Ugh...I hate being sick!

I have a cold. I am mildly dissatisfied with this fact. For the past two days, I have been guzzling water like nobody's business, taking Airborne twice a day, and taking Zicam every 3 hours as directed. Tonight I had to take Sudafed, which means that my cold is not getting better, but worse. Stupid germs. I don't want to be sick for my birthday, because that's just stupid. I suppose if I am, oh well, life goes on. But still...I've been looking forward to my birthday for awhile now. It's actually the only thing I've been looking forward to this semester. What a bummer if I won't be feeling well. :-( So pray for me, and I will continue to do everything in my power to get better ASAP.

Last night when I got back to my apartment, my roommates had decorated everything with streamers and balloons and had made me a cake! I knew about it, but it was still a wonderful surprise and I felt very loved. They even gave me a gift: PEEPS!!!! (they're my guilty pleasure) and a canvas with some more paints. The canvas is for me to paint this weekend and to bring to my birthday extravaganza. Nancy will be in charge of it, and all my friends will get the chance to write well-wishes and messages on it! I have a feeling that this is going to be a treasured keepsake. :-)

And it's finally FRIDAY!!!!!

Sleepy and procrastinating

Just as the title might suggest, I am very sleepy at the moment. I would love to take a nap, but I realize that I will get nothing done for the rest of the day if I do. So I'm forcing myself to stay awake, even though I've kinda set myself up for failure, as I changed into a comfy pair of shorts and snuggled up on our cushy couch with my cozy comforter. And so I procrastinate by updating my blog. A lot has happened in the past couple weeks. I shall start at the beginning:

Saturday, March 14
My friend Scott and his friend Pilgrim went on a road-biking extravaganza all around SW Michigan. They stopped in GR Saturday to spend the night. The day got off to an early start with me moving back down to my apartment in the morning. I found that I had quite a bit of time on my hands before the gents were scheduled to arrive, so after I unpacked everything I decided to go to Panera for lunch and then stop and go through the car wash on my way back to campus. For those of you who don't know me that well let me preface this story by saying that I don't particularly enjoy new experiences when I'm by myself. So it was a big step for me to go through the automatic car wash for the first time all by myself without any friends back at school yet to offer me moral support. :-) So I got in line for the car wash and waited for the five or six people in front of me to go through. The lady in front of me finally went into the wash and I waited until it stopped to put my money in. I started making my selection when I realized that the lady in front of me was still in the car wash. She rolled down her window and said, "It just stopped working! I don't know what to do!" She couldn't drive forward because the bar had stopped dead center in front of her car and the door on the other side was still down. So I got out and went to the man behind me, explaining the situation, and he backed out of the line, and I slowly backed out as well, proceeding to go up over the curb and ruin some landscaping. Oh, well. It wasn't as bad as the poor woman who had been stuck in front of me. It took her a good five minutes to back out of the wash, hitting just about everything she could before she finally turned around and drove away, her car still sudsy. I went inside and asked the gas station attendant to fix the car wash, and I was able to go through unhindered. I emerged freshly washed and waxed, triumphant, and proud of myself for gracefully handling a near-catastrophic (not really) first time car wash experience.

So then, Scott called me, and he and Pilgrim were out near Alto, fighting a really strong headwind. They had biked all the way from Lansing, and were trying to make it into GR by mid-afternoon to visit a friend in the hospital before dinner. I went out to Alto and picked them up, and somehow we managed to fit both of their large road bikes in my little station wagon and drove back to campus. We unloaded the bikes, went to the hospital, enjoyed a delicious dinner of Jimmy John's downtown, and came back to campus so they could shower. After cleaning up, we ended up going to this ridiculously amazing concert at Calvin College. The guy's name was Victor Wooten and he is a PHENOMENAL bass player. The concert was incredible, and we headed back to campus afterwards to get a restful night's sleep. Special thanks to the men's leadership house for letting Scott and Pilgrim crash on the couches.

The next morning we woke up early and I sent Scott and Pilgrim on their way to Benton Harbor. I went to church, Meijer, and came back to my apartment. And I worked on homework. ALL. DAY. :-(

First week of classes after break
Not too much exciting happened. Just scholarship applications and a few random assignments. One day at a time.

Saturday, March 21
Abby took me to see The Producers at the Grand Rapids Civic Theater. It was amazing! Thanks for the birthday gift, Abby!

So...my life in the past week and a half. Blessings to you!

Beggar

As of late, I feel like a beggar. Not only because I've submitted so many scholarship applications in the past three months that it's possible I've paid more in postage than what I will likely get in financial aid, and I am begging for money. Not only because I'm often in need of far more hours than I have available, and I am begging for time. But also because my thoughts are muddled and I'm presented with SO many options, and I feel like I'm begging God for clarity. There are a lot of big decisions to be made in the next couple of years. I guess the only thing I can do for immediate relief is pray that God will bring his plans for me to fruition with the decisions I make. Wow...what a big prayer.

The Freedom of Spring

Just a small thought as I sit here in the Corum, enjoying the supreme comfort of the coveted corner couch up by the pool tables and the beautiful sunshine outside. :-)

I was driving to campus this morning (side note: in retrospect, I have no idea why I drove on such a gorgeous day....habit, I suppose) and my white cord bracelet I am wearing caught my eye. For those of you who don't know, International Justice Mission passed out these bracelets for people to wear as a reminder to pray for the 27 million people currently enslaved around the world. So I said a quick prayer for those enslaved and an image came to mind. As I was driving with the sun beaming in and the windows down, the cool air flowing through my car, I realized that this is what freedom feels like.

My freedom in Christ is so absolutely wonderful, like driving with the windows down on a beautiful day (only better! haha) But I liken the feeling of being chained to sin like having to drive on a nasty winter day. The snow is coming down so hard you can barely see and the wind is blowing below zero, and you try to open your car but the doors are iced shut. You finally manage to make it into your car, covered in snow, and you start your car. You're late so you don't have time to let it warm up. This picture of yourself: soaking wet, shivering and miserable, so cold that you are in pain, and sluggishly driving through hazardous conditions, this is the life of a sinner.

In stark contrast, the liberation from this dank, freezing, prison of an image is the day like today when you can drive easily, the breeze blowing in your hair and the sun warm on your skin. The carefree feeling that, yes, you do have things to get done, but the knowledge that those things don't really matter as much as the freedom you feel right then. That is like a life free in Christ. Yes, we are called to do things, often scary things. And we likely can't just stop living and call a time-out so we can solely experience Christ's freedom. But we can prioritize, and realize that all the stuff on our to-do lists is minor. The focus and the purpose of that moment, the overriding feeling all day long (and all life long) is the freedom from sin that Christ has given us and the broken chains we have to show for it.

Midterms Week

Not too much time to write tonight as I'm trying to get a lot of stuff done this week so I have a somewhat manageable amount of work over spring break.

I do have two photos to share, though.

The first is from a night last week when we had a very heavy rainstorm. I donned my galoshes and Nancy and I went out in the rain. We jumped in all the puddles and got totally soaked, and it was some of the most fun I've had in a long time. The second photo is from an excursion to Meijer tonight. I laughed so hard when I saw this sign that I absolutely had to snap an illegal photo of it. Apparently, you really CAN get everything at Meijer! hahahaha