Today is the 14^th of February, and we all know what that means. Valentine’s Day! Despite the usual connotations of the day for a single man in this country (such as loneliness, depression, and perhaps more loneliness), I’ve had a nice day. My friend Phil and I conspired and got roses for a few wonderful ladies. It was a lot of fun delivering those and seeing the girl’s reactions. I really enjoyed it.

Tonight is Java Love. We’re heading out to the East Campus Union and going to listen to a few singles, a couple, and a long-time married couple talk about Godly relationships. Afterwards, there is a dance. It was mostly fun last year, although I think I skipped out on most of the dance in order to drive away with some chairs.

The following are a couple of my favorite Bible passages related to love:

1 John 4:7-12
God Is Love

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 Corinthians 13
The Way of Love

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹²For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Categories: Life, Religious
Tags: Bible, Phil, Valentine's Day

It’s really cold again today. As Phil would say, “It’s as cold as my heart.” Most of the time I don’t think he means it ;) I don’t know. I’m just not sure what’s going on today. I think I’ve fallen behind on sleep. I can tell this by the extreme pessimism drifting into my conscious thoughts and ramblings every second. So I’m going to stop talking now. Have a nice weekend. Stay inside where it’s not bitter.

Categories: Life
Tags: Louisianna, Phil

Had a good time hanging out with some friends this afternoon and evening and night. Hung out with Jenny and Tracy for dinner then we went down for some chillin’ with the Phillin’. It was fun to get to hang out and get caught up on talk and also just to joke around and laugh. So… yeah. Good times.

My brother will find out by Friday if he gets one of the jobs he applied for. He went to CSU for a semester and now he’s looking for a job.

Categories: Friends, Life
Tags: family, Jenny, Phil, Tracy

I’m at Matt’s house now. Hung out with him and Phil and Weasel till pretty late last night. Good times, good times. I got to hear some neat stories from Weasel and we were all just generally being goofy and laughing a lot. I enjoyed it immensely. I’ll be back to the dorm in a couple days now and school starts on Monday (already… blah). It’ll be nice to get all the way back and get into doing some things. If I remain in the state I’m in right now for the rest of the semester, things are gonna go well.

Hope.

Categories: Life
Tags: 4L, Phil, Weasel

Spider-Man was definitely better to watch then the football game yesterday. Alas, the Big Red has been humiliated once again. I went to Amy H.’s house to watch the game and ended up being there for about 11 hours. There was a slight break involved in running to the store to get the ingredients for dinner. Amy, Amy, Phil, Kevin, Kim, and I all ate some chili, chicken noodle soup, and cinamon rolls. Home cooking is awesome.

Today’s gone well so far, too, other then complete lack of homework getting done. Church at Zion like usual this morning and after that went over to the Lutheran Chapel for an English Conversation Partner lunch. I’ve got a Chinese conversation partner now. I didn’t actually meet him at the dinner. After the dinner, Cora, Yaling, and I went over to a building on campus where both Yaling and Dong Li have their offices. Dong Li is my conversation partner. I got to talk to him and his wife, Catherine (she’s Chinese, but this is the name she asked to be called). He’s interested in learning about God and I’m going to meet him at church again next week and hopefully be able to talk to him about Christianity and what it means. I was surprised when one of his first statements was “I want to know more about God.” Anyway, if you’d like to, please pray for Li. And that God would show me what he wants me to be saying to him.

I’m going to go work on some homework now. Latez!

Categories: Life
Tags: church, conversation partner, Dong Li, Kevin & Kim, Phil