Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
-Psalm 43:5
Author: James Hogan
Oh boy, tomorrow is my math stats 2 exam…am I ready yet? Nope! So until I fall asleep tonight, I’ll be going over practice problems inside and out. Sounds fun, eh? But enough of that…
Today has been an awesome day, if I disregard everything statistics-related! And why is it so awesome today? Because it’s Dream’s 21st birthday!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DREAM!!!
It’s been such a joy having you as my friend for the past seven years…I can’t believe the time’s gone by so fast!! May God continue to bless our friendship in the years to come…hope you’ve had a marvelous birthday!!
And sorry Dream, but now…I must do statistics.
Hope everyone’s having a great night!
Whoa, I’m tired…just got back from my last class. But most of this morning, was chatting it up with the recruiters at Career Showcase. I got to say, it was pretty fun being there and talking with them, but now I’m just worn out! Having to wear a tie for about seven hours probably didn’t help, either! I don’t have any definite prospects, but I did have some pretty good talks with few recruiters, so we’ll see if I get offered anything…
Also had some sweet Arredondo today(spaghetti, meatballs and breadsticks, woo!) with Rob and Laura, which was a nice break after career fair. I have a couple more info sessions tonight and I need to apply to a few places online by tonight if I want interviews. Oh, and I have an online management exam to complete sometime today! So my day’s not over yet…
Hope everyone’s having an outstanding day!!
Such a beautiful morning! Went to my class this morning before eight – nice and chilly…just the way I like it! I much enjoyed walking back from my class in the early morning sunshine, looking up at the perfect blue sky and just marveling how great God is to bless us with life. How great thou art!
Alas, I can’t spend all my time enjoying life as this week is going to be very crazy, with career fair going on this Wednesday. I also have multiple info sessions to attend(three tonight!), so this week is pretty important for me as I try to obtain an internship for this summer. And of course, I also have school, which is heating up rather nicely about now…
So, should I do some homework now or take a quick nap(since I had minimal sleep last night)? Hmm…decisions, decisions.
Hope everyone is having an awesome day!!
The last couple of days have just been awesome.
I almost don’t want to talk about it, but I guess I can’t just leave you guys hanging! Pretty much today was Creekside day, which was incredible. Went to church and had a great time there, listening to PR talk about worship, which was very encouraging and convicting. Afterwards, had a fun time chillin’ with people(literally – it was in the 30’s this morning!). Got some work done this afternoon then went and grabbed dinner with John while we planned out our Bible study for the semester(it’s going to be over the crazy life of David. I can’t wait). After that we had prayer and praise, which as always, was marvelous. Singing to God, praising God, praying to God…in a fellowship of my closest friends. Nothing better. And after that, it was time. Time for some awesome night games!
Of course it was still freezing outside, but I was well protected with my multiple layers of clothing. We played a couple of games of Capture the Flag(my team lost BOTH, with me diving into the pavement barely missing Ryan as he escaped with our flag. Ah well). After that we played multiple games of Manhunt before we decided it was hot chocolate time…
As we warmed up inside, we sang even more…I’m so grateful God has given me times like this where I could worship Him with my heart and soul, as my friends sing beside me…we sang some of my favorite songs, like God of Wonders, Amazing Grace, and Come Thou Fount. I am so incredibly blessed.
And after that, I don’t know how I can top it with the events of the previous days, but I will say that on Saturday we hung out with the Lebos for most of the day(played LotR Risk as it stormed outside, woo!!). And on Friday I got to hang with Chris and see a few episodes from season 3 of Lost – Season 4 is almost here! And also on Friday got to go to Amy’s rocking birthday dinner/party, which was sweeeet. Good times eating, talking with friends, eating more, playing games…just hanging out with people who are awesome.
And because it is getting late, I will end this now…and the pizza Rob put in the oven is almost done, so time for…a very late dinner.
Good night and God bless!
Wow, it is not a nice day today. It’s cold, and I like the cold. But it’s also raining. Not a good combination. I had to get up to go to my 8:05 class today, and it was just miserable outside…thankfully I got some coffee, which tasted so good after being outside. Mmm, coffee….
I just realized that this is my first post of this semester! I don’t know why I haven’t posted more, since I haven’t had much homework…but now that I think about it, I’ve still been busy or out somewhere most nights.
I guess I should probably list my classes, so that you all have an idea of what I’m taking. Quality control(which is probably my favorite class right now, even if it is my 8:05 class – I love it because we’re starting class at 8:05 instead of 8:30, but we have no Friday class. Which means I have Fridays off. Which is awesome). Work design(with the same teacher as quality…seems like an ok class so far. We’re going to have a group project though, which I’m not looking forward to). Materials(which seems not to be too bad, but I’m not sure how interesting it will be). Then I have Stats2, which is going to be hard, most likely, seeing as I couldn’t pull an A in Stats1. That’s probably the class I’m dreading the most. My last class is my online Management class, my business class of the semester. Shouldn’t be that bad. So there you have it…the semester doesn’t seem that bad now, but I know it’s only a matter of time before everything starts going crazy.
And just because I haven’t posted a poem in a while, I thought I’d post an old one that I found in my Quality spiral(well, my Facilities one from last semester that I’m recycling). I’m working on another one now, but that one isn’t quite fit to be posted yet…this one is only one stanza(actually, there was more to it but the rest was not that great…), but I liked it when I reread it this morning, so thought I’d post it here. Anyways, written on September 7th, 2007:
Asymmetry is king of my heart, I say
Give me no logic, give me no rules
Give me an open sky and field to dance on
And I will give you my heart, my song.
Ok, maybe not the most technically awesome poem, but I like it, so there.
And now I’m going to get ready for the Arredondo…yep, we’ve moved our lunch-time to Wednesdays after three semesters of Tuesdays! Food’s still as good as ever and I’m sort of hungry since I haven’t had breakfast. Hope everyone’s having an awesome day!!
Last night in Tampa! It’s rather bitter sweet, really. While I’m definitely looking forward to going back to Gainesville to see everyone, I’m gonna miss my family and the comforts of home…this morning got to enjoy a great breakfast with the fam. Homemade pancakes with cherries and blueberries, with nice, crispy bacon on the side of course. After I went to work for seven and a half hours, came back and just enjoyed being with my sisters and parents one more time for a while…we watched Numb3rs together, I talked with my sisters…and just relaxed. Such a great break it has been! No school and no crazy stress. Little stresses, sure, but no crazy all-nighters or big projects. By the grace of God, I’ve made it through another semester, and He was kind enough to reward me with a sweet break! And now I feel rejuvenated and ready for the new year! Which it is now, I just realized. I’ve been meaning to do a year-review post for 2007…hmm, we’ll see if that happens. Hope you all are doing well! I’ve got to get some sleep now, for tomorrow, I return! To Gainesville!
I realize that I haven’t written here in so long! Well, disregarding my last(Christmas) entry, of course. I haven’t written since I’ve been back in Tampa – it’s been awesome. But because I don’t have a lot of time, I won’t go into all the cool things I’ve been doing lately(like hanging with the fam and the sweet time I had with Rob and his family in Plant City this past weekend). I basically just wanted to state how good it is to be able to relax and enjoy the goodness of the Lord! Right now I’m just listening to some of my favorite classical music and unwinding after a great day with the family – that’s one of my favorite things about Christmas, not having anything we HAVE to do, but enjoying the time we do have together. Opening gifts, playing various games together(like Monopoly), eating good food(cinnamon rolls and bacon for breakfast and steak and shrimp and salad for dinner!), watching a movie together(Independence Day, woo!), and just relaxing on my bed reading a good book(Asimov’s Prelude to Foundation received from Maryanne) while my sisters come in every five minutes to talk about something or other…indeed, God is good.
Hope everyone else has had an awesome Christmas day!!! May the grace of the Lord be upon you!
Merry Christmas!
But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel. And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. This One will be our peace. – Micah 5:2-5
LOVE
Well, I almost got stuck reading all my old entries here, but then I remembered I did actually want to write something here! And maybe I won’t actually post this, so I could just write nonsense and delete it and no one would know how crazy I am. Um…wait, everyone already knows.
ANYWAY, I’ve been thinking lately(yes, it’s not as much a rarity as some of you may think) about lots of things and you’re all waiting to hear WHY in particular I wanted to talk about love. Ok, maybe you’re not all wondering that, but if you read my last entry(posted mere minutes ago!), you’ll know that I promised to talk about love sometime in the near future. Hmm, what could James possibly say about love? Well, it’s not as scandalous as you may think. And for some reason, I’m feeling really awake right now, so I may actually get through this after all! And I’m just typing my thoughts here, direct from the brain to the keyboard, so pardon any weirdness.
But yeah, love. What do I mean by this? And why again do I want to talk about it? Well, I think it’s partly due to my attending RUF a few times this semester and hearing some of the messages there(the series was entitled “Sex, Dating, and the Bible”). Anyway, got me thinking about marriage and what that crazy business entails. And no, I’m not thinking about marrying anyone anytime soon, no worries! But love in marriage is something really interesting, mostly because it’s so different from what most people in the world think it is. Most people hear the world “love” and think about that magic moment, that spark between two people, those special times alone, that feeling that will last forever because “we’re meant for each other”. And quite honestly, I do not like hearing any of that. I do think that there’s going to be one person I’m going to marry and that we will have just what God intended for us and that it’s going to be awesome. But I also know that neither of us are perfect. We’ll both be flawed human beings living solely by the grace of God. And that’s just fine.
Where we go wrong is when we expect marriage to be some magical institution that will make our lives so much better and that will fill a hole in our hearts. You know what, there’s Someone that can fill that hole so much better than anyone else…and that’s Jesus Christ. I don’t want to say marriage is bad, because obviously, I want to get married someday and it’s going to be sweeet. But it’s also going to be difficult. We’re going to have times where we don’t like each other and times when we really don’t want to be with that other person. And you know those feelings and butterflies you get when you see your special someone? Well, those won’t last forever. But by God’s grace, those two people will persevere in their covenant before God. And that’s what is so awesome about marriage – two people committing to live their lives as one, joining their disparate lives by a promise to love each other forever, by the grace of God.
So what is love? Well I think I’ve basically answered that question, but love isn’t some feeling or emotion…it’s ACTION. Love is how you treat your husband or wife when you’re tired and don’t want to talk with them or don’t want to hear about their problem…yet you do. Love is when you two are arguing and are so mad at each other…yet pray before God for grace to work out the problem and put aside your selfish pride and desires. Love is when you just KNOW(because you’re obviously always right) your way is the right way, yet humbly put her before yourself because the issue really isn’t that important.
Love is not some emotional outpouring of affirmation for the other, but showing her your commitment to serving God by putting her before yourself. Love is wanting to live your lives together for God, no matter what the price. Love is knowing that you in yourself have no power and humbling yourself before God to ask for his grace and power to love your husband or wife. This is what love is.
It felt good to share all that…I’d appreciate any comments and now I think I shall get some sleep…I am feeling rather tired now!
Something Weird 