It might seem a little strange, at first blush, to see a the church’s “Call to Confession” as the theme of a blog post. I would never be able to count the times I have probably recited this confession in church, word-for-word.. and how many times I have glazed over and given little, if any, thought to what i’m praying. I guarantee you that I have often read this while not actually believing that my worship of Him was pitiful, or that my witness for Christ was done with a hesitant heart, or that I am not a good steward of the skills and gifts He has blessed me with. I don’t often acknowledge my slowness to read the Bible and study His Word, and consequently, my failure to follow His will for my life – His will being one which takes me outside myself and makes me dead to sin and alive in Christ. The issue is not that I’m reluctant to bear His cross.. I simply don’t bear His cross. I am not even remotely a good example or witness for God.

But thank God that His love is steadfast! And that He forgives us for all of our wrong-doings and lack of right-doings, and that His Son died and took the punishment we deserve. It was eye-opening for me. I pray that God would give us a new and right state of mind, heart, and soul – one that is increasingly more Christ-like and God-fearing.

Call to Confession

God, our Father,
you have set forth the way of life for us in your beloved Son.
We confess with shame our slowness to learn of him,
our failure to follow him, our reluctance to bear his cross.

Forgive, according to your steadfast love,
the poverty of worship,
our neglect of fellowship and the means of grace,
our hesitating witness for Christ,
our imperfect stewardship of your gifts.

Have mercy on us, O God;
cleanse us from our sins,
and put a new and right spirit within us;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

It’s Tuesday, January 6th. I’m nearing the end of my Christmas break. I am heading back to school early this Friday to get ready for the new students coming in for orientation. I’m excited about it! It’s always fun to be back on campus for a few days before classes start… it’s nice to have time to prepare for classes, buy books (I recommend amazon.com, half.com, abebooks.com, fetchbook.info), see people, and just get mentally prepared. I am definitely going to have to get mentally prepared… it’s going to be a tough semester. I’m taking intermediate accounting 2, principles of taxation, principles of marketing, business law, the family (a sociology class), global trends, and singing in chorale.

It’s been relaxing being home. I’ve been trying to find work, but it’s been hard to find anything. I catered for a new year’s eve party for Providence Catering Company in Franklin, but aside from that I’ve just been at home with the family. I went up to Charlotte, NC this past weekend to visit a friend and her family. That was definitely a lot of fun!

Prayer for my Opa would be great. Thankfully, God has allowed him to live through the Christmas season one last time and spend some good time with the family… but he won’t be able to make it much longer. He sleeps a lot and hasn’t been eating. Prayer for my family with that would be great.

Prayer also for finances would be much appreciated. I’m uncertain as to how I will find the money to stay in school. My parents are unable to help me with any money because their support as missionaries has gone down a lot due to the economy. Please pray. I’m trusting that God will provide.. one way or another.

Starbucks and intermediate accounting homework… a combination that’s consumed the vast majority of my night. It’s almost 9:30 p.m. My mom is driving to Lookout right now to spend the weekend with my Oma and Opa. My Opa (Dr. Wim Schaffers) isn’t doing well. His liver and kidneys are failing which is causing a build-up of ammonia (a toxin that the liver usually elminates) in his body. It makes him sleep a lot, and he’s lost his ability to do anything for himself. He’ll be going home soon. Pray for my family (aunts, uncles, and my family) – it’s a hard period of time right now. Pray for my Oma – she’s exhausted from taking care of my Opa.

I’m excited to see my mom in a few minutes. And I get to go home this Sunday to see the rest of my family!

It’s a Friday night, and I do believe that this will be one of the first (if not the first) Friday night that I will actually spend studying and writing papers. This coming week is going to be a very busy and hectic week for me, and I’m trying to stay focused and disciplined on the things that I have to get done. I have to write the abstract and outline for my business research paper (due Monday)… my topic is “Ethical Challenges for Contemporary Managerial Accountants.” It will also be my senior integration project (SIP) topic, so I am essentially writing the first half of my SIP as a junior. A little daunting..

I’ve also got to continue studying for my intermediate accounting test that is this coming Thursday morning. There’s a lot of information. For this first section of the semester, we’ve been going over the conceptual framework of accounting, reviewing the principles of accounting, and studying the balance sheet and related financial disclosures. It’s interesting, and it definitely gets my wheels churning when we’re in class… but as I said before, it’s a lot of detailed information to study. I’m trying to stay on top of it.

Thirdly and finally, I’m writing my testimonial tonight. I have the opportunity to potentially give my testimony at the Leadership Forum that is being held next weekend – basically a large conference hosted by Covenant for prospective donors to come hear more about the college. That is a little daunting too… though I’m excited for the opportunity to share more about what Covenant has done for me.

All in all, it’s going to be a busy night and weekend. I’d appreciate prayers that I would remain diligent and focused… and moreover, that I’d give God the glory and the credit… not myself.

Pray for the family and close friends of Ben Entwistle. He was a good friend, brother, and fellow student at Covenant College. He went home to be with his Father this week after suffering a bacterial infection on his heart, followed by a stroke. He was in Nairobi, Kenya and was in the process of being medically evacuated to South Africa to be treated… he died on the plane.

Ben was a good friend… and Heaven is richer because of his presence there.

My dad sent me this devotional on prayer… It’s long, but it’s so good and so worth reading. You can spare 7 minutes to read this.

People who ski, I suppose, are people who happen to like skiing, who have time for skiing, who can afford to ski, and who are good at skiing. Recently I found that I often treat prayer as though it were a sport like skiing–something you do if you like it, something you do in your spare time, something you do if you can afford the trouble, something you do if you’re good at it. Otherwise you do without it most of the time. When you get in a pinch you try it and then you call an expert.

But prayer isn’t a sport. It’s work. As soon as I’ve said that I’m in trouble because so many sports have become professional and as such are almost wholly indistinguishable from work. I could say that work is something you have to decide to do, you have to allow time for, you have to go at with energy, skill and concentration. But all those things could be said of the big business which is sports. Competition is deadly, equipment highly technical and expensive, salaries absurdly high.

But prayer is no game. Even if you are part of a “team,” as when others join you in prayer, you are not cheered on by spectators or coached by any experts. You won’t get any trophies–not on this side of the Jordan, anyway. It’s not likely you’ll get any credit at all. For some people prayer might fall into the category of “fun,” but that’s not usually the reason we pray. It’s a matter of need and responsibility. Click to continue »

It’s late, and I’m exhausted… it seems like it should be the opposite after coming back from a break. Somehow it never works like that. I’m heading to bed in a little while, but I wanted to ask for prayer for my Oma and Opa (my grandparents). I found out a little earlier tonight that they haven’t been doing well (for reasons I won’t take the time to explain)… it’s hard seeing them fade. I would ask for prayer just that God would watch over them and that His will would be done in His perfect timing. That’s all I can ask.

I have a business luncheon that I’m going to tomorrow at 11:45 a.m. It should be good — it’s being hosted by Northwestern Mutual Financial. At this point, I’m trying to make the most of the opportunities to pursue career options… even if that means just going to a business luncheon and hearing more about the opportunities out there.

I’d ask for prayer for myself too… I’ve had a lot on my mind, and it’s been hard to remember to just take it one day at a time.

My voice still hasn’t shown signs of coming back… it’s been almost three weeks since I’ve had full use of it. I talked to my chorale director, and he said it wasn’t normal for it to take this long. He advised me to see a throat specialist soon. This is wearing on me. It’s discouraging having to sit in the back during chorale rehearsel and physically be unable to sing… not knowing when my voice is going to come back. My mom’s worried that I did permanent damage to my vocal chords from the weeks of coughing. The thought never crossed my mind until she said that that it might even be a possibility for that to happen. Please pray that God would restore my voice… I trust God is sovereign in this. I know that He knows what He’s doing, but it’s discouraging being in this place.

We sang “Sanctus” and “My Eternal King” in chorale this morning. They’re two of my favorite songs that we sing, and I came close to losing it when all the baritones busted out in full force. It seems stupid… but singing is one of my passions (whether I’m good at it or not), and it’s been a discouragement to physically be unable to… and to now know that there’s a possibility that my voice won’t go back to normal. I’d appreciate your prayers.