Wow, it's almost been a month since I have last posted on here. I guess that's because I've been a bit busier for some reason lately, perhaps. Anyway, I had an interesting idea the other day. I wonder what would happen if one were to lease/rent out the use of a part of his or her body? I guess this could be viewed as a means of prostitution. But think about it: I wonder if anyone would actually rent out, let's say, one of my pinkie fingers. It's an interesting thought if nothing else, I guess.

So, I'm going to Guatemala here in about 17 days. I'm pretty excited about the trip. I am going with a team of 25 other students from SBU to work at an orphanage for about 3 weeks. We will be doing physical projects around the campus as well as playing with the kids who live there. It will be a great opportunity to love on these kids who do not have parents around to show them the love that they deserve. I am very excited about being able to be around these kids and hopefully they will see Christ through mine and my teammates' love and actions.

Christmas break is almost here. This is awesome. I cannot wait to just be done with the semester and have a couple weeks in which I can just chill. And by chill, I mean work and then go on this mission trip. Oh well, rest comes in many different ways and to each his own.

That's all for now. Peace.

Almost here

So, Thanksgiving break is almost upon us. I cannot wait. I kinda just want to fast forward to Friday because then my fatty exegetical paper will be finished and behind me, and I know that the rest of my class joins me with that desire. I have really enjoyed working on the paper, even though it has basically consumed my life for the last couple weeks, but there is something to be said about spending that amount of time in one specific passage.

I just took a part of my first Thanksgiving dinner of the season the other night. It was glorious and really reemphasized why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. When else does one get to gorge himself, nap, and watch football all day? Exactly.

Body of Worship

How wonderful it is to hear a body of believers comprising one voice of praise through worshiping God. I'm falling on my knees. How we are blessed to simply have the ability to worship Him through song and life. So many people are lifting up their lives, offering everything they have to Him. There is no other way to describe it other than by calling it beautiful. It's a beautiful experience. What would it look like if our communion with God looked like how our worship sounds? It would be a beautiful place to live in a continued state of worship with our Creator. And maybe, heaven would be more readily experienced on earth.

hmm

Well, it's been awhile since I have posted anything on here. I am kinda writing this one because I feel that my blog needs to be updated. There are alot of things that I want to write about here soon, but i'm not really ready to do so. Mainly because I am sitting in my lame astronomy class and not in a mood to really think.

Speaking of astronomy again, we recently had a test and the average grade was a 58%. I thought that was hilarious because it really shows the work of the professor. I earned the highest grade in the class on it with an 80%. I've never been so happy to get almost a C. When the teacher arrived at class today, she informed us that she was curving the scores by twenty points, which I found even funnier because I've never heard of a 20 point curve before.

Getting off that soapbox, how about postmodernism and the emerging church?

I really don't agree with the traditional church's view on these growing trains of thought. The postmodern period is a generation. To say you don't agree with postmodernism would be to say that you don't agree with the Victorian Age in England. I will say that certain views that are associated with postmodernism I do find dangerous. The thing with postmodernism is that we, as Christians living in the world, need to find ways to relate to the culture, being in the culture and not of it. Many people live the way the world does and justify it by saying they are trying to relate to it. In this sense, postmodernism isn't any different than any other time period.

I personally, don't have any problem with the emerging church. Obviously, it is doing some things right by appealing to people who wouldn't find Christ otherwise. And, who are we to judge a movement's ministry and others' personal dealings and encounters with Christ?

By saying I don't have a major problem with postmodernism, I am not saying that I believe truth is subjective and relative to the individual. I do not believe that at all. Truth is absolute. God is absolute. Love is absolute. But how these ideas are worked with and applied to life doesn't have a set manner in which it needs to be done.

I might update this later, but class is over. Peace.

Astronomy

So here I sit in my astronomy class... I thought this would be an interesting and enjoyable alternative to taking a more cliche physical science class such as earth science. Now, I like space and stars and things of that nature but when it comes to this class... I WAS WRONG!

I don't think that it would make me want to slit my wrists if not for the teacher. I honestly think that I could teach the class more efficiently than she does...mainly because i would actually teach. We just took a quiz the other day and the average grade was a 19 out of 50. It was open book. I think that really shows something about the wording and makeup of the assignment. Now, lucky for us, she drops our lowest grade, but when a professor doesn't teach I don't really know if that's much of a benefit.

I don't normally complain about professors...only those who don't know what they are doing. I understand that there is a language barrier because she's from Albania. But the real problem is that we have a teacher with a physics/math background with no astonomy in her history.

And then, since I attend a Christian institution, she feels the need to integrate the bible into class. I would love for this to happen; that's part of the reason I signed up for the course because I thought it would be cool to see how the two relate. The disappointing thing is though that she does so incorrectly.

Now, I don't want to come across as TOO harsh on this woman. Despite the above rant, I do respect this woman. She has successfully bridged the language gap. She earned a Ph.D in physics and has some of her stuff published. I think it's great that she is enthusiastic about her faith to the point of trying to integrate it into the classroom. But, I do believe that greater preparation on her part could/should be taken to teach a subject that she has no background in.

I wanted to learn astronomy and I will learn it... somehow... I guess I'll have to teach myself... Although, I did have a similar problem with a certain introduction to music appreciation last semester and still managed an A in the class somehow without doing anything, so we'll see what happens.

Another one

Well, Labor Day weekend is over which basically marks the end of summer. This is awesome because it pretty much means that fall is here (favorite season) and football season is upon us.

I went to the Mizzou-Illini game this past Saturday night, and not gonna lie, it was amazing... Mainly because the Tigers won and all the Illinois fans were sad. I guess that I forgot at how many people get completely trashed at college football games, especially if the venue sells alcohol like the Ed Jones dome does.

There was this group in front of me and the friends that I attended the game with how had all consumed more beers than I thought was physically possible. It was kind of funny being behind them and seeing how the different people responded to the level of alcohol in their systems. One of the dudes in particular got really friendly with one of the Illinois fans, whom he did not even know. And when I say friendly, I mean he had his arm around him and was basically whispering into the guy's ear.

Anyway, this group of guys would randomly slap each other, and the funny thing was that they thought they were being really secretive about it and sneaky. But, to the sober person, it was so obvious they were going to do it. Well one would slap another and then they would all start slapping each other. At one point, the friendly dude full out punched one of his buddies in the ear. Me and the guys I was with were all convinced that a fight was gonna break out before the game was over.

Another instance, I went to the bathroom between the third and fourth quarters. There was a guy peeing at an end urinal... or what he thought was a urinal. He was actually turned and peeing the wall next to him. It's sad when one is so intoxicated that he doesn't even know that he isn't urinating into a toilet.

People are morons... put so eloquently by one of my church's youth pastors, whom of which I attended the game with. Don't be stupid. Have some dignity. Respect yourself and others.

oh and MIZ...ZOU

First one

Well here it goes:

This is my first blog and I'm not really sure at what I'm gonna write. I think the best (while probably most inefficient) way about it is to just start. Today was my first day of my second year at Southwest Baptist University and I must say that it's great to be back. I really look forward to getting back into the normal hustle and bustle and daily grind of things.

Funny story, I had my first astronomy class today and the professor is from Albania. Prof Vodo then went to Boston (which she pronounces as the Bostonians do) for school and most recently spent time in Alabama (which she also pronounces as the Alabamans do). I think it's gonna be an interesting semester in there. She doesn't exactly have her bible facts straight so when she uses biblical "facts" such as asking us which Heaven God created on the first day (Bible says plural, not singular) I had to question her ability to tie the two together. I thought astronomy was going to be interesting, but so far I think I found a class to compete with Intro to Music from last semester.

I think it's interesting how different people react to being back at school. There's the people who are super excited and happy to see every person that he or she possibly knows or is acquainted with. Then, there's the people who are just like "whatever, summer's over, what's the big deal?" I think that I'm more like the latter than the former. Actually, I know that I'm the second. Not to say that I'm not excited or happy to see people, but I just don't understand the need to get all worked up about the return.

I think that's all for now.

Oh wait....

My summer was awesome. With that, I don't know why people refer to seasons in a possessive sense. We don't own the season. They are pretty well independent. Oh well, anyway, my summer was great. I interned at my church back home in St. Peters and it was amazing. I learned so much during my time serving there. I loved seeing the simple joy that junior high students have for life and the intensity they bring to things. I also thought that it was great how they ask the tough questions without knowing that they have done so.

I just heard a buddy of mine say "what? Girls don't smile at me. They cringe."

I thought it was funny

Well that's it for now... seriously this time. Peace