Bad to Good

Wow. Yesterday really started out bad. First, I learned that I had misplaced or not saved the revisions that I had done last week on my thesis! For a couple seconds, I was ready to quit (but just a couple. It wasn't like I had lost 70 pages or anything). Then, (actually before the other thing) another incident occurred, the details of which I can't really discuss openly. It completely caught me off guard, but it made me mad. Like, the most mad I had been in a long time! It takes a lot to get me mad, but I was ready to throw down! Or throw in the towel. Being mad is such a weird feeling. It's like being charged with adrenaline, being really motivated & focused, but not able to control the focus. It controls you. I was wide-eyed, my heart was racing, I felt tense like I just needed to do something active or I was going to explode. (Weird, huh?) Anyways, I ran into Fred, one of my fave professors, who's also becoming a good friend, and he gave me some wise counsel about how to deal with it. He told me to respond in love, grace, and humility, and not react out of charged-up rage like I wanted to. In retaliating, or even trying to defend myself to my accusers, I would lose in the long run, he told me. So, after that, I calmed down (even more by that point), finished my re-revisions, and headed home feeling better. Laura also got word that she'd been offered not one, but two new jobs watching triplets! So, she was then in a good position to choose between two really good options. It's neat how God works sometimes. I wasn't expecting either of those scenarios to occur, but they did and we saw God's hand in the results. So , the moral of the story is, even though it might feel good to use your hands to solve your problems, leave room so God can use his to solve it right. (You have to use fewer ice packs that way!)

Waiting for technology to catch up

Well, I'm waiting on Travelocity to accept my registration for a plane ticket to England. Somehow, they're "experiencing technical difficulties" which is really frustrating. Mostly it's frustrating because I'm waiting all this time and the price on the flight I'm waiting on has gone up twice since Monday! Yikes! So, I'm a little concerned, but I won't lose sleep over it.

I'm just about to finish a year-long Bible reading program. Sad to say, but it's the first time I've ever done it! Yeah, it's a shame. But it's been good. I've read parts of the Bible (all of it) that I hadn't before and learned some things that I hadn't learned, or at least had forgotten since Doc Reece's OT classes.

I recently joined the rest of the world and opened up a community networking page thingy on FaceBook. I'm still a little lost on there, but my wife's been helpful in showing me how to more appropriately and efficiently waste my time. Thanks, honey! (She's so great!) So if you care that much about me, you can find me there, too. That's it. Later.

No better time...right?

"There's no better time than the present." Someone somewhere said that once. I sorta, kinda believe it. But I'll not take the time to comment on it...at the present time. I guess some people might want to know how things have been in my life. Some don't care. Those people won't read this. For those that do care: Yeah, I really did just fall off the blogging wagon. I really loved writing and posting those little commentaries on Proverbs. They really helped me, even if no one else benefitted from them. They're still there for anyone who's interested in looking at them. I probably won't jump back into that for a while.
LeRoy is a pretty normal little mid-western town. Just like any other, it has its ups and downs. The mindset here is really strange. There is a small contingent of folks who have lived their entire lives here (sidebar: Laura tells me every so often that here greatest fear is that God is going to have us stay here forever! The thought frightens me, too.) and will eventually be buried here. Then there's the folks, like us, who have moved into town because of a job. Being so close to Bloomington, LeRoy has become a bedroom community for State Farm workers and a number of other employers. What sticks out to me as strange is that everyone basically has this mindset of "that's the way it's always been." I suppose that's ok for the born-here group, but how can a person say that after living here only 5 or so years!!! It's a little frustrating at points...humorous at others. Even stranger, many of the kids of this second group of people think like old people! That's what kills me! There are few things more frustrating for a youth minister than having a youth group full of geriatric-minded teenagers!
That's my setting. I'm sure lots of folks can relate. It's not a bad little town, and I don't hate being here (for the majority of the time). I've really come to love some of the people here and I want to do my best to make a positive impact for the kingdom while I'm here. I'm not going to change the minds of everyone in town. I don't even want to try! But, if I can help them see Jesus and be Jesus in this little town, then I've accomplished that for which I've come to do.

Enjoy your day.

Still alive

Hey there,
Remember me? I'm still here...kickin' it in LeRoy. Sorry I've been delinquent in posting stuff. I kinda fell off the wagon after I moved. I just openned a FaceBook account so you can look at my pretty face there if you'd like. Thesis work has begun and I'm going to graduate with an MA in Contemporary Theology in May...do or die! Laura's good. Cute as ever. If you read this after I posted it, I love her more now than I did when I wrote it. Also, I love Starbucks coffee more now than I did when I posted this (but not in the same way...obviously). Anyhoo, know that I'm well...enjoy your Christmas season...I might get back on the blogging wagon...I might not.
Peace.