Extremely energetic excitement...

That could well describe the entire experience as a whole, and certainly the most recent week. Saturday was an activity day...which was really good because i hadn't gotten enough exercise to offset the classroom and reading hours. We golfed 9 holes...walking, which was excellent for our health of course, at the only course i've ever played on as rudimentary and underdeveloped as Dixon's and Waurika's....it was actually worse. Why? Well, let's just say we had a wide spectrum of skill levels and many did not want excessive expenditures [yes, i am on an alliteration kick and 'e' is the current letter running through my head!]. Anyway, then i played raquetball for the first time at the YMCA [which it has been interesting to come across the account of its origins, in some of the readings for class], which made me wish i was playing with Dave & Tyler, but alas, better than nothing.

Well, probably one of my biggest highlights thus far has been that we just got to C.S. Lewis's 'Abolition of Man.' It is the only book we have been assigned to read aloud as a group, section by section. Apparently my past experience has benefited others, as i was told i was able to translate from Lewisian language to plain English....one fellow student said it was 'like eating rocks' to read it, and it 'wasn't even English.' It really made my day to be told i helped others understand it...and it also put things into some perspective for me, really encouraged me to know my brain helps others instead of just an isolated system to myself. It also helped me understand some of why i often feel as if very few understand me, the way i think, the way i speak, etc.

Dr. Leeland began his lectures today...with a clip from the Matrix, about making a choice, the red pill or the blue pill....and that the church has been taking the 'blue pill' of ignorance and apathy for entirely too long! I wanted to stand up on the table and pump my fist in the air...
Dr. Leeland is quite adament on 'worldview,' and extremely passionate about discussing things from popular culture like movies and music, etc. This quite excites me, for there is so much that is pertinent to the predicament of modern culture that we skip over and around....we are afraid of confrontation. Recent reading of Schaeffer's 'The Great Evangelical Disaster' has lent a most accurate quote: "Truth demands confrontation....loving confrontation, but confrontation nonetheless." And speaking of confrontation, there is going to be some confrontation on the sports scene....it appears i'm one of the team captains...football, actually. This is quite not exactly what i expected! But am happy to serve in helping coordinate things. Our hikes keep getting rained out, so this will balance the classroom and reading time with outdoor time, it seems.

Well i ramble, and feel this is haphazard and low-quality writing, but there is much to attend to, we get our first exam tomorrow, and i am scrambling to keep up with all that God has put before me. His still small voice has grown louder in my ears these past few weeks, and i am humbled and touched that He loves me enough to speak so tenderly and relevantly into my life!

Much love to you all,

--MGM