II Samuel 16

"As King David came to Bahurim, a man came out of the village cursing them. It was Shimei son of Gera, from the same clan as Saul's family. He threw stones at the king and the king's officers and all the mighty warriors who surrounded him. "Get out of here, you murderer, you scoundrel!" he shouted at David. "The Lord is paying you back fro all the bloddshed in Saul's clan. You stole his throne, and now the Lord has given it to your son Absalom. At last you will taste some of your own medicine, for you are a murderer!"

"Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?" Abishai son of Zeruiah demanded. "Let me go over and cut off his head!"

"No!" the king said. "Who asked your opinion, you sons of Zeruiah! If the LORD has told him to curse me, who are you to stop him?""


I read this passage last night and was thinking about it as I fell asleep. I tried to put myself in King David's position. He had not long ago been the king of all Isreal, one of the wealthiest men in the world, and in close personal communication with God. Within a few days he lost his kingdom to a revolt by his own son, and was left fleeing his palace. Talk about things going badly for him.

Typically, when things start going badly is when I start getting grumpy and a little short-tempered. The last thing I would want is for some random guy to start yelling insults at me and hitting me with stones. If I had it within my power to strike back at him, I think I most definitely would. However, David responds completely differently. His follower wanted to go kill the man, but David prevented it saying "...If the LORD has told him to curse me, who are you to stop him?" After losing his kingdom, his family, his wealth, and everything else he had in this life, David still had the wisdom and composure to not take revenge. He still held on to the fact that God was in control, and he was completely satisfied with that.

This story really challenged me. I'd like to be like David in this story: when life is completely falling apart around me, and someone is cursing me and hitting me with rocks, I hope I have enough faith in God to be content knowing that He is in control.

Busy semester, but almost done

This semester has been much busier than I thought. I've studied much harder and longer than my last two semesters, but I'm pretty sure my GPA won't be as good. I guess my classes are just that much harder than last year, which probably shouldn't surprise me. Apart from classes though, it's been a great semester. I've gone to the rec center and worked out more, and feel like I'm blessed with many great friends.
Finals week starts tomorrow, so I can't write much, but I wanted to at least update this site once before this semester ended. Hopefully next semester won't be quite as busy, and I'll have more time to put some thoughts on here. I've found a new book to read through, called "The Cost of Discipleship", so that should provide some food for thought. Maybe I'll have time to write some stuff on here about what I think of it.
Well, that's all for now, but hopefully new posts from me will start appearing much more regularly.

"What makes America the indispensable power...is precisely what makes anti-Americanism inevitable.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/david_aaronovitch/article4374704.ece

Very, very interesting post about America and anti-Americanism. Definitely worth a thoughtful read.

Introduction

I've always kinda thought of myself as the last person that would ever want to get a blog. I almost never read blogs, and I've always said that the only people that have lives that are interesting enough to make good blogs are always out doing cool stuff instead of blogging. However, I've come to realize that maybe the value of blogs/journals isn't in how many people read them, but in the process of putting your thoughts into words. That is my plan for this blog. I don't expect, or even hope, that many people will read it, but I'm pretty sure that I will benefit from the extra thinking I will do as I write these. And who knows, maybe I'll never really have enough time for this? We'll see.

For starters, I would like to write about my daily Bible reading. I've been trying to read my Bible every day for many years now, and it's very difficult for me to stay consistent. I have also realized that I get much more out of it if I journal about my thoughts after I read it. Hopefully posting on here will help me in both regards.

I am also guessing that I will probably post about random thoughts I have. Maybe I'll write about books I read, movies I watch, things I see on the news, my college studies, or my work experience. Whatever happens, at least I'll have a place to come and write down my thoughts if I so desire.