look in your heart and you’ll find

When I wrote my post last week, I had no idea what was yet to come with the sickness going around Messiah. While I have still been extremely fortunate to not get sick, the entire campus had seemed to fallen even further into sickness. My roommate got the flu at the end of last week and was sent home and has still not come back, even though she is feeling better. I went away this weekend as well but to visit family. Walking down my hall to go out to my car, I read everyone’s white boards as I left. All of them had something to do with sickness: “DO NOT ENTER IF YOU ARE SICK!” “I’m sick” “Staying in my room and away from sickness” etc. etc. There is apparently no one who has been able to escape.

Not to exhaust that sickness idea though (which does seem to be getting better now that the weekend is over), I am actually going to be talking about music, specifically Jason’s music. Today is the release date for Jason Mraz’s new CD, A Beautiful Mess - Live from Earth. Because of my slight obsession (I will admit it now), I pre-ordered the CD two months ago which meant that I got the CD last week. It is absolutely AMAZING! Now being to two of his concerts (one being the concert directly before he recorded his concert in Chicago for the CD), it still does not do his concerts justice. There is nothing better than seeing him live. As apposed to many artists today, Jason sounds a great deal better live than on a recording. This CD definitely shows that ability and his pure musical talent, however. His love for the world and the people in it is also clearly displayed from the CD. There is a lot than one can learn from him in order to better thier life and outlook. I have been listening to nothing but the CD for the past week. I have also watched the DVD about 5 times since then. It is just absolutely amazing. You just have to take my word for it and go out and buy it…today!

I’ll leave you with these words from Jason:

Sometimes the sun shines on other people’s houses and not mine,
And the clouds can paint the sky in a way that takes away my summer time,
And somehow the sun shines upon you while i struggle to get by
But there’s a light in everybody so send your ray of sunshine

It is finally Friday. The complete motivation for getting self out of bed this morning was the thought that, “Tomorrow I can sleep in.” It seems to be as if this week has lasted forever. With the work load of classes picking up and the dreary weather we have had the past couple days, exhaustion has seemed to be the major theme across campus. While talking to people in all of my classes, I continuously received the answer, “Good, but tired,” to my question of “How are you?”

No matter where we are, what we are doing, or how busy we seem to be with work, it becomes extremely important to take the time to relax, even if just for a minute. Take a moment to recollect your thoughts and then start again. It was especially refreshing to be able to have Powerhouse last night and take that time to recollect myself. Whoever first planned Powerhouse to be Thursday had a great idea. At that point in the week everyone is just waiting for Friday to come. During Powerhouse though, I tend to forget what else is going on im my life and could care less what day it is or how much longer until the week is over. This was especially true last night when I focused on having my thoughts rooted entirely in God and not about the world around me. I can contribute this all to my friend, Adam, and his newest blog entry (http://acousticworship.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-is-at-stake.html) that I just happened to read last night before leaving my dorm to go to Powerhouse. Taking his words to heart, I made my whole focus be about creating a solid foundation in my faith before actually stepping into Powerhouse and worshipping. Throughout the hour of worship, I continued focusing solely on God and there was a huge difference in my overall Powerhouse experience last night. So despite the weary/drearyness of campus today, I have been refreshed enough to make it through today…and tomorrow I will be able to sleep in!

Monday was our first gospel choir rehearsal. Over the summer and into the beginning of the school year I have had some worries about United Voices of Praise (UVP). Our choir is currently going through a period of transition: our director, Dr. Thomas, is on sabbatical this year…our performance coordinator, Eunice Hager, no longer holds that position and they have yet to find someone to take over those responsibilities…our student director from last year, Margaret McKay, graduated…our piano players are no longer at Messiah…etc. etc. Needless to say I have had some fears about gospel choir this year. Despite these worries about the year, I believe it is going to be a great one and we will truly be blessed this year.

This Monday’s rehearsal was definitely a huge blessing in itself. Not only did we have a large number of returning members, but a bunch of new members showed up to audition as well. Even though we only sang a few songs together, but I could feel God’s presence with us and felt as if this rehearsal was only the beginning of great things to come. Back in my home church’s youth choir, Voices of Grace, we had a little saying, “It will all work out on Sunday.” This provided all of us with a bit of encouragement even when we felt that we weren’t prepared for singing at Sunday morning’s service. All of us truly believed in this and every Sunday we sang, it would all work out! We did amazing things and we all felt especially blessed after every service. Despite any troubles we may experience as a choir throughout this year, I believe UVP will follow this same principle and it truly will all work out on Sunday!

This has been a very eventful week. Not only has there been the business of classes and the end of the semester occuring, but there were a number of special events which have gone on as well.

Last Saturday was United Voices of Praise’s Concert of Praise. Some of my family as well as my best friend from high school and her friend from school all came for the concert. It was great to visit with them. It was especially nice to go out to eat and then have everyone from home meet everyone from school. Saturday was also such a gorgeous day in general. It became so hot in the church that we decided to just wear our t-shirts for the entirety of the concert instead of robes the first half and t-shirts the second. It was different, but it was definitely nice to not have to die of heat in our robes.

I also went to see Gavin Degraw with three friends this week. The concert was amazing! It is surprising the Gavin Degraw would come to Harrisburg and do a performance at the Whitaker Center, but I am definitely glad that he did. Up until this year I had only ever been to one concert, and in the past seven months I have been to three. It makes me laugh to think that all of the sudden I have taken up concert going basically out of no where. Even though Jason Mraz’s concert was by far my favorite, all three of them have been amazing. The four of us even had fun just hanging out before and after this past concert as well.

Yesterday was one of the busiest days as well as relaxing though in the past week. Yesterday was Service Day at Messiah (the day where there are no classes and all offices are closed in order for students, faculty, and employees to go out and do some sort of service project during the day). I participated in Special Olympics. I did the same thing last year and both years have proven themselves to be amazing experiences. Special Olympics is the biggest service project that Messiah participates in because it is one campus and a number of people are needed either to be a buddy to a participant or to run an event. The past two years, I have worked at the high jump and have moved the bar to up and down as well as reset it after it fell down. Now at first this job might not seem very important or completely as a great act of service and rightly so.  Granted it needs to be done and without it the process would just take even longer than it already does, but there is also so much to it. Just standing there and watching the participants as they jump over the bar is life changing. They are always so incredibly proud of themselves and you can tell how much fun they are having. It is amazing to see how much life and enthusiasm these kids have. Even the littlest thing that you can do in order to help someone and make their day a little brighter, can truly make your life a little brighter as well.

Last night United Voices of Praise went and performed at an African-American History month service at a church in Carlisle. I love going to American-American/ Baptist churches with gospel choir. The amount of spiritual excitement and energy present in the church is just so much more there than you would find at any other church. Their rich traditions are show throughout the entire service and I just love it. Last night was no exception. During the prayers, songs, dances, readings, etc. there were always a number of Hallelujahs and Praise the Lords being sung from the congregation. There was one family in particular that really caught my attention. While the congregation was filled with a number of older men and women, there was one family with five children ranging in age from around 2 to 15. All five of the children seemed to be completely filled with the spirit and loving the worship energy of the evening. One moment particularly touched me though. As in any service, there was an offering taken at last night’s service as well. Following the tradition of the church each member of the congregation came up one at a time and gave their offering. Standing up front singing the offertory, I saw the youngest girl of the family (around 2 years old) holding her sister’s hand coming up to give her offering. As she walked up to the front she stared wide eyed at the choir and the band taking it all in. I noticed however that in her hand she held a dollar bill. It was one of the cutest/touching things I had ever seen. This little girl of no more than two years old was coming up with her family and giving an offering to God which many Christians don’t typically think of until they get their first paycheck or even long after that. It was truly amazing to see that adorable little girl walk up to the front of the sanctuary with her offering and place her dollar in the basket.

Last night was a wonderful night of singing. It all started with karaoke night in Lottie, which is arguably the best night in Lottie. I would say even better than the holiday dinners. What other night can you spend three hours in Lottie? Anyway it was a fun time. No matter whether the acts are good or bad they are typically always entertaining. My friend, Sarah, got up and did her own rendition of Autobiography by Ashlee Simpson, which she got very very into. I would expect nothing less from her which is why I love her. haha. The real surprise of the night though was that I actually got up and sang. Even though I love singing and have been in choirs basically since fifth grade, I hate singing by myself in front of people. I absolutely hate it. Last night however I made the mistake of agreeing to singing with my friend Jezrell on the stipulation that I knew the song since his partner left. On making this deal I thought 1. I wouldn’t be held to my word, 2. I wouldn’t know the song, or 3. we would be gone before he actually got called up. None of those things actually happened however, and I ended up having to sing Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable with him. Even though I hate singing in front of people I’m really glad I ended up doing so and breaking my almost fear last night. After that however the singing didn’t end. We all went straight from Lottie to Powerhouse. Last nights Powerhouse was one of the best Powerhouses this year. I really felt as if I was getting into a complete sense of worship. The last song we sang of the night, Salvation is Here, was really powerful as well. Leaving us all on a spiritual high.

Cause I know my God saved the day,
And I know His word never fails,
And I know my God made a way for me,
Salvation is here

So today is a momentous day for our country. One day after Martin Luther King day, we are celebrating the inauguration of the first African American president. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not into politics. I actually hate it. But the election of Obama into the presidency, I have found extremely interesting. Even though I never experienced it, the civil rights movement occurred only fifty years ago (not even). Today less than fifty years after the events of the civil rights movement we are experiencing the inauguration of the first African American president. That blows my mind. Even though I was sick on election day, it was interesting to watch the results on television. It astounded me how many people the election had a profound personal effect on. I remember one lady they showed for five minutes off and on who had almost fallen out of her chair and was in continuous tears when they made the announcement that Obama had been elected president. Obama’s inauguration has given hope to so many people who in previous years thought that there was simply no hope for them. This is especially true with young children who are now able to grow up seeing an African American in power and know that anyone can make thier dreams come true. It doesn’t matter to me whether you wanted Obama or McCain or even someone else to win the election last November, but I think we can all say that America has made great strides as a country and that this truly is a day of history.

This is the time of the year when everyone is super busy. Students are trying to finish the semester and have a bunch of tests to study for on top of a bunch of papers to write. Even those who don’t find themselves at the end of the semester are still running around doing holiday activities. This is the time when we all visit our family and friends, go shopping a million times, since one trip is just not enough to finish off our Christmas gift lists, and bake all of those holiday goodies.

This past week I have found myself super busy. While the rest of the semester I have a fair amount of spare time the past week has not been that way and I see the next week being the same. This weekend I had two large papers to write (which are still not entirely finished) along with other small assignments and studying. I was only able to take a break Friday night for a holiday/gingerbread house decorating party and then Saturday for a few hours to watch the USC game (during which I was too stressed to do any work and now I’m super excited/super nervous for the Rose bowl, but thats an entirely different story).  Looking ahead to the eight days I have two papers, one reflection paper, three presentations, one test, and three finals. On top of that our Gospel choir concert is this weekend (Saturday at 7:30 in Miller auditorium, you should come!) and some Christmas shopping to get done. I cannot wait for this semester to be over. I am definitely ready to go home, visit with my family and high school friends, and relax for a couple weeks. Even though I know I will be busy running around, I know I will still be able to slow down at least a little bit once break comes. And I just can’t wait!

This morning United Voices of Praise, Messiah’s gospel choir, sang at chapel. Being that United Voices of Praise is my favorite thing about Messiah, I love doing pretty much anything involving the choir. Singing with the rest of the group provides such a great sense of unity and pure worship. The entire group is based upon worshiping God and not necessarily the quality of the performance.

This morning’s time in chapel was especially nice considering some of the circumstances which have been occurring within our group in the past few weeks. To say the least, the United Voices of Praise were beginning to slowly loose that sense of unity. After having a discussion and making the issue known last night, it was nice that everything went so smoothly this morning. The dynamic of the group had definitely changed and it was definitely for the betterment of the entire group.

This morning our group was especially getting into that sense of worship. You could also tell that the rest of the students, professors, and staff in chapel were getting involved in that same level of worship as well. It is amazing what a blessing it can be to just come together as one group and worship together. Whether this group is found in a choir (where I tend to find mine) or in just a random group of people, God can truly bless you. The greatest blessings tend to come from the oddest places and in the seemingly smallest things.

The end of last week and the weekend were absolutely amazing. We had fall break at Messiah Thursday and Friday which was definitely needed. It was by far the best break ever as well.

It all started Wednesday night when Kelly and I headed up to Scranton to see Jason Mraz. As you can probably imagine if you read my last post, I was ecstatic! The concert blew my mind. It was just so good, beyond words. He is an amazing musician and that was definitely displayed at the concert. Even though we were five rows from the back, we even had great seats. I have absolutely no complaints about last Wednesday night. I was so excited throughout the whole thing I just couldn’t stop smiling or shaking.

The next morning I headed off to Penn State to visit Jessica, my best friend from home. This was the first time I had actually been able to visit her at school. It was really nice to see her again, see her in her school environment and meet all of her Penn State friends. (It was especially nice waking up Friday at 12:30 after Penn State had already been up and having classes for hours and I had no classes to worry about.) It was a great chill and catch up time. I really miss my friends from home even though I love my friends at Messiah. There is just something different between your home friends whom you have been friends with for what seems like forever that you don’t get with your new college friends.

After leaving Penn State since Jessica had to go with her choir to Mechanicsburg for the weekend (thank you irony), I went and visited my grandparents Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. As a child I always spent a great deal of time with my grandparents but as I got older the time I have spent with them has definitely dwindled. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with them again.

Its definitely sad that Fall break is over. All of the anticipation leading up to it is now gone and its really quite depressing. After having two days of classes though I’m starting to get back into the swing of things I guess. I just wish it could be last Wednesday and I was on my way to see Jason Mraz all over again.