Studying on a beautiful afternoon.

It’s beautiful today.  The sun is mild and warm, there’s just a breath of a breeze, and the sky is a clear, clear blue.  There isn’t even a wisp of a cloud in the sky.  In short, it’s too beautiful to stay locked up inside … so what do you do when you have project deadlines and group members who are relying on you to do your part?

What can you do but study like this?

At least one of us is able to relax and enjoy the weather …

The Puritans declared the sanctity of all honorable work.  In so doing, they rejected a centuries-old division of callings into “sacred” and “secular” … This Puritan rejection of the dichotomy between sacred and secular work has far-reaching implications.  It judges every honorable job to be of intrinsic value, and integrates every vocation with a Christian’s spiritual life.  It makes every job consequential by regarding it as the arena for glorifying God and obeying God and for expressing love (through service) to a neighbor.
(Leland Ryken)

God help me see my studies as an arena for glorifying You.  It’s not about me being solely immersed in explicity Christ-related things or a different set of circumstances; it’s about Christ in me.

Study br eak.

MBA classes started last week, and I feel like I’m learning a foreign language, especially in my accounting class.  Most of my “colleagues” are managers or have at least a few years of experience under their belt.  I think, in lots of ways, I learn more from them than from the professor or textbook.  In all of my classes, I feel like I’m on the page of one of those children’s workbooks: “What doesn’t belong here?”  :]  But it’s been interesting (really) learning this stuff … especially in light of what’s been going on in the economy lately.
God is sovereign in all things–MBA stuff and the economy alike–and (I pray) I don’t take that fact lightly.

For the past month and a half, I think I’ve sent out about 4-5 resumes every day (except weekends).  Nonprofit organizations were my first choice in terms of where to work, but nothing was going through.  Finally, last week, I found a Human Resources job posting for City Team Ministries, a Christian nonprofit organization that does homeless ministry, youth outreach, drug and alcohol addiction recovery services, and other inner-city work.  And … I heard back from them!  My interview and “tests” are tomorrow.  But if this job goes through, I feel like it’ll be one of those, “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this!” jobs.  Neat how God works.  :]

While running today, I was listening to John Piper’s sermon from Resolved 2007 — A Passion for God’s Supremacy and Compassion for Man’s Soul.  If I had to write down all the “quotables” from this sermon, I might as well write a sermon transcript for it … but here’s a snippet from his prayer at the end:

Take these … and burn both these motives into their hearts, and if they don’t feel them right now, if they’re not rising with some measure of intensity, I pray that they would not stop their quest on their face before You, over Your word, until those motives are red-hot … “I am gone for the glory of God and for the rescuing of these people …”