Had a Minute

I found a minute here (which is very rare this week) and figured I'd post a quick update on how things are going.

1. I am more busy now than I was when I was actually in college. I thought coming here and not having to take any classes, do any homework, study for any exams, or write any papers would give me more time. But discipling 17 students and trying to intentionally interact with more has made me very, very busy. Please, if you find time, and you are a pray-er, send a prayer up for some of the students I am working with:

Tommy
Luke
Pat
Trevor
Ben
Lionel
Nick
Shawn
Chris
Pradeep
Corrinne
Melissa
Matt
Wyatt
Micah
Adam K
Adam H

2. I love the relationship Rachel and I share. Traveling from Wheeling to Pittsburgh weekly has really cramped my time, but the time I get to spend with Rachel has been wonderful. I am loving this relationship, and look forward to growing more deeply with her.

3. I am planning a relief trip to New Orleans January 1st-January 8th. We are all finished with plans, and are just waiting for the day to come when we pick up the rental vans and drive down. I'll let you know how it goes while we are down there. If you would like to check in on the trip, there will be daily postings on the University's website. (www.wju.edu)

4. I can't wait for Christmas to come. (Because I won't be as busy.) I love my family, I love my friends, and I can't wait to be with everyone again. I miss you all MUCH more than I have said.

5. I have to go to Bible Study. Pradeep and I are leading the last one of the semester tonight on Eph 3:14-21. Then I'll do some rounds through the building, and at midnight we'll all head out to Denny's for the semester's last midnight Denny's run. Hopefully we'll gather a crowd.

That's about it. (Don't worry, I don't intend to use the blog as a journal very often, I just realized there are a lot of people in my life who don't know a lot about what's going on here.)

Chronicles of Narnia

I have a very old, torn paper-back book a shelf in my apartment with a note written in it addressed to my future children. The copy on my shelf is the same copy that I read so many years ago, when as a six year old boy, I read C.S. Lewis' "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" for the first time. It was the first "real" book that I ever read, and it has instilled a passion for reading in me that grows to this day. I started reading at a very early age, and after reading this book, I fell in love. As a boy, when I was bored, or ran out of new books to read, I would read "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" again. And again. And again. I remember many times laying in bed at night, asking God to let me go to Narnia. I remember praying for him to take me there even long after I knew that there was no such thing as Narnia. Now that I am a full twenty-five year old man, I have read the story too many times to count. I have loved the story my whole life, and in many ways it has shaped my faith, and my outlook on the future. I have loved this book and this fanciful tale my whole life.

This weekend, I went with Rachel to watch the movie version of "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe". I have so looked forward to a good film version of this story that on the way there I found myself feeling like a little kid again. Then, when the lights went down, and the movie began, I really fell backwards in my life. I fell into the time when I was a boy, and I asked God to let me go to Narnia.

When the movie finally progressed to the point where Lucy found the Wardrobe, I was so worked up, so excited, so nostalgiac, that as she pulled that great big sheet off of that mahogany chest, I cried.

I saw the Chronicles of Narnia movie this weekend, and while I know that there were some hokey parts, I loved it. It was a truly magical thing for me. I don't know if your experience of the movie will be so powerful, but because of my love for C.S. Lewis' tale, I enjoyed the film immensely.

So there you go. A movie review. Five stars, great story. Well done. Go see it.