“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.
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.
posted by The student of life at 10:52 PM
1 Comments:
Wow.
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