Dancing With The Dinosaur

It's that time of the week again! I hope everyone is doing well. I myself am doing pretty well. This past week was pretty chill aside from the 10k that we ran on Monday in the snow, ice, and mud. My time was 01h:17m:17s. Which was only about 20 minutes off the fastest time. I finished strong in 17th out of 40 people. Not bad for my first 10k, not to mention in the elevation and weather conditions. I started to race with some pump up music on. After a strong start out of the gate I realized I would not even be able to hold my conservative pace. I started to fall back in place. So once the competitor inside me became okay with a finish outside the top 10 (which I already knew was a long shot) I settled down to a slower pace, turned on my Steven Curtis Chapman playlist and just enjoyed the race and being outside.

before

I find it weird that I can say that because I do not enjoy running just to run. I don't get it at all. Give me a ball to run with, or my Paintball gun and I could go all day. But just running for the sake of running especially when I know that my finish will not be a medal spot... no thanks. So instead of have a poor attitude about it, I kept thinking of 1st Corinthians 9:24 "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize". It is hard to keep that mindset when you know you will not win the prize. But we are called to, regardless of what the outcome of the race is going to be.
I love competition, especially in sports I love to play and for that matter life. But when it is something I don't necessarily enjoy doing or I see that I will not finish very well in. I can tend to do it halfheartedly. That is not often though because I do not usually compete in something  I do not like, But it will show when I have to do it. So that to say, I was very surprised to have such a positive outlook on it.

after

So what in turn happened was I basically had a worship session while running. Just thanking the Lord that I was able to run in the cold and nasty conditions. Strange huh? Well it happened. I think we often don't translate that attitude to our daily lives. Instead we live halfheartedly in what we do, when we should be thankful to just be able to do them and run the race as to win it!

We had another week of in house teachers for our classes. The majority of the classes this week were by Dan Thomas and he taught on mainly king Saul and the transition to king David. We focused on how at the start of Saul's kingship he did as he was commanded and followed the lords command. But as time went on Saul became more concerned with what and how things were being done, instead of why. Saul tried to justify his means with the end. But God is more concerned with obedience than sacrifice. The main story of Saul we can see this in is when  in 1st Samuel 13 starting in v5, he decides that he has waited long enough for Samuel and takes things into his own hands.
     
⁵ Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty^[b] thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth Aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. ⁷ And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. ⁸ Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. ⁹ So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. ¹⁰ Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.
¹¹ And Samuel said, “What have you done?”
Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, ¹² then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”
¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

When reading that you cold say "well he had no other choice". But the fact is Saul knew the rules, and that he was commanded to wait. We see also in chapter 15 where he is commanded to kill and destroy the Amalekites and all of their livestock. But they took some people alive and took the best of the animals for a sacrifice to God. Even though Saul's and the Israelite's intentions were good, they managed to forget one small detail. GOD SAID KILL EM ALL! That was to be the sacrifice. Yet instead of doing as instructed he chose to do it his own way and it cost him and his family the kingdom.

I will not go into to it to much but if you look at Gen 49:8-10.
 

⁸ “Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
    your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father's sons shall bow down before you.
⁹ Judah is a lion's cub;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
    and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;^[a]
    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

  
You can see where Abraham says that Judah will rule over his brothers. Yet we see God say that Saul's kingdom would have lasted forever.  I will let you think on that one and how the Lord could have worked through that.

We were down again at the coffee hour this past Friday.  Sadly I did not run into my friend Muhammad. Midterms for a lot of classes down there are going on right now so I believe that is why I did not see him. However I did get to chat for a bit with my friend Ivan. Who was raised in a Christian home but has now decided on Atheism. Just trying to build a friendship and show the love of Christ through being a friend and good influence. 

My weekend has been really good with the Gators trouncing Vandy yesterday and going for a sweet Longboard ride this afternoon with some friends and being able to play guitar a FVB tonight. It is supposed to snow pretty much all week, I am ready for it to come! I bought a pretty sick board so I'm ready to try it out and shred!


 Something I have been thinking a lot about this week is the attitude of some us students (myself included) towards some of the rules here. In our eyes some of them may seem kind of stupid and unnecessary but they have a purpose and we signed our names down that we would follow them. We may not like being addressed for one that we don't agree with or think is stupid. We may not like how it is handled. But the fact is we said we would abide by them. So along with that and just how we live our daily lives these words kept coming to mind.

Once upon a time not so long ago in a land not so far away
Right and wrong were not quite so hard to know
And black and white were not so gray
Times have changed and now it seems
Conscience has gone the way of the dinosaur
But I believe it's still alive and well today
In the hearts of those who will stand up and say

I'm dancing with the dinosaur
Living my life with conscience and conviction
I don't want to see the truth ignored
So I've gotta keep on dancing
I've gotta keep on dancing with the dinosaur

 I guess that comes to mind for me because when I signed my name. It was me saying I commit to this and what it is those above me will do when these rules are broken. I gave my word, and when I decide to spout my disagreement in a condescending way it is just as bad as me going back on my word. So I was a bit convicted of that and a bit discouraged when others around me did the same. Because we should live by our word, with conscious and conviction in the things we say and do. Weather it is with a rule we disagree with, or the way we respond when we've been wronged, or our actions to someone else. Also in thinking of how Saul was more concerned with going through the motions instead of making sure the heart was right.

It is about 5 weeks till I come home. I'll tell ya I am ready for a visit back. I miss my family, my friends, my job, my truck, and my country music. Not that I don't like it out here but there is no place like the South and no place like home.

Till Next Time
Love Jared