A good day.

Today was Saturday. It was quite smashing. I woke up at noon after having slept for a solid 9 hours straight. I was out. It’s what happens when you get up at 4:30 to initiate new PAs.

I spoke to my new sister-in-law on the phone after breakfast. She is very nice. I was in a somewhat negative mood at the time, so I wonder if she thinks that I’m a frustrated, brooding individual…I dunno. I could be, but I don’t think I am all the time.

Ben Troop and Devin Goddard and I went to Goodwill (the best place to buy clothes) and bought silly dress-up crap for Emerson Prom. Emerson Prom was 80’s themed. I went in a 100% red polyester shirt with sleeves cut off, some cut-off white pants, and my chacos with big socks. In essence I looked absolutely absurd. That being said, I had a blast. I am one of the few males I know who actually enjoys dancing. It’s a guilt-free opportunity to be as ridiculous as possible without people judging you. People actually told me that “you’ve got some moves out there.” Now, that might be going a tad far, but I do have a great time. This was no different. It was great to see some people on my floor break out of their shells a bit and actually dance. Well done gents.

Seriously though. I really enjoyed it. I’m not quite sure what else to say. I think I may have scandalized a few people, but whatever. I remain confident that my dancing is not for other people. I actually found myself thinking about the verse that says “whatever you do…do it as though it was for God and not for men.” A rough paraphrase to be sure. But I think I might have actually done some worship through dancing this evening. Fun stuff.

Before the dance a few of us went to visit a friend of mine. She’s out of the hospital now. We went to her house and read her children’s books and generally had a great time talking to her for a few hours. She seems a lot better. It was good to see her.

I think that I’m going to work at camp again this summer. I’d never really planned on it for this summer, but it seems like the door is as wide open as any door that I have had…so I suppose I’ll take the job. I will probably be waterfront director. That means that I tell the lifeguards what to do and drive boats. Hmmm…at the lake. With people I love. Serving the Lord. In the sunshine. With a flexible schedule…It sounds really great.

I was thinking today about how our government uses fear to motivate public support for things like wars. We’re scared of the terrorists after 9-11 so we try to kill the other ones that are left. I understand. Terrorists are scary. They kill people…but so do we. I think that might make us just as scary (if not more…we have more money, people, and guns than they do). I wonder about Christians who sign on to this sort of violence to stop terrorist action against us. There’s a verse (Matthew 10:28 ) where Christ says quite clearly “Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” There you have it, we are not to fear those who can kill us. Yes, undeserved death is a tragedy, but killing other people to prevent that doesn’t seem much better (even if they are “guilty” didn’t Christ die for us all to remove our guilt?). Furthermore I submit to you that as a Christian you really shouldn’t view life solely in terms of now for the kingdom of heaven is both now and not yet. We await something more than what we experience in this life. So any end of a story of a life here isn’t the end. There’s more. People keep living.

It seems to me that what Christ is saying in that passage is that we ought to fear God (be obedient, realize that He’s the One who created the universe and is bigger than our understanding, etc…) way more than any other thing. In sort, our relationship with God is more important than our claim to life. I think what this is saying is that if you’re offered the choice between death and nothing holding back your relationship with the Father or life with obstacles in your walk placed by you to keep yourself alive…you ought to pick death. Harsh words perhaps. But really what are your priorities? What are mine? Are we after Christ and eternal life or what seems like a great life here? We’ve got some questions to answer either way…