Life has been going really well lately. I have been visiting the gym nearly every day, hanging out with friends constantly, and getting all my papers done. I am making many more friends along the way. Most of my classes here aren't too exciting: English 2 is boring, Evangelism is mundane (the professor pretty much teaches what McLaren writes in all his books), and Foundations of Education is practical but drawn-out. I really do love my Old Testament History class, though. Everything we learn is fascinating. The professor reads straight out of the Hebrew Bible, showing us things we've never been able to catch up on. It's the one class I look forward to; my notebook gets several more pages with each class. I plan on taking his other classes: Creation, the Exodus, the Wisdom Books, to name a few. One of my friends, Alex, has him for a class on Job; they had to watch a crazy movie, Alive, where people ate each other to survive and found God in their suffering. I watched it with him.

Alex and I plan on going to Red River Gorge over Spring Break to do some backpacking and tent-pitching. He already has all his equipment and know-how; Joe Garland is loaning me gear. I'm pretty excited about it. If that doesn't work, I'll make other plans: I don't just want to sit around home, because my sister is still in school during my break. What fun would that be? If backpacking falls through, I will spend my break reading, writing, and drinking coffee at Starbucks. That's still not a bad life. I close with Thomas a' Kempis:

Why do you postpone making your resolutions day after day? Come now, and begin this very moment and say to yourself: "Now is the time to do it; now is the time to fight; now is the right time to amend my life." When you are afflicted and troubled, that is the time for merit. You must pass through fire and water before you arrive at redemption. Unless you do violence to yourself, you will not overcome your faults.

As long as we have this frail body with us we cannot be without sin, nor live without anxiety and grief. We would indeed like to be free from all wretchedness, but because we have lost our innocence through sin, we have at the same time lost true hapiness. Therefore, we must exercise patience and await God's mercy until the storms have passed, and until our mortal bodies are swallowed up by life.