Night

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. School has started back up again and things are a bit busy to really sit down and blog, which will also explain the shortness of this post. I wrote this well over a week ago and am just now getting around to posting it.

I did want to take a second to recommend a book I just started reading last night at 11:00 and couldn't put down. It is possibly a book you read while in High School. The book is called Night by Elie Wiesel. It is a memoir of Wiesels experience in the Holocaust, what he saw, and how it affected his life and particularly his faith. I read for 2 hours straight last night, before realizing how late it was and how I needed to go to bed. It is an easy read in terms of length and writing style, but not so much in context. I have never really read or studied much about the Holocaust, and to some small extent I've known how horrific it was , but to read this account of a first-hand experience opened my eyes anew to the suffering, pain, and pointless trajedy that was the Holocaust.

I haven't quite finished it yet, but I did want to point out one interesting thing about this book. Throughout his story, Elie talks about how the brutality, murder, and torture that he saw completely distroyed his faith in an Almighty and loving God. As I read, I began to sense myself asking a question that I don't ask much, or that I tend to just brush off. That question was "Yeah, why did God allow that to happen. Why did he seemingly stand silently by while millions suffered and died horribly. In fact why does God allow such trajedy to happen at all?" I know that it's not my place to question God. I know his ways or not my ways and that we live in a fallen world. But it was just interesting to see how someones story and their view of God can affect my thoughts about God, and challenge what I really believe.

Again, let me encourage you to read this book, as it will definetly stir some questions in your mind.

Ok, now I offically feel like I should have been on Reading Rainbow...anybody remember that one? "Fly high in the sky...."

Have a great weekend!

So I said I was going to be posting a series of blogs about a book I was reading. Then I realized that it didn't have to be published on the Internet, but rather turned in as a hard copy. So I wound up doing my posts in a word doc. Sorry I told a fib, but it wasn't intentional. And truthfully, I probably spared you a bit, because unless you were reading the book along with me, you would have probably been lost to what I was saying. However, I will recommend that you read the book. It is by Mark Matlock and it is a really easy read and it discusses the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. The book is called "Living a Life That Matters".

In other news, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I haven't even posted since the world turned to 2008. I will try to get back to more regular blogs, since things should start to regain some since of normalcy...whatever that is!

For now, I'll just tell you some things I am looking forward to in 2008!

1. Karen's graduation - That's right, this year, Karen will become a nurse! I am really excited about that, excited for her, and excited to see the next chapter for her life. Will she work full time? Will she go on to get her BA? Will she become a mom? May will at least close one chapter and open another!

2. My graduation - It won't actually happen in 2008...more like 2009, but at the end of this year I will have one more semester left (for those of you keeping count that means I have 3 more full semesters left with the addition of several more workshops). But having it down to one last semester will feel really good at the end of this year!

3. Choir - I never thought I'd being doing this, but this year we will be starting a worship choir at church. Beware, this isn't your grandma's choir, we're still contemporary in music style. However, this will offer greater opportunity for more to be involved. I am really excited about the challenge!

4. New Porch Railing - I fully intend to stretch my handyman status this year by replacing our front porch railing. It has long since buckled and pulled apart at the seems, and is in dire need of being torn down, torched and being rebuilt! Anyone who knows me knows that this will probably be a hilarious sight, filled with mistakes, mismeasurements, and a few quiet expletive....that is if this little project goes as usual.

5. A new guitar - I recall this time last year thinking that 2007 would be the year of my new guitar. Well I find myself again saying that very same thing. It's amazing how priorities shift when you get married/grow older. However, the savings race has begun and I am 1/25 of the way there. I intend to, by years end, have a sparkly new Taylor 610 or 614. Here's praying that I can keep the car and truck intact, the house standing, and our health together!

6. Another year full of blessings....or not - If I were really honest, 2007 went off without a hitch. It was really a squeaky clean year. Even more so, if I were to count my blessings, it take all of 2008 to do so. I am very thankful for all the good gifts that God has blessed me and my family with. I am dually thankful for protection and provision. And I expect that 2008 will not be different. However, if for some reason, the bottom fell out, and life as I knew it was turned to shambles, what could I say. If at the end of this year I looked back and saw that everything bad that could have happened did, still I would hope that I would remember that God is good, he is in control, and BLESSED BE HIS NAME. I think about that a lot. I've been spared so much of life's troubles....I mean I've had bad days, but on the whole, life has been way too good. No tragedy has befallen, no sickness overwhelmed, no accident stricken......it's almost to good to be true in this old fallen world!! Don't get me wrong, I am thankful. But you never know when life will take it's turn, and so I always want to be prepared. And even if bad times come in 2008, I think I can still say I am really blessed!

So there you have it, just a short list of what I am looking forward to about 2008! Until next time.....

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