own adventure epic. Too big for one post so it will be split up however check the labels underneath and click Sewers to view only those stories. These I will probaly upload once a week.

Timed Writes: Short snippets from writing 10 minutes straight. I have done some for class and I think I will make some original ones as well. Just to keep me on my writing toes.

Everything else: There are other forms of my writing that I have a want to put up. Check back Sunday for one.


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Now for how to upload I would like to hopefully update this 3-4 times a week. Eventually falling into some form of a daily schedule. So check back often.

Kid Satisfies Hunger

While looking through old files I found this one that I did for the newspaper in 11th grade towards the beginning of the school year. It wasn't for the actual paper but just a practice assignment.

KID SATISFIES HUNGER WITH PIRATE SHAPED CEREAL
Daniel Mauleón


On a hot lonely night last summer hungry sixteen year old Daniel Mauleón feasted on a bowl of cold cereal. After entering the kitchen from the basement stairs Daniel inspected the kitchen in search of a late night snack. Opening a cabinet underneath the silverware he found something worthy of his pallet, a bag of Marshmallow Mateys. He poured the cereal and was about to pour milk when to his surprise he found out there was no more milk in the fridge.
“I was about to give up when I remembered that there might be milk downstairs,” said Daniel “, I’m glad I took the time to look.” After receiving said milk he ascended the stairs and poured it into the plethora of tiny shapes or grain and marshmallows that made up the cereal. After putting away the bag and milk, he grabbed a spoon and began to eat.
The contents of the bowl were consumed in about eight minutes while Daniel watched the rerun of Futurama where Bender sells his body for money. During the first commercial break he went back for a second helping.

Knock Knock

10th grade
The assignment was to write a story and focus on a setting. I believe it was the first creative writing assignment for that



Knock Knock
Daniel Mauleón

In the small town of Glenmorewood on top of a hill stood a mansion. The people of the town rarely spoke of it and its inhabitants. It was surrounded by a black fence that was wrapped in weeds and vines that had not been trimmed in years. The was only one way there and one way out, and that was an old cobblestone road. On the days where the sun would shine in Glenmorewood a few clouds would always loom over the mansion.
* * *
“Your turn, truth or dare?” asked Ryan. Ted hesitated to answer and in the end chose dare.
“Ok let me see,” Ryan said thinking of a dare. His mind was drawing blanks when he looked out the window and glimpsed the mansion. Then with a grin on his face he said ” knock on the door of the mansion.” All the kids in the room shuddered and Ted near pissed his pants. Some of the kids objected the idea and told Ted he didn’t need to go through with it. Even Ryan regretted giving him the dare. “ Ok,” Ted said gulping “, I will do it, can’t be too bad.”
The group of kids left the house and walked to where the paved road met the cobblestone one. A few kids said their goodbyes and Ted began his trek up the hill. The higher he climbed the colder it got and soon he had wished he had brought his sweater. The green grass along the road began wither and soon only dirt lined the road. The sound of Ted’s friends cheering him soon faded and only the sound of his feet could be heard. Before he knew it he had reached the gate in the fence and pushed it open. They creaked louder then anything he heard before. He was now only about three yards from the door of the mansion. Upon walking through the gates the temperature dropped more than it had before and he was rubbing his hands together for heat. The air up here was foggy and you could feel it as you moved around. A few trees stood at the edges of the mansion and they had not bloomed in years . Some birds perched in them and stared at Ted following him, like security cameras. Now only a feet from the stairs that led to the porch Ted finally got a feeling for the size of the mansion. It stood about three stories high. The shingles on the roof had mostly fallen to the ground and where they used to lay was rotten wood. The house was lined with windows too dirty to see inside. The paint on the house had faded from blue to a depressing shade of gray.
Ted walked onto the porch and one of the floorboards he stepped on cracked causing him to trip and land right in front of the door. He stood up holding his head and looked at the door in front of him. He raised an arm.

Knock Knock.

A New Way

Thanks to some great advice from a friends father I have decided to start a blog filled with my creative writings and other writings. Mostly this is to test out a public opinion on my stories and get a feel for what works and doesn't work. I plan on uploading stories from high school along with writing original pieces weekly to keep me practicing. I have thousands of ideas and here I feel I can finally put them to good use.

A bit about me- I am 17 and a senior at a small highschool in Minnesota. Ever since I was little I have been building elaborate stories in my head and depending on my age put them to use, mostly in the form of playing with Legos and little homemade comics. With my passion for art I had seen myself maybe growing up to be a cartoon/comic creator. It wasn't until 10th grade during a creative writing class that I realized that more than art, I had loved creating the stories behind it. I have since settled on a career in creative writing. From there I plan to take my abilities and write for Video Games, Movies, Televison and hopefully write a few books or short stories on the side. As time goes on I will probably write a bit more about myself.

[Edit] I should add that while I try hard I am not the best with grammar and punctuation. I do plan on presenting my older work with as little edits as possible as to maybe show improvement. If bad grammar disturbs you I apologize and am trying to get that down.