Meine Klein Welt

Schmerzen

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painSchmerz is a very good word to know in German. It means pain. So if you are ever hurting, you can just say "Ich habe ein Schmerz" and point to where it hurts. Right now I could point to pretty much anywhere below my waist.

I am glad I had the foresight to take today off from school. Besides the fact that I am exhausted, I can barely walk from my bed to the bathroom to the couch today. I am dreading the staff appreciation dinner tonight for the sole reason that I will have to go up and down stairs.

The marathon was a good experience, I think. I'll write more about the marathon soon, when I regain better control of my physical and mental capacities. I will say that I finished just over 3.5 hours, maintaining my pace goal of 8 minute miles(5 min/km).

I am going to go soak my aching muscles now.

On Marathon’s Eve

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running
So it's the day before the big race, and I must admit I am a bit nervous. Missing a month of training due to injury right in the middle of my training program has me a bit apprehensive and frustrated. Apprehensive because I haven't gotten in as many long runs as I wanted and I pushed myself pretty hard coming off an injury, which usually isn't a good idea. And I'm definitely feeling it.  Frustrated because after 4 months of training I know that I won't be at my best. The gaping hole in my training program has opened a hole as wide in my confidence.

Some of this I know is just pre-race jitters that will shake off with the starting gun. The rush of the race will shift me into running gear and the battle will begin. The battle against my adrenaline and my instinct to start quickly. Setting and maintaining a steady pace aimed at my goal time. Trying to scale the wall, and wondering where exactly it is.

It'll be good to have Mike and Lance to pace with and some crowd of people from school cheering us on from the sidelines. It'll also be good to know that I have people praying for me and cheering me on back in the States.

Ready…Set…Go! 

Gladness

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Gladness Toast
This past Sunday, one of the Psalms read was Psalm 4. Well this one was kind of sung actually, but that's another story.

A few of the verses really hit home with me:

5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the LORD.
6 Many are saying, "Who will show us any good?" Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O LORD!
7 You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound.

I find that too often I am stressed out about finances, especially recently. Starting a grad program this summer is sinking me further in debt and sometimes I wonder what I'm doing. Trying to live a normal life on a shoestring budget is often exhausting and I just get tired of cutting corners on everything. And with the dollar's recent downward trend, I have even more corners to cut.

I'm almost 28 years old. I have no savings, no retirement plan, student loans leftover from undergrad, nothing to fall back on. My mom bugs me about not getting married, but I think, how could I possibly support a family when I can barely provide for myself? Anytime I want to do something like travel or pay the registration fee for softball, I am relegated to eating mostly peanut butter sandwiches for a few months.

But then I read this Psalm, and I know that I need to be more diligent about trusting in the Lord. But more than that, verse 7. The joy that God puts in my heart is greater than the joy of having plenty. Think about that for a second. How much of our lives revolves around acquiring money? How much do you worry about it? Isn't it odd that it never seems to matter exactly how much money you make either? It could be $20,000/year or $100,000/year. Either way you're still worrying about how to make ends meet.

So really I should be seeking God and the joy He brings instead of worrying about the future and how I'm going to pay for it. Being content with what I have and being anxious for nothing is the key to joy, so why is it that I so crave the comfort of a stable income?

God has never let me go hungry. He has always provided my every need, but often instead of using that as evidence to trust Him I find that my doubt persists. I think my doubt persists because I know that I am unable to meet my needs, and that is a bit of a scary place to be. Either God comes through or He doesn't, and if He doesn't I'm living on the street. The thing is though, He always comes through. So I should just get used to expecting that.

Sounds simple, right?

Seven Brides…

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Last night I attended our school's rendition of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and found it very educational. I'd never seen the musical before, so I'm sure I have a pretty skewed view of the actual play. Not that I think that's a bad thing. I mean, among the seven brothers we had 2 Americans, 1 American/Austrian, 1 British/Austrian, 1 Nigerian, 1 Indian, and 1 Korean. And the lead actress is from Australia. It makes things kind of fun and different. You wouldn't see that happen on Broadway.

Also, a few years back we did a rendition of Oklahoma!, and it was amusing to have a Japanese Jud Frye.

Besides being entertaining, I found the musical to be very informative. I know all I need to know about picking up women now. Who needs to spend so much time "courting" anyway? As far as I'm concerned, all I need is a large blanket and a dinner bell and I'm all set to begin my life as a married man.

Also entertaining is getting the rumor mill rolling again. A girl from church came with me to the performance and so most of the school either thinks I'm married, engaged, dating, or some combination of those three. None of those things are true, mind you, and I think it's kind of funny how excited people seem to be about it. It's certainly fun to stir things up a little bit.