Elusiveness of Time

So I realized today that I am closing in on four years since I graduated from Milligan and moved to Lowell. Four years! That is as long as I spent in college. I cannot believe that the past four years have come and went with such speed. It stops and makes me reflect on who I am now, as opposed to who I was then. Let me share some of these thoughts (in my favorite "popcorn" format):



-I feel much older than I did then. It is odd to describe, but for the first time, I can truly feel a different physical, emotional, and spiritual position in life. I cannot possibly pull all nighters 2-3 nights a week and still survive. I need a routine bedtime, and I look forward to a good night sleep like never before.



-I love acedemic study now more than I did then. When I left Milligan, I was burnt out on study and classes, I needed a break. Now? I cannot wait for my online classes to begin in the fall (Masters at JBC). I long for conversations with others who see the need and desire for academic excellence. This is why I now have a book list (on Facebook) and I am learning the bass guitar and teaching myself Hebrew. I need to be academically challenged.



-I care more about my family now than I did then. Milligan was such a unique and wonderful time for me that I felt that I had a family right there. Bailey, Ashley, Brian, Kevin, Kylie (of course!), and so many others were my family, and because of that, I neglected my biological family. I have grown to love and appreciate my family now more than ever before, and I have seen my biological family become more of a Christian family in the past four years as well.



-I have learned, again, that I am terrible at corresponding with friends from a distance. I am a guy who lives in this moment of his life so much that I do not do well keeping up with friends of another era of my life. My Milligan friends, much like my high school friends before them, have been neglected. I regret this. There are several friendships that I hate having neglected. There are relationships that now, looking back, I realize their importance.



-I am most definetely a better husband now than I was then. I have learned so much about Kylie and how she thinks and feels, that I now know how to love her better. She is still the only person who can make me feel like my heart is weightless. She is my perfect beloved, and the greatest example I will ever know of what love looks like.



-Harry Potter is still the single greatest fictional series ever made, I still think the LOTR movies are better than the books.



-I still miss the grill. I could do without Milligan easier than I could do without the grill. I miss the work, I miss the friends, I miss the professors coming in and eating, and then listening in on our conversations and giving their opinions. I think the grill better be baptized, because I want to see it in heaven.



-I do not miss the big hill.



-I think I had a better understanding then of how youth ministry should be done, but now I have a better understanding of how youth ministry can be done.



-I know more about Scripture now, and I have a greater desire to allow Scripture to shape who I am. However, I am worse at Greek and some of the detail work of studying Scripture.





I think that sums up some of those things that have changed during the last four elusive years. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. I hope that you find yourself at peace with who you are becoming, and I hope that you are becoming more like Christ.



In Him and for His Glory



Matt