I guess we should rejoice when we go through stuff in our lives, becasue it is Jesus trying to refine us into something that looks more like Him. The question is whether or not we are going to let Him. I have been challenged a lot lately in different settings and now I need to respond to the Lord appropriately. There are many challenges in my life and I need to know how to react to them, challenges at Ignite, PSCC and with different people in my life. I have so many questions and none of them have easy answers. Why am I in school learning biology and trying to get a good grade while at the same time an integral part of Ignite and PSCC youth and then working 12 hours a week... Why don't I have time for anything, why am I so frustrated... why do I have a full schedule and a test on Friday? Why can't I leave school and have some free time and why the heck can't I run from all these problems? Why can't I find time to spend with Jesus???
So here I sit, it is almost 7 pm, and I need to go lift, read 3 chapters of biology that I have not started for my test next Thursday, I also need to read for my testito (little test) in another biology class on Friday. There is prayer tonight at 9 pm and then I have a basketball game at 11. Tomorrow morning, I meet with Mark Wolbert at 7:30 and then with Nikki at 10. I have my Animal Behavior class from 11:50-1:35 and then guitar lessons (that I have not practiced for because I don't have the book and even though it is easy stuff, I still need to have played it before I go to my lesson) from 2:45-3:45 which leaves me just enough time to go to work at 4. I get off of work at 8 pm and then I need to get to a football meeting by 9 (I am already skipping a team goof off session from 7:30-9 ish and Man-Up Bible study). Whenever football gets done (hopefully before midnight, though Scott did promise to have us out within an hour, we'll see) I guess I can study some more and then go to bed. Get up Friday morning have breakfast with a guy that is on the football team and was around Ignite last year and I would like to be around some more and then go to class. Oh, yeah Acquire the Fire is this weekend with the PSCC youth and 30 hour famine here on campus. So I am skipping 30 hour famine (including 30 hours of prayer and all-campus worship) to go to ATF, but I did tell Mark yes first.
Do I have a right to be stressed??? And now I have wasted an hour playing on the internet and writing on this blog...
WHY CAN'T I JUST DO NOTHING EXCEPT SPEND TIME IN THE SECRET PLACE???
I need a time of refreshing,
COME HOLY SPIRIT!!!
So there is the vent and out spewed all the grossness. I guess if life was easy and I knew everything, I would not need the Lord.
I still love you all and I am not going anywhere (I like to think I am too tough for that) but life is rough right now. Jesus is refining me. It hurts, but I am willing.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Campus Safety and creativity... Go figure.
I started working for the Campus Safety here at PLU and I think that it is a lot of fun. I get to walk around campus with keys to every building and a radio. It is also rekindling my love for the emergency services because it reminds me of Vashon fire back when I used to volunteer. I really enjoy that type of people and being in the kind of environment built by mutual trust. I also get to walk around with another person and talk and interact with them. I was training with one of the student supervisors who is a biology major like me and we chatted about how there must be something behind all the cool diversity in the world and how it could not be natural selection. This is a fellow who does not know the Lord and would rather not, but as he was telling me about how he was an atheist coming into college and how he is not so sure now, I was able to share how I believed in the Lord and the creation story found in Genesis. It was interesting, at one point he started to say something and then stopped saying that he didn't want to make me mad. I was able to reassure him that he would not make me mad and that I valued what he had to say! When will the church learn to not take offense to things that are different and just love people?
Honestly, I can understand how so many people have been hurt by the church, especially young people. Sometimes it can feel like there is no place for you there. Even a church as great as PSCC can sometimes miss the point when it comes to my generation. How can Jesus and His message be relevant to this generation? I believe it is primarily through love and acceptance of the person (not necessarily the sin) and then being able to communicate with them on their level. My generation has an unprecedented level of creativity, so the same old thing is not going to work all the time. I believe that for the campus, the message is being hurt by being presented in the same way every time. Oh, well, maybe I am wrong... It seems to be a frequent occurance lately.
I love it when the Lord takes me to new places in Him. I have been going through a drier season lately and it was cool to realize that I need Him more than I know. I sometimes will put off my devotional time and do other things, like check the Ignite e-mail account or shower and eat before class. These are all things I need to do, but I need to be with Jesus more. He is my only focus and my only way of life. I need to love Him more and the things I am doing for Him less!!!
Honestly, I can understand how so many people have been hurt by the church, especially young people. Sometimes it can feel like there is no place for you there. Even a church as great as PSCC can sometimes miss the point when it comes to my generation. How can Jesus and His message be relevant to this generation? I believe it is primarily through love and acceptance of the person (not necessarily the sin) and then being able to communicate with them on their level. My generation has an unprecedented level of creativity, so the same old thing is not going to work all the time. I believe that for the campus, the message is being hurt by being presented in the same way every time. Oh, well, maybe I am wrong... It seems to be a frequent occurance lately.
I love it when the Lord takes me to new places in Him. I have been going through a drier season lately and it was cool to realize that I need Him more than I know. I sometimes will put off my devotional time and do other things, like check the Ignite e-mail account or shower and eat before class. These are all things I need to do, but I need to be with Jesus more. He is my only focus and my only way of life. I need to love Him more and the things I am doing for Him less!!!
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Aberdeen Retreat!
I have a couple of thoughts about the Aberdeen retreat... It went really well and I was so encouraged to see that we could bless the River of Life church family and all. I was also really happy to hear the good report from people on the trip that they learned a lot and it really impacted them!
On Friday night, we left Tacoma a little later than I wanted (after a interesting debacle trying to get the vans I had reserved from Campus Safety, but that is not important to my story) and went to get gas. All three drivers, Dan Donohoue, Carl Pierce and I thought we knew where the station was and we all kinda scattered! We ended up deciding to turn around and get on the freeway and stop at the first Shell station we found. We had to turn around in a strip club parking lot!!! This illustrated the fact that it was an attack from satan and made me laugh. His plan backfired on him, he was trying to get me frustrated and angry from the start, but the strip club was too obvious and it made me laugh!
We got to Aberdeen and everything worked out really well. Jake Broady and Doug Marks both shared with us about stuff and it was all really good!!! We also got to do some service for the people of the church and some community members. Aberdeen had a really large windstorm that weekend and the power had gone out and come back on a couple of times, so we walked around and handed out candles and matches to people so they could have a light in case the power went out! Other people got to go and scrape paint off a house and paint the inside dining room or chop and stack some wood. Overall it was a huge win with the service projects.
On Saturday night, we partnered with the Agape club from Grays Harbor Community College and had a worship night. It was kind of lower key and more intimate which was cool. The leader of the Agape club, Mallory, said something that I had never heard before. She said that in the geneology of Jesus, on of the guys names means "praise" and he named his son "breakthrough" so as it says in Matthew chapter 1... Praise begets breakthrough" and I thought that was really cool!
Sunday morning was good, I finally got everybody up and we got the place cleaned up in time for the worship team to come in and practice on time. We were able to spend some time debriefing about the weekend and the things that we had learned. Sunday service was good and we got home at tht time I promised everyone!!!
Things that I learned from the weekend, was to not really sweat the small stuff. So what if 3 people did not get up when they were supposed to. So the UC shorted us lots of food and people were hungry every once in a while. Overall I learned what it is really like to be in charge of something and it was really good to have it go off well. On the way home from Aberdeen, I was driving by myself and I got to spend some time with Jesus and thank Him for carying me over the weekend. The only way that I was able to stay sane for he whole weekend was because Jesus gave me the strength. I know that this won't be the last thing that I plan and it may not be the best or the worst thing I ever am a part of, but it was fun and I enjoyed it!
On Friday night, we left Tacoma a little later than I wanted (after a interesting debacle trying to get the vans I had reserved from Campus Safety, but that is not important to my story) and went to get gas. All three drivers, Dan Donohoue, Carl Pierce and I thought we knew where the station was and we all kinda scattered! We ended up deciding to turn around and get on the freeway and stop at the first Shell station we found. We had to turn around in a strip club parking lot!!! This illustrated the fact that it was an attack from satan and made me laugh. His plan backfired on him, he was trying to get me frustrated and angry from the start, but the strip club was too obvious and it made me laugh!
We got to Aberdeen and everything worked out really well. Jake Broady and Doug Marks both shared with us about stuff and it was all really good!!! We also got to do some service for the people of the church and some community members. Aberdeen had a really large windstorm that weekend and the power had gone out and come back on a couple of times, so we walked around and handed out candles and matches to people so they could have a light in case the power went out! Other people got to go and scrape paint off a house and paint the inside dining room or chop and stack some wood. Overall it was a huge win with the service projects.
On Saturday night, we partnered with the Agape club from Grays Harbor Community College and had a worship night. It was kind of lower key and more intimate which was cool. The leader of the Agape club, Mallory, said something that I had never heard before. She said that in the geneology of Jesus, on of the guys names means "praise" and he named his son "breakthrough" so as it says in Matthew chapter 1... Praise begets breakthrough" and I thought that was really cool!
Sunday morning was good, I finally got everybody up and we got the place cleaned up in time for the worship team to come in and practice on time. We were able to spend some time debriefing about the weekend and the things that we had learned. Sunday service was good and we got home at tht time I promised everyone!!!
Things that I learned from the weekend, was to not really sweat the small stuff. So what if 3 people did not get up when they were supposed to. So the UC shorted us lots of food and people were hungry every once in a while. Overall I learned what it is really like to be in charge of something and it was really good to have it go off well. On the way home from Aberdeen, I was driving by myself and I got to spend some time with Jesus and thank Him for carying me over the weekend. The only way that I was able to stay sane for he whole weekend was because Jesus gave me the strength. I know that this won't be the last thing that I plan and it may not be the best or the worst thing I ever am a part of, but it was fun and I enjoyed it!
Jake gave me some really encouraging words after church on Sunday and overall I could tell that they were all really blessed. I hope that we get to go back there and see them again, because I think that the team caught a vision of servanthood and all the cool things that happen when we step out and serve people in His name.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Congratulations
I would like to congratulate the Pittsburgh Steelers on their Super Bowl victory yesterday. Unfortunately, the NFL has decided to let the Lombardi trophy reflect the real winners of Super Bowl 40 by engraving the names of all the officials on the front of the trophy! So congratulations Bill Leavy for winning your first Super Bowl.
The Seahawks played well enough to beat the Steelers, but not well enough to beat the Steelers and the officials. Oh, well... All the east coast media got there feel good story of the year, Jerome Bettis returns to his hometown and wins a Super Bowl and retires a champion. All the major media markets on the east coast got to see another AFC team win the Super Bowl, because New England (Boston) and Indianaopolis (rest of Mid-West) couldn't get there. It almost feels like the Seahawks were a sacrificial lamb just used by the NFL to pretend there is a fair game still. Here is an idea. Take the monetary benefit of the Super Bowl away from the NFL and give it to the teams that play in it and some selected charities!!! Maybe we could see a decent game next year.
I know, how much does football matter in the grand scheme of things... Not much, but if we are going to play a game and call it the championship, it should be decided by the players and not the officials.
The Seahawks played well enough to beat the Steelers, but not well enough to beat the Steelers and the officials. Oh, well... All the east coast media got there feel good story of the year, Jerome Bettis returns to his hometown and wins a Super Bowl and retires a champion. All the major media markets on the east coast got to see another AFC team win the Super Bowl, because New England (Boston) and Indianaopolis (rest of Mid-West) couldn't get there. It almost feels like the Seahawks were a sacrificial lamb just used by the NFL to pretend there is a fair game still. Here is an idea. Take the monetary benefit of the Super Bowl away from the NFL and give it to the teams that play in it and some selected charities!!! Maybe we could see a decent game next year.
I know, how much does football matter in the grand scheme of things... Not much, but if we are going to play a game and call it the championship, it should be decided by the players and not the officials.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Aberdeen!!!
We are going to Aberdeen today!!! I am excited and I cannot believe that it is here already. I have spent so much time and effort putting this trip together and now it is time to go! I have enjoyed chasing down all the details of the trip and getting things ready! Let's just do it now. Like the PLU model of football, I have done all the preparation (watching film, lifting and practice itself) now I need to focus on getting the job done when the bullets are real. Should be fun!!!
Please pray for us as we are in Aberdeen that I will allow the Lord to do what He wants to and not try and follow my schedule to strictly! Also that this trip will be a unification of our group and would bring more momentum to what the Lord is doing here on campus.
Lord, Jesus, Come on this trip with us!
Please pray for us as we are in Aberdeen that I will allow the Lord to do what He wants to and not try and follow my schedule to strictly! Also that this trip will be a unification of our group and would bring more momentum to what the Lord is doing here on campus.
Lord, Jesus, Come on this trip with us!
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