5 years later, 60-70% true.

Relient K - College Kids
Two Lefts Don't Make a Right... But Three Do.
(Edited for accuracy. :-P)

Someone please save us, us college kids
What my parents told me is what I did
They said go to school and be a college kid
But in the end midst of it I questioned why I did

I'm poor, I'm starving, I'm flat broke, I've got no cash to spend
Sell all my books for front row tickets to Dave Matthews Band
My girlfriend's at another school I know this year will test her
I called, found out she had 3 other boyfriends last semester

[Chorus]
And that's why I say
Oh no, not for me, not for me
Call it torture, call it university
No, arts and crafts is all I need
I'll take calligraphy and then I'll make a fake degree

80 100 grand later I found out that all I had learned
Is that you should show up to take your finals and your midterms
The party scene is kinda mean, I think it's sick and twisted
The navy showed up at my dorm and claimed that I enlisted

[Chorus]

Don't get excited, she'll say "no" without a doubt you see
And I've decided college girls just won't go out with me
They make me nervous and they always catch me off my guard
Like cell phone service I drop out 'cause college is too hard

It's time to call my father
'Cause it's his alma mater
Good grades aren't what they seem
I think he knows the dean
It's time to call my father
Cause it's his alma mater
He said he's proud of me
But college always was his dream (My dad did go to college, but he knew I could do better than he)
And I would always say it's not for me

[Chorus]

Phi, beta, delta, kappa
Do what will make you God happy
Do what you feel know is right
Only but one thing matters
Learn how to live your life.


5 years later and it's more relevant than ever... Except for the fact that I'm going back to school with renewed fervor and a desire to excel academically, as well as spiritually, and hopefully, eventually, relationally. But that comes later, and in whatever timing God deems appropriate. Blasted God, not fitting into my timetable. The nerve. ;-) Here's to the future! It's out of my control, and I'm fine with that! :-D (But it's scary!)

Stephen(Quivering In God's Hands)

Timing. It happens.

Last Saturday I went to a session on Do Hard Things, an idea, and now a book, and a "Rebeloution" started by Alex and Brett Harris, which is a "Teenage rebellion against low expectations" as they call it. It was pretty encouraging, to see how god can use you to do hard things, and how that benefits everybody. We picked up the book and a DVD of the conference (previously recorded... :-p), and I plan to read through it before I leave for school. Hopefully I'll be able to apply it... Well, I know I'll be able to apply it somehow, with God's help, since that is the premise.

Secondly, I'd gotten pretty frustrated with a certain someone just before that, because it seemed we were in a quandary and one of us needed to make a decision. That decision hasn't come yet, but my attitude has changed about it, or rather, gotten more firm in one direction, and I'm being intentionally vague. Partly because I'm not exactly sure what's ahead, partly because it may not matter, and partly because I'd like to protect the somewhat innocent and/or guilty.

Thirdly, because of these issues, I desired to talk with a pastor about them and ask for advice, being quite blunt and honest and hoping for a direction that I realized may not come. But, it turned out that that pastor was the one giving the sermon yesterday (we have seven pastors, btw) and it happened to be on faith, and how God uses it, specifically how our flawed faith looks for God to fix the situation, when really God wants to draw us closer to him and transform our faith into a faith in Himself, rather than His actions. It was pretty intense, cause it applied to my issues at the moment, and it seemed to apply to another friend's life, and it was the pastor I'd wanted to talk to. I spoke with him briefly after church was over and asked him for a meeting sometime this week, which I need to email him about presently. We'll see how that goes.

Fourthly, I was really feeling not too great about stuff and life and myself and wanting to smack a certain person over the head, or eliminate another from the picture to make things easier... which I would never physically do, I realized. Luckily, I was going out to play paintball after church, which I was looking forward to, and hoped it would lighten my spirits possibly. So, we got there, and it was looking good for a bit, we set up the teams, and as the rules were being explained, it got really dark... an ominous sign. Then we sent everybody to their bases, and while we were waiting to start, it started to drizzle, then sprinkle, and eventually downpour... We all got soaked. I had brought my electronic gun too, so I was keeping it dry under my shirt, which didn't help too much. We played on, slowly, and after about half an hour or 45 minutes, it let up, and we kept playing. All in all, at the end of the day, I was feeling slightly better, and was ready to tackle life again and write up this post, which I didn't get to because of other distractions later, but that's another story.

In summary, God is not against me, and however He works things will be OK with me. It's alright I guess to have the control taken out of my hands, but I really wish He would give some guidance to others on the situation I'm in. Unfortunately, I can't change them, only myself. So, I will continue to work on being a competent leader, and be diligent in school and in life, and in working on relationships, which are the most important part of life.

I saw a T-shirt at the Do Hard Things seminar that had on the back of it: "Live. Love. Lead." and on the front, something like "Man School". I want that shirt, because it is a great motto to live by, and one I'll be working on probably for the rest of my life, but most pressingly in the next coming months. I also thought that there a lot of other "L" words that might be useful for life, such as "Learn", "Laugh", "Listen", and many others. I'll be editing this post with more as I find more, feel free to comment with your own wholesome additions.

Stephe(L^3)

Another fun post

Not too much to report on the home front, except class is going, and I still don't have a job, and my CD is suddenly losing much of its value (in that I will have debts to pay off, and that's my only source of cash for the foreseeable future. I did however manage to land a job on campus for next semester, due to my magnificent human-networking skills... Actually it was a friend that offered me the position, by adding me to the team I'll be increasing the department's workforce by 50%. (Have some quick math, enjoy!) So, it looks like it should be alright, and I'll get some experience in a field that at least somewhat resembles what I'll be working with once I graduate. I've been fascinated by circuits as of late though... blame it on Physics II. Magnetism however, is a beast. Electric fields too, but at least those are in the scope of the course. :-/ Anywho, I digress. On to the funny! If you watch Diggnation regularly you might have already seen this one, but I thought it was pretty good. It's a list of "Twenty-five Signs You've Grown Up."
Now, I can personally attest to several of them, and of course it's from a worldview that is not my own, but on the whole it's a good list. Here are some of my favorites.

#4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.

#11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you. (Pretty awkward, actually...)

#16. You take naps.

#21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time. (Of course I eat it at breakfast time, I also eat it at other times. Pizza isn't bad though. ;-)

Heh, well I guess I've still got a little ways to go. I think most of them depend on me graduating from college first, so once I pass that mile marker, I'll knock several out at once. Until then, it's just a lot of hurry up and wait.

Stephe(growing)

Um... Dang.

No fence sitting, please

#341. Being Switzerland (Or me and the "Family Guy")
from Stuff Christians Like by Prodigal Jon
I often try my best to please everyone, but I also try to choose the best path. Usually, however, that ends up being a mediocre path, and no one really knows what's best. I do what I enjoy and judge it based on if it's not bad. This is not the right way.

... You see, sometimes I live my life as if it's possible to be Switzerland. I pretend in my head that there are three paths to choose in this world. There is God's way, satan's way and neutral. But there's not, over and over again that is established in the Bible. Jesus even says in Mark 9, "for whoever is not against us is for us."
...
But I don't live that way. I have rewritten that verse to read, "Anything that is not inherently evil or illegal is OK." That takes God out of the picture. That takes the holy and the pure out of the picture. And it leaves me watching the show, "Family Guy."
...
Here's the thing though, I trick myself into thinking it's OK because it's not technically evil. I mean porn, witchcraft, the occult, those things are clearly not healthy. Family Guy is just a crass cartoon. Drugs, stealing, lying, those are clearly sins. Family Guy is just a 30 minute television show. I could do this all day.
...
The tricky thing about this whole idea is that it's so easy to corrupt into being judgmental. For me to say, "my definition of faith is the only right one and if you don't like it you are siding with the devil. You're such a pagan."

I don't have a clear answer for that, but I do have a thought. Maybe it's not about getting one answer and then moving on with your entire life as if you've been given the formula or secret code to God. Maybe it's about doing what Paul said, putting the question of good or evil to everything we face? Maybe it's about constant use.

I will probably make 100 decisions this weekend. Instead of jumping in as fast as I can, I hope I ask myself which side am I choosing. Is this good or evil? Wrong or right?

In other words, don't sit on the fence, cause all you'll get out of it are splinters in your butt.

A thinking post. With links!

So, I've got another "they said it first" post, with a little introspective commenting to spare.

1. #329. Arguing about the "wives submit to your husbands" idea. from Stuff Christians Like by Prodigal Jon
He doesn't actually argue about that idea, nor does he set out to explain it, but he does lay out a "quick list of the things that have kept my marriage not insane." ;-) These include:
1. Don't call tasks around the house "chores."
2. Don't piggyback activities.
3. All exercise is real.
4. Don't say you are "babysitting" your own kids. and
5. Back rubs should not be timed.
The last one is, of course, the most important. ;-)


2. #330. Saying "if only"
In short, it's a bad habit to get into. That's pretty easy to get your head around, but if you're not careful, watch out! From his post:

If only is something we Christians like to say when faced with a temptation.
...
If only is a phrase I use to medicate myself. Instead of turning to God in a time of need, I pretend the only thing that stands between me and perfect happiness is one "if only."
...
I might be the only one with an "if only" in my life. Maybe you have never thought, "If only I could get married, then I would be happy," or "If only I had a different job, then I would be worry free." But if you have, if you are at all like me, I want to propose something. I think we need to retire the phrase "if only." Let's send it to an early grave. Let's strike it from our vocabularies and pull it from our hearts, because it's one of those lies that holds us back from seeing what is truly beautiful about our own lives. It takes our eyes of the good that already exists. It makes us blind.

I agree. We can't forsake what we have for what may be, but we also need to make sure that what we have is what God wants us to have, otherwise He may make things rough on us if we settle for it cause it's easy and cling to it when it's hard and He tries to take it away from us.


3. #335. Red Bull Christianity

Have you ever wondered what the prodigal son did the day after the welcome home party? I mean honestly, once the welcome home banners were down and the floor was swept and the sun came back up after a long night of celebrating, what did he do? How did he spend that day?

I don't know, but I do know how I spent the first few months after my most significant prodigal chapter. I spent them sprinting. I spent them running as hard as I could for the Lord. I was overwhelmed by this sense that I had to make up for all the lost time. Sin had swallowed so many years of my life and I felt guilty for the wasted time. It was now my job to fix 30 years of sin with a few months of intense holiness.

So I got drunk on Red Bull Christianity.

I really thought that was how God worked. ...I believed that I had to express my faith in hyperspeed. ... I couldn't do it. I failed, again. Do you know why? Because that's not what God wants. ... I want to tell you one of the reasons I am a huge fan of God.

In Isaiah 30:15 He lays out a pretty simple formula for life and in it, He expresses something really powerful. Here is the verse:

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it."

I love that our God is a fan of rest. I love that in His mind, rest is important. I love that our God demands we take naps. But I ignore that demand all too often.

Christian culture has done a really big disservice when it comes to this verse. In some ways, we've deleted the phrase "and rest." ... But here's the thing, I don't think it's accidental that God paired them together. I think He knows how exhausting it is to repent. I think He knows that at the end of a prodigal journey, when we have repented by walking home, the last thing we need is to run around as fast as we can and make up for lost time. No not that, never that. What we need is rest. What we need is quietness and trust.

I'm writing a book about the prodigal son because I think I might know what he did the day after the welcome home party. If he listened to his father. If he took the advice of God, it's not too hard to imagine.

I think the first thing he did was sleep in.

Now that's a handful... I don't ever remember seeing that verse, but I'm gonna save it to read over much more often. It's a real smack in my face when I'm hit with a verse like that and I'm trying to do my best to please God on my own strength. I can't. It's not possible. Only when I rest in Him are my actions pleasing to Him. Now, he isn't saying that we can just sleep the days away and be perfect Christians, we should be reminded of the sluggard. But we also can't make up for lost time, we just have to work with the time we're given.



4. 
This one I just thought was cute and funny.


5. Are tattoos sinful?
I say no. I say it's kindof like the meat offered to idols that Paul was talking about, except it's different because once you've got one, you've got one. You can't take off your tattoo when it makes other people uncomfortable. But it's also not going to make anyone else sin, and like any piece of art, they can be beautiful, or they can be grotesque. I think I'll go with simple and/or beautiful, thank you. But not on my body. Not for me, not now.


6. #339. Forgiveness (or lessons from the Cuban torture specialist)
This one hit me too, mainly cause it's on the topic of forgiveness, something I need to give a whole freaking lot of to a certain someone. To you, I forgive you, would you forgive me? I'll forgive you and ask again with each medium I can think of to say it. :-)

Stephe

Short post

Yeah, so it looks like I won't be posting anytime soon, probably not till Saturday, since Physics is threatening to take over my life for the next month, I do so hope it doesn't. I also hope the AmLit professor has mercy on me for not turning in the take-home test on time. Again, stupid physics. It's smarter than me, and it knows it.

Stephe(surviving)

Pictures!

Alrighty, here's a prettyful (pun intended. x.x) post o' pics for ya. I got a kick out of them, and I hope you will too.









As a side note, I'm thinking these could possibly be used as a "my life in pictures" kinda deal... weird. And amazingly odd how teh interwebs always seems how to read my mind.

Stephe(being watched?)

Linky!

Ok folks, lotsa links. I encourage you to seek out and obtain subscriptions to the blogs I'll mention, but if not, I'll still probably still pull from them occasionally in the future.

First off, I think I'll summarize the first three, three Boundless articles, talking, as usual, about relationships.

• "Our One-Track Mind," by John Thomas replies to a readers questions about their stance on marriage, why it seems to be presented as formulaic and dry. He says he'd rather "marry a non-christian who I could have a happy family with, than marry a Christian, doing it your way, and be unhappy because we married purely on the grounds we both believed in God and followed Jesus."
  Obviously the answer is that there is a lot more to it than marrying "purely" on the grounds of shared faith, but that it's a non-negotiable part of the mix. There are many more great points that they make that I subscribe to, so read up on it.



• "Settling," by Scott Croft is another great article that expands on a previous article, entitled "When to Settle," by Candice Watters. This article is basically a reinforcement of the fact that marriage doesn't solve all issues, and that it won't magically fulfill your every need. Here's a quote:

  Every person who decides to marry makes the decision to marry a sinner. That means you will marry someone who is at some level selfish, who has insecurities and an ego, who has annoying tendencies that you will only discover after marriage because they will only be revealed in that intimate context. And don't forget, your spouse will have married the same type of person. As sinners, we all "settle" for marriage to a person who will not always meet our sinful, individualized, selfish whims, who will not be the spouse we "dreamed of" every day, and who likely entered the bargain with some level of expectation that you were going to be the one for them.
  
  It's also true that anyone who enters marriage expecting it to serve as a substitute for Christ in the ultimate fulfillment of his or her own desires for companionship, love, intimacy, security or anything else will indeed be disillusioned — quickly. It's a fallen world, and we are sinners. We cannot gain in any earthly relationship what the world tells us to seek from "romance" and marriage. We all settle.

  
  Also, she makes the point that no Christian should "settle" in a marriage, using it to replace the fulfillment they should be getting from God. Another great read. I learned something.



• The last one really ties into the article on settling, because it attempts to knock down our selfish desires a bit and make us realize we shouldn't be looking for someone that "qualifies" in every single little detail we might come up with for someone to "make the list" of our affection. Rather we should be looking as peasants, focusing on one big thing, the important thing, rather than many small things. Of course, there are small things that may make the relationship nicer and smoother, but there must be a very few big things that are at the core of our requirements list. "Looking for Love Like a Peasant," by A.J. Kiesling is another should-read.

The rest I think I'll try and condense to a sentence or two, cause I might as well make a separate blog post for each if they're all gonna be as long as those "summaries" I just wrote. :-p

• Stuff Christians Like


• The Unaccountability Partner
Guilty of this, unfortunately. I hope to find someone I can be truly uncomfortable, yet completely honest with when I get down to Texas, for I shall be spending much time there.

• Telling someone the sermon was for them
Guilty of this as well. In fact, towards the beginning of this summer I told someone that an entire series of sermons was for them. I wonder if they've even listened to them. They were definitely good for me as well, but I may not have emphasized that as much. I think I'll go back and listen to them again.

• Too many kaleidoscopes, not enough telescopes.
This one I'm tempted to tell someone that this is for them as well, but I can definitely apply it to my life. A lot. Not really sure how to yet, but God's still working, and He ain't finished yet!

That's it for now, I'm caught up to about yesterday on the thought provoking blogs. I'll post a picture-ful blog tomorrow most likely.

I read too much.

I definitely read too many good things... I've also got to catch up a bit on the blog. There are so many other blog posts that are awesome and good and applicable and all that... I think I will so a link post sometime soon, just to get them off my plate. Also, I'll highly recommend that you subscribe to the feeds yourself so that you too can get the full goodness of the blogs I read.

Stephe(behind)

It's now 1:50 AM

And, after three short days, I've just finished catching up on Questionable Content, the webcomic that mimics, mirrors, and mocks my relationship with Laura in so many ways it's not funny, but in some ways it is. I now have four words of advice for her, straight from my own mouth. They are: SNAP. OUT. OF. IT.

Stephe(much more to say)

Comic profundity

I'd never think I'd read something so profound in a comic about everyday life, but I suppose XKCD has its moments too... anyways, since I'm now hooked on Questionable Content, I've been reading it pretty much non-stop in the afternoons (since about two days ago...). Which is a bad thing, seeing as I've got a paper due in two days that I haven't written much more than a concept draft of. But enough of me rambling, on to the quote!

Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past,
Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future,
And common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now.
Questionable Content #976

Extremely good advice, in my opinion.

Stephe(wondering and pondering)