Pros and Cons: Cornerstone University to Spring Arbor College

In the last few days I’ve been in Michigan checking out some colleges with David. The goal was at first to see Cady, and I really had no intentions of checking out either of the schools, but both are really solid. After spending a day and night in both of them, I think I have a good feel for what they’re like. I have already applied to Cornerstone, and I’m trying to figure out if I want to apply at Spring Arbor.

Cornerstone:
I really like the atmosphere at Cornerstone. Pickett guys floor is like one huge family. Meeting the president was pretty good…He’s a pretty awesome guy. I never got to go to chapel there, but I here it’s pretty good. They do have tryouts for the worship team for chapel, so there’s at least a possibility I could play if I came there and worked hard. I’m a big fan of intramural sports and they’re opening a intramural broom ball team in the Winter, and I would for sure sign up. They also have a lot of the majors I would be looking for. They have a worship arts degree that is pretty much amazing, but intense. I thought about taking that, but I also thought about taking a Youth Ministry major with a minor in Greek… The selling point for me was community. It’s the same exact small school feel as Spring Arbor, but it’s surrounded by a good size city without as much traffic as Crystal Lake or McHenry. You have a small school, but you can get in a car, drive two minutes and be at Meijer, Walmart, or any store you could really want. That’s pretty much my perfect idea of a college community.

Spring Arbor: There are some definite pros to Spring Arbor over Cornerstone. I like the idea of having zero curfew, which makes sense, as you’re all…adults… However, there is nowhere to go…at all. Surrounded on every side with nothing for miles, there’s literally nothing to do if you don’t drive 30 minutes. I like chapel, but for the same reason I like big youth groups… The worship was good, liked the music. But the speaker really talked like he was talking to a youth group. It was goop, funny, and used cute stories… youth group style. I’m really looking for some more deep, challenging, chapel stuff… I don’t know if that happens anywhere though.. 8D They don’t have tryouts for the worship team at all… suck. They have really good food though. I’ve heard they’re really big on censorship though… Not a big fan of that.

Overall, I like Cornerstone a lot for it’s community, and the dorm life seems a bit more friendly. Not a lot, but it has the edge as far as family goes. Academically I don’t really know either way. The worship arts program really interests me, and they do have a lot of other things I could go for if I chose not to take that path. Again, the community is my idea of perfect. Exactly what I’m looking for. It’s not terribly far from home, but then again, when I leave, I probably wont come back for a long time… I need to leave and go to school, and not come back for awhile. Honestly, I get so wrapped up in doing things at home and dont’ spend any time thinking about the future. I could stay at Holy Apostles forever and help youth  groups and what-not, but all I will do is continue going from job to job, taking advantage of everybody I know when I run out of money… Yeah, I need to get out. So, we’ll see. I filled out the application to Cornerstone already. Filled out the FAFSA. If I can’t get in, which is honestly I huge possibility, I’ll try and make it through community until they’ll accept me… I hate community college…It’s terrible. It’s like high school 2.0…. sure, it’s cheap, but you get what you pay for. It’s not about the money, it’s about the experience of college. We have made it a huge deal in the last 20 years to go get a degree quickly no matter what, so you’ll get somewhere in the world. Honestly, the biggest thing you get from college is the experience of college… And I need it. If I didn’t have to come home by tomorrow, I probably wouldn’t leave at all. Stay up here with Caleb or something until I can get in to the school… But alas, I need to go home… So I will, sadly.

Thought I would fill you all in on what’s going on with me.

Peace

As it was in the beginning…

As I am writting to you, it is 10am on Wednesday morning, September 30, 2009. For literally the first time since high school I woke up at 6am sharp! At first, I was not at all excited about being awake, but I definately experienced the benefits of rising early this morning! After taking Peter to school I realized that it was only 7, and I could go home for two hours! So I got home, took a shower, and made myself a nice hot breakfast (without burning down the kitchen this time), and sat down and enjoyed the morning. After this I decided to take a walk with God, as I have not done this is a LONG time.

As I was walking through the woods around the path by my house, I started talking with Him. About my morning, about the NET team being in town, and all sorts of things that I thought had been awesome. I sat down on a bark bench and just observed nature for awhile. I realized that while I have absolutely no clear view of God and who He is, it was very easy to see him in nature, His creation. I watched the trees, the squirrels, the birds, and felt the wind blowing the cold fall air into my face. I have come to this realization before, but it hit me hard this morning… These animals, these trees, and even the wind… They are all doing everything perfectly. They have no free will, and no moral compass to make sound decisions with. They act out of their nature, and that nature is the reflection of God’s perfection… Nature is in perfect unity with God because it has nothing to separate it from Him. There is no evil in nature, no sin.

So I sat there, surrounded by God’s perfect creation, and I began to take a look at His imperfect creation. No…not imperfect, but fallen. A creation that was meant to be perfect from the start, but chose to fall. We chose, and still choose daily to separate ourselves from the will of the Creator of the universe, and because of that, the rocks and the trees and the birds of the air have to cry out for us. No, they aren’t literally worshiping Christ as we would, but they are doing something we as humans fail to do often. Everything they do is within the perfect will of God for them, and so with every action they make, their entire existence worships God. We may go to church once or twice a week and sing worship music for an hour or so… But that’s only one forced hour out of the 168 every week. Christ tells us in His Word that every action, motion, though, ability, relationship, and even our breath should be within the will of God. That everything we do needs to be an act of worship to Christ. This is harder for us to accomplish than for the animals, sure. All they have to do is exist to be in full worship of God. The problem is that we tend to take the same approach. As long as we exist, it’s ok. We’re doing our part. FALSE. Every action we do needs to be in worship of Him. Not just our time in church on Sundays, but ALL THE TIME.

Lord, I was created as your special and favorite creation. Yet, even though I was set apart, I fail in comparison to the rest of your creation. Please help me to give you my entire life, and not just my church time and prayer time. Let my life be an act of worship. Continue to show me areas of my life that are not Yours, and help me to surrender them to Your will. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and forever shall be. World without end. Amen.

Caitlyn’s gone, Kanye West is a tool, and I lost my job… In that order

Well, it’s been a while since she left, but it’s finally starting to affect me. Part of me is gone, and it’s a strange experience learning to exist without her. Not neccessarily depressing or anything terribly negative, but…interesting.

In other news, I no longer work at Jimmy Johns. It’s an annoying story, and I’m not going to talk about it, other than to say that it just didn’t work out. Pray that I find a new job soon, as I have bills to pay in a few weeks, and no way to actually pay them.

I feel good about the direction in which the peer ministry team at Holy Apostles could go. I think there’s a lot of potential for huge growth in people. I kinda worry about the size of the group. There are a LOT of people on the peer ministry team this year, and it’s just that much harder to get anything done. There’s also a lot of potential for screwing around and getting nothing done… Here’s to hoping that doesn’t happen.

Kanye West is probably the biggest tool I’ve ever seen in my 19+ years of being alive. Who goes up in front of an audience, interupts somebody during their first ever VMA award, and tells them there just not as good as somebody else? And to top it off, the next morning, he decides to be a total jerk on his Twitter giving some lame apology, and still throw in the “true facts” that Beyonce is still better…but he doesn’t want to hurt anybody? Of course, all he’s ever wanted to do all his life was help people…Seriously, who rights this stuff for him? I’m glad Jay Leno pulled the “What would your dead mother say?” card… I’ve never seen Kanye West cry, and it actually stopped him from reciting some lame pre-written apology yet again. I don’t understand how this guy is at all popular. He’s the most overated and underserving person I can think of, and he has the stones to say things like “I’m the voice of this generation” or “I’m the new prince of pop.” Seriously? What a tool.

Yes, my post about Kanye West was twice as long as my post about my fiance, my church, and my job… get over it.