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15
May 2012

This Too Shall Pass

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Someday it will be over...

{Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written by Sundi Jo from sundijo.com. You can read more about her at the end of the post.}

 

I quit. Again.

I’m a 28-year old college student in a college algebra class with 18-year olds who talk about beer bongs and late nights, while I avoid a nap and dread another talk about log functions. Someone stop the insanity! I think for a moment that maybe I should join the insanity, but memories from my high school partying days make my stomach turn and I’m quick to change my mind.

My Chicago Cubs-loving professor handed me last week’s test grade. A 57%. I quickly reminded myself how grateful I am that he doesn’t use the red marker to overrun the page with a big fat F. That allows me to have some dignity. I hold the tears back because my pride refuses to let others see me fall into tear-stained oblivion.  [Read more...]

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08
May 2012

Are You Chasing the End of the Rainbow?

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Are you chasing the pot of gold or remembering the promise?

{Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written by Jacqueline Otto. You can read more about her at the end of the post.}

 

So you aren’t married and you are not in school full-time, I have a question for you. What is your focus for your current job? Or if you are unemployed, what are you looking for in a job?

Typical answers include, “I want a good paying job so that I can live meagerly now and save up a lot of money fast.” Or similarly, “… pay down my college debt fast.” Some view their job through the lens of their singleness, “I want a job that will let me travel the world while I can.”

The theme with these answers is they view employment as a means to an end. In some cases that end is saving money or paying down debt, in some cases it is traveling the world and meeting interesting people. None of these goals are inherently wrong. But I submit to you that if your job is only chasing a goal, you will never reach the end of that rainbow. [Read more...]

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25
Apr 2012

Changing the Way I Think

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The root of the problem is an issue with me.

With the technology landscape ever changing, it’s becoming more difficult to find closets to hide our skeletons. Case in point: Facebook recently made a controversial change mandating users switch to the “Timeline” layout which is perfectly tailored for those who want see what their new crush was doing on New Years of 2007 or dig up dirt on their old high school nemesis.

(I’d like to emphasize I’ve only heard of people using it for these purposes…)

I figured it might be fun to thumb back through the pages of my virtual book of status updates and mobile uploads so I perused over the past few years. As much as it was enjoyable to bring back some memories and remind myself how much I’ve grown, a long series of updates from 2008 also brought conviction. [Read more...]

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23
Apr 2012

Living Life Like a Bucket List

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The Apostle Paul's life looked like a Mountain Dew commercial...

I wonder who wrote the first bucket list. Was it somebody who received the terrible news that their condition was terminal – needing a prod from their imminent mortality to accomplish things that had only been in their mind? Or was it simply a person who was bored with the daily grind of life and needed a set of adventures to make life more livable?

How does a bucket list get compiled? Does a person watching Top Chef think that mastering the sugary art of pastry will allow them to take their final breath and exhale with a smile? Or, when thumbing through Outside magazine, does the thought of hiking the Appalachian Trail make a life ended with Matlock reruns and Early Bird specials seem less miserable?

I want to kill a grizzly bear. With a spear. I’m not sure why, but I think it would be invigorating. If you’re a member of the ASPCA, I’ll add, “It’s coming right for us!” to the scenario. In that case, the bucket list item might actually make me kick it. There are less dangerous things I’d like to do, but I figured I’d go for the most dramatic for illustrative purposes. [Read more...]

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19
Apr 2012

Why Freaking Out Doesn’t Help (Yet I Keep Doing It)

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In the midst of crisis, do you have a tendency to forget the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

“When word reached the king of Egypt that the Israelites had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. ‘What have we done, letting all those Israelite slaves get away?’” Exodus 14:5

As the story goes, afterwards, Pharaoh gathered 600 chariots, chased Moses and the Israelites into a dead end, and it took a last-minute miracle to get the good guys out of a tough jam. If I were Moses, I would have been extremely frustrated with God.

“Let’s see…I’ve done everything I’ve been told to do. For the record, this included conversing with a shrub, picking up a snake by the tail, and telling a man with the power to annihilate me that my God is going to kill his firstborn. Afterwards, the minute it seems we have been delivered, the same idiot that just went through 10 plagues for not listening to me is now sending a giant army to wipe us all out unless we walk between two giant walls of water that could come crashing down at any time. Am I only one that finds that a tad ridiculous? If God is so powerful, why aren’t things any easier?” [Read more...]

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