Bleeding, Meeting, and Reconciling

Another week gone by. A pretty good, interesting week I would say.

A handful of notable things happened so I'm not sure where to begin...

Giving Blood
I think I will begin with Wednesday. On Wednesday, March 4th, I participated in the Red Cross Blood Drive at my school. It was my first time donating blood, and probably not my last. Going into it, I was admittedly a little bit nervous/anxious. I wasn't exactly scared but just the anticipation of the finger-pricking and the needle-sticking had me a little bit jittery. Nonetheless, the finger-prick was hardly even feel-able and the needle really wasn't that bad. But the thing that was most interesting that day was my thoughts before, during, and after the whole process. I had to wait for nearly 45 minutes until my turn was up, and during that time I thought about how strange the whole concept was. The idea that dozens and dozens of students would be allowing strangers to take blood out of their bodies with the understanding that their blood was going to be used sometime in the future as a transfusion is pretty strange. I don't think any other species in the world does anything remotely similar to this. Very interesting phenomenon.

Of course, after that thought I immediately began relating the experience to Jesus and his own experience "donating" blood in order to save the lives of all humanity. I laughed at how my experience paled in comparison to that of Jesus'.

My child-like anxiety over the momentary sting vs. Jesus' terrified moan for his Father to spare him from the cup of wrath.

The small prick on my finger vs. The debilitating and bloodying lynching of Jesus

The momentary sting of the needle vs. The excruciating pain of nails and spear being driven into his hands, feet, side, etc.

My bag of blood vs. His pure, holy, and righteous blood

After I had drawn those comparisons I pretty much felt all my anxiety blow out and smolder like the wick of a candle. I needed to stop being such a pansy. I had a good laugh about it to myself afterwards and still find my childishness amusing. But in the end, I felt pretty good about myself. I willingly endured the nearly two-hour long process of giving my blood and have possibly given someone (maybe even myself?) the gift of life. Pretty cool stuff.

Small Group
This past Tuesday something awesome happened. It started Monday night as Andrew and I were talking about things. It came up how him and I never really talk about our faith even as close as we are. This reality bothered me very much, as it was true with other close friends of mine as well who were also Christian. So I made a deliberate and quick decision. I went about asking Luke, Nathan, and Andrew if they were all willing to reconvene the small group we once had in 10th grade. That small group was very constructive and fruitful in the earliest days of my faith and helped me to get off on the right foot. It was true fellowship. A true fellowship of close school friends sharing with one another at each others houses. It was great.

So Tuesday afternoon when we hung out at Lukes house, we held our very first small group meeting. We talked about where we all were in terms of our faith, where we should go with the small group, how we should go about doing it, etc. It was a very fruitful hour or so and I felt a deep deep connection with each of them that I had previously not had. It was so great when we realized that it was all by God's hand that we were all friends and that we were having a small group.

I genuinely hope that God really brings blessing to the small group and each and every person in it. I hope that He really brings us all close together spiritually and obviously, closer to Him. I hope He really matures us and brings growth, renewal, and learning. I am sure that He wills it.

Reconciliation
In my previous entry, I talked about three different people that I was not on very good terms with. This past week, I made good with one of them. It was a deeply rewarding feeling. I actually just got off the phone with this friend. We had a good hour-long conversation about each other's lives because we haven't spoken in over 2 months. Really awesome for me. Not sure how it was for her hahaha. But anyway, I genuinely hope that I can be a better friend from now on, even though it can sometimes be hard. Not to be critical or judgemental, but I feel she could really use a good friend who she can rely on and trust and lead her in the right direction. Particularly in the spiritual sense, she seems to be in a pretty tricky situation. I hope I can maintain a level of integrity, respect, and wisdom this time around rather than being as insensitive as I was last time. A great learning experience for me that I'm really thankful for.

And that's all I really have to say for this past week.

Oh! Some news that I am pretty excited to announce! I am going to participating in the WPCA Talent Show on April 4th! :D

I am going to be doing a super-secret routine with Andrew and I really want to win! Not because there's prize money or for any glory, I just want to push myself to be the best in everything I am capable of, especially with the talents God has given me. After all, it is a competition. So yeah, I hope I can glorify Him beautifully as He would expect me to do. I am really going to put my heart and soul and sweat and tears into making this performance off da heezay :D

Until next time!