jenkins

On Undulation

In his book The Screwtape letters, C.S. Lewis discusses something he calls undulation which is the constant change of ones interest or dedication to a given thing. He explains it as a constant series of 'down' times and 'up' times with said thing. Being a Christian novel Lewis is explaining how the prediction of someones spiritual well being is never possible, that we are all constantly finding new highs and new lows with our relationship with God.

Now that we know this, I want to share something I realized about myself this past week. As my relationship with God continues and I experience our Holy Father in new ways, I find that the 'low' times have been getting shorter, and the 'high' times have becoming longer, and higher. This is from a constant practice of striving to search for the will of God in a moment, by moment basis. Living by the will of God moment by moment is, indeed, nearly impossible; however, it is something to shoot for. Therefore, by searching for the will of God as often as possible, I find myself having a greater time with him.

How does one constantly search for the Father? This is something I struggled with for the longest time. However, I believe the answer is so very simple. Not long ago I began a bible reading plan from youversion.com. I began to read the bible daily even if I really didn't want to. In no time at all I began to see my attitude change. I began to make God a greater part of my life every day. If you are reading this and want to experience the omnipresent Lord move in your life I strongly encourage you to make the scripture a greater part of your life every day.

-Jeremy

 

On People

I find myself in conflicting terms with people. I find myself extremely frustrated and yet extremely blessed at the same time. let me explain:

 This time of year one can find a lot of people at any shopping center across the globe, especially in the United States. The past few times I've been to one of these shopping centers they've been packed, and I've decided on something about people when they are in large groups. They go CRAZY! It seemed as though no one in the store, or the mall thought twice about any single action, they are running round without a care of getting in someones way, or spending a bit too much on a given item. I think we can all agree that this time of year is fairly aggravating to anyone just passing though to get a gallon of milk. However, I told you that to tell you this, while the people we live with, the people we pass by, the people around us every day are extremely capable and extremely gifted.In these times of frustrations we over look the true beauty in a human being and how much we value them.

We have to remember that Human interaction is not something that should be passed by, or written off, but should be cherish. We must remember that we need each other to get through life. So, that being said. Next time you find yourself at the mall cursing someone because they almost ran into you because it seemed like they weren't paying attention, remember that they are a human being who you NEED to get by in this world.

jeremy

An Awesome Dog

The Coolest Dog Ever from Jeremy Jenkins on Vimeo.

On Frustration

I've found myself in an interesting position. I sometimes feel the my life is slowly seeping out from under me. I try to do things every now and then that are on my 'try before you die' list, but there is still something missing. I feel like I have this huge list of things I want to do, but no time to make any of it happen. Which leads to less production and more todo. What can be done in ones life to feel as though you are accomplishing something?

 I am almost finished with Donald Millers book where he writes about thinking of your life as a story; and what you can do to mold your life around the characteristics of a good story. I thought the concept was great, but I disagree with one thing he said. He mentioned the amount of happiness in various countries, and the country with the most happiness was Denmark. Denmark happens to have the highest percentage of happy population because they set low standards for themselves, and thus, are easily entertained. I do not feel that we must lower our standards to make ourselves more happy, rather we should discover this road block in our passage to discovering a meaningful life.

We all have a great story, a great meaning, a great purpose; we must discover what is causing us to become distracted from it and take steps to fulfill it.

-Jenkins

On Fasting

This past week has been a bit of an adventure for me. I have attempted two very different life style changes. This first is called the Uberman sleep cycle. It is a type a sleep where you take 6 - 30 minute naps throughout the day without sleeping through the night. Your body eventually forces itself into REM sleep as soon as you fall asleep for one of your naps. Once your body adjusts, you are getting as much REM sleep as anyone else, only you have 6 extra hours every day. Needless to say, my body struggled with the conversion. I didn't last 2 days! I will give it another shot sometime though!

The next thing I tried was fasting. Now the bible points out 2 types of fast: For decision and for discipline. I was attempting a discipline fast. The male students and I have been looking into sexual purity and what it means to keep sex off the mind. I didn't realize how much fasting showed me about sexual purity till I tried it. During my time of fast, I realized how much we think about food. Naturally, when I think of Dominos, I will order it. Or if I want some ice cream, I will get some. It was a struggle staying away from food! But I also realized that we men think about women nearly as much as food! I read somewhere once that a man thinks about a woman every 2.5 seconds on average. 2.5 seconds! We are basically inhaling too much sex! just like when you eat to much you become obese, when you think about women too much you are going to become a pervert. I learned from fasting we must tame our minds and eyes to avoid gluttony of sex.

 

I found this on the internet and thought it was funny

-Jenkins

On blogs

This past week I attended Lifeway's National Youth Workers conference. The conference is designed to give insight to Student Pastors as to ways to improve their ministry. I learned a lot, and without a doubt will utilize as much of this wisdom as I can. However, there is one thing I have struggled with. One of the sessions I attended was about using technology in ministry, which I am all for. A friend of mine (who is also a tech) was in the session with me, and we seem to disagree on one of the websites presented. I am talking about something called tumblr. Tumblr is much like twitter in that you can post something much like a blog, and it shows up as a feed (like in twitter) for other users. I just can't get into it though; I have to say that I am going to remain faithful to typepad. I have been using typepad for nearly a year now, and its been great. Easy to use and convenient, only trouble is that you have to pay for it. At any rate, that's my rambling on blogs now lets talk about something else.

 I mentioned earlier that I attended the National Youth Workers Conference hosted by Lifeway. This conference was AWESOME! In the past I have attempted to stay away from lifeway for reasons I don't really understand myself. But after seeing the building in which these people work, and the caliber of employee's they hire, I will stand up for them in any situation. The conference was obviously very organized and successful. If you are involved with ministry and work with youth aged students  you really need to check out this conference next year.

With that being said I am going to head out. It is sunday afternoon, and I don't have anything to do for another hour or so which probably means sleep (haha). But I hope you have a great day! and a good week a head of you!

jeremy.

On Philisophy

I never realized how much of my reading has been related to philosophy. As many of you know, I enjoy reading and one of my favorite genres of literature is classic christian literature. This semester I am taking Philosophy, while it is only an introductory class, we still cover some very serious topics concerning the broad field. The thing I find fascinating is that much of the information I've been given in the class so far is very similar to the readings that I have also read. This is interesting because it can only mean one thing: the writers of the books I have read, have also read the classic philosophy books we cover in my class. I find this fairly important as it shows me that there is much to learn for the great minds of our past. If we truly wish to learn something fascinating and revolutionary, we must go back and learn what has already been learned.

On the beginning of a new Life

The title is a little broad, but somewhat appropriate. Within the next week or so I will take a major step in my life. I am leaving the nest, the mother ship, home. Thats right, I am moving out. There is a certain pride in moving away from home, a grown up kind. You begin to find the final reaches of your actual self. I have always been a huge fan of self-discovery.

About a year ago, a friend trusted me with the duty of House sitting for a week. The house was very nice, but the thing I enjoyed the most was the calm free time. There were times when I found myself just admiring simple things because I didn't have the distractions that normally come with home life. Its during these times of absolute focus that you begin to discover yourself. Now, take this understand of yourself and add with it duties of an independent person: I predict some great things.

A long with a change in location, I would also like to make a couple other changes, for one a change in my spiritual and physical life. I plan on beginning every day with a run through town, and reading a chapter from my bible. Eating healthier, fellowship with brothers and sisters of the faith etc. Simple changes like this came have a huge impact on your life. (as we learned from Austin Blakey at youth night) we become like the people you put yourself around. If you around lazy people long enough you are going to become lazy, if you are around workaholics long enough, you are going to become a workaholic.

I will be moving into my new apartment early next week. Feel free to stop by! call if you need directions

-Jeremy

On M-Fuge

Its the Saturday before M-Fuge. I've been running around making last minute checks to everything. Something I would like to do during this trip is to keep the EGS blog up to date with info for parents while we are gone. Not only daily, but hour by hour. There is an application out there called Twitter, it allows a person to update information about themselves from anywhere about anything. Just now I added a twitter sidebar to the EGS blog, if I make an effort to keep it up to date, parents will be able to log in at any time to see what is currently happening on our trip.

On fast food cards

For those of you who don't go to Elm Grove, last week out pastor (Brad Burns) shared his thoughts on a great idea. He handed everyone a few cards with 'Elm Grove Baptist' and 'Just wanted to show the love of Jesus in practical way!' written on it. The plan is to take one of these cards, pay for some ones meal in a fast food drive through and leave the card for them to find instead of a bill. Today, I did it, for the first time! It was quite an experience.

I watched through my mirror as the window clerk hander the lady in the car behind me the card. She had a strange look on her face, I don't think she knew what to think, or how to react. I had a very interesting feeling, of giving and service. I hope, if you have a card, that you give it a shot. This simple gesture can truly make a big difference in the attitudes of others towards Christ.

Jenkins