I ran track in middle school and cross country in high school (as well as some Crazy 8 runs at Fun Fest), and one of the toughest parts was when I had to start kicking it into fifth gear for the last 400 meters of the race. I've learned that semesters in college can be very similar to cross country races. You start out strong with lots of energy, have to persevere in the middle, want to quit about 2/3 of the way through, get your second wind, get your third wind, and then you have to kick it in at the end.
So, here I am, with one week left of classes, followed by finals. I'm dead tired. I'm sick (I had to get excused from classes yesterday). I'm tired of doing these giant papers that all my teachers decided to have due this week (2 down, 1 to go). I'm tired of being up till 3:30 in the morning doing homework. I'm about 110% ready to go home. It's my most exhausted time, and it's the time that I have to work the hardest.
**Okay. End of my pity party.**
Actually, this has been an amazing, wonderful, fantastically incredible semester. And even this week has had some fun moments. I just have to push past this last part, and enjoy what I can for this last part of the semester.
I think there's always times we face in our lives when we're just trying to get by and get it over with. But it's important to still seek God out during those times, enjoy the little things, laugh, love, and live life to the fullest instead of just trying to get by. I'll try my best to do that over these last few weeks. We'll see how it goes.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Quick Post from Homework Alley
The past 3 weeks have been so hectic that I haven't really had the time to pop out some good posts. I was working on a bunch of projects before Thanksgiving break, then I was having way too much fun over Thanksgiving to be on the computer long, and this week I've finished one giant paper and have two to go. Plus, I'm getting sick, so that's lame. Anyways, I thought I would have some quick comments.
- Shaine Claiborne, the author of the Irresistible Revolution is coming to Searcy! For those of you who don't know, Shaine is a man who pretty much sold all he has and lives very simply in inner-city Philadelphia, ministering and being like Jesus to the impoverished in that city. He'll be speaking at Riverview High School at 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 8. Shaine's book has really affected a lot of my friends and our whole Wednesday night group is basically living off his philosophy. So, this is the equivalent of the Beatles coming to Searcy for our group.
- I'm adding two great new blogs to my "Blogs I Read" section. They are from my youth minister Kyle and my minister Craig back home. They both have a lot of cool stuff to say, so go check them out.
- I can't wait for the SEC Championship with by UT Vols taking on the LSU Tigers! I watched the Kentucky game with Wes and Matt on Saturday and it was one of the most stressful, emotional-draining games I've ever watched. But it was a sweet victory, and I'm proud of this team that has been able to do a whole lot when it looked like they weren't going to be able to do anything.
- What's wrong with my Titans? Our once rock solid defense has been struggling mightily lately, our running game has done nothing, and our red zone offense is horrendous. I figure every team has to face adversity at some point in the season, and how you respond to that decides what team you're going to be. So, we'll see in the next few weeks whether or not the Titans are contenders or pretenders.
- While we're talking about football, does anyone have the NFL Network? This is the biggest game of the year between the Packers and Cowboys and no one is going to get to watch it. It has everything you could want. Romo vs. Favre, the classic Green Bay and Dallas rivalry going back to the Ice Bowl in '67, and two 10-1 teams vying for home field advantage in the playoffs. But, it looks like I'll just have to catch highlights on Sportscenter.
- I just finished a 10 page paper on How We Come to Know, I have a big paper on Postmodernism due on Thursday, and I have a 10 page project on Christian Education due on Monday. When it rains it pours.
- We got our now annual Christmas lights at Harding turned on, and it is now so bright you can throw football or do your homework on the front lawn. Fun times!
DDG goes International
DDG Films Art has finally made it to the World Wide Web! If you want to watch the masterpiece Nerf Wars from Devin, Gill, and me, you can watch it on You Tube at the following:
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Going to Hunts-vegas!
I'm leaving Friday afternoon to Huntsville for Mayfair's fall retreat. I'm super excited to see the whole gang over there. It'll probably be the best weekend in the history of weekends. Keep us in your prayers!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Made Manifest
Today in Greek class we were translating the story of the healing of the blind man in John 9. When Jesus' disciples ask him who sinned to cause this man to be blind Jesus replied in verse 3,
"Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but in order that the works of God might be made manifest in him"-DPSV
(DPSV stands for Dylan Pyeatt Standard Version, because I translated that straight from the Greek. Yeah!.......sorry, I'm going to forget all my Greek knowledge in a few months, so I have to enjoy it while I can. Anyways, where were we? Oh yes...)
"Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but in order that the works of God might be made manifest in him"
We talked about how this statement would have been revolutionary to Jewish listeners at the time. The Jews based their belief of suffering on their misunderstanding of God's covenant with them, believing that all those who suffered were being punished for sin in their lives (you can see this belief played out in Job by the advice of the friends of Job).
What I find revolutionary is the idea that God can use suffering, and perhaps even create suffering to accomplish his mission. We discussed in class how each one of us was also created to make manifest the works of God. God uses all the baggage that we are given to create something beautiful in the great story he is writing. I do not say this to give some big explanation for why suffering is in this world, and I certainly do not think we should offer this explanation to those in the midst of some great loss. I simply say this because I love this bible story. I love how Jesus was able to change a story of sadness, loneliness, and poverty (which this blind man certainly experienced in the first century) into joy and hope. I also think this is a challenge for us. Just as God was glorified by this man, he should be glorified by us in our daily lives. People should see Christ in us despite our struggles and trials, and perhaps even because of our trials and struggles. May we all seek to have God be φανερωθη, or made manifest in the way that we speak, act and love each and every day.
What I find revolutionary is the idea that God can use suffering, and perhaps even create suffering to accomplish his mission. We discussed in class how each one of us was also created to make manifest the works of God. God uses all the baggage that we are given to create something beautiful in the great story he is writing. I do not say this to give some big explanation for why suffering is in this world, and I certainly do not think we should offer this explanation to those in the midst of some great loss. I simply say this because I love this bible story. I love how Jesus was able to change a story of sadness, loneliness, and poverty (which this blind man certainly experienced in the first century) into joy and hope. I also think this is a challenge for us. Just as God was glorified by this man, he should be glorified by us in our daily lives. People should see Christ in us despite our struggles and trials, and perhaps even because of our trials and struggles. May we all seek to have God be φανερωθη, or made manifest in the way that we speak, act and love each and every day.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Harding's Internet is Terrible....So This Post is very very late
Disclaimer: The weekend before last Mom and I went to Nashville to see the Titans/Raiders game. I wrote a post about it a few days later, and I was trying to put pictures from our trip (because the pictures were the best part of the post), but Harding's internet has been creeping and crawling the past few weeks, so I haven't been able to upload any pictures. I tried for several days to get them on and tried a variety of different methods. Finally, I made my way over to Midnight Oil, our coffee shop beside school to put the pictures on. It was still pretty slow over there, so I still didn't get to put all the pictures I wanted on. I guess I could have just made the post without pictures a long time ago......but I'm stubborn. So, here's the post I wrote last week, which seems very boring now. I know everything in this is out of date now. If you want to read it go ahead, if not, I don't blame you.
Anyways, a few weeks ago my Mom asked if I wanted her to come down for Parents Weekend at Harding. I really wanted to see her, but I told her, "Yeah, that would be great. But there's nothing really to do here in Searcy." So, we both decided we would try to meet up in Nashville and go see a Titans game at some point. Well, both of our schedules have been pretty busy, and it was looking like it would probably be till December till we could catch a good game. That all changed last Thursday.
I figured I would just scan EBAY for any future games and suddenly I saw it: 2 tickets that were due up in 15 minutes at $50 that no one had bid on yet. I kept waiting for it to go up and they never did. Finally, I called Mom to see if she wanted to make a spontaneous trip to Nashville. I made a bid with 45 seconds left and somehow got these tickets at $50.....probably the third best deal in history right next to the Babe Ruth trade and the Louisiana Purchase.
What made the weekend better was I got to see a stand up comedy show Friday night at UCA with Seth Myers (from Saturday Night Live) and Demetri Martin (from the Daily Show) with my friend Natalie. It was hilarious! Maybe it was because I was in comedy mode, but neither of them told a joke that I did not laugh at. I've pretty much decided that I would always rather see a comedian than a music concert. I would rather laugh for two hours than get pushed around in a mosh pit and not be able to understand the words of the music anyway. Seth was hilarious and I was a little surprised that he was that good at the stand up thing. Of course, Demetri was great. I've heard some of his comedy cd's, but it can't match seeing him in person.
The next morning I got in my Altima and headed for one of my favorite cities in the world.....NASHVILLE TENNESSEE!! The weather in Nashville was BEAUTIFUL (compared with the awful weather in Searcy) and it was just great to be around the city. I met up with Mom and we went to my favorite restaurant in Nashville that I used to always go to Lucy with: Ken's Japanese Restaurant. Then we went shopping and then went to the movies and saw Across the Universe, which was amazing. I'm a big Beatles fan, and the whole movie is a musical full of Beatles songs. It's probably the best movie I've seen this year. It was fun, emotional, a little trippy, and just fantastic all around. Then we swung by the hotel to catch the last few innings of Game 3 of the World Series to watch the Sox hold on to win a fairly close game and take a 3-0 lead.
The next morning we headed over to downtown Nashville, found a parking spot, and made out war to.....LP FIELD!!!! I love walking to a Titans game. You can feel the excitement in the air, everyone has on their Titans jerseys, and there's even a sense of community as we band together to cheer on our guys. It's also great making the walk over the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River in between downtown and the stadium. I still think it's one of the coolest spots in all of sports.
The game was fantastic. The crowd seemed a little subdued at first, but we got into it more and more as the game went along. It was close the whole time, and our defense played incredible! I can't overstate this enough.........our defensive line put pressure on Daunte Culpepper EVERY SINGLE TIME HE WENT BACK FOR A PASS! I haven't seen a Titans D-line since Jevone Kearse and Kenny Holms were rushing quarterbacks back in 2000. They made Daunte Culpepper look like......well......Daunte Culpepper. Despite a rough day from VY, our defense and running game were able to pull out a tight 13-9 win. What a game!
Of course, we missed Lucy a lot, since we always out in Nashville with her. So we said the empty seat beside us was for her.
After the game, Mom and I went to another of our Nashville favorite's SATCO. Then we said goodbye and I made a quick trip over to Lipscomb to see one of my favorite people in the whole world, my fellow intern, April Easley!!
Now, I was trying to get home as fast as I could because it was looking like the Red Sox were going to clinch the series that night. My A.M. Radio was broken, so I couldn't get the game, so I just had to rely on phone calls from my friends updating on the score. As I was going through the middle of Arkansas I lost cell phone service, so I just had to wait and try to roll through the dreaded I-64.
Finally I made it back to Harding, swung into a parking spot, and sprinted up to my room. I made it in to watch Okie close things down in the 7th. Then I watched with delight as we got some insurance runs and as Papelbon closed the door in the ninth. Then Paps threw his red-hot fastball got the strikeout for the third out, made his insane-asylum crazy victory face as Varitek and the rest of the Red Sox piled onto the pitching mound. The 2007 Red Sox.....WORLD CHAMPIONS!! I called and left a message with Laura in Brazil to celebrate and sat there in delighted exhaustion watching the team celebrate. I didn't run around the dorm this time. I was just too tired from the weekend. But this was even better, I just got to enjoy it with a huge grin on my face and relax in my joy.
Wow! So, pretty much this week I've been recovering from the exhausting weekend and still enjoying all the good times I had. Times like these are really special, and it doesn't get much better than weekends like this. I just thank God for everything and everyone I got to enjoy it with, especially Mom. Phew....can this semester get any better?
Anyways, a few weeks ago my Mom asked if I wanted her to come down for Parents Weekend at Harding. I really wanted to see her, but I told her, "Yeah, that would be great. But there's nothing really to do here in Searcy." So, we both decided we would try to meet up in Nashville and go see a Titans game at some point. Well, both of our schedules have been pretty busy, and it was looking like it would probably be till December till we could catch a good game. That all changed last Thursday.
I figured I would just scan EBAY for any future games and suddenly I saw it: 2 tickets that were due up in 15 minutes at $50 that no one had bid on yet. I kept waiting for it to go up and they never did. Finally, I called Mom to see if she wanted to make a spontaneous trip to Nashville. I made a bid with 45 seconds left and somehow got these tickets at $50.....probably the third best deal in history right next to the Babe Ruth trade and the Louisiana Purchase.
What made the weekend better was I got to see a stand up comedy show Friday night at UCA with Seth Myers (from Saturday Night Live) and Demetri Martin (from the Daily Show) with my friend Natalie. It was hilarious! Maybe it was because I was in comedy mode, but neither of them told a joke that I did not laugh at. I've pretty much decided that I would always rather see a comedian than a music concert. I would rather laugh for two hours than get pushed around in a mosh pit and not be able to understand the words of the music anyway. Seth was hilarious and I was a little surprised that he was that good at the stand up thing. Of course, Demetri was great. I've heard some of his comedy cd's, but it can't match seeing him in person.
The next morning I got in my Altima and headed for one of my favorite cities in the world.....NASHVILLE TENNESSEE!! The weather in Nashville was BEAUTIFUL (compared with the awful weather in Searcy) and it was just great to be around the city. I met up with Mom and we went to my favorite restaurant in Nashville that I used to always go to Lucy with: Ken's Japanese Restaurant. Then we went shopping and then went to the movies and saw Across the Universe, which was amazing. I'm a big Beatles fan, and the whole movie is a musical full of Beatles songs. It's probably the best movie I've seen this year. It was fun, emotional, a little trippy, and just fantastic all around. Then we swung by the hotel to catch the last few innings of Game 3 of the World Series to watch the Sox hold on to win a fairly close game and take a 3-0 lead.
The next morning we headed over to downtown Nashville, found a parking spot, and made out war to.....LP FIELD!!!! I love walking to a Titans game. You can feel the excitement in the air, everyone has on their Titans jerseys, and there's even a sense of community as we band together to cheer on our guys. It's also great making the walk over the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River in between downtown and the stadium. I still think it's one of the coolest spots in all of sports.
The game was fantastic. The crowd seemed a little subdued at first, but we got into it more and more as the game went along. It was close the whole time, and our defense played incredible! I can't overstate this enough.........our defensive line put pressure on Daunte Culpepper EVERY SINGLE TIME HE WENT BACK FOR A PASS! I haven't seen a Titans D-line since Jevone Kearse and Kenny Holms were rushing quarterbacks back in 2000. They made Daunte Culpepper look like......well......Daunte Culpepper. Despite a rough day from VY, our defense and running game were able to pull out a tight 13-9 win. What a game!
Of course, we missed Lucy a lot, since we always out in Nashville with her. So we said the empty seat beside us was for her.
After the game, Mom and I went to another of our Nashville favorite's SATCO. Then we said goodbye and I made a quick trip over to Lipscomb to see one of my favorite people in the whole world, my fellow intern, April Easley!!
Now, I was trying to get home as fast as I could because it was looking like the Red Sox were going to clinch the series that night. My A.M. Radio was broken, so I couldn't get the game, so I just had to rely on phone calls from my friends updating on the score. As I was going through the middle of Arkansas I lost cell phone service, so I just had to wait and try to roll through the dreaded I-64.
Finally I made it back to Harding, swung into a parking spot, and sprinted up to my room. I made it in to watch Okie close things down in the 7th. Then I watched with delight as we got some insurance runs and as Papelbon closed the door in the ninth. Then Paps threw his red-hot fastball got the strikeout for the third out, made his insane-asylum crazy victory face as Varitek and the rest of the Red Sox piled onto the pitching mound. The 2007 Red Sox.....WORLD CHAMPIONS!! I called and left a message with Laura in Brazil to celebrate and sat there in delighted exhaustion watching the team celebrate. I didn't run around the dorm this time. I was just too tired from the weekend. But this was even better, I just got to enjoy it with a huge grin on my face and relax in my joy.Wow! So, pretty much this week I've been recovering from the exhausting weekend and still enjoying all the good times I had. Times like these are really special, and it doesn't get much better than weekends like this. I just thank God for everything and everyone I got to enjoy it with, especially Mom. Phew....can this semester get any better?
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