Reality? Check!

As some of you know, I spent last weekend at WWU, registering for classes, etc. The weekend was kind of a reality check for me. I spent 36ish hours with a bunch of really worldly college students, and even in the short time I was there, I could feel a huge difference in the atmosphere. It made me realize that I really take a lot for granted. There is such a contrast between the world I live in currently, and "the real world." But I can also see that I don't want to be "of that world," and my life thus far has been wonderfully void of the kind of worldliness I saw.

The contrast between the lifestyle I saw on campus Friday and Saturday, and the people I saw Sunday was kind of crazy. It really reminded me of what a wonderful thing it is to have such a great God to worship, and honestly I can't even imagine what it would be like to live without even the belief of something greater than ourselves.

All that to say, I have just had a major reality check.

Fast forward from Friday to Friday. It's been a week since my WWU visit, and it's been a week of reflecting. As I was getting dressed this morning, I was listening to one of my favorite albums, It is Well, by Kutless. The last track of the album, I have undoubtedly heard a million and two times, but this time, the song really stopped me. The song says:

If all my world was swept away
Would You be enough for me?
Would my beating heart still sing?

If I lost it all
Would my hands stay lifted
To the God who gives and takes away

If You take it all
This life You've given
Still my heart will sing to You

When my life is not what I expected
The plans I made have failed
When there's nothing left to steal me away
Will You be enough for me?
Will my broken heart still sing?

I guess subconsciously, I've always agreed with the song. ..If I lost all my stuff, and my house, I'd still be a Christian. If something bad happened, I'd get though it.

Today though, a question popped into my head. "What if there's another meaning?"

It's just been established in my mind that the atmosphere at WWU will be very different than the one I've lived in all of my life. To some extent, I will be living in a toxic environment. What if the lyrics read,

"If I lose the Christian atmosphere, the safe Home, the Godly friends, and my World was taken away, WOULD I STILL LIFT MY HANDS TO GOD?"

It's a hard question. I got to thinking about the story of Joseph, and Potiphar's house. I'm just taking a stab out there, but I kind of don't think that he was in the best environment too. But the interesting thing about the story, is it doesn't mention that. What it does say is:

"The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered . . .When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant . . . the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field."

The atmosphere in College may be less than desirable, but God is bigger than even that. I find that comforting.

Cheers!
Lauren

Sprouts!

We've been growing sprouts! It's really easy, and quite fun. The first two pictures are day two of our experiment. The last two are day six. Well, half of  them anyway. The sprouts grew so much we had to separate them into two jars! 

Cheers,

Lauren 

short story

I had to write the first page of a short story for a creative writing class I'm taking. I've never really done a lot of fictional writing, so this was a fun challenge. I thought I'd share what I came up with. [=

~~~
You know those stories that they show on the christian tv stations, the ones about the Christians held captive by oppressive governments? The kinds of stories that you see and say, “Oh, I’ll pray for them,” and then never do. I can’t stand to watch those. My friends used to tell me that they were all scams run to get donations from grannies, but that’s not why I hate the programs. --I hate them because they never get people to do anything. “Here’s a problem, do you want to see if we could maybe, I don’t know, possibly, kind of help just a little?” If you really knew what kind of situations these people actually faced you’d be knocking down doors to help.

It all started when I took the semester to study abroad in Kenya. We were working extra hard because we had to stay caught up in our honors courses, and complete the foreign language and culture classes. After an especially long week, we decided drive to see the Indian Ocean. All we wanted to do was have a fun time away from the village. It’s not like we were trying to convert the nations! We didn’t even know we had crossed the boarder into Somalia until the guards stopped us and we couldn’t cross back over.

I guess they decided that we were a threat to society, or maybe they just wanted to send a message to the world because, well, let’s just say that I’m not welcome here. But I’m also not welcome to leave. As the leader of our outing, and class president of sorts, I’ve been deemed as unsafe to let go. I think that the others were only held for a couple of days, but they want to make us an example. As far as I know, I’ll be here forever. I’ve learned to rely on sounds. They are all that keep me from going mad in this room. It’s pitch black, no windows. I can hear the clanking of the doors along the corridor, and the footsteps of the guards changing posts. The daily scrape of my metal food pan sliding across the floor, and the occasional grunt of a guard on his rounds are the only break from the oppressive darkness. They are the only times I can imagine that there is life on the other side of the door. It’s too early for my meal, and certainly not time for rounds, so I am surprised to hear my cell door open. As light floods the cell, and a guard pushes a young man into my cell. Apparently I’m to have a roommate. The young man is bruised and has obviously recently sustained a beating. He collapses against the wall as the guard leaves. “Aren’t you going to welcome me into your wonderful abode?” His voice surprises me; it’s deep, rough, and American.
~~~

~So, what do you think? Should I continue with the story? I may use this for NaNoWriMo next year.

2012!

What a year it has been so far! I feel like I've been living a whirlwind of activity. Life has been great, busy, hard, fun, and complete chaos.

In January, I was asked to give a short plug for the National Right to Life Oratory Contest, and encourage teens to become involved in the fight against abortion at the state-wide March for Life in Little Rock. Honestly, it wasn't a big deal, except that there were probably around four thousand people there. It was a great experience! I feel like I learn a little more about myself, and about public speaking each time I do get to "speechify". Anyway, that was probably the biggest event of the month. --Other than turning eighteen. --Yeah, that's right! I'm a major now. :P

February was a huge month. On the tenth, we held our Senior Class Winter Formal. I helped decorate for it, and ended up spending around 6-8 hours with a few others getting the room ready. It was awesome, but also a little stressful beforehand.

I had a major scholarship application for the GE Reagan Foundation due on the seventeenth. It required a 500-750 word essay, and is worth approx. $40,000. But I probably won't know until almost June whether or not I will receive it.

I left for a leadership training camp in Little Rock on the 20th. It was a week-long fairly intensive class on government, including around 30 pages of pre-class homework, writing a resolution to debate in a mock legislature, and a political communications class. We were able to go to the capitol building every day, and even got to interview a few lobbyists. Honestly, they packed so much into one week, it's hard to list everything we did while there. ;)

On leap-day, I finished a second scholarship essay. It's not as important as the GE Reagan scholarship, but it's still very important.

I've also been swing dancing a couple of times this year! It's been super fun, and I've enjoyed getting back into that.

Although I've been busy, and really haven't had much time to sit and reflect, I feel like I've been changing. It's almost as if I'm morphing from one Lauren into the next Lauren. I'm still me, but I've learned so much and been stretched out of my comfort zone in so many ways, I just feel changed. I wonder if others will see it, or if I'm just changing on the inside.

Anyway, this post is mostly for me. I've been needing to just write, (crazy -- I've been writing all week, getting this scholarship essay written, and I still find that I have to write to decompress. I don't understand!)

So, if you find this post long and unimaginative, sorry! I'll write something more interesting later! Actually...I may post some scholarship essays soon. =)

Cheers!
~Lauren

Somehow, I always feel like I'm copping-out when I post videos. Yeah, I really do like the videos I post, but I just feel as if I'm saying "Here, watch this. I have nothing of importance to say, but this is kind of interesting."  NOT SO, in this case. Well, unless you count the I have nothing of importance to say part...Anyway, this video is really really worth watching. It says so much in just 4 minutes. If you can't watch it now, please save it and watch it later.

Cheers,
Lauren 



Post Script: After watching this a few more times, I've come to see that while I totally agree with what he says, he is very much the type of person to come across differently depending on your age and background. While I see what he says to mean one thing, someone else could just as easily watch it and take it in a very different way. The only difference is our point of view. Enjoy!

The new year will be grand!

Cheers,
Lauren