I should be doing ______ (approximately 12 possible insertions are available here) right now...but I need to get my mind empty so I'm sitting down to write instead. So sue me.
We are back into the second week of classes here and now in full swing. The past 3 weeks of life have been mostly busses and concerts as we swung around the midwest for choir tour. We returned only for 4 days of class last week and hit the road again this weekend. Many lovely concerts and a great time with friends and family along the way. Several "long lost" cousins on my mom's side met with us unexpectedly in Missouri, Zach and Tina drove up to Topeka, Matt came to see two concerts in Madison, and Laura (who I knew I was going to get to see for a short time) surprised me by bringing Beth and Cassie along to see us in Chicago. These last three were a special joy as we got a "girls night" that has been a LONG time coming and which we somehow missed over Christmas break. We had so much fun laughing till all hours in a local IHOP and then cramming 4 people into Laura's dorm single. Much giggling, chatting, facebook stalking, and chocolate eating, reminiscent of many such events in junior high and high school. Such a joy to have such amazing friends.
Returning to campus and staring at the semester straight in the face has been a challenge. It will be a hefty one to be sure. On top of a normal class load, I am the President of Intervarsity starting this semester, and will be a TA for a large freshman bio lab. Our review sessions for my graduate entrance exam (the GRE) start this weekend, and I MUST begin working on PA school applications by late this spring. With the choir's china tour and a yet unplanned missions trip looming in the summer future, I've got quite a bit on the horizon.
However, I have been doing my best to "let things go" this past week, and have dropped out of voice lessons and turned down some research teams and a panel for a conference here on campus. Never have I hated the word, "NO" more....and never have I realized so quickly in a semester how vitally important it is.
Last week was excellent in the "New Classes" department, and though surely overwhelming I was quite blown away by the stuff I'm learning and how amazing it is. Sitting in my Anatomy and Physiology class last week a girl next to me leaned over and asked how on earth people can look at something like the heart, with it's ornate valves, perfect rhythm, complicated electricity, and (honestly) strange and globular appearance, and think "oh, I bet that basic staple of human life appeared in perfect form just by chance." I couldn't agree more. I'm more and more an advocate of the power of evolution to preserve lines of organisms in amazing circumstances, but I will never understand how a person can look at the intricacies of the body and not see the need for some sort of order or command at "the beginning". I don't pretend to understand how the genisis account meshes with the scientific "truth", but I'm pretty sure that if God wanted us to know all that he would have written it down.
At any rate (sorry for the bunny trail), anatomy fascinates me, and I have loved jumping right into the cardiovascular system, as I hear all these words on the cardiac floor at the hospital, but often don't know exactly what they mean. Did you know that the heart has a small dent in the right atrium that is called the fossa ovalis?? This little "bubble" is a remnant from the foramen ovalae--a small tube that is present only in the heart of a developing embryo. This tube acts as a bridge between the right and left atria of the heart, allowing the blood to move through the heart without passing through the pulmonary circuit (the path the blood follows to the lungs in order to be oxygenated). This is fortunate, because the lungs of an embryo are not developed fully until a few hours after the baby is born. If blood were pressured into the lungs as they were developing they would never grow properly, but without a heartbeat, the brain could not survive, and the nervous system (which is one of the first systems to begin developing) would never grow before the other systems blocked it's path. However, once the baby is born, it is vital that the lungs begin receiving blood very soon after birth, so that the lungs can fully expand and receive enough oxygen into each part of the bronchial tree. The foramen ovalae closes within hours of birth and relies on the pulmonary circuit to take over.
amazing.
I've never been so excited about a class and thrilled at all I will learn. Yes, it will be lots of memory and organization and pulling out my hair because I can't remember all the 30+ parts of the heart we have to know. But I will have a constant reminder of the beautiful care our maker formed us with and of the awesome identity that we have in his ownership.
In other news, Casey turns 18 this weekend and is still on the hunt for the "perfect college"...she has been accepted several places and is still waiting for a lot of details to fall into place before making a choice. TJ too will be choosing a high school (???!!!) later this semester. I'm looking forward to a trip to DeKalb sometime next month and hopefully some good times with my roommates, a couple of whom are brand new.
Please pray for me as I attempt to balance time, and especially as I attempt to lead a group of wonderful people and help to encourage them to follow God's will for our campus ministry. There are so many moments that I feel so unworthy and unable to provide an ounce of wisdom or spiritual truth to those who are looking up to me. I'm only praying that God will be the one to speak strongly and that my role would be somewhat similar to the guy in ratattouli...an eager puppet in the master chef's hands.
Blessings on you all as you start a new semester....
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