Live life as such...

So I've been working hard here at Impact 360. It's rigorous but they don't apologize for it, and I don't wine because of it. I'm still in awe of the atmosphere here. Though the "honeymoon" stage is over and we are seeing the little details, annoying and fantastic ones, of each other, the way we approach those details are in sharp contrast in how the majority of the world goes about it.

J.P. Moreland was here for Thursday and Friday and talked about the kinds of knowledge, a case for christianity, happiness and depression, and also the true and false self. Though interesting discussion came from the kinds of knowledge and the attributes of God (after which Moreland invited me to come and get a masters at the university he teaches at), two things in particular came to surface from the talk that definitely interested me and may also interest you.

I've been more or less obssessed with beauty and a fitting definition thereof for quite some time (those around me can attest) and I've even written a research paper on it (a very poor paper I might add). I asked Dr. Moreland what he thought of beauty and whether us, being temporal finite beings have the ability to posses a universal objective view of beauty. I was expecting a deep solid definition or a concrete syllogism by which I could contrast objects and determine whether they were truly beautiful or not, as well as for an answer that would finally allow me to rest my head on this subject. JP said that we can understand beauty by ostensive definition. This means that we understand the attribute of beauty by perceiving things (not just through sight mind you) that embody beauty in their form. Waking up and smelling the roses is an ostensive definition of beauty, smelling the roses, seeing a sunrise, feeling happiness, and such all represent what beauty is. Hence my favorite answer, that I have just found as well fits into the actual style of beautys definition, is "You wonder my friend what beauty is? Open your eyes to your sweetheart and there it is."

The second thing that Moreland exposed our minds (not our brains, by the way) to is this idea of the true and false self. When we try to be something outside our nature that God created us as - loving, caring, graceful, redeeming, filling, forming, etc, and instead we encompass hate, envy, strife, and the like all ultimately centered on our self, we are shouldering the false self. The false self is inherently selfish and conceded. It is not God glorifying but in fact self promoting. A major problem in our culture these days is that we shower oursevles with drama, both from the media and within our own lives that encourages the false self and it's longings. Gossip, self-indulgence, arguments, brawls, all come from our false self and our culture is feeding the mucky soup like it's thanksgiving dinner. God calls us to be true-faced, to be completely vulnerable with our brothers and sisters in God. God created man and woman naked, completely vulnerable and open to each other. We have come to cover ourselves with so much clothes of lies, deceit, and selfishness that no one truly knows our true selves beneath the mask of our hard heart. After hearing this, I have been thinking and am trying with vigorous effert to make it my goal (or rather one of my goals) this year to become truefaced with people. To let them know who I am and to put my other facets or masks of myself in the trash or at least in the drawer.

Today is the 1 year anniversary of dating/courting my first, one, and only sweetheart Hannah Davison. It has truly been an adventure and God has truly moved in my heart and I believe also in hers to change, move, and mold us to his plan for our lives. I am gripped with anticipation to see what God has in store for the next year for us. What failures, victories, struggles, victories, tears, laughs, and hugs he has for us is up to him. Please please please pray that we do only what God has for our lives. The last thing I want to do is get in the way of what God has planned for her life. Pray that we both hear from God clearly what he wants us to do and to have the guts to say yes, and that we care enough for each other to frankly let what we want to happen fall down the drain and what God wants to happen HAPPEN. We are both convinced though that God has a plan for us and that we are doing what he wants us to do right now, being at two different experiences. We talked recently and we are in agreement that, as ironic and paradoxical it may sound that our separation from each other with grow us closer to each other because if God is for us, the us both running towards Him, we are bound to bump into each other, err poke each other. ;) Hannah I thank God for every victory and success he has blessed us with but I also sincerely thank Him for the struggles, the tears, the absolute, utter, and epic failures we did as well. Failure is not the enemy but instead it's how we approach a failure that can define us as followers of a redeeming savior or a fake mask.

I just skyped in my fam a few minutes ago. They are awesome. I can't say how everything my mom has taught me, my siblings have shown me, and my great dad has grown me through, are influencing me right now. I am a better man (not young man) because of them and am in complete gratitude and debt with them.

"Live a life such that Satan sighs a great sigh of relief when you finally die."

Stay strong.

C.

Orientation Week

So from Thursday to today we have been at "The Summit" (not to be confused with "Summit" with Doc Noebel) for Orientation week. We went through team building drills for two days and I have to say, this group is becoming a tight knit family full of laughter, joy, prayer, and excitement. We have really just talked to each other, asking each other questions like our fears, dreams, favs, dislikes, our families, boyfriends/girlfriends/single, etc and through out just loving life and glorifying God.

There's a guy here named Sean. he has Cerebral Palsy (sp?) but is very functional with it. He is the first person that I know that I can say portrays King David in his hunt and love for God's very own heart. He is full of ideas to praise God all the time. Him and I have grown close after I helped him through the low ropes team building drill Thursday. To show how much of a servants heart this guy has, he, me, Kyle, and Meredith got bowls of water, rags, and towls one morning and washed everyone's feet, all the students and David and Mary Michael (Student Learning and Living team). Personally, that was an incredible experience because I found out how much being a servant is an incredible glory to God and how freeing it is to not try and show yourself but instead God through you.

I have been called a big brother by two of the girls here which is really cool and is helping me with no-family relapses. They [the girls] are really incredible here. They are all going for God's glory and have been giving me great advice and help with life and relationships already. And us guys are going to return the favor and show them what men (not young men) but men are supposed to act like. We're all feeding off each others strengths and helping each other with their weaknesses. The challenge for that soon will be the papers. Mr. Baise told me that very few have gotten a B on the first paper but that when they started to work together that the papers improved dramatically. I really want to help myself and others work through the academic side of this camp all that I can so that will be exciting to see if we can get that going sooner than possible.

I could go on but I have things to do. If you have a specific question, just add a comment and I'll try and answer. And if your name starts with a "D" and ends in "ad", and "M" and ends in "om", or an "H" and ends in "annah", or if your a sibling (I love you guys!!!) or "K" and ends in "yle", then call, skype or chat when we can.

Stay Strong.

Charles C.

Sooooooo I'm finally here! The campus is great and the community is to die for. I'll keep this short just because I'm tired but a highlight is us students got together and committed to be a contagious group for Christ. People who's names are known in hell, people who carry Christ and who's name aren't necessarily known but that Christ is known through them. That's the mission of Impact360's 2010 student body.

Stay Strong

Charles C.

So in two(ish) days I will arrive at Impact360 for the first day full of unpacking, organizing, meeting my roommate (Nathan can't wait to meet you!), and my first meal at Impact for the school year (praying hard but not too worried). I'm really excited to see what I can get to learn at Impact. I have told people that I am not needing for ideas on things to do with my life. I cannot wait to continue this adventure God has thrown me into often called by most as, "Life" and tell you guys about it. I was ready the B-I-Ble today (I try to do it often) and was ready II Petter 1 and how to stay in a virtuous life. In the end it says, "Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you, for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. (vs. 11)" and I just want to make that verse my goal (or one of my goals) for this year - to really strive to know all I can about myself and how God made me so that I can give God all I know I can in my life. Please pray that I do not stray from God and that I dive right in his vision for my life and that I totally fall out the preverbal plane of ease into the crazy amazing adventure called vocation. I'll be in touch.

A few things really quick.

I'm going to assume that you guys already know enough about me that I don't have to reiterate the fact that I have oddities, weirdities, and awesometies. If you don't know then just talk to me or someone close to me and they'll help you try and figure me out.

If you want to understand my writing style and how I try to express myself that way, then check out my writings post, "iThink".

I'll keep the posts short probably due to just time constraints and all but I'll try and update you guys on the highlights.

So it begins

Hey guys so this is Charles! I start my journey called adult life beginning in Impact 360 very soon and to keep everyone up to date on what's going on in my life I'm going to try and keep this blog going for the duration of my adventure I call revelationary living. God has revealed so many things to me that I want to share and if anyone learns from my mistakes or successes, and if anyone can see Christ clearer by my example then I have lived a full life. So here we go...