Stress, Friends, and a Birthday Party

This afternoon, after a stressful week and a particularly stressful morning, my friends reminded me of the comfort found in the blessing of friendship. 

My Hebrew test this morning was rough. Really rough. I got up at 6:15 to study at a coffee shop. The test was at 9:00. During the first few minutes of class, I began hearing sighs and under-the-breath groans from throughout the room. I soon added my own grunts of confusion and frustration to the chorus of agonizing Christian Studies majors. Between an extensive vocabulary section and a grammatically complex set of translation problems, that exam caused much intellectual weeping and gnashing of teeth. It was not a good feeling. 

Then, after my last class of the day, my friend Jason convinced me to come running-shoe shopping with him. I questioned nothing-it made perfect sense. We often run together and hadn't had any "bro-time" the past couple of weeks, so I was perfectly fine with spending a couple of hours in town with him. Why not, right?

Once we got to Traveler's Rest, however, Jason decided he needed to swing by Walmart to "look for some khakis". Then he had to stop and ask for directions to the shoe store. Well, he stopped at what happened to be my favorite restaurant in town. Rather naively, I still didn't catch on. The restaurant was dimly lighted, and the lenses in my glasses are transition lenses that make it difficult to see anything at all when a room is dark. Jason whispered something to the waitress and walked quickly down the hallway to the left. Slightly confused, I followed and...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" 

Gathered at the table were many of my best, closest friends. To their delight and mine, I was genuinely surprised! The stress of the day receded into the distant, murky ocean of my thoughts and emotions, and I was able to enjoy a splendid afternoon of fellowship. Hearty laughs, good food, and all the joy that comes with spending time with people you love ensued, and I was happy.

Thank you, Lord for friends. The to-do list will never go away. We will always be busy. We will always have stress. But God has given us the blessing of friendship, and that will be with us to the end. Thank you, Lord, for friends.      

Little Things: Updates and a Thought

This is going to be a quick, but I am exceedingly heavy of heart that my blog has been neglected for an entire month. I wonder if it ever gets its feelings hurt... Life has been ridiculous but pretty good, as always. Updates:

     A. Hebrew class is intriguing but beginning to be overwhelming. 

     B. I have my first extremely intensive research paper due in a couple of weeks. I have to develop a research question about the city of Thessalonica, create a thesis, and prove it. It should be fun, but it'll be a lot of work added onto an already stressful semester. 

     C. I am officially dating someone. Despite my nervousness for obvious reasons, the "Dad Talk" happened Saturday and went exceptionally well. He gave us full permission and blessing. :) Her name is Katie, and you (If you are from my home town) will likely meet her in the not-too-distant future. She's pretty much amazing. Godly, talented, wants to be a missionary, all that good stuff. I'm a lucky, excited guy. 

Here's a little thought from this morning. 

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." Ephesians 4:32

I look back in sadness on the many times this command would have helped me make a much better decision. Too often I get so wrapped up in trying to figure out the complexities of life that I forget to focus on the simple instructions that God has given us. Be kind and compassionate. Forgive. It's amazing what a difference the little things will make. 

Yup. Me and Katie :)

 

The Pursuit of...What?

I have several ideas that I would like to write about, but I only have time tonight for a few quick words.

The pursuit of happiness doesn't really exist. Even the "spiritual" things that should make me happy-sharing the gospel, spending time in prayer, reading the word-don't make me happy IF I'm doing them in a vain pursuit of some kind of "inner peace." The true root of all happiness is God, so the pursuit of happiness will only end in success if we ignore happiness altogether and instead pursue obedience.

In His word, Abba makes it clear that obedience may bring hardship and persecution, but He also promises that obedience brings joy through a closer walk with Christ. There is a difference between joy and happiness, but that's not my point tonight. I simply want to say this: Ignore happiness. Pursue Christ and obedience to Him, and you may be surprised at just how happy you can be.  

Food for thought: Doing vs. Being.

This is a quick, two-sentence excerpt from my spiritual and intellectual life: Through a variety of scripture, circumstances, and people, God is teaching me that now is not the time to focus on what I'm going to "do." Now is the time to focus on who I'm going to become. 

A Quick Word: Rest

"For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said: You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence. But you are not willing." -Isaiah 30:15

God says this immediately after rebuking the Israelite people for turning to Egypt for deliverance from Assyria rather than having faith in God's protection. This is a powerful and moving verse, but one phrase stands out to me in particular: You will be delivered by returning and resting. We are designed to rest. God lays that out throughout scripture, yet I overlook that concept more often than not. We are meant to return to God and rest-spiritually, physically, and emotionally. If we try to fight our own battles and develop our own strategies, we fail. God, though, promises rest if we trust in Him and live by our faith. Help us, Lord, to remember to return to you and rest. 

A Quick Word: Love

Some thoughts sparked by a recent conversation. 

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” -C.S. Lewis

Love is a calculated risk. No matter what the relationship-romantic, close friend, family-both sides must accept the uncertainty of the human experience. Trust is therefore a foundational element  of any loving relationship. Without trust, intimacy never really exists. 

The same goes with our relationship with God. I see how I tend to shy away from giving my love completely to God, how I hold back because of my subconscious fear of risk. Denying Him that love, though, is a sure way to never fully realize the joy that God gives us through a relationship with Him. It's a calculated risk. When you factor in God's faithfulness, loving kindness, and selflessness, the answer seems pretty obvious. It's worth the risk. 

A Carpenter's Hands

I had my first successful experience with carpentry today. With an astronomical amount of help from my Grandpa, I built an entertainment center for my cousin Tom and his wife Stacy. It's to be a belated wedding gift and hopefully will last them a good, long while. Along with enjoying the day with Grandpa, I found the age-old trade of woodworking intriguing and fulfilling.

I'm not necessarily the best at that kind of thing, and I likely never will be. However, cutting, shaping, gluing, screwing, and nailing pieces of lumber until they come together as something useful is a hobby that I would like to continue. First, it's a practical skill that could prove invaluable one day. To guide and watch the transformation from wood to object, though, is satisfying in and of itself. With a handful of rough, plain boards, a good carpenter (such as Grandpa) can add just the right touches at just the right places to accomplish just the purpose he intends. There seems to be an aura of nobility to the craft, and the look of a finished product (art, some would call it) satisfies the carpenter's mind.

It's interesting to think that Jesus was a carpenter. We don't know a lot about his endeavors in the trade, but I think it's safe to say that he would have spent much of his pre-ministry days in the shop. In the Middle East in the first century A.D., there was no air-conditioning. Imagine the discomfort of the heat, the frustration of hand working everything, the pain of cuts, sore muscles... Yet through it all, Jesus shaped and molded the raw materials into the objects he wanted.

Jesus really is in the business of carpentry. Yes, he constructed whatever carpenters built in that age, but he is a carpenter of lives even more. We are all born rough. Sin has warped our souls, marking us with holes, gashes, and imperfections on every face. We're fit for nothing but burning, really. Jesus, though, is the master carpenter. Once we become His, we are subject to His work. Jesus paid the eternal price for us-though we were worth not a penny-and is constantly at work mending, shaping, and fitting the broken pieces of our lives into a work of both beauty and utility.

Why does he do this? God loves us. By taking us from nothing and making us into something useful, He proves that His desire is for us to be beloved objects of use, not just a pile of waste. Not only that, but a carpenter's talent is proved by His work. Although we will never be finished in this life, it takes unfathomable skill to make scrap into product. Our lives are to show His glory. For that, I am eternally grateful and humbled. Thank you, Jesus, for the work of Your hands.