Weblog

So, with not even one inch of snow on the ground, there's talk of cancelling everything down here in this corner of civilisation. I went to work to find the place locked only to be called and told that no one was coming in. It's like these people haven't seen snow ever in their lives. I remember once in Colorado when the snow was so high that it went over my head. That was a snowstorm!

Yeah, the weather is cold, but it's not deathly frigid. I love cold weather like this. Women just look a whole lot cuter when their bundled in their scarves and coats. I guess that I'm the one man in a million who actually prefers women who have more clothes on than less.

Stupid global warming!

So, it's 4:15 AM. What am I doing awake at this hour? I'm typing in information for every single person who volunteered to take part in the Caf Fast. Essentially, these people are choosing not to eat a certain meal and are having the money from their meal be put aside into our budget for the campus Acting on AIDS chapter. We're then taking that money and funnelling it towards the Lighthouse Children's Shelter in Rustinburg, South Africa. I just finished entering them all in, but, instead of going to bed, I'm still up because I decided to write something here.

This wasn't the only fundraiser that we've done recently. Last week, we held a concert at one of the professors' houses. As I was counting up the money that we had earned from the concert, most of it was in bills, but I was slightly annoyed by the presence of three pennies in the bottom of the basket. I made a comment that it seemed to me that some moron decided to put three cents in to ruin the system. Now, I wish that I had kept my mouth shut.

I was quickly reminded by someone else about the time in the New Testament where the poor widow came to the temple and placed a few pennies among the offering while others put large amounts of loose money in. Observing the situation, Jesus saw the widow and told His disciples that the poor widow had put in more than all of the rich people combined: the rich gave of their wealth, but the widow gave in her state of poverty.¹

I have to confess that with the recent fundraising, my focus has been on getting as much money as we possibly can. I recently quoted Mother Teresa here on my weblog: “It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” That really hit home with me this past week. These fundraisers shouldn't be about how much money we make; they should be an opportunity to love others as Jesus commanded us to, but it seems that somewhere between the wardrobe and the lamppost, I lost sight of that. I opened my mouth and said what I shouldn't have said, but I'm more upset with the fact that I was thinking that in the first place.

1. Mark 12:41-44, Luke 21:1-4

So, the great Centennial State is pretty much in the same state that it was in before I left it, but pretty much changed. It really doesn't seem that long ago when it was the summer, and we were all smoking cigars on my back patio while I was also discovering that if you take hot coals from a fire and throw them into water, it will make a nice exploding sound. Then again, every time I come back, I'm so shocked that the things that have changed have changed all too well.

So, Thanksgiving was horrible. The only reason why is that the Broncos didn't win. The worst part was having all of my friends from Kansas taunt me. Oh well, I can't blame them. Had the Broncos won, I would have done the same thing. Other than that, it's been great to be with old friends in the old places. Still, old friends have new romances; old friends have new goals in life; old friends have new obstacles and problems. Had I been around, it might not have been so strange to see things different, but when you're away for so long, things rather seem different. I will say that overall, the changes are good. Still, I almost felt like almost thinking about almost crying when I saw the flower shop that belonged to my old drama teacher. Instead, it was all gutted out with nothing but a sign on the front that said that the place was up for rent.

Well, I'll leave you with a question to ponder: how did a promiscuous, womanising British spy a) become the model of masculinity and b) not end up with thousands upon thousands of STDs?

Okay, I know that New Year's is a decent ways away. Still, I've always been annoyed that people have to wait until New Year's to quit smoking or drinking or eating chocolate. I believe that if something's wrong, it's stupid to wait around before starting to take care of the problem.

I don't know what triggered the thought about New Year's resolutions, but it's on my mind. However, just sitting here thinking about everything that's wrong with me isn't that productive. I'm tired and haven't been getting enough sleep, so I resolve to get more sleep. Since it's 2:15 AM, I think that I'll go sleep since any normal person would probably be asleep at 2:15 AM.

So, I came into college not really knowing what I wanted to do. Computer science seemed like a good choice; I grew up on computers, and it had a lot of scholarship money. Now, three years later, I'm wishing that I would have gone into something different. Right now, journalism, history, linguistics and theology seem like they would have been the better choices. Well, I'm three years into college, and it's too late to turn back. The irony is that my major has been cancelled by the university. I'll still be able to graduate with it if I choose to stick with it. Since I'm already in too far, I kind of have to.

Honestly, after college, I have no burning desire to work with computers for a career. My heart seems to be drawn towards relief work. Someone recommended that I go into the Peace Corps, but that idea doesn't sit well with me. I'll probably end up doing relief work with a missions organisation… and not work in their computer department.

Why? Well… I love people. Jesus Himself said that the second greatest commandment was that we love others like we love ourselves. I think that I got that part down. However, I think that I'm having trouble with the greatest commandment: loving God. In all the commotion of working with various campus ministries like Acting on AIDS, Compassion and men's ministries, I really forget why it is that I do all of this. I get so caught up with loving other people (which is not a bad thing) that I forget to adore the God who first loved us and the reason for which I love others.

Yeah.

Okay, so this is getting freakin' ridiculous. Our Internet in our duplex is out yet again. The sad irony is that whenever it seems to go out, it always happens to be on the weekend when no one is around to fix it. So, right now, I'm in the lobby of the library utilising the wireless connection.

So, this weekend has been both stressful and freakin' awesome. It's stressful because I have a paper due on Monday. It wouldn't be worth stressing over since it's only a two-page paper summarising Canadian sermons, but I, being the overachiever, decided to pick sermons written in French. So, I have to translate the documents before I write the summary for them.

After class on Friday, Blake called me and told me that he was going down to Conner, Arkansas with Bethany to watch the JBU crew put on their play for a competition. Since it was only going to be for one night, I decided to go. So, we watched the theatre company perform their performance of The Curious Savage. It was magnificent; it was much better than the performance that I saw here at JBU. It was really sweet to see Henry get slapped during an intense part of the performance.¹ Afterwords, we hung around with the cast and crew at a little party² at Denny's. Apparently, out of all the plays performed, theirs was two among twelve that actually got a standing ovation. From what I heard, the other plays had to have a recurring theme of lesbian affairs that seemed comparable to The Vagina Monologues. I haven't heard back about what happened in the competition, but they have my very biased and uninformed vote³.

Later that evening, we drove to London where the three of us stayed at Amy's house for the night. I felt like such a schmuck (and we all should have) because we pulled in at about 2:00 AM. Still, Amy was very accommodating to us. If I didn't have this paper to write, I would very much so have liked to stay the whole weekend. However, I have that paper to write, but, instead of writing it, I'm wasting time writing on my weblog.

1. And… I don't remember that happening when I saw it.
2. I'd hardly call it a shindig.
3. I didn't see any of the other plays, so…

Okay, about a month ago, I was writing here and saying that as much as I want to help people, people just aren't coming to me with their problems and asking for help. I remember telling people that if I ever got a call at 3:00 AM with someone needing help, I wouldn't be angry about being woken up, I'd be thrilled about being able to be there for someone. Well, the other night (okay, technically, yesterday morning, but who gives a rip?) I kind of got the chance to do that. I got a message around midnight from a dear friend (my oldest friend, actually) with a request for help. I wasn't asleep then, but I probably should have been. I must have been on the phone for a couple of hours with practical advise. It just make me feel special for no particular reason. Well, I guess that there was a reason: I felt useful.

Mi estas decidinta, ke Hitler malamus min, se ni estus viva iam, sed mi ne havas bonan opinion de Hitler. Kaŭze de la svingo, la pacifismo, la fakto, ke mi parolas Esperanton, kaj la facto, ke mi estas surda unuorele, ĝi estas ne malfacila por la homo malami min.

Se vi komprendas ĉi tion, min rakontu, kaj mi donos al vi unu usonan dolaron.

Today (technically Yesterday, but screw it), there were so many beautiful things. Worth mentioning, on my way home from work, I almost felt like crying while seeing the colours of the autumn leaves along the roads of Siloam Springs. Such visual beauty was perfectly supplemented with aural beauty which is just a fancy way of saying that I put new strings on my guitar.