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amazingspeedoman
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Name: Eric
Country: United States
State: Missouri
Metro: St. Louis
Gender: Male
Interests: Shindigs. Words. Music. Glory. You.
Expertise: "Look at this stuff...isn't it neat?"
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
12/1/2004
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| All hereSo I've been swept up in the wirlwind that is called college life. It seems like I've been here for a day, and it seems like I've been here for a decade. But I've been here for, what, three weeks? The time-space continuum fades from my mental construct. In reality, I've been really absorbed with the people and the responsibilities that are immediately in front of me right now. I'm all here. I'm not thinking about home much these days. My focus is here. I hope that's not offensive--I think it's healthy and I'm glad to be able to say that I'm all here. It's a phrase Jeff Pearson introduced me to, a real theme apparently of youth ministry these days, and I like it. I want to be all here. When I'm home I hope I'll be all there. But anyway I hope I get a chance to write about some of the exciting things that have been going on around, well, here. Right now most of it falls under the umbrella of this crazy position I now have, called "Resident Assistant." You of the high school years may not know what this means, and non-Bryan college friends may have a very different idea of what an RA is, from their school. I'm sure a lot of my posts will be about things that relate to being an RA, so...yeah. If you don't know what I'm talking about you'll get a better idea later on. For now, drink a coke and think fondly of me, your friend the crazy person. | | |
| As much as I love being at the bottom of your subscription lists...It's time to say a few things, like "Hi!" and "I'm not dead!" And--what fortuitous circumstance be this!--you are still here to listen! I am SURE you are glad for the opportunity to once-again prove your keen ability to detect the subtleties of my wit-laced sentence structure. I will spare you the paper-thin excuses for my absence from xanga, and just say that I was pretty much enjoying, you know, life away from the screen for a while. In fact, I still am, but I could bear no longer the thought of you, my friends, spending lonely nights loitering on the blogosphere without me (or a piece of me) to keep you company.
I would tell you what's become clear to me since we last conversed, and what I've been obsessing over lately, BUT I need to e-mail the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen known as Third Long (my hall at Bryan) first. It's pretty Super. *wink*
Summer was short. I drive back to Bryan on Thursday the 10th--just two days from now. I am, of course, insanely excited about R.A. retreat. But that's all mixed with some longing to freeze time, or roll back a few months...do a few things differently, see a few people, read a few books... Pray. Grow. C'est la vie.
So I propose a list:
Things I did this summer... Slept (slightly more), went to Orlando, served a few catered dinners, lead worship, forgot to plan for leading worship, improved at guitar for the first time in five years, lifeguarded in a golf club subdivision, got a weird job called "H2Orchestra Conductor" (drove a painted van w/ a traveling children's exhibit), got wet (a lot), got sunburned, got tan except around my eyes b/c of sunglasses (think inverted raccoon), did no intentional excercise, took a French 201 class, wrote a report on a French-speaking country in French (yay English-French dictionary!), bought a sweet TV, fell in love (just kidding!), unintentionally avoided women almost completely (there we go!), lead worship for AWANA camp, took a golf cart down a hill in neutral in pitch black, turned 20, read journals from when I was 15, cried, laughed, got a $4 plastic Batman mask, hosted the worst birthday party in McEachron history, taught my brother to drive a stick, learned about famous works of art, went to the art museum, felt loved, felt lonely, made friends, pushed friends away unintentionally, went a long way towards becoming "handy", never once arrived late to work, spent hours watching my brother play World of Warcraft, been without a shirt on for hours in the presence of others, saw two of my best friends get married (and got a sex talk from one of them after!), been a groomsman, identified spiritual leaders in my life, got Firefox, waxed a car for the first time ever, learned from God about worship, wondered what is means to be "set apart", struggled with how to be a Christian and how to disciple, lost contact with most of my dear friends from college, longed for heaven more than ever before in my life, looked for a UFO in the sky, seen firsthand at least 20 reasons why weddings should not be outdoors (including incidents with locksmiths and carriage brakes nearly killing a horse), seen firsthand that love conquers all...and written a very, very long list.
Yep.
(Awkward pause...)
So...what did YOU do this summer?
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| I love my countryToday was an awesome Independence Day. I decided to create an Eric July 4th tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence--aloud. A man I respect once said that reading the Declearation of Independence every once in a while is good for the soul. I agree heartily. Tonight I read it to my dad, and I must say I was blown away--it's quite a document. This nation was founded by some extremely intelligent, articulate, and God-fearing men.
Tonight my brother and a friend and I also watched Glory, a fantastic Civil War movie, and again I was blown away. The sacrifice and bravery of our wartime heroes makes me feel a good kind of small. Not humiliated, but humbled...put in my proper, fitting place. It is an amazing feeling, to go from being a little self-important (like the hero of the story, the loner, the Christian Clint Eastwood) to re-realizing that there is a great movement sweeping up through history in this world, something so much bigger than you, something that has preceded you and will outlive you, something powerful and good. Redemption. All things new. Life out of death. Glory smelted together from broken hopes and hearts.
Finally, I read a letter today, in the book of my dad's that had the Declaration of Independence. It moved me, and I would like to share it with you.
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Executive Mansion
Washington, Nov 21, 1864
To Mrs. Bixley, Boston, Mass,
Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
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| Superman ReturnsYes, friends, that's right...I have returned from camp! | | |
| "Maybe he's right... Maybe there IS something the matter with me.""I just don't see how a world which makes such wonderful things could be bad..." | | |
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