There's a ton going on these days... I feel like most people blog with a purpose or an agenda and mine are more like ping pong balls bouncing around between quotes or topics or songs or questions. I feel like it mirrors my life and I'm just keeping it real. :)
First of all this week will wrap up a long school year. Classes are finished... grades entered and I have just six student-athletes still competing. This week we're hosting a NCAA baseball regional tournament, but unfortunately MU wasn't selected to participate so I'll be watching 10-11 baseball games this week without a real vested interest in any of the teams. It's probably a good thing in terms of my job as an objective scorer, but it can make the games drag on a bit. Shenandoah is representing the USA South so I've adopted them for the week not to mention some of my good friends happen to work there. I'm finishing my fourth year at Methodist and this will be my fourth NCAA event to host. I feel like they always stress me out... I become impatient and emotional and I just pray that I'm growing and maybe even boosting my resume! Either way, I would appreciate any prayers this week as we work some long hours... I knew it was going to be a long week when my alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. :)
A couple of notes from church yesterday. Almost a year ago Snyder welcomed their new pastor. It's been an adjusting year as I try to transition from Dr. Cogdill's funny stories and life application to Rev. Cook's vast knowledge of scripture and military formalism. I don't think one's better than the other... but a transition for sure. One of the things Cook started was asking everyone to stand when reading scripture. He introduced it by saying it comes from the Old Testament and while I haven't researched it like I probably should, I trusted his request. This past week he asked us to stand and also kind of admonished us... When he says "the word of God for the people of God" he wanted us to say "thanks be to God." I've heard it done a lot in the Methodist church, but never really grew up saying it... He said we should be thankful for the word of God so he expects us to respond as such so of course everyone sang out in a joyful chorus at the end of the scripture. It just comes off ritualistic and forced to me... Am I thankful? Absolutely! Should I tell God more often? Absolutely! Do I have to say the same words as everyone else at the same time immediately after being prompted to do so? I don't feel like I do. I actually tried researching this one and google didn't give me any immediate results. I don't want to rebel from what God wants for me... but I also really struggle with doing something just because everyone else is doing it. Just a thought...
After church I went to "sunday school" that sounds like I'm six, but really it's a great group of young adults who can have some great discussion. We've been looking at the bible and what it means. Something that has stuck with me... someone brought up the bible was Jesus giving us an example of how to live. Someone else countered with yes, Jesus is an example but really the bible is showing us Jesus is a substitute. If we just see Him as an example we'll always be living in despair because we can't live up to the example or we'll become self-righteous because we think others can't live up to it. As a substitute... we can live in grace and gratefulness living out of love. We can't pay it back... but I want to live as if I might have before we needed the substitute.
One more ping pong bounce... I have this thing where I spend a lot of time trying to connect people... connect with them myself... connect them with others... I think we spend a lot of time stuck in what/who we know and forget to reach out. I caught a lot of flack in college for my mingling but I met some amazing people during that experience. Since returning to Methodist it hasn't always been easy to keep my connections. I don't regret any of them but it's always hard when a connection fades... especially when I start to wonder whether it was me or maybe I just misread the person or misread a situation or maybe it was just God saying not now. Praying I can trust His timing.
p.s. one tree hill season finale was crazy tonight!! not sure I can really put into words all of my thoughts but letting it simmer for now while I watch wakey wakey perform "almost everything"
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