I Shruted it

An occasional picture in your blog posts is never a bad thing. Note: I'm 2 for 2 of my last two posts. Consequence: my blog is superior to yours. I really don't have any incite on this pic...just thought it was funny.

Goin' to Chicago with Davie and Robby this weekend to watch UC play DePaul. Chicago is an amazing city with a lot of character. I was there about a year ago for a conference and have been wanting to go back ever since. Bonus: the whole trip only cost me $60. The game will be sweet but I think that I'm looking forward to walking around the city more than the game itself.

I think sometimes we conveniently ignore the desires that God fulfills in our lives. Last year, at about this time, I was really unhappy with the way things were going (ministry, school, life). I wasn't real involved in ministry yet and wasn't finding a lot of satisfaction in school work. I had two desires at that point: to get highly involved in ministry and to travel. Since then, I've been to Tennessee three times, Colorado, Chicago twice, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and soon I'll be in New Orleans and then Tennessee again in May. You could say that if you have enough money you can travel anywhere you want and therefore fulfill this particular desire. However, I have absolutely no money. All of my trips were free or cost very minimal amounts because they were orbiting around ministry. As I type this, I'm amazed out how this has worked out. God has fulfilled both desires completely, one desire making the other possible and vice-versa. If I would have planned out a year ago how I would have these desires fulfilled in an ideal situation, it wouldn't have even come close to the reality of how everything turned out.

Find your soul mate, Homer

Johnny Cash and The Simpsons...a match made in heaven.

This is a rediculously boring day at work. I finished everything that I know I should do within a couple of hours of getting here. So now I find myself commenting on Dave's blog and searching the Internet for images of the episode of the Simpsons that features Johnny Cash as Homer's spiritual guide. Which is, if you're wondering, El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer, season eight. I've also been trading emails with the Mr. Ben Lewis and wondering if Austin will ever update his blog now that he's back from Chile and has no regular computer access.

I think last night was the worst night so far concerning our heat situation. I had my space heater running full blast and it barely put a dent in the standing room temperature. I woke up this morning and could see my breath...in my room...not cool. I wonder if any health code regulations are being violated here. Of course, ol' Chuck didn't say too much about me creating a geyser in Austy's bathroom. So, I reckon he probably doesn't care too much about how cold the house is at night. Austin's fish finally gave up his fight for life. Must be tough to be a tropical fish in our house.

Anyway...Key Laborers starts tonight. Key Laborers is always a good time. We have Big Evan Griffin doin' the talks. I always appreciate his talks because he speaks from his experiences and observations instead of consistantly throwing biblical principles at you. Definetely a guy that I look up to. I'd be lucky to be half the conversationalist he is one day.

I say we nuke the site from space...it's the only way to be sure

School's a real burden this quarter. I'm startin' to get overwhelmed. And when I get overwhelmed I usually go ahead and withdraw from everything. I consistantly have a ton of homework and the material is rediculously hard to learn. The amount of time that school is consuming is staggering compared to the past couple quarters. To top it all off, I haven't gotten any calls from potential employers.

Because of the added stress, I find myself continually wanting to drop extra-curricular/important things like ministry activities. I've worked very hard to change my perspective from school takes priority over all to God takes priority over all. The past few quarters were fairly easy as far as school work goes and of course co-op is always an easy time. So, putting God first was never all that hard. Now that things are more difficult, I find myself saying that it would be ok to put God on the back burner and hide from ministry for awhile. I don't think there's anything wrong with cutting back to accomodate both ministry and school but I think its also very important to keep in mind that God requires all of us, as living sacrifices, and he'll accept nothing less.

The flip side to this is that God's not a cruel slave driver. He knows our limits and keeps us satisfied. I'm hoping that by submitting to God that he'll lead me to his perfect middle ground.

Pretty good Super Bowl last night. The Colts definetely had it coming for awhile. However, I don't really have any allegiance to either team. Payton Manning bandwagoners make me angry and it would have be cool to see the Chargers win it all. The Bengals own it next year.