| 3 ESSAYS + 2 EXAMS 2GO! Freedom is at the tip of my fingers....the TIP OF MY FREAKIN FINGERS!! I'm attending the Evolving Church Conference this weekend, and i'm pretty excited. I just Love the Name of the event... it's actually why I'm going :) Although I've got alot of school work to do, this conference is definitly worth the time considering how lonely an amateur emergent reader and thinker can be. I need fresh and new ideas, I need to hear REAL stories, actual examples that can connect these new mentalities with practical actions. How can this new found freedom be contained within a structure? How can I balance my new thought processes with my place as a leader? I've got alot of questions that I hope to get answered this Saturday. Never been to a conference by myself before.. I've never hit up this kind of scene before...no one knows me, i know no one... I like it. Life has really been attempting to take over me these days. I've been feeling the pressure of DEFEAT mounting on my shoulders and the whispers of discouragment every way I turn (that's right... i said 'whispers'). Although the weight is heavy... I've decided to embrace this boulder, NOT as a burden, but as strength-builder. The temptation to victimize myself is high, but I feel like I'm slowly conquering those urges to endulge in self-pitty. These internal battles are literally forcing me to step into a new dimension of my life. "... let us run with perseverance the race marked out fo us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,..." Heb. 12 I feel as if I've taken a sip of water after a long run in the desert. It's not much, but it satisfies my thirst. When I take a look at my pain, I feel a need to join with it how He "endured the cross, scorning its shame". When i take a look at what I lack, i feel the need to join with it those kids I saw in Indo with no mother or father. When i take a look at my trials, i feel the need to join with it the hopelessness of those in my life who see no better option then to die. When i take into account the pain, lack and trials of those around me - my own difficulties seem to fade. Not that it disappears, but it becomes overpowered by suffering of those you love. One priest was quoted in the Globe & Mail stating, "If I think of someone else, even for a moment, I begin to be transformed," Maybe the source of our own transformation takes place when we take part in the transforamtion of another. Working Today from 3-10:30 if anyone wants to DROP BY. Back to the ESSAY....peace | 
