3/28/2014

Yesterday was a pretty great day. It was long, but in a great way. I have learned that there is an art to making every day feel successful and fulfilled. 

I have always hated the feeling that I have wasted my day. Either it felt like it went by too fast, I spent too much of my time doing work, or I did absolutely nothing and it was not even fulfilling. But there is an art to stretching your day out. If you spend the whole doing things back to back it feels like your day has slipped away and you have done nothing. But if you spend your whole day doing nothing it feels like you just wasted the day. So I have discovered that the art to making your day feel fulfilled is doing just the right amount of stuff that your day feels long enough, but also successful. Yesterday was one of those days. 

To begin I went to class. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have three classes from 10:00 to 12:50, but my last class usually lets out 10-20 minutes early. My first class is Personal Evangelism, my second Preaching and Teaching, and my third is Christian Ethics.

Personal Evangelism is a class where you learned how to evangelize to others. According to my professor, "evangelism is the spirit-led communication of the gospel in such a way or ways that hearers of the 'good news' have a distinct desire to explore and perhaps accept that message of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and become responsible participants of His church." Yesterday we learned how to listen. This was so that when someone came to us and wanted to talk we could listen to the best of our ability, and counsel them in the way that they needed. We also learned our style of listening. I learned that I am a pretty good listener. My "style" or "styles" are "people oriented" and  "content oriented". People oriented listeners are those who enjoy connecting with others, people are drawn to them, and people know the person cares deeply about them. My highest, with a perfect score, was content oriented. Content oriented people focus on the content of what the person is saying, listening for key details and undertones that could help one understand the whole story. There is also "action oriented" which means that when you listen, you listen for key words that will help you make a decision. Action oriented people are usually good in emergencies. The last type is "time oriented" which means that you know exactly how much time you have, and what they need to do and when. This class period was really interesting and taught me a lot about myself and others. 

Preaching and Teaching is pretty self explanatory. It is a major requirement for me, and it is where we learn how to preach and teach material. This class intimidates me because most the people in the class have been in the church for years, and have preached a few sermons themselves. In fact, one of the students is currently a youth pastor. Yesterday, we were discussing how to write a sermon outline. In order to do so we had to come up with a proposition. A proposition is basically a formal statement on what the sermon will be about. My scripture is Matthew 6:5-14. Many of you are familiar with this passage of scripture, even if you are unaware that you are. This is where the "our Father who art in heaven" prayer example is found. This has been one of my favorite passages since the beginning of my walk in faith. In fact, my mom has shared with me that it is her favorite passage. But the part she likes is Matthew 6:5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." (NIV) I am not exactly sure why this is her favorite. My guess is because she grew up in church, and from what she has told me she has witnessed a lot of people who claim to be Christians but do not follow what they teach. The whole class period I was nervous because I kept looking down at my scripture, and I could not think of a proposition to save my life. I knew that I had to think of one because the professor said we would all have to share one. The likelihood that she would never get to me was very slim considering that there are only about 10 of us in the class, and a few of us were absent. There were three minutes left in class, and my time had come. I was honest and said, "Well, I'm not going to lie, I am struggling hard core." But then I continued, "The only thing I can think of is 'because it is the way we communicate with God we must learn how to pray'." Not only did she like it, but she had no criticism. I was only student of which she could not think of anything to change. She asked me what my three main points were and I answered nervously, "First, that we should not flaunt our prayers. Second, we should pray in private. Third, the example of prayer." Once again she had no criticism, and stated that the three points went well with the proposition. Then she said to the class, "See it's those quiet ones you have to look out for. You don't think so, but they're always thinking, and they always surprise you with the greatest things." I do not share all of this to boast about how great I am. Instead, I share it because I wanted to share with you a moment in which I doubted myself, and was fearful that I did not belong in the class, but I was proven wrong. 

In Christian Ethics our professor started out by asking us what God was doing in our lives. I felt moved to share. So I shared about how God has been working with me on fear, anger, bitterness, negative thoughts, and forgiveness. I shared that He specifically was helping me to forgive those who have hurt me and abused me. I shared that it was all God, and there is an amazing freedom when you decide to truly forgive instead of saying you do whilst still holding onto to extreme bitterness and anger. He thanked me for sharing, and later prayed for me and another girl. A few people after I spoke this other girl shared how she was wanting to follow God and forgive, but she was struggling to do so. It was cool to see how my bravery in sharing brought this girl to open up. It was a very cool experience, and I hope and pray that she could feel the same thing I did. Hope, and community amongst those in the classroom. 

I came back from class and ate lunch from Einstein's. I did not have Einstein's until this year. It was never opened when I needed it last year so I never had the opportunity. This year for some reason I thought it was cool to not go because the fact that I have never been there made me different. But eventually the girls on my hall convinced me to give it a try, and I cannot believe I refused to go for so long. It is great! Anyways, after lunch I worked on stuff and then did my work hour for Res. Life. 

Once I was done with my work hour I went into one of my resident's rooms and began to paint stuff for my hall next year. We just hung out and talked about things, which is one of my favorite things to do. 

Then I went to dinner with another one of my residents because I realized it was almost six and I had not eaten anything since lunch. For me this is unusual because I eat early when I am in Tennessee since the dinning hall closes at 6. So we went to the PCSU and ate dinner while talking. She is one of my favorite people to discuss things with. She has a very interesting view and is always willing to have an open mind to other's thoughts. We usually end up discussing books, movies, and authorship since those are three things we both really enjoy. But it's never a surface level conversation like, "Hey did you like that book?" "Yeah." But instead it's more of a "So, I really enjoyed how this author presented the story in such a way that you don't understand what is happening until the very end." "Yeah, what do you think this scene meant?" "Well I think it means this..." "Yeah, but maybe it meant this..." And so on. We got back and decided to watch a movie. When we got back she had written a quote on her board that was not grammatically correct. It was a quote from a book that she really enjoyed. At first we criticized it for its grammatical errors, but then we realized its errors gave it great beauty. That statement alone could be a sermon, just saying. We also stated that it was more poetic writing, and less grammatically correct writing. This is my favorite style of writing. The kind that goes against conforming, and writes things in a beautiful rhythm that is more in tuned with the rhythm of our soul. Then we discussed when it is appropriate to be grammatical, and when it is appropriate to be poetic. This is just how we roll. Whenever we are together we discuss deep issues and debate it back and forth just for the sake of thinking about it. 

We watched the movie, but had to pause it so we could go to Shenanigans. Shenanigans wasn't as good as it usually is, but it still made me laugh, and was a good break from my busy week. Then we came back and watched the rest of the movie, but only after we, and a few other girls on the hall, got into deep discussions about denominations, politics, and dreams. It was really great. We discussed how our generation is not so loyal to denominations and parties, but rather we are loyal to the issue and what needs to be done. We also discussed the interesting elements of dreams. We talked about good dreams and bad dreams. We talked about weird dreams, and dreams that we truly feel were from God. We even discussed a psychological technique in which one can control their dream which freaked me out. After the movie everyone went to bed. I stayed back, chilled out for a little, and then went to bed. 

It was a very fulfilling day. Do I wish I had gotten more stuff done? Yes. But do I regret my day, and think that I wasted it? No, not one bit. 

Things I have learned from today:

Sometimes it is our errors that give us great beauty. 

Listening is about sacrificing yourself, your opinion, and your time for the sake of someone else. 

Be brave and honest because you never know when what you have to say could be great or beneficial to those around you.

Sometimes putting down your schedule and getting out there can make your day feel a lot more productive.
It is less about which group you "belong" to, and it is more about the issue and what needs to be done.


Did you like what you read? Check out my other blog, "You're Killing Me Smalls"