Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Camp Scoop

The weekend at camp was, as predicted, amazing!

While I was there I learned a bit about who would be doing what this summer:

Jared is coming back as Assistant Director! (Hooray!)

Brian is going to rock the music leader position! (I also heard that Brian shaved off all his wonderful hair...)

Mark and Alicia (who are getting married this Spring!) are moving to Punxy! Alicia will be the horse director, and Mark will work locally, coming to visit regularly. Erik can't come back this season, but will be spend the summer in Argentina with his family.

The Marschner twins will be spending the whole summer at LLC as CITs and campers.

Speaking of twins, Shannon is coming back, along with her twin, Selena.

Cody is (leaning more toward) coming back! (he had better, because I can't be the only guitar nerd around.)

It also sounds like there will be many yung'n staff, as there were last year. Many will come from BMA.

Well, that's about the extent of the news I heard for the coming camp season. No matter what, it's going to be a phenomenal summer! (Oh, I'm probably supposed to say that all of these are subject to change, so I'm not prosecuted, see.)

EDIT: Oh, hey! Apparently mi hermana marvillosa will work at camp as well, on the stipulation that I grow my hair as long as Mel Gibson in Braveheart ("i would come back to LLC just for your hair...if indeed you grow it that long."). I'm working on it!. :)

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Monday, January 29, 2007

huh?

Dead soldier to father kid with woman he never met.

I'm really not sure if I understand the logic in this.

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

blessings

Lately I haven't really been with God too much. I mean, we have our moments, but I've just been so fickle.

Yet still his blessings flow:

  • The nerds, Justine, Nikki, & (hopefully new LLC staff member!) Keri are heading up to Laurel Lake to sing with Pathfinders! This will be phenomenal!

  • I am currently eating from a tupperware container some of the best rice I have ever had, concocted by one Jon Mall; If you're out there, dude, it is amazing!

  • The '08 class song has just been finished—by my classmate Maya Rutledge (yes, she wrote it)! This girl has got an amazing voice and is totally on fire for the Lord.

  • The prayers (for my brother) are working! (Please keep praying)

  • I think I'm finally finding some balance in my school life (gasp!)

  • This rice is so good! (I just had to say that again)

  • It's snowing! And I went sledding... in a quarter inch of it! I feel young again!

    Oh my... life is so good. I mean, we all have problems. We go through tough times. But honestly, I've found that the joy always outweighs the pain when you're on Jesus' side. As the Junior class pastor, Jon Soto, said in his sermon, "Don't tell God how big your problems are, but tell your problems how big your God is!"

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  • Monday, January 22, 2007

    The First Time

    I have absolutely amazing friends.

    You're probably one of them.

    There are times when I look at myself and realize that I've been a really crummy friend, but then I look around and see that you're still here. Sometimes I don't appreciate you like I should, but that just once again proves what an awesome friend you are—that you would stay even in the tough weather. You remind me of Bono's "lover" in one my favorite lyrics:

    Shows me colours when there's none to see
    Gives me hope when I can't believe
    That for the first time
    I feel love

    Or perhaps his "brother":

    I spend my whole time running
    He spends his running after me
    When I feel myself going down
    I just call and he comes around
    But for the first time
    I feel love

    And I want to make this promise that you have so often fulfilled to me. I only pray that I can live up to it:

    I will carry your cross
    I will go the extra mile
    Hold you in my arms like a mother's only child
    I will finish your race
    I will second your fight
    Though I'm here by your side not everything's alright

    Still I will carry your cross

    I promise you that the going will get tough
    But I promise you you'll always have my love
    ...
    I will carry your cross

    I look back on those words and they seem superhuman. Jesus sang this song to me. You have followed in His steps and have sung the same. God, please help me to be even half the friend that these have been to me.

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    Sunday, January 21, 2007

    Done!

    Okay, for the record, the touringness was way sweet! As portrayed here in hi-tech bullet-fashion:

  • We went to an adventist elementary school in Allentown. The kids were hilarious. The one kid saw my hair and immediately came to the conclusion that I'm in a "rock-n-roll band". And, for ye camp folk, Billy was there (yes, the crazy-awesome-how-on-earth-did-they-get-honor-cabin billy). :)

  • I had forgotten how much I love the Dekle family (yes! i can spell!). They're all so tight-knit, but yet so different! I hadn't really seen them since camp and I missed them all so much. Plus their house is really cool. It always brought a smile to walk into the bathroom and find 9 toothbrushes neatly lined up. Ah, Dekles: you are amazing.

  • I saw Braveheart for the first time on saturday night. It's horribly sad and probably not exactly accurate. But it did inspire me! I mean, check out Gibson's hair! That's totally me in a year.

  • Oh yeah. And we did sing some.

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  • Thursday, January 18, 2007

    To Do

    Today we shall embark upon a brave venture into the wilds of Pennsylvania and Maryland! We shall encounter many obstacles, distractions and hopefully lunches.

    "We" being Bel Canto! Hurrah! It is tour time! This is gonna be a sweet tour—I can taste it already. And get this: Dan, Justin & me all chilling overnight at the Deagle's (Deakles? Degeles? oh forget it!) place! Good times are destined.

    So, uh, peace to all the readership out there.

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    Buy One Today!!

    Our ingenious invention for Leadership class—mostly the brainchild of one Jeremy Pastor. You know you want one! (see the video)

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    Friday, January 12, 2007

    In The Light

    You all know these types of relationships. The ones where you can share life stories. Where you find out about not only the other person, but yourself. Where you can be brutally honest about anything and have no fear of offending. Where you can be yourself. These friendships are beautiful and priceless, and I consider myself blessed to have a few of these.

    I once heard someone say that these types of relationships should be...just that—few. And they certainly shouldn't be had with those of the opposite gender, at least not until one is committed to a lifetime with that person.

    And this made sense to me. I mean, after all, you don't want your secrets spilled out into the whole world. That's dangerous. And relationships can be so fickle, can't they? It seems to add up. It's safer to keep things clean and uncomplicated. But after a bit of wrestling I found this out about myself:

    I don't agree.

    I don't think that these types of relationships—the sharing, growing, real friendships—should be limited only a select few of a certain type.

    And what about having these relationships with those of the opposite gender? What if this sharing somehow spawns an unwanted level of intimacy, or perhaps morphs into infatuation?

    Again, I think the answer lies not in narrowing the sharing in the friendship, but instead broadening the reception and output of truth.

    Because truth, in whatever form, belongs to God. This is why, even when I find myself with a friend discussing truths that seem completely unspiritual, I find myself growing closer to God. I wonder, can something that brings a person closer to God be wrong?

    Maybe the problem isn't telling too many people, but telling too few people.

    Everyone wears a mask.

    Because we all have pain in our lives that no one knows about. And there is this fear that if we were to take off our masks, everyone would see how imperfect we really are.

    So I wonder, what would happen if one day everyone decided to leave their masks hanging on the wall and walk out without them? What would happen if we would live without masks?

    Well, first of all, I think it would be horribly disturbing. Think about it. Everyone you ever meet—with one glance you see all the pain they have ever had—that they have now. I don't think I could walk a block without bursting into tears. I don't think there would be a dry eye in the world. I'm seriously tearing up just thinking about it.

    With one look you see everything. You see the jerk who always mouths everyone off, who can't keep a friend for two seconds, and know his father comes home every night drunk and beats his wife, while this kid can only watch powerless. You see the workaholic geek who can't spare time to say hello, and know that his parents wouldn't give him the time of day unless he did everything perfectly. Suddenly everyone knows that the peppy cheerleader had been sexually abused by her uncle. And every person you see has his or her own story. Every look brings more pain.

    But then we realize that we are all the same. When the masks come off there is no hierarchy. We all have pain in our lives. Not only can we sympathize with what people are really going through, but some of us can even lift others up—let them have a real joy instead of cherishing the lies that are worn every day. And in a bit of time, everyone would be full of love—for God, for each other, and for themselves. The truth...well...sets you free. Joy in fellowship.

    The action of living without a mask is something that John called "living in the light."

    1 John 1:6,7— we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.


    This idea used to scare me when I was younger. I was always told that when Christ comes, everything wrong that I had ever done would be revealed in plain sight for everyone to see. If every person could see at a glance all your sin and all your pain, it would hurt. Vulnerability always hurts.

    But then I realized that we're all in the same boat. No one will be able to look at you in disgust, because they'll be so overcome by their own shame. And when we finally look around at the other people, we'll see clearly that we all have horrible wrong, and there will be no more shame. Because "there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus."

    Everyone is twisted behind the mask.

    So when we gave ourselves to Christ, he didn't give us a new mask to cover our disgusting selves again, but clears us up to reveal our true faces—the humans he created each of us to be. Call it spiritual dermatology.

    But why wait until we get to heaven to realize that we're all imperfect? Why not bring heaven to earth right now?

    This is why these sharing relationships are so...good. This is why they bring us closer to God. Because they are a part of living in the light. They bring heaven to earth.

    So my proposal is that we not limit these relationships to a select few. This kind of fellowship is what God is all about. This is agape, and we need as much of it as we can have.

    So let's do it. Let's take off the masks. We all need to be cleaned up anyway.

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    Sunday, January 07, 2007

    New York, New York

    Wow, good stuff has been happening all around.

    On Thursday/Friday I went to Manhattan to see many interesting and entertaining things including my wonderful Aunt Gina, MoMA (the (new) Museum of Modern Art is absolutely amazing), my first Broadway musical (also the longest running, The Fantasticks has been on Broadway for 42 years), and some cathedral which will someday be the tallest in the world if it is ever finished (it's been under construction for over 100 years).

    On Saturday, several camp and non-camp people got together to do a song service for a bunch of yung'ns. It was pretty much a blast. A thousand invitations went out. One kid came. (Ouch) But it was still ridiculously fun.

    And now when I line this up I wonder why I'm still not at my prime. I'm still feeling down.

    I think I've been going through my teen depression stage. At least I hope so, because it would be really annoying to have to be this way the rest of my life. It's been a sort of schizophrenic depression in that it takes turns between genuine joy and utter helplessness. Hmmmm... it's really not all that bad — not like I would expect depression to be. It just gets so...so...irritating.

    I've still been trying to sort out faith vs feeling. It hasn't been working too well.

    Hey, I just found this on Wikipedia:

    Robert Burton wrote in the 16th century in his classic work, The Anatomy of Melancholy, that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia.
    In November 2006, Dr. Michael J. Crawford and his colleagues again found that music therapy helped the outcomes of schizophrenic patients.


    So funny...and true. U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind is blasting over the stereo and I feel better already. Now I just need a dance partner....

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    Tuesday, January 02, 2007

    Feelin' Passy Outy

    Wow. I am beat. So... dead... tired.... I have no idea why I am still sitting here typing.

    I claim the discovery of this equation to be mine:

    5-6 hours of sleep
    +
    mad carpet moving (well, i was kinda lazy actually)
    +
    practice, practice, practice
    =
    near death

    Wait a second. That wasn't so bad! What's wrong with me? Five hours sleep is above average for a normal schoolnight! Practicing music is something that I absolutely love to do! This is... hideous. I need to tell my body who's boss around here, or perhaps I need a shot... of chocolate. You may hear from me in the future.

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