Greetings from East Tenneessee

Durn it's been a long time since I updated this thing. Of course it's not like a message to the world, despite the fact that it's available to the whole world, so I realize the vast majority of the world is little concerned about what and when I blog. Of course, the fact the the entire world could read this is they wanted to does bring a little consolation.

All that aside, I've had an interesting day. It's an interesting feeling to take a day to decide what to do with the rest of your life. I realize choosing a college isn't generally considered a life-bearing decision, but in reality it's like setting off a infinite line of upright dominoes (I really don't think that's spelled right, but I had to agree with the Spell Checker or put up with the obnoxious red underline). Choosing one college over another potentially sets the course of your entire life. Think if the people you will meet in the first semester, even the first week. Actually, think back to the first day of the school/job you're currently in. Think of your friends, the times you've had with them, your experiences together, decisions you had made because of them.

Now imagine that you had chosen to work at Wal-Mart instead of McDonalds (though I'm not sure which is better), of chosen different classes, or a different college. You'd have never met many of the people now in your life. Of course, there really is no way to know what lies down either line of dominoes you choose to topple.

For those who are followers of Jesus Christ, this is why prayer is so vital to these decisions. I mean honestly, what wisdom to we have to make such a decision compared to that of an infinite God who knows every nuance of the future, knows us better than we do, every nook and cranny of our hearts. If we claim to be His followers, should that decision not be under His guidance? Now this does bring a new twist into the decision. What does God want for me? I have fretted, and worried, and stayed up all hours of the night (an extra 30 minutes in reality) trying to answer this question. How do I KNOW it's the right choice? God doesn't usually send neon signs (or talking donkeys) to tell us what we need to do. So after all the mental wrestling matches, I ran across a cool section of verses in Proverbs 16.
1 The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight,
But the LORD weighs the motives.
3 Commit your works to the LORD
And your plans will be established.
Verse 3 especially caught my eye. To translate, it says that if all we do in our lives is all about Christ, our thoughts, actions, etc., then His plans for us will fall into place. We'll make the right choices because we are already living for Him. Of course the challenge in that is to live for Him in the rest of our lives. That's what makes knowing Christ more than just a religion. It's one-on-one; it's personal. It's walking with Him, not just paying homage to a being that we can't know or doesn't exist. Pretty cool, eh?

So to get back to what's been going on, I checked out Belmont University in Nashville today for the second time. It's given me more of a peace about it to go again and look it all over by myself, just to think and soak it all in and see myself there. So unless God leads me elsewhere, I believe that's where I'll be going in the fall. I met two folks from Massachusetts who were very informative about my major, and enjoyable to talk to. I had no idea there was a soul up there who was politically conservative, but I guess I was proven wrong. The best things about the college are that it has 93% wi-fi coverage, has the tallest rock climbing wall in Tennessee, and the food is awesome. If only I didn't have to deal with the bells ringing out every hour...