Excitement

Well the tone of this post might be a little different than my last. After discussion with a few wise minds, I am not more encouraged than frustrated. I had a conversation with a few friends the other night about Job and my confusion with the flow of the Old Testament at this point. One friend told me he would be extremely worried if I got done reading through the Bible one time and said, "I get it." That kind of put things into perspective for me. How arrogant of me to assume that after about four months I was going to understand God. I think this was the point of the book of Job. All of Job's friends (even Job at points) presumed to understand God. That was the reason for the Lord's rampage at the end of the book (I think). So now, as weird as it seems, it is encouraging and exciting to know that I worship a God that I cannot understand. That won't keep me from trying to understand Him more, but it will keep me from drawing too many absolute conclusions.

Now I'd like to make something clear, because I can just hear some of you out there licking your chops. This does not mean that there is no reason to decide what you believe because we can't understand it anyway. If that was the case than there would be no reason to have the Bible, churches, or even Christianity. If that is your view then I'm sorry but you just aren't paying attention. It excites me to know that Paul is so confident. In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul urges the Corinthians to imitate him. He's so confident in what he believes that he puts himself up as someone to be a model. So I am not telling you that I am one of those "there is no absolute truth, truth is what you make it" people. There is absolute truth and His name is Yahweh. He tells us about it in His true written word, the Holy Bible. Sorry, rant.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know the encouragement that I got and hope that it is encouraging to you too in you are in a similar place. If any of you haven't heard yet (my grandma called me this morning to ask me about it hahaha) there was a huge earthquake in Chile on Friday night. The epicenter was about 370 miles south of Vina del Mar, where I am staying. There was a lot of damage in the capital of Santiago and apparently a lot of bridges and roads are down. We are still going though. We have been in contact with our directors down there and for now everything is still a go. I'll be flying out of Fort Wayne tomorrow at like 2:30 pm. After we all meet up in Atlanta we will leave for Santiago at about 8 pm and arrive sometime Wednesday morning, about 8 am if everything goes as planned. That is my first official Chile update. I'm sure there are more to come. Please be praying for me and the group. I'm very excited about the opportunities that we have to bond and grow closer to each other and Christ. There are some great chances for good, God-exalting conversations and hopefully an awakening for us all of just how awesome out the Lord really is. Next time I write I will probably be in a different country. Chao.

All for His glory,

Mitchell