my new car!

After about nine months, I finally have a new car. When I received my first car, my biggest concern was how cool I would look when driving it around. My new concern is gas mileage, how many miles it has on it, and whether or not it's in good condition and can last me a while if I drive it carefully. My beautiful new car--a Geo Prism--is great in all those areas. Granted, the Geo Prism isn't the most coveted car on the market. As Professor Weatherly, our gospels professor, told us one day, "I can show you right now that the kingdom of God is not about all kinds of material blessings being poured on top of us in this life: just go look at the car I drive, a Geo Prism!" But I am extremely happy--and thankful. Thankful that my parents were kind and gracious enough to purchase me a new car.

Mom, Ams and I went to Verizon Wireless and purchased our new phones since we've had ours for two years now. This is, actually, my fifth phone. I have a terrible tendency to flip my phone in my hands (my hands must always be doing something or I feel... strange?), and many times the phone fell to its doom. Granted, it could take dozens and dozens of falls before anything seriously happened, and usually it was a small problem here, a small problem there, but eventually the phone would commit suicide and I'd be phone-less. One of the head chiefs at Verizon was able to fix my phone countless times without charging me anything. When we received our new phones today, he encouraged me to buy a special durable phone holder that he usually sells to construction workers, firemen, and policemen. Mom purchased it for me. Thus I've made out quite well.

Camp starts in two weeks, and I'll be gone most of the summer. I'm really looking forward to it. Life has been boring lately. I've spent my days watching television and studying Paul (only the latter makes my day feel worthwhile). It'll be good to be amidst friends, leading young adults, and making two hundred dollars a week having fun. I hope to visit Courtney on Sunday, and Nate and I plan on hanging out come Wednesday. I may even go down to Kentucky to visit Brian (I've been promising to visit him for some time now, and I want to make good on my promise before camp starts); I haven't been down there since Julie and I were dating. Wow... So much has happened since then, it's unbelievable. I can still remember my days with Sonja like they were yesterday, and my time with Julie is seared into my mind from the great depression I went through after the breakup.

Here is a quote from Brennan Manning in "The Ragamuffin Gospel":

Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of knowing Jesus Christ personally and directly. When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we've never visited. (44)