Today the cool fall wind blows.  The first fallen leaves rustle.  The light is filtered through grey clouds.  I feel like I’m being pushed into something that that I’m not sure about.  There is mystery and risk and I’m taking it here.  I’m tired but I push on with my sights held high, trying to focus my telescope on the goal.  I must preach the gospel to myself over and over.  Its my ‘rock.’  When I feel like I’m over my head, my rock keeps my feet steady and sure.  …

I just got back from a concert by Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken.  It was really nice to spend a Saturday night out.  I thought it was really good.  Seeing something live just brings a whole new dimension to music.

Sandra opened the night with some acoustic guitar songs followed by some songs from her album Red Balloon.  She played a Beetle’s song and it was beautiful.  She is just such a talented solo guitarist.  All of the musicians were really great.  The keyboardist who did all the electronic …

I was taken by the short story by Flannery O’Conner, “the Enduring Chill.”  I felt in many ways I was reading about my own life.

The professor of my class, to whom I owe the credit of seeing this writing clearly, dotes over a scene where Asbury is in the car going home with his mom.  He is a 25 year old would-be-writer who doesn’t make it in NYC, and has to return to his single mom’s home in the country.  This is extremely irritating to Asbury and he …

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs
And works his sovereign will.
 
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
 
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
 
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain:
God is his own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
~William Cowper
 
Trusting today somehow, yet may this hidden joy flower in the midst of sorrow.  May this beauty form from bitter bud. …

A couple days ago I went up and visited my potential college, Messiah College.  It is a small school of only about 2,800 undergrad students.  I had a very pleasant visit.  It is so peaceful there.  It is surrounded by beautiful land complete with a river and wooded trails, it would be a great place to delve into academia. 
When Henri Nouwen left Harvard University from a professorship there, he was in search of home and of community.  Nouwen found this lacking from the driven institutional life style of Harvard.  My question is:  Can …

“we will never get past our struggles and addictions until we recover the true heart and true life we were meant for.”  John Eldridge

it is difficult to come clean on my own struggling, the loneliness, the fear that love should have cast out…  I wonder if any one reads my thoughts, and thinks “Oh, man this guy really needs help!”  The answer is yes.  My only question to you is do you feel like that as well?  Because I think everyone needs help.  I think with out the promise of the divine… what’s the point?  I am so thankful that God decided to become fully human in Christ and paid the price for …