The week before this past week the campus here at Dordt had a capus wide 24/7 prayer. Students and faculty(1 prof) signed up for hour lond sections of time for an entire week of prayer...all through the day and all through the night. All the 1 hour slots were filled and there was prayer on Dordt's capus for 7 days straight. We had a meeting on the Monday night after the week of prayer to debrief and have some worship. Not very many people came just because it was inconvenient or forgot or whatever, but my Resident Director said something that night that I have been meditating on ever since. "If we love God with everything that is in us, then God cannont resist us. He is a lover and love that pure and genuine is irresistable."
God loves us. The meaning has been drained from this phrase for the many times it is used and heard. But if we take time to elaborate on this phrase it has new life.
God loves your voice. The tone, the quality, he created it to be just that way. He loves those things about us that we completely despise and whish we could change. God loves the color of your eyes and hair and your smile. God loves to see us happy. We are who we are because God created us this way. I frequnetly think that God is not close.
2 Samuel 22:7-20
"In my distress I called to the LORD; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears. The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens [c] shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared [d] on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his canopy around him— the dark [e] rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth. The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot arrows and scattered the enemies , bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of breath from his nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me."
Monday, May 7, 2007
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Desire....or lack of it.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Today is my sister in law's birthday. Yay to her for turning 20. Right now I am in the library of my school at 6:30 on a Saturday night, thinking about the massive amounts of work I have to do before I leave for home this Friday.
-Read "Affluenza" (150 pages)- Then write 6-8 page page paper due wednesday
-Read "Poisonwood Bible"(500+ pages)- Then write monologue on book for presentation on Thursday. Then write 2 page creative writing on book.
-complete 3 essay questions on take home portion of exam for Monday, then go to finish the rest of the final exam on Monday afternoon.
-Moday Morning sing 5 songs memorized for voice lesson final exam including memorizing an Italian piece before then.
-Study for 2 exams on Tuesday morning.
Despite my list of rediculousness I still find time to do other less importan things, and now I have reached the point of being crippled by the amount of work I have to do that I just don't do anything. I just sit, or just walk around. It's horrible. I Just think about this week being over and flying hom eon Friday to see friends and family and a change of pace.
Lord help me.
-Read "Affluenza" (150 pages)- Then write 6-8 page page paper due wednesday
-Read "Poisonwood Bible"(500+ pages)- Then write monologue on book for presentation on Thursday. Then write 2 page creative writing on book.
-complete 3 essay questions on take home portion of exam for Monday, then go to finish the rest of the final exam on Monday afternoon.
-Moday Morning sing 5 songs memorized for voice lesson final exam including memorizing an Italian piece before then.
-Study for 2 exams on Tuesday morning.
Despite my list of rediculousness I still find time to do other less importan things, and now I have reached the point of being crippled by the amount of work I have to do that I just don't do anything. I just sit, or just walk around. It's horrible. I Just think about this week being over and flying hom eon Friday to see friends and family and a change of pace.
Lord help me.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
God is a Genius
In one of my classes today we were discussing if life was completely horrible or if life is good and reasons and effects to why. My prof said, "Life has to be good! When I sit on my back porch and smoke a cigar and watch the sunset as my kids play on the slide in the yard, life is good. It's about perspective."
I agree. Life is good, but that is becuase I am choosing it to be that way. There are many things that I could point out that really suck in my life...seizures, overweight, in Iowa, behind in school, lame roommate, broken by sin daily. Why would I want to focus on those things?
I love my life. I love the people in my life. (no I am not on drugs, and shame on you for thinking such things.) I love my God. I love that fact that he is God, and he a genius for creating things to be as they are. Life is beautiful.
I think that we have too high of expectations...in a way. Another thing my prof said today was that American Culture is so very very violent. Violence seems to trigger images of blood and gore, but violence involves so much more. The abuse of power in any situation is violence. The expectations we have for eachother and ourselves become violent when they are self centered and we expect the world to revolve around us. It causes our actions and words to be violent.
I noticed that every paragraph in this post starts with "I". It's not about me.Simplify your life and take the focus off yourself. Sunday night my Resident Director for the building spoke about 3 R's that a Christian community should identify with. WE should be a community marked by Rest, Risk and Reverence/gratititude.
So these are my tandom thoughts for today ask questions if you want. Talk to you soon.
-Pil
I agree. Life is good, but that is becuase I am choosing it to be that way. There are many things that I could point out that really suck in my life...seizures, overweight, in Iowa, behind in school, lame roommate, broken by sin daily. Why would I want to focus on those things?
I love my life. I love the people in my life. (no I am not on drugs, and shame on you for thinking such things.) I love my God. I love that fact that he is God, and he a genius for creating things to be as they are. Life is beautiful.
I think that we have too high of expectations...in a way. Another thing my prof said today was that American Culture is so very very violent. Violence seems to trigger images of blood and gore, but violence involves so much more. The abuse of power in any situation is violence. The expectations we have for eachother and ourselves become violent when they are self centered and we expect the world to revolve around us. It causes our actions and words to be violent.
I noticed that every paragraph in this post starts with "I". It's not about me.Simplify your life and take the focus off yourself. Sunday night my Resident Director for the building spoke about 3 R's that a Christian community should identify with. WE should be a community marked by Rest, Risk and Reverence/gratititude.
So these are my tandom thoughts for today ask questions if you want. Talk to you soon.
-Pil
Monday, April 9, 2007
What has gone so wrong?
I origionally wrote an amazing post earlier today, wich was one of those amazing creative writting experiences that i do not think I wil able to duplicate, but I will try my best to remember some of the stuff I wrote earlier.
I have had such a rough semester I cannot begin to write down everything, and I have previously attempted in other posts, but so far those posts seem like my words are scrambled and hard to understand. Since i have been back from spring break I have not felt like myself. This semester in general has been a crazy up and down rollercoaster ride that I have been able to hold on unitl returning from break. I thought that I was doing okay. I feel like a was getting along with people. I thought I had friends. I felt like I was doing well in my classes. So what has changed? In some ways "friends" have betrayed me. I have become so caught up in my thought and activities outside of my classes that I have fallen behind in some of my classes and I am trying to catch up. In the past couple weeks after being back from spring break I have been the closest to being depressed than any other time in my life. Multiple times over the course of a week, "Nobody cares!" comes to mind. I have had so many questions come to mind with what's been going on. Questions like, why am I doing youth ministry?
The most common topic for me to think through has been in light of how much time I have spent "people watching" lately. I pay attention to actions and words and body language and how people dress and I am still wondering why do people do what they do. we have our groups of people that we idnetify with and that I think is the key. IDENTITY. For example, my roommate is really interested in the game Dungeions and Dragons and computer games and role playing games. For the most part he is socially unplugged until you get him in teh classroom setting where his seemingly witty and knowledgeble side comes out. He dresses in practicly the same cloths every day and is what most would consider to be the stereotypical nerd. Now what is significant about all these characteristics about my roommate? I think that the significance is that they are teh materials that make up his identity. No matter the age of the person they are most likely are searching or in some way developing their identity.
I want to move into talking about fear and I will end up tying this back into the identity issue in a minute. Todays North American culture is built on the foundation of fear. Now I say this because of what I was just discussing about identity. the reason we have genres of movies and music and clothing styles and North American slang that is considered "cool" "sweet" "tight" or "sick" is because these are the things that make us acceptable to each other. I hope they like me and what I am wearing. I want to fit in. I want to be popular. These are all thoughts that travel through the typical teen or adolescent and many woudl agree with me. But these thoughts pass through everyone's mind. If we do not fit in then we go buy a new wardrobe or change how we talk or we pick up different interests like the computer and role playing games that my roommate likes. teh problem that we are driven by fear. I distinctly remember a phone conversation that I had with my Mom when I was a freshmen in college. "I don't want to change who I am just to be accepted by a group of people. I want to be me." I said to my Mom. I think I have kept to this statement over the last two years in college. NOT! I alomst wrote that down seriously. Whether I want to me initially honest about it or not, I have been changed to good and for worse while being here. In fact I have become really good at tayloring my words and body language to fit with the group of people I am around. Why? I am afraid.
Who wants to be alone. Nobody right? and that is why we change who we are to fit in. We don't want to be alone, and now that I am tired of being who I am not, I think I have become someone that not very many people or nobody identifies with. So now what? I am alone and I hate it, and I cry about it and I want to give up being here and I yell at God and tell him, "This is not what I signed up for. Multiple times a week I think, "Nobody cares."
Yesterday was Easter. Being here was frustrating. the sermon was good, but everything went as normal. The hymns in the service were sung with the usual drone of the congregation and it seemed like any other Sunday. Why? I was happy it was Easter. Christ died and rose again, and it was as if nobody cared. The morning sermon was on teh story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. The words the pastor spoke were so good. "Today Christ has risen from the dead and he has all power and dominion over death. When he call Lazarus out of the tomb he HAD to call him by name or else he would have call all the dead to life again." The words of Christ are so powerful. by his wounds we are healed. There is a song by Christ Tomlin, "Mighty is the power of the Cross", and the most powerful lines are, "What can take a dying man and raise him up to life again?". Automatically we think physical death, but what about spiritual death emotional death. So how does Jesus do this work in our lives? Would you agree that he often uses the people around us to spiritually and emotionally raise us to life again. Even if just through the words of a song.
It's not about you or me. It's about something and someone bigger than us.
"Shipwreck" by Starfield
I built a fortress
With a hundred thousand faces
I'll keep it safe
With a hundred thousand more
But these masks are wearing thin
As You draw me in
I spent my time
On the empty and the fleeting
I spent my life
On much less than I'd dreamed
But I'm reaching out to you
To make me new
'Cause I am just a beggar here at Your door
I am just a shipwreck here on Your shore
I come empty handed
Ready to see
Your life in me changing who I've been
To who I need to be
You tell me my story
As You sift between the pages
I feel redemption
In the space between each turn
Could You take me in Your arms
And tell it just once more
Could You take me in Your arms
And tell it just once more
I have had such a rough semester I cannot begin to write down everything, and I have previously attempted in other posts, but so far those posts seem like my words are scrambled and hard to understand. Since i have been back from spring break I have not felt like myself. This semester in general has been a crazy up and down rollercoaster ride that I have been able to hold on unitl returning from break. I thought that I was doing okay. I feel like a was getting along with people. I thought I had friends. I felt like I was doing well in my classes. So what has changed? In some ways "friends" have betrayed me. I have become so caught up in my thought and activities outside of my classes that I have fallen behind in some of my classes and I am trying to catch up. In the past couple weeks after being back from spring break I have been the closest to being depressed than any other time in my life. Multiple times over the course of a week, "Nobody cares!" comes to mind. I have had so many questions come to mind with what's been going on. Questions like, why am I doing youth ministry?
The most common topic for me to think through has been in light of how much time I have spent "people watching" lately. I pay attention to actions and words and body language and how people dress and I am still wondering why do people do what they do. we have our groups of people that we idnetify with and that I think is the key. IDENTITY. For example, my roommate is really interested in the game Dungeions and Dragons and computer games and role playing games. For the most part he is socially unplugged until you get him in teh classroom setting where his seemingly witty and knowledgeble side comes out. He dresses in practicly the same cloths every day and is what most would consider to be the stereotypical nerd. Now what is significant about all these characteristics about my roommate? I think that the significance is that they are teh materials that make up his identity. No matter the age of the person they are most likely are searching or in some way developing their identity.
I want to move into talking about fear and I will end up tying this back into the identity issue in a minute. Todays North American culture is built on the foundation of fear. Now I say this because of what I was just discussing about identity. the reason we have genres of movies and music and clothing styles and North American slang that is considered "cool" "sweet" "tight" or "sick" is because these are the things that make us acceptable to each other. I hope they like me and what I am wearing. I want to fit in. I want to be popular. These are all thoughts that travel through the typical teen or adolescent and many woudl agree with me. But these thoughts pass through everyone's mind. If we do not fit in then we go buy a new wardrobe or change how we talk or we pick up different interests like the computer and role playing games that my roommate likes. teh problem that we are driven by fear. I distinctly remember a phone conversation that I had with my Mom when I was a freshmen in college. "I don't want to change who I am just to be accepted by a group of people. I want to be me." I said to my Mom. I think I have kept to this statement over the last two years in college. NOT! I alomst wrote that down seriously. Whether I want to me initially honest about it or not, I have been changed to good and for worse while being here. In fact I have become really good at tayloring my words and body language to fit with the group of people I am around. Why? I am afraid.
Who wants to be alone. Nobody right? and that is why we change who we are to fit in. We don't want to be alone, and now that I am tired of being who I am not, I think I have become someone that not very many people or nobody identifies with. So now what? I am alone and I hate it, and I cry about it and I want to give up being here and I yell at God and tell him, "This is not what I signed up for. Multiple times a week I think, "Nobody cares."
Yesterday was Easter. Being here was frustrating. the sermon was good, but everything went as normal. The hymns in the service were sung with the usual drone of the congregation and it seemed like any other Sunday. Why? I was happy it was Easter. Christ died and rose again, and it was as if nobody cared. The morning sermon was on teh story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. The words the pastor spoke were so good. "Today Christ has risen from the dead and he has all power and dominion over death. When he call Lazarus out of the tomb he HAD to call him by name or else he would have call all the dead to life again." The words of Christ are so powerful. by his wounds we are healed. There is a song by Christ Tomlin, "Mighty is the power of the Cross", and the most powerful lines are, "What can take a dying man and raise him up to life again?". Automatically we think physical death, but what about spiritual death emotional death. So how does Jesus do this work in our lives? Would you agree that he often uses the people around us to spiritually and emotionally raise us to life again. Even if just through the words of a song.
It's not about you or me. It's about something and someone bigger than us.
"Shipwreck" by Starfield
I built a fortress
With a hundred thousand faces
I'll keep it safe
With a hundred thousand more
But these masks are wearing thin
As You draw me in
I spent my time
On the empty and the fleeting
I spent my life
On much less than I'd dreamed
But I'm reaching out to you
To make me new
'Cause I am just a beggar here at Your door
I am just a shipwreck here on Your shore
I come empty handed
Ready to see
Your life in me changing who I've been
To who I need to be
You tell me my story
As You sift between the pages
I feel redemption
In the space between each turn
Could You take me in Your arms
And tell it just once more
Could You take me in Your arms
And tell it just once more
Saturday, March 31, 2007
It's been a month.
I have not posted since March 6 and a ton has gone on since then.
Most recently I have been really discouraged by signing up for housing this past week. About a month ago the capus was informed that we shoudl begin looking for roommates for next school year so that when sign ups for housing came around everyone woule have their groups together to sign up for housing. On campus we have 6 buildings for housing. North Hall is where I have lived for the last 2 years and it is an all guys dorm. East Hall is identical to North accept all girls. Covnenant Hall and West Hall are girls and guys dorms. East Campus apartments consists of 6 apartment buildings with 8 apartments in each, and Southview is on big apartment building with 28 apartments in it. The way housing goes is that seniority gets priority so Southview and East Campus Apartments usually fill up quick and then on down the food chain until everyone on campus has somewhere to live. So I began looking for roommates about 2 months ago because I wanted to amek sure that I would be living with people I liked next year. But nobody was committing to a room because 3 of the guys I wanted to live with were re-applying to be Registerd Assistants for the dorms. So I then went to 2 other guys and asked about their housing situation and the 3 of us became a group, but we needed 3 more guys to have a full apartment and have the best chance of making it into the apartments. So the results for the RA interviews came out the day before spring break and at that point I was torn between 2 groups basically waiting on one of them to way you are in for sure. Well I was pretty well set with the one group I was in with the other 2 guys and the other group included 4 guys that I had approached earlier about living with them. All this to say that when I came back from spring break I recieved an email from the 2 guys in the group I was currently in, telling me that they were joining the other 4 guys in the othe rgroup completing both of their groups in to on group of 6( which makes a full room) and I was the odd man out. Oh yeah, I got that email 2 days before when we needed to hand in our housing forms for next year.
So as of right now I am signed up with nobody again, just like last year, and the school will pick who my roommate for next year will be, whether a transfer student, and incoming freshmen or if I am lucky they will not house me with anyone and I get the room to myself. At this point I am really disappointed in the people that I though were friends of mine, and after this whole ordeal I really feel betrayed and it seems like nobody cares. I feel like I know a fair amount of people, but very few if any of those people do I trust to talk about something more serious than the typical "How was your day?" kind of small talk.
I would not be surprized if my explaination of the house stuff did not make sense, but basically I was set to live with some guys and at the last minute they dumped me and went and completed another room and I was stuck with nobody to live with for next year.
Among other issues I am dealing with, I have about a month of classes left and then a week of finals and I am already struggling to find the desire to keep working hard in all my classes.
I will post more later about my spring break and such.
-Joel
Most recently I have been really discouraged by signing up for housing this past week. About a month ago the capus was informed that we shoudl begin looking for roommates for next school year so that when sign ups for housing came around everyone woule have their groups together to sign up for housing. On campus we have 6 buildings for housing. North Hall is where I have lived for the last 2 years and it is an all guys dorm. East Hall is identical to North accept all girls. Covnenant Hall and West Hall are girls and guys dorms. East Campus apartments consists of 6 apartment buildings with 8 apartments in each, and Southview is on big apartment building with 28 apartments in it. The way housing goes is that seniority gets priority so Southview and East Campus Apartments usually fill up quick and then on down the food chain until everyone on campus has somewhere to live. So I began looking for roommates about 2 months ago because I wanted to amek sure that I would be living with people I liked next year. But nobody was committing to a room because 3 of the guys I wanted to live with were re-applying to be Registerd Assistants for the dorms. So I then went to 2 other guys and asked about their housing situation and the 3 of us became a group, but we needed 3 more guys to have a full apartment and have the best chance of making it into the apartments. So the results for the RA interviews came out the day before spring break and at that point I was torn between 2 groups basically waiting on one of them to way you are in for sure. Well I was pretty well set with the one group I was in with the other 2 guys and the other group included 4 guys that I had approached earlier about living with them. All this to say that when I came back from spring break I recieved an email from the 2 guys in the group I was currently in, telling me that they were joining the other 4 guys in the othe rgroup completing both of their groups in to on group of 6( which makes a full room) and I was the odd man out. Oh yeah, I got that email 2 days before when we needed to hand in our housing forms for next year.
So as of right now I am signed up with nobody again, just like last year, and the school will pick who my roommate for next year will be, whether a transfer student, and incoming freshmen or if I am lucky they will not house me with anyone and I get the room to myself. At this point I am really disappointed in the people that I though were friends of mine, and after this whole ordeal I really feel betrayed and it seems like nobody cares. I feel like I know a fair amount of people, but very few if any of those people do I trust to talk about something more serious than the typical "How was your day?" kind of small talk.
I would not be surprized if my explaination of the house stuff did not make sense, but basically I was set to live with some guys and at the last minute they dumped me and went and completed another room and I was stuck with nobody to live with for next year.
Among other issues I am dealing with, I have about a month of classes left and then a week of finals and I am already struggling to find the desire to keep working hard in all my classes.
I will post more later about my spring break and such.
-Joel
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
The Verse
So I just realized that I posted Galatians 1:10 at the top of the last post, but failed to explain or even allude why. This verse has been on my mind for a while now. I see situations and experience situations on a daily basis where the decision of whether to plase men or God is at hand, and people are constantly making split second decsions to either way. It is an interesting paradox because I want to not have to worry about what others think of me or what level of popularity is, and frequently I sarcifice my devotion to God to increase my acceptability to people and to improve my popularity. I am so frustrated by living what is essentially a double life and I am more frusrated by the idea that me living this way is contributing to the problem of hypocrisy in today's churches. That is all the verse was about, but I would really like to open this up for discussion. SO if you have any thoughts on the problem or the solution or just some thoughts or comments on the matter then feel free to post somehting up in the comment section.
Talk to you soon.
-Joel
P.S. - I come home in 66 days.
Talk to you soon.
-Joel
P.S. - I come home in 66 days.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Galatians 1:10
"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God! Or am I trying to please men? If I were trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."
It is been quite a while since I posted last. Honestly I just didn't know eactly what I wanted to write for while, but now I'm back.
As I am writing this it is 2:47pm on Saturday. I woke up about an hour ago not intending to sleep that late, but let me give you some background. Over the course of this past Thursday and Friday we recieved a dump of about 2ft and some inches of snow in a blizzard. So as of yesterday(Friday) afternoon the weather was clearing up enough that me ans 9 other guys decieded to hollow out this massive pile of snow that the on campus "Snow Crew" plowed up. When I say massive I mean roughly 30 yards across and about 10 feet high at it's highest point. So we proceeded to make this igloo big enough to fit all 10 of us in it laying down and we spent the night in the igloo last night. At least for the majority of the night. Me and another guy left at around 4am cause it was impossible to get to sleep, at least in my experience. Futhermore my nice, comfy and warm bed inside the nice, comfy and warm dorm building was beckoning and was WAY more appealing. So I went to bed and did not set my alarm and I slept until aobut 1:30pm today.
I am not a big fan of sleeping this lat in the day for the simple reason that I feel like I have wasted half my day. I have a list of things to do involving homework among all kinds of other odds and ends, and expectations of people of things to do from both here and home. So I was frustrated with myself when I woke up, not to mention the fact that I was really hungry too. Honestly I have bee trying to keep in touch with friends from home and mostly by facebook or email or myspace, but I have not exactly been keeping up soI have a few people giving me messages that include the, "Dude, where are you? You said you were going to keep in touch." kind of snetence in them. It is not that I don't care about keeping in touch, it's more that my priorities are such that messaging my friends from home is not at the top usually. This is just one example of stuff that is on my mind to do.
On to other things. So now I am continuing the rest of this post today(March 6). So today in my "Theology Enging Culture" class we were discussing the reading we had read for today. The reading was about entertainment and the effect it has on our culture, especially youth. At some point the discussion today turned to ADD and ADHD and how televsion and technology as a whole has given our generation an attitude of passivity. Technology does all the thinking for us, and we just watch. W ehave been so trained to be to be interested in the things that are entertaining instead, and this has been applied to more than just TV and computers or some other form of technology. Now we have students that can read, but rarely do becuase it is not entertaining and forces you to think. We have books on CD and now movies are giving us the images to go along with the book to the point where we are not able to read the book without thinking about the movie images. This is shrinking our imaginations. Then the discussion progressed by applying entertainment to youth ministry, and how our pastors are having to compete by making Sunday mornings entertaining to keep the interest of the students. This class is so interesting to see the kinds of things that we are unmasking in our culture, but then I can't help thinking how can Christianity compete. It should not be a competition in the first place, and if it was the competititon is not playing by the same rules. Now we have to constatnly find new ways to keep students attention because if it is not interesting or entertaining then they begin to sqirm and chatter. It is really discouraging to see what we are up against. All of this is still pretty fresh in my mind so I might write more on it later, but that is all for now.
I miss you all and just this past sunday I was imagining going to Northshore on a sunny morning and seeing everybody again. This will come true sooner than we realize. Talk to you soon.
-Joel
It is been quite a while since I posted last. Honestly I just didn't know eactly what I wanted to write for while, but now I'm back.
As I am writing this it is 2:47pm on Saturday. I woke up about an hour ago not intending to sleep that late, but let me give you some background. Over the course of this past Thursday and Friday we recieved a dump of about 2ft and some inches of snow in a blizzard. So as of yesterday(Friday) afternoon the weather was clearing up enough that me ans 9 other guys decieded to hollow out this massive pile of snow that the on campus "Snow Crew" plowed up. When I say massive I mean roughly 30 yards across and about 10 feet high at it's highest point. So we proceeded to make this igloo big enough to fit all 10 of us in it laying down and we spent the night in the igloo last night. At least for the majority of the night. Me and another guy left at around 4am cause it was impossible to get to sleep, at least in my experience. Futhermore my nice, comfy and warm bed inside the nice, comfy and warm dorm building was beckoning and was WAY more appealing. So I went to bed and did not set my alarm and I slept until aobut 1:30pm today.
I am not a big fan of sleeping this lat in the day for the simple reason that I feel like I have wasted half my day. I have a list of things to do involving homework among all kinds of other odds and ends, and expectations of people of things to do from both here and home. So I was frustrated with myself when I woke up, not to mention the fact that I was really hungry too. Honestly I have bee trying to keep in touch with friends from home and mostly by facebook or email or myspace, but I have not exactly been keeping up soI have a few people giving me messages that include the, "Dude, where are you? You said you were going to keep in touch." kind of snetence in them. It is not that I don't care about keeping in touch, it's more that my priorities are such that messaging my friends from home is not at the top usually. This is just one example of stuff that is on my mind to do.
On to other things. So now I am continuing the rest of this post today(March 6). So today in my "Theology Enging Culture" class we were discussing the reading we had read for today. The reading was about entertainment and the effect it has on our culture, especially youth. At some point the discussion today turned to ADD and ADHD and how televsion and technology as a whole has given our generation an attitude of passivity. Technology does all the thinking for us, and we just watch. W ehave been so trained to be to be interested in the things that are entertaining instead, and this has been applied to more than just TV and computers or some other form of technology. Now we have students that can read, but rarely do becuase it is not entertaining and forces you to think. We have books on CD and now movies are giving us the images to go along with the book to the point where we are not able to read the book without thinking about the movie images. This is shrinking our imaginations. Then the discussion progressed by applying entertainment to youth ministry, and how our pastors are having to compete by making Sunday mornings entertaining to keep the interest of the students. This class is so interesting to see the kinds of things that we are unmasking in our culture, but then I can't help thinking how can Christianity compete. It should not be a competition in the first place, and if it was the competititon is not playing by the same rules. Now we have to constatnly find new ways to keep students attention because if it is not interesting or entertaining then they begin to sqirm and chatter. It is really discouraging to see what we are up against. All of this is still pretty fresh in my mind so I might write more on it later, but that is all for now.
I miss you all and just this past sunday I was imagining going to Northshore on a sunny morning and seeing everybody again. This will come true sooner than we realize. Talk to you soon.
-Joel
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