TANSTaaFL

    So we've been back from Camp Chetek for a few weeks now, adjusting to life back home, missing the constant ministry opportunities that camp presented, yet happy to be back with friends and family and our church. I think everything associated with the transition back to Janesville has been smoothed out (FINALLY, in the case of AT&T!), now all that remains is tying up the remaining loose ends associated with me going to school- I'm pursuing a Bachelor's in Biblical Studies with Moody Bible Institute through their distance learning program. It would be a grand understatement to say that I'm pretty psyched about that! I've also begun an internship at Morning Star that promises to be just as awesome. I'm impressed with the philosophy of ministry that the leadership at MSBC have cultivated and personally I think they're all exemplary gentlemen (and no, I'm not saying that in hopes of them reading this and buying me lunch or something (although a free lunch is a free lunch!*)). I'm excited at the prospect of learning firsthand from Pastors Bob, Jeremy, and Jess and everyone on the Leadership Team and being edified through working with all of them.
     Remembering to step back and view the Big Picture is helpful in reminding me why I'm working nights at Farm and Barn once more- believe me, I would rather be with Kristin every single night, but circumstances right now are reminding me how thankful I am that we shared almost an entire year where we could be together each evening. The Lord blessed us with that right off the bat in our marriage and meditating upon that helps me as I'm driving down Pontiac, preparing my heart for the business of selling nuts and bolts, circular saws, light bulbs, compression fittings and the like when I know I would prefer to be home with my wife. The door may in fact be opened and the Lord may provide a job opportunity in which my nights with Kristin would be assured, but until such a time I am content with the fact that I have a job at all that helps us as I'm starting school. Wow. Another statement I wouldn't have made about two years ago!
     We're at Orchestra and Choir practice right now and having a blast. Sounds like a football game awaits us this afternoon and hopefully a new phone is brewing... so to speak! Have a great weekend all!



*Or, as Robert Heinlein might point out (or rather did, in his novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress) There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch!

Momentary Glimpses

All my life I have experienced glimpses of joy- fleeting wisps, frustratingly brief. They were all only tiny morsels that seemed to vanish just as quickly as I had tasted them, for they were incomplete, and only foreshadowings of true Joy. Each one was limited, bound to finite things that age and pass away, and could not fulfill because they had no source outside of themselves.
I never experienced true abiding JOY until I came to Christ. And though this Joy is richer by far than any others I've ever known, it still is incomplete, and still only a foreshadowing (and gloriously so!), because I will not know the ultimate Joy I was created to experience until I am glorified and in the presence of my Lord Jesus Christ. Seek and take hold of that for which we were all created- to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!