...

tomorow at 10:00 I have a playing test for Principal Instrument class.

Everything I learned all semester smushed into 15 minutes.

It is worth 100% of my mark for the semester.

I am being crushed.

Feelin the Love

hey everybody.

I just wanted to say thanks a billion for your good wishes and blessings that you gave me yesterday on my birthday. I felt incredibly loved and I just want to thank you guys for making it super special even though I didn't do anything.

here is what made it special:

Morning. Wake up, feel old, tired
Drive to school. Dan is not with me, It's to bad, cause I like him.
Get to school. Read 1 Timothy again. My God is really flipping awesome.
James and Ashley sneak up on me and suprise me with a super huge card. Thanks guys, I will cherish it forever. Blueberry fritter.
2 texts from Scott. Happy Birthday. Exodus 15:2.
1 text from girlfriend. Happy Birthday. Love.
Class. Finished ear lab for the year.
practice, piano lesson, practice.
Blueberry fritter again, because James is awesome.
class. Beer Store. Heineken, Carlsburg. 12. (such is the case when one is 19)
Lecture from beer store employee about responsible driving, and living past 19. Happy Birthday!
Home, hugs from mom, sister. Family leaves for catechism, crack open beer, Girlfriend came.
Hang out.
Family comes home! Peter and Candice come over.
Presents, hanging out.
Ben called! Happy Birthday. The worse it sounds the greater the love!
Goodbye Peter & Candice, Girlfriend. Love you!
sleep. Oh blissful sleep.

to sum it up, it was a pretty rock awesome birthday, thanks everybody, you are all awesome.

peace & love

Ryan

The Drunken Tormentor!

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Politik

You are about to discover that the title of this post has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual post.

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It has been a while since I posted. It has been a bit of a crazy week so far. Full to the brim. Overflowing. Stressful, to say the least.

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On Monday night I went to the chiropractor for the very first time ever. I probably never would have gone, but I am only under my dad's health benefits for a few more years, so I figured I would suck as much out of them as possible.

I find it interesting that at 5:30 on Monday evening I thought my back was completely ok, and by 6:30 the same evening I would find out that all but two of the vertebrae in my back are not where they are supposed to be. Because of this, my left leg is 1/2 inch longer than the other!

I am not saying this because I want sympathy, or even so that you think I am cool. (yeah, Ryan, he has a pretty messed up back...he must be in constant pain...what a trooper...) It's just that I find it interesting that the diagnostic process can create a problem that unless I had gone to the chiropractor I never would have known or cared about. It has suddenly become necassary to fix it. I'm not complaining...I rather like the chiroproctor, it's very relaxing.

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Is it just me or are the skirts getting shorter as the weather gets colder? It's digusting. Put some freakin clothes on...it's 2 degrees outside.

I'm beginning to think that 90% of the girls in this school are intent on showing more of their body to the whole world than your average prostitute.

I am getting tired of staring at walls.

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Awesome thing that happened today: My dad made me lunch! Oh the delight of a ham & cheese sandwich! Thanks pops.

reflections on...

I am in denial.

I am in denial of the fact that today is Thursday and tomorow is Friday.

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Isn't it strange how I can convince myself that something is a good idea and yet still know deep down that it is a bad idea?
I didn't read my Bible this morning. I rationalized this obviously stupid thing to do by saying that I would do it at school after class...knowing that I wouldn't feel like doing it after class and that I had other things to do.

Although this is obviously of lesser importance, for the last 3 months I have not brought a lunch to school. Every day at school I decide that I will make myself a lunch for the next day when I get home. But somehow I never do it. When I get home, I dont' feel like it, so I reason with myself by telling myself that I don't really get that hungry at school, and that I will be fine without it. This happens every single day.

At this very moment I should be practicing guitar for my lesson tomorow, but I am not. I decided to come and check my email in the lounge, telling myself that I will practice when I get home, knowing full well that I won't.

And yet somehow I find it so completely ridiculous that people deny that there is a God and live sinful lives, regardless of the consequences that are impossible to miss. It's just human nature to do that.

Everyone knows that all actions have consequences. We learn that from an early age. But it is human nature to rationalize our way out of those consequences to get instant gratification. I don't think anyone thinks they can truly get away from those consequences. They are just in denial.

It makes me glad that God gives me a good smack in the back of the head every once in a while.

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2 Timothy 2:11-12 This is a faithful saying: For is we died with Him, we shall also live with Hum. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.

I love this verse because it doesn't place greater importance on any of those things. They are a set of facts.
I love how God doesn't take any crap. You are either with or against. There is no middle ground.

The passage goes on to say in verse 13: If we are faithless, He remains faithful: He cannot deny Himself.

I love the distinction between denying in verse 12 and faithless in verse 13. God will remain faithful to us in times of weakness, in our doubt, when we stumble. But if we do not humble ourselves before Him and heed His call, He will deny us.

Early in the chapter in verse 3: You therfore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

May God give you strength to endure hardship, no to embrace that hardship for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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I think that if I was a minister, people would hate me for being really long-winded.

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Awesome thing that happened today: I rediscoverd my love for Radiohead's Kid A. I never noticed that harp at the end of Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Dear Scott

Dear Scott:

I like you. I think you are the greatest. Every time I see you, I get really excited to do stuff. I don't see you that often, but I wish I could. Come to think of it, I don't even know if you read my blog. Oh well, this will be fun anyway.
You have an amazing way of encouraging me to live my faith. You are a great leader. You are so cool that I must organize my thoughts of you in a numbered list so as not to get anything confused.

1. you are a great prayer walk buddy.
2. your endless supply of energy is encouraging and uplifting.
3. you have an awesome love for God.
4. OTHERS
5. you have sweet ideas for t-shirts.
6. you always make me think.
7. you are a great hugger.
8. you have awesome taste in music.
9. you sing your heart out.
10. you are the best picture colourer i have ever met.
11. you have good ideas for how to put our FAITH into ACTION (FIA)
12. you wear tight pants.
13. your hair is mussy.
14. you are super funny.
15. you are a good listener
16. you have a super cool car, and you even let me dance on your other super cool car.
17. you have over 16 cool personality traits.
18. you get your strength from God.


Thank you for being an awesome friend, for talking to me and listening to me, and being open minded, and encouraging me.
I hope I can be as good a friend to you as you are to me.

God be with you, Brother.

Ryan


p.s. this post was inspired by Scott and another cool guy named Ben. Everyone should give Ben hugs.

battleship sunk, yet for some unexplained reason remains afloat.

Y'know that feeling that you get when you right a mid-term and you thought you did pretty good and then you get the marks back and you really kinda bombed it?
I am experiencing that right now. I have been for the whole day. Mostly because I just got the marks back for an exam that I thought I did pretty good on and it turns out that I really kinda bombed it.

On my theory exam there was a big, fat, ugly, 18/29. Losely translated that is 62%.

Sigh.

Study Hard.


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I listened to Sufjan Stevens' "Enjoy Your Rabbit" album today.
Sufjan Stevens rocks my world.


Where am I going?

Great is His faithfulness.

Cassy texted me this today: "The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as Holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread, and He will be a Sanctuary." Isaiah 8:13-14a

It hit me because when we fear God, when we dread His condemnation, that is exactly when he is our refuge. Crazy because human instinct is to run away from things that we fear...and awesome because of the same reason.

I like my girlfriend, she is a rock.

the weekend from heaven

allow me to summarize:

Birthday Party.
Prayer, joyful noises. Good times with friends, goodbyes.

Breaky. For free.
Helped spread the Love. Lost self, gained world.
Others.
Family. Games and laughter.
Ben. Becky. Demons do not scare me. Bible study. (thank you Ben)

Ben.
Church. Lunch, Church.
Goodbye Ben!
laughs, love, Bible Study. Love.
sleep.

Things that I learned: To have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ, one must use His strength. Hide it under a bushel? No, let your light shine. The smallest words can change a life.
Sharing the strength of God makes me stronger.

Do not let others look down on you because you are young.

" Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And try me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," says the Lord of hosts; "And all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," Says the Lord of hosts. - Malachi 3:10-12

thank you, girlfriend.

Awesome thing that happened today: I got 100% on my ear training mid term.

organ transplants

I've been thinking alot about music in the church and why people are so stuck in the "organ and nothing else" rut. Is there really something wrong with other instruments? Why is it so important to so many people?
Well, I'm not actually going to answer those questions. I have uncovered a rather interesting tidbit of info, however.
Now, I am sure that you all have heard the argument that drums are evil because they originated in pagan rituals where they were used to drive people into a state of frenzy. It's a pretty weak argument, because I am pretty sure drums and rythmn have been around for alot longer than pagan rituals. I am pretty sure that at some point, drums were used to worship the devil. They probably still are. But has anyone looked at where the organ came from?


If you guessed ancient Rome, then you guessed right. We are talking origins being traced back to 800 B.C. In fact, if you look here, there is some pretty convincing evidence that the organ, in one of it's earliest forms, was used "in the competitions that characterized both Greek and Roman cultural life. Its use as an instrument for solo performance, as well as for providing accompaniments to other games and even combat is well-documented. As the largest, most highly developed - - even the most complicated musical instrument in use, the hydraulis held a position in the ancient world that the organ would maintain in modern times even to the end of the twentieth century."

I realize I am making assumptions here, but when I hear "Roman cultural life" and "games", I think of Christians being ripped apart by wild animals.

It could be true, it could not be true; we probably won't ever know. I think it is at least as convincing as the "pagan drums" argument.

Awesome thing that happened today: Principal Instrument class made sense.

Ryan Needs...

Ryan Needs: Jesus Christ

everybody is doing it...

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