another one bites the dust
I have only a few minutes left of being 27 and I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect on this past year.
Instead of coming up with a boring list of my year in review let me share five highlights: (in no particular order)
1. The chance to speak at Fort Wilderness. There was something always about the camp speaker that seemed beyond reach. I never did normal camp but I did go to family camp (aka dork camp) but even there the camp speaker was cool. Having the chance to be the speaker was stressful and challenging and I love how much it pushed me to depend on God. I wish it were not true that I need new and hard things in my life to push me back towards God but it is a pattern that can be easily seen in my life. It was also fun because I was able to do only the things I like and skip all the stuff I don’t. I worked on talks and played with kids. Good times, oh yeah and I was able to do the famous mud run.
2. Running in Grandma’s marathon. This happened to be the day after camp and I am not sure what I was thinking but after some nervous moments and last minute car troubles where the mechanic told me, ‘If I were you I would not use your breaks’, I made it to Duluth and joined my friend Katie the night before the race as we talked excitedly about things like how much we would eat for breakfast and when the best time would be to go to the bathroom for the last time before the race. When I finished I did not feel like Hell, but good would not be a word I would use either and was then able to go back and have a deep fried turkey and drink Spotted Cow after a long bath. Thanks Shannon for that and for your parents inviting me to their church.
3. Madison Missions: We had a weeklong missions trip in our own city and over the course of a week were able to put in hundreds of community service hours. The most exciting part was seeing students get excited about serving and doing it together in community. Now I know that student events often end in highly emotional times and that I should not overvalue these times but it was so cool to see students from different friend groups hugging and crying for a couple hours at the end of a time of foot washing. It was one of those times where God feels tangibly in the room.
4. Dating Mary. We had been friends for several years and kept in touch on a regular but infrequent basis. I took a class this summer near Chicago and we were able to spend a lot of time together. At the end of that time, I was finally able to get the guts to ask her to date me and, in a moment of confusion, she said she would (I will ask her before I put anything more up on the blog).
5. Backpacking with the boys. After my class in August and before another year of ministry began, I was able to head north with Jared and Matt and hike through the Porcupine mountains. There are few things that refresh my soul like being with close friends and talking about everything from politics to religion to things I should not mention. I really have amazing friends and I am reminded of that each time I get to spend time with them.
So that is the year in review. Not as funny as the last post but at least I wrote it.
Instead of coming up with a boring list of my year in review let me share five highlights: (in no particular order)
1. The chance to speak at Fort Wilderness. There was something always about the camp speaker that seemed beyond reach. I never did normal camp but I did go to family camp (aka dork camp) but even there the camp speaker was cool. Having the chance to be the speaker was stressful and challenging and I love how much it pushed me to depend on God. I wish it were not true that I need new and hard things in my life to push me back towards God but it is a pattern that can be easily seen in my life. It was also fun because I was able to do only the things I like and skip all the stuff I don’t. I worked on talks and played with kids. Good times, oh yeah and I was able to do the famous mud run.
2. Running in Grandma’s marathon. This happened to be the day after camp and I am not sure what I was thinking but after some nervous moments and last minute car troubles where the mechanic told me, ‘If I were you I would not use your breaks’, I made it to Duluth and joined my friend Katie the night before the race as we talked excitedly about things like how much we would eat for breakfast and when the best time would be to go to the bathroom for the last time before the race. When I finished I did not feel like Hell, but good would not be a word I would use either and was then able to go back and have a deep fried turkey and drink Spotted Cow after a long bath. Thanks Shannon for that and for your parents inviting me to their church.
3. Madison Missions: We had a weeklong missions trip in our own city and over the course of a week were able to put in hundreds of community service hours. The most exciting part was seeing students get excited about serving and doing it together in community. Now I know that student events often end in highly emotional times and that I should not overvalue these times but it was so cool to see students from different friend groups hugging and crying for a couple hours at the end of a time of foot washing. It was one of those times where God feels tangibly in the room.
4. Dating Mary. We had been friends for several years and kept in touch on a regular but infrequent basis. I took a class this summer near Chicago and we were able to spend a lot of time together. At the end of that time, I was finally able to get the guts to ask her to date me and, in a moment of confusion, she said she would (I will ask her before I put anything more up on the blog).
5. Backpacking with the boys. After my class in August and before another year of ministry began, I was able to head north with Jared and Matt and hike through the Porcupine mountains. There are few things that refresh my soul like being with close friends and talking about everything from politics to religion to things I should not mention. I really have amazing friends and I am reminded of that each time I get to spend time with them.
So that is the year in review. Not as funny as the last post but at least I wrote it.
posted by Jon at
10:35 PM
3 Comments:
Jon, found your blog today because I was just signing off from posting at my blog -- your blog was scrolling through the blogger homepage, and it caught my attention.
May God bless you in your ministry -- sounds like you have a good heart for it. You mention having contradictions in your theology -- I like JI Packer's term "antinomy" better. His stuff on free will and soveriegnty in "Evangelism and the Soveriegnty of God" is some great stuff.
In His Grip
Russell
happy birthday, mr. anderson! hope you feel enormously celebrated today - and that it kicks off the beginning of a WONDERFUL year.
and awesome that i made the top 5 (although i feel this puts a little pressure on me to make the top 5 in your 28th year) :)
wait. somehow i got left out of the top 5. i mean, i know that i've only known you since august, but i thought i made a HUGE impact on your life. i guess i was wrong. and i guess i'll go cry myself to sleep right now. peace.
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