Give me liberty or give me debt!

Today I wrote the biggest check of my life AND paid a huge credit card bill online. Together they totalled just under $2000! But the best thing about today was that the check I wrote is the last payment for my car. I bought it in August 2003, so I'm glad to finally finish paying back my Grandma. She was gracious enough to let me borrow a bunch of money so that I could pay the seller of the car in full.

It's an interesting feeling to be free of that burden. It's also the first substantial possession that is mine. Well, scratch that. I guess my laptop was, but I didn't feel the same way I do now. It's just one more thing that has come about recently to make me see how quickly I'm "growing up." In just a little over nine months I'll be graduating (Lord-willing) and searching for a job, moving out, having to shop for myself (this is easily the most scary thing!), etc. However, it's a new thing to think that I have no idea what I will be doing next summer. I would love to be able to travel (i.e. United Kingdom/Ireland or Europe or even Israel), so I will hopefully be investigating those possibilities later in this semester and for sure in the spring.

Right now I'm in the Student Center watching the A's vs. the Angels. I wouldn't have been able to do this usually, because I have a Wednesday night class (Introduction to Mass Communication). Tonight I showed up for the first class a minute late and people were already walking out! My professor apparently had surgery today so all we had to do was pick up our syllabus and leave. I'm looking forward to the class, though!

While watching the game, I'm filling out my day planner. Yes, you read right, I have a day planner! My mom gave me one for the year, but today I received a nicer, daily planner from my RD Siona. So I'm transferring from my old planner to the new planner. It's taken me three years, but I'm finally feeling organized in my room and with my classes. I always used the excuse that I "just wasn't built organized" before, but I've come to see that I was just lazy and trying to get by on being smart. Yeah, dumb way to work. I think I equated being organized with being a neat freak. It's not the same and being organized probably would have helped my GPA.

OK, I know this is a random blog, so I'll sign off.

Books

Here's an update on what books I'm reading right now!

Fool's Gold by the Pastoral Staff of Grace Community Church - This book's subtitle is Discerning Truth in an Age of Error. It is a call for renewed discernment in the Body of Christ and has four parts. The first and last parts are general overviews on discernment, doctrinal "hills to die on," and more general issues.

Part Two is Practicing Discernment in Your Local Bookstore. The chapters in this section deal with the following books: The Purpose-Driven Life, What Saint Paul Really Said, Wild at Heart, and The Revolve New Testament. The criticisms are tempered with the good things these books all have to offer, but at the root of these four books is the failure to completely look to and follow the Bible as a framework for life.

Part Three addresses contemporary worship music, invitations and altar calls, an American-Christian Approach to Politics, and combating consumerism in the church.

I am currently on the chapter about contemporary worship music and am enjoying it and the rest of the book immensely. I particularly enjoyed reading the book reviews, even though I have read none of the four presented. It has opened my eyes to the vast arena of American Christianity and its many, many claims.

Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn - This is political/military thriller. Flynn is a very clean writer, which is what I respect most about his writing. This is the second book of his I've read. I'm on page 167 and the White House has been wrested out of the Secret Service's hands by Muslim extremists. Yeah, it's that kind of book. It's pretty good, but nothing terribly mind-stretching.

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn - The subtitle here is Discovering the Secret of Joyful Giving. This book was recommended to me by someone. . . I just don't remember who. In fact, it may have been online where I first heard of it. Anyway, it's part of the LIFECHANGE BOOKS series. I read Alcorn's Deadline several years ago and liked it mostly for its depth and not for any amazing writing abilities that he has. I've read the first two chapters and I really like his style of relating stories and principles from his life and God's Word to my understanding of giving. Even though I'm only on page 34, I would already highly recommend this book to anyone interested (and I sincerely hope you are) in their philosophy of giving to God's work in the local church.

Comments desired, but not demanded. . . thanks for reading.

The night before

It's almost midnight and I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed as the school year starts tomorrow. I've got a lot on my plate, but I think that's good because I will only make it by leaning solely and dependently on the God of my salvation. What a great God we have that gives us so much and constantly reminds us of his love for us! Why do we so often forget he even exists and act like we can do things in our own strength? Oh Lord, help me to live for you this school year!

Few thoughts

OK, I've made two new additions to the links on the right sidebar of this humble blog. The first is David "Gunner" Gundersen's Meditations. Gunner is the Resident Director of Oak Manor (the off-campus dorm for TMC) and an awesome guy. He is an incredible athlete and an intense follower of Jesus Christ. His every thought seems to be tinged by God's Word. Currently, he's at The Master's Seminary.

The other blog is Foolish Blog, run by the Zellers and also contributed to by Gunner as of this past week. They have lots of different kinds of articles, opinions, and links to make for a more thorough blog. Very interesting and one I check a few times every day.

This morning was the first time in a LONG time that I was able to sleep in past 6ish. I got up at 10! However, I didn't hit the hay till some time after 2 a.m., because all the guy RAs and ARAs had to stay after the campus concert we had last night to help tear down the massive endeavor. We started at 10:3o and left just before 2. I was tired, sore, and struggling with a bad attitude about having to stay to tear down, but it ended up being a fun time with a bunch of fellow brothers in Christ.

Well, time to go prepare for this season's fantasy football draft. Last year I was horrible, mostly because it was so hard to keep up while I was in Israel. I'm going to try to update more regularly now that WOW week is over and classes start on Monday.

My life as a college senior

Exhaustion has set in. Any free time is best used napping. My mind has had no semblance of alertness in days. Ahh. . . WOW Week! That's right. As I type, there are three more precious days of late nights, early mornings, and worst of all, no free time!

Life as an RA so far has been anything but glamorous. Fortunately, I had observed enough RAs to know what to expect, and it has been exactly what I expected. Coincidentally, I've never felt like a mature (debatable, I know), upper-classman before this week. It's just that most of the freshmen (especially the guys on my wing) seem so incredibly young! Being an RA and once again being entrusted with six new students in my WOW group has brought home the fact that this is my last year in college. Kind of a scary prospect.

Not that I'm scared of the future, because I'm not. With my God, there is nothing to fear. However, sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming to think that in nine months I will (Lord-willing) walk across a stage, receive my dipoma, shake Dr. MacArthur's hand, and be a college graduate. I wonder how many people in America, let alone the world, have that opportunity. What percentage actually graduate from a four-year college? What percentage do it in four years? How often do I take my comfortable, safe, fun life for granted?

On that note, it's time for King Josta's Shindig. In WOW terms. . . dinner.

RA Retreat

OK, so it's not really a retreat, since almost all of our RA training took place on campus. But just to keep a continuity, I'll stick with the official title. All the RAs moved in on Sunday evening, and each dorm met as a dorm team, meaning the 3 or 4 RAs with their RD.

Monday and Tuesday consisted of seminars, devotionals, and training mostly all day. The Hotchkiss (my dorm) RAs are Kyle Jenison, Brian Baughman, Tyler Flower, and I. Our RD is Siona Savini. We have worked on many administrative rules and regulations; housing; and started to organize our schedules for the semester.

On Wednesday, we took a break, drove an hour away to a Christian camp called THE OAKS. There, we played team-building games, and some took the LEAP OF FAITH, while others went on a zip-line. It was pretty fun, but I thought that the leap was overhyped and somewhat of a letdown.

Thursday was our last day of normal sessions and Friday was the dreaded last day on which we were thrust into 8-minute scenarios! It was a lot of fun and presented 9 different sins/tendencies/awkward situations that could occur on a wing. It is designed to prepare an RA for counseling in the dorms in the coming year.

After scenarios and lunch, we all got to go to Hurricane Harbor, the Six Flags water park right next to Six Flags Magic Mountain. We ended up only being there for a little over 3 hours, but I went on two rides and enjoyed the sun and hanging out with other RAs. I've been able to meet some guys and girls that I didn't know and it has been a fun and challenging week. Oh yeah, and I'm still tired.

On Sunday and Monday, the other SLS (Student Leadership Staff) students move into the dorms and on Monday afternoon we leave for the scorching hot sands of Palm Desert for SLS retreat. I think we come back on Thursday night, but I'm not sure.

Well, that's all on this end for now. Raiders vs. 49ers tonight!!

Leaving 

The Guys 

Brian and I 

Man and Wife 

The bridesmaids. Leslie is the redhead on the end 

Nick Foy, future CEO 

Travis and Kent skeet-shooting 

Me and the soon-to-be-married man 

Busy Week Back

My computer is finally internet-enabled, so I thought I'd leave a little update and stretch it out as long as possible. Oooh. . . and with pictures!

OK, so last weekend we trekked a journey (that sounds kind of fun. . . "trekked a journey") up to northern reaches of the greatest state in the Union (no, not Texas) to the incredibly scorching hot city of Redding (hmm. . . pun-worthy? Nah!) for my friend Nate Gunter's wedding to Abby Nall (of course, now she's Mrs. Gunter).

There ended up being 7 of us staying at our friend Kent Roberts' house. As my buddy Brian Baughman noted later on: "The place was straight out of a country music song." Seriously, there were shotguns out, a yellow lab, 40 acres of land, a sizable front porch, etc. We stayed there Friday and Saturday night and most of Saturday was spent skeet-shooting, napping, reading, chillin', etc.

Firing a shotgun was definitely a testosterone-assuring experience. Even though I did not actually hit any clay pigeons (much to my shame and eternal disgrace), it was fun to feel the bruises on my shoulder from the kick of the shotgun.

The wedding was held at 6 p.m. and the weather was still hovering at approximately 95 degrees. Yeah, so I was sweating profusely. I mean, my armpits were a much darker blue than the rest of my snazzy shirt. And I had to repeatedly take off my sunglasses and wipe the sweat out of my bushy eyebrows.

Surprise! Leslie Spoon, who went to Israel with me, was in the wedding!! I was totally surprised and completely forgot that she had gone to school with Kent and Abby. So that was fun to see my Hezekiah's Tunnel Buddy.

We've done a lot in RA Retreat so far, but I'll wait till tomorrow or Saturday to update about that.

Back to school

Yup, this is Amy posting for Happy because he has no internet. He's back at school as of yesterday for RA retreat, SLS retreat, and WOW week before starting the crazy semester. Today he's been in seminars all day. I haven't gotten to talk to him much, which is weird, but I know the Lord is preparing him for an intense time as RA. Pray for him with all this RA stuff! Probably the people who read this already are praying for him :-) Oh yeah, he doesn't have a phone yet, but I told him to use mine. Unfortunately he was having some trouble finding it in my office. Hopefully it turns up somewhere so we can all leave him silly messages to listen to once he gets back to his room after his long days. Well, that's about all I know right now. God bless!

Soo. . . umm. . . I'm 21

I wrote the very longest post ever about 10 minutes ago, but it got deleted!!! I'm too tired, have too much to do and don't want to expend the energy to write an equally long post. Man, it was probably the best post I've written, too.

Oh well, enough hemming and hawing. Here's the short version: I got lots of good presents and had a great 21st birthday. Glad to know I can legally purchase and consume alcohol. Actually, I plan on never ever even taking a sip of alcohol in my life.

Went to Barnes & Noble today. Bought a C. S. Lewis book and a Ted Dekker book. Bought The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack. Didn't do much else at home except make a mess and have dad tie my tie for the wedding I'm going to on Saturday. Travis, Nick and I are leaving tomorrow afternoon for Redding, CA. We're coming back Sunday morning.

Tomorrow morning is my very last day of work for SCBC/SCCS. I've learned a lot. It's been good. I'll miss it, but having my Saturdays free is AWESOME!!

Umm. . . go A's, go Raiders, go Lakers!

Sorry for the shortened version, but alas, what can a man do when his own technology turns against him. Oh well, adios all!

p.s. Oh, this is the 100th post!! Leave lots of comments. . . PLEASE!!!