Wednesday, long days, oh Wednesday.
I woke up this morning and got ready for class. My backpack probably weighs about as much as I typically squat in the weight room. Yeah, I'm carrying my whole room around with me today, because I knew I wouldn't be back to my room until after 10.
Physics started off the day, as per usual. I got some of that homework done during class, so that was nice.
Chapel came next, and Holtorf was giving the message. He is always really honest and funny in his messages, so they are always something to look forward to.
After chapel, I sat in Janzow top working on my circles of context for my exegetical, and just basically trying to gather motivation in my brain to kick it into high gear over the next three days with this paper. I think it will be a productive three days for me, but we will see.
After the homework session came Faith and Life. Between this class and my lunch hour of reading my Psalm and trying to gather meaning from it, I think everything just all of a sudden clicked. So here we go, if you wish to hear the inner workings of my brain at this point, it's all about to come at you like word vomit.
In Faith and Life, we were discussing the Gospel of Mark. Through this, we were talking about Jesus and the people he surrounded himself with. These weren't people had it all together, who had their whole life figured out, who followed every law to the letter (a.k.a. the Pharisees, or at least they thought of themselves in this way). He came for the people who needed him, who had sunk and hit rock bottom, who just didn't know what their life had come to and needed to be redirected. We looked at his apostles, we looked at other people he surrounded himself with, etc. We also talked about the fact that Jesus healed two blind men in the Gospel of Mark. In one of these healings, the blind man stood up in Jesus' presence and threw his cloak and jumped to his feet. Now, at first this may seem to be a minor detail, but it is absolutely one of the most major details of the whole story. This man was blind, and he threw his cloak to the ground. He had the utmost confidence in the fact that he was about to be healed, that he knew he would be able to find his cloak again. What an incredible story of faith.
Later in class, we somehow led into the thought of reputation, and that led to something about what it would be like to be in jail, and that led to loneliness. Reek then went on to talk about how God is always here with us. In every moment, at all times. And yes, we all knew that, but have you ever really, truly thought about that? Yeah, it's definitely mind blowing. We talked about how God the Father's presence is noted in all areas of the Bible, and it's always in the form of the cloud, and loud booming voice coming from the cloud. It was a cloud that lead the Israelites wandering through the desert, it was a cloud that appeared at the Transfiguration, etc. This brings a whole new meaning and importance to clouds for me. I knew this before, but now it's just so much more meaningful.
Then, Reek talked about when his Dad died, and how when he went into say bye to his dad, just him and the casket with his father, he could just feel the presence of God. Then he talked about how his mom emailed his sister the other day, saying that she woke up in the middle of the night and looked over to see her husband wasn't there, panicked for a little while, then remembered he was gone. He talked about how his parents were married for 65 years and he could only count on one hand the number of nights they spent apart. I'm not sure where he was going with this story but tears were definitely silently rolling down my face at this point. This is a moment where a lot of things clicked in my mind.
And here's why. Generally, I would say that I am a pretty sympathetic person. I like to be able to console, understand what people are going through, etc. But I have been very apathetic to situations in the past regarding people's relationships with others, and how much they miss someone. Especially when it comes to my brother. Now, my mom warned me that one day I would understand how he was feeling in those moments, but I told her there was no way I would ever be like that. I was too independent, I was too this, I was too that. Then today, sitting in Reek's class, listening to him talk about the presence of God, of a blind man's unquestioning faith, of his parent's being married for 65 years and spending less than 5 nights apart from one another their whole marriage, and I was just overwhelmed with this feeling of understanding. So here's to you, bro. I have finally reached the point where I understand all of what you have been trying to explain to me.
Now, over lunch, I was working on my exegetical, just trying to put myself in David's shoes, and that just clicked too! At first, I thought this Psalm 27 was supposed to be words directly impacting my life, God instructing me about a situation in my life, etc. Yes, you could say that still applies, but it's not as important as my latest realization. Working with this Psalm has helped me to be able to understand what others are going through, how I can help them out. Afterall, when I think about my life, God has thrown a lot of things at me that I originally thought were supposed to be for me, but then turn out to be of greater impact for helping and supporting others. So thanks, God. I am so blessed to have this role in people's lives. Continue to give me things that will help me help others. After all, if we aren't shining the light of Christ, what are we doing with our lives?
Interp class was great. We talked about shifts in our Psalms and where we see those occurring in the the Psalm. So here's the short explanation of mine. In the beginning of my Psalm, David is asking questions. Whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid? Then David goes on to talk about all of the circumstances in which God will be there for David, in which he will support him. David then switches to asking/making requests of God, "Hear my voice" "Do not hide your face" "Do not forsake me or reject me" Then comes the switch. David has asked his questions, he has given the situations in which God will help him, he had then asked again, it's almost as if he is trying to reassure himself. Then bam. Verse 13-14, David says, "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, take heard and wait for the Lord." All of the questions in David's mind disappear. And he is filled with confidence and patience for the timing and power of the Lord. Pretty amazing stuff.
Science of Everyday things was great, but let's be real here, I was still on a God high from the middle two classes of my day.
I went to the library after class and worked on homework and papers with Taylor, which eventually lead to a heart to heart with her. I love Taylor ♥ I am thankful to her for her patience, understanding, and just being a wonderful roommate and friend.
Our leadership meeting was good today. We talked about what it looks like on the field when we are all frustrated, and nobody could come up with one for me. So then, Whitie said it was her goal after break to figure out what it looks like for me to be frustrated. You know what I say to that? Challenge accepted. Don't get me wrong, I know I get frustrated. But it is very internal. So this shall be interesting haha.
Corn dogs and mac and cheese for dinner, yum!
Meteorology was good tonight, and we got out early! And I understood everything we were talking about! And it was just fantastic.
Praise was amazing too! Louisa spoke, and let me tell you. She did wonderful. Man, she rocked it. I love my roomie :)
We got the late night munchies back in our room, and Audrey painted my nails because I haven't bitten them in a week! Winning right there :) Audrey, man. You don't find a classier, more awesome, hilarious person than Audrey.
My life is filled with some pretty incredible blessings. No, my life is a blessing.
Ben, you're great! Can't wait til Sunday :)
You, yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. 2 Corinthian 3:2
#lighthouseforChrist
No comments:
Post a Comment