What was he thinking???

Well, it's Thursday afternoon and I was kinda expecting to be feeling well by now. The good news is that I'm no longer coughing and hacking, the bad news is that I'm now feeling nauesous... er... nauseous... um...nausos... nashas... hmmm... (Webster.com... dum-dee-dum-dee-dumm... ahah!) ...n-a-u-s-e-a-s. Go figure. All that work for something you really didn't want to know anyway? Yup.

I'm also bored. Sadly the soap operas no longer hold any appeal to me at all nor does any form of a TV courtroom or Jerry Springer. I don't have any available books that I can read because I'm saving them all for our little trip coming up (more on that in a couple of days). And so here I sit, entertaining only myself through this post and informing no one of any information that could possibly benefit them in the future. So for those of you who came for entertainment, here's a little something for you:



For those of you who came to be informed:

Fish farts probably aren't stinky.

And for those of you who just stumbled onto this site by accident, I'm terribly sorry, I'm not usually this out of it. Have a great day.

Bleh

It has been a while since I last posted. It has also been a while since I've gone five minutes without coughing up my lungs. What started off as just a little sore throat and a weariness has turned into a full-fledged, coughing, hacking, nose-running, body aching, wretched cold. I'm gonna go back to bed...

Although the fire situation here in Arizona is really sad, this sign made me laugh.

Holy grand ideas Batman!

Superheroes. That's what the creative genius of Ben and Matt have come up with for a hall theme for next year. Matt and I will probably try to pull off being Batman and Robin. As I'm the tall one and Matt is a little shorter, we thought he should be Batman and I should be Robin, Boy Wonder. I get to dress up in his red shirt thing and green tight. Wowee. I will certainly be a dashing RA. We have thought about naming the rooms of the hall after superheroes, like the Spiderman Room or the Captain America Room. And then we will decorate the hall accordingly with comic books and super hero stuff.

Since we really want to have our main focus be to encourage the spiritual growth of our guys and to spur them on to love and good deeds, we are trying to find a Bible passage that we can tie into the theme. Probably we should have done it the other way around: found a Bible verse that inspires and then built a theme around that. But we really like this theme, and there is so much that we can tie it into.

Some thoughts so far have been: "Be more than conquerors" or "Through Christ, all things are possible", or "Fight the good fight". Nothing has been written in stone yet, so we are still open to suggestions.

Even though we are far from perfect, prayer is such a powerful thing, we believe that God can use even us to lead these young men coming into college. We both pray daily that God will work through us and in spite of us to reach these guys. We are, however, confident that he will be faithful. Matt and I are both stoked about doing the RA thing though.

Robin: "Holy tartars!"
Batman: "Unholy tartars, Robin. Stealing scimitars and golden eggs from a museum is one thing. But when the average citizen on the street is in peril, something must be done, and quickly."
Robin: "I bet even Shakespeare didn't have words for such villainy!"

Mid-year resolutions and numb fingers

Officially it has been two weeks and three lessons since I started playing the guitar. I practice most days until the tips of my fingers are numb. Since I don't have callouses there yet, it usually only takes about 45 minutes to an hour before I can't feel anything. Although my teacher, who is donating his time to my cause, says that I am making good progress, some days it is hard to see. I have learned 13 chords, a pentatonic scale and some riffs, but I can't quite get through a whole song yet. When I can sit down and strum a praise song with confidence, then I will feel like I have accomplished something.

But I digress. I promised to post more on my conversation with Matty the other day and I have yet to do it. The other thing we discussed was the regrets we have. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it. We're not even old enough to legally drink and we're talking about our regrets. Here's what two guys at the end of their teenage years have to regret: that we didn't stand up for injustices when we were younger. We idly watched as friends mocked and ridiculed those they deemed below them. For some of our friends, that pretty much included everyone. Although we never participated, we also didn't do anything to stop the harassment.

I can think of numerous examples of guys and girls both who were made fun of in high school for nothing more than that they existed and happened to go to our school. One guy was a little later in having his voice change. During his sophomore year, his voice would crack occasionally. For some reason this was enough for our friends to label him "gay". Not a huge deal. Except that every time his voice cracked and our friends heard, they would call out from wherever they were, "YOU'RE GAY!" Not once did either of us stand up for him. By our silence, we unwittingly condoned their actions. I realize this now.

So what have we learned from this? I don't know. Maybe what we took from the conversation was a resolve to not have the same regret when we look back 5 years from now on our lives. There was a passion to the conversation, a steeled resolve. We both knew that our inaction was wrong. From now on, the Brothers Ihms will lead by example, in word and deed.


But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.
1 Peter 1:15 (NIV)

Birds of a feather...

Matty and I like to go down to Water and Ice one night a week and get something cold to drink. We sit outside behind the store in the warm twilight air and just talk. Sometimes it's nothing more than, "My week was terrible, let me complain for a little bit." and sometimes we philosophize.

Last night we came to two interesting conclusions. The first of which will be appearing today, hopefully I'll find time to put up the next one tomorrow.

Choose the people you hang out with wisely. Pick people to be your close friends who have the same values, standards and goals that you do. All of the people we know who have friends who have messed up values or immoral lifestyles invariably are brought down to the least common denominator.

In no way, shape or form am I trying to imply that you shouldn't hang out with people who don't have as high of moral standards or the same values. The point is, don't spend the majority of your time with them. After a while, I can almost guarantee that their standards will rub off on you.

Remember, we are sinful people by nature. Progressing towards righteousness is not natural. It takes a radical act of an amazing God for that sort of change. Why mess with the results? Spend time with people who are like minded and will challenge you to be better, not encourage you to be worse.

It has been a while since I last posted. Is it because life is boring? Not really. I have momentarily run out of things to say. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let this one speak for itself. I think it says, GOD IS AMAZING. That's a nice shot right there...

Pickin' on my six-string

In a massive undertaking to surprise Jamie when she comes home from camp at the end of summer, I have started taking guitar lessons. For some reason I can't quite explain, Jamie is infatuated with the guitar. I imagine her dream guy could look like Frankenstein, smell like a sewer, talk like Michael Jackson and sing like William Hung, but as long as he played the guitar for her she wouldn't care.

Actually the real reason I'm learning guitar is for ministry purposes. It will come in very handy when leading Bible studies and on mission trips. Singing praise to God is a great way of uniting people. I'm excited to reach out to people through song. Hopefully God will bless this endeavor.

So far progress is slow. I enjoy it immensely but I get frustrated easily at my lack of ability. Last night I practiced until my fingers were numb, literally. I still can't transition smoothly between two chords. I have my second lesson ever on Thursday morning and hopefully things will start moving faster. Keep me in your prayers.

Doh!

You are having a bad week. You have two options: Option A, running for comfort into the loving arms of the creator of the universe, the sustainer of the cosmos, the giver of life, the God who loved his creation so much that he sent his only son to die so that people could be reunited with him. Or Option B, you run to yourself. You decide that you can handle your own problems or worse, you can forget about them by getting into sin. Only an idiot would choose option B.

I'm an idiot. How sweet it is when you finally realize that. I turned around and ran straight to God, where I should have been from the start. When times are bad, that is when I need God the most. Unsolicited advice for the day: Being with God is good, anywhere else is just plain crazy.

Passions (But not the romantic, cheesy kind)

My passion is basketball. But not watching basketball, or memorizing stats, or reading about it. My passion is playing basketball. When I walk onto the court with that leather spheroid in my hand, I get euphoric. I feel alive. I don't know what it is about the game, but when I'm playing basketball, everything else fades away. It doesn't matter if I'm having a good week or the worst week of my life, when I play basketball, my worries disappear. I guess you could say it's my version of weed...

On to the real reason for posting. Finding out what a person's passion is can open up a world of opportunities for talking, witnessing and encouragement. If someone asked me about playing basketball and at least acted interested, I would talk forever. Some people show off their passion for all to see. I know a guy who love motorcycles. His office is filled with pictures of motorcycles, models of motorcycles and framed stories about motorcycles. It isn't hard to figure out where his passion lies. For others, like me for example, their passions aren't as obvious. In my room you won't find many things having to do with basketball. I don't talk a lot about it on my own. But if you try and find me between 4 and 6:30 every evening, I can tell you right now, look on the basketball court first.

Finding out what makes a person tick shows that you are interested in them. Remembering what their passion is and asking them about it shows that you care. Once a person feels comfortable sharing their passion with you, they will feel more comfortable talking about other things, like eternal issues, because they feel that you care enough to dig on a level deeper than the surface. This is also a great ministry opportunity. If you want to share your faith, relate it in some way to their passion. If you care, it will show and they will respond.

Riflery and Musings

To start off with, I received a phone call from Jamie (my girlfriend of two years) who is still in Colorado doing the camp counselor thing. As I understand it, all the counselors at this particular camp are required to take charge of an instructing station where they work with the campers show ing them how to do stuff. For example, arts & crafts, hiking, fishing, or riflery. Being that Jamie is an Art Major, naturally I figured she would do something like arts & crafts. Not that she couldn't do the others, it just seemed to make sense in my mind to put the left glove on the left hand. So she's not doing arts & crafts, or hiking, or fishing, or anything else lacking dangerous weapons. My quiet girlfriend is going to be spending the summer instructing campers on how to fire a weapon with precision. At least she isn't doing bazooka-ing or skydiving...

On to the musing. I have been racking my brain for ideas for a hall theme for the dorms for next year. Honestly, I really like my first idea of "Be Radical", but I'd like to come up with a couple of more ideas just in case my other RA doesn't like it. I want something that will inspire the guys to be different from the rest of the world. We are still called a Christian university. We should be salt and light, not of the world, but ambassadors to the world. Hopefully whatever we come up with will instill in the guys on our floor that they are representing not just GCU but Jesus Christ with their lives.

So Tired...

Normally the wear and tear of everyday living is enough to make me tired. Add basketball and working out at the gym after working 10 hours during the day and I'm exhausted. Now we have house guests. My dad's cousin and her husband and their three little boys are staying with us for the next five days. Not a big deal, except my brother and I got kicked out of our rooms. Now don't get me wrong, I love these people. They are great guests, their kids are adorable and having them stay with us isn't a big hassle. Sleeping on the floor is.

I had to wake up at a quarter till six this morning ( 30 minutes earlier than normal) to take my little sister to her job. I am so dead right now, I can barely function. Without sounding like I'm complaining (I'm just stating the facts), I need to say that for the most part, cement covered with carpet does not make a nice bed. *YAWN.

On to more important things: actually I'm so tired that I can't think of anything more important right now. Well, I'm done for the day. I'm gonna go find a nice bed of nails and take a nap.