Mist

I woke up this morning with two thoughts on my mind.  The first was that I felt extremely sick, and the second was that I forgot to make a blog post for yesterday. 

I think I had a fever or something.  I could hardly move without feeling like puking, and my throat was so sore I almost cried every time I swallowed.  I also had a headache the size of Russia.  After having a literally scalding hot shower to relieve both the stuffed up head feeling as well as the itching of my poison ivy, I took about 5 bites of a bowl of oatmeal before throwing it out for fear of puking if I ate anymore.  I was on the verge of not going to class today, when one of my roommates tossed me a bottle of vitamin C.  I devoured four of these and mustered up the courage to walk to class.  On that walk I felt much better, but I felt overwhelmed with homesickness.

At home, I never freaked out about being sick.  Why?  I have a mother and father who are both excellent at taking care of a sick person.  They are comforting, and always knew exactly what to take for what I felt.  I missed that instantaneously when I woke up this morning, because I knew that if I had been home I could sleep comfortably in my bed and be taken care of by very loving parents.  Here, I live with a bunch of guys who are relatively the same age as myself and not willing to be my bedside care.  Not saying that I don't like my roommates.  On the contrary, I find them very delightful!  However it is an undeniable fact that they would be no match for the comfort of my own parents from home. 

As a testament to that fact, my parents visited yesterday and brought about half the pharmacy with them in drugs to treat my poison ivy.  Needless to say I was extremely thankful as battling with poison ivy is the itchiest and most frustrating experience I have ever been through.

After their visit, not much else interesting happened other than an online hockey draft and a quick skype date with Rebekah.  It was seven hours after that skype date that I had the previously described experience. 

When I arrived at school I remembered that we are spending the entire week on the nature and character of God.  I got excited.  I need not remind you how much I love theology and apologetics, and pretty much any kind of knowledge about God and the bible I can devour.  I have no doubt this love came out of a small prayer I made about two years ago asking God to give me an unfathomable hunger to learn about Him and know Him, and I have no doubt He brought me here with that prayer along with many others--and His own will--in mind. 

The first thing our speaker discussed was the difference between nature and character.  Nature is what makes something what it is.  It is human nature to think.  It is God's nature to judge.  It was Jesus' nature to perform miracles.  Nature is what we are capable of.  Character is how that nature is displayed.

People don't love people's ability to move.  People love what people do with their ability to move.  God doesn't want us to love Him because of what he is capable of.  God wants to love Him because of how He has chosen to treat us despite of what He is capable of.  Like in the new testament when people asked Jesus for a sign or a miracle, and He got angry at them for that, because they weren't looking to get to know God's character, they were just looking for a magic show.

I think that's how we discussed it.

There was a very long dialogue afterward about understanding the character of Christ in order to understand God.  We actually didn't even really scratch the surface, and to be honest there is not much I remember well enough to write down for you folks.  I will, however, do my best to take specific notes tomorrow.

We then watched a documentary about human trafficking called, "sex and money".  It was very sobering.  That's all I'm going to say about it.

I now have to come up with some sort of project to carry out on the outreach to Japan and Thailand.  I'm leaning towards a documentary on the awareness of human trafficking, but I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions.  Clearly it's going to be something with film, but if anyone has any contributions which they think are unique ways of communicating human trafficking awareness, please feel free to let me know! :)

I will talk to you all tomorrow.