Monday, April 12th, 2004 - Strains, Games, and Automobile Drives

We had a great discussion at Bible Study tonight about how God teaches us, or "grows us," as I like to call it. I was sharing that everything I've learned, every revelation I've had, every time I've grown in my relationship with God have all come about through struggle or suffering of some sort. I learn the hard way; I always have. Another guy reminded me that that may be the way that God has worked always in the past in my life, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the only way that He will or wants to grow me. After some contemplation, I agree; I have become so accustomed to growing through struggle that I placed a limit on God in how He works and moves in my life, rather than keeping in mind that God goes beyond all boundaries.

God has also been showing me something about myself in relation to games. There is something about me and games in general - board, card, video, sports, whatever. Most people play a game for awhile and have fun, but stop when "that's enough." I don't have a point like that; if I'm playing a game that I enjoy, I could play it almost endlessly, or it would just take me a really long time to get sick of it. This causes me to struggle sometimes, but I think that God wants to use it for His purposes, and that is why He is revealing it to me. I'm excited for that time to come after the struggle is sorted out and processed.

I made a last-minute decision to go home for Easter this past weekend, and I'm very glad that I did. My mom was so touched when I walked in the door that she wouldn't let go of me for quite awhile, but that's alright with me. It was a great weekend spent with our whole family home, and we had the pleasure to have two of my buds from UWL over at our house. I still find it funny that every time I bring a UWL friend to my house that somehow the whole Celine Dion event comes up in conversation every time - I won a Lip Sync Contest thingy my senior year in high school.

I stopped by campus, on my way to buy gas and head back to Duluth, to say goodbyes to many friends there. I was touched when one of my buds ended a phone conversation with his dad just to say goodbye to me, and I also got to see all 3 of my friends named Karen in a row. If Kare Bear's last name was actually Bear, then I saw them in alphabetical order, too. There's a lot of things that I don't know, but if one thing's for sure, my life is like diarrhea and God is the toilet paper.

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