work

I am working 4 on, 4 off and then 8 on and 8 off, topped off by 8 more hours on top of all that. I will be working 20 of 32 hours from Friday night to Sunday morning... Oh yeah, I am on worship team as well.
I will get bursts of sleep in 3 1/2 hour spurts... Why am I still writing here?

Oweing something...

I went to the gym today to work out and I came to a realization. I don't really want to work out and I am not really motivated to become the best football player that I can be this summer. As I was running on the eliptical, I had a thought... I owe this football program so much. I came here to escape from a horrible experience at UPS. I had heard of the program at PLU and how great it was and how the players were more important than the scoreboard and I wanted that. I came here and Chad grabbed me, first by having morning bible studies and then by meeting with me and allowing me to be myself anf spurring me on to growth in Christ. Chad would never have had that opportunity if it were not for PLU football.

I owe PLU football my eternal salvation in essence. Paul writes to a slave owner in the book of Philemon about accepting back a slave that had run away and joined himself to Paul. Paul writes and urges Philemon to take this slave back and to treat him as a useful brother, reminding Philemon, "not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well." Philemon 1:19.

I owe PLU football a debt I cannot repay because I was able to experience Jesus in a way I never thought would be for me. The only way I can pay this debt is by hard work and long hours in the weight room and on the track getting better as a football player.

In the same way, I owe a debt to my Savior that I can never repay. He came and grabbed my heart, it was not Chad even though God used Chad, but only by the work of His Holy Spirit. When faced with such debt, we have two choices...

1) Realize how big it is and decide that it is too big to even attempt to pay off. This leads to ignoring the debt and hoping that it might go away. This never works, because as much as we pretend the debt doesn't exist, it still is there.

2) Realize how big the debt is and decide that we should take Jesus up on His offer. He paid the debt already and all He asks is our own lives in return. We can choose to acknowledge our debt and decide to try and pay it by living with everyting we have for Jesus.

I love the Ragamuffin Gospel because it illustrates the point that we are paupers at the doorstep of God's grace...

Abba, I am a pauper, I need You to come and make my debt go away. I am left with only grattitude for what you have done for me, Lord let me keep this attitude of gratefulness and teach me how to pay off my debt here on earth, living for You completely.

Let Summer Begin

I am ready for summer to start. I look forward to all the things I am going to be doing this summer, especially praying and stressing over whether or not to buy a new Taylor guitar. I was looking at it and if I sell back some of my used gear that I have and never use I would lessen the cost by a lot. It would make it affordable, I would still ahve to finance it, but more affordable than it was!

I am looking forward to working at Campus Safety for the summer to, what a mission field! I won't sleep at all on the weekends, but I know it will be fun. I am actually working right now... just getting paid to post on blogspot!

I get to move into Kreidler Hall today after church, that means I need to pack up my room in T-Stad before I move in. I don't like moving very much, it is such a hassle, but I need to do it!

Eventually the sunshine will return and I will have my days off to enjoy it!

Done...

I am done with all my finals... yeah. whoopi. attaway. huzzah. and all that jazz.

I dunno. I feel weird right now. I don't know why either. God is not being very clear as to why. Oh well,

Eddie said something last night that was really true, I don't laugh enough. It's true, I don't laugh enough... There is really nothing I have that brings me joy or happiness. A sunny day? Seen that. A beautiful sunset? Doesn't really impact me. A cool new experience? I don't really care. My best friends? I probably take them for granted more than they take me for granted. Sure I may seem like I am having a good time and all, but inside... something is missing.

Ephesians 6: 13 ...and when you have done everything to stand firm... Stand firm...

I will stand firm on the rock of my salvation. Let everything else in my life be found as false, but let my Jesus remain the same.

Lord teach me to put my trust and to get my assurance from you. Lord show me where I am trying to get approval from man and what I need to give up to you. I want to surrender to You, but I don't know how or what. Jesus, I don't have joy in my life... What can I take joy in?

It's game time...

On Sunday, Joanne Ramos likened our time and the current season of the earth to a game that is tied and has gone into overtime. She also said that in a tied game you do not put in the third string bench warmers.

I love this analogy!!! I love being in close football games and having to strain with every ounce of strength and will to get the job done! That excites me! A couple of things about this tied game here in the last days.

In a close game, every action and every play is dependent on everyone. Sure there is one person who looks like the hero, but they would never have been able to do this without the supporting cast around them busting their humps to get the work done. If I fail at my job, we lose the game.

What pressure! What excitement! What an opportunity!

There is always the one or two people who in close games wanted the ball and knew that they would make the shot to win the game. Michael Jordan was one of them and he did, he would always get teh ball in the last seconds and make the shot! I want to be the person who is entrusted to win the game at the last shot.

I remember during my internship last summer, we did a GoCamp (10 days of pure fun/exhaustion/Holy Spirit/greatness). One of the things we did was host a basketball tournament at the Taholah Indian reservation. My team made it to the championship round, it was tough, but we made it!!! It was kinda funny sometimes, I was the big 6' 2" guy and I was playing with 2 ladies. Both ladies are really good ballers, so I would pass them the ball and let them beat these guys. We ge to the championship game and we are tied at the end of the time period. We go to overtime and the way we were playing was the next point would win. We got the ball first, missed our shot so they got the ball. We made a defensive stop and got the ball back. I wanted the ball. I got position on my defender, they passed me the ball and I hit a NBA worthy turn around jump shot from the baseline that caught nothing but net. WE WON!!! I was so excited I jumped and screamed, it was honestly one of the most exciting moments in my athletic career.

We are in that tied game right now here on campus especially, but also in te entire city/world! We need to rise up and "play" like we are capable of. In the tied game analogy, we are the million dollar athletes that they have on the team for moments just as this.

John 12:27-28 "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name."

We have been placed on this campus and in our city/world/work/wherever else for this exact time and this exact hour. He specifically went out of His way t recruit us for this cause, knowing that no one else could do the job.

I love this, I love the feeling after a hard fought battle on the football field of coming off and knowing I left everything out there. I love knowing that my opponent got the very best of my effort, I could not have played any harder. I think that is the attitude I need in my faith. I need to get to heaveen completely exhausted and so ready for an eternal rest because I gave my everything to Christ and all that He gave me, I left it all here on this field!

Finals Week

I have one test down and two more to go. I have also completed the final paper that is due today in 45 minutes. I get to do a mini presentation on my paper, but it will not be all that difficult.

The final I had this morning was in Animal Behavior. This is probably my hardest class but the final he gave was identical as last years. I got a copy of the final from last year to study from and work on, so I was set to go! I felt really good about it.

My paper is really cool too. Thanks to Eddie for her mad editing skills, (she always seems to be correcting me) you made it a lot better.

Is Playing in the Dirt Healthy?

The benefits of early childhood exposure to antigen.

This will probably be my capstone next fall as well, so I am excited to have almost 10 pages out of 25 done already!!!

Yeah for finals week!!!

Procrastination...

I love to procrastinate and not work on things that I should work on. I have been fairly good at getting stuff done, but I have some work ahead of me yet.

I completed my first jury ever today. For those of you scrathcing your heads asking, "what is a jury?" it is a "test" for everyone who takes a private instrument lesson during the semester. I performed two pieces for my instructor and another music department faculty. I wasn't really nervous before hand, but once I got in there I was a little tense. It was fun though! I got through the first piece ok and then went on to the next piece, which is a little bit more difficult. I started ok, kinda quiet, but ok. I was supposed to play the first part twice, but I played it three times because I got done with the second time and forgot it was the second. I got through the rest of the piece without too many major disasters. I felt really good about it and while I am glad it is over, I wish I had more lessons to do so I could learn more. I played both of my pieces from memory, so that looked a little better on the evaluation. Both profesors gave me good evaluations, so I was happy.

I have gotten my final paper done, mostly I do need to put some finishing touches on it, so I have been fairly productive today.

Finals week will be fun as always. After this, I only have one more semster of college! I also will probably not be taking a class this summer. Instead I will take a class next January in Mexico! It will be more expensive, but I have always wanted to study abroad and this is my opportunity to do that. Taking a class next J-Term will allow me to devote more time to Campus Safety, church and working out. I am excited.

Well now we have momentum...

I love it when I get to see Kit Hackett. I love how God uses her to speak into my life and into the lives of others... Tonight she came and spoke to our Ignite group and God really blessed the time. Worship was fun becasue Nikki took a step of faith and led by herself, no piano, which leaves me to play guitar and carry the group musically. I enjoy that challenge because it grows me as a player and as a leader. It was really annointed too...

I got to talk with Kit before the service started and I told her something that I had received in prayer earlier that day. I had a thought that Jesus was arriving at the Cave in a very regal and royal procession. He came to the front and sat in a throne that we had for Him, but as He was walking toward the front, worship started and the musicians began to praise Him and the assembly started to as well. He sat down and worship continued, eventually He stopped us and Kit came forward and Jesus gave her a script to read from. She stood up in front of us and spoke His words directly.

I told this to Kit and she was really excited to hear it. As she was walking to the front to speak to us, she grabbed my arm and said, "Ok, I've got the script." and boy did she!!!

Jesus was on the move and He touched everyone in that room.

I love it when there is a move of the Holy Spirit and people get ministered to... I kinda wish that we could have had this earlier in the year, but I am happy that we received this even now. I told our leadership core on Sunday night to not hold back... Who cares if we offend people, we aren't going to see them in a couple of weeks anyways... People did not hold back either, they went after Jesus and He showed up.

Yeah for God!!!

The Storm

I feel a change in the weather, I think a storm is coming (don't read to much into that, I just noticed that the wind changed)...

And on a side note, I think that this summer is also going to be a time of intensity and change for all of us. We will not be the same next fall... I am glad for that. Lets learn from this year and do better next year!

I got to hang out with Wes for a while today. We talked about a lot of things, especially Ignite and some of the ideas and dreams we have for it. Wes is going to come alongside the ministry as an administrative type of guy and I am really excited about that! We need some organiation and structure so that we can be effective on campus.

One of the other things we talked about was the question about whether God would bring revival to a ministry that is not ready for it. We both think that the answer is no (God feel free to prove us wrong, You are sovereign) because when God moves, the enemy tries to counteract the work God is doing. If we as a ministry are not super solid, than satan will be able to get a foothold and tear us apart... Good news is that I believe we are on the right track, there will be some speed bumps, but we are going the right way.

I am on a roll right now!

I think that I am cursed (blessed?) because on my next shift at Campus Safety, I got off at 4 am on Saturday morning and went back at 12 noon that day, we had a big car accident that we responded to right on campus. More Fire & Rescue for Samuel!

I know that I am called to a Pastoral type of calling, but I do enjoy the adrenaline rush of emergency scenes.

Kit Hackett came to PSCC on Sunday and it was really cool. She taught for about 20 minutes and then invited the Holy Spirit and started praying for people. She prayed for Eddie and it was really cool to hear God confirm some things in her life. God said that He loves it when she dances and that He calls her a princess. All of these things rang so true... Nikki, Joy, Anne and myself were laughing. Kit also prayed for me and the word came that I am a gentle giant! I like that description of me. She also likened me to Peter, who is willing to do great things for the Lord, but sometimes says the stupidest things... She prayed for an increase in wisdom and discernment so that I would be able to do great things for the Lord without getting into too much trouble. I was laughing again during this, becasue God is so cool to speak stuff like that over me... Kit also said that she has always liked me, which I don't hear very often from people.

I heard a rumor today, from Dan so it is more than a rumor, that we might be leading worship at PSCC this weekend. I am excited for that, because I have wanted to get up there for a while! I hope that Wes can lead because I really like playing with him.

I get to go to work today at 4 pm, and knowing my streak right now, I will get another gnarly scene to clean up and deal with!