I never finished this entry...

Today in Social problems I was getting pretty frustrated. Frustrated with how frustrating society can be at times. We were talking about the history of "race" and how that term came to be and what purpose it serves and the whole process was a frustrating ordeal because it is used to classify people, to group them together, to label them so we can in some way control or study them. This is a frustration I have with all social sciences to some extent because we live in a society that has elevated and worshipped science, and science requires labelling and classification which are by natrue divisive. Because we worship science, this divisiveness has expanded far beyond its useful boundaries and now infiltrates our mentality and our spirituality as a culture. Think of how you label other people based on image, peers, behavior, etc. Think of how people label you.

This was frustrating because it is not meant to be this way.

This is not what it will be like in paradise.

more later...

Suck it up princess

Grr. I hate this feeling.

Right now I am sick. I am low on energy, coughing up little slimeballs, my chest and head are congested...

But that is not the feeling I hate. Being sick doesn't bother me. Its the thoughts in my head that bother me. It goes like this:

Voice A: Kaleb you are getting sick. You need to rest and slow it down.
Voice B: But thats laziness! Suck it up and keep on going.
Voice A: But it is only getting worse, rest now or crash hard later...
Voice B: Thats what YOU think. You're hardly sick at all and just dramatizing this.
Voice A: No, go to a doctor and let him reccommend whats best
Voice B: And take a perfectly good doctor away from someone else who needs him or her? Jerk! Don't make this bigger than it is
Vioce C: Why do you two always have to yell? Please stop.
Voice A: But I'm sick
Voice B: Stop being a baby and grow up
Voice A: sick
Voice B: baby
Voice A: SICK
Voice B: BABY
Voice A: SIIICK!!!!!
Vioce B: BAAAAAABBBBYYYY!!!!
Voice C: LOOOOOOOOUUUUD NOOOOIIIISESSS!!!!
Voice D: I want candy

So you see it is not so much my physical state that is sucky, its in my head, and if I could just decide if I am sick or not then I would be able to either focus on rest or focus on other things.

I do, however, want candy.

This thanksgiving weekend was unreal. Grandpa and Grandma Penner had their 50th anniversary and it was a really powerful event for me. I heard Grandpa tell of Gods goodness in bringing an evangelist by his village when he was young and taking care of the whole family because his father was taken by the communists. God first saved his soul, then God brought him out of the desolation in the Ukraine and into a life of blessing in Canada, and how he came to start a life with Grandma. I heard Grandma tell how in an instant God changed her plans of being a missionary to being a wife and mother. All the cousins got up and sang some of Grandpas favorite songs, and at one point I could not even sing anymore, I was so overwhelmed by how God rewards those who trust in him. How he blesses those who are obedient! And I thought then that if I might at my 50th wedding anniversary be able to sing praises to God with each one of my children and grandchildren... That thought brought tears to my eyes.

How God blesses the obedient! How he loves those who are faithful! May I never turn away! His riches are beyond measure, his treasures beyond compare! I will desire nothing else!

Thoughts like that had me choked up for the whole event. I laughed lots too, Dad made some good funnies. A bit risque, but what else can you expect at a mennonite anniversary?

Well, off to chow some ecanasia. Doesn't that just make your mouth water.....

Peace

....like a northern alberta chimney in january, baby.

Smokin.

Tonight for youth group we rented a fog machine, cranked it up, and then ran around playinf capture the smurf and hitting kids with socks. And when I say fog, I mean you can see maybe fifteen feet in front of you. maybe. None of these kids will want to smoke after tonight. Its a triple play, you have fun, teach kids the harmful effects of smoking, and any potheads passing by who happen to see the curly whisps of cloud billowing out the front doors are sayin "duuuuuuuuude. I know where I'm worshipping sunday morning." The thought of McLauren baptist church doubling as a giant bong is an interesting outreach philosophy, but I doubt we need to go beyond speculation on that one.

Well, life sure is nothing like what I had imagined it would be like on the plane home from Frankfurt. I am going to school tuesdays and thrusdays and then working longs days with Gpec as a chainman on a surveying team. Mon, Tues, and Wed evenings are basketball and friday nights are youth. Life is real busy and the days are flying by. I haven't blogged in a month or so because it just got real full real fast.

School is going well, first class of the day is popular music histroy, in which we listen to music, which is harder than it seems at times depending on what is being played. Next is Social Problems, and that class is hard for me to function in because we talk alot about this or that when there is only one problem in the world. That problem is sin. Everything else is the fallout. Everyone is cursed, everyone is broken, everyone is a slave, nobody can fix us. Jesus is the solution for the problem of sin, the problem that will plague us until Jesus has had enough and he comes and sets everything right. So my initial reaction is to dismiss everything in that class ; all the problems, all the different ways of looking at the problem and such, but in order to do well and to be present there I cannot dismiss those things. So therein lies my conundrum. I will prevail. Next is soccer, where I chase after the ball like a little kid and forget about the discussion that 15 minutes about had me pulling my hair out. Soccer equals therapy plus fun cubed. I LOVE Soccer! I HEART Soccer, as some might say. Thats not usually me. I hope that is never me again :) Then I have Music theorey, which despite its practical value to me, I struggle to enjoy because the professor is a wonderful man whom I would be a great friend with I am sure if I knew him better, but he is slightly on the dreary side. I have been known to take exceptionally long water breaks during this 80 minute episode :)

Work is alright. I work with Ken, an interesting guy whose dream job would be voice casting for cartoons. He could do it too. I get samples every day. Hes a good guy who sticks to the rules of life pretty much and does not believe in God and thinks that we will find life somewhere out in space sometime down the road. He's and evolutionist. I don't get that. The more I live the sillier that idea becomes to me. Take a two minute walk and take a look around outside. Talk with a friend or loved one. Watch a sunset. Then try to explain to yourself how it all came from a bunch of cells or ameba, the stuff you grow in pitri dishes and whatnot. How absurd! The greatest painter in the world can not even come close to capturing the glory of a sunset. Our world is nothing but pure and total creativity unleashed and given life. Human creations don't hold a candle. Our explanations for the world around us are equally adequate. Infinitely Intelligent design. Endlessly Artistic design. Creation. God.

Well...I don't know what else to write...Living with Brandon Somerville is great, I like that guy a lot. Steve hopper is moving in tomorrow if all goes according to plan, so that will spice things up big time, he was a friend of mine throughout school, for years and years. If I seem to have a random streak within me, I blame him largely for that. ha ha, some good times should lie ahead.

After I sleep of course, see ya.