Philipians

Philipians is a great book. I love reading Paul's letters in general throughout the New Testament. His wisdom is awesome and so beneficial to how we live our lives. There are various metaphors throughout this letter and all through the Bible. It's amazing how faithful Paul was sitting in a jail cell and still praising God and ministering to people through his letters. He could be bitter and angry at where he is at, but instead uses that time he could use for those emotions and puts them out in a positive manner.

 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  But if I am to 

live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do 

not know which to choose.

 I love this part in the letter where basically says as long as he is still alive he will do fruitful labor for the Lord. If he dies, he gains eternity in the place where the streets are made of gold. He gains when he dies, but he still labors in fruitfulness for Jesus when he is still alive. That is just an interesting concept to think about in how we live our lives for Christ. I don't think I have ever heard anyone sounding excited to die. it IS a weird concept but as a Christian shouldn't we really have that mindset? He should be excited to die. We should be excited to go to the kingdom of Heaven and gain eternal life. I think one big drawback we have is that we think about losing our loved ones around us. Yea I guess it is sad to think about the people that you've had in your life will never be seen again if they don't go to heaven. We should still live for Christ alone though. If all we're supposed to need is God, then why do we worry so much about the other things in our life? We've become attached. We are afraid to let someone else (God) take over our life because when we control it we see where it is going. Sometimes we just need to let our autopilot direct us.

Thursday's Class

So in class last week it was another typical class period. I was still feeling a little bit of the oxycodone but I was feeling better. We read over and essay that Dr. Fettke had written. The article spoke out to me because my sister has a disability and she is involved with things at church and stuff. Towards the end of the article Fettke talked about people with disabilities being involved with the church. My sister helps out at our young adult group worship nights. Does she understand the spirit of the Lord? What the Bible says? I think to a certain extent she does understand. What IS God's reasoning behind kids with disabilities being born into the world? I think it humbles families when a child with mental issues is born. I believe it can even draw us closer to God. The thing about mentally disabled people is finding what you have to do to get THROUGH to them. What is their strengths. Now of course it depends on how severe the disability is but their are ways to communicate to the disabled. My sister has a niche with kids. She just loves kids and works in a daycare. Though she is still learning how to deal with certain things, she slowly makes progress.

Special Needs

So in class we talked about this play that everyone has been reading. We got into groups and discussed what lines spoke out to us. Now it was a little hard being up to dat considering the fact I had surgery on Friday and was still and am currently recovering. I had oxycodone in my system so it was a little hard to concentrate in class. Which probably explains why I am missing a blog from Monday. The class was set up like a panel discussion with a special guest sitting at the front of the class. Candace was the special guest and she really knew her stuff. In fact her and Corrigan were speaking back and forth for so long as I looked around the room I met eyes with several students in the class who looked clueless. Eventually we got to the point where people were able to interact with what we were discussing. The play and topic relates to me in a way because my sister has a mental disability. Corrigan is right about how people with disabilities do some humorous things. Not to laugh at them like we are making fun, but laugh at them kind of like we laugh at babies when we think something they do is "cute." My sister has Coffin Lowry. I don't know really how to explain it to well. All I know is that she has a hard time controlling her emotions and she is 26 but mentally she is probably in her younger teens or maybe even younger. Yea I've gotten annoyed with her with a lot of things in the past but I still love her and she is my sister. Sometimes the patience level is unbearable but at the same time I have learned that my sister cannot help some of the stuff she does. But... there are things that she does know that she can discern right and wrong. My sister has been through a lot in her life with our family and even her 2 surgeries she's had including one in which metal rods were placed up her spine because her scoliosis was so bad.  There is a lot more I could go on about with people with disabilities, but I will tell you all that it is a very humbling experience to be in the life of someone with a disability. God has his reasons for everything...

A Nature Experience

So in class on Tuesday we read from a few different poems. But that wasn't it. The poems weren't very long but they were insightful. I know I say that a lot about Corrigan's stuff but it really is. Even though it seems weird the things he might have has do, I like it because it is different. I may not show that I like it all the time but I really do. He had the whole class go down to one of the dock's alongside of the lake by the Academic building. I wasn't necessarily thrilled about walking around since I have surgery in a couple of days but I was still a little happy to get out of the room. I had a lot of things on my mind that day. Honestly though, the whole day seemed to be very interesting to say the least.
 When we get out there on the dock it was hard to concentrate when he started to read the poems aloud to us. I was legitimately trying to read along with him. I felt as though I could have concentrated better when I was looking over the lake or something. It's weird sometimes. I feel like I can pay attention to speakers better when I'm doing something else at times. I guess it depends on what, I know that when I this blocked game on my itouch I can pay attention in chapel better. Or it could be some of the speakers that we've been having. Anywho... I did enjoy the short time we had when Corrigan told us to take a few minutes and kind of ponder over the nature we were surrounded by. It was actually nice to feel some sort of peace even though their were things on my mind. Nature has a funny way of showing peace to us I feel like. I guess since God created it their can be peace in what he is a part of. I guess through this last week or 2 I have come back to appreciate nature a little more than what I thought. There are so many beautiful things that are a natural part of this earth and yet I think we seem to forget where the basis of our materialistic things come from.

Lake Bonny Nature

So I went to Lake Bonny park. I want to say it was something special but it wasn't really. I enjoy nature though so it wasn't like it was bad. I enjoyed walking the trail and looking at the scenery around. The pine trees were actually pretty cool. I liked how they were spread out along one part of the trail. The park seemed pretty ghetto though. There was trash all in the mini canal thing alongside part of the trail. That wasn't really appealing when it came to looking at nature. I really liked going out to the dock and looking over the water. Looking into any body of water is something I love to do whenever I get the chance. I did see a baby gator swimming around. That was kind of cool. It came up to the dock. Well swam to it. I guess whenever I take time to look at nature I find that God really is awesome. How he created everything and how beautiful and complex they are. It was also just nice to get away in a place where peace takes over and the hustle and bustle is non existent. Nature is definitely a place where your natural thoughts can be expressed. Nature is a place to connect with God maybe in a way how  you don't usually connect with him. There's no distractions, just ants crawling up your shorts. Just kidding. You can talk with your father and just get away from the sick world that we live in. Sometimes I wonders what it's like to be a bug or animal living in the wild. We don't have to worry about dealing with all this crap with people, money, impressions, materials, relationships, and the usual crap that us humans have to go through in our daily lives. How many of you have actually thought about that? Some of these animals out there don't have a care on their mind and we as humans think about how we can make this much money and support our materialistic minds. Dogs just eat, run, crap, and sleep. Then they repeat as necessary. Well they pee too. Humans do this and more. What is the REAL bare minimum we can live by? Cells phones weren't always a means of contacting a person. There's this physical activity called writing letters in our own hand writing. Nature provides for all of our materialistic things though....   :o

Nature

The sky is blue and the grass is green, 

everything is beautiful that is in-between.

The moon is big and the stars are bright,

there is nothing more beautiful than this lightened sight.

The bark on this maple is as hard as a rock,

in this time their is no time or clock.

The leaves rustle as the wind blows,

and in that wind are the flying crows.

The gators in the water are still as they lay,

we do the same when communicating to God as we pray.

There is a slight breeze which is nothing we can see, 

but we know that this thing called wind is free.

As I walk you can smell the pine,

and in that moment you know you're fine.

A squirrel jumps and misses the next branch of tree,

I laughed so hard I think I peed. 

It's funny to think that this nature life is older,

as we get old we feel our life get colder.

You tend to think the best things in life are free,

there are no regrets in the shade of this tree.