Lent 16

As I've said before, our campus ministry has some pastoral interns. Three in fact. I want to talk about one of them tonight.

Tonight one of our interns (not the one I mentioned last week) preached a sermon at our healing service. He preached on the topic of revelation. Not the apocalyptic book at the end of the New Testament, but the theological concept of God revealing God's self to humanity.

In short, he preached a sermon on God Sightings, which reminded me that I had not made a post yet today. So here is my post.

Today, I saw God in a shy intern coming into himself in this community.

Lent 15

Two weeks into this Lenten journey. If you're a regular follower of this blog (aka, my mother) you've seen how bad I am at keeping up with this. But hey, the fact that I only have a few minutes till midnight forces me to be concise.

Today I sang in a master class with the musical director for the spring musical at AU, and it made me realize how much I love performing. Today I saw God in the stage.

Lent 14

I don't like Wicked the Musical. I think it's really overrated, has mediocre music, and only exists to give teenage girls obnoxious songs to belt at the top of their lungs.

But then something beautiful happened.

While playing Lazyball in Kay, I turned on the Broadway Pandora station, and Popular came on. Out of nowhere, one of my friends started to sing along. If you don't know Zack, you should. Watching/listening to him singing Popular was a true joy.

Today, I saw God in a rousing game of Lazyball

Lent 13

Damn it all.

And I knew what I was going to post today too. It just slipped my mind again.

Today my score for the Bach B Minor Mass arrived. This is the first full published score of a major work I've ever owned. To add extra charm to it, the score is used. As I flip through the pages, I can only imagine who else has flipped it. Who used this score to perform it. Who put their blood, sweat, and tears into studying it.

And then I think about who will use it after me. Will it be my kid? A student? Will I donate it to a library?

This is why I love music. Music is not static. It flows through history. It's evolved over centuries. It was here long before I was here, and it will continue to exist after I'm long gone. Every piece that's written has a story behind it. Every performance conveys emotions locked deep within the players souls.

Today, I saw God in music

Lent 12

Nothing like a Sunday to get you back on schedule.

My Sundays are pretty hectic.  While most of my friends get to sleep in on Sunday Mornings, I have the joy of waking up at 8am to get ready for Children's Choir rehearsal.  After dealing with the little ones, I then get to sing with the adult choir.  Following that, I typically grab some lunch and make sure things are all set for AU's Service at 7pm.

But no matter how much I bitch and moan about having to get up so early, I like being busy.  It keeps my mind occupied.  I feel like I have purpose.  I'm not a Type A person by any stretch of the imagination.  If I have nothing to do, I just wind up sitting on my couch all day watching TV reruns.  Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy my sabbath time when I do nothing, but it makes me enjoy the work I do all the more.

Today, I saw God in a busy schedule

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 11

I solemnly swear that I will never bust The Eagle's chops for forgetting to post rants again.

At least I'm only 40 minutes late tonight.

Today was the Founders' Day Ball here at American University. I'm generally not a fan of big dances or the like, so I didn't go. Tickets were hard enough to get as it was. My roommate on the other hand is in a relationship, and because of that he had to go (lest his girlfriend read this, I'm sure he also wanted to go, but that's neither here nor there). So he's getting ready and me and my other roommate realize that he has no idea what he's doing.

He didn't tie a Windsor Knot
He didn't shine his shoes
He then got shoe polish on the one tie, so he had to get another
He didn't have collar stays
His socks had holes in them for crying out loud!

Basically, he was a hot mess

Luckily, we were able to intervene in the nick of time and we got him out the door in a fashion that was deserving of the formal event he was attending.

I saw God in that today. In two roommates helping out another one who was open and receptive to help.

Here's hope some of that sticks when he has to go to the White House Press Corps Dinner in 20 years.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 10

So I missed today...whoops...

My excuse is that I spent tonight with some pretty awesome people writing a pretty awesome murder mystery party, which I guess is a God sighting in and of itself.

Today I saw God in an evening full of laughter and fun.

I'll figure out a punishment for missing the deadline though.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 9

So I'm generally not a fan of the Epistles.  Well, it's not that I don't like them, I just don't think they should be biblical canon.  What makes them so special that we have to give them the same weight as the Hebrew Scriptures or the Gospels?  What do other writings written since that period lack that says they cannot be considered "Holy Scripture".

So this semester I (with the assistance of one of the pastoral interns and another student in the campus ministry) have been studying the Epistles to find out just that.  We've been meeting once a week on Thursday evenings and just going through them chapter by chapter.  We laugh, we learn, and we grow in faith together.  While I can't say that my mind has been changed (yet), I can certainly say that I appreciate where Paul is coming from now that I understand the context of his writings.

Today, I saw God in learning from the Scriptures.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 8

I've noticed that a lot of my posts on this Lenten thingy have been about fellowship. Maybe that says something about my view of God as a relational being. Today is no exception.

Wednesday is when we have our weekly United Methodist Student Association meetings. Today we got through our business and were left with 15 or some odd minutes and so we all got to just hang out, goof around, and just enjoy each other's company.

Today I saw God in the fellowship among the UMSA.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 7

I need to get better at this. Maybe next year for lent, I'll give up putting off my daily discipline till the last minute.

Anyways, today I saw God in an evening of fellowship with my Methodist peeps (I promise I will never say Methodist peeps again)

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 6

I woke up today, and knew it was going to be one of those days. I woke up at 11:30 for my 11:45 class and it kept going from there.

But then I got to Chamber Singers, and even though we were in the acoustically shitty rehearsal room (rather than the Recital Hall) we made some kickass music. We looked at our a cappella lit from last year to keep it fresh for the tour in May and it was rocking.

Today I saw God in music.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 5

Sometimes I wonder what the hell I'm doing.  It often feels that the Church as an institution has lost its way.  It often feels as if the Church can be more concerned with raising pledges and maintaining the status quo than going out and spreading the gospel of love, mercy, and justice.

But then I look at my campus ministry, and I realize that there is hope for the Church.

Today, eight college students (okay, seven college student and one seminary intern) return from a service trip to the Jersey Shore.  They worked with Habitat for Humanity to aid in the hurricane relief efforts.  This service trip was entirely planned and facilitated by the college students who went on it.

Today I saw God in the passion of 8 students dedicated to social justice.  I saw God in 8 students so fiercely dedicated to spreading God's love, that they gave up a weekend to do it.  They inspire me to stay on this path.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 4

Seeing as there are only a few minutes left in the day, I'm going to have to make this quick.

I saw God today in my relaxing, yet productive, sabbath.  I woke up at 1pm, watched West Wing for a couple hours, ate some breakfast/lunch/dinner, had a vocal coaching (which went really well) and saw the preliminary round for the Concerto and Aria competition.  I'm sitting here now, and I feel really good.  Today really energized me, and I feel ready to take on next week.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 3

Today was very much a "look at all of the fucks I give" sort of day.  It's Friday, which means I not only had three classes to go to (two of which are jokes), but I also had two separate Kay shifts.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love working at Kay, but it made for a loooong Friday.  As a result, I had no idea what I was going to post as my God Sighting for the day.

(I should mention, that just because today was a long day, doesn't necessarily mean that it was bad.  On the contrary, it was actually a good day all things considered.  Got to have free pizza, reconnect with a friend who's in town for a short while, hang out with the s'Methodists, etc).

My whole time walking home in the bone chilling rain, I was thinking hard about where I saw God today.  I was actually close to posting something about seeing God's providence in the umbrella that I found in Kay before I left work.  But as I walked into the apartment building, I remembered that I had a package waiting for me.

So I went to the desk and picked up my package and brought it upstairs to my apartment, and when I opened it, it was full of glorious pantry essentials.  Macaroni and cheese, pasta, brownie mix, chicken noodle soup, chocolates, peanut butter, Girl Scout cookies (THIN MINTS), everything a guy in college could possibly want.

There was also a very nice card from my mother in it for Valentine's Day, which put a smile on my face.

So this post's for you mom.  I saw God today in the package you sent me (which means I don't have to go to the store for a while) and all that you do for me and my brother (my brother and I?).  Thanks a lot, and happy (late) Valentine's Day!

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 2

So last week for our Healing Service, one of our pastoral interns served us a Moravian Lovefeast instead of the regular sacrament of communion (our chaplain was ill and the intern isn't ordained yet).

He opened the ritual by explaining to us that much of Christ's ministry was centered around meals.  He ate with the Pharisees.  He ate with the tax collectors.  He ate with the prostitutes.

After that last one, my roommate burst out laughing.

Anyways, today I had the joy of sharing a meal with some fellow Chamber Singers at the AU Tavern.  One of the members of Chamber Singers has an unlimited meal plan, so he paid for our meals.  And when we all sat down, he took a picture of us because he had broken a record of number of meal swipes he shared with his friends (there were eight or nine of us).

I saw God in his generosity and eagerness to help foster group bonding and fellowship this evening.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Lent 1

Every student who takes music lessons at American University has to take a class called Applied Music Performance Lab, which is basically a fancy name for students listen to their peers perform music for an hour and 15 minutes.  Today, was the preview for the annual Concerto and Aria competition (a competition to perform a solo concerto or aria with the AU Symphony Orchestra the following fall), which is being held this weekend.  So I got to watch my peers, some of who have been preparing these pieces for the better part of a year, have one last performance before the show.  I saw God today in their passion and dedication for their art and their willingness to go above and beyond for the love of music.

For an explanation of what's going on, check out this post.

Shrove Tuesday

Today is the last day in the season of Epiphany.  Tomorrow, Lent starts.

Lent, of course, is the period of 40 days (minus sundays) that lead up to Christ's passion, death, and ultimately, his resurrection.  It is a season of penitence, a season of reflection, and a season of fasting.  Christians typically give something up during Lent.  Things like chocolate, soda, sweets, television, and other things which may be considered to be a vice.

I'm going to do something a little bit different this year.

In the campus ministry that I'm involved with at AU, we have a tradition in worship where anyone in the congregation is invited to share an instance where they have seen God at work in their lives or in someone else's life.  We call these testimonials "God Sightings".

Recognizing that I have let this blog fall by the wayside during Epiphany, I am going to commit myself to looking at the world around me as miraculous and God infused throughout Lent, and I will make one post per day (even on Sundays) in which I share a God Sighting.

Enjoy your pancakes today folks, and may you have a blessed Lenten season.

-ICU