Tuesday, July 29, 2008

And the Season's Change was a Conduit and we'd Left Our Love in Our Summer Skin

The first question that I will receive from my friends when I get back to Biola will be about my summer. Three quarters through my first summer after being away from summer, here is what I’ve enjoyed.

Relaxing and Leisure: It seems that throughout the course of a semester and even a year, stress takes its annual toll on me so the summer made a great way to relax. For the first month while I was not working, I found that I had a hard time balancing relaxation without falling into sloth. In the end, I made my schedule busy so that I would feel like my summer was accomplished. Looking back, those brief moments of leisure I had at the beginning of summer are moments I would like to relive once school starts again.

Reading: While I have not delved into Torrey reading as much as I would like to, I reread some books I read during the summer. I absolutely loved my read through A Severe Mercy, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and What’s So Amazing About Grace. Moreover, I found a new interest in reading poetry (as well as writing some). Currently, I am traveling through ‘Inferno’ with Dante and Virgil and am amazed about epic poetry.

Joni and Friends Family Camp: I’ve already talked about the amazing time I had at the camp a couple of weeks ago. Not a day goes by where I haven’t thought about all those amazing campers and STM’s. Even better is the fact that I still keep in contact with some people from camp.

Family: This should really be first, but seeing that there’s no particular order, I cannot express with typed words how much I’ve enjoyed being with my family this summer. Last week, my dad and I spent a week together and we had some good conversations about parenting, sports, missions trips, and growing up. It’s always great to gleam from his wisdom. Moreover, I’ve been able to spend some more time with my younger brother, Ryan. He’s grown up more than anyone since I’ve been away and it’s fun to experience life with him on a daily basis.

Spiritual Progress: As I am reading through Dante and his journey (through hell in Inferno), I have thought about how my spiritual growth is much like a journey. It’s a process of growth. Sometimes, it feels that my progress does not always have a positive slope, but I feel that it is something that is always growing nonetheless. One thing I have been thinking about is getting the most out of life. We’re Christians, but are we really living to the fullest? What does living to the fullest even look like? We can turn to Jesus when it comes to living a fulfilling life, but how much leisure should we incorporate into our life? Again, this is one of those areas of my life where I can feel fulfilled but still have an endless amount of questions on.

Work: I’ve already explained how I love working with children. Today, I overheard an interesting conversation with a boy and a girl.

Girl: I know where Jesus was born.

Boy: Jesus isn’t real. He’s like Santa Claus

Me: Why don’t you believe Jesus is real?

Boy: Because my friend goes to church and he always lies to me and gets in fights.

Me: Then who do you think made all these trees you see?

Boy: The Volcanoes

Me: But Volcanoes always destruct things…they don’t create things.

Boy: Yeah you’re probably right. Hey, can we play dodgeball later today?

Hmm…even children realize that the greatest witness for Christianity are Christians themselves.

All in all, I’ve had a fulfilling summer. I am starting to miss my Biola friends, but I know that once I go to Biola, I will miss my family and friends here. In the end, I have found that I must be content in all circumstances and locations I am in.

I am looking forward to the last several weeks I have of summer and I continually hope and pray that I can live the words I write in this blog. It seems that it is quite easy to write spiritually and live unspiritually. I have found that a completely honest person will live the way he writes. That is just one more challenge and risk you take when blogging. You must live the way you write.

I hope to write soon…

1 comment:

Anne said...

I just read that section about what the kids said to you. It just goes to show you more goes on in thier little minds than we know,huh?