Fall Break 2010 re-cap

My fall break was in a word, interesting. I spent the the first half of it alone at school because I had to work. College campuses are completely different places when they're filled with students! I won't lie, Tuesday night I was in bed by 9:45 because I wasn't sure what to do with myself. Naturally, I was not productive and even though I could have started two papers, I instead spent two nights at school fighting small bouts of boredom with sidewalk chalk, Glee and two half-hearted attempts at working out. But soon enough, Friday came and I headed to Lawrence to visit my beautiful friend whom I hadn't seen in a loooong time. After that, I headed in the direction of home...although the direction of home became an unintended detour that led me through the side streets and homecoming parades of Topeka, KS. After that wildly exhilarating adventure, I surrounded myself with family, friends, and of course, FRAMILY. I left Wichita at about 10pm Sunday night, refreshed spiritually and exhausted physically and here I am. I waited to post until after I got back because I had the feeling that divine inspiration was going to hit, and the Man Upstairs never disappoints. I have two disjoint, random thoughts to share:

1. I am gonna brag about this just a little because it's really cool...I went to adoration Thursday, Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday this weekend! WHOA! I'm excited that God led me back to His Son so many times, but I wonder if He's not tired of me...
Anyways, I went to see my friend at KU on Friday, and it was so incredible because I visited on the one day a week that St. Lawrence does Mass, I visited on the one day a month and in the 3-hour time span when they do adoration. You can't even call that a coincidence. That's a God-incident! But I digress...Of the two hours I spent in Lawrence with my good friend, half of it was spent in silence. Normally, I would be disappointed that I didn't get to spend those solid two hours catching up on her life, but now that I think back, who's to say I didn't? I spent an entire hour with her and our mutual Best Friend, just resting in their presence, and I don't think that should be dismissed so lightly. It honestly feels like I spent much longer there, because I was able to communicate spiritually, if not vocally. If this makes no sense, think about it for a moment. If you go to adoration regularly or even irregularly and you sit in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament with a stranger, how easy is it to greet them and exchange pleasantries? When True Love is in your midst, how can you not make some kind of bond with all those present?

2. Saturday night, I went out with a group of friends who were as usual, an unfamiliar mix. The TEC family in Wichita is so big and growing so fast that its just about impossible to get the exact same small group together twice (it doesn't help that so many of us are in college). This is a small curse, because it slows the growth of individual friendships during the school year, but it is also a HUGE blessing. Every TEC gathering I find myself at is unique; different age groups and people from different walks of life enjoy fellowship and grow to love each other and God more deeply. You can always count on laughter, references to candidate weekends and inside jokes, and some kind of prayer. But what binds all these awesome gatherings together is the Person who's always present. How incredibly blessed are we, that no matter how diverse and different each encounter with TEC people is, the same God is ALWAYS there?

Like I said. Laughter, craziness, a HUGE family, and God. Can't ya see Him there?

Anyways, this post was almost exhaustively long, so I'll leave you with some lyrics by Michael W. Smith:
"Friends are friends forever
if the Lord's the Lord of them
and a friend will not say 'never'
 'cause the welcome will not end
though its hard to let you go
in the Father's hands we know
that a lifetime's not too long to live as friends."

Grace, Love and Peace to you!

Ok, here we go...

Hmmm...well I've never been into blogging (I mean c'mon, its a weird word) but some people's online musings are just awesome. And from time to time I have a thought that sounds pretty cool that would be too interesting to hide away in my journal but that is too long-winded and one-sided for a real conversation. This seems like a good compromise. So, hopefully enjoy, and God bless!

My first soliloquy addresses something I heard someone say in CLC last night. For the record, Christian Life Communities are small prayer groups at Jesuit universities. They're student led and meet once a week to pray, reflect and discuss the "highs," "lows," and "moments closest" to Christ during each member's lives. Anyways, while talking last night about how busy we all are and what it means for our prayer lives, one of my fellow members talked about how we use our down time, and what that says about us. She said that what we do when we're not busy is who we are.

Uh-oh. I have spent the first three hours of my fall break on Facebook. Who am I? Though I would like to believe that social online networking is not necessarily detrimental to my character, I am now thinking of all the things I could have done instead...read, work out, write some more letters, pray. Something to keep my mind on in the future...even if I don't waste time with Facebook, is what I'm doing really who I want to be? Am I the servant of Jesus Christ, working to build up the Kingdom? And how exactly do I do that anyway? Hmmm...

To piggy-back off of what my CLC member said, here's a tasty tidbit from Thomas Merton, who would probably have much to say on the idea of free time:

"A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire."