gifts

A small observation:
My parents & I gave Joy a DVD and a CD for Christmas - both gifts I would love to receive. Joy/her parents gave me a jewelry box, bracelet & necklace - all gifts that joy would love to receive. Now, I like to get gifts no matter what they are, and I LOVE my jewelry. I think it's funny when we realize we often give someone what we would want to receive. Nothin wrong with that!

TCX '05

First, let me say that TCX is the winter conference of Campus Crusade for Christ. There are 10 conferences all over the US- places like San Deigo, Spokane WA, DC, Atlanta, Denver- over 10,000 students participate total. At TCX [twin-cities xperience] 1400 college students in the upper midwest-IA, SD, ND, MN, WI- got together for four days at the Hilton in Minneapolis to go to seminars, listen to speakers, worship, pray and grow!! It's sweet. There. My schpeel is now complete.

Second, I've actually been avoiding blogging about the conference. There is so much to tell! About halfway through the 4 days I remember saying the trip was worth it, but I had more fun the year before. WRONG! I had just as much fun, probably even more. And I learned a lot, too. I learned that I focus too much on the future, and I'm missing what's happening right now. I'm focusing too much on summer project and what I could do after graduation that I am missing the relationships I could be building now and women I could be influencing on my floor.

I learned that I have not been leading with a heart of worship last semester, of which I am very regretful. Being put in the position of leading worship for CRU has been awesome and I love doing, but God showed me that I really was not revealing my heart in doing so. I was too concerned with practices, equipment problems & nerves to truly worship Him. God is so faithful that He continues to teach me something new every day.

home

yep. i'm home. pretty boring. no offense to the family, tho, they're pretty cool. at least i am catching up on sleep! it kind of bugs me that i take too much on bc right now i am paging through my American Gov't textbook looking for answers to the million questions i have to answer. honestly, tho, if it really bothered me that much i would not have signed up for the class. the list of things i want to accomplish over christmas break is pretty random...

finish the homework for my gov't class
work on my novel
finish Screwtape Letters
start and finish Through Painted Deserts
[i think that's the name...it's by donald miller]
write a few songs

there's probably more but that's all i can think of now.
time to get back to the homework.

change

I did something nice for someone this week, and i can't help but wonder if it's changed them in some way. If it has lifted their spirits, gave them a little more hope in the world, or made their life a little better. It's worth it even if though I'll probably never meet them.


Then, it hits me. I think maybe that person will go help someone else and it will start a random acts of kindness chain. It's a real nice thought. I can dream, right?


But THEN I think about how it affected others around me. Someone that saw the random act of kindness. The person that helped pull it off. My friends that I told what happened. I have no idea if the person I helped will even think anything of it. But I took a chance.

trust

thanks for the quote, lys-

When you come to the edge of all the light you know,
and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown,
faith is knowing one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid to stand on,
or you will be taught how to fly.

education

While sitting in a boring lecture, have you ever thought "Am I actually learning something that will be useful to you when you graduate and get a job?" Here's a common question I've been asking my whole life: "WHEN am I going to use this stuff I am learning!?" the following paragraphs are two views on education from my micro-econ book. i find the second idea very interesting...probably because I've thought it before!

1- Human Capital Theory of Education
"Education makes workers more productive." according to this view, increasing education levels for all workers would raise all workers' productivity and thereby their wages.

2- Signaling Theory of Education:

"...schooling has no real productivity benefit, but the worker signals his innate productivity to employers by his willingness to spend years at school...action is being taken not for its intrinsic benefit but because the willingness to take that action conveys private information to someone observing it." basically: "Education is correlated with natural ability." according to this view, education does not enhance productivity, so raising all workers' education levels would not affect wages.

Realistically, the answer is between the two. I personally hope for the second one...because then I won't feel bad for not retaining any information from this last semester! haha, just kidding. [sort of!]

more sara groves

yeah....more sara groves. i pretty much love her!

I think we've figured out
this world is bigger than you and I.
We've exhausted our wealth of knowledge
and have no more answers for mankind.

We've had every conversation in the world
about what is right and what has all gone bad,
but have I mentioned to you that this is all I am,
this is all that I have.

I would like to share with you what makes me complete.
I don't claim to have found the Truth,
but I know it has found me.

the only thing that isn't meaningless to
me is Jesus Christ and and way he set me
free. This is all that I have. This is all that I am.

[conversations // sara groves]