Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Just thought I'd share.

So I've been doing some "spring semester" cleaning and ran across some things I had written long ago and just about forgot I had. This one I wrote in high school:

I'm so tired of waiting
Waiting to hear Your word
Waiting to feel Your pow'r
Waiting to see you move

Where's Your perfect timing?
Wouldn't now be good?
Clearly life's not following my plan.

Still I'm clinging to all Your promises
'Cause I've read all about the hope You give
Lord, remind me of Your faithfulness
Let Your grace be enough.
Not by my will, Lord
So let Thy will be done.

Where is all this going?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me do?
Who would You have me know?

Still, I stand in waiting.
Here I am, send me.
Lord, I long to follow where you lead.

So I'm clinging to all Your promises
'Cause I know all about the hope You give.
Keep reminding me of You faithfulness
And Your grace is more than enough.
Not by my will, Lord.
So let Thy will be done.


In case you couldn't tell, those are supposed to be song lyrics. I never thought the tune itself was very good, but that is another story.

The point, I think, is that I still get impatient about the future. It's not that I want to see the whole map (control-freak that I am), but sometimes knowing where the next turn is would be grand. I guess that is what trusting God, having faith is all about. All I know is the final destination and it's all up to God when I get there and what roads I take on the way. Forget being a co-pilot, I'm sitting in the back more or less along for the ride. Shoot, crank the music and let's stop off at some of those green pastures every now and again and I'm good to go.

Right, that metaphor is far from perfect. I know it doesn't really address work done along the way, like offering pedestrians a ride and such. But it says what I want it to say. And - gosh darn it - it's my metaphor and I'll leave it incomplete if I want to.

Where was I? Oh yeah, God's perfect planning. I was singing a song the other night (Abba Father by Shaun Groves) and part of it is:

In my weakness, You protect me.
When my heart strays, You correct me.



and I was reminded of how much God has protected/corrected me and how often I don't really see all that He has done/is doing until I see it in retrospect.

[I was going to insert here, as an example, a long story about this guy I knew in high school and how God kept me from what would have been a messy and impossible relationship, but I felt cheesy and annoying when I was writing it (not that it has really stopped me before) so I decided to spare you. You don't know how grateful you should be. Really. I mean, chocolates and thank-you bouquets might be in order...]

What is winter with no snow?

Yep, it snowed here in Blacksburg today. And actually stuck a little bit. That means today was a good day.

And to start the semester off properly, a run-down of my course-load:
Genetics: Not much to say on this one. Except my teacher is Turkish.
Habitat Ecology: A study of habitat classifications. Most likely going to be my best class this semester.
Statistics: No comment.
Population Dynamics and Estimation: All math. It should be interesting though.
Habitat Evaluation: One big group project. All semester long.
Wildlife Field Techniques: This class meets 4 times this semester. And then I have a 10 day field work in August.

It's going to be quite the semester.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Back in the 'Burg

Contrary to popular belief, I have not disappeared from the face of the earth. I'm back at school (have been for 30 hours perhaps) and will resume normal posting schedules shortly.