Sorrows

This summer has been so much fun, but time has flown by. I apologize for taking so long to get back with you guys. Things have been going great. Summer, as always, is a lot of fun and very relaxing when you don't have to worry about homework. I actually read a book, The DaVinci Code, for fun and not because I had to. I saw the movie first, which I recommend doing if you haven't read the book yet, because it gets you interested in the story without giving away all of the details that are in the book. The book was great and really kept my attention. I finished it in about a week becuase it was so good. In the next No Limits Discipleship EZine, Colton gives a review of the movie, too. So make sure you read what he has to say about all this DaVinci Code stuff.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Orientation at Olivet Nazarene University and enrolled in my classes for this fall semester. I met a ton of people who were all really cool. I met some other engineering majors and decided to room with one of them. He's a pretty cool guy, and we also got our room picked out at Orientation as well. This next school year looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.

Discipleship has been going well, although things have been a little less frequent with the business of summer and people working and going out of town. We are still reading Velvet Elvis and it is helping me look at my faith in a different way. We are also doing a book study in our youth group to help us prepare for our mission trip that we leave on a week from Saturday. The book we have been reading is called Can You Drink the Cup? by Henri Nouwen. In this study we have talked a lot about sorrows and the root of our sorrows influencing who we become. Whether it be issuses such as problems with family, or drugs, or fear of failure, we need to realize them so they don't control our lives. I believe that most of our issues come from insecurities, whether it is thinking I'm not loved, or someone is going to make fun of this trait of mine, or being insecure about failure. A lot of the issues that drive me and sometimes conrol me are these kinds of insecurities. I deal with them by realizing that the sorrow they are causing is only temporary and I have nothing to fear because God loves me and created me to do whatever it is He wants me to do. I am perfect in the eyes of God and as long as I am seeking the will of God, He won't lead me astray.

Thanks for the comments and support over these last couple of years. The finality of moving away to college is starting to sink in as one of my friends leaves tomorrow to go off to college to start volleyball practice, as well as having just gone to orientation recently. It's exciting and a little bit freightening at the same time. If you could pray that the transition between high school and college is smooth not only for me, but for all of the incoming freshman this year. Thanks.

-God Bless-
Jeff