Sunday, April 18th, 2004 - Sad Day

I was greatly surprised by a couple different events today. I came back to my room after taking a shower and my roomy was back from wherever he had been, but he wasn't studying. I can count on one hand the times that he has been in the room and not been studying, so this was a big shock. He was at his computer playing a video game, so I commented on how nice it is to take a break and enjoy some leisure time. He kind of glanced to the side at me but didn't say anything and kept on playing. I was kind of sad that a chance to talk a little bit with him came but didn't go anywhere.

Soon after, a guy who lives near our room stopped by and commented to my roomy that he just spent the day reading 20 chapters of Leviticus looking for the verse that says not to tattoo the body. I was shocked once again and responded that the one that I thought he was looking for was 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (body is a temple, so honor God with it because it's His). He wrote it on his hand and went back to his room, and I headed to eat. I inhaled the food as I was excited to get back and talk to this guy about his reading.

I asked him why he was looking for that verse, and he explained that he was writing a paper in favor of tattooing as a form of personal expression. He needed to include a counterpoint perspective, so he was using the Christian stance for that. I was disappointed because I was hoping that he was searching for a conviction on a spiritual and personal level. I am still impressed at his ability to read 20 chapters of Leviticus in one sitting - I don't think that I could do that unless God strongly convicted me that I should.

I went back to my room and sat down at my computer. I started looking at away messages, and the person's profile comes up as well. One friend of mine (not sure where this person is with God) from UWL who I haven't talked to in a really long time had a link in the profile to Jared Dion's autopsy - it said that he was a UWL student who recently died with a .27 blood-alcohol level; I never met him. After reading it, I went back to the person's profile and the very next link in it was to a list, "Top 10 Signs You're Drunk." The consecutiveness and how these two things were right next to each other made me realize just how much lost people are completely blinded, and it filled me with sadness.

So I was experiencing continuous grief through the progression of these events, but God changed me. He replaced all that with a great hope - maybe the conversation with the tattoo guy will lead to more good conversation about God, maybe my roomy is starting to see that there's more to college than just studying, maybe my UWL friend will be sobered by Jared Dion's story. I am completely confident that God is doing immeasurably more than I can know behind the scenes in everything, and I trust that He's working it all out for His purpose.

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