I think this picture speaks for itself.

Some random thoughts on patience

In preparation for my Sunday school class next year I have started to meditate on different aspects of love. Here are some thoughts on patience.

Patience is not merely waiting—it is waiting in surrender. Why do they call hospitalized individuals patients? Because they must wait on the doctor with faith, trusting and believing that he knows what he is doing. Doctors may be fallible, but our God is not. We can trust that God (and only God) has everything under control which gives us the ability to endure every situation and moment that confronts us with quiet forbearance. We cannot come to a place of absolute trust that allows perfect patience in any other place than in our relationship with God, as everything in this world is fallible. If we want to learn to be patient, we must first learn to trust in God. When our trust is founded on the Rock of Ages, we can endure every test, trial, and disappointment in life. If someone lets us down yet again, let us remember that our trust lies in God and that we can trust Him in the lives of others as well as our own.

Likewise, our hope must also be founded in God, whether dealing with ourselves or others. When our hope is founded on the God who has the power to build us up, we are given the strength to endure our own failings and our own seemingly slow progress as well as the failings and slow progress of others. Patience involves contentment in every situation—contentment and peace.

It means that we must accept whatever trial or test comes our way—it also means that we must accept each other and ourselves in spite of (and including) our shortcomings. This does not mean that we are enabling others to remain the way they are, nor does it mean that we are growing stagnant and complacent with where we are in our own walk. Acceptance is an acknowledgement of unconditional love—it is saying that I accept you for who you are at this moment, and it is also saying that I accept myself for who I am at this moment. (Who am I to reject something that God himself has accepted and loves unconditionally?) It is an acceptance of where God has us in our walks at this time, but it is also an acknowledgement of our ability to grow. Without a patient acceptance from both others and ourselves, our perception of God’s acceptance and unconditional, patient love is hindered and our maturation is stinted.

Love bears with others, meaning we are meant to come alongside others and share their load, but it does not involve control in any way—love involves instead the patient surrender to the will, timing, and methods of God. Only in God can we truly love those around us.

!

[zZzZz]

-.-

-.o ... 6:00

-.-

-.o ... 6:05

=/

rustlerustlerustle

=)

scribblescribblescribble

=D

*silence*

=D!!!

*nomnomnomnom*smack*nomnomnom*

o.0... 7:30

and then I worked till now. Going back out soon, have a nice one folks!

=)

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. A longing fulfilled is sweet to the souls, but fools detest turning from evil. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God. Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. (Proverbs 13:12, 19 & Psalm 42:5, 62:5)

God is faithful... so faithful, in fact, that he will always do what is best for us, no matter how much we pout and mope. Thank Goodness.

Recently it seems that everything that I had put my hope in has been removed from my grasp, so that at times I felt akin to Tantalus. I sank into a state of apathy and depression, making a Jonaesque show out of being frustrated with God. I knew I was being silly, but even though I know God has a plan to prosper me, I wanted to dwell on negative feelings. Enough of that.

I decided today to stir from the state of complete torpor I have been in for the last week. As a result, I decided to have a birthday party this Saturday... if you read this, you are invited.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135331696487361&index=1

Hope that works...

443-617-3011

followerdvidb@yahoo.com

Hello!

• Stopped at a thrift store and a library booksale today and got 37 (I think) books for $5, plus the Encyclopedia of World Literature for another $5, which re-initiates the trouble I have been having finding shelf space for all my books. It takes a lot of shelf to hold 510 books... It is fun.

• We've been working on run-in sheds for our horses for the last few weeks... That has consumed most of my time 6 days a week. They are looking great. Well, the one that we have been working on does, anyway.

• Tomorrow is my last week teaching Sunday School. =/. It has been fun and challenging--I am looking forward to doing it again sometime in the future.

• I cannot find my book, The Idiot, or my water bottle. I suspect that they have conspired together to deprive me and have concealed themselves. I hope to find them soon.

• God is awesome! He's been doing great things--always has been faithful, always will be!

Summa Cum Laude

So I just graduated from Towson University with a GPA of 3.858, which was enough to get the honor of Summa Cum Laude and enough to surpass my HCC GPA of 3.79. I did this in spite of the plus/minus grading system in which you usually need above a 93 in a class to get an A. A=4.0, A-=3.67, B+ =3.33, B=3.0 and so on, making it almost impossible to maintain a perfect 4.0. My tally was 13 As, 7 A-s, and one B+, which means that had I been at Harford still, the overall GPA would have been about 3.95. Bummer--BUT, I am happy that I was able to do as well as I did given the circumstances. God has been working in me and growing me every semester, helping me all along the way... I could not have done it without Him. It is neat seeing how much I have grown since I transferred. Now, I am in a celebratory mood...I am so glad it is over!!!

Now what...

Yay!

I am done with school! I now have time to clean everything! So that is what I am doing today--cleaning like crazy. I will probably clean until I go to Tango class, and then come home and go to sleep. W0ot for getting to bed early! Have a great day peoples!

i (hofje$h+c

Yesterday I counted books in my room... I came up with around 480. I guess it doesn't sound like much, but 480 books take up a lot of shelf space. I might have to slow down on the collecting of books.

Monday is my last day of classes for my Bachelor's degree. I am relieved.

I am trying to think of things to do to celebrate my graduation... right now I am so burnt out I don't really have enough energy to think about it.

#+l& oek &l&h iebl&* + (hofje$h+c? E)l@ekibo oek #+l& *ed& ie dem. (ed$h+jkb+j@edi. M#+j @ m+dj&* je j&bb oek @i j#+j @ +c + h&+b f&hied b@a& oek +h&, @ #khj, %&&b +%h+@*, %&&b *&fh&ii&*, %&&b bed&bo. @id'j @j el&hm#&bc@d$ j#@da@d$ +)ekj j#& %+(j j#+j j#&h& +h& +bceij i&l&d )@bb@ed e% ki ed j#& fb+d&j?

@ m+dj je i+o j#+j @% oek +h& iec&ed& m#e #+i $ed& j#hek$# #&bb, @ +c ed& e% j#ei& m#e mekb* kd*&hij+d* +d* +c +bm+oi m@bb@d$ je j+ba eh b@ij&d. @ #+l& dej b&* + )b+c&b&ii b@%&--@, jee, #+l& (+hh@&* j#& )kh*&d e% kdc&dj@ed+)b& @d@gk@jo. Iec&j@c&i @ %&&b f&efb& *e dej i&& c& +i iec&ed& m#e #+i )&&d j#&h&. @ #+l&. @d %+(j, @ ij@bb ijhk$$b&. J#&h& @i dej#@d$ j#+j oek (ekb* i+o j#+j mekb* c+a& c& %&&b b&ii +)ekj oek. @% oek d&&* iec&ed& je j+ba je, @ +c +bm+oi ef&d.

I like squirrels.

Myers-Briggs

So I dug out the results from when I took the Myers-Briggs in 2007... The results of the test were ISFP, with the S extremely borderlined on N. I wonder how accurate that is still... a whole lot has happened in the last three years.

Today

Today I am working twelve and a half hours straight at HCC. Yay for a chance to earn more money. I am, however, very sick. I think that colds are like the demons Christ spoke of... you know, the one that has been cast out comes back to find a clean house, invites all his friends and moves back again with backup... Also reminds me of those musinex commercials, which is slightly more applicable anyways. If anyone needs help with a paper just stop by the communnication skills center today... I'll be there and will try not to breathe on you. God bless! Remember to keep Him on your mind and at the top of your list of priorities!

Sunday school

Teaching Sunday school went great.

If you are looking for more to read and are disappointed with the infrequency of Blackburn posts, check out my other blog: http://filiochtagussileadh.blogspot.com/

**Read at your own risk, and only while caffeinated**

6:30am: Alarm goes off--David wakes up and begins to blearily think about stuff.
6:35am: Alarm goes off again and David turns it off. he continues to meditate on whatever comes to mind.

6:38 David rolls over and reaches for the lamp he thumbtacked to his wall a month ago, turning it on. After rubbing the sleep from his eyes and retrieving his cellphone from the camera case also thumbtacked to his wall near his bed, he reaches for his dearly beloved Bible. A few months ago David realized that his Bible is his most valued possession, as he has been annotating and bracketizing in it for the last... seven years now. He has learned not to use yellow highlighter, as 5 or 6 years after use one can hardly see the ink. David uses pen to underline, bracketize, double bracketize, triple bracketize, quadruple bracketize, (see for example portions of psalm 139) and annotate. Seven years of personal annotation is invaluable to David... No other Bible could replace it.
6:39 David opens to psalms, reads a few, remembers he wants to read Ecclesiastes again, reads Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, smiles a lot.
7:20ish David finishes Song of Solomon, closes his Bible and takes out his prayer journal. He determines with regret that he will have to be brief.
7:45 David gets up, decides he is going to go to college in tennis shoes, shorts and t-shirt instead of his standard loafers, jeans and polo, gets dressed, lets the Dogs out, feeds the dogs, and eats two bowls of cereal.
7:59 David's last bite of cereal is interrupted blissfully by the chicken dance. David talks to Kristina for nine minutes, one second while she drives to school. Meanwhile, he brushes his teeth and manages the coalescence of all his academic material.
8:08 David finds a general and complete lackage of lunch meat, and fixes himself a peanut butter sandwich. he also fills his water bottle thingy.
8:14 David says cya to his brother, who asks if he is in a happy mood...
"no... not particularly...well, why not? sure!"
Yes, David decides, he is in a particularly happy mood.
8:15 David places his backpack in the back seat and begins his drive to Towson, listening to Shine FM the whole way to Towson Town Center parking Garage (except for when he calls Carl Otter at 8:18 and Colin Daniels at 8:37).
9:16 David arrives at Towson Town Center and parks his car. He then walks and jogs 3/4 a mile to Towson University.
9:31 David walks into Literary Research and Applied Criticism one minute late only to find half the class and the professor are not there yet. It was an interesting class... Dr Hahn examines Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" Sylvia Plath's "Daddy." David spent most of the class looking out the window, though Hahn did reveal to him some things that he hadn't noticed before. Over the years, David has now had Browning's poem in 3 classes and Plath's in 4. Yay for being an English major.
10:45 David flees the premises and heads toward the computer lab. He checks facebook, e-mail, and Blogger, and then sits in front of an empty post window for a while wondering what to write and staring out the window at the construction that has been going on for a few years. He then gets the random urge to blog about his day, starting when the alarm went off. He proceeds to write and does not stop until
12:15 A lab attendant comes up and taps David on the shoulder.
"We are going to be closing for a class at 12:30"
"Ok"
David's class has a test then anyways.
12:28 David finishes typing "8:15 David places his backpack in the back seat and begins his drive to Towson, listening to Shine FM the whole way to Towson Town Center parking Garage," saves the blog as a draft, and heads to class.
12:40 The professor of David's Caribbean Lit/capstone class (who is chronically late due to still being on what she refers to as "island time") walks in the room and suggests holding class outside. The class troops out to sit on the grass and have their legs fall asleep on them while discussing Prospero, Caliban, and Colonialism in Shakespeare's The Tempest. (Shakespeare plays are like ladybugs... they will be found in any and every English class). David's class gets their tests back. David had been nervous about the test because he had not studied well. This is usually the case. The result: he got a 96, but after noticing that he had lost only three points, got it bumped up to a 97. Sigh.
1:45 David stretches out his legs and heads back to the computer lab, determined to finish his blog. He checks facebook, chats some with Sarah and Emma, and continues to work on the blog.
2:33 David has been cognizant for quite some time that this thing he is writing is a long blog, and may perhaps prove tedious to read. He repents for causing anyone tedium, and begins to apologize in third person. He cannot refrain from posting this product of so much writing, but has decided to put a disclaimer in the title.
2:38 David decides to call it quits.
2:39 David is trying to find an effective ending for his blog entry.
2:40 He could resort to something really lame, like "hoped you liked it," or "enjoy?" or "til' next time"
2:41 But he doesn't want to do that.
2:46 Did you know? "A micronation is an invented country, not recognized by any other. One of the most interesting is the Principality of Sealand, on an ocean platform off the coast of England. They’ve got their own currency, stamps and passports, and have argued their right for sovereignty (and lost) several times in court." http://www.mentalfloss.com/amazingfactgenerator/?p=986#scroll

Sunday school

Sunday school
Today I wrapped up the rough draft of the first lesson plan of my Sunday school series. This is totally unlike anything I have ever done before and I feel rather nervous, but I am also excited and am trusting that God will use me. I feel like the next ten weeks will be a time of growth for me as I teach the scripture every Sunday morning. The topic of the Sunday school series is "Life in the Spirit," and I am going to be spending the ten Sundays between April 11th and June 13th closely examining the scriptures with the class. In preparation for the class I read through the entire New Testament, (okay, I skimmed through the Gospels and Revelations) Psalms, and Proverbs, writing down any references that coincide with what I am speaking on any given week. For example, This Sunday we will be going through 17 different references... I figure the less I speak and the more my words come from the scripture, the better.
If anyone wants to attend the Sunday school series, it starts at 9 and goes to 10:15ish on Sunday mornings, starting this Sunday. It is held at Mount Zion UMC on the top floor in the front of the building.
I am very excited about this new thing the LORD is doing in my life.

Hello random person!

Hi! I am your personal harbinger of happiness! Today is a happy day because YOU are ALIVE! You are you, and there is no one who will say that you are not you, and I will say that you are special because you are you. Yes, I am talking to you. I want you to know that you are extremely special. Why else would you exist as a unique individual? Whenever anyone (that includes you!) tries to make you feel insignificant/unspecial/inadequate/unimportant/unloved or makes you feel like a failure/loser/lifelessbum/personalwaysdoomedtomakethesameoldmistakesoverandover/absoluteburdenonsociety/chronicprocrastinatorwhowillneverseethelightofnonprocrastination, then you just remember what God has bought you through--He is always faithful, and when you look back in your life with a careful eye, you can see that at even the darkest times He has been there growing you and making you more and more into his image. There is never an excuse to be down. Be joyfull in spirit, because the LORD has you in his hands. If the desire of your heart is to seek after him and to give him your life, no amount of undivine intervention can separate you from the love and tender care of God. Get this... not even YOU can mess God up, nor can your sin or fleshliness come between your longing heart and God. SMILE!!! HE LOVES YOU! And I do not care what you say or what anyone else says. You ARE a special, amazing, and absolutely loved and accepted child of God.