please God

there used to be this guy who was in my sister's grade, named Matt Pargeter, so he was a senior when i was a sophomore. he was the only guy in dance, so people knew him for that, and nobody knew that he was consistently the third runner on our very competitive cross country varsity team, and he was enthusiastic about the academic bowl team. so enthusiastic that he started it. and they won the state competition every year. their first four years. in fact, if you doubt they were good, then consider that they went to nationals every year and in Matt Pargeter's senior year, amidst a team entirely composed of seniors, they won the whole thing. consider further that Matt Pargeter was also inducted into the Hall of Fame, one of only four others or so, and he came back home to find the front page of the city newspaper.

he attended DFC when my sister was president, and one time he was talking about how, before every Academic Bowl match, he would write on the top of his scratch paper the words 'please God,' and that was his motive - i mean, who would have argued that he didn't like the glory and couldn't be asking God for the victory? but who would have also argued that he wasn't trying to bring glory to God - that his own winning wasn't as serious as pleasing God through his efforts, by conquering on a national stage and setting an example to those who saw he wasn't a jerk or an insensitive egotist...those who actually knew him, anyway. he ended up going to Catholic College. no doubt he could have shot for the stars as far as colleges went - as prestigious as you wanted to go, i think he could have gotten in. he was just trying to please God.

so it started snowing again today after the series of obnoxiously cold days, so it dipped down to the 25's and brought flurries. i went running a little (though without gloves, my right hand was...freezing) and then all of us from youth group went sledding off the hill on the highway and it was awesome. we kept on wiping out, and it wasn't even funny, but it was still awesome.

in other news, the new edition of Hallway, the school newspaper. i am excited because i have an article in there about getting into college, which will bring up a later point. i am more excited because the editor really liked it, and i will hopefully get to keep writing stuff for the newspaper. i think we could get one out each month, because we seem to be overdoing it. we had planned on 8 pages and had to end up extending to 12.

anyway, about getting into college - we have this class called senior seminar that's supposed to help us transition to the college life. today we talked about things like addictions like binge drinking and drugs and sex and stuff. i thought i had all of this pretty much nailed down - that i was gonna stick to my morals. now i'm thinking it might be harder than that, even if it is at rice. i think i am going to need some good friends and fellowship and start off right or else i could be doomed for a while, and i would with everything in me, not like to fall out of grace. and again, i'm asking, "will i get into rice?" the suspense builds. february 10th. more suspense builds, because, pretty much to the surprise of everyone, the mission board might not approve our mission trip this summer. we will find out feb 11. we are supposed to pray about it. i can't even think of not being able to do it. i guess i really should pray about it. please God.