Filmaking

My roommate and I decided to make a music video. Don't worry we're not singing. We are however dancing, and performing all our own moves. It's to the song 'one time' by Justin Biber. We've got about 43seconds done so far and it looks phenomenal if I do say so myself. I don't know why I never thought of this before, it's so fun. I love playing around with the clips to make them match the song. Gotta love that Mac, it makes everything so easy. Who knows maybe we'll start our own show! We made 2 episodes of our own t.v. show when we were 10. Maybe its destiny!

Auto Drama

For my acting class this evening I have to perform an auto drama. When I first heard this I so confused. All I understood was we had to make our life a metaphor and in an abstract theater way, we have to perform a high point in our life. I know, sounds confusing.

I decided that the metaphor for my life would be 'my life is a move'. By move, I'm referring to the term changing of permanent address, which I've done a lot of. My parents helped me develop this idea, thank goodness! I've decided to bring in a suitcase and pack for 'moving to Prov.'. Each object I pack will have relevance to a place I once considered home. This allows for me to talk about each place and how it was important to me. After I finish my talk about each place, I will rip a piece from this paper heart I have, and stick it on the object I'm packing. This is supposed to represent that each of those places have a piece of my heart, and a piece of who I am. Hopefully that's abstract enough.

It sounds like a good idea in my head, so we'll see how it plays out.

You shall have no other gods before Me.

What do we live for? As a Christian, the obvious answer without thinking is Jesus. But if we are to think about how we actually do live instead of how we should strive to live, what are we living for?

Our world revolves around money. That's what we live for. Why do we go to school? To be educated, so we can get a good job and support ourselves. That sums up the first 25 years of any North American citizens life. Everything we do costs money. We need money if we want to own anything, go anywhere, or have food and clothes. We don't even realize how dependent we are on money.

What if we switched everything around and became dependent on God. If we counted on God to provide us entertainment, food, shelter, purpose. What if we counted on Him to take us places and what if we learned from Him.

It couldn't happen though. Because that's not safe. We're secure with the way we live, being able to compare our lives to one another and measure how good our life is. If we lived totally 100% dependent on God there's no telling what our lives might look like. The unknown can be scary.

Advertising

I was watching the commercial for slap-chop in the gym this morning. It has the same guy from the sham-wow commercials. At the end of the commercial they offered the usual bonus cheese grater gift with the slap-chop and then they doubled the offer. I found myself thinking wow what a good deal! Then I realized I wouldn't order that by itself, or even with the cheese grater, and what would I do with two sets. For me this wasn't a good deal at all, I knew that from the beginning; but as they made the offer 'better' and 'better' I believed them.
If you ask anyone they'll probably tell you commercials and ads don't work on them. They only work on everyone else. If everyone believes that though, then who is left to be the everyone else that the ads work on? And yet if commercials didn't work, why would company spend so much time and money making them. It's because they do work, we just don't want to believe it. We're affected by all kinds of things around us. It's like my mom always says "garbage in, garbage out'. Be careful what kind of garbage you put in.

JOY

Last night was probably my favorite night at Prov yet. I started off going swing dancing with some friends, and it turned out to be better than I expected. After dancing, my roommate and I hosted a movie night for the girls in my dorm. It was a lot of fun spending time, and building community together. We had stayed up til 2am so we could go to the worship concert. It was phenomenal! To be worshiping God with others who also truly love Him, at 2 in the morning is incredible. I felt really close to God last night, and close to others, which brought me a lot of joy! It's awesome to have a strong community for God here!

Fact or Fiction?

I've become obsessed with a particular news story that happened just over the summer and am constantly looking for more details without success. The story is about a 17 year old boy who allegedly stabbed and murdered his father on June 25. The boy then lived with the corpse in the house before eventually cutting up the body to fit in a bag and drive the remains two hours away to bury. This boy is from the area of Charleswood in Winnipeg, which is home to a lot of my friends, and 10 minutes from where I live . The rumor going around, is the boy who did this is the same boy who sat right behind me for my last semester in high school. According to this rumor I spent an hour everyday, five days a week, with a murder staring at the back of my head. I don't know how accurate the rumor is because the police aren't allowed to release names until he's 18. It's an awful story. It's scary to think what the people around you are going to do with their lives. Some may do great things, others horrendous things, or maybe others spread vile rumors. I hope for the sake of this boy that he wasn't involved in this crime, but I can't help searching for more information everyday to learn the truth.

Freahmen Retreat 2009!

This past weekend I went to the freshmen retreat that took place at Red Rock Bible Camp. It was beautiful there! We played some crazy 'annual freshmen' games. Some people had to race to see who could hold the most toilet paper in their mouth, others had to break the egg saran wrapped to someones head with a fish, and we all had to do fear factor and eat a lot of disgusting stuff. (I could still taste that raw onion the next day.) I had to wear a diaper filled with a disgusting concoction while my partner ate from the diaper filled with the same concoction. Overall it was a lot of fun and we had some good speakers from the school. The retreat was supposed to help you refocus on knowing God, knowing others, and knowing yourself. What I took away from the experience was that God always wants to be drawing near to us, and we can be afraid of that without knowing. That's something that I want to work on so I can experience God in new and closer ways. I wasn't all that excited to go on the retreat, but I'm really glad I did!

Ye of Little Faith

I noticed today from the Winnipeg Free Press, that the soup kitchen in Winnipeg is not receiving as many donations as regular. They believe this is mostly due to the fact that the economy is not doing well and people are holding onto their money tighter. I think that's the most important time to give, when you can't afford it. It shows your faith to trust that God will take care of you if you make yourself vulnerable to him. Isn't that what we're supposed to learn from the parable of the poor women? She only donated two coins while the pharisee donated much more, and yet Jesus said she had given more, because she had given all she had.
I remember learning it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of the needle then for a rich man to get into heaven. I was also told though that it's okay to be rich as long as you hold all of your possessions in an open hand, instead of closed fist. God didn't intend for us to worry or be stressed. When my 95 year old great-grandpa was asked why he thought he lived so long he replied "It's because I don't worry". So if you are concerned about the economic times, give it to God. He will take care of you, it is mentioned in Luke 12:22-30. The ravens do not sow or reap or have a storehouse for food, but God feeds them. The lilies grow but do not labor or spin and the bible says even Solomon wasn't dressed as beautiful as them. God loves us so much more than ravens or lilies, so why should we fight that? Clearly God wants to take care of us. We just need to give him the chance instead of worrying about how we can take care of ourselves. So do not hold onto your money tighter, try giving to someone less fortunate and let God worry about the rest.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare!

All my life I've felt I was being prepared. Swimming lessons to prepare me for lifeguard courses, t-ball to prepare me for baseball, handwriting in grade three to prepare for middle school, essays in grade 6 to prepare for high school, and all of high school was supposed to prepare me for college. So why do I feel like I'm not prepared enough?
I would always complain that I didn't want to be prepared for everything. But now I understand the need for the process. I am amazed at whats expected of me for this semester. Its truly overwhelming. I know I'm capable of completing every task, so that's what I will focus on. I'm in the process of making lists so I know whats due when. It helps to make things less overwhelming, and of course it prepares me for this semester!

18 and life to go

One of my friends recently became engaged. She's 18. I'm also 18 and the thought of getting married right now is terrifying. I've never been in love so I guess I just don't understand what kind of place she is in. The only guy I've ever wanted to spend forever with is Jesus! Don't get me wrong I do want to get married one day, but I feel like there's so much I want to do before then. Realistically I could probably do everything I wanted to while I was married; like traveling, going to school, or working and volunteering. But with marriage comes huge amounts of responsibility; like paying bills, and serious commitment. I know I'm not near ready for that, but I am happy that my friend is; and I couldn't be more excited to be her bridesmaid.

Blogging

I honestly do enjoy writing. So why does writing this blog every day seem like such a challenge?
I guess I prefer to write about events, fictional stories, and other people. I'm not used to writing down my thoughts and opinions, and especially not used to sharing them on the internet. Writing about me is way out of my comfort zone. I don't even like to talk about personal things to people. Maybe that is why I like writing and reading. It takes the focus off of me and puts it somewhere else. I'm looking forward to sharing, or venting, or ranting, or whatever it is blogs are for. I'm hoping it will help me be more comfortable with who I am, and be more open with other people.

Amazin' Corn!

This weekend I went with a few friends to this huge maze made out of a corn field. This was my third time going as I had made it an annual tradition with one of my friends. It's a pretty cool place and they sell fantastic mini donuts. So far I've never been able to make it from start to finish. Halfway into the maze we split up into two groups of four. The team I wasn't on found the exit and spent half an hour waiting for my team to finally give up and use a cheater path to get out of the maze. All of my friends in the first group had never even been to the corn maze and they managed to find the exit. I was a little dissapointed but I'm not too upset about it because there is always next year.

Bad Things and Good People

My devotion today was about adversity and it came from Isaiah 43:2-3. It talked about how God is not a magic genie and won't make bad things go away, but he will help us endure them. It brings around the question why do bad things happen to good people? When everything is going peachy keen, it's easy for me to accept that we're all bad people and deserve what happens to us. But, when I remember little kids in Africa starving, or sick kids with cancer, I can't help thinking they don't deserve that. I can't help thinking there are a lot of things that happen that no one deserved. Like Jesus being nailed to a cross. He was punished for being the only perfect man. That's the perfect example of a bad thing happening to a good person. I guess the only thing for me to do when I feel life isn't fair, is to look at how he handled life not being fair. He submitted himself to Gods will. It's hard to accept and endure the bad things, but all I need to do is try; because God will be there through it all; and his will is perfect.

First Day at Prov.

I've never written a blog before, but I have to start one for a course I'm taking , writing for the media. I figure since I'm starting a blog at Prov, I should begin talking about my first day at Prov.

Monday morning I woke up planning to get ready for school. I was going to do laundry, clean, pack, and meet up with a few friends in the evening to say goodbye. No sooner had I eaten breakfast than my mom informed me I was supposed to have moved into dorm at Prov. a half hour earlier, I had somehow gotten the date mixed up. I threw enough things in my suitcase for the week and left for prov. I figured my roommate, being my best friend, would be wondering where I was so I sent her a text to let her know I was on my way. Her reply was that there was a waiting list to get into the dorm and because I didn't show up on time they had given my room to someone else. I was completely upset and my mom comforted me telling me it was probably joke. I believed her so I relaxed until we arrived at the school. She sternly approached the girls doing registration and told them she was not happy that my room had been given away. I was really embarrassed because she had just finished assuring me it was a joke and knowing my friends dad, I believed it was a joke. The girls assured us that I was rooming with my friend and we were both embarrassed. I headed up to my dorm to find my friend's dad changing my name on the room door to another girls. I have to say moving into Prov. was more memorable than I would have expected.