Day (Over): Lent = Pwned.

Dear Lent,

Thank you for being over. But thank you for teaching me things in the process.

Sincerely,

Chris



.......yeah.............the past few weeks have definitely been eventful to say the least.

Before this past week, things were going normally. I was a little behind in most of my classes, but nothing too drastic except for one class (where I was fairly behind, but I was at a point where it was catch-upable). I was impatiently awaiting the day on which I could bask myself in the greatness that is Angels & Airwaves I-Empire (SO. GOOD. :| ;).), but I was able to pay off my credit card successfully because I was not able to buy cd's for the past 40-odd days.

Then last week happened.

Two Saturdays ago, my grandpa died and this past week were his funeral and all of the various things that go along with that. Therefore, I was taken out of commission and not able to work on anything, putting me further behind in all of my classes at a time where it wasn't exactly convenient. Sure, I brought some things with me to work on, but it wasn't exactly the kind of time where I could concentrate on anything school-related because my mind was clearly on other things. It was definitely a rough week and it took a lot out of me.

Interestingly enough, something happened during the few days I was gone that actually related to this lent. When I was at the Value Village across the street from the place where we (my family) were staying in Brantford, I (as I always do) went directly to the vinyl to peruse what they had. Then I found an Elvis 45 (or 7" as you youngins call'em these days). A mere THREE DAYS before lent would be over. Oh woe is me. Then I did something that may be construed as cheating. My family knew that I couldn't buy music for 40 days. Because my dad know how much I like my vinyl and how rare it is to find Elvis vinyl for that cheap in that good of shape (at Value Village no less), he said that he'd 'buy it for me and give it to me for Christmas'. Whether that was cheating and breaking lent a few days early, that I do not know.

Then there was yesterday. The great day on which lent finished.

I woke up just before 11 am. I thought that lent was over today (Tuesday). Then somebody was asking if lent was over today (which would've been Monday at the time). I said Tuesday because that's what I thought, then I rolled over, booted up my laptop, and checked the calender to see if it was, indeed, that day. Jumpin' Jehosaphat (yeah, with a PH ;) ), my math was wrong! It WAS Monday! So, realizing that if I left then, I could make it back in time for my performance class at noon, I would have time. So, I (literally) rolled out of bed, threw on some clothes, and booked it to Future Shop. Lo and behold, they had no copies left. I was a saddened little boy. And even though I felt awfully dirty inside, I then went to Wal-Mart with the intention of buying it if they had any copies there. Lo and behold they didn't.

Yet again I was saddened. :(

THEN! Right after my performance class was over, I hopped on the bus lickety split like I had a firecracker up my behind and booked it on the bus to the mall, picked up I-Empire @ HMV, realized at about 1:40 right after I bought it (judging by the time it said on my receipt) that I had practice for chapel this morning (Tuesday) at 1:30 that had completely slipped my mind (it's weekly, so that was kinda weird), ran back to catch the bus, which was leaving just as I got there, so I caught it JUST in time (Thank you goes directly to Jesus for that one), and then I got back to school and was 20 minutes late for the practice which was apparently just starting when I got there.

It also let me discover that I-Empire is SERIOUSLY one glorious piece of awesome :D.


Thank you lent for being good to me, for teaching me financial responsibility (word to financial stewardship), for getting me to regularly donate to a charity (the Esther Fund), and for making me realize that I don't have to buy everything I see just because it's awesome (like a subscription to NOFX's 7" of the month club. I was --><-- this close. But it also would've cost me a hundred US dollars. Phooey. :(. Also, thank you Josh Dies for letting me order your solo album :).)






Hey, at least it's better than me buying everything that I had on my list to buy the day lent was over ;).


Lent, have a good one, God Bless, and Merry Christmas/Happy Chanukkah (Happy Holidays, you can bite me.) :),

Chris

Day (?): .................?

God is crazy. There, I said it. God is crazy.

Since I have started not buying awesome for 40 days (throughout the rest of this post, I will hereby refer to CD's as 'awesome'), I have noticed some cool changes in my life :).

It helped having a ridiculously convicting Local Outreach week this past week. God has definitely confirmed some things in my mind and has got me to think about other things that I have thought about, but not seriously enough to do something about it......until now.

Like, for instance, now when I go and grab some Tim Horton's or something, even though I have almost $200 left to pay off on my credit card, I always tip the remainder of whatever I pay with. At the start of the year, I started saving all of my tips and money I'd find on the ground to give to missions. Now, at the end of the day, I'm starting to put all of my change that's under a toonie in the same pot.

Lo and behold, buying cd's isn't bugging me nearly as much as I thought it would. Who'd'a thunk?

So, I'm thinking about volunteering at the Salvation Army now. That'd be pretty cool :).

Here now is why God is fricking crazy, repeatedly blows my mind, and why this post got started last night, was supposed to be posted last night, and ended up not being posted.

See, I've got a friend back home who used to be a HUGE jerkbag with the biggest ego this world has ever seen. I am not joking. Nor am I exaggerating or using any figures of speech. Only Kanye West's is bigger. When I was home back in August, when we were walking around after youth, he asked me, "So, how's your walk with God been?" It took me a little bit to respond because I was in shock that HE, of all people, would ask me this question. Of ANYONE I know, even those that DON'T know Jesus, he was THE LAST person I would've EVER guessed would have asked me that question. Ever. Two nights ago, he told me that God is leading him (with some obvious evidence) towards being a worship leader. That's pretty freaking sweet. When I, relative to this point, was halfway through typing this post, he got on msn and we started having a good conversation. This was around 12:20-30-ish. The Internet goes off at 1. We kept talking until 2. It was one of those conversations that needed to be attended to, thus this post did not get posted until now. We were doing some minor catching up, but most of it was about what God's been doing in his life and giving him some advice on what to do with his life to get where God wants him (he's in Grade 11 and is starting to think about schools). I'm going to be looking for a Bible college. I suggested Briercrest, but it's all about what God wants him to do, right? It's all good and it will definitely be pretty freaking sweet what God is going to do from here on in. He is almost a completely different person from what he was. That alone is God's doing. God is definitely doing some pretty crazy things in his life :). I, frankly, am quite excited to see what's going to happen in his life over the next while :).


I'm in the middle of your picture in a beautiful collision.