Week 4 in Colorado...Like Whoa....

Colorado Update

I’ve now been in Colorado Springs for 4 weeks. 4 weeks that have flown by. I’m also leaving Colorado Springs in 4 weeks. Hopefully they will go by a little bit slower. :-)

I am loving life here.

Even though it’s not even the 4th of July yet, I’ve pretty much voted this the best summer yet of my life. I mean I know I’m only 20, but so far this tops it. Being at the Focus on the Family Institute has simply fostered an incredible community to learn and grow in, professors and staff that have a passion to invest, and tons of incredible things to do, see, and experience.

Alright a little week in review for ya:

Last Friday night a bunch of us girls (the boys had an organized boy bonding time thing) went to Cracker Barrel and to Barnes. Now this might not sound exciting, but for a southern girl to be able to have some sweet tea and grits is simply fabulous. And then the Barnes part was exciting because I could actually go there and not feel the weight of 150 pages of “How Now Shall We Live?” breathing down my neck. Speaking of Barnes….other great Barnes news…..

For those of y’all that know me pretty well, you know that I have a great interest in all things Dave Barnes. He wrote/performs one of my favorite songs, “Nothin’ Fancy ‘Bout the Way I Love You.” I knew God had put Jenny in my life for some great reason but I had no idea it was because she KNOWS DAVE BARNES. Yeah, my friend Jenny Peck totally went to Dave’s high school in East Tennessee. Hello!! And did I mention that as of his 24th birthday (the last time J-Peck checked in ;-) he had NEVER kissed a girl?!?!

Hello, knight inshining armor…I’m chilling in Colorado…come get me…

Saturday was an all day Women’s Retreat at this convent/convention center type thing up in the mountains. I don’t know if the nuns have this zoo-like mentality with the wildlife, but animals such as rabbits and deer were not scurred in the least bit by us humans. Yeah, it felt Garden of Edenish…And also, God taught me some really cool things about wise choices, friendship, and loving people I might not choose to love, while I was there also…this verse really hit me for the first time:

“A tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones.” Pro. 14:30

Tranquil heart. That sounds like something I definitely always want to have…

Sunday we sort of changed things up a bit, by instead of going to a church building a few of us got together in an apartment here and did our own little worship service consisting of my guitar, my friend josh’s drum, and an RC Sproul sermon on an ipod. We definitely met with God. Sproul’s sermon was on the holiness of God (which he typically talks about) and his balance between mercy and justice. A lot of times we ask for ‘justice’ but we really don’t want justice, we want mercy. If you’d like me to expound just leave a comment. This is the summary:

To understand what grace is, you must understand what justice is. To understand what justice is, you must understand what holiness is.

Profound.

Sunday night we went to Luke’s (one of the guys here) baseball game. He didn’t play at all though…so we mostly just watched random 40-year old men play baseball…and we were pretty much the only fans there…awkward…

This week in class Dr. Chris Leland discussed a couple more worldviews and then gave us sort of a ‘sending out’ challenge. Tuesday he gave us the run down on postmodernism, which was insanely interesting. Everything he talked about that was typical of a person with a ‘postmodern’ worldview was typical of my friends. Like, my friends have a postmodern view on Christianity or something…it is certainly an interesting topic…well worth it’s own post I think.

So Tuesday my dad hosted ‘Hardball with Chris Matthews’ at my church. The above pictures are from that night. For those of you who haven't met my family, my dad is the one on the far right in the picture on the left. And that's Chris Matthews interviewing Richard Land in the picture on the right. Anyway, I guess it was a special on msnbc where Chris Matthews did a 3 hour show from a church, discussing religion in politics. And can I just brag for two seconds? My dad was a total baller. Unlike other guys who do the whole debate thing, my dad was articulate and purposeful but not obnoxious or rude. Basically God gave a bunch of favor to my dad that day. I think I’ll have a tape of it, so if anyone wants to see it when we get back to school just holler. Anyway, it was quite surreal chilling in the Ogden Lounge on the campus of Focus on the Family watching my dad on national television…but it was cool. :-)

Last night some girls had a camping party…it was really just a party…but with a camping theme…I had a s’more…mmm….kind of reminded me of Charley’s :-) But mostly of bonfires….

In about 15 minutes I’m going to have dinner with some friends at the California Pizza Kitchen…yuuummmmm

Plans for the weekend: A tram ride up to the top of Pike’s Peak, maybe a renaissance festival, 7 Falls, trip to Denver, a dinner/show thing at Casa Bonita, line dancing, bar-b-que by the pool, and fireworks.

Happy Independence Day!