The times they are a Changin'

I graduated.... again. I now hold a Masters Degree in Higher Education. I realized just a few weeks ago that this makes me sound far more educated than I feel I am most of the time. All in all, I am content with how I ended things at Taylor. Spent a lot of quality time with quality people. Made a lot of intentional effort to put words to thoughts and feelings for people who've said and done so much for me. To tell the truth, I'm pretty pleased with myself for this. I think I would have expected to have foregone that sort of thing in the past, leading to regret and frustration later. But, hey, I guess I'm learning.

CRAM came and went for the 3rd year. This was a particularly challenging year, as human depravity and unbridled selfishness made themselves more clearly felt than in previous years. Though, learning happend. Students were challenged. And growth occured. Also, I made a bon fire out of my couch. Yes, finally (RIP), my mother can sleep more peacefully at night knowing that her baby boy is not being somehow infringed upon by her old sectional couch.

While at CRAM, I also got a job. From the end of school to CRAM I actually ended up being called in to 3 interviews. I went out to William Jessup in California, Indiana Wesleyan, 15 minutes down the road, and Eastern University, in Philadelphia, PA, which is where I am writing this post from. Never before have I experienced God's great providence at work so personally in my life than through this job search experience.

So, I packed up my crap into a U-haul on July 7th and drove the 11 hours out here with my parents to drop everything off, then jump back in the car and drive home so that I could attend Phil's wedding in Indy a few days later. That's right!!! PHIL GOT MARRIED! It was quite an experience and I'm so glad that I was able to push off the start date for my new job until after the wedding. There were lots of memories flooding my head as I sat through the wedding rehersal and the rehersal dinner. Phil is someone who will always hold a special place in my heart and it was great to see him so happy. At a time in my life when I get a front row seat to lots of guys getting married whom I'm incredibly skeptical about, Phil is a man whom I know will love his wife for the rest of his life in as close a fashion I can think of to how Jesus loves us all of our days. So, I shipped out to Philly directly after the reception. Needless to say, there were a few tears in my eyes.

And now here I am, sitting at the front desk of my building, Eagle Hall. We're the newest building on campus, which is nice. I've got 170 students. 2 floors of women and 1 floor of men. 8 RA's who have been another one of God's great blessings in my life recently. More about them later, I'm sure. Now, I'm gonna call it to a close so that I can go play ping pong with Zach, one of my RA's.