Today, I am going to be writting about a passage of scripture that I read last night using "Lectio". In class its hard for me to grasp the Lectio; because some of the works that we read are tough for me to dive into. So last night I tried it with the bible. The passage I read was Phillipians 4; the verse that stuck out the most was verse six. Basically what it says is be anxious for nothing, but in everything we do, go to the lord in prayer and he will hear us.

Be anxious for nothing! Thats huge, especially in this day in age when everything is happening so fast. But right there, God is just reminding us that we don't need to worry about a thing. There is nothing to powerful or too great that he can't handle. That kind of pumps me up.

When I got to the prayer part of the Lectio reading, God really showed me some areas in my life where I am too "anxious". Honestly, I never thought the Lectio would work, because it didn't really have an effect on me in class. I think maybe because its with such a big group. But in my quiet time it was very beneficial.

The other part of the passage that was huge for me was "in everything you do, go to the lord in prayer". I think so many times we think "oh thats stupid to pray for" or "this is too big for God". Well thats wrong! Theres no such thing as a stupid prayer, and there is absolutley nothing to big for God. He created us, whats makes us think he dosesn't have the power to answer a huge prayer. I fall short in this category alot. When things aren't going so good in my life I tend to just brush them under the rug, and totally avoid prayer. And on the opposite end of that, when things are going really well I lose sight of praying and thanking God for his blessings. Sometimes I even feel like im annoying God; which just sounds ridiculous.

The lectio reading really helped though. It made me stop and reflect on everything I read; maybe on a level I would never do if I was just reading something for the heck of it. It made me go deeper into the text and pull out stuff that wasn't really on the surface.

Tonight's blog doesn't really go along with to much from class besides the fact that we go to a christian college. This past weekend was the next step to our week long fire fall, called "whats next?". The turn out was incredible and you could tell God had his hand on the whole day right away. Many different groups from the school showed up; athletic teams, events committees, professors and so on.

The day started with everyone meeting between Bethany and Bauer, followed by a prayer. Everyone then broke up into groups and dispersed amongst lakeland to serve the city. My group went in to the local neighbor hoods and picked up trash. Theres not a whole lot more humbling then that. It felt good though; people stopped and asked what we were doing and why. It sparked some good conversations with people we might of never talked to unless we were picking trash up in their front yard.

One lady asked us if we were on parole; it was kind of funny, but when she found out we were doing it purely out of the goodness of our heart, she was blown away. I think so many time we get all gun hoe on going overseas to third world countries and reaching people from around the world that we lose sight of how bad it is right here, in America. In our own back yard. It really hit home to see some of the kids running around there yards with next to nothing on; and what they did have on, it was all torn up.

Our group challenged ourselves to put together an event that brings the children from the community to campus for a sports clinic or what ever. Just serve the community in anyway we can!

Today's blog is going to be about the book I'm reading. The book I am reading is called The Slaughter House Five. Its actually a really good book; I didn't know going into it if i would be to fond of it. All I new is what a story taking place during world war two, and a little later. The main character's name is Billy Pilgrim; hes married with two kids, and is a world war two vet. The book starts off really confusing, not really revealing any characters or even explaining which direction the plot of the story is going. Eventually the story picks up and the characters are slowly introduced.

Billy Pilgrim is writing a book on world war two and the base in which where he was stationed. He's trying to remember some of the main events or highlight or the base, but can't seem to grasp on to anything worth putting into a book. He calls one of his war buddies one night and asks to meet with him to discuss the war, and possibly see if any worth while stories come up.

The book really picks up when Billy, starts flashing back to days during the war, and then days after the war. Its kind of confusing at first, but once you realize what hes trying to portray, it gets a little easier. At one point of the book, Mr. Pilgrim claims that he was abducted by aliens. He describes how he was in his back yard one night and the aliens swooped over and scooped him right up in to their space ship. This book is definitely not the easiest read in the world, but I like it because it makes you think a lot, and get into the characters minds a little bit.

My brother Ross Gellan has a pretty good life; he really doesn’t have too much to complain about. He has a loving family, that supports him, and friends that will give him the shirts off their very back. A girlfriend? Not so much; she’s a work in progress, as Ross would say. Ross is just out of high school and entering his freshman year at a community college two hours outside of our home town. This is a big deal to Ross, seeing how he’s never lived away from home before; well besides when he house sat for our older brother for a few weeks.
A standout athlete in high school earned my brother a full basketball scholarship along with an apartment shared by his best friend. As far as Ross was concerned, this was going to being the best year ever. He was going to meet some girls, make new friends, go to school for free and play the sport he loved.
Ross is a pretty clean cut guy, dark brown eyes and dark brown hair, with olive colored skin. Always keeps his face a little scruffy with his hair short and spiked. A good dresser with no piercings or tattoos; because if he did, mom would kill him, literally! Ross doesn’t drink or smoke, seldom uses foul language and earns descent grades. You see, Ross is a pretty easy going guy, always putting others before himself. He is the comedian in the family, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. There is never a dull moment in the house when my brother is around; he’s the life of the party. Being his older sister, I’ve seen Ross in some pretty sticky situations, but not a whole lot seems to phase him. He usually handles himself pretty well.
My brother thought he was invisible, no one could touch him, and no problem was too big for him. Little did he know, that he would be tested and pushed to a point that he had never been pushed before.
The fall semester started, and Ross was immediately meeting new people and discovering new and interesting things. He learned quickly that macaroni and cheese can be combined with other foods to make “gourmet” dishes. And if he didn’t just throw his clothes on the floor after wearing them all day, he could wear them more then once before he washed them. He finally realized why mom was so adamant on cleaning his room, because before he knew it his floor was no longer visible and “mount Ross” seemed to form in the corner of his bedroom.
I remember talking to him one night as he explained how practice wasn’t so hard the first semester; just a lot of conditioning and learning plays. Ross was a point guard, so it was important for him to know the plays better then anyone else on the team. Lucky for Ross he had a photo graphic memory, like our dad. No girlfriend yet, he was “waiting for the right time” to pursue one. Ross and his relationships were always the topics of discussion at the dinner table. It was actually very entertaining.
Well anyway the first semester came and went, and before we knew it Ross was back home! It was Christmas break and it was like he never left; he immediately picked up right were he left off, making fun of mom, picking on our little brother and just making everyone laugh. He had us laughing so hard one night that our dad was actually in tears; only Ross! It was so good to have him back.
Ross and I are the closest in age out of the five kids, so we were always hanging out with the same friends at the same places. We went Christmas shopping the night before his birthday; his birthday is on the eighteenth. We did it for the past two years; we would go at night and take our time finding gifts for our parents and whoever we had in our family grab bag. My brother explained to me how he was thinking about transferring schools to go into the ministry, and how he felt called to youth. You see, Ross was a leader; it was natural. He would be an amazing youth pastor.
The next night, mom had a small cake for Ross with just the family; Ross never did like making a big deal out of his birthday. He opened a few gifts and a few cards, and then he was right back to entertaining us. The night wound down and Ross, told mom he was going to meet up with some friends for a late night movie. I had fallen asleep on the couch or else I probably would have went with him.
The theater was only fifteen minutes away, but the roads were slick and it was late. Mom let him take the Jeep and told him to just be careful. Careful was definitely not in Ross’s vocabulary, thinking back to his frequent emergency room visits. It was just like any other night though; mom fell asleep down stairs on the couch waiting for Ross, while everyone else was asleep in bed. I remember that night; I had a hard time staying asleep. I kept waking up and turning over and taking the covers off, then putting them on, then taking them off again. I heard the phone ring; I remember I opened my eyes to see what time it was. It was around one. It rang all the way through; mom must have missed the call. Sure enough it rang again, this time someone picked up on the second ring. Not even thinking twice about the phone call, I started to fall back asleep when the sound of my mother screaming and crying shot me out of my bed.
It was all kind of a blur from there. I remember my father running by my door down the stairs to my mother. Before I knew it everyone was up, and curious about the commotion. I’ll never forget that night as long as I live. You see, Ross was on his way back home for the theater coming down route 104, minding his own business. Knowing Ross, he probably had his favorite worship song blasting in the back round. He was about ten minutes from our house when a drunk driver passed out at the wheel and crossed the center line into on coming traffic. Ross had no time to jerk the wheel or honk the horn or anything.
The vehicles met head on, killing the drunk driver instantly and knocking Ross unconscious. All the police officer could tell my parents on the phone was that my brother was alive, but in bad shape. There was no getting ready for this trip to the hospital, we all immediately jumped in the car and went straight to the hospital where they were bringing Ross. So many things were going through my head at that point in time. Old memories of Ross kept popping in my head. I just kept picturing him smiling and cracking jokes when we arrived at the hospital. But there was none of that; when we arrived we were met by a doctor who explained to us Ross’s injuries and situation. Mom was a wreck and dad was trying his best to keep it together for all of us, but he broke down as well.
My brother suffered two broken legs, a collapsed lung and a broken arm. His face was badly scraped and cut from the broken glass. Ross was in a coma, and the doctors weren’t sure when he would wake up, if he even woke up. You could barley recognize him, because his face was so swollen. My mother didn’t leave his side; not for a minute.
The days went by slow, it felt like forever. Christmas came, but was not like a normal Christmas. Instead of spending it at home around the tree with Ross playing a Christmas mix on the cd player; we were all around his hospital bed, still in disbelief of the whole situation. Nurses frequently came in and out and checked vitals and changed IV bags. But still Ross lay there lifeless. The swelling in his face went down, but the bruises took over and filled his body.
Mom would talk to Ross, as if he were awake. The doctor said, he wasn’t sure if he could hear us talking to him or not, but my mom could careless. She would tell him that he was going to be alright and that he was going to pull through. She would hold his hand, and tell him smile or squeeze if he could hear her. Mom did this everyday; the doctor said it was a good thing.
At this point, our grandparents were in the room, and we were going to have Christmas right there. What happened next will forever be engrained in my head. We were going to open our grab bags gifts right then in there, because that’s what Ross would of wanted. Opening presents was always his favorite part. Well anyway, my mom sat there next to Ross and said “Ross squeeze my hand if you wanna open presents”. We all smiled at the thought of it, but didn’t really get our hopes up. Just then Ross’s hand slowly grasped my mom’s hand. She immediately started to cry. We all looked down at him as a big smile came upon his face and his eyes slowly opened. We all gasped, and crowded around. Everyone one was crying at this point, and in shock. Ross looked up and worked up enough strength to say, “Sorry about the jeep”, with a big grin on his bruised face.

Its been a few days since I've posted; the wear and tear of an upper class man schedule is in full effect. This week has been very refreshing though; spiritually, physically and mentally. I didn't think it would be a bad idea to make a post about fire fall, seeing how its been such a big part of our lives the past few days.

Its a good time to get away from the distractions of our schedules and busy days and focus on what really matters, and what we are really here for. Two of the best speakers I've ever heard spoke this week, and the knowledge they poured into the student body was incredible. You can tell that these two gentlemen were men of God. The talked with such conviction and emotion that it stirred our hearts in ways that were just amazing.

The whole theme this week was "what if". I thinks it great; it can be followed up with so many other statements. One of the big "what ifs" that stood out to me was, what if a school loved a city? Its so simple, yet so powerful. Think about that for a second; what if one school decided to just pour out God's love and mercy over a city? Things would be crazy. Rich Wilkerson said it best, when he described us a troops going into battle together, and each of us has different jobs. Some more important then others, but all working together for one common goal. Imagine if our school or any school grasped to that concept. We could shake the world one city at a time. We could be the only love that an abused child ever has. Pastor Chris laid it out for us perfectly; we can't just go through these few days and let it fade away, we need to keep it going and carry it out amongst the people. Be Jesus to the people of lake land. What if God gave you the opportunity to witness to every person or group in the world before he came back? Would you do it?

I'm taking another pass for tonight

I meant to blog on this sooner but I kind of forgot to. The Lectio reading we did I believe we did a few weeks ago, and it was the second time I have done this. The first time I did this type of reading was with the Bible and with some faculty along with many of my peers. I recieved alot from this time of reading; the way its structured almost forces you to take something away from it. Unless you're completly zoned out not paying attention what so ever.

I guess I didn't realize that you could use this type of reading for something other then the Bible. So I guess its safe to say it expanded my horizons. Although I didn't take much out of the reading in class, I came to the realization that different things work for different people. One of the most amazing things for me, for this type of reading is when someone else reads aloud and I listen and think a little more deeply about what is being read. My other favorite part of this sacred reading is the Contemplatio, which means resting in the word. This can be used whenever; my youth pastor back home taught me this a while back when I came to him asking what I can do to make reading the Bible more interesting. He simply said, don't just read to read, but actually read and meditate on what you just read, even if you have to stop every few lines. I feel like this is the most important part of the exercise. It actually gives you a chance to let God speek to you in the silence and peace.

Something like this is totally what we need, especially in this day in age where everything is hustle bustle. Its good to just sit and wait on God, and see what he has to speek to you in any situation.

I'm gonna take a pass tonight!