Am I Peter?

A few days ago I was reading some of my old essays from last year. I found this and thought I would share. We were supposed to write about which person in the Bible we related to most.


I feel that I relate most to Peter. I’ve noticed that Peter was the impulsive one of the apostles. He jumped out of the boat and walked on water without second thought, he quickly attacked the soldiers who had come to arrest Jesus without even thinking. Throughout his life Peter does some pretty impulsive and stupid things. Sometimes I feel like what I’m doing is impulsive and not sure if I really should be doing it. At other times I know that I’ve done something stupid and don’t know how to fix it.
Sometimes I feel like I’m being impulsive and doing things that don’t make sense. To most the people in this world what I’m doing seems stupid. I’m studying youth ministry, and the world says that’s a stupid idea because I can’t make money from it. I feel that I’m following God’s calling, just like Peter responded to Jesus calling him. According to the world’s standards I am doing something stupid, just as Peter did when he stepped out of the boat and onto the water.
At some points Peter seems to be the only one who gets it. When Jesus asked who people thought he was it was Peter who said he was the Son of God. Going back to walking on water, only Peter believed that Christ would allow him to do so, all the other apostles were too afraid and stayed in the boat.
Like Peter, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who understands. Growing up in church I understood some difficult concepts long before my peers. I don't necessarily say that I'm smarter, I just get it.
Another similarity between me and Peter is the desire to defend our savior, even if it would harm our cause. When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter was quick to defend and cut off the soldier’s ear. Jesus stopped him and went with the guards anyway. Peter wanted to keep the soldiers from taking Jesus but Jesus knew this is something that needed to happen. So often I fight the urge to argue with unbelievers because they attack certain doctrines of my belief. Even though I know that this would only harm my cause and push them away from Christ rather than pull them in, I feel the urge to defend my beliefs just as Peter did.

A day in the Life....

of a poor college student/ youth ministry intern. Friday 10/8/10

Friday was an odd day. So I figured I'd write about it.

I woke up at 9, got dressed and had breakfast like normal. Then went to class at 10:20 and had a midterm. I studied quite a bit the night before and even though I was nervous, I thought I would do pretty well. For the most part I did, until I got to the last question. It asked me to list the different parts of a Suzerainty treaty from the Old testament. I knew I had studied this and figured I should know it, but my mind was just blank. I sat there for about the last fifteen minutes of class trying to remember the answer to this one question. We had the option to stay after and work on the exam if we wanted, but at this point I figured I either knew it or I didn't. So I turned in the exam with that one answer still blank (I couldn't even think of a good guess). Then I went to chapel at 11:20 and lunch at 12:30 (chicken nugget Friday!)
After lunch I was trying to decide if I had time to walk (car is out of gas) down to the bank and change all my coins over to cash before my next class. I decided not to until one of the guys on my floor said he had to go too and he was driving. (1:00ish) So I rode along and figured that I would make it back in time for my 1:40 class; I was wrong. I had figured the bank would have a coin counting machine so it would be done quickly. But they didn't, and I still can't figure out why they don't. Almost every grocery store does, our little bank in Cathlamet did, so why wouldn't a larger bank in the middle of a city have one? Instead I had to count and roll all my nickles and pennies by hand, even having the other two guys that were with me helping. By the time we got back to school (2:00) my class was almost half over, so I didn't bother going. Instead I did laundry (the reason I went to the bank in the first place).
About 4:45 I walked over to the school coffee shop and buy myself an iced grande white chocolate americano, add shot (making it 4 shots). Then brought it back to my room and stuck it in the fridge for later that night.
The rest of the afternoon/evening was fairly normal, dinner at 5, homework/goofing off afterwards. At 9 pm Aaron and I leave for Redmond Assembly of God to help chaperon for the youth conference/lock-in (the reason for the quad shot coffee). First we stop at Target so Aaron can make some exchanges. We get to the church early (10) and wait outside for whoever was supposed to arrive early to unlock the door. After waiting for about 10-15 minutes we walk around and discover that the back door to the youth room is unlocked and the other leader is in there already. So we sit around playing Beatles Rock Band waiting for the youth group to get back from Renton (Youth Conference was at New Life Renton). I Learned a few songs that they were all shocked I didn't know, because apparently you haven't lived unless you listen to the Beatles. The youth group (and the youth from Colfax AG who were also spending the night) begin playing a game of Aliens, basically a mix of capture the flag and tag. The alien runs around tagging people, if someone finds the flag (glowstick) they can tag the Alien and the game is over. The rest of my night is basically spent walking around the dark labyrinth that is the church with a flashlight (lights were off for the game) making sure the teens weren't breaking anything or hiding in any of the classrooms making out. By 1:00 all the guys are confined to the youth room while the girls go to sleep in one of the class rooms. Most the group went to sleep fairly quickly, but for some reason my quad shot (which I drank at 9) was still affecting me 4 hours later. So I was wide awake talking to one of the other night owls about nerf guns and pranks. Interesting conversation. By 3:00 I actually 'sleep'.

Sermon #2

This is my second sermon for Preaching class. I did an exegesis on Joshua chapter 3. There are some things I like and somethings I am annoyed at myself for.

Aside from the sermon this is a short blog. I am now an intern at Redmond Assembly of God, I've enjoyed working with the youth there so far. I'm still having a hard time remembering so many names.
I'm still looking for a job and could use prayer if you feel so inclined. Also if you have any ideas where I could apply that would be helpful.
Please comment with suggestions or observations about my sermon.

back to the grind

So I am back at college, have been for a couple weeks, figured its about time I write a new blog entry. My roommate is pretty cool, we get along well so that's good.
So far my classes aren't too bad, mostly reading homework, which I love so much. If you can't tell, yes I'm being sarcastic. I've had to do a short sermon already in my preaching class, my professor records all sermons so we can evaluate them, and I have some distracting habits. (comments if you want to see the video).
It's been fun getting to know the guys from my floor, and girls from my sister floors. Our floor is no longer a quiet, laid back floor like it was last year. Out of the 15 rooms that are being used, 7 of them have sound systems (not just a stereo or boom box, a sound system). And between 6 people there are 14ish Nerf guns. In fact just today I got a bloody lip from being hit with a Nerf gun, but it's all fun.
The Cafeteria food isn't as bad as everyone claims, its just not great either, so I don't complain.
Now that I'm back at the college I have been making myself go to the weight room twice a week. It's actually kind of fun cause its one of the only times I ever get to see one of my friends, who both got married and is a nursing major. So she keeps me accountable. I have given her permission to yell at me if I miss a workout, and I don't doubt that she will.
At this point I realize I'm rambling and I need to go to bed, so I will log off for the night, please comment.
Tschüß
(if you are unaware, Tschüß is a German farewell)

how will it all go?

If an Irony Detector detects everything but irony, that's quite ironic. so the question is this: is it working or not?

Just one of the random thoughts in my head.

In two weeks I return to Northwest University for my second year there, my fourth year of college. I will be returning to the same floor, being with old friends, making new friends. I'm attempting to start my own life, and don't know how. So many things to worry about, the most urgent is a job. God has provided money in many ways before, this time I hope he chooses a job rather than random income.

How do Foster children survive?

This a response I wrote to a homework assignment to respond to a chapter in one of my books. I'm not entirely sure why I'm posting this.

When I was still in High school my mom received her foster care license so she could take in a family of three teenagers that had already been moved around and separated several times. Their previous foster home had finally gotten them all back together when the mother started losing her fight with cancer. When we took them in they were still grieving their previous caretaker, as well as dealing with the normal foster child issues of moving around, or not knowing their real parents. They obeyed my parents for the most part, as well as attended church with us, but there was a definite difference in obeying the rules and living a Christian lifestyle by choice. Since they had not been raised in a Christian home, much less a pastor’s home, so many of the things we took for granted or found common, they didn’t understand. We tried to get them to see things from our point of view, but at times it just seemed like they didn’t get it, or weren’t really trying. Now they are out on their own and we have lost contact. But from seeing the paths they were taking I can guess that they aren’t doing their best. They weren’t living up to their potential. This is something I guess is common with foster homes, because of how much the children are moved around no one set of parents has time to instill proper values into the children. It just hurts me to see kids go through this.

Photoshop diety?

This morning I gave a short Sunday school type lesson in class. I was speaking about how we need Gods help to do certain things. Mainly certain things like breaking addictions, changing habits, or improving our character. I have seen so many people try to do things by themselves and have little success. Many of these people get stuck in their addictions and can't change. Through some random thinking I decided to compare God to photoshop. If you have a photo and you don't like something in it, say you find a zit, or you have red eye, or even damage to the photo. What do you do? You take the picture to an editing program and remove it. Just like in life if you find something you don't like: addictions or bad personality, you take it to God and he has the power to remove it. I don't know what anyone is supposed to take from this. My mind makes random connections. maybe someone understands this.