Late night/early morning thoughts...

It's quite late here in Waco, but I'm still up. The German translations had to be done, so I stayed up. Now I'm letting them set in a bit before looking at them again before bed, as there is a quiz tomorrow over the vocab in the sentences.

My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on Monday. I feel so blessed to have parents that have exemplified to me a good marriage. The whole family is meeting up in Tennessee in about 3 weeks for vacation and to celebrate the big anniversary! When I think about the fact that Jess and I have been married for a little more than 10 months, 30 years seems so far away. Between now and then, I have no idea what will happen, but the possibilities are exciting for sure!

The decision to do a five-week intensive German class while trying to study for my first set of comprehensive exams will not rank among my best decisions of all time. I'm just hoping to still have hair left when this summer is done!

Jess and I recently became members at our church down here. It's a baptist church... so I guess that means we're baptists now. However, we're a part of the CBF (Central Baptist Fellowship), not the Southern baptists. Our church has really been a blessing to us as we've been down here. I like to describe it as the church home I always longed for but never believed existed. It is quite liturgical, following the church calender and the lectionary, while incorporating moments of silence, the ringing of the bells, responsive readings, Scripture readings, and the passing of the peace of Christ to name a few.

The word from the insurance company is that we'll get our car back by June 30th. That is exciting.

I went on a bit of a spree this afternoon while taking a break from reading. On Tuesday, iTunes adds the new releases to their store, so I was browsing through it. As I was browsing, I stumbled upon an album from a CCM artist, which led me down many rabbit trails in my trip down memory lane. In addition to the purchases I made, I looked at songs by Bryan Duncan, Bob Carlisle, Wes King, Gary Chapman, Al Denson and others. I ended up buying two songs: "Save the World" by Eric Champion and "I Surrender All" by Clay Crosse. The first song takes me back to high school and the positive affiliations I make with this song. The second song is one of my favorite CCM songs as a song of personal commitment, although I must say I prefer my brother Jared's rendition of it.

Surrender is something that isn't easy for me, but something that I recognize the need for more and more in my life. To what or whom do I need to surrender? My wife? God's will? Love? God Himself? I think some of those answers are better than others... and some of those answers aren't necessarily different.

Ok, I think the scatteredness should come to an end now, but maybe sometime soon I'll get a solid, cohesive post that actually says something interesting!