Big sigh of relief

Most of you know that I’m not normally one to stay up until unheard of hours of the morning for just any reason. There was a time, though, when I did regularly stay up until those unheard of hours and that time was known as “freshman year”. I may have told some of you this story at some point in time, but its one of the most amusing in my life, so it bears repeating. Upon my arrival at JBC, I was grinning all over myself with excitement just being there. It was a great atmosphere with lots of new people to meet and things to do. My first day there, my roommate, who was a senior, arrived early to move his sister. Used to going to bed at about 10 pm, I settled in for the night. Saturday was done. The next day, I learned Patrick had come in later and found me asleep walking in around 11 or so. That day many of the upper classmen arrived and Patrick had all his friends over in our room that evening. It was awesome! Me surrounded by a bunch of seniors, who were the cream of the crop guys on campus, just sitting in MY room hanging out. Well, when everyone left, it was 3 am!!! I didn’t feel that bad at the time, but I had testing and meetings all day on Monday. So, I set my watch, which I held in my hand while I slept, to wake me up at 7 for our 8:00 meetings. I got up that morning, not at 7 as planned, but at 8:43!!! Evidently, I flinched when the alarm went off and fell right back to sleep! I had missed our freshman class picture and the first half hour of our orientation meeting! It’s a beautiful story. One for the ages. All that to say I stayed up until 3 doing a paper Monday night (Tuesday morning) that was due in the afternoon. I was dragging all day yesterday but I turned in a quality paper. I went to bed last night without setting the alarm, but got up at 7 anyways (Thanks for the wake-up call, Michael). This morning I can breathe a big sigh of relief that that paper is done and out of the way and I can begin focusing on the end of the semester.

Proverbs 3:3-4 says, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man”. Love and faithfulness might be the two biggest requirements God has of us. We are commanded to keep them and never let them leave us. How? It says here to “bind them around your neck” and “write them on the tablet of your heart”. It would be silly for me to ask if anyone has ever seen any of the WWJD? material, so I won’t. But this is a pretty good modern example of this principle if it’s used correctly. The idea is to keep the Word of God in front of you at all times. To “write them on the tablet of your heart” is to know and memorize the Word. In this time, a tablet was a piece of stone where the words were carved into it. They weren’t going anywhere! So to have these words on the tablet of your heart is to keep them close and never let them go. In doing so, we’ll win favor with God and everyone around us. Why is this important? To God, we show our allegiance and devotion and commitment to his way of life. To man, these words and behaviors will start to be lived out and people will take notice of our good lives. So, grab your Bible and your nylon jewelry of choice and start taking this Word to heart.

We’re bowling on the 12th (next Friday). Plan on 7-9 pm.

Later…