Heather’s Blog

As I type this, I am sitting in Panera (we do not have internet at home). Panera is located in a plaza in my hometown... and I have to say that Lockport is looking pretty arctic right now. If you look across the parking lot from the door of Panera, all you see are gigantic snow piles, you cannot even see the stores. It is fun, navigating through all these maze like walls of snow. The sidewalks look as if they were chiseled out of the snow with two foot snow walls on either side. All of the news stations are calling it the "great dig" of WNY (the "w" stands for "western") there are some people who are still trying to shovel or plow out the snow in their driveways and it has been snowing since Friday.
Our God is a pretty awesome Creator, although it is probably easier for me to appreciate this because I do not have to get anywhere!) It makes me think of a lot of questions that have been raised in my life since being home. I am blessed to be surrounded by people here that continually challenge me and help me to grow in faith, and so my mind has been busy. One of the questions was raised during our church's college Bible study on Thursday nights "do you love God the Father?" it surprised me to think that people would seperate God the Trinity and have a hard time loving one part of God. The question stemmed from how people view "the God of the Old Testament" who is not just the God of the OT. So I started to try to understand why people would have a hard time loving the God they see in the Old Testament. Another question that was raised during Sunday School that I have been thinking about is what does it mean to Biblically think about the future? or is it really just our culture that tells us that we need to plan ahead several months in advance? I do not know what I will be doing after I graduate, but is that so bad? So that is another thing that I have been thinking about... and that is a snapshot into the brain of Heather from the last week.

Posted by Heather at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight as me and my room mate Kelsey played "rock, paper, scissors" over our room mate Brittany's future...
...the four of us occupants of A2 had a beautiful "season finale" moment. It was one of those moments when you realize how much has really happened in the last semester, or to stick with the tv show theme, in the last season. You see, as finals week continues to encroach upon our lives, the time to say good bye also is creeping up on us. For some of us the goodbye will only be for the time period of Christmas break, and then we will see each other again, however, others will not be returning, or in the case of our A2 apartment, possibly might not be returning. Our room mate Brittany is contemplating doing next semester in Israel... which as you might be able to guess, means that she will not be living with us. So that led to us reminiscing about the semester and discussing how much we have learned through each other. You see, "living life together" is what we did in our apartment... and it was not always easy. (Ironically, the pastor at our church preached a series title "Living Life Together" cool huh?) If you do not know me and my room mates personally, then you should now that each of us are completely different. If it was possible for there to be four opposites we might have accomplished it. So living with such different people presents some unique challenges. The awesome part about "living life together" though, is that we worked through those challenges and those hard parts, and while we didn't always like each other, we learned to love each other. That was not all that we learned though, we also learned a lot about ourselves individually. By living with people who are so different than yourself, you really cannot become them because it is so outside of your nature, so you learn to embrace who you are... which really is a beautiful thing. So not only did we have 4 very different girls, but we also had 4 very different girls embracing their own uniqueness in God and learning to embrace others uniqueness as well. Those are the things that we talked about... and in a sense... it was our season finale... but don't worry, this show is still going on! :)

I won "rock paper scissors"!

Posted by Heather at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and merc mild- God and sinners reconciled!"
Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies;
With th'angelic hosts proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethlehem."

Come, Desire of Nations come! Fix in us Thy humble home:
Rise, the woman's conq'ring seed, Bruise in us the serpent's head.
Adam's likeness now efface, Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love.

"Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" - Charles Wesley and Felix Mendelssohn

Today while I was driving in the car, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" came on over the radio (in good Christmas Spirit!). And of course, being that I have yet to grow out of the pretending to sing like a rock star phase, I started to sing along- in true rock star fashion. As I was singing though, I was thinking about the words of the song. It is one of those Christmas hymns that I always knew but never really thought that much about. So as I was thinking about the words, what they were saying really hit me, there is so much truth in them... and it is so majestic! Our God is so Awesome! and so I found that I had been refreshed through the song, and I hope that as you think about the words of it, you will be too! Merry (early) Christmas!

Posted by Heather at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I write, I am majorly procrastinating doing my homework. I am sure many of you can relate. I mean, really, its the end of the semester and being required to do things just gets old after awhile. That is part of growing up I guess, learning to do things you don't want to do... and doing them on your own. Growing up is really rather challenging. When we are young we think of all the cool things that we will do when we become "grown up". We dream of being able to stay up as late as we want (which... really isn't all that cool...), we dream of doing what we want to when we want to and never being told what we can and cannot do. Ironic isn't it? That when we get older we are probably put into more obligations than when we were children? The world now expects us to get jobs, pay bills, raise kids, pay more bills. It even tells us how to behave, it tells us of our social obligations which can sometimes be more stressful than the bills! It tells us to get married, have kids, work hard to obtain the best things that we can buy, and then buy more than what we can afford. It tells us that to be successful, we should have a certain standard of vehicle, a specific type of TV, the latest gadget for watering our lawns. It tells us to be so busy that we have no time for real relationships, that we really shouldn't even have time to make a "sit down" dinner. It tells us that enough is really actually never enough, but always seems just within our grasp "If I just get _____ then I will be content." But then we get that fill-in-the-blank and we desire a different fill-in-the-blank to make us satisfied. We are so fleeting in our desires aren't we? We want one thing and then the next... and we might even see the evils in it, but then we get sucked into it again. All those pretty buttons just look too fun to push.

"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:17

So what does this all mean in a Biblical University? Are we getting stuck in Christian consumerism? Do we keep telling ourselves that it would be perfect if we just had______. We are here to learn about the Bible and learn how to take that into professional fields... and in a world where we are called to be different, are we? The value in PBU should not be in the campus, although it is beautiful, the value is not in the quality of seating in the chapel, nor should it be about the foods that we eat in the cafeteria. It shouldn't even be about the debt that we are going into in seeking a higher education. If we are dwelling on those things... then how are we different?

We are learning to be light in a dark world... how are we living it as students?

These are just some of the thoughts that are whirling in my head, and I write them from the viewpoint of being a consumeristic christian. I write them out of my own conviction. Now how do I practically apply them?

The world places so much stress on us... God is good though, and He calls us to a high standard, a challenging one. I think that it is easy to be stressed about that alone. Today in chapel we were asked to reflect on several Bible passages, one was 1 John 5:3-5... I found it encouraging, I hope you do too :)

"This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."

Posted by Heather at 7:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I read a quote the other day, that made me think very differently about thanksgiving it says;

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."
~H.U. Westermayer

As I thought about that, it challenged me in my own life. I have a very blessed and priviledged life, no matter what goes wrong, there is always a reason to thank God, and that is true for whatever circumstance I could possibly find myself in, it can all be used to glorify God.

It is sad what Thanksgiving has become... it is really no longer about being grateful for what we have together, we so often lose sight of the reason for Thanksgiving. God has brought us so far, God has brought me so far... I should be giving thanks everyday, and rejoicing at having a day to give thanks with others. In any case, below are some pictures of what I was thankful for on Thanksgiving.

Family in and beyond the pictures :)

Shelter...

And of course... who can forget the food?

Posted by Heather at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)