Crunch time

I think that it's safe to say that we're officially in "crunch time." By we, I mean anyone who is a student or who works on a school-year calendar. For Seniors at Northview, they have something like 35 school days left, which is roughly 7 weeks. The rest have about 8, I think. For me, I have 5 weeks of school left and 6 before I get married. Woooo!!!! In all my excitement about this, I do realize that the next 6 weeks will be the busiest 6 of my life. I've got quite a bit of work to do for camp, school, BCC, and the wedding between now and then. However, these things do not pose an insurrmountable obstacle. I love the movie What About Bob? In the movie, Bob is always trying to take "baby steps", and that's how I'll do life for the next 6 weeks. Baby steps. Little by little. "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer to the old bit of wisdom: "One bite at a time." So as the days go by and anxious people, like myself and most Seniors I know, keep checking off the squares on their calendars, just remember: watch your step, and chew slowly.

Proverbs 6:9 says, "How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?" This proverb asks the question many parents of highschoolers ask every morning around 7 am. "When are you going to get up? When are you going to start getting ready for school?" Tough questions to answer (especially in the week following Spring Break!). Our greasy friend the sluggard lacks enthusiasm and motivation. I think for the most part, most people going through life do as well, at least on some levels. We get up (with much reluctance), go through the same old routine, go home afterwards, watch some tube ( or flat screen if you're trendy enough), then go to bed dreading that when you open your eyes, you have to go through it all over again. Not an attractive way to go through life. This isn't the life that the Bible promotes, however. I think even most Christians miss this! We're all too often so surrounded by those who trudge through life and simply fall in line with the rest. Status quo. Jesus' life was anything but status quo and far from lacking enthusiasm, motivation, zeal, fervor, excitement...(you get the idea). Jealous yet? Maybe that's the motivation you need! It could at least be a starting point! But what's great about Jesus' life is that he invites us to live the same life even today. Jesus says in John 10:10 that "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly", or "...have it to the full". An abundant life is not one in which a snooze button gets regular use. Try reading through the Gospels to see the enthusiasm that Jesus had for life. Be careful, though. You may just end up jealous and do something crazy...like set your alarm 5 minutes earlier to get a start on your day! Enjoy!

Later...

JBC Report

All right. I told you that I'd give a review of the JBC Spring Retreat when I got back in the office today, but before I do, I need to give a little background to lead up to the trip. We originally had 12 students signed up to go and slowly that number dwindled to 2! Some had late plans come up over Spring Break, one had miscalculated when his SB started, others had sport or job commitments, and the final kicker, we got bit by the flu bug! I had it on Tuesday but recovered, and then two other families had it for the day leading up to our departure and couldn't make the trip. So, on Thursday morning, Austin, Michael, my Laura, and I headed to Tennessee on a beautiful sunny day for the Spring Retreat. "Smooth sailing" describes the first 3/4 of the trip until we got into TN when we met almost 2 hours of road construction traffic. The craziest part of this was where the traffic was down to two lanes due to the south bound two lanes not being there! A sink hole had formed under I-75 and eventually 3/4 of the road slid down the mountain! Talk about a bump in the road. Anyhoo, we got to campus and hung out there most of the evening. We left for the mountains the next morning amid forcasts of rain (like 99% chance of rain.) We made it to the mountains where we went rock hopping and drove to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in TN, and only got wet at the top! The rest of the daylight hours were great. The Retreat started with a cookout and the Preacher Grand Prix wagon race. Pete Isenberg spoke on "Holy Smoke", out of Isaiah 6. His three sermons centered on three statements out of the first part of the chapter: "The king is dead" (What's on the throne of your life?), "Woe is me!" (Realizing our sin & surrendering), and "Who will go?" (Accepting God's call on our lives). All great stuff. The drive home was about as eventful as the drive down with some added scenery in an attempt to avoid the road construction. We got home late but safe and I'm already looking forward to the next time I get to go down. If you get a chance, ask Michael or Austin what they thought of the trip. Their opinion is more valuable than mine. But you had to read this to find that out!

Proverbs 4:9 says, "She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor". This section of the chapter begins with a father telling his son to get wisdom and this is one of the results. It is a profitable thing to have and desirable to gain. Garlands and crowns are obvious signs of honor (think Julius Caesar and Queen Elizabeth) and the spiritual rewards of wisdom can be compared to this. It isn't hard to see that the benefits from gaining wisdom can be physical in nature as well, in the form of promitions or even managing money better. These things shouldn't necessarily be the goal, but can still be an expected by-product. The getting of wisdom is ulitmately for God's glory, to live more like Jesus in this world in which wisdom is seriously lacking. But in this world, one with wisdom will stand out like a person wearing a crown.

Later...