TIDBITS

Tonight felt like some serious college. Mainly just because I have been sitting at my computer for four hours straight typing up an outline to the 300 pages of reading I just did on Jonathan Edwards. Whew. I feel like a master of Edwards. That part feels kind of nice. Ask me anything Guelzo. I might just have the answer as long as it is about that man. :)

Tonight I also decided to take more advantage of my Y membership and go to a class called 'Aqua Kickboxing'. FUNFUN. The instructor Alden said I did a great job for it being my first time and it made me feel much stronger to let some of my aggression or energy out. Maybe I have more anger in me than i think. Maybe we all would have more anger than we think if we were told to let it out in dozens of quick hook punches and side kicks.

I got some good news tonight. Rhea called me and responded to a request I made saying that her and the Roxborough girls would be happy to welcome me into their small group. I am already in a small group at Circle of Hope, but I felt pretty demotivated by the fact that chances were slim at acheiving any lasting intimacy with those women. The women in THIS group however are already people I know, care about, and want to get to know better. I am really pumped for this prospect and have an overwhelming feeling that growth is going to just keep continuing this semester.

My counselor, Sharon has fired me up once again based on some of the more pressing concerns in my life currently to learn about and engage in a lot more intercessory prayer. I have a book on the subject I always meant to read and it looks like now is the time.

I thought about my sister a lot today because in Faith & Philosophy, we were discussing for a while how we are all called to pursue wisdom and knowledge. I know this is a passion of my sister's and of her boyfriend Adam as well. Yet I wonder if she would agree with my professor that knowledge, true knowledge is falsifiable. That does not make it false. It just means true knowledge is not certain. We could be wrong. That does not mean we should not acquire knowledge. Even if the knowledge we possess could be wrong, it is still of value if we have good reasons for believing it is true. Does that make sense, Sary? I know you would have loved to be there. Dr. Cary expresses that point so much more eloquently (and spastically!) :) than I do.

At IGE today, I got to do the coolest thing. I have to draw up this sort of marketing storyboard about our involvement as an organization with Uzbekistan, in particular, our relationship with one crucial man there named Dan. Dan is the leader of a church that was forced to go underground and was nearly crushed with persecution. He got thrown in jail for it. He came to Eastern in 2002 for the Brandywine Forum to speak on the DL. No one was even allowed to record it except IGE and his name wasnt allowed to be in the program for reasons of safety and discretion. And I got to listen to his speech. He talked about how he always questioned God, much like the prophets, for why he was called to do such difficult things and what good was coming out of it when all he could see was evil. And he experienced a miracle. His church all of a sudden, after one breakthrough experience of prayer, got registered by a government where it was previously illegal. My faith was really built up by his story.

I think one of my favorite things is watching the days grow longer. Seeing pink sunset clouds today at 5:20 really capped off my day perfectly.

May the Lord make His countenance shine upon you and give you peace.