Self-righteousness

Self-righteousness is a problem that I've been thinking about lately. I feel like I've really been noticing it with some of my friends, and just as I get ready for some Biblical rebuttal to throw at them, I think to myself, "Sooo...how do you expect to get that sliver out of their eye while you have that PLANK lodged in yours???" How will being self-righteous against those that you feel are being self-righteous help the situation? It'll probably just end in some meaningless argument about who's better than who, which is probably why it actually started in the first place. I've found myself in a few of those lately, and it's dumb. I've also been reading through Proverbs for a while now, and it has quite a bit to say about the self-righteous, or those who are "wise in their own eyes," as it states it more elegantly. Humility isn't something that comes easy for me. I've always been the one that likes to prove that they're smarter than you, and who'll get into arguments over miniscule details. I always thought that my logic was better, my grammar was better, and blah, blah, blah. That's something that I've learned about myself and that I've tried to correct for a while now. I've found myself playing the fool in various situations and conversations because I'm tired of pretending I'm a smarty-pants. Personally, I think life is more fun this way than it is being a stickler, anyway. I guess that's all I had on my mind for now.

Favorite quote as of late:

"They thought I was the dad!" - my dear Uncle Wookiee

A couple post-break thoughts

Well, I'm back at school again, and break was really relaxing, in case you were wondering. I didn't live up to my own aspirations for break, though, which really disappointed me. It took me quite a while to get into regularly spending time with God and in His Word, even with all the free time I had. After I did get back on track, however, I felt lame for not spending much time with my Father sooner.

I realized more fully how much I could care less for "normal" Christmas traditions, like trees, lights, and presents. One of my favorite amusements from break was getting a Family Christian Store catalog that had, "share the wonderfull gift of Christ" plastered on the front. I didn't add the bold lettering or alternate spelling of that, by the way...that was exactly what it looked like. Yay for consumerizing Christ. Share Christ to your friends and family by buying our stuff! Ugh.

Anyways, I'm really happy to be back at Spring Arbor, and I'm ready for the rest of the year. My spring semester is completely sorted out with my new major, and J-Term is going to be pretty laid back. Good times. Hope to hear from ya'll soon!

*Edit* - Also, just finished reading Brisingr today. Good book!

Christmas Break

Holla, ye bloggers! Christmas Break is finally here, and I have quite a bit of spare time to spend at coffee shops facebooking and blogging. My first day back home was not the greatest, however; I went down to Ohio a couple days ago to drop off a friend who lives on my floor and to pick up my friend Billy from his college and bring him back home, and my mom wasn't too happy about it. College kids always joke about how poor they are because of school, right? Well, as soon as I got home and unloaded my van, my mom proceeded to tell me how poor our family actually is right now, how the economy is getting worse, and how I shouldn't just drive around everywhere whenever I feel like it, because my van isn't exactly new, along with a few other things about how I should've informed her better on what I had planned to do. Needless to say, she's not letting me go help at Follow the Star this weekend (a giant living nativity that Center Lake puts on all weekend free of charge for the public). I felt like a little kid who got caught being bad. I also realized why keeping some of my scholarships at Spring Arbor is REALLY important....

On a different note, I am excited for the rest of break. I am planning on using my spare time more wisely than I normally do by spending it in the Word and in prayer. I also am planning on working on music a lot: practicing guitar and piano and maybe even writing a little music. Check up on me and ask me how I'm doing with all that sometime. That'd be great.

Also on a different note, I finally went and changed my major a couple weeks ago. I am now officailly a Retreats and Camping Ministries major. WOOT. Still getting some stuff worked out for next semester, but things are looking pretty good so far.

Peace.

Major changes. Literally.

Well, Thanksgiving Break was interesting. Saw my real dad for the first time since I was a toddler. Had two Thanksgiving dinners. It all went well, though. Had some friends come in from out of town while I was home that I haven't seen in a while. Even with how fun it all was, I still am really glad to be back at Spring Arbor. I've been really thinking about changing my major, and I think it's going to happen at this point. Right now I'm a Worship Arts major, and I'm thinking of changing over to Retreats and Camping Ministries. I set up a four-year plan to look at what classes I would be taking, and R & C actually has at least TWICE as many bible and religion courses as Worship Arts does...which surprised me a lot, since that's what I wanted in Worship Arts. I still need to talk to my advisor about it; I e-mailed him about setting up an appointment, and I'll see him tomorrow, so that should work out soon.

I was disappointed tonight, but it shouldn't be that much of a surprise I guess. A whole group of worship arts/ministry guys were watching Signs in their room with a girl...with the door closed AND after open hours was over. For real, guys? Those are two of the easiest rules to keep, and you don't feel like obeying them because the RA is gone and you don't feel like just watching it on a laptop somewhere else. Awesome. Anyways, that should be all I say, lest I get too angry. I just think it's lame.

I bought a new book this weekend. "The Penguin of Death." Pretty much the best five dollars I've ever spent. You should read it sometime.

Hi again!

Heh, it's been almost two weeks since I last posted.

Things have been going pretty well since my last post. I've been working this week in particular on making more time for schoolwork and Bible study, and it's been working! I'm really glad that our school play is finally over so that I have more time at night to do stuff, as well.

Thanksgiving is coming up soon, so I think I'll take a little time to inform you of why my Thanksgiving is going to be very out of the ordinary for myself this year. At the beginning of this past summer, one of my friends from church and her mom came up to me after church one Sunday and asked me if I remembered this one girl that I was friends with on Facebook named Kamie. I had added her because apparently she had visited the church a couple times with my friend. I was actually planning on maybe deleting her soon because I really didn't remember her at all...but they told me that she was actually my cousin! This is where things got intense. My real parents divorced when I was a toddler, and I stayed with my mom. Apparently, Kamie was my cousin on my DAD's side of the family. Our family basically separated from theirs for the rest of my life, and I had never known any of them except for who I could remember from when I was a toddler. I started talking with Kamie online, and soon discovered that I had nearly 30 other cousins living within about a 2-hour radius of my own home...that I never even knew EXISTED! THAT was intense. Kamie got me more up to speed on things on the other side of my family, and I talked about things on "my" side of the family.

At the very end of the summer, my friend Nicki, the one that first told me about Kamie, told me about a surprise party for a couple's 50th wedding anniversary from our church, who I am apparently legally related to, and that it was going to be at Kamie's house. I ended up going, without having told my mom about ANYTHING that I had learned of my newfound family OR where I was going specifically. I hung out with Kamie and her family for a good while, and talked with them about seeing them again. They even invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner this year, which is what this post is about. I went home, and eventually told my mom later that week about all that had transpired. She told me about everything that had happened between our families back in the day, and that she was happy that I had connected with Kamie's family specifically. If you're curious about all that stuff, I don't have any problems with telling you, but I don't feel like telling the whole world about it on here.

So, with all that background information, I will hopefully be having TWO Thanksgiving dinners this year. I will probably be going to Kamie's family dinner first, since they are starting earlier in the day, and then coming to my "regular" family's dinner right afterward. I don't know how many people in my family know about this other than my mom, so it will be interesting...if you could maybe ask God to soften my family's hearts about this, that would be great!

I'll hopefully get some motivation to post again this weekend to give you all something to read in your spare time, haha.

The Michigan/Ohio State game is today. I went and watched a little bit of it at the beginning because I was excited from everyone else's excitement, and then I remembered why I don't really watch sports and left. Boring.

I think I'm going to go hang out with my Uncle Wookiee today. Talk at you later!

Journal Entry 1

So, I mentioned in my last post that I had kept a journal for a while last semester. It was basically just writing down stuff that God had shown me so I could remember it later, word for word. This is my first one; I wrote it into my journal on March 22, 2008, but it was something that God had shown me a little while before that. Here it is:

"Singleness is actually a good thing! God gave you a time to be single so that you can grow closer to Him without complicating matters with a relationship in which you are confused about where you stand with Him. The ultimate goal of a relationship should not be a relationship in itself, but to further grow in and glorify Him! If you are not ready for this, then you are not ready for a lasting, fulfilling, God-centered relationship."

Now I can add a little side note: it applies to BOTH sides of the relationship. Just because one person is ready, it doesn't mean the other is as well.

As much as I would like to be in a Godly relationship right now, I know I am not quite ready just yet. I have a difficult time letting things go and moving on, which is no good. I had a horrible time with it at the beginning of this school year, and it was ruining my life...kind of literally. I had lost joy, contentment, and much of my desire to even be at Spring Arbor, at least for a while, and my roommate was getting dang sick of it, haha. I was miserable enough to rediscover a little depression. My next journal entry talks a little about my first experience with it.

Anyways, I'm still tired. I keep getting more and more tired every day, even though my sleep habits aren't really bad. Maybe it's just the thought of our school play and lame assignments coming up. Whatevs.

I'm getting kind of tired of school, and I'm somewhat unsure about being a Worship Arts major at this point. Yay.

Goodnight.

Jackson

So, this evening, myself, Ben Rupp, and Daniel Eads took a trip out to Jackson (and no, we weren't going to Appleebees OR Wal Mart!). We just went and walked around town and asked God to give us opportunities to serve and share the Gospel. We ended up praying for an old lady out on her porch, and left a note for a guy at a diner. We also went out to the Interfaith Shelter, but apparently it was too late at night for us to pick up a shift and help out. We also got kind of threatened and yelled at once or twice from passing cars...and decided it might be better to do this in the day next time. It was a good time.

I could really use prayer for strength and perserverance, by the way. If you want to know anything more specific than that, ask or something.

I have officially reached the age where I can say that I see some of my friends MY age getting MARRIED, and yet I am completely single. Woot. God has given me some wisdom on singularity in the past that's really sweet. I wrote some stuff down in my journal last semester...wow, last semester was the only time in my life that I've really ever done any journaling, and it was good stuff...maybe I should work on that.

I'm tired. Go figure.

There is a Bingo chip sitting on my desk in front of me...I haven't played Bingo in years.

Goodnight.