Thoughts

1. It's been way too long since I last did one of these

2. I preach in Peachland, NC last Sunday. I had an ominous feeling when my barber - who is 75ish & lived in NC his whole life - said, "Never heard of Peachland." 

3. Foggy mornings are the best. So much adventure, and dinosaurs.

4. Started a new blog to keep things I've written for seminary, in readable post o-course

5. Andrew Peterson's, "Light for the Lost Boy," album is killer good.

6. Semester starts next Tuesday. This is like the weekend of the deep breath before the plunge. #LOTRreference.

7. I have to read "Knowing God," for class. This is the worst possible thing ever (sarcasm).

8. Working my way through Harry Potter... again.

9. After living in a new place for almost 9 months, it's starting to feel more home-like.

10. Fun fact: In Eph 1:6 the word "blessed" in the ESV is the same word in Greek as in Luke 1:28 when Mary is described as "highly favored." The word means: to grace; i.e. indue with special honor; - make acceptable, be highly favored." So, Eph 1:6 literally reads, "To the praise of his glorious grace with which he has made us highly favored, imbued with special honor, made acceptable in the Beloved. 

Confession: This Semester

Before I get into this’n it’s been freeing to say, “I was wrong.” At the end of the summer I planned out the semester, 12 hours of classes didn’t seem too bad. I’d taken a couple grad level classes before in undergrad so it seemed like it’d be doable. Mom said it was too much – she was right, I wasn’t.

It’s safe to say this has been one of the most difficult semesters I’ve had. Sure some undergrad semesters were hard, and when finals came they were really gross, but this one is taking the cake in the realm of stress, tiredness and changes. There’ve been a few breakdowns.

Taking the workload from school, the job at the church, fostering a new relationship and the normal things of life all together has been rich and difficult. Rich because there’s much to learn and much to be humbly amazed by; difficult because I’m prideful and thought I knew it all and this has been three months of being wrong. (In some ways I feel like a raw blister - hyperaware of failures.)

Yet there are three thoughts, which have made this semester more bearable:

1) Bear your burdens well.

Sure they’re heavy and sure they’re daunting, but they’ve been given to you by God to bear, so bear them well. Be emboldened by the simple fact of knowing God – for his own reasons – planned this.

 2) It’s good to be carefree.

When the moments of relaxing come, take them. Whether they’re on Skype, a phone call, staring at the stars from my front porch, in a book, with the roommates, or holding a sleeping nephew whenever and wherever learn to relax in a moment. 

 3) (This has been the most difficult to remember) your biggest problem has been taken care of by Jesus.

This one is beautiful. At the end of any day you can lay your head down on your pillow and remember it’s not your education that saves you, your job that saves you, your interactions that save you, but it’s Jesus’ death on a Roman cross two-thousand years ago that has saved you.

Sure I don’t remember all of these all the time. But at the end of my life – whenever that may be – this semester will be just a simple dark place in the patchwork of life – the dark tiles of a mosaic without which the picture is lost. You see it’s a perspective thing seeing life from the vantage point of farther along.

School's Started Thoughts

1) I have a professor with a bow tie (Prof. Bow tie), and another who looks like Dumbledore.

2) Last semester! (As long as college algebra behaves itself)

3) My classes have me writing 2-3 papers a week. Hello, Humidor

4) 24 hours = not enough

5) WSU should get a Starbucks… Or at least some good coffee

6) New bedtime: 9:30pm (So what, I’m an old man.)

7) This whole spring/fall thing in winter is lovely.

8) Bacon and orange juice is routinely breakfast.

9) Luther (the cat) goes nuts for bacon. Like try-to-climb-my-leg nuts.

10) I need a bigger music budget.