After a crazy week of settling back in both dorm room and classroom, today turned out to be a more wonderful end to the week than I had hoped it to be. It was cold, and windy...but I love the cold (you have no idea). Besides, it was the good type of cold, the brisk type that makes you appreciate even a mediocre a cup of hot chocolate even more and actually look forward to going back to the sauna that passes for your dorm room. I got to do something I have been looking forward to since I got accepted to VT...I had to break out the long-johns. Words cannot express how much I love being back in a place where people actually know what long-johns are, let alone have the opportunity to wear them. Even what I thought was going to be the low point of the day (my four hour, Friday afternoon, lab) turned out to be a good thing. While I still think Friday afternoon labs should be banned, I am actually looking forward to the class, it's something I know I am going to enjoy: Wildlife Field Biology.
The absolute best part of the day, though--and my reason for this post--was the Nav bonfire. I love a good fire, I love 'smores, and I love being outside. Most of all, I love the fellowship. Every time we get together, I am reminded of exactly how much I am blessed just to be able to spend time with a group of committed Christians. It's sad how many Christians just don't understand the importance and benefits of fellowship.
I met a man, Rodrigo, in Costa Rica last summer who didn't think fellowship was that important. He told me that he has been a Christian for nine years but he hadn't really been going to church or getting together with other believers because he wasn't really comfortable around them. Apparently, as he explained, those he came in contact with were too "fanatical" for his taste. (That is another post altogether.) As we talked, Rodrigo asked me to pray for him, specifically that his faith would stay strong. Rodrigo was just finishing his degree in psychology and starting to teach some undergraduate classes at the local university and his beliefs were being challenged daily by peers and students alike. Most of the people that he came in contact with looked at Christianity as theory or fantasy and felt that true intellectuals had no need for such nonsense. Rodrigo didn't have a base to strengthen him. He didn't have a church family to give him the encouragement that he so desperately needed. Without any support coming in, Rodrigo was being spiritually drained.
We have all been guilty of neglecting what should be one of our most powerful assets. I had spent the majority of my church-life not quite being part of the church family. Other than names and faces, I knew only a handful of people at church--and the majority of them through my parents. Every Sunday, we file in, sit next to people we hardly know, and have little contact with anyone save a handshake every so often. Conversations seldom go further than "How are you?" to which nearly every person responds "Good" (or some such variation) no matter how far that may be from the truth.
Since when did Christianity become a private enterprise? Yes, our relationship with God is a personal relationship, and nobody will ever know us as well as God (not even ourselves), but private?
Did Paul keep his walk a private affair? Certainly not. He wrote continually about all that God had done in him, the greatest of sinners. When the Philippians showed concern for Paul, did he shun their attempts at sympathy? No. In fact, he commends them saying: "Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction" (Philippians 4:14). And he write this after just having declared: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). God is the source of all strength, but we are still called to "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2).
How can we "bear one another's burdens" if we refuse to share with people what our burdens are? How can we encourage each other if we don't spend time together? Whose opinion would you value more: a stranger on the bus or your closest friend? "[Let] us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25).
When we draw together in fellowship, we come together in God's presence and what greater place is there to be? Fellowship is a harbor, a source of encouragement, a time to heal, a place to be girded up so that we can go back out into battle refreshed.
Friday, January 23, 2004
And for my first attempt...
I promised something halfway substantive. Fair warning, though, a distinct starting point does not ensure a distinct or even relevant end point. I take rabbit trails...a lot. Most of the time, I eventually get back to my original destination. So here goes...
I figure it's time to put all the things I've been learning lately together in one place. God taught me a lot last semester about letting others (specifically Him) lead. I thought I had a pretty good grip on this awesome lesson, but apparently not, as I had much more to learn over break. I needed to learn more about trusting God's plan and trusting that God knows better than I do what may or may not be good for me. We must learn to trust God in all things and know that He will guide our lives: past, present, and future. When we try to take things upon ourselves, it doesn't work.
When studying verses like 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, and Galatians 1:3, my pastor back home likes to point out that "grace" always comes before "peace," always. The reason, Pastor Tony likes to say, "is that you cannot experience the peace of God until you have experienced the grace of God." His point in all of this is that if you have not known God's grace and received His gift of eternal life to be at peace with God, you cannot know the peace of God. Thinking about this quote the other day took me one step further. Not only must we have experienced the grace of God, we must acknowledge that grace. If we do not attribute to God's grace that which we see accomplished in our lives, we run the risk of accrediting things to personal strength. This leads to pride, pride leads to downfall. We must fully embrace that everything has been God's doing, not our own. Our own strength will inevitably fall short, leaving us frustrated.
We need to trust God with our present. I went through Obadiah a couple of weeks ago and was blown away by the evidence that "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16), even Obadiah. Essentially, the book is about God telling Obadiah, "Go tell the Edomites I am going to smite them." Why? The Edomites, the descendants of Esau, were resentful of the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob (see Genesis 25: 28-34; and 27). The Edomites treated the Israelites rather poorly, and God was upset that the Edomites were messing with His chosen people. I think it goes deeper than that. I think the larger problem was that the Edomites didn't trust God, they didn't trust His judgment, and they didn't trust His plans. The Edomites thought that the inheritance of Israel was rightfully theirs. God, however, had appointed that the inheritance would go to Israel. The Edomites didn't trust that God's plan was the best plan. They thought their ideas as to where they should be were better than God's. They were arrogant: "The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in the loftiness of your dwelling place, who say in your heart, 'who will bring me down to earth?'" (Obadiah 1:3). Don't we do the same thing? We may not particularly like the circumstances we are in and figure that we could have worked things better than God (even though we fall into many situations because of our own stubbornness). We forget that God has a perfect plan for our lives. We forget that God can use our circumstances to work in and through us. So God might have to take us down a notch or two. The sooner we realize that we need to be where God needs us to be and not necessarily where we would most like to be, the more He can use us.
I tend to fall into the trap of "if only"s. I have a hyperactive imagination. This is wonderful when I need to be creative. It's a downright pain when I'm trying to stay grounded. All last semester, when I really started learning to let others lead, I still managed to let my imagination run rampant. I'd imagine these elaborate scenarios and conversations that I would have loved to see take place. (In retrospect, had I written half of these things down I would have a great start to a really cheesy novel, or at least a decent soap opera.) All the while, I was becoming increasingly frustrated with myself for being so--well--shallow, immature, you name it. What was worse, I was actually getting disappointed when my daydreams didn't turn to realities. Can you imagine? Ok, my point (I do have one this time, I promise)...God had to knock some sense back into me. My frustration grew to a breaking point and I finally realized (in prayer nonetheless) that I had been putting my trust and my hope in man and not in Him. So of course I was frustrated, of course I was disappointed...but in God one is never disappointed. "God is not a man, that He should lie..." (Numbers 23:19). I wasn't trusting in God's plan for my future but devising my own future and when my plans didn't come to fruition, I was frustrated, HA!
Sidenote: I can just imagine how God must feel. God has a plan for our lives and knows all that is in store for us but instead of going A-B-C we, in our stubbornness, have to swing by Q, Z, and K first. I have a feeling that God's watching us thinking, "You know, this can be a whole lot easier than you are making it out to be."
Back on track...I had to surrender that which I was holding on to. The one thing that I really wanted to happen (and still wouldn't mind) I had to give over to God and say "You know what is best for my life, not me. If this be Your will, wonderful. If not, then I trust You to have a perfect plan for me and that You have something else in store." When we trust in God, we should trust in God completely. He doesn't need our advice, He doesn't need us backseat-driving. He knows what He is doing, go figure.
Well, after rambling so long, I'd like to congratulate anyone who was actually able to make it through the whole of my thinking. Extra kudos to anybody who understood it at all.
Thou wilt make known to me the path of life;
In Thy presence is fullness of joy;
In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.
--Psalm 16:11
I figure it's time to put all the things I've been learning lately together in one place. God taught me a lot last semester about letting others (specifically Him) lead. I thought I had a pretty good grip on this awesome lesson, but apparently not, as I had much more to learn over break. I needed to learn more about trusting God's plan and trusting that God knows better than I do what may or may not be good for me. We must learn to trust God in all things and know that He will guide our lives: past, present, and future. When we try to take things upon ourselves, it doesn't work.
When studying verses like 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, and Galatians 1:3, my pastor back home likes to point out that "grace" always comes before "peace," always. The reason, Pastor Tony likes to say, "is that you cannot experience the peace of God until you have experienced the grace of God." His point in all of this is that if you have not known God's grace and received His gift of eternal life to be at peace with God, you cannot know the peace of God. Thinking about this quote the other day took me one step further. Not only must we have experienced the grace of God, we must acknowledge that grace. If we do not attribute to God's grace that which we see accomplished in our lives, we run the risk of accrediting things to personal strength. This leads to pride, pride leads to downfall. We must fully embrace that everything has been God's doing, not our own. Our own strength will inevitably fall short, leaving us frustrated.
We need to trust God with our present. I went through Obadiah a couple of weeks ago and was blown away by the evidence that "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16), even Obadiah. Essentially, the book is about God telling Obadiah, "Go tell the Edomites I am going to smite them." Why? The Edomites, the descendants of Esau, were resentful of the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob (see Genesis 25: 28-34; and 27). The Edomites treated the Israelites rather poorly, and God was upset that the Edomites were messing with His chosen people. I think it goes deeper than that. I think the larger problem was that the Edomites didn't trust God, they didn't trust His judgment, and they didn't trust His plans. The Edomites thought that the inheritance of Israel was rightfully theirs. God, however, had appointed that the inheritance would go to Israel. The Edomites didn't trust that God's plan was the best plan. They thought their ideas as to where they should be were better than God's. They were arrogant: "The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in the loftiness of your dwelling place, who say in your heart, 'who will bring me down to earth?'" (Obadiah 1:3). Don't we do the same thing? We may not particularly like the circumstances we are in and figure that we could have worked things better than God (even though we fall into many situations because of our own stubbornness). We forget that God has a perfect plan for our lives. We forget that God can use our circumstances to work in and through us. So God might have to take us down a notch or two. The sooner we realize that we need to be where God needs us to be and not necessarily where we would most like to be, the more He can use us.
I tend to fall into the trap of "if only"s. I have a hyperactive imagination. This is wonderful when I need to be creative. It's a downright pain when I'm trying to stay grounded. All last semester, when I really started learning to let others lead, I still managed to let my imagination run rampant. I'd imagine these elaborate scenarios and conversations that I would have loved to see take place. (In retrospect, had I written half of these things down I would have a great start to a really cheesy novel, or at least a decent soap opera.) All the while, I was becoming increasingly frustrated with myself for being so--well--shallow, immature, you name it. What was worse, I was actually getting disappointed when my daydreams didn't turn to realities. Can you imagine? Ok, my point (I do have one this time, I promise)...God had to knock some sense back into me. My frustration grew to a breaking point and I finally realized (in prayer nonetheless) that I had been putting my trust and my hope in man and not in Him. So of course I was frustrated, of course I was disappointed...but in God one is never disappointed. "God is not a man, that He should lie..." (Numbers 23:19). I wasn't trusting in God's plan for my future but devising my own future and when my plans didn't come to fruition, I was frustrated, HA!
Sidenote: I can just imagine how God must feel. God has a plan for our lives and knows all that is in store for us but instead of going A-B-C we, in our stubbornness, have to swing by Q, Z, and K first. I have a feeling that God's watching us thinking, "You know, this can be a whole lot easier than you are making it out to be."
Back on track...I had to surrender that which I was holding on to. The one thing that I really wanted to happen (and still wouldn't mind) I had to give over to God and say "You know what is best for my life, not me. If this be Your will, wonderful. If not, then I trust You to have a perfect plan for me and that You have something else in store." When we trust in God, we should trust in God completely. He doesn't need our advice, He doesn't need us backseat-driving. He knows what He is doing, go figure.
Well, after rambling so long, I'd like to congratulate anyone who was actually able to make it through the whole of my thinking. Extra kudos to anybody who understood it at all.
Thou wilt make known to me the path of life;
In Thy presence is fullness of joy;
In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.
--Psalm 16:11
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Ah...to fledge
Like any squab (look it up), I've been having my fair share of difficulties. I think I'm getting the hang of sifting through code to alter my template. It took me a bit to find a comments section that worked, and I have no links. Other than that, I am thoroughly proud of myself. The thing I couldn't figure out was that--on my first post--certain grammatical markings would not work. Instead of apostrophes, quotation marks, and ellipses, I got a series of symbols in their place. Confusing to say the least. That, however, seems to have sorted itself out. I am most pleased. I promise I'll start posting things of actual substance...eventually.
Disclaimer
For those that have high hopes for this site, allow me to relieve you of such expectations. I have no aspirations to fame, no desire for recognition. I do not claim to have any spectacular insight on the world as it is, or as it should be. I will boast no wisdom on international affairs, religion, politics, or (for that matter) life in general. I promise only honesty and sincerity.
To be completely honest, I am not exactly sure why I am doing this in the first place. I suppose it is partially because, being a science major, I have very little opportunity to write for the sake of writing and I miss being able to ramble for pages and to be biased and subjective. I have thought about starting up for a while, but why I have chosen now is beyond me. Perhaps I have gone completely daft and just decided that, with such a crazy semester ahead, I needed to add one more thing to my plate. Maybe it is not that at all and I am just posting out of spite as certain individuals among my acquaintance did not think me to have the (how did they term it?) guts. I find it incredibly hard to resist a challenge.
I suppose an introduction is in order so that you may know who this is rambling on (and on, and on, and on). I am a Hokie. This is my first year at Virginia Tech, majoring in Wildlife Science. This is, however, my second year of college as I transferred from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. Depending on who you ask, though, I may or may not be a sophomore. I certainly have sophomoric tendencies and this is only my second year, but credit-wise I am a junior. By the end of this semester I will be listed as a senior. Let me just say, thank God for IB and AP credits.
Which brings me to beliefs, I am a Christian, and a conservative one at that. I was raised going to Nazarene churches and now (when I am home) attend Calvary Chapel. Here at Tech, I am involved in the Navigators and I attend New Life Campus Fellowship [nlcf].
As for other background, my father served in the ARMY for 23 years. He enlisted before I was born and did not retire until after I graduated high school. In other words, I have done my 20 in the military and do not plan on going back in anytime soon. My brother, on the other hand, left for boot camp the day he graduated and is now piloting helicopters.
I have lived all over these fair United States (although I have never gotten to live overseas, unless you count Alaska). My mother is a teacher. She has only been teaching a couple of years as she went back to college as a non-traditional student and graduated with her B.A. in Biology in 2000.
So, there you go. Long post, I suppose, but it is good to get things established so that we have a starting point. I tend to be random, but I like to have a foundation for my randomness. As my friend aptly pointed out, I need an anchor.
To be completely honest, I am not exactly sure why I am doing this in the first place. I suppose it is partially because, being a science major, I have very little opportunity to write for the sake of writing and I miss being able to ramble for pages and to be biased and subjective. I have thought about starting up for a while, but why I have chosen now is beyond me. Perhaps I have gone completely daft and just decided that, with such a crazy semester ahead, I needed to add one more thing to my plate. Maybe it is not that at all and I am just posting out of spite as certain individuals among my acquaintance did not think me to have the (how did they term it?) guts. I find it incredibly hard to resist a challenge.
I suppose an introduction is in order so that you may know who this is rambling on (and on, and on, and on). I am a Hokie. This is my first year at Virginia Tech, majoring in Wildlife Science. This is, however, my second year of college as I transferred from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. Depending on who you ask, though, I may or may not be a sophomore. I certainly have sophomoric tendencies and this is only my second year, but credit-wise I am a junior. By the end of this semester I will be listed as a senior. Let me just say, thank God for IB and AP credits.
Which brings me to beliefs, I am a Christian, and a conservative one at that. I was raised going to Nazarene churches and now (when I am home) attend Calvary Chapel. Here at Tech, I am involved in the Navigators and I attend New Life Campus Fellowship [nlcf].
As for other background, my father served in the ARMY for 23 years. He enlisted before I was born and did not retire until after I graduated high school. In other words, I have done my 20 in the military and do not plan on going back in anytime soon. My brother, on the other hand, left for boot camp the day he graduated and is now piloting helicopters.
I have lived all over these fair United States (although I have never gotten to live overseas, unless you count Alaska). My mother is a teacher. She has only been teaching a couple of years as she went back to college as a non-traditional student and graduated with her B.A. in Biology in 2000.
So, there you go. Long post, I suppose, but it is good to get things established so that we have a starting point. I tend to be random, but I like to have a foundation for my randomness. As my friend aptly pointed out, I need an anchor.
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