My ripped pants

That's me. And my ripped pants. Yeah.

It all started with an innocent leadership retreat for my church. The leaders for DV8 (middle school), Wired (High School), and H2O (college & career) headed to Deep Creek for the weekend to refocus, connect about the upcoming semester, and just hang out together. It was an amazing time together.

On Saturday night, after we had an amazing time together sharing about what God had done in our lives the last year, some of us started dancing around like idiots (because that's what we do when there is an open space and music playing). Well, as a few of us were just dancing around, we were jumping up and down from the floor, acting kind of like monkeys (don't ask. Really).

Well, that was the point I heard a rip. And I immediately just sat down where I was. And scooted on my butt to the side of the room where there was only one other person sitting on a couch (my roommate for the weekend Deanna). I realized pretty quickly that it was not a small rip, or just the pocket. No, it was a bit too drafty for that.

Most people really didn't realize what was happening, to my delight. I did find out later that Cameron was trying to get me to show people cause he didn't think it ripped all the way through. But oh did it.

Eventually my friend Jamie went and got me a pair ow sweats to wear, and I changed and all was well again. And then everyone got to see how badly I ripped my pants. Hilarious.

The only problem being they were one of my favorite pairs of jeans that I have worn a ton since I got them 2 years ago (probably why they were weak enough to rip like that). And now I am down to 1 pair of jeans that fit well, and 1 pair that will fit with a belt. Oh issues.

Oh yeah, and a pair of khakis that I really love. That as I looked at yesterday I realized were getting small holes at the corners of each back pocket. Grr. No dancing in those I guess.

Done!

Busy? Me. No. That could never define my life. Ok, maybe. Always. But whatever.

I finally finished writing my proposal for my dissertation. Turning it in to my committee was one of the most liberating and terrifying experiences. You see, now I don't have to worry about writing it everyday, but I also can't change anything, so if there's a mistake it's there for good. Now I just have to make a seminar to present what I wrote.

It didn't really hit me how quickly this has all happened. I just got the official email announcing my seminar next Wednesday though, so it is completely official. I have to present my research plan for the next year and a half in 5 days. And then have a committee meeting about it the next day. Where they will hopefully not fail me. I don't really like the whole failing thing.

And as disenchanted as I have been for the past year with research, I really don't want to fail. I don't want a reason to quit. I may dread it sometimes, but I do want to finish it out. Whether or not I do this long term after I graduate is another story....

Wanna do me a favor?

I've gotten in a habit of listening to podcasts of sermons recently, mainly being inspired by my friend Josh Vance, who has listened to some so many times that he can directly quote whole sections!

It's been good to have some other podcasts to listen to instead of my normal geeky MIT opencourseware on biotech stuff or Philosophy Talk from Stanford. Although both are great.

Recently I've been listening to some sermons by Francis Chan from Cornerstone Simi church. I will say that I have gotten a ton out of each that I have listened to. This morning as I was listening to one (Living with Urgency Pt. 1) I really loved the illustration used, so I thought I'd share it with you.

When someone asks you to do a favor for them, what is your typical response?

If you're like me and most other people, you immediately say, "What is it?"

Now, admittedly there are a few people I don't even question, I just say, "Sure, what do you need me to do?" But often the "sure" part is left off til I find out what is required of me.

So Francis Chan asks his congregation in the same manner, if I read you something from the Bible, will you unquestioningly do what it says? Most of us will think, well... what are you going to read us?

Isn't that funny?

We say we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. We believe we should follow what it says, but we still will have some reservations about agreeing blindly to follow it unless we know what we are agreeing to.

Shouldn't we just say yes, whatever is in the Bible we will follow as the word of God, regardless?

The issue that was then pointed out in this part of the message was "don't slander". And although there was a great emphasis placed there, and it is of great importance to take that to heart and learn to truly love those we would want to speak badly about, there is a deeper message being put forth.

What would it look like if we all said no matter what it is, if God tells me to do something, I will do it without questioning it. I'll follow him regardless of whether it fits with my plans. Regardless of it fits with what I want, or what is sensible.

What if we did that for just one day? What could God accomplish through us in that time being totally committed to Him and His plan instead of being blinded by our own ideas?