In the pre- Sean Smith mayhem, life is pretty hectic right now. It is really cool to see God coming through in real and tangible ways right now. All of the advertising is done and paid for, and all of the results of it so far have been amazing.
We made these cool T-shirts that say, "Are you b.l.u.e?" on the front and the time of the event on the back. Jennifer Furumasu, Emily Hockert and I were up til about 4 am making the shirts and the look really cool. People have been asking a lot of questions about them and it is getting a great response. We have about 21 shirts and hopefully we can have 21 people wearing them on Monday and Tuesday.
Sean Smith is speaking at church this weekend and then he will be on campus for 2 nights. We will be short of money, but the Lord will provide.
We are really looking forward to what God is going to do. It will be a crazy night... and I have to work at 4 am the next morning.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Colossians
I love the book of Colossians... It is a wonderful read for me right now in many ways. I am super busy and I get really good at not spending time with the Lord and Colossians is all about the person of Jesus and how He is Lord of everything.
Such great passages are in this book, I am really getting blessed by meditating on them. It has been a rough emotional few weeks and this book provides so much comfort for me right now because of the centerpiece of Jesus. If I can look to Him and let all other things fade away, then I will be doing better.
It has been a healing week for the most part. I sometimes think that I am hurting more than I know and it is just a matter of time before it all comes out, but I also know that I have amazing friends and confidants to help me through this. I drove coaches and trainers to the airport yesterday and it was painful to leave them at the airport, I wanted to go to California with the guys so much. But God is so good and so much better than I can even know.
Colossians 2:9
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.
Such great passages are in this book, I am really getting blessed by meditating on them. It has been a rough emotional few weeks and this book provides so much comfort for me right now because of the centerpiece of Jesus. If I can look to Him and let all other things fade away, then I will be doing better.
It has been a healing week for the most part. I sometimes think that I am hurting more than I know and it is just a matter of time before it all comes out, but I also know that I have amazing friends and confidants to help me through this. I drove coaches and trainers to the airport yesterday and it was painful to leave them at the airport, I wanted to go to California with the guys so much. But God is so good and so much better than I can even know.
Colossians 3:3-4
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
The song Blessed Assurance comes to mind.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight; angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Update on life (hot off the press!!!)
I am warning you all now, this might be a long post. I guess that is what happens when you don't write for a while, it all sorta builds up and then comes rushing out. Well, I guess I'll just get started.
To bring closure to some things that may be still open... I got my stipend back from Campus Safety and along with it I am now working 20 hours a week, the maximum I can work during the school year. I will be making $8.50 an hour and I am going to be talking to the boss people about promotion to supervisor which would pay an even $9. The one down side is that I have almost all of my hours between 4 am and 8 am. I am not sleeping much, but I will manage. I wake up every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 3:30 am and shower and dress for work. I get to work and I make some tea and put it in my PLU mug that I have. It is amazing how grown up I feel because I drink tea in a mug!!!
Ignite is going great right now. We are really building momentum and I love seeing what God is doing. I got to talk to Chad Johnson today about a lot of things (more on that conversation later) and we chatted about Ignite. One of the things he told me was that it is all about intimacy with Jesus. I know this, but I forget so easily because I am so easily clouded by the things I am doing. I get to handle a lot of the administration duties for Ignite and I feel like that is a full time job in and of itself. I am super busy with a lot of things right now and one of the first things to go is my time with Jesus. I am challenging myself to put that first before anything else. Lance Powers, who spoke at Ignite last night and was so annointed, said that God does not want to be #1 in your life. If He is #1, that implies that there is a #2 and a #3 and so on. God wants to be the ONLY thing in my life and I need to let Him be that for me.
Sean Smith is coming in 2 weeks to Ignite and I am getting excited. I want to make some T-shirts that have a cool phrase on them and have some key Core people wear them for a bit before the event to build some energy about it. God we need about $200 to make this happen and do it at a top notch level with the T-shirts. We also need about $800 on top of all that to defray the cost of Sean and his wife staying here and eating alot, etc... We have the venue all lined up and even though I am still working on the gear we will use, it should be fine. Conferences and Events told me today that we cannot use the sound equipment from the church, because we are required to rent from Media Services. This is frustrating, but I will see what I can do about all this.
I am really happy about the transition at PSCC with Lance Powers coming in as the new senior pastor. He is a dynamic guy in love with Jesus and I can't wait to see what God does in my church. Also, bringing Nate and Cory Boyt along with him is a huge plus and I can't wait to work with them either.
So now to the depressing portion of the update. I will never play football again.
I have a, "...moderate to severe compression of my spinal cord in between my 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae." Long story short, if I get hit the wrong way, I could become a quadraplegic or worse. Heck, if I get in a bad enough car wreck, my odds for serious spinal injury are way up. I saw the neurosurgeon today and we talked about my MRI that I got and he showed me a portion of it that showed a very clear impinging on my spinal cord. I told Scott our head coach and David one of our line coaches about it today, so the team will know soon enough.
I have been struggling with Stingers as they are called for about 3 weeks now. When I was playing, I would get 1-2 every practice at least. Our training staff wisely decided to sit me out for a bit and to have me see the Campus health center. I met with them and they decided that I needed to go and get X-rays of my neck. I did that and showed them to Dr. Mariani, our team physician. He also examined me and found that I was weaker on my left side, the arm I would get stingers in, than I was on the right side. He decided that an MRI was needed to see if there was any structural damage to the spinal column. Because Dr. Mariani sees more knees injuries, hes a sports medicine specialist, than neck injuries, he sent me to a specialist, Neurosurgeon Dr. Anthony Harris. That is where I went today and I saw Dr. Harris and he told me the news about my football career.
He said that I could have surgery to fuse the C4 and C5 vertebrae, but because I am not having symptoms for the most part, he said that was probably not the best idea at this time. If symptoms do come back, then surgery on my neck is something I will probably have to get.
I am not really sure how to feel right now. I am ok for the most part I think, but I don't handle trauma and pain very well. I tend to bottle everything up and not let it be expressed. I feel the same as I did when Eric Fergen died, kinda numb I guess. Maybe it is the Lord's gracious mercy not allowing me to experience the full depth of emotion about this. I came to PLU to play football and football at PLU changed my life. I would not know Jesus the way I do today if it had not been for men like Frosty Westering, Chad Johnson and others who have gone through the PLU program or been around it. The program is very special to me and I don't want to leave it, but that is the beauty of PLU football, I can do other things that don't include playing and still be a part of the family.
I got back from the doctors today and went out to practice. Dr. Mariani was there and we got to talk for a bit and turns out he knows Kaj pretty well and is a believer so he prayed for me, right out there on the field and everything. We talked about a lot of things and he has been such a great resource to me it is incredible. Dr. Harris gave me some things to do to strengthen my neck still and to maybe relieve some of the pressure on my neck. That will be my competition, seeing how hard I can work to get well and put myself in a position to not have any long term effects from this.
I can't help but feel let down by this. I never really got my chance to play for PLU on the field. I was either injured or there was someone starting in front of me. I love competing and I love working with others to achieve a goal, two things football offers in spades. Never getting that chance hurts a little bit. Also, realistically looking at it, what if I had never earned a starting spot this year, how would I have felt about myself later. I can at least say now that I was injured my entire senior season and never got a chance to suit up. I love football, I love this team, I love the program at PLU, I love the guys... the question I am facing is do I love God more?
I think that I do. I will get through this, prayeras and hugs are always appreciated, but I will get through this.
To bring closure to some things that may be still open... I got my stipend back from Campus Safety and along with it I am now working 20 hours a week, the maximum I can work during the school year. I will be making $8.50 an hour and I am going to be talking to the boss people about promotion to supervisor which would pay an even $9. The one down side is that I have almost all of my hours between 4 am and 8 am. I am not sleeping much, but I will manage. I wake up every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 3:30 am and shower and dress for work. I get to work and I make some tea and put it in my PLU mug that I have. It is amazing how grown up I feel because I drink tea in a mug!!!
Ignite is going great right now. We are really building momentum and I love seeing what God is doing. I got to talk to Chad Johnson today about a lot of things (more on that conversation later) and we chatted about Ignite. One of the things he told me was that it is all about intimacy with Jesus. I know this, but I forget so easily because I am so easily clouded by the things I am doing. I get to handle a lot of the administration duties for Ignite and I feel like that is a full time job in and of itself. I am super busy with a lot of things right now and one of the first things to go is my time with Jesus. I am challenging myself to put that first before anything else. Lance Powers, who spoke at Ignite last night and was so annointed, said that God does not want to be #1 in your life. If He is #1, that implies that there is a #2 and a #3 and so on. God wants to be the ONLY thing in my life and I need to let Him be that for me.
Sean Smith is coming in 2 weeks to Ignite and I am getting excited. I want to make some T-shirts that have a cool phrase on them and have some key Core people wear them for a bit before the event to build some energy about it. God we need about $200 to make this happen and do it at a top notch level with the T-shirts. We also need about $800 on top of all that to defray the cost of Sean and his wife staying here and eating alot, etc... We have the venue all lined up and even though I am still working on the gear we will use, it should be fine. Conferences and Events told me today that we cannot use the sound equipment from the church, because we are required to rent from Media Services. This is frustrating, but I will see what I can do about all this.
I am really happy about the transition at PSCC with Lance Powers coming in as the new senior pastor. He is a dynamic guy in love with Jesus and I can't wait to see what God does in my church. Also, bringing Nate and Cory Boyt along with him is a huge plus and I can't wait to work with them either.
So now to the depressing portion of the update. I will never play football again.
I have a, "...moderate to severe compression of my spinal cord in between my 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae." Long story short, if I get hit the wrong way, I could become a quadraplegic or worse. Heck, if I get in a bad enough car wreck, my odds for serious spinal injury are way up. I saw the neurosurgeon today and we talked about my MRI that I got and he showed me a portion of it that showed a very clear impinging on my spinal cord. I told Scott our head coach and David one of our line coaches about it today, so the team will know soon enough.
I have been struggling with Stingers as they are called for about 3 weeks now. When I was playing, I would get 1-2 every practice at least. Our training staff wisely decided to sit me out for a bit and to have me see the Campus health center. I met with them and they decided that I needed to go and get X-rays of my neck. I did that and showed them to Dr. Mariani, our team physician. He also examined me and found that I was weaker on my left side, the arm I would get stingers in, than I was on the right side. He decided that an MRI was needed to see if there was any structural damage to the spinal column. Because Dr. Mariani sees more knees injuries, hes a sports medicine specialist, than neck injuries, he sent me to a specialist, Neurosurgeon Dr. Anthony Harris. That is where I went today and I saw Dr. Harris and he told me the news about my football career.
He said that I could have surgery to fuse the C4 and C5 vertebrae, but because I am not having symptoms for the most part, he said that was probably not the best idea at this time. If symptoms do come back, then surgery on my neck is something I will probably have to get.
I am not really sure how to feel right now. I am ok for the most part I think, but I don't handle trauma and pain very well. I tend to bottle everything up and not let it be expressed. I feel the same as I did when Eric Fergen died, kinda numb I guess. Maybe it is the Lord's gracious mercy not allowing me to experience the full depth of emotion about this. I came to PLU to play football and football at PLU changed my life. I would not know Jesus the way I do today if it had not been for men like Frosty Westering, Chad Johnson and others who have gone through the PLU program or been around it. The program is very special to me and I don't want to leave it, but that is the beauty of PLU football, I can do other things that don't include playing and still be a part of the family.
I got back from the doctors today and went out to practice. Dr. Mariani was there and we got to talk for a bit and turns out he knows Kaj pretty well and is a believer so he prayed for me, right out there on the field and everything. We talked about a lot of things and he has been such a great resource to me it is incredible. Dr. Harris gave me some things to do to strengthen my neck still and to maybe relieve some of the pressure on my neck. That will be my competition, seeing how hard I can work to get well and put myself in a position to not have any long term effects from this.
I can't help but feel let down by this. I never really got my chance to play for PLU on the field. I was either injured or there was someone starting in front of me. I love competing and I love working with others to achieve a goal, two things football offers in spades. Never getting that chance hurts a little bit. Also, realistically looking at it, what if I had never earned a starting spot this year, how would I have felt about myself later. I can at least say now that I was injured my entire senior season and never got a chance to suit up. I love football, I love this team, I love the program at PLU, I love the guys... the question I am facing is do I love God more?
I think that I do. I will get through this, prayeras and hugs are always appreciated, but I will get through this.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
classes
I was looking at my class and reading schedule for this semester and the thought hit me,
My religion classes will be interesting and challenging at the same time. One of them is examining the life of Martin Luther and the process of Reformation. I am going to enjoy this class and I have some cool friends in the class that can help me if I get stuck. The other class is an Old Testament class and we will be looking at the Old Testament in many different ways, like Source Criticism, Rhetorical Criticism and Form Criticism. The goal of the class is to gain knowledge of the different methods of literary criticism and we will be using the Old Testament as our text.
My Capstone class is the senior research everyone at PLU has to do within their degree field. I was going to do mine on the relationship between early childhood exposure to antigen and the relationship to the occurence of allergies later in life, but I found out that I cannot do that because I already did a major project on that topic for another class. They want us to do some original work that we have not already done before. So I need to find a topic to research and fast, because my proposal is due at the end of this week and my outline and bibliography is due in two weeks.
I chose a science major for one of the added benefits of not having to write as much, and now I will be spending long hours in front of my computer typing away.
Football is going good, I am very excited to have our first game this Saturday and I know that the offense will be ready to handle business.
"WHAT AM I DOING!?!?!?"
I am taking 2 reading intensive religion classes on top of my writing and research intensive capstone class. I am being good, I have started to get ahead and hopefully I can stay that way. I also do not have classes on Fridays, so that will be a good homework day.My religion classes will be interesting and challenging at the same time. One of them is examining the life of Martin Luther and the process of Reformation. I am going to enjoy this class and I have some cool friends in the class that can help me if I get stuck. The other class is an Old Testament class and we will be looking at the Old Testament in many different ways, like Source Criticism, Rhetorical Criticism and Form Criticism. The goal of the class is to gain knowledge of the different methods of literary criticism and we will be using the Old Testament as our text.
My Capstone class is the senior research everyone at PLU has to do within their degree field. I was going to do mine on the relationship between early childhood exposure to antigen and the relationship to the occurence of allergies later in life, but I found out that I cannot do that because I already did a major project on that topic for another class. They want us to do some original work that we have not already done before. So I need to find a topic to research and fast, because my proposal is due at the end of this week and my outline and bibliography is due in two weeks.
I chose a science major for one of the added benefits of not having to write as much, and now I will be spending long hours in front of my computer typing away.
Football is going good, I am very excited to have our first game this Saturday and I know that the offense will be ready to handle business.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Wow...
I haven't been here in a while. Posting on my blog that is... Football Camp officially broke last night after our scrimage. I will be starting class this Tuesday at 8 am!!! The scrimage went well, as a team we looked decent (the defense looked awesome, but they always do in the scrimage). I did not play very well and I ended up having to sit after two series because my back hurt pretty bad. The trainer and team doctor told me it was a muscle thing, and since it is right next to my spine and it hurt, they didn't want me to go back in and risk further injury to other parts of my body because I would be guarding my already hurting muscle. It is frustrating to sit and watch when I should be out there competing, but what could I do?
Church was fantastic today, I am sure Pastor Tom had a message for us, but he never gave it becasue we spent the whole time in worship. It was really great... Worship rolled straight into communion which was fun and meaningful. I am treasuring every time I get to spend with him because after Lance comes on board, he won't be around as much anymore.
We have a meeting for Ignite tonight and I hope that it will clear up some questions I have been having, like, "what is my role?" "Where are we going this year?" etc... As of right now, I will give everything I can to this ministry until December and then I will look at it in light of my being a graduate and see what God wants me to do after that.
We have our first game this Saturday at 1:30 pm at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup. The Puyallup Fair will be going on then as well, so get there early and enjoy the free BBQ by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans that starts at 11 am. Let me know if you are going to come and need tickets, because I can get 4 free on my own and then I can use other peoples free tickets they are not going to use to get more free for my friends and family (students get in free). Even if I am not getting any playing time, come experiene PLU magic for yourself.
I will have more time to post as the year settles into a routine for me.
Church was fantastic today, I am sure Pastor Tom had a message for us, but he never gave it becasue we spent the whole time in worship. It was really great... Worship rolled straight into communion which was fun and meaningful. I am treasuring every time I get to spend with him because after Lance comes on board, he won't be around as much anymore.
We have a meeting for Ignite tonight and I hope that it will clear up some questions I have been having, like, "what is my role?" "Where are we going this year?" etc... As of right now, I will give everything I can to this ministry until December and then I will look at it in light of my being a graduate and see what God wants me to do after that.
We have our first game this Saturday at 1:30 pm at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup. The Puyallup Fair will be going on then as well, so get there early and enjoy the free BBQ by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans that starts at 11 am. Let me know if you are going to come and need tickets, because I can get 4 free on my own and then I can use other peoples free tickets they are not going to use to get more free for my friends and family (students get in free). Even if I am not getting any playing time, come experiene PLU magic for yourself.
I will have more time to post as the year settles into a routine for me.
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