Tuesday, November 15, 2011

A lyrical genius

Now I know that most of my blogs so far have been about school and Ecola (Who am I kidding, they have all been about here), but today (Just now actually) I experienced one of my favorite things ever...A song made me cry. It's about a fathers pain, moving ahead, not looking back, taking responsibly and staying clean. It is not suitable for small children and has 11 swear words in it, at least five of which are the F word. It references drugs and alcohol and there abuse. In a word, it is about as far away from a Christian song as you can get.

Not Afraid, by Eminem.

So why does it lift me up and bring me closer to God?

It makes me feel closer to God because it shows that no matter how bad it gets there is always hope. If a man as crooked as this can straiten his life out and inspire others how much more hope do we have with God on our side? No matter how bad it gets God will still look down and see his little kids. Sure one of us might have just bashed the other over the head with a stick, or stole a cookie, or lied about this or that, or to bring this into real terms. Some one who has murdered, stolen not from the rich but from the poor, lied about where and who they spent there last night with. GOD STILL LOVES US! He's go'na have to give us one heck of a woopin', but he still loves us, and he does it because he loves us.

Beauty and truth can be found in many things. Gods creation, the cleanest hymn, or the dirtiest rap.
"You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" Joseph

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Silance FOR the Lamb (If you look hard enough you might get it ;) )

As some of you might have heard it is Day of Prayer here at Ecola. Pretty much what that means is that you have one class in the morning and then you get pack lunches and then you go find yourself a nice spot and pray till dinner. Well to make this more fun I thought I would fast. ha...ha...ha...Me? Fast? From food? That might be a bad idea, and probably not healthy for me either. So I decided to do something both harder and safer. A word fast. No speaking for the entire day. I've gotten by with using my phone to text and to tell people why I am not talking to them but other then that I have hardly had any communication with anyone one today.

The first thing that I found was cool is that because I like talking so much and now I can't talk to any one I have a lot to say but no one to say it too, that is except God. It's amazing how much more you talk to God when you can't even say "Hello" to some one you are walking past.

The other thing that I have found to be cool is peoples responses. A person in the food line was some what puzzled but thought it was interesting. That gall that I got my coffee from didn't know what to think but kinda treated me like a Butist monk that had taken a vow of silance...that was delightfully awkward. :) The lady at the Ecola office just acted like nothing was different and the lady at the post office was very helpful. It is very interesting to see people respond to this but I have also found it very interesting how I have responded. Maybe I will try this again some time or maybe just try not to talk so much. ;)

"Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger". It's pretty easy to be slow to speak when you can talk. ;)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

17 days later

Life is cool. I'm finding this out more and more. Before Ecola my day went like this: Get up, eat, get on computer which included; youtube, facebook, tv shows, and games. Then I got off my computer, ate dinner, back to the computer, more of the same, then sleep. Life...was not...cool. It was mildly entertaining, but not cool.

17 days later.

My day goes like this: Alarm at 7:30, get up at 7:55, walk to Bella and get coffee, read my bible and pray till 8:25-30, walk back to breakfast, eat, go to class at 8:55, learn amazing things for an hour and a half, go to the coach house till 10:55 and chill (this morning I talked to my RA Seth about the OT for a good half hour), go back to class, eat lunch at 12:00. At this point keep in mind that I have had more interaction with people and more spiritual growth then I had in a month a few short weeks ago. Next, chill and talk at lunch till when ever (generally till about 12:30), hit the student lounge until the rec center opens at 1:00, go play pool or chess, work on homework, maybe read some more of my bible, yesterday we went to falcon point as a hike and I made a new friend and learned a new name, today we have afternoon classes, but that's ok. Then there is dinner at 5:15, eat till 5:45 or 6:00, hang out in the rec or with who ever till class at 7:00, get out at 9:00 having grown an other months worth, go to the rec again and play some more chess or the sport event that is that night (generally frissbe or volley ball), work out every other day, hang there till 11:30 or so, go back to the dorm, take a shower, try and go to sleep, but will most likely fail because I end up talking to Drew till 2:00 in the morning, like last night.
Rinse and repeat.
Life is cool. Tony, at Bella, knows me by name, he knows my drink, he knows I like it cooler then not. He remembers that. My AR is awesome. In so many ways. The teachers are funny. The staff personable. People are cool. God is cool. Jesus is cool. Jesus is life. Life is cool.
Slainte

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Long time, no sea.

So, I haven't blogged in a while but I have an excuse: for the first time in my life I have things to do all the time! I'm doing more and sleeping less then I have ever done and slept before. So, between home work, events, trying to stay awake I haven't had much time to blog, but I am here now and my fingers are starting to warm up. :)

This week we have been looking at Romans and Philipians, mostly Romans however though, and I have to say that my mind is being blown in the best of ways (No pink mist people). The teacher, whos name I am blanking on at the moment, is amazing. He is a very concise speaker to the point that it is almost imposible to take notes because everything he says is note worthy but you can only write so fast! I will be rellying on the audio mp3s for this one, and I am very much looking foreward to revewing them later at my own pase. (Bad spelling I know but I am use IE). He is having us read through Romans twice at least (We where supposed to read through it twice yesterday but hardly any one was able to do it, including me), and it's been fun.

I've been making new friends and getting to know more people. I'm hoping to bring a few home for Cider Press but we will see if they want to come. One of the biggest things that I am learning is to never judge people by their outward apperance but by what they do when it is important. There are so many guys, more then I would like to admit, that I just dismised as just being interested in being cool and not really caring about the people around them, but when it comes down to it they are pray just as hard or even harder (because they have been there done that) then many of the people here, my self included.

If any of you are looking for any spesifics to pray for for me, it would be that I could ramain focussed and that I would not get destracted. That I would be able to see what is the most important and go after it full throtle. They're so many worthy destractions but if I don't focus on one thing, or a few of the most important things, I will be like the starving donkey (if you get that referance then good for you). One last thing is that I would be able to get enough sleep. I am already starting to learn the benifits of coffee and I may start becoming a regular at Bella. By the way they have the best 12oz Mocha I have ever had. So, all that being said if you also have some prayer requests that you would like me to pray for please send them my way. I have started praying every morning and I need things and people to pray for!

Anyways, I should go and do something before class (Wednesday we have two morning classes and then one/two afternoon classes but no evening classes).
So, bless your face, and if you sneezed while reading this post bless you.
Slainte

Sunday, October 16, 2011

"Just because we are saved does not give us the right to judge others. It is not our job, it is, however, our job to love them."

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Yay for RAs

Well, last night I had the first heart to heart, of many I hope, with Seth, the Ad Dorm RA. I am so thankfull that I have some one that I can talk to about some of the harder stuff down here. He's a great guy and I am really hoping to get to know him better through out the year. But the funnist thing is that I think he is the most energetic and rambunctions out of all the guys in Ad so I am hoping that we don't have TOO crazy of a year in Ad.
Blog again soon.
Slainte

Friday, October 14, 2011

RETRO!!!

Last night the retro party happened. The funny thing is that you don't go to the retro party, the retro party happens to you. However, before I jump in to the fun stuff I need to cover the first chaptors of this event, shopping.

After lunch I found myself in the car with four other guys that I never really met before, but we all had the same goal; find the best outfit we could at the Goodwill, and boy did we find some good stuff. The funniest thing about shopping though was that there some people who were looking at some of the same type of hydios (sorry, no spell check) cloaths that we were but they were doing it for real...I am afraid that the 80's might be back. *shutters* Any way. After about a half hour of looking I found what I was going to ware and 25$ later I was set to shock and awe (Mostly shock I think).

The rest of the day went per usual with dinner then classes, but after we finnished our class every one dove for there rooms to go change. I grabbed my black botton up shirt, rolled up the cuffs of my black fake Snake/Crockidile skin pants, and bearly squeezed into my tan 50's rock and roll jacket and unleeshed my new look on the world...of the coach house.

I was one of the earlier arivals but I could see that it was going to be an interesting night. I can not begin to descibe all the wacky outfits that people had, but what I can say is that we had a range of still crossing almost a hundred years. We had a late 1800's dress, then 20's then there was a lot of 50's lether jackets and then, of course, the very, shell we say, colorfull 80's and 90's cloaths. (I am sure that there will be pics on facebook and other places as soon as I can get ahold of them. There was also video that was being taken so look forward to that as well)

As for the music it was increadible. Everything from Lynard Sckynard's Sweet Home Alibama to Justin Biebers "Baby" (Shutters. I insisted on singing Bainlings instead Fyi), but I have to say that the best part of the night, which I was totally not expecting was that...drum roll please...I won the best costume award! With my 25$ of second hand cloaths that were older then me I won best dressed. It was pretty sweet. I Am looking forward to pictures of the event and to see what every one was wareing.

Sorry about this being a longer one but there was a lot to tell.
Have a good day and God bless.
Slainte

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Seven guys poring there hearts out to each after only meeting each other a few days ago. An amazing sight. I love my dorm :)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Day the 3rd

Well things are starting to fit into a groove a little more around here. Lots of stuff to do, never bored. Had a great jam session last night with the ad dorm guys. Fit six guys into one dorm room...bit of a snug fit as you might think, but the music was awesome, and I mean awesome. One of the guys down the hall plays guitar very well and has a great voice. I'm thinking the late night jam sessions will be quite frequent.

On an other note, Hermeneutics is going wonderfully. I'm actually about to go plowing into some verses to pick them a part and see what I can see in them.

It's amazing the faces around here. I feel like I keep seeing people from home everyday. "oh there is Anne Peterson, oh there's Enoc Newkirk, oh there's Johnny Mcnickles". So it's a lot of fun seeing people all around that remind me of people I already know.

Been meeting cool people. As I said our dorm is pretty musical but it's also pretty chill...at least for now. But every one that I have met in there I have liked, so I'm hoping that we will get pretty tight by the end of the year.

Well we have dorm activities at 7:30 so I think I will do some studying before that. Until next time, Slainte.

P.S. I was hoping that YOU would have the answer for yesterdays riddle but I guess not ;)
haha later.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

And on the second day...

This morning started off with me finding out that I have a cold. Not a very good thing to wake up two. I had a sinking suspicion that I would be getting one last night but I was hoping that I might not get it, but alas I have. However, I am feeling better and we are about to go on a hike so I am hoping that some fresh air and some exercise help clear up the old pipes.

On a slightly less snotty note we had our 3rd class in hermeneutics this morning. We looked at first Samuel 10 I believe. The part about King David being ow so sinfully human and why girls should takes baths INDOORS and not on the roof for crying out loud, but then again it was a different time. What ever the case, the more we get into hermeneutics the more I am liking it. Great fun.

Not so much fun was Dave's rather sobering talk on beach safety...that is until he pulled out the stick figures, classic.

Well, we are about to head out on a hike so I should go. However, I will leave you with a though. How, I do ask, IS a Raven like a writing desk?

Monday, October 10, 2011

First day

So, I am entering into the wonderful world of blogging. I have said many times that I should start a blog but I never knew what I would talk about but now that I am at this wonderful place with amazing people I have a feeling I will not run out of content. So welcome, to a blog that may not have hidden wonder all through it but hopefully at least be a bit entertaining.

Welcome