Drive time

Wow, my down time is over. That was really fast, ha.

I've now started packing back up to head to Center Lake for the summer. Well, scratch that...I've started re-organizing what hasn't been UNpacked yet, haha. When I come home, it's usually never for very long, so I just live out of my suitcases until I leave again. I have a small stack of books I'm bringing to read...and some of them to supplement camp's firewood supply, hahahahaha.

One thing (of the MANY things) which I'm excited about for the summer is a study my good friend Mike Carpenter is taking me through. He's going to teach me all about Arminianism and Calvinism, showing me all the Scriptures which support each view, and instructing me on the pros and cons of each. I'm pretty stoked, since this is a discussion topic I've heard lots of people argue about, and one which people ask me about frequently in regards to where I stand on it, so I figured it would be wise to actually learn up on it.

Man, I can't even explain in words how excited I am for the summer...it's ridiculous. Of the several places which I regularly stay at throughout the year, camp is where I feel most at home. Everything I love comes together here: lots of music, living in the woods, lots of hangout time with friends, lots of ALONE time with no one but myself and God, kids, lots of serving, and people who LOVE. It's an amazing place. xD I don't know if I'll have any chances to update this until I'm done for the summer, so don't expect much from me until then. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to share afterward. =]

*Side note to anyone reading this: Camp is great and fun, but it's really tough sometimes, for many reasons (kids going insane, the rare conflict between staff, and some serious spiritual warfare), so any and all prayer you can provide for use would be MUCH appreciated!

Another less obvious reason for why I'm excited for camp this summer is because I'm one of those people who's crazy about traveling. I love going places and seeing new things, but I really don't get the chance to do that kind of stuff anymore. My family used to take summer vacations up North every year, and Spring vacations to Kentucky for several years (and yes, I've heard every possible insult for Kentucky, and I don't want to hear any of it, because if you have ever ACTUALLY been there and are in ANY way observant of your surroundings, you would know it's a beautiful state!). We don't do any of those since I've started working at camp, but not because I'm gone all summer. We just can't. This has been bothering me a bit lately; I've been really longing to go out West for a very long time now. This is one trip I've not experienced, but also one I've wanted to take since I was little. I see pictures of my friends in other countries and different places, and it makes me sad. However, I know this is just a simple earthly desire, and I should really get over it, because not only is it pretty likely not going to happen, but it's not even CLOSE to being important enough to distract me from what I need to be focusing on. Going to camp helps to get this out of my system.

There, my pity party's over, haha. I should probably get back to packing; it's getting late. I probably won't be leaving until tomorrow evening, though, maybs around five o'clock. Probably won't make it to camp until at least seven. I'll have tomorrow to pack n shtuff, but I'll probably also sleep away part of the morning, ha. Anyway, hope y'all have a great summer, and please, please pray for me if you remember! If anyone reading this has prayer requests, contact me, or leave a comment on here. I'll be checking it, just not posting. Thank you.

Down Time

Hey y'all. School's finally out for the summer...praise God. I stayed at Uncle Wookiee's house in Jackson and watched Spring Arbor's graduation ceremonies on Saturday. It was kind of sad...I felt like half of my close friends from Spring Arbor graduated this year. Afterward, I went out and had one last meal with my friend Jacob Cook and his family. Then I drove to Quincy and stayed with Ben Rupp until Sunday evening. I spent all of Monday reading Ted Dekker's Saint. The next day, I started reading The Zombie Survival Guide. GOOD times, haha. It's been pretty relaxing since I've come home...the opposite of what this semester was like at school. Not having a paper due every second feels great!

One big problem that I've been working with is my computer. I've been working on switching from Vista to XP these past two weeks, and it's been a real pain. I thought I totally busted it at one point. I think it's working fine now; although I'm still working through some issues with the wireless, and I have no audio capabilities whatsoever, haha.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to just chill and read Scripture. This time off before camp is some of the only time I'll have off for a long time, might as well make good use of it, right?

I'll probably post at least once more before I head to camp. So yeah.

End of the semester thoughts

It's finally drawing near: summer! It's been a really long year for me here at Spring Arbor...

As I write this, I'm sitting on the quiet floor of the library. This has been my home for this whole week: the time I've spent in here this week is more than all the time I've spent in here all year up to this point! I'm in kind of a tight spot with homework. My professors all got together and decided to assign all the biggest assignments of the year to be due this past Monday. Fun. Last week, my Biblical Interpretation class had the week off for class periods so we could work on an 8-10 page exegetical paper. Unfortunately, I had several other really large assignments that were due that week, and by the time I actually was able to come to the library to look for commentaries on the passage that I chose to write on, they were pretty much all taken by the others in my class. I couldn't even finish the preliminary research assignment for the paper until Monday...when the paper itself was due. I e-mailed my professor about this last Friday, asking for an extension because I wasn't going to be able to turn it in on Monday. He didn't really give me an extension, but he at least gave me some leniency and said the late penalty would be slight, just as long as I wrote it well. I'm working on finishing it today so I can hand it in at class tomorrow morning.

Last night I was at a worship/prayer service my good friend Steven started up this year called Rooted. Ron Kopicko, our university chaplain, came and spoke. He had one verse in particular that he shared with us...Philemon 20: "Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ." He then asked us a question that blew me away: "When's the last time someone was refreshed in Christ just by being around you?" Holy cow. That hurt. He challenged us to live a life of service without EVER expecting anything in return from anyone. Everything that he was saying hit me really hard last night. If every person who claimed to be a Christian lived this way...oh man, what would happen!?

I am so excited to be done with this semester. I've finally finished choir, and I am NEVER going back! We had our last concert this Tuesday, and I absolutely gave it the best I could. Good times. This weekend I'm taking a break from school before finals and heading home to have a giant Risk tourney with my friend Jon...it's gonna be EPIC.

Recently, I decided I should add another semester onto my time here at the Arb. I got the job as Spiritual Life Advisor (SLA) on Ormston 3 next year, I might be working as a youth group worship leader at a local church called Westwinds, I'm working on getting a band started up, and on top of all that, I had registered for 17 credits next semester! Needless to say, I kind of wanted to thin out my class schedule a little so that I could do the other things as best as I could.

Dag, yo. I can't wait for these two weeks to be over.

Peace.

Easters.

Yes. Easters.

So, I had originally planned on spending Easter break doing homework...definitely didn't happen. My cousin Travis stayed with me Thursday night, then my friend Caleb from back home came Friday night...spent Sunday with a couple guys from school and brought them to my church for the Easter service and then to my family's Easter dinner...good, good times, but no homework. haha.

I wanted to share something which God told me this weekend. I haven't felt like myself lately, as I mentioned briefly in the "Unspoken Thoughts" post. I think this weekend God gave me some insight into why I've been feeling this way. I realized I haven't been feeling like myself because I haven't been ACTING like myself. Yeah, kind of a no-brainer, haha! I realized I've been constantly worrying about people's perception of me lately, especially girls' perception of me (=O oh noes!). This isn't like me, and I don't like it. Also, God has used one of the verses from my last post to really show me how I've been going about things the wrong way:

Galatians 1:10 - "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."

Man. Today, I stopped worrying, and I had a great day! It's like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders...

Another new development this past week: I'm working on putting a band together, for realz.

Some Scripture that I've had on my mind

I've recently been thinking about/been challenged by some passages of Scripture, and I thought I may as well share them. Bland intro, I know, but that's it.

Galatians 1:10 - "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."

Philippians 1:21 - "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

Hebrews 13:12-16 - "So also Christ died outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

Jonah 4:5-11 - "Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." And the LORD said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?""

Yeah, they're random. They've been on my mind, though, and I just thought I would share them with y'all. The end.

Weekend at the Arb

So, I have some free time, and it's the weekend...why not spend some time doing something that's less important than homework, but still better than just doing nothing?

Seriously, though, I am happy that I have a little extra time this weekend. It feels like it's been forever since I've NOT had a busy weekend.

This week, however, has been busy! On top of catching up from two weeks of being away from school, I had to fill out a housing application for next year, an SLA application for next year (for those non-SAU students, that's Spiritual Life Advisor. It's a volunteer position that each dorm floor has. A very basic explanation: they pray for the people on their floor and lead Bible studies.), my camp contract stuff for the summer, and my Cross Cultural Studies paperwork for next year (which easily took more time than the other three together...). I will hopefully be spending several weeks in May and early June in Ireland and England next year with a group from school. I've heard this was the most popular trip available, however, so I might not be able to go...my second choice was Chicago, though, so I'll either be having an AMAZING time overseas, or I'll be saving nearly two thousand dollars...at least it's a good fall-back plan, right? haha.

Things are going well, other than being busy most of the time. Last night a bunch of my guy friends and I watched the first Jurassic Park...good times. Next Thursday is the last night before our Easter Break starts, and we're actually planning on having a marathon of all three of them!

God's been teaching me some good stuff about patience and trust lately. However, I have to say that I haven't been spending much time with Him lately...I could easily say that I haven't had much time, but that's a lame excuse: "Although He has all the time in the world to spend with me (literally), I'm just too busy with MY things to spend time with the God Who saved my soul from eternal damnation." Lamesauce. I've been getting involved with a couple small groups of guys who are trying to learn better spiritual disciplines, especially prayer. One group I'm with is going to start meeting every weekday morning to pray, and I'm pretty excited about it! You know what else I'm pretty excited about right now???

CAMP. I got a position as a senior counselor again, and I can't wait! I think this summer is going to be really good...but then, I'm pretty sure I say that every year...lol. It's always true, though; camp is just an amazing place.

Speaking of camp, I'm pretty sure I said at one point that I would be devoting a post to my latest summer at camp, since I did that for all the other ones up to this past summer. I think I'll get on that soon; I'd like to keep my word.

Whelp, I guess that's about it for now. Ima go spend some time with Jesus, and then attempt to be productive again. Blog ya later!

Unspoken Thoughts: Now available in easy-to-read Spoken version!

Sorry I haven't posted in quite some time, but I've been really busy lately, and I've just been storing up some thoughts so I can spew them all out in one big, nasty mess.

Something that's been on my mind for some time now is the ever-present issue of dating. I have had some pretty lame experiences with relationships, and this past Fall semester, I was a real mess. Of course, I know some very nice, Jesus-lovin' girls, both on campus and off, but I don't think it's a good time for a dating relationship of any kind in my life right now. So, I've made a pact with God to stay out of such a relationship at least until the end of this school year. That may sound weird to some reading this, but I haven't heard anything contrary to my own feelings from God, so I figure this is the right way for now. I wanted to make sure that I don't get myself into trouble again, and making a pact with God seemed to be the best option. Just the other day, I had some good time with Him where I just laid it all out...what I think about all this, the path that I feel is correct...and the fact that I want His will to be done in my life, whether I think it's "right" for me or not. One problem is that I have a lot of bad fears about being in a relationship that have gone a bit past just caution, and that I know didn't come from God. I have to be careful to tune out my own thoughts about this and listen to what God tells me, or else I might miss something important.

I would LIKE to keep this pact through the summer as well. Shouldn't be too difficult, since starting relationships at camp isn't necessarily the best idea, anyways. Camp relationships have to be handled REALLY maturely, or else they might really mess with the community.

I've also been thinking a lot lately about what (assuming I will be in a dating relationship again, hahaha) I would want my next relationship to look like. I've been going over what was wrong with my previous relationships, and also what was good about them. The next one will be quite different, I think. I don't want to be so dependent on the other person as I was, and I certainly don't want a girl that is more dependent on me than she is on God...don't ever let that happen. There's a lot more than just this, but that's probably the biggest thing.

I believe I've already spoken a little on this in "Journal Entry 1," but I believe that the ultimate purpose of a relationship needs to be to glorify God, just as everything else in our lives should be. It's not to make yourself happy; it's not to make the other person happy; it's not to make yourself better; it's not to make the other person better. It's all about God. The end.

So, here I am. What can I do but wait on God's leading? If it's in His will, He will bring it to pass, so I don't have to worry myself over it.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Choir Tour, and it's ridiculous how not excited I am for it. I'm really glad I won't have to take choir again. It's been a lot of fun, but it takes up way more time than any 1-credit class ever should, and it doesn't mean anything for my new major anways. Whatevs.

I've felt like, not myself lately. I think it's because of all these thoughts. Might also be because of the lameness of school lately. Yeah...it's probably mostly that second one, actually.

Yup. This is basically what I've been dealing with lately. Hope it's shed some light on Casey Butler's mind for ya.

One of my Otrhodox friends here on campus suggested something to me a while back. Now, to get the full effect of what this is saying, you have to have a really open mind and think really deeply about it:

"Heaven and hell may or may not be the same place."

That thought made my head explode when I first heard it, and I think it just did again. My head can't even stand to concentrate on that thought longer than like, 3 seconds, hahaha! Have fun.