enough isn't enough anymore.

a while agoi said enough was enough on guitar stuff for me, but now its not anymore. my amp is dead. i need a new one. sadly dan lance let me use his amp last night as mine died right before the service. and now i want one like his. it sounded so clean and beautiful. but the cheap version of the amp missing some of the pretty sound enhancing technology costs about $2000 dollars. yes, the cheap version. but then i realized i like dirty and beautiful more than i like clean and beautiful. in my amps. (not my women thank you.) so i want a Vox AC15. but i also still want that Top hat Club Royale. so now i want both. so if someone wants to give me three thousand dollars i would appreciate it. and a fulltone overdrive pedal to go with whatever amp i get.

fortunately a freind has a friend who can get me a deal on the vox. and another friend has a few friends who could get me a deal on the top hat.

oh. and i'm home now. i took a shower and the head of the shower was higher than my head. so awesome. stupid school showers.

junior?

yesterday was graduation. i saw some good people walk. and it was a happy time. i can say with all honesty of the six people i was sad to see leave, i was extremely happy to find out only two would not be in town next year. Matt giles is working with a youth group and living in anderson, Aaron holmes is doing something, and will still be here, Jenna Barney is working for the stirring and will be continueing to blees people by leading them into the pressence of God, and Ian brooks is coaching some sport and will still be playing bass at the stirring. sadly Eric wilkinson and Doug will be leaving us. i never had time to get really close to either of them (if one or both of you read this then know i am sorry for that) but i felt like they were both Guys well all loved. i know i wish i knew each of them better.

but as graduation was yesterday i realize, i am a junior. or i should be, but i might not have the credits. we'll see. but my second academic year at simpson is over. i am in my second half of schooling as of right now.
also as of 5 o'clock last night i am no longer a resident of third floor thompson mangham. next august i will be a Residency assistant on second floor Thompson, but i have spent two whole years on third floor. i hope to bring the third floor community feeling to second floor next year.

this summer i want to buy a new amp, but i need to make some money to do that.
this summer i need to make some money, but i need a job to do that.
this summer i need to get a job, but that takes away the time i was hoping to spend investing in friendships back home and focusing on my walk with God. i have decided to take this summer almost the way a pastor or teacher takes a sabatical. to have a time to focus inward on my issues and in doing so be able to focuw outward on the issues of others. as it is now my outward focus is a little blurry due to some issues internally. nothing too big, but still something i need God to fix in me.

i am looking forward to a summer of relaxation and hopefully working part time at camp. i am looking back and already missing people in redding. even though i am currently in redding and will be at the stirring tonight, i miss people that i think already left. and i don't know if they did. lame.

anyways, i think i successfully made this a semi sad end of the year blog with the proper amount of sadness and the right hint of future hope. okay. to those who left without finding me, good bye ( insert hug here) andi will see oyu next fall if not sooner. to those still in town, reading this before noon on monday, call me. i want to say bye.

andrew

to all conspiracy theorist ou there, i submit this evidence as artifact 1.




i rest my case.

new Blog! status update i guess.

so the blog world needs an update. or maybe i just need something to write in hopes that i get something good to write.

i'm home right now and i love it here.

i got some skinny jeans today. they are stretch jeans. i am a guy. you get what i'm saying right? ( and no i'm not saying that i bought girls jeans, just that levi's makes guys stretch jeans. weird)

lent is officially over so i can use myspace and facebook again. yay. and it turns out lent was over last sunday. holy week isn't lent. go catholicism. so i'm like five days late on facebook. oh well.

i miss people at school whenever i am at home.

i miss people at home whenever i am at school.

i miss my bed at home when i am at school.

so my amplifier is dying, but besides that i am finally content with my guitar equipment. people ask " when is enough going to be enough?" and i say enough is enough now. and will continue to be until my amp finally poops oout on me. then enough will be enough when i buy that new one.

i want to climb. not an update, i always want to climb.

i am playing at church on sunday at 530 am sunrise service!

i will be tired on monday.

i am being counter productive tomorrow and sleeping in late so my internal clock is set late so easter will feel earlier. bad choice, but it's worth it.

so nothing good to write yet.

Oh! so remember the whole dryspell thing? well God gave me something to say to someone. at the end of the good friday service. so my dryspell ended with the end of lent. cool symbolism. or coincidence. either way its cool.

okay, goodbye until later.

INSANE!

so my life has been crazy. i have not heard God speak as stronly as i heard him speak when i was at home, ever before in my life. now, back at school for a few days, God has not spoken to me in that way. i was telling a friend of mine about this last night and as i was saying it, i realized there is a reason. see we do the whole season of lent because we need to realize that sometimes we have dry spells and sometimes it rains spiritually in our lives. in the rain we are soaked in God's love and feel it strongly. if all we had was rain, we would stop enjoying it. we have dry spells so that when the rain comes we don't run and hide our heads as the beetles sang, but instead we soak it in. we bask in every moment that we have. as i was telling this friend about how i hadn't experienced anything mind blowing in half a week i realized this is a mini dry season for me. God gave me this spiritual gift of encouragement. he told me it was for life. and then he used me for it quite a bit. he told me to talk to my dad about how god was proud of him. the chance to do that for my dad was amazing. right now i am finally starting the real feeling you are supposed to get during lent. to remember the rainy season through the dry spell and to strive for the rain so that when it comes we can passionately enjoy it. when you look at it, the israelites who hoarded the manna had the right attitude, just about the wrong aspect of their life. God told them to take a days worth and they got greedy. i think in the rainy seasons we needs to hoard the rain. to try to soak in as much as we can. he says he will alwyas provide for us and he does in the physcal sense, so we should share our things and only take what we need. in the spiritual we should gather so much it spills on those around us.

the other thing that God told me last week about my dad was to tell him " well done my good and faithful servant. i godsipped my mom, so now its dad's turn. God has been showing my brother, one of the pastors back home some amazing direction to take the young adults group as a way to set and example for the church. and my dad has had to balance letting his son who was given a vision from God lead, and supporting his son, with the fun task of making it known it is not him showing his son favoritism. so God told me to tell my dad well done for Him. the thing is when God told me " andrew you are a man after my own heart" ( amazing moment, by the way, but thats a whole other blog)i felt that it was the " not dead" version of " well done my good and faithful servant." so telling my dad the line i had kind of seen as a heaven only ting, scared me. i could not shake the feeling my dad was going to die in his desk as i sat there in the little chair and told him well Done my good and faithful servant for God. i could see him hearing the sentence start in my voice and end in God's voice because my dad was dead. and this image was very real and very scary. so i didn;t want to tell my dad this. but i knew God had told me to. so i told God i would. i said " you're will be done" and thought and prayed that it would be and abraham sacrificing Isaac thing (with the generational roles reversed) but i sincerely thought my dad might die. the next day i was talking to my dad, and i knew it was time to say it. i had told him all the things i had to say, but the one. so i started to speak, and i got choked up. but i wasn't about to cry. in that moment i felt God setting a thought process in motion. and i felt a peace and a joy return to me. so i told my dad the bit of encouragement i had to say, and we talked some more. he's still alive. i have the gift of encouragement, not prophecy. lucky me, cause my dad would be dead.

so last night i was talking to my friend and i told her about all that and as i was saying it the thought God started in me came to fruition. i realized that God was preparing me. see my spiritual gift of encouragement was set aside for me for life. not that i will always be used in thins, but that it will never be off my mind. god made me choose to obey him or to keep the thing most dear to me at that moment. and that is my Dad. he told me that now i knew what i meant to be willing to offer up everything i had to follow Him. and there will be times when i will be scared to go tell people the words God has given me to say, but i will always be able to remember that i chose to speak words that might lead directly to the death of my father( in my mind) because God told me to. after handling this while i figured out what my spiritual gift was, now that i know, nothing i will have to risk to say God's words to someone will be strong enough to stop me.

Go with peace to love and serve the Lord.