Orange Black Pekoe or Wild Sweet Orange?

Isn’t it always funny how we think we know about something? Like we can think that we know what’s going on, but in the end we could end up knowing jack squat about it. I always thought that I could get away with saying that God’s got it under control. That he’s the one who’s going to take care of everything. Yes he does have it under control, but he’s not going to make out decisions for us. That’s what I love about it. He gives us a sense of freedom that only he can understand at this point.

That’s the thing I hate the most about life. Not understanding the perfect balance that is having God in control but also having Free Will. Free will is one of the most complicated things to understand. Webster defines free will as “voluntary choice or decision”, something that can happen totally as we would like it to. So how does this will and God’s control come into play? In Galatians 5:1 it says “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery”.

I think that God wanted us to have free will. I know that sounds redundant considering we have it, but I think it goes deeper than that. When I’m a father (in the far future), I will want to be able to trust my children. I want to be able to know that even though I’m the boss, that they can make their own decisions. This is where the “fatherly” love of God I think is most prominent, in our decision-making. He would love nothing more than to see us succeed by making the right choices, and a lot of the times we do. But it’s when we screw up that God’s love becomes most visible. Think about it, who would we be if the people that can surround us with love when mistakes happen didn’t exist? Where would we find the motivation to keep going. The motivation to continue on and to pick up the proverbial pieces and put them back together?

These people are a direct tool of God to make sure that our best interest is in mind. They help us when we need a swift kick in the pants to do what’s right. They help us realize that the whole world won’t fall apart if we just mess up. Messing up is a part of life. It’s a part of life that’s frankly inevitable, the part that I would love to be without. It makes making decisions near impossible at times. Knowing that there’s a chance it could all go down the toilet at any given moment makes life so unpredictable. Knowing that there’s a chance that it could blow up in our face and makes us feel like we’ve failed. Make us feel like there’s no hope for decisions ever again. Makes us go back and forth on every decision we make from that point on.  Makes us so unsure of what the future holds that we become agoraphobic, with no hope for humanity whatsoever.

But that’s not God’s ultimate goal for this freedom (in my opinon). This freedom is given to us for God to reveal himself to us more and more as time goes on. It’s given to us so that we may be able to look at the future head on and say “bring it”. This way, we know that there’s certainty in uncertainty. Strange huh? I thought so too. Until I realized that in all reality there is no certainty, life can change in an instant. We can plan things ahead of time but who are we to say that’s the way it’s going to play out? For us to assume that is absurd. Remember what happens when we assume. It makes an “ASS out of U and ME”. And none of us really want to be Donkeys.

A weekend in the life of a Covenant College Student

This past weekend I was on Fall Break. I decided that I would spend the weekend in Chatanooga, TN/Lookout Mountain, GA visiting my brother at Covenant College. I couldn't have been more excited about this experience. I hadn't ever visited him at college to date but that's going to definitely change this year. I love my brother, and I miss him dearly. It's been awesome to see our relationship change once we worked through our, for lack of a better word, crap in our relationship. He's been such an inspiration to me and someone I can really look up to. I couldn't have asked God for a better brother that's 2 and 1/2 years older than me.

I got here on Saturday at about 1:00 pm and it was such a cool day. A little overcast but perfect none the less. Got to see him play and it brought back so many memories of us being on the field together when I we were in high school. I wanted to just jump onto the field and play right next to him just like old times. That's one of the main reasons why I look up to my brother, his dedication. It's hard to go to college let alone play a sport where you train year round, but he never gave up. I'm sure there were times that he questioned it, may have even wanted to skip a practice or two but he kept going. And you can tell by his seriousness on the field. The way he communicates with his team and how he plays with all his heart.

The game was a victory, 3-1 against King College. Great game with some great people sitting by me. Speaking of those great people let me name them. Allie, Walter, and Lydia. Allie has been a dear friend of mine for the past 7 years. She's become a little sister to me and I was so excited to hear about her going to Covenant because I knew that Scott would be there to help her settle in for her first year.

Later on that night, I got the privilege of going to Scott's girlfriends house. Kathryn is one of the most genuine and humble people I've met to date. They started dating I want to say about 4-6 months ago and I can tell that Scott has been nothing but happy since then. Kathryn's house is incredible. It's an old house that's incredibly warm once you walk in. One of those houses you instantly feel welcome. The decor is definitely worth mentioning. Very post grad student. The term I would use would be "post grad urban chic". Warm colors and cool furniture.

We ate pizza and drank some Coca Cola. Great meal right there. One of my favorites so I was fine. I was able to meet Kathryn's roommate and her boyfriend AND her boyfriend's family. Such an awesome group of people. It was a night filled with good food, good people, good times, and good football.

I decided to come up this weekend to see Scott but also to see Allie. Allie is one of those friends who you can spend months away from but then come back and pick up right where you left off. It's been awesome to spend the time that I have with her this weekend and can't wait for another weekend visit. Now we come to Walter and Lydia.

I guess there should be some background information on how I met Lydia and Walter. You see through the incredible devices known as Apple computers, I've been able to video chat with Allie frequently and maintain contact. In these video chats I got to know her friends up here. Lydia is her roommate and I'm glad she is. It seems like they just hit it off instantly. I know that Lydia is just what Allie needed in life. Someone who understands how weird Allie truly is but not afraid to join in the fun. Walter made a few appearances in the video chats up until two weeks ago when he became a regular member of the sitcom known as my video chats with Allie. There's laughter, sadness, violence, perversity, language, anything you can imagine in a sitcom it's there. And that's why I love it and them so much.

A little more about Walter. I knew that Walter and I would get along but I was still nervous about meeting him and Lydia. I wanted them to like me, I wanted us to be able to laugh and cut up with each other. We've done light years more than that.  By now we're all the friends that looks, interests, music, etc hold no bounds to what we are growing to share. It's been awesome to get to know a guy that I can connect with all over again. I'm going to be honest, I love my friends. I would do anything for a lot of them. But I love new friendships, I love being able to get to know someone. Sharing stories, experiences, interests, hobbies, the like. New friendships are just exciting to me. Plain and simple.

So as this weekend went on, I realized something. Sure I go to a community college, sure I still live with my parents, sure I don't have roommates. But that's the fun part about it. I can go to any college for a weekend and sure have this experience but never meet people like this. I love Chattanooga, I love this mountain and I love these people.


End of Story.