College!

Alright, I'll be honest, I just wanted to put this post here to transition from my updates to another purpose. If you're not interested in the boring minutia of college life (really nothing that interesting), just hop down to the second-to-last paragraph. I know that I won't be the first/best 'blogger' (I don't really consider myself a blogger. Though I suppose that I completely fit the definition.) to post about theological ponderings or whatnot, but I'd like to put some of the amazing things that God reveals to me somewhere before I forget. So I guess you could call it an open-book journal. Or practice writing on things that I'm interested in. Or a brain-exercise. Or- well I think you get the point. It's more for me, but if other people can benefit from it or enjoy it also, then all the better!

Anyways, college is interesting. I'm definitely glad that I took a year off, but because I joined in the
middle of a semester, I'm put in a freshman hall that has already bonded. They're very nice guys (from what I've seen), but there are few ways for me to get to know them. Ultimate frisbee has already started (woohoo!) although some days are quite frigid as it is quite early in the year. I am so glad to be playing ultimate again, it's something that I've been missing over the past year. I've also joined Intervarsity (a Christian campus club). It's great to get together with people from around campus, and be able to worship, and learn to get closer to God. I've joined one of their small groups, and the guys are awesome. Additionally, I've been going to a church for a few weeks now. It's called Williamsburg Baptist Church. It's pretty conservative in terms of practices (though, looking around, it seems like most churches are pretty conservative), and the population seems to lean more to the elderly side. However, I think that it would balance well with Intervarsity. Hopefully one of these people can mentor me during my time here.

Classes are... going well. I'm in five different classes: Probability and Statistics, Intro to Classical Guitar, Constructing the News, Intro Psych, and Theory: A Modern Tradition. Prob and Stats is an easy- scratch that, VERY easy math class. My guitar teacher is more interested in creating musicians than guitarists (or so he says), so a lot of the stuff we're 'learning' are things that I've known for almost fifteen years. So, you might say that the class is also very easy. Constructing the News was actually a miracle from God. This class fulfills the Freshman Seminar requirement, and I originally had a different class to fulfill this requirement. However, I realized that it was during frisbee practice, so I went to change to a different class time. But, I wasn't able to get that time, and so I was without a freshman seminar the first day of classes. Lucky for me, I was meeting with an assistant dean for 'academic probation' (I was on this because I miserably failed my first semester). She looked at the freshman seminars, and had me sign up for Constructing the News. The professor of this class, also just happens to run the Writing Resources Center. Also, she's awesome. Anyways, Intro Psych, and Theory are both classes where a lot of reading needs to be done. I am not a very fast reader. At least, if I want to be able to comprehend and analyze the information. But, overall my classes are interesting, and I work hard.

I don't really intend to give these updates every time, so I hope you like this one! One of the things that I've really been trying to do each day, is take some time to worship God. Whether if it's singing on the way to class, or playing guitar in my room, I try to take some time to worship God. Recently, in Intervarsity we started a series about going through difficulties. The speaker really emphasized Job, so I took a quick look at it just now, and the part that stood out to me was Job 1:21 - "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (ESV) In times of difficulty, Job praised God. Something else that ran across recently (I doubt by accident), is this video. If you don't want to watch it, it's a song called "Though You Slay Me" done by Shane & Shane, with an audio snippet of John Piper. The chorus goes something like, "Though You slay me, yet I will praise You, though You take from me, I will bless Your name, though You ruin me, still I will worship." Though I am not going through a difficult time right now, I would like to get in the habit of worship. It's changed a lot of my outlook. While it can be easy to see the problems with the world, worship puts me in a place of looking to the majesty of God. I can't question God when I am in that position. Later in the book of Job (Chapter 38), God speaks, and answers Job's questions with His own questions. These questions very clearly are meant to reveal the vastness of God. As Isaiah 55:9 says, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (NIV)

Wow, I didn't mean to write that much, but there it is. I don't know how often I'll post, but I guess I'll try for once every week. Or whenever I get some extraordinary revelation. Or ordinary revelation. Anyways, I need to take care of some laundry. Thanks for sticking around, and I hope you enjoyed it.