What a beautiful day! Waking up to 60°F outside is a wonderful thing. Drove into work with the windows down and the music blaring! As my friend Megan said to me this morning - something about approaching the fall of the year, just so refreshing.
It’s also a good thing to have a feeling of liberation. Even though chaos still surrounds, I feel so free, unchained from this world and the things that bind.
... that we might find pleasure in Him and not the world
Typically I keep this blog free of work experiences and typically I start blogs with “so”. This is not a typical entry.
As I mentioned yesterday, classes started this week and on top of it all I’ve been having trouble with my voice. I’ll wake up in the morning without one and can usually coax it out with the assistance of some Chai Tea (thank you Global Village). To add some more irons to the fire, this Saturday is the day that has been deemed “Place Out” day for E115. This means that from 9 AM until 4 PM students will be allowed to take a test that if they score an 80 or better on, they’ll receive full credit for the course, and never have to step foot in the classroom again.
This is usually all fine and dandy except that E115 is a prerequisite for several courses. Inevitably some poor, misguided student signs up for one of these courses and then the instructor threatens to kick them out because they don’t meet have the prereq. They usually then come running to me and attempt to sign up for the exam.
This year I decided to write my own Event Registration System cleverly title ERS. This was to help stem my woes. Well the system works great, but the woes still flow. For some reason, this year appears to be one where everyone and their cousin thinks they can place out of E115. Nearly 200 students will be taking the place out exam at 9 AM. Another 160 at 1 PM. Any who is responsible for all of the fun festivities?
You guessed it . . . me. The worst part about all of it, I almost lost my cool today. I was so irritated at students and parents (yes parents) bugging me I almost lit into someone hard core. Then thankfully I remember something my good buddy Mike had posted on his blog. “They will know we are Christians by our blog”. Now true, me yelling at someone has nothing to do with a blog, but it had everything to do with me representing Christ. Yeah, its ok to get frustrated and a little stressed but ultimately God’s in control. At that moment of near explosion I realized - They will know I’m a Christian by . . . who I am, what I say, how I react to a situation, etc. The list goes on forever. You see, if we are really pursuing Christ, should not everything identify us as a Christian?
So yeah it has been a while since I’ve posted anything on here. That’s because I’ve been really busy. Work has me going way too much. Classes officially started for my course on Monday and wouldn’t you know that I started getting sick on Monday evening! My voice is still spotty at best but I know the Lord will strengthen me throw it. Like Woodall said last night “if He can hold off the rain for us at Crusade, He can heal your voice”.
Whether Woodall realized or not that was a huge encouragement to me. So many times we get so caught up in life and the busyness that surround us; we forget that everything around us is put in motion by God. The simple things such as the breeze that cooled me down while walking across campus this morning to the amazing things such as my voice being stronger today so I can adequately lecture.
I’ll always be busy - its the way my life goes, but, God is never too busy to take care of His children.
So in my earlier post I made some comments about a CD Release party - and well I realized I already had all the details I needed!
DATE: August 24th, 2005
TIME: 7:00 PM
WHERE: DLC (Delta Lake Center) @ Providence Baptist Church
COST: $10
So what should you expect? Well expect a small concert by the band, some Starbucks coffee, some pickup desserts, oh and of course that cost gets you a CD as well.
So the end of last week and this weekend was a whirlwind of mostly driving. Thursday night I drove to Carthage, NC for a leadership retreat with PCM (Providence College Ministry). It was awesome! Before we knew it we had spent 3 amazing hours just praising and worshipping and lifting up our ministry in prayer; talk about invigorating!
Friday morning we were greeted by a Fed-Ex truck (wow they really can find you out in the boonies). The gentleman delivered a package from one Joel Cameron in Texas. Joel Cameron is a.) an amazing drummer and b.) runs a nice production studio in Texas. He’s done recording, mixing, and mastering for folks like Shane & Shane and some of my good friends The Shelly Moore Band. The CD is awesome - keep your ears to the ground on details for a release party on August 24th @ Providence Baptist Church.
Unfortunately, I had to depart the retreat early to head back to Raleigh. On Saturday morning I and my roommate Chad awoke and departed for Marshall, NC for the wedding of Patrick and Courtney. While Marshall is a suburb of BFE (thanks Chad for that accurate geography lesson) it was still very beautiful and peaceful. I’m kicking myself now because I did not take my camera with me - oh well! The wedding was extremely simple and beautiful. I was also happy to see these two finally tie the knot!
After the reception Chad and I hopped back in the good ‘ole trusty Explorer and headed back to Raleigh. Thankfully, Chad agreed to drive this final leg so I watched DVD’s on the way back. Gotta love The Incredibles - silly fun!