Sixth.

Well, hello. 

This situation reminds me of those phone calls you get and give to friends you used to talk to all the time, got separated, then decided you should probably check and catch up with. It's awkward. It's not that you don't have anything to say. It's quite the opposite. You have so much to say, and so much has happened that you just don't know where to start. My problem is deciding what's important to tell. I know what mattered to me, but what does this person have time to hear and interest in hearing? It's unfortunate, this thing called time. 

So, now that we've established the awkward factor, we can move on. I'll tell you as much as my computer's battery allows me to. (There's something flying in my dorm room. I have no idea what it is. It might be my hope. No, it's a gnat. I should probably get that fruit out of here...)

I worked at Look Up again this summer (ALOHA!!!!) and it was fantastic and freakishly hard this year. I was surrounded by superb people and a constant nagging that I am the most arrogant, selfish, conceited, and cruel person on the face of the earth. God, man, He to' me up this summer. Or rather, burned me down like the gates of Jerusalem. He flipped some switches, put light into some corners, and reminded me of some stuff I put under that rug (I still don't know if it's Persian, so don't ask). He conveyed His immense love to me through those around me, and through one song in particular...John Mark McMillan's "How He Loves". Look it up. It'll be worth your while. Gosh I love that song.

My Father also reoriented my hope center. It's now in the restoration, the completion of our salvation and the redemption of all Creation. He has given me a book to read, Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution" which has given me hope for living like the Kingdom's already here and doing what the Church is supposed to do. Man, I am so ready for that. (Lauren Brewer, we will do this.) 

I am struggling, though, with waiting for my Father to move in certain areas that He's shown me He will move in, and wishing that every follower of the Way would actually follow the Way. We had a discussion in a class today about how many pairs of shoes we have (don't ask me why. I already need to have a talk about wise use of time with that professor). Most of the girls had more than 10 pairs of shoes. Do you need that many? No. No you don't. There are people in the Lynchburg community who can't afford one pair. You have 30. They have none. It was funny (and frustrating) to hear the shame in their voices and the excuses they used to validate their indulgence.

They know they are being wasteful. They know it's entirely silly to have that many shoes. But, we're in America. And that's what we do. We acknowledge how insanely overkill our expenditures are and do nothing to correct them. That's why poverty still exists. The Church isn't doing Its job. And I see it everyday in the superfluous entities that are Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church.

Also, I broke up with the world. It's Facebook official. 

My battery's dying (in more than one context)...