Psalm 18

So, I was recently thinking about how I might be done with this blog because I didn't have anything to write about. Today is different. I sat down this afternoon and opened up my Bible to Psalm 18, reading it out loud as a prayer. It seemed to really apply to my current situation, especially in the first few verses, like 4-6: "The cords of death encompassed me;the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help." I used the passage as a prayer up until verse 20-22: "The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me." Dang. I read that, and I thought, "I haven't done any of those things...I can't use this as a prayer for God to help me in the same way, Then I read the next two verses: "I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt. So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight." Whoa. It's one of those things that I knew, of course, but that God decided I needed to relearn straight from Him. I am blameless before God because of Christ's sacrifice...I should be keeping myself from my guilt and rejoicing, not telling God through my actions that Christ needs to be sacrificed again for all my horrible deeds. That passage really made my day (week, actually) a lot better.

Also, just a little bit of encouragement:
You know what's really hard? Praying without ceasing.
You know what we can do through Christ? Yeah.

Peace.

Travel time again

So, here I am, writing my last blog for a good month, and possibly even up to three months. My emotions are running rampant, I can't believe it, I can't breathe...

Whatever. You'll get over me.

But seriously, there's a lot going on. I'm going to IRELAND TOMORROW MORNING. Goodbye America. I'm finally going to be able to visit one of my top three places I want to go before I die. I can hardly believe it. I have to go shopping for a bunch of people while I'm there. I'm also hoping to pick up a bit of an accent and maybe some local lingo while I'm gone. When I get back on June 10, I have to head straight to camp for the summer, as I'll already be about a week and a half late.

In other news, I forget whether I announced it here or not, but I got rid of my Facebook account around last November. Currently, I also do not have a functioning cell phone because of bizarre circumstances. I am very out of touch with most of my friends because of this. It feels really weird, and I can't contact many people who I would really like to, but, at the same time, it feels pretty good. I can focus much more easily on what's around me. I believe my mom is picking me up a cell phone for me to have when I get back from Ireland and England, but I won't have one until then, and I really won't have any contact at all with North America while I'm gone. It's going to be awesome. To have no communication with anyone I know via all forms of electronics (except maybe the possiblity of checking my e-mail and blog at some point while I'm there, and also excluding the people I'm traveling with) for a whole month...it's going to be interesting, and I think it will be really beneficial. Being at camp afterward is also going to really help ease me back to normal life, since I'll still be rather limited while I'm there, with little time to be online and comparable reception for my cell phone. I'm banking on me being less reliant on these things by the summer's end, so I have decided to get my Facebook back after camp gets out. I think it's been long enough, and I've learned a lot about how to manage my time properly. I also need to reclaim my title (see the URL at the top of the page), as it seems one of my friends has decided to steal it now that I'm gone.

Anyways, I hope this post finds whoever reads it well-rested and ready for the summer. Hope ya'll have a good one while I'm gone!

Peace.

Pray for your friends

So, there's a sign outside my room right now which a friend of mine put up today. It's his bill for the school. He owes Spring Arbor a good chunk of money, and wrote on the paper, "PLEASE PRAY OVER THIS!" He didn't ask for money, and he didn't say he's worse off than anyone else; he only asked for prayer. My room is right in front of the stairwell, so when people leave the floor or come up the stairs, they're pretty likely to see it. I've had the misfortune of hearing several people's reactions to this sign. "That's nothing, I owe [insert dollar amount] to the school!" I understand that if you owe a lot more money than someone else does, their problem seems less important to you, but SERIOUSLY. He asked for PRAYER, NOT your criticism and sick pride in your own "poverty." "Oh please, my problems are so much worse than his, he doesn't even have the right to ask for prayer in this matter." That's what I was really hearing from people. If we are going to call ourselves a community of brothers on this floor, then we should be able to look at others' problems and have compassion on them.

Philippians 2:1-4
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count other more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others."

Funny how often we take those words for granted.

Peace.

End of semester...

So, here it it. Another end to a school year here at the Arb. I have several large final projects left, but other than that, not a whole lot. I'm really excited for my trip to Ireland and England coming up in less than a month...but it seems crazy that it's so close already. I've wanted to go to Ireland almost my entire life.

Went to Ann Arbor with some friends yesterday and stopped at this fantastic little bookstor called the "Dawn Treader." SO many old books! I've never been in a better bookstore. We picked up several poetry books which we're all really excited about. I personally am very excited to read a book of poetry by W.B. Yeats, especially before I go to Ireland. Yeats is probably the most famous of the Irish poets, and it might be nice to read up before I go.

Freedom through the power of Christ

So, lately I've been experiencing real freedom from a lot of stuff in my life. One such something which I'm really happy about is regarding a past relationship of mine. I was doing homework on the quiet floor of the campus library when my ex-girlfriend suddenly AIMed me online. Due to the issues surrounding our break-up and at the rate things were going, I wouldn't have been surprised if we would've never spoken to each other again. At first, I was very confused as to why she wanted to talk to me, but I let her speak. She said that she felt bad about the way things went down between us, that she recognized that she had disrespected me with the way she handled the break-up, that she had made it nearly impossible for us to be friends at all afterward, and that she wanted to ask me for forgiveness.

Hear that? Yes, that explosion was my mind being blown. I never expected to hear those words or anything similar to them. I didn't really know what to say at first. I thanked her and forgave her, and also apologized for hurting her with the way I handled things. We talked for a bit, and then the conversation was over.

I felt so freed afterward. I had kind of forgiven her in my mind a good while ago, and I had given up any negative feelings I had toward her. However, I had no hope of us ever being friends again at all, and we had never actually apologized to each other for the way we treated each other afterward. I thank God for this moment of peace, and for the reconciliation He let us experience. We may or may not ever be friends who talk on a regular basis, but God at least brought this opportunity for forgiveness, and I would be OK with us being friends again. Thank You, Jesus.

Peace.

Romans 7

So, the chapel speaker this morning was Chuck White, one of the university religion professors. He presented a very interesting interpretation of Romans 7, one which I hadn't heard before. He said we often see Romans 7 as being an autobiography of Paul and his fight with sin. However, Chuck said that this is probably not a valid way to look at the passage. He brings up an interpretation offered by both Origen and John Wesley which says Paul is speaking from a different perspective in Romans 7. Since Paul's language of being captive to sin doesn't fit with his description of life in Christ in both previous and later passages, Chuck said Paul was probably speaking from the perspective of someone who didn't yet know Christ. I could go into it more, but I have things to do today, so if you want to talk about it more, leave a comment or something, haha.

A conversation

"Father, what do you want me to do?"
-Love.
"Father...how can I love?"
-Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
You must love me first to do this.
"How can I love you more?"
-You must obey my commandments. I have given you my Spirit and all strength through my Son. You must obey, even if you don't want to. You must obey, even if you don't feel as though your motives are right for it. It will come.
...but it will be difficult.