Archive for November, 2008

Hello everyone. As you can see, my website recently received a new face. My apologies the web galleries are not currently available, but the web design process turned into a bigger one than I anticipated.

My hope is to maintain this blog as it was before, reflections on what the Lord teaches me. God blessed me with the great place I am in life, and I pray I through my reflections others can experience the Lord. My goal revolves around posting my reflections every few days. One, to express what the Lord is teaching me. And two, to develop my writing (my apologies for my bad grammar, it’s a work in progress).

The greatest aspect of a blog is your interaction. Please, please leave your comments, thoughts and questions. It’s a true blessing to see what other think about my thoughts and odd realization. Therefore, I welcome you and invite you to be part of the new Chris Simon website!

No one enjoys the company of constant complainers.  “I have that stupid paper due tomorrow.”  “Yes… we have chapel today.”  “I hate this dumb game, I always lose.”  This negative, complaining mentality acts as a wall between many people.  Nagging negative people bring down the people around as well as rub off onto others over time.  No one seeks out fellowship with these people.

Saturday morning my church called a leadership meeting for the active, ministering leaders of the church, at 7:30 am.  Why, I do not know, but I constantly complained about being invited and encouraged to attend the meeting.  Saturday morning is one of the days I get to sleep in.  The irony here falls under my sleep schedule.  I wake every weekend around 6:45 or 7 am to be at work by 8am.  My body installed, without my permission, a natural alarm clock which will not let me sleep in past 7:30 or 8 am at the latest.  Grumbling about the hour necessary to awaken referred to waking a half an hour earlier.  Forgive me Lord.

The meeting took place among roughly thirty people from the church that are involved in various small groups in the church.  Robbie, my pastor, expressed his gratitude towards Zack and I for being part of the leadership team of the church, representing the desire for the college ministry to be involved with the body of the church.

Sarah expressed the elders’ desires to meet and develop a relationship with Zack and I for we wanted assist in the college ministry.  The leaders of the church desired to develop a relationship with me.  I can only laugh when I recall the grumbling complaints I showed about attending this meeting.  The audacity I possessed regarding the meeting, it is only by the Lord’s mercy I can laugh and not scold myself.

Thank you Lord, for slowing bringing me deeper into your body.  For giving the pastors and elders a desire to actually know me.  Thank you for Randy specifically, for taking an interest in mentoring Zack and I.  You are good, you are sovereign, I am not.  Thank you Lord.

Birthday’s tend to be on the bottom of my list for important dates.  I remember my sister’s and mother’s, but even with Facebook’s help I still forget them.  Nonetheless, my birthday tends to be rather insignificant to myself for it’s just another day.  However, other people like to make big deals about it.

Thursday our major project is due in my New Testament Theology class, one that happens to be rather extensive but also intriguing to me.  Being an overachiever like myself, this is a recipe for disaster. The first month of my time at CIU I spent time meeting the graduate and seminary students.  Most of them are either married or live a distance away therefore never go to the library.  However, after getting to know most of the grad students, I began to hang out and meet the undergrads.  To them, the library is a place one comes to socialize, rather than study. Monday night was like most other nights the past few weeks consisting of working in the library.  I was surrounded by about half a dozen undergrads, most of whom I knew.  Our studying consisted of talking here and there, watching two people reenact the Matrix’s fight seen for over 10 minutes, which was quite hilarious, and then a large group of people stormed into the library.

A line of twenty people burst through the front doors, making as much racket as possible.  I thought to myself “This must be for Kevin or Jews” for both of their birthdays were this week (valentine’s babies). As I turn, I found the twenty people charging into the corner of the library. Seth, my roommate, leads the charge holding a homemade upside-down pineapple cake made himself.  The decibel reading from their singing, or rather screaming, was the loudest the library ever experienced. After going outside and eating cake together, I returned to the library the remains of the cake.  I announced to my audience, “In an attempt of penance for my obnoxiously awesome friends, please help yourselves to this delicious dessert.”  One of the first thoughts in my mind was simple “I love my friends”.  Instantaneously, I though “my friends at home would have done the same.”

I thought about my former blog about my difficulty leaving Canton, the conversations I have had with people from home, the family lunches I’ve missed, the community dinner partaken without me, Tank.  I missed home.  Yet a spot of hope remains; in a week’s time I will be in the beautiful city of Canton.

All these events occurred the day before my birthday.  The day itself held just as many surprises for it was Prayer Day at school.  Each month the school cancels classes for one day for the students and faculty to gather together with worship, praise and prayer with our God; we don’t want to get lost in learning about God to neglect spending time with Him.  The morning was filled with corporate worship with over five-hundred individuals, challenging talks from our faculty, a time of remembrance for the grace God showed us, and more.  I received hugs, homemade cookies, gifts, warm embraces, and other birthday wishes from the grad students and undergrads alike.

My mother sent a package she warned was “perishable.”  I quickly drove home before lunch to open the mysterious package.  Beneath bubble wrap, inside a trash bag, zipped in a cooler, a gallon of my uncle’s homemade apple cider sat.  Who would have thought the simplest gift like homemade cider would put such a smile on my face.  Lunch continued with fellowship around the table with laughs and jokes all around.  The afternoon session focused on simple prayer, true prayed.  Prayer for president-elect Obama, for the school, for the church, missions, one another.  In the simplest definition of the word, it was good.  God is good.

After prayer day ended, a group of us discussed for over an hour our amazing God, how he’s working in our lives, things God is teaching us, good things.

My evening class, Greek, required the students to spend time in prayer as a class.  I resented the requirement.  I prayed throughout the entire day, how could my profession have the audacity to require us to attend class to pray.  Wow, God worked on my bitter heart during that time.  We worshiped as the body of Christ, prayed for one another, the college, the faculty.  No other day in my life consisted of the amount of prayer as today, my birthday.  If I could plan out the perfect day, I wouldn’t change a thing.  Time with friends, time with the Lord, birthday wishes from home, corporate praise to our God, time of fellowship and laughter.  What more could I wish for?  (Maybe to see people from home.)

The Lord is good. God knows what he is doing; I do not.  I would ruin the day with my plans, yet he connects them together perfectly. What an amazing God do we serve!  I have not felt as loved by God and by friends as much as I did this day.  Thank you, everyone.  Back home, at school, my family, the Lord.  Thank you.