Sketches from a Young Married Intern's Album

     Can anyone else believe that Kristin and I have been married for over a year now?? I still can't! Looking back on the past year, there's certainly a weight of history to reflect upon, and I can acknowledge that a lot happened, but a year? It doesn't feel like a year! I can remember when a month seemed like an eternity, much less a year- when you recollected a year back then, it viscerally felt like 365.25 days, and then some! It's unbelievable to me that a year should go so fast, yet at the same time, it's not completely shocking. Time flies when you're having fun, and marriage is fun!*
     We spent Friday the 15th in Lake Geneva at a resort overlooking the lake. I was shooting for fancy, but holy smoke, that place was sumptuous! Two hundred dollar dinners taste even better when they're complementary, I've found... not that filet mignon and New York Strip really have to improve any.
     The rest of our weekend was spent at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, where we checked out the indoor waterpark, the theme park, and their very own haunted house. Their... not so awesome haunted house, complete with 40-something bald guy hitting on teenage girls, obnoxious tour guides complaining about her schedule and pay, and 5 minute tour of not-particularly-terrifying sights in an old farmhouse. I'm not complaining, honest! It was certainly a memorable evening and weekend. Praise God for his blessing on our marriage, now and always.
     My internship is going really well- so well, in fact, that's it's deceptively easy to take for granted how cool an opportunity it is to apprentice under the pastors at Morning Star. Every experience they train me for and guide me through is so edifying and humbling; their importance in equipping me is so vividly felt. I appreciate so much the chance that they've given me in taking me on and investing themselves in my training, and it's just plain a hoot getting to hang out with them throughout the week. The Leadership Team meetings are these singular mixtures of blood-earnest contemplation and (infrequent) shenannigans. Case in point: Henry, upon noticing that everyone brought their laptop to last night's meeting except for him inquiring if there was a general laptop reminder e-mail forwarded to everyone except him. Disappointed, he grabs a nearby tablet to scrawl some notes, when Jeremy suddenly asks, "Where's the pizza you were supposed to bring?"

Henry: Oh, I guess I screwed that one up?
Ian: I'm the intern, stupid mistakes like that are supposed to be my job.
Jeremy: Well, we do rely on you for that!
Henry: That's why I have you saved in my phone as "InternIan."

     I pretended to laugh, but I think everyone knows I was crying inside.
     Driving home today was like an obstacle course in a car commercial, owing to all of the green recycling bins the wind had strewn throughout the streets. Swerving through an intricate, twisting labyrinth of recycling collections is not typical fare here in Janesville.

     Was that random? Yes.






*Well, mine at least!

The Spirit and the Bride Say, "Come"

     I feel deeply moved when I think of the world these days, specifically the world amidst the backdrop of the Gospel. The hopelessness of the world's hostility towards God and the claims of Scripture inspire great grief in my heart. I feel an intense sorrow that the creature spurns and rejects the Creator, and that that for which we are all made is that which we despise and want nothing to do with.
     There is nowhere that the light of Christ has not revealed itself. John 1:9-11 says, "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him." That the Son of Man, who is our peace, should be scorned and despised dismays me to the utmost. Now, it does not elicit a desire in me for reprisal or a longing for vengeance, or anything of the sort- only heartache due to the hatred of Christ and to the self-condemnation of the world.
     It makes me long for eternity at times that I may at last experience the perfect reconciliation of all reality with God and the joy of sinlessness and perfect communion with Him. I am in a strait between two worlds. I have one foot in the world that is and one foot in the world that is to be, but my desire for that world to be is not mere escapism from weariness here and now. Rather, I long for the consummation of the created order and the fulfillment of God's purpose in history, through which all strivings shall at last cease. Though God has granted me innumerable blessings here and now, I know that these are signposts pointing to the age to come when nothing and no one can ever be an idol again, when God will be glorified and enjoyed by His people with the infinite capacity that He alone possesses to glorify and enjoy Himself, and I say, "Come, Lord Jesus."

MAWWIAGE is what bwings us togethew tewday.

     Woohoo! My friend Pete Brotzman was married yesterday at Devil's Lake to his beloved Theresa and it was a pleasure attending and being there for them. Pete is such a righteous dude! It's amazing that him, Eli (his brother), and Joseph are all getting married this year, and talking to all of them, you just see God's fingerprints all over it.
     Kristin and I will have be celebrating our first anniversary this Sunday- how incredible is that?? I've been reflecting so much lately on how awe-inspiring it is that I am loved. Loved at all- in the least! It defies common sense to me, to be totally honest. Me, in all of my imperfections and flaws, my infuriating idiosyncrasies, my oddities and my wrongdoings, am loved, and loved by the coolest girl in the cosmos at that! It's marvelous beyond words that in spite of all of this I am cherished and longed for. And if true for Kristin, how much more so for the One before whom all of these deficiencies are infinitely more glaring? For whom it would be altogether appropriate to sever all bonds with me and leave me to myself, whom I fail time and time again? As Kristin and I, and now Pete and Theresa, are bound by covenantal, unceasing love, so are God and His people; what a perfect picture with which to better understand eternity.