Sometimes God's plan includes socks...

This last weekend was the Inter-Varsity Fall Conference in Winter Park, which I was blessed to be able to attend. Like I was able to do after RMGA, I would like to share some of what God spoke to me with you. There are two reasons for this. One is that it forces me to evaluate it in words for myself. Another is that I get to share just how amazing God is with you, my friends. Yet another is that it would be sad to just take what He's given me and keep it to myself. Several times this weekend, I heard emphasis on being filled "like a funnel or like a tube" - stuff goes out, but is replaced faster from above.

God has started an amazing work this last month. I keep seeing little bits of a great work. I wish that He would just show me all of it at once, but that's not how my God works. It builds my faith in Him just to be still and wait for His move. I was amazed this weekend on just how perfect God set me up. If I had not gone to RMGA, I totally would not have been prepared for what happened this weekend. If I had not started this blog, I would not have written the last post ("With God, all is backwards"). A word about that post. Typically, I am not a fan of what is referred to as "sense-line" writing, and I didn't mean it to come out the way it did. God totally led me word by word, and while I didn't think it looked anywhere close to good, I think I've heard the most positive responses from that one post. Maybe God really does know what He's doing. (In case you couldn't tell, the last sentence is quite facetious.)

To whet your appetite for more Fall Conference goodness, I have a short story about one instance where God perfectly arranged my weekend. My physics tutoring ran late Friday afternoon, so I packed my weekend duffel in an amazing hurry. After all, it's only 2 1/2 days, so all I have to do is throw in a bunch of clothes and call it good, right? I was sorting and counting clothes, and came to socks. Now, socks aren't very impressive. They have an important job of keeping your feet warm and dry, but they're not really something I would count super vital. I counted out "One pair for Saturday, 1 pair for Sunday, and 1 extra pair." I was about to move on when what I now recognize as God's nudge prompted me to throw one more pair in. Come on. I mean, they're socks. One more pair. Big deal. I can do easy stuff like that.

Saturday night, I was on my way into my weekend lodging place when I ran into one of the guys from the room next door. I politely asked how he was doing (my parents taught me to be polite to strangers. Sometimes I actually am), and he complained that he could only find 2 pairs of socks at his house when he was packing because he had just moved and hadn't become organized. Suddenly, I realized why I had packed those extra socks. It wasn't for the roller-skating that I thought I might do, and it wasn't so that I could double them up if I went "worship walking." It was so that I would have an opportunity to bless my neighbor with socks.

Later, I smiled, remembering a scene from Sheffey, an old Bob Jones University movie. The movie is about the life and work of Robert Sheffey, a circuit rider around the turn of the 20th century. (1800s-1900s, however that is appropriately denoted) One bitterly cold day, Sheffey was riding to visit Eliza's family when he meets a man struggling through the snow in the opposite direction. Sheffey accosts the man, and finds out that he's a poor man on his way to town to find a job to put food on the table. After noticing that the man's feet are very uncomfortable, Sheffey finds out that the man has no socks inside his boots. (This on an obviously below-freezing day in a blizzard) Without hesitation, Sheffey dismounts from his horse, peels off his socks, hands them to the man, blesses him, and keeps riding. By the time he finally makes it to Eliza's house, he's so chilled that he almost falls off his horse. The family brings him in and starts warming him back up. While he is recovering, Eliza mentions that she has a Christmas gift for him. She hands him a pair of hand-knit socks, saying that she didn't know his favorite color, but that she hoped indigo sould be OK.

Now I'm no circuit rider, and we had no blizzard, but I was still blessed by letting God work through me. I couldn't believe how God had set (and sets) me up to either do crazy things for Him (if I trust Him) or look really stupid (when I try to do things myself).

Praise His name! He alone is truly great and all-powerful!

With God, All Seems Upside-Down

Some thoughts on how I see the ways of God:

From pain
        comes new life.
From sorrow
        comes amazing joy.

Only through my weakness
        is His strength shown.
When I come to the end of myself,
        He's just getting started.

Though sorrow lasts for a night,
        joy comes in the morning.
The world tells me to put myself first.
        Jesus tells me to put only Him first.

"They tell me to abandon You
        to make my dreams come true/
But what am I supposed to do
        if I only dream of You?"
            (a song I heard on the radio)

When we are going through the wilderness,
        God shows Himself.
When times are easy and God has blessed us,
        we turn from Him and spit in His face.

The God of the universe
        became a helpless baby.
Contained in that stable
        was something bigger than the entire world.

Is it then through eyes blurred with tears
        That I see most clearly?

God, take me through the valleys
        that I may have greater appreciation for the mountains.
Help me remember that to be exalted,
        I must be made low.

Further Up and Further In! "All the real countries are only spurs jutting out from the great mountains of Aslan." (C.S. Lewis, somewhat abridged)

Lighter Moments at RMGA

Well, I've had a string of serious posts, and thought that it might be time for a lighter-hearted post. Here follows a list of quotes and/or anecdotes from the one, the awesome, and the only (this year) RMGA. Some may be inside jokes, I guess, but they were still funny to me.

-"Sick-rad!", the M.C.'s favorite phrase. I'm glad I wasn't trying to count occurences, because about every other thing mentioned was "Sick-rad".

-"Operation Front Row" ! This involved being crowded around the auditorium doors at least 5 minutes before the session was due to start. People would be delegated for different rows and different sections, and we had our seats secured within 45 seconds of the doors opening. Every time. Trust Mines kids to craft this one.

-"J-Who?" I must admit that it took me until Sunday to get this one. (If you're ignorant like me, it's a dig at JWU, which is apparently properly pronounced "J-Woo.")

When we split up by campus the first night, they combined Denver Metro (CSM, DU, Regis, Auraria, and JWU) into one group. As the weekend progressed, I started to see the benefits of this. Anyway, one of the first assignments was to come up with a song or rap that would describe your school. We're Mines. As my friend's father told me before I moved down here, "At Mines, left brain - Popeye arms. Right brain - pretty puny."

Someone had the brilliant idea to sing our school's fight song. Now, just because I'm Blue Key, and Bule Key is responsible for fostering school spirit doesn't mean I'm a fan of the school song. Nevertheless, pretty soon John Compton was up on a chair leading us all in "Oh, I wish I had a barrel of rum/and sugar three hundred pound/The college bell to mix it in/And the clapper to stir it 'round..." It was supposed to be censored (the original lyrics are, shall we say, not incredibly edifying), but I definitely heard a few people who forgot. I had to laugh at the irony of singing about being "a rambling wreck from Golden Tech, a [sight] of an engineer" at a Crusade conference... I also had to laugh at the confusion about exactly which direction it was to Boulder. (Part of the song involves shaking your fist in the direction of Boulder) No other school had anything quite as cool as we did. :-) Yep, Mines pretty much rocks.

-Saturday night, I was sat down and taught how to tie my shoes by a DU student. Hey, I'm from Mines and only have a limited amount of brain cells. Said brain cells must be reserved for important things. It is weird having someone else tie your shoes for you, though.

-Seeing the following on the dry-erase board used to organize free-time activities: "AE [Advanced Engineering] Math Study Time"...

-Same marker board, the following series of comments:

• "CSU and UNC girls want to play Ultimate"
• "-and we don't [stink], at least at UNC"
• "You should ask the studly boys from Mines"
• "Meet at 3:00..."

(I couldn't make this up if I tried. Seriously!)

There were small informal competitions between schools all weekend. Friday night's competition was word association to song lyrics, and though the Denver Metro team strove valiantly (including flaunting Compton's "We Bust Ours - To Kick Yours" Mines T-shirt), the rambunctious (I'm being nice here) young ladies from CU carried the day. We were determined to win at least one during the weekend, and finally our chance came on Saturday morning. "Sick-Rad" Zach offered glory and honor to the first team who could bring up required equipment for Disc Golf. Zach's "required equipment" was a hat, a water bottle, and Chapstick. Well, remember "Operation Front Row"? Mines just "happened" to be occupying the front and center rows. John C. was in the front row with the hat and Chapstick, and I tossed my water bottle up to him to complete the set. We won almost before the question was completed. Go Miners!

-I was going to write about how sometimes cars to local destinations would be up to 60% over capacity, but I don't want to get nobody in trouble. You'll have to ask me about this one in person. All that I will say is that observing doughnuts from the trunk is I mean, must be pretty weird. Hmm...I wonder how a person would know that?

- The leader at the dance party describing particular dances as "where you Mines boys can actually dance with all the girls." What, do we have a reputation or something? There were Mines girls there, and maybe proportionally more than are at the school. Why the hate? Just because we're Mines doesn't mean we're obtuse. Oh, wait, I guess it does. Shucks. :-)

-Riding the bannister on the spiral staircase in the condo where we stayed. I wanted to do it all weekend, and finally did it just before I left on Sunday. Sweet!

-John Compton's cooking. As he put it, "As long as I can get spaghetti and PB&J, I promise nobody will starve." We sure didn't starve. Having 60 people attempting to eat 24 pounds of spaghetti noodles was just the start of the weekend. (24 lbs noodles + 37 lbs sauce + ?? lbs garlic bread = a ton of food for 60 people)

- "It's called chivallery." - An anonymous Miner describing why the men were eating breakfast outside and the ladies were eating inside.

Yes, we sure had a good time. These are some of the stories that I saw or participated in. God is good and life is good. Life with God is not good. It's more like super-awesome. RMGA was real. RMGA was fun. RMGA was real fun. RMGA had to end, though. Now it's all about putting it into practice.

Here end the chronicles of RMGA. I'm sure that I will be referring to it in times to come, though. I am planning on attending the next Cru conference, which will be in December. If I managed 7000 words from 2 1/2 days, imagine what I can do with a week-long conference! Bring it on!

Thanks for reading, as always! God be with you.

My RMGA Lesson: The Consequences

(Concluding what I started in "My RMGA Lesson: The Setup" and "My RMGA: The Revelation")
Welcome back to yet another installment in my RMGA series. As you may recall, last time, I shared with you what God showed me at RMGA. He showed me that my priorities were pretty confused, and that I needed to get them right by putting Him first in my life. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:3 NASB) "These things" include food, clothing, housing, and all the other things that we think we need in our lives.

What changes has this lesson made in my life in the last week? For one, I froze most personal email this week until I coule straighten out my relationship with God and tell the story that He laid on my heart. It's surprising actually how much time I spend writing email. Some days, this time could be better spent talking to God and seeking what He wants in my life. Other days, it is good to share with others. (As in, don't worry. I will still write email. :-) ) I have renewed my effort to spend the first part of every morning reading my Bible and devotion book (Spurgeon is pretty good, I must say). It is amazing how much more you see of God if you're truly seeking Him and not your own desires. I want to make sure that I'm right with God before I try to be right with others. God will make me right with others in His timing.

There are some long-term consequences as well. When I first started attending Cru this year, I kept hearing amazing stories from young people who had been "on Project last summer." I mentioned John Compton's experience earlier, but his is just one of many. I had fleetingly considered doing Summer Project next year, but dismissed the idea as impractical. I see my tuition bill every semester, and I know that it is only through God's provision and my hard work that it is paid. I guess I didn't have enough faith to realize that if God can provide through a summer of hard work, it's not going to be any harder for Him to provide while I'm on a summer mission trip. I have started mentally adjusting towards possibly going on a Summer Project next year.

One of our Denver Metro staff workers is organizing a trip to southern Russia to minister to college students there. He gave a short presentation at RMGA, and at the end of the short promotional video, I realized that I almost had tears in my eyes. Russia is an amazing country, and yet an amazingly spiritually bankrupt country. There were pictures of pre-Soviet era architecture, the hammer and sickle of the Socialist period, then today's college students. The students who had gone before had troubles speaking clearly of their experience through the incredible love that they had been given for the students abroad. I have no idea how I would get to the Russian town that I don't want to spell, but my God has always taken care of me, and always will. If it's supposed to happen, it will. Go here, all the way to the bottom of the page to read more.

There are Summer Projects that are a little more local as well, and generally they require no fundraising, so maybe God will lead me to one of these. I wait for His lead on this one.

More immediately, I've signed up to help out at Christ's Body Ministries, a ministry to the homeless in Denver. That story will have to wait for next post, though.

Thanks for hanging tight with me through the 2500+ word monster this story has become. I promise that you will soon be returned to your normally scheduled programming. (Whatever that may be) Until next time, my friend, I wish you "Shalom".

My RMGA Lesson: The Revelation

(Continued from My RMGA Lesson: The Setup)
Time warp back to this weekend at RMGA. On Saturday evening, Marta (one of the regional staff workers) spoke, as I wrote about in my last post. Embedded was a quote from George Müller that was headed to "rock my world", so to speak.

George Müller was an amazing man who lived in Bristol during the nineteenth century. He led an amazing life of faith and dependence on God. When I was much younger, we listened to an audio biography of Mr. Müller's life several times, and I was impressed by his dedication and faith. You can read more about his life's work at this page

George Müller said "Either we are full of God and our interactions with others are the overflow of that interaction, or we are not full of God and we're trying to fill that need through others." Suddenly, as if illuminated by lightning, I saw it. As with Martha and Mary, being with the people of God is not like being with God, and one cannot substitute one for the other. I was trying to be with God by being with the people who were with Him. (if that makes any sense). Rather than being disciplined enough to seek God through prayer and His word, I was trying to find Him through His creation.

As I considered more, other pieces fell into place. Of course I was super- (sometimes overly-) careful about who my friends were. If I needed my friends to be "higher on the ladder" than I was, that would substantially reduce the set of people who I would like to be my friends. If I was looking for God in my friends, of course I would abuse the privilege of Godly fellowship either in person or by email. (this has happened several times in the last decade or so.)

I felt like the words of Jean Valjean from Les Miserables,

What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night,
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far,
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?
If there's another way to go
I missed it [several] long years ago...

How could I have drifted that far away? How could I have been that dumb? Well, I think the answer is "A little bit at a time." I can't point to where it started, but I know where I'm at now, and it's not where I want to be.

God gave me a great gift when He gave me 2 years of fellowship at UNC. (See, that post did really have a point) It was a chance to see what a life (my life) could be like when surrounded with His love. Instead of seeking and praising the Creator, though, I desired more of the creation instead. It should have been something that I sought for myself, rather than freeloaded from others.

The revelation that I've had my priorities misplaced has definitely shaken me a little. This is what I referred to at the beginning of the RMGA odyssey when I said that I didn't fully recognize the consequences. However, I'll share some of the more immediate consequences in the next post.

Thanks for reading so far!

My RMGA Lesson: The Set-Up

Finally at RMGA, I "got" a lesson that God has been trying to teach me for more than 2 years. If I would have only listened 2 years ago, I could have saved myself an immeasurable amount of strife and heartache in the intervening time.

I guess the "present day" part of this story starts at the Crusade meeting Thursday night before RMGA (September 28). John Compton was giving part of his testimony about what God has taught him here at Mines. He spoke for about 20 minutes, and I don't have the kind of attention span or desire to retype it, so I will summarize. I may be confusing some details, so please bear with me.

John talked about how when he first came to Mines, he sought acceptance from people more than from God. Because he lived around non-Christians, the only models he saw were secular guy-girl relationships . He spend the first semester or two chasing girls, leading to only discontentment and bitterness. Near the end of the year, one of the other Campus Crusade men talked John into going on Summer Project, a Crusade-sponsored mission trip. Chris and John were the only two Mines students on that particular Project, and spent a lot of time together.

Over the summer and into the school year, John learned the true meaning of Godly fellowship, and that it was not to be found in indiscriminate relationships with young ladies. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to generalize everything to non-gender-specific nouns this time.) Chris ended up drawing John much closer to God, encouraging him along his walk.

The take-home message of the night was to pray that God would bring into your life a brother (or sister) who could provide encouragement and accountability. I wasn't too sure what I should make of this point. I miss my friends in the past with whom I've been able to share both struggles and successes. In every case, our lives drifted apart, and I've had to move on. Besides, I wasn't sure if there was anyone out there who shared my life goals.

Time warp: Last year, at the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship Fall Conference in Winter Park, I was spending some "quality time" with God and His Word. It happened to be between midnight and 2:00 am, but I guess that sort of thing happens when you're a college student. After wrestling in prayer for a while, I started writing. The original journal entry that I wrote sits on my desk to remind me of a time when God reached through the dirt entangled in my life to touch my heart. Pulling it out again, I marvel both at the content (God is amazing in what He can show you) and the format (The handwriting is large and angry, with occasional impressive scribbles.) You don't want to read all that I wrote, but I would like to include some excerpts. Editing is for brevity and clarity.

---

"Oh Lord, today I realize what I'm looking for...True good friends are hard to come by, and I often look for someone to share my life experiences with. Away from my UNC friends with no apparent substitute, I forget that I can always turn to you...Lord, almost every Fall Conference has had its benefit reduced by playing stupid "little tree games". Little tree games looking for little tree leaves...Lord, take this away. It will hurt, I know, but it hurts already, and there is no other way to fix it. Lord, keep me focused on Your plan for me, not my fantasy for me. I have been given some great opportunities in my life. I have missed some because I was too busy with my stupid little tree games...Lord, forgive me for my misplaced priorities. I claim to be too busy for church and Bible study, yet I spend an inordinate amount of time on entertainment...Lord, you've given me so many cool friends...but when I get caught up in my little tree games, I miss what I could have learned for what I shouldn't want and [can't have]..."

---

The messages that weekend were on Luke 13, the parable of the barren fig tree. The reference to "little tree games" and "little tree leaves" refers to the barren tree having leaves rather than fruit. We are to God a little like the gardener is to the tree. Imagine what the tree thought of itself. It could have been proud of its looks, its showy outsides, when in reality it was without fruit and worthless. I was looking for "little tree leaves" - outside things that I thought would make me happy.

In response to my prayer, God showed me a scripture from Isaiah chapter 55.

---

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest fare. (v2-3, NKJV)

---

In other words, don't chase what will never satisfy you. Come see what God has for you, which is free and the best possible.

Near the end of last year, I didn't seem to have any friends who would encourage me in God the way I wanted. In an email discussion with a friend, I wondered:

I know that I should be a good example to others, but who's going to be the example for me? And even if not an example to me, who is there that is around my level of spiritual maturity? Not too many. I fought that sentence a bit; "spiritual maturity" is not the concept I want, but I don't have a phrase for what I want. We all have our strong and weak areas, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm a messed up person inside. But I am saved by the blood of Jesus and I strive to keep my life pure.

An analogy, if you will. Clean water can be mixed with dirty water to make more water that's less dirty. But can you mix dirty water with dirtier water and expect it to come out cleaner? Not without violating the First and Second laws of Thermodynamics. That's why we have to be cleaned by spending time with God.

Well, at least I mentioned spending time with God. Maybe that counts for "good points". :-) My friend Sarah responded with a wise statement:

I'm no expert on the issue, or anything close to it. However, I do have another analogy to offer you, though. Rather than thinking of it like dirty water, think of it like darkness and light. No matter how much "dark" you add, the source of light will continue to light it! Jesus says we're the light of the world, and elsewhere that he is the light. To me that means that if we're spending time with him, we don't have to be scared of being "darkened" by what's around us, we can be in the world and not of it. I know that can be taken way too far. It's a hard line to find and a harder one to maintain. But I believe there are also some real dangers in the "I cannot be unadulterated; I must protect myself" mentality. I would just encourage you to pray about this matter. And I will be praying that God brings some fellowship your way, too.

From one cause or another, my walk with God really stagnated last year. I made it to one Crusade meeting near the beginning of the year, but I wasn't impressed (I didn't see what I was looking for, whatever that was) and didn't go back. I was working weekends, and so couldn't go to church. Between when school started in August and when school finished in May, I made it to church 5 times. Pretty impressive, huh? I made it to IV Bible Study fairly regularly, and thought that was sufficient, but it wasn't what I needed. I'm not sure exactly why, but I know I didn't learn much.

To be continued next post...

The Ladder System

Saturday night at RMGA, we heard a message from Marta, one of the regional Crusade staff workers. She spoke on selected passages from Galatians. Her application was the area of comparison, one in which we often fall short. She described a concept that she called "the ladder system", one I quickly recognized as a common fault in my own life.

Here's the way the ladder system works. When you do good things, you go further up the ladder. When you do bad things, you go down the ladder. Then, a natural extension is to look down on the people lower down the ladder than you, and look up to the people higher up the ladder than you.

When Jesus comes, though, He does away with the ladder. He has paid for all of our sins past, present and future. That makes it so that we can't go down the ladder. When God looks at us, He sees only the righteousness of Christ, so we are at the top of the ladder. How could we add anything to what He has done for us?

Finally, she showed a diagram that shows the contrast between our "natural man" and the new creation that God puts in us. Sadly, this blog does not do pictures yet, otherwise I would insert a graphical representation.

The diagram starts with our attitudes. Our attitudes control our actions and our attitudes control our thoughts. Our thoughts then control our beliefs. A subset of our beliefs are our beliefs about God.

Marta described how in our natural fallen state, when we walk into a room, we automatically and subconsciously size up the other people, usually of our own gender. Apparently, women compare appearances ("does she look as good as me?"), while men compare physical ability ("could I beat him in a fist fight?"). In an effort to make ourselves look better, we then associate with those people that we view as lower on the "totem pole" than us. Again, attitudes (sizing up) lead to thoughts (I'm better than so-and-so), which control our beliefs (I'm more important or not as important as that other person). From there, we convince ourselves that a person's worth is of our making, and that God is not all-powerful and in control of everything.

When we get our beliefs about God right, God works in us (connection with God). He gives us His perspective, and we think His thoughts. Lastly, this leads to His fruit. In Galatians 5, we see the results when we control our lives in verses 19-21. When God controls our lives, all that ugly stuff is replaced by the good fruit in verses 22-23. Sometimes we can make God's fruit ourselves, but it only barely looks like it. At a closer glance, the illusion falls apart, and people see how empty and worthless it really is.

Instead of trying to hang out with the people lower on the ladder than I as Marta suggested, I think that I tend to look for the people that I perceive as higher on the ladder than I in hopes that they can help me further up the ladder.

I forget that it is solely "In Christ alone my hope is found", and that while others may encourage me, they can't really improve my life. It's only God that can do that. He can work through a word or deed from my friends, but it's still His work. I'll continue with this theme in the next entry.

Until next time, Vaya con Dios.

On Humility

Good morning once again. As promised, I am publishing a post every morning. Not as promised, this one is more of a "quickie". The really good post is the one that I still haven't written. It will be written, I promise. It sounds easy: "Just write what God taught you." The reality is that is hard to sort out thoughts into coherent and presentable wholes.

Humility is a good thing to have. Sometimes I remember my place in the world, but sometimes I get too "uppity." I had to laugh at myself this weekend at RMGA, though, because sometimes God has a unique way of teaching me what I need to learn.

Now, I see myself as pretty much a country boy. Not too fancy, not necessarily too smart. (you may disagree, but remember that appearances can be deceiving.) Nevertheless, I try to make myself appear relatively respectable. You know, not the chain-dangling, "face-first in a tackle box" look or the totally apathetic zoned-out-teenager look.

I planned ahead for RMGA...I wore what I thought was a fairly clean pair of jeans (only small grass stains) and brought a clean pair. Since we left on a Friday and Fridays are my days to provide homework help, I was in a white polo shirt. Mines Cru bought dinner for all of us on Friday night. The meal of choice was spaghetti, since it's easy to cook in bulk. Now, I like spaghetti and I like my food, so I tend to enjoy it and not worry about mess. It was only after my third or fourth plate of spaghetti that I realized that I was wearing a (formerly) white shirt. Sure enough, although I was lucky enough not to totally destroy my shirt, I had a neat pattern of red specks on my front. Yay! I feel like a retard.

One thing that I found interesting about RMGA was the amount of scheduled "extra-curricular" activity. There was a whiteboard posted to organize free-time activities, and both evening sessions were followed by optional events. The optional event on Friday night was a dance party.

I must include a short bunny trail to enhance clarity. Understand I was raised in the midst of much teaching that said that dancing was a "bad thing". (and people say that homeschoolers have no social pressure. No further comment) In the last 3 years, I have revised my convictions slightly. There seems to be dancing that dishonours God and aims to appease lust. There also seems to be (more traditional) dancing that is closer to wholesome entertainment. The line is sometimes blurred though, and should not be crossed. It's as much in mental attitude as anything. My position is that if I am careful and guard my heart and mind with the Lord's help, I should be OK. Back to the story.

In my mind, a dance is a little like a childhood playground. When sides are chosen on the playground, someone is bound to be the last one chosen. On the dance floor in a "traditional" setting, it would seem necessary for a guy ask a girl to dance. Remember that lowly country boy image that I invoked earlier? Yeah. My estimated odds of success are quite low. Besides, now I'm in a spaghetti-stained white shirt and jeans with grass stains. Life is good, yes? Yes!

All this flashes through my mind in an instant, but I decide that I can't really lose. There are usually two types of people around me. One type is the people that know me. They know that sometimes I do dumb things and generally am not to be taken too seriously. On the other hand, there's the people who haven't met me before and aren't likely to see me again. I'm not concerned about what they think because it won't have future consequences in most cases.

I really can't dance. Between a touch of dyslexia (don't worry, I'm KO now), and having little eye-mind-foot coordination, it's not a pretty thing. Mark Twain was wise, though: "Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth." I decided that I didn't mind making an idiot of myself, and decided to just "go with it."

I must allude to a novel here. Esther Forbes wrote a novel many years ago called "Johnny Tremain." Because he was prideful, Johnny grotesquely injures his hand. For a long period, he believes that it is largely hindering his life. He changes his mind after attending a barn dance with his friend Rab. He has a great time, and realizes at the end of the night that many girls have held that hand, taking absolutely no notice. Thanks to a darkened room, I think I'm the only one who ever noticed my less-than-superb clothes. I don't know if a good time was had by all, but a good time was had by at least one. :-)

The next day (Saturday), I decided that clean jeans were in order. I thought that would allow me to actually have clean clothes for at least one session. Saturday afternoon was play time, though, and finding nothing better to do, I played some intense hard-core Frisbee. I don't happen to be very good at Frisbee either, but I sure have fun.

When I play Frisbee, I am often either laying out (diving) for the disk or tripping and falling. You guessed it: By 4:00 that afternoon, my formerly-clean jeans were trashed. Maybe there is a conspiracy out there. Just because I'm slightly paranoid doesn't mean that they're not sometimes out to get me, you know. :-) Thankfully, I had thought ahead enough that I was able to clean up for Saturday evening session, but it meant a choice between jeans with small grass stains and jeans with el mucho grass stain. Sigh... It happens, just not to everybody.

It is good to be humble. I shouldn't care what others think, and most of the time I don't. It's just funny to see God reminds me in subtle yet powerful ways. Once again, thanks for reading and vicariously sharing my RMGA experience.

The Tale of Two G-towns

The Tale of Two G-towns -or- Why I Really Miss UNC

Greetings once again, fellow Earthling. It is I, the reckless bludgeoner of words. Once again, I shall hold forth in a deluge of verbiage, hoping not in vain for a coherent message. All right, enough of the vocabulary lesson (or vocabulary lesion?). On to the story!

Before I was a Mines student, I was a student at a relatively small community college in Greeley called Aims Community College. Since Aims was a commuter campus (no campus housing), there was little opportunity to build up momentum for any sort of campus group. One day at the beginning of my second year at Aims, I saw a flyer on a bulletin board: "Study the Bible, meet new friends, and have fun. Come to Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship on Friday night." On a whim that was truly God's prompting, I went. Thus began 2 awesome years running after God. Sometimes tripping over rubbish, sometimes sprinting along a way made plain, my life was irrevocably changed. This is not the story of those years, though. Rather, this story starts after I left.

When I moved to Mines, I knew I would have to make a pretty clean break with UNC IVCF, as the drive was a little too long. (insert sarcasm here) I planned to take up with Mines IVCF, and continue the trend that I was on. It was at last year's (2005) Fall Conference, though, when I realized that while I was doing well at Mines, I really missed UNC. I started considering differences between the two schools.

One of the things for which Mines is notorious is the guy-girl ratio. The official numbers are roughly 24% female, although 4-to-1 is another commonly heard number. My friends at UNC tell me that their school is also about 4-to-1 - the other way. The reason is apparently something about the majors offered at their school and the majors offered at my school. The cause doesn't matter to me, and the phenomenon doesn't really matter to me either, but sometimes it explains things.

That's not what I miss about UNC, though. The gender imbalance rarely entered my mind at UNC. During my first year at Mines, I equally accepted the opposite imbalance. It's just not a big deal because girls are not my life's focus.

My next thought was that it was my friends at UNC that I missed. To be honest, I met a lot of people who loved God with all of their life, and I was so amazingly blessed by just hanging out with them. I miss hanging out with Ryan G. (who abandoned his major to be a schoolteacher in inner-city Atlanta), Brian-with-a-B (who stood on God's Word unflinchingly), Steve (who follows God in every detail), Christine (who always brightened my day with a smile and a word of encouragement), Anna (who always balanced serious faith with the joy of the Lord), Micah (who is now following God's call into staff work last I knew), and the 50-something others that I wish I had time to mention. This isn't their story either.

This weekend, I figured out what I truly miss from UNC. John Compton organized what was referred to "Operation Front Row." There were about 60 Mines students who attended the retreat, and thanks to the effort of the folks acting as runners, we had a contiguous block of seats in the front of the middle seating sections for every session.

I was a runner the first night, and quickly secured my row of seats with the help of my row partner. Apparently we had overestimated our requirements, so our row ended half-empty. Empty saved seats are wasted seats, so I scooted over to unsave the seats that we didn't need after the session started. A few minutes later, I noticed a row of people sliding into the row, next to me. It was during worship, so the room was darkened and I must say that I wasn't paying much attention.

I found out in a matter of minutes that I was now (happily) neighbor to about a half-dozen young ladies from UNC Campus Crusade. I didn't know them at the time, but that was soon remedied. The precedent was set, and over the course of the weekend, I kept running into a handful of people from "the city that smells like cows." Then I realized exactly why I miss hanging out with Christians at UNC. It's the joy and the love shown so obviously in their lives.

At Mines, we're mostly engineers. Think of all the engineer jokes and stereotypes you've ever heard, and a lot of them are true. There are some wild and crazy people here, but for the most part, I don't the love that I see in all of the Christians that I meet from UNC. Us Miners love God, but it's just not as loud. Sharing is a good thing, especially "things" like God, where sharing makes more to go around. The only way to lose is not to share.

Sometimes I quote Gandhi: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." If I miss seeing people who are passionately in love with God, a logical conclusion would be to show them what I want to see. Indeed, this is a good point. God has started to reveal to me where my path should lie now. However, this entry has reached my 1000-word target, so I will finish later.

Until next time, God Bless! (How do you like that for a cliff-hanger?)

“Rum-Guh” Sounds Better Than “Are Em Gee Ay”

Good morning! At long last comes another post. I have good news for you, though. This time it's not just one post, but a string of them. My own miniseries! Yeah, I'm not really that excited either. Anyway, I had a super awesome (or freakin' awesome if you prefer) weekend at RMGA, and wanted to share the story. I can't do it all in one post, so here's the plan. I'm aiming for one post per day until the story is told. I'm thinking it should take about 5 posts, but I'm not sure. Rather than try to stay chronological, I'm just going to write as God leads, and we'll both see what happens. Also, I'm exploring using a writing style that's a little less formal. Let me know what you think.


So what is RMGA? RMGA is the Rocky Mountain Get-Away, which is the annual fall retreat for Campus Crusade for Christ in this region. This year, I am becoming more involved in “Cru”, as it's called at Mines, and I can see God working. I am told that RMGA has traditionally been at the Keystone Conference Center in (where else?) Keystone, CO, just down the road from Silverthorne. As for where the post title came from, there are two common pronunciations for the the name of this retreat. I happen to think that one is superior to the other. :-)


I'd heard about RMGA at Cru all year. One of my friends was considering going, so I was thinking about going as well. I was planning on going to the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship Fall Conference which has historically been in the middle of October, so I didn't give RMGA much serious thought. I thought that 2 conferences in a month might be too much, and I didn't want to overbook myself. The junior year of physics is said to be the most difficult, and I have had a lot of homework so far.


Last Thursday night, however, I decided to make a step of faith. I have been frequently counseled in the past to try something so big that you will fail without God's help. The people that I knew in Cru strongly encouraged me to go to RMGA, so I figured, “Why not? God will take care of me, just as He has in the past.” I asked my friend John Compton, a general go-to person for all things Cru, how much advance notice he needed if I was able go to RMGA. His answer was basically “as much as you can give, but it doesn't really matter.”


I had several homework assignments due the Monday after I would get back from RMGA, and I just wanted to make a step of faith, not a super leap of faith. It would have been a super leap of faith to think that I could finish all my homework Sunday night. I decided that I would leave promptly from the Cru weekly meeting Thursday and forge ahead on my homework. If I finished the assignment that most worried me (my Intermediate Mechanics computer project), I would call John the next morning and tell him that I could go. Little did I know what was in store for me.


I went home and made a pot of coffee, for I knew the night would be long, that the battle necessitated valor and strength, and that (Caffeine || Sleep) = True. (The last bit is programmer-speak: caffeine or sleep is a true statement.) I started my first assignment at 9:30, and was surprised to finish it at 11:00. I had actually expected it to take much longer. I took a couple hours off until 1:00 to write an email that had been waiting for me all week, then plunged into the next assignment. By the time 4:00 rolled around (no sunrise this time, sorry!), I had a mere half-assignment left. I felt that I could easily dispatch this over the weekend or Sunday night, whichever worked best. In reality, I was way too busy on retreat to even look at my homework, so it had to be done Sunday night. (Hey, I finished before 11:00, so that was better)


At 8:40, I called John, and told him that I would go. Though the “sorrow” of unfinished homework had lasted almost all night, the joy of victory came in the morning. God is good, and I was off to RMGA at 4:30 that afternoon. What God did there will be told in the days to come. Some of the posts will be light-hearted, some I found profound, and there are some of each for which I do not yet fully realize the consequences.


Welcome once again to my chaotic life, and thanks for reading.