Letters from Lilongwe

Last weekend was the Big-Little retreat, where all of the associates and their Big Brothers bond over a weekend together.  I went this semester because I love camping and I am on the committee that planned the event.  On Friday night us brothers when for a hike down in Cloudland Canyon.  It was intensely dark but still an amazing sight of nature while its masked by night.  We found a waterfall that turned out to be great for an early morning worship time on Saturday.  We had some great conversation as we walked talking about life.  I loved being away from Tech for just two days and being at a place where the stresses of school could not effect me in the slightest. Once people started to head back to the cabin Borsch and I just stayed behind for some time in thought and prayer.  It was utterly amazing, just looking out into the canyon when I could not see a thing.  Yesterday I was thinking about this and I am not sure if this is theologically sound but i'll throw it out there.

Will your grace run out If I let you down  ‘Cause all I know Is how to run ‘Cause I am a sinner  If its not one thing its another Caught up in words  Tangled in lies  You are the Savior  And you take brokenness aside And make it beautiful  Beautiful  Will you call me child When I tell you lies  Cause all I know  Is how to cry  I am a sinner  If its not one thing its another  Caught up in words  Tangled in lies  You are the Savior  And you take brokenness aside And make it beautiful  Beautiful  Bridge:  You make it beautiful You make it beautiful All is Great in the Lord Paul Shackelford

A friend showed me this quote today and I just had to share it on my blog. Choices I choose to make I choose to adapt.  I choose to change my schedule.  I choose to be uncomfortable in certain settings.  I choose to relate.  I choose to possibly adjust the way I dress.  I choose to adjust my speech.  I choose not to tell everything I know.  I choose to stretch my convictions, allowing testing and tension to exist.  I choose to make myself available to talk to others at their convenience.  I choose to learn and relate to the culture I live in.  I choose to ADJUST MY STANDARD OF LIVING. I would not choose to do these things because of money, or prestige, or power, there is only one reason I choose to radically alter my comfortable lifestyle – “I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.  And I do all things for the sake of the Gospel.”  (I Cor. 9:22-23) “Let me tell you what I believe the need of the house is.  Maybe I should call it the answer

Tug of War is a competition played during Greek Week every spring.  Theta Xi takes this event seriously and practices twice a week for over two months.  I am the anchor of the line therefore I am the last guy who has to hold everything if the line falls apart.  I really enjoy Tug because it throws my body back into High School mode when I was actually doing sports.  Last year we had an epic Tug vs AEPi and it was exhilarating to see our line come back from near destruction to an amazing victory.  We lost in the second round last year and would love to do a lot better this year. Yesterday at practice a brother, Michael James, took photos for a photography class documenting the action of a Tug practice.  He stepped through the preparation of bringing all equipment to the field, tying towels, and the struggle of the Tug.  These photos were developed in a dark room last night for a project due today.  Above is the product of his shots. All is Great in the Lord Paul Shackelford

While at home I had a great time filtering through some old photos and uploading them to Google Plus.  Some of you may know that I am in a sudo revolt against The Facebook, for no apparent reason than I don't really like it.  Therefore I endorsed Google Plus when it was released this summer.  Since then I have stopped uploading and posting my random thoughts to Facebook.  Most of my thoughts are confined the relatively barren halls of Google Plus.   That being said I have a lot of older photos on Google Plus along with my day to day random thoughts and articles I think are interesting.   The picture below is when I was about a year a and a half or two.  My dad was working at Stanford and we went to the beach for some reason or another.  I love this picture because my belly is so amazingly big, also I have blond hair which didn't seem to last much past this stage of life.  another note  about this picture is the bat and ball, when I was really little I was playing baseball

While in Health class today I started cruising all around my computer and ran across the trends from my Google Reader.  The main thing that jumps out to me is my Monday, Wednesday, Friday reading levels are much lower than my Tuesday, Thursday.   I did not realize that I tended to read more on my Tuesday and Thursdays, both days I have a "lighter" class load but I just never thought about my reading pattern. This data should hopefully show me that I need to be reading more on M,W,F even though I have more classes. All is Great in the Lord Paul Shackelford