I'm not going to make any more promises about updates...

ha! i need to get better about updating this thing... sorry to sam, apparently my loyal reader. i will try harder. but no more promises.

well, things are, for the lack of a better word, busy. full load of classes with lots of papers, trying to get enough hours at work to pay bills, and a wedding coming up in four and a half months... (granted, jenn does most of the planning, but still, i help out with stuff and it is crazy that in four and half months i'll be getting married... just crazy.) but with all that aside, things have been going generally well. jenn and i have found a duplex here in ashland that we really like and will be our first place together. it is pretty sweet too. all hard wood floors... i love hard wood floors. who's up for painting parties this summer?

also, i've been exercising on a regular basis and trying to eat better. i'm at 214 pounds, which is pretty encouraging for me since i was at 225 all throughout college. my hope is to be able to get below 200 eventually. we'll see what happens...

seminary continues to be a stretching experience for me, and i continue to love it. it is weird to think about the things that we take for granted in regards to our faith. things that we were taught as children and never question. and then to approach them here at seminary, and walk away with a completely different outlook. the most recent experience for me in this regard is the flood story in genesis. i remember growing up being taught that the flood covered the entire face of the earth, and i don't remember seeing anything else depicted in our sunday school lessons. but to then talk about the flood in class and look at the original text, (aside: seriously, learning hebrew has been amazing. i love it. so cool. and i know how dorky that sounds... i don't care...) and see reasoning to believe that there wasn't a world wide flood, and that that is okay. i think the area that i'm really being stretched in though is my view of God, ie. calvinism and arminianism. i come from more of a reformed (calvin) tradition, but have been feeling stretched as i read things here at seminary and as i read parts of the bible. so, because of this stretching, i'm actually going to be doing a research paper on this subject (the providence debate as it has been known) for my theology class. if you have any thoughts, let me know.

i feel as though my relationship with God right now can be summed up as, "wait on the Lord and remember what He has done." which given my desire to have control in most things that i do, isn't exactly always easy for me. i feel like i've been led to this as i've been reading through the psalms with a small group of friends. this idea of waiting on the Lord has come up quite a bit lately and i feel like it applies to what has been going on in my life as of late. it is weird for me that bowling green still feels like home. when i travel out there to do pre-marriage counseling and wedding planning stuff, it always feels like going home. and then when i am here in ashland or at work at panera down in mansfield, i feel this strain of being surrounded by all these new relationships with people who don't really know me. now these relationships are developing, and it is getting better, but still, i don't have anyone here in ashland who knows me. not like those friends in bg. and i feel like God has been using this to show me that this is going to be a reoccuring theme in my life. whenever i move or transition in my life, it is going to be a process of making new relationships and maintaining old ones, which can be challenging at times when you are a meloncholy introvert. but God has brought amazing people into my life in the past, and i am faithful that He will continue to in the future.

that's all the update for now. sam, i will try harder.