parallel tracks

as the short break between winter semester and  spring term continues, i have pushed myself to read more and more. right now i'm still reading C.S Lewis' Mere Christianity which has been quite the adventure.  it's somewhat strange reading a book on theology written by a non-LDS author (although his books have practically been quoted enough in general conference to be added to canonized scripture).  today i read a paragraph that was very interesting, and although i've heard it quoted before by LDS authorities i would like to quote it here again because it makes a great point as to what living the gospel is really all about. 

     "Christ says, 'Give me all.  i don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much or your work: I want you.  I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.  no half-measures are any good.  i don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, i want to have the whole tree down.  i don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked- the whole outfit.  i will give you a new self instead. in fact i will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'"

C.S. Lewis, although he belonged to the church of england, was a pretty smart guy.  and though he didn't have the fullness of the gospel, he understood it very well.  reading this book has been great and i highly recommend it to anyone.  only one disclaimer to those who might venture the effort.  make sure that you understand the LDS gospel well before because his book will make more sense and there are parts of his book that, although good analogies or interesting doctrines, run parallel to the true revealed gospel.  i use the word "parallel" because it is close to the truth and it's going in the right direction but slightly off, like train tracks running close to each other are not the same, but lead ultimately to the same destination.  try it for yourself, i recommend it.

a day with C.S. Lewis

today is the first day in months that really, i've had nothing to do.  no papers, no assignments, no reading or physiology labs to make up....nothing!  in celebration of this awesome yet somewhat awkward day, i've decided to dedicate it to reading the books that i've wanted to read for sometime now but hadn't gotten the chance to.  today's book is Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  the goal is to finish it before tuesday class gives me a headache with organic chemistry. 

did we skip spring?

yesterday, Bryce and I drove up to Salt Lake City to buy our season tickets and watch the Bee's play baseball (the great american sport) only to be disappointed with rain.  the weather report gave us a 30% chance of rainfall, but soon after driving up, not only was it raining, but it was pouring cats an dogs.  we were still able to buy the season tickets, but the game was rescheduled for the next day (today).   to my wonderful surprise it continued to rain through the night, into the next morning and then wonderfully it began to snow.  it's now mid april and it's not only snowing, but it's really coming down hard.  i think i remember there being a scripture in Isaiah that says something about the weather in the last days would be so weird that you would only be able to tell the seasons by the leaves on the trees.  perhaps i'm mistaken about the scripture, or perhaps someone more knowledgeable than i can correct me or give me the reference, but one thing that i'm not mistaken about is that the weather sucks, baseball has been delayed, golf season hasn't started yet and summer term is about to start despite the snow falling all around. where is spring?

dating: the new extreme sport

Today i walked home from Cori Hoffman from crown 4.  we talked about why dating at BYU is an extreme sport.  people, after going on a first date with a girl or boy (although more girls tend to do this than boys) start praying about whether "it" is right.  why cant people just date in a really relaxed way? have all the mormons lost their minds?  just get to know each other, settle down, and quit worrying if this person is "the one." some people have a very mistaken view as to whether we have "soul mates"  (or from an LDS perspective, a "foreordained" companion).  when it gets serious and you're deciding if you should get married to the person, than bring your decision to the lord through prayer.  why people want to jump the gun and make dating such an intense process approaching that of an extreme sport is why dating at BYU sucks. 

education...i'm confused

in trying to decide what i need to be taking, as far as future classes go, i have to say that the decisions are confusing.  i know all the classes that i'm suppose to take but how i want to organize them, how many each semester, and which ones first is getting hard to decide.  i wish i could just be a genius and have this all over with.

are you like me?

have you ever been frustrated with yourself for not putting your best foot forward, or for giving a half-assed effort in something?  perhaps some of you are thinking about your hometeaching record (i know my ward is), or perhaps your looking at your grades for this semester and can answer in the affirmative.  i know that one of my roommates will probably feel that way when he gets his report card (do we even get report cards???).  well, regardless, i know that in my biology 120 class, which by the way is not a hard class, i didn't put forth the effort needed to get an A when it probably would have been easy.  instead i'm going to walk away with a B.  now i know that a B isn't horrible, but it's not the B that i'm frustrated with-  it's the effort i put towards the class.  i didn't learn a thing in the class and it's because i didn't want to and i didn't realize that it was so important until now.  so for all of you that read this.....(consisting of bryce and ollie, which means that i'm preaching to the choir), DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT IN ANYTHING! i'm now going to have to work even harder if i want to get into a medical school because a B isn't going to cut it when it comes to my science GPA.