stranger

Sometimes my thoughts elude me. My actions tilt my brows in confused knots. The mystery that is me is darkest on nights like this, with not even a moon sliver of recognition from the emptiness surrounding me. Lost, detached, confused, bewildered, frustrated: synonyms of my weary soul. No one to cry to but the grassblade. And she already has the dew weighing her down. Even my shadow avoids me, finding more comfort in the coming dawn. Thus shall my soul rest; knowing that the dawn cometh.

Last night, after hours of contemplating how we would run the Southern Shuffle, Ben and I took off to just run it. I didn't expect any others to come. Ben was doing it barefoot and we ran there to warm up, so since we weren't registering, we stayed in Brock until we saw everyone heading to the starting line. Lo and behold: Nick, Schnell, Jones, Phil, and Antonio were all there to run it, too!! How cool. No literally, it was cold. Anthony did it without a shirt, Ben without shoes, and I was in my green gear. Schnell actually ran it and the other three took cross country literally and cheated/supported the whole way. It was a lot of fun. Ben got 2nd overall.

I love running. Last night reminded me of that. It also helped me realize that I don't have to be an official racer, with the registration, post-race food, number, and t-shirt to enjoy the event. Just running, racing others, was enough for me to really enjoy it.

It's even better at night. And with cheetahs.

LIVE from Argentina!!

Tonight I got to watch my dad speak LIVE from Argentina!! He is doing the Week of Prayer at La UAP, where I spent a semester studying castellano my freshman year. Stephen and Sarah both were over here and watched some, too!

How cool is it that I can watch my dad speak live, when he is thousands of miles away, in a different time zone, in a different language, in a different country, and we have absolutely different schedules!! Amazing. The coolest thing, I thought, was that a friend of ours down there (Nico), told me about the site to check (uapar.edu) to find the live stream about two days ago. I put that in the back of my head, but didn't write it down. Then today I thought of it earlier when I prayed with Dr. Crumley, because I mentioned Dad's meetings. Then, all of a sudden, tonight while on the internet, the thought rushed back and I was just in time to see most of his sermon! I think God helped me remember. Pretty cool.

Dad talked about someone named Ian Thomas that sounded really cool. I'm going to look him up sometime hopefully.

because i can

Determination differs from person to person, and in my case, from day to day. I've often been determined to log ideal memories for later view at a consistent rate, but as of yet, have never been more consistent than the fact that I still do it randomly since I started that first day a long time ago when our little kitty died.

So, to stay christoffer-consistent, here's a random what's up:

Dad sent us some reports on life in the Raleigh evangelistic fast lane these past few weeks and they brought tears to my eyes that I can't explain. Stories of lives changed by nothing else besides the Holy Spirit working on hearts through the power of the Word of God presented to them is apparently a moving read. It revives at least the smoke of the flicker I once had to take record of and spread those kinds of experiences to others in the family of Christ in order to inspire and encourage the harvesters to continue working. Many of us are quite content to sit and eventually die. Even when the brain is stimulated, somehow comfort of immobility overrules the desire to move and change things. Even when it is convinced that action would bring fulfillment...I guess it's just too much work.

Sabbath I was finally convinced to go summer sledding at The Hill with The Others. I had a good time, as usual. There were some sweet little kids there having a blast going slowly down the hill on their magic cardboards. Push, they would tell me. So I did. Over and over and over. Emily would often remind me that they were fine and would push themselves, in which case I obliged. Her brothers were a different story: never forgetting that I was there to increase their momentum. How delightful.

I am procrastinating something serious on an Islam paper due for World Religions. It's reinforcing my belief (and hope!?) that getting through school for me so far has been all about understanding the numbers and the teachers. If I can figure out what the syllabus says about assignment values and total points, then some assignments are just not necessary to complete. And if I ever figure out how the teacher ticks, then I'm in a much better position for such things as essays and late work, etc. I wouldn't feel slighted, however, if I were to receive a much-less-than-passing grade on this first draft. What am I learning in school right now? That how you approach your studies is key.