we've got to whisper for a while...cause you know as well as I do that it's perfectly illegal to do anything for yourself while you're in college...sorry it's taken us so long to rendevous...this college thing is sucking me in like so many dust bunnies in a vacuume cleaner...
I considered about appologizing ahead of time for the length that is about to insue, but while reading a journal entry of Andrew Peterson's the other day (which itself was quite lengthy), I realized that that is not needed. Read if you want...don't if you've got something better to do, but in the meantime I'm going to try to document the highs and lows of my last few weeks.
School is school...going fine but very time consuming. I just made it through my first round of tests which feels good...but midterms are also aproaching with scary movie music begining to sound in the distance. Our bio labs have been FACINATING of recent weeks...we're studying basically every phylum in the universe...and memorizing them all for my test thursday Lord willing...it has been great to finally learn to use microscopes and get a handle on such a large knowledge base.
I've been getting really involved with some of the IV kids recently...going to prayer in the evenings almost every night ( a great time of reflection on the day and supporting each other), going to large group meetings when I can, and attending training sessions for next year's leadership team, which I hope to be a part of. This has been really good for me...a great chance for being challenged and staying accountable.
This past weekend was vocal jazz fest at MU, when a bunch of high school jazz groups came to perform and spent a half hour with a clinician for some tips. I helped chaperone a group around for a while and then my jazz group sang at the end of the day. It was fun...and a great experience for our young group of singers. May I say that kirkland stage feels huge when there are only 9 of you and the microphones up there...
Had some of my music buddies over to the house the other night for games and a movie...that was a blast. I think it scared a few of them to knock on the door and have "DR HOLMES" answer. :) hehe...it really does crack me up some times to be the daughter of my dad...I hope he doesn't mind having his students in his refrigerator one minute and in his class the next.
Speaking of music, next Saturday we'll be performing a major work...a requiem by Verdi with full orchestra and soloists from Chicago. Composers for hundreds of years have been using the same texts to set their works to...a requiem is just a specific set of latin texts which many different composers set their own music to. Most of the work is spent singing about "Dies Irae"...the day of judgement. The requiem was typically a funeral mass, and in some lights you could see this concert as and hour and 15 min of singing about hell fire and brimstone in Latin...but if you could hear these choirs...the HUGE sound, the orchestra, and the pleading texts "Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death, on that fearful day when the heavens are moved and the earth when thou shalt come to judge the world through fire. Rest eternal grant your children, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them. Lord have mercy...Christ have mercy" ...wow...I get shivers just thinking about it. So while this concert means four extra rehersals this week, I'm very excited about it...
I've been reading through the gospels in the last couple of weeks...trying to get through them before easter as a precursor. I haven't ever just sat down and read these books as a whole so I'm really excited about it. A few days ago I finished the sermon on the mount in Matthew. Took me a while to look at it all slowly and carefully...some facinating lessons there. I'm amazed over and over about how Christ takes the state of the religious people there and attempts to show them how much they have missed the heart of the matter. "You have heard it said that you should not murder, but I tell you that he that is angry with his brother is guilty of the same sin." "You have heard it said 'and eye for and eye' but I tell you do not resist the evil person...when your enemy strikes you, turn the other cheek" "You have heard that you should not commit adultery with another man's wife, but I tell you that he who even looks at a woman (or man) lustfully has already committed lust in his heart." Why is it that I get so tied up on the rules...the things I have to do in order to "pass the test" and totally miss the motives of my own heart? It's a challenge that I can't overlook and one that I know will be a life long struggle. Somehow I pray that I can learn to live a life of freedom by the spirit and yet use that freedom to surrender myself...my whole self...
Ok wow...so I have class in 3 minutes and I really have to run. If you're reading this, thanks for listening...if not...that's Ok too...
Blessings on your new week....
Monday, February 27, 2006
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Yeah...it had better be Friday...
Hi all,
It's been a while and I'm amazed at how fast time is starting to fly. Perhaps because of the heavy class load, perhaps because of the crazy happenings in the rest of life it feels like I'm spinning more plates than ever before. It's a good feeling too though...it's gonna be spring break before we know it!
I just got home from a fun part-ay with some of my IV buddies...we watched a countdown of the top 100 teen stars of the 80's and 90's...it was pretty good times. Then we chowed down on pizza during "Anchorman" and "Drop dead gorgeous"...I can't probably recommend either of them...but I sure laughed a lot tonight.
Tomorrow a bunch of the same kids are going up to Champaign for a concert by the acapella group "the Extention Chords"...I hope to go with them and so get in my party quotient for the weekend.
This week in school I learned how to create a powerpoint presentation (it's not done yet but the fact that I haven't blown anything up with the technology so far is re-assuring) and in my Visual Rhetoric (the persuasion of visual images) class we are learning some awesome stuff about how images, colors, and even shapes shape how we think. It's facinating and scary at the same time. We'll be doing a research project in this class, which is a bit daunting...but we'll take it as it comes.
Bio is overwhelming at best, but I am being exposed to an amazing amount of knowledge and our labs are really cool. well...I think so. ...I'm pretty sure that I really grossed my dad out when I told him about the fungus growth that we are observing on horse dung. hehe...I've decided that it is a biology major's fate to take whatever the world thinks is disgusting or "untouchable" and stick it under a microscope for a closer look. But hey, I can definitely see the connection between a cure for cancer and cutting apart a flatworm to see if it will regenerate a head...yeah...no problem...
I'm amazed ever day at how much God has provided great friends for me here. Somehow I am meeting scads of them all the sudden, and I think it's because I've finally realized that I need to be in the music building more often. I am having some great times with the girls in my choir and jazz group, the freshman boys in an acapella group called "remedy," and the kids in my dad's choir who keep me updated on his sanity. There is a warmth and closeness around people who make music together...I'm eating it up. While in the science building Mary and I are sticking close but also finally meeting some fun study buddies if nothing else.
In many ways, this past week has been one of the toughest I remember in a long time...and yet God has been faithful...I only wish that I could be faithful in return. I ache to show these kids a love that is far bigger than me or any of us...yet I balk in the face of the unknown and the seemingly self-sufficient people I meet.
I've been yearning for Friday for a good week now...and suddenly it's Saturday. Crap. That means study day...ok...time for bed!! :)
Blessing and sweet dreams~
"He will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the lord is the Rock eternal."
~Isaiah 26:3-4
It's been a while and I'm amazed at how fast time is starting to fly. Perhaps because of the heavy class load, perhaps because of the crazy happenings in the rest of life it feels like I'm spinning more plates than ever before. It's a good feeling too though...it's gonna be spring break before we know it!
I just got home from a fun part-ay with some of my IV buddies...we watched a countdown of the top 100 teen stars of the 80's and 90's...it was pretty good times. Then we chowed down on pizza during "Anchorman" and "Drop dead gorgeous"...I can't probably recommend either of them...but I sure laughed a lot tonight.
Tomorrow a bunch of the same kids are going up to Champaign for a concert by the acapella group "the Extention Chords"...I hope to go with them and so get in my party quotient for the weekend.
This week in school I learned how to create a powerpoint presentation (it's not done yet but the fact that I haven't blown anything up with the technology so far is re-assuring) and in my Visual Rhetoric (the persuasion of visual images) class we are learning some awesome stuff about how images, colors, and even shapes shape how we think. It's facinating and scary at the same time. We'll be doing a research project in this class, which is a bit daunting...but we'll take it as it comes.
Bio is overwhelming at best, but I am being exposed to an amazing amount of knowledge and our labs are really cool. well...I think so. ...I'm pretty sure that I really grossed my dad out when I told him about the fungus growth that we are observing on horse dung. hehe...I've decided that it is a biology major's fate to take whatever the world thinks is disgusting or "untouchable" and stick it under a microscope for a closer look. But hey, I can definitely see the connection between a cure for cancer and cutting apart a flatworm to see if it will regenerate a head...yeah...no problem...
I'm amazed ever day at how much God has provided great friends for me here. Somehow I am meeting scads of them all the sudden, and I think it's because I've finally realized that I need to be in the music building more often. I am having some great times with the girls in my choir and jazz group, the freshman boys in an acapella group called "remedy," and the kids in my dad's choir who keep me updated on his sanity. There is a warmth and closeness around people who make music together...I'm eating it up. While in the science building Mary and I are sticking close but also finally meeting some fun study buddies if nothing else.
In many ways, this past week has been one of the toughest I remember in a long time...and yet God has been faithful...I only wish that I could be faithful in return. I ache to show these kids a love that is far bigger than me or any of us...yet I balk in the face of the unknown and the seemingly self-sufficient people I meet.
I've been yearning for Friday for a good week now...and suddenly it's Saturday. Crap. That means study day...ok...time for bed!! :)
Blessing and sweet dreams~
"He will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the lord is the Rock eternal."
~Isaiah 26:3-4
Friday, February 03, 2006
me of little faith...
What will be left when I’ve drawn my last breath,
besides the folks I’ve met and the folks who know me?
Will I discover a soul saving love or just the dirt above and below me?
I’m a doubting Thomas, I took a promise, but I do not feel safe.
Oh me of little faith.
Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face,
Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face,
then I beg to be spared cause I’m a coward.
If there's a master of death, I bet he's holding his breath
as I show the blind and tell the deaf about his power.
I'm a doubting Thomas...I can't keep my promises, cause I don't know what's safe...
Oh me of little faith.
Can I be used to help others find truth when I’m scared I’ll find proof that it’s a lie?
Can I be lead down a trail dropping breadcrumbs that prove I’m not ready to die?
Please give me time to decipher the signs,
Please give me time to decipher the signs,
please forgive me for time that I've wasted.
I'm a doubting Thomas, I take your promises though I know nothing's "safe."
Oh me of little faith.
Nickel Creek
"In this you gratly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire,--may be proven genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith...the salvation of your souls"
1 Peter 1:6-9
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