Oscars!

I'm so happy! Colin Firth won best actor playing King George VI, and The King's Speech won best picture!



Oh Mr. Darcy. How delightful.

And if you didn't see The King's Speech, I highly recommend that you go see it immediately.

Oswald Chambers

I've been sporadically reading Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest over the past year(s), and I think that it usually has good things to say. Although today I came across this one. I'm putting up the whole thing, and therefore I guess you can skip it if you want.

The Delight of Sacrifice

"I will very gladly spend and be spent for you."
2nd Corinthians 12:15

"When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ's interests in other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have no right in Christian work to be guided by our affinities; this is one of the biggest tests of our relationship to Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause. Paul spent himself for one purpose only - that he might win men to Jesus Christ. Paul attracted to Jesus all the time, never to himself. 'I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.'

When a man says he must develop a holy life alone with God, his is of no more use to his fellow men: he puts himself on a pedestal, away from the common run of men. Paul became a sacramental personality; wherever he went, Jesus Christ helped Himself to his life. Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve. Paul said he knew how to be a 'doormat' without resenting it, because the mainspring of his life was devotion to Jesus. We are apt to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which emancipate us spiritually. That was not Paul's motive. 'I could wish myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren' - wild extravagant - is it? When a man is in love it is not an exaggeration to talk in that way, and Paul is in love with Jesus Christ."


I would love to be the type of person that lived like this. You've met her before - the girl who simply exudes godliness in every action, word, and even expression. The girl who never says anything mean, and the girl who is truly beautiful because her devotion to Christ is absolutely evident as the focal point of her identity. For my part, I have occasionally said that I do not want to be the main character of my life; instead, I want others to be pointed to God through everything I do and say. It's something I aspire to, and yet something at which I fail miserably every single day to the point that I feel like a hypocrite for even thinking about it.


And so I start to wonder - is Oswald Chambers right about this? If you are to leave your own interests behind, how should you deal with spiritual gifts, or are those only applicable to relationships or ministry and not to personal enjoyment? Is it biblical to constantly be a doormat - to sometimes be taken advantage of without complaining and without arguing? Is that what Jesus would have done? At what point do you draw boundaries to prevent yourself from becoming bitter and resentful, or do you eliminate even a hint of a boundary and be so devoted to God that being in a state of doormat-ness is unimaginable? ("So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.") A strong and continual lesson in humility has left me realizing that every single situation that calls your character and responses into question has multiple sides, and that nothing is as simple as it seems from your own perspective. It seems to me that Chambers is saying that admitting personal need and weakness means that I am not trusting in or devoted to God enough, and maybe that's true, but I could be completely off-base. I would love to hear what you think about this question....

Microwave Cake, take 4

Ok. I've decided that microwave cake is the PERFECT thing for a college student, either during break or during the most hectic time of the semester. I happen to be enjoying the former of those two options, which is much more relaxing than I anticipated. Thank goodness. Moving on. I think I've conquered microwave cake. Secret magic ingredients? Hot fudge and peppermint extract. And powdered-sugar-and-milk frosting, preferably made in a plastic cup to add to the charm. Drink it with a cup of milk, if you're into drinking milk. If you're not into drinking milk...maybe with water? It requires a drink, in any case. I highly suggest that you go make it immediately. If you can't, come visit my home and I will make it for you. Even if you come at 3 am.

I'm old?

So...I'm 22 now. My very numerological birthday was quite nice, since it included getting rid of my terrible license picture from when I was 16, hanging out with dear friends, and playing both Rossini and Brahms. Oh Brahms....how you fill my soul with joy!

But now it's on to bigger and more important things, like grad school audition number 2 on Friday.


I'm excited! Hopefully I will not be destroyed or something.

It's all in the cards...

I've heard it said that the green cards one collects during a game of Apples to Apples are a literary depiction of one's personality. If this is true, I guess I have multiple personality disorder.


And yet, somehow I think that this representation of my character may be more true than I originally thought...


(I guess if I want to make my blog super legit, I'm going to have to stop posting random pictures of daily life and start talking about things that people actually want to read about. But where else am I going to put pictures like the ones in the last few posts?)

Lauren's Birthday!

Lauren M. lives about an hour and a half away from Gordon, which gave Diana, Meghanne, Michelle, and I a nice car ride in which to be ridiculous. I mean, heck, what else do we ever do?

Here, Diana and I decided to be Sherlock Holmes and Watson. I think I was Watson...


We took one wrong turn on our way that led us to a warehouse that apparently had something to do with either new or used cars - couldn't figure out exactly what - but we found a Mini with the Union Jack on the back of the mirror. I think I want it.


Once there, there were, of course, the obligatory and yet much-loved roomie pictures:



...and then things got a little weirder.




(Scenario: "Jillian, you just found out that Matt Damon is your father." I'm trying to remember why I was so excited...)


(Scenario: "Jillian and Lauren O. are planning a camping trip for Meghanne, but she doesn't know about it.)


(Scenario: "You just found out chocolate has been made illegal." I find our reactions very accurate.)


(No scenario; just really good carrot cake.)

And finally, this was the whole group!


Happy birthday, Lauren!

Catching up

I just went through my camera and I found a whole bunch of pictures that I should have posted long ago!

One time, Meghanne, Jon, Diana, Luke, Taylor, Chris, and I went to Boston to hear the BSO. Once there, we quickly discovered that the BSO was out of cheap(er) tickets, and none of us wanted to spend over $25 dollars, let alone $98. Ha. So it was time for plan B: Fire and Ice! This adventure was partially in celebration of Taylor's birthday, so we we told the chefs, and they made him stand in the middle of the cooking area while we all sang. ("Sang" is a very, very relative term...) After we had gotten our first round of food, we took some scenario pictures. I don't know what was supposed to be happening in this one, but it's my favorite.


This is another scenario picture that is definitely not ringing a bell...


But regardless of what the scenarios were supposed to be, we had a good time acting them out.

Later that week, I baked a cake for our organist/music director's last week of church. I took a picture of both the copious amount of butter necessary to make it taste good, and the even more copious amount of powdered sugar that went into the frosting. At some point or another, I'm going to have to dedicate an entire post to the merits of butter - as in, if you want anything to taste good, throw in as much butter as you think your arteries can handle. Take a look at the sugar-to-cake ratio...



Post-church, there was a party at a new restaurant in Boston called Lolita. NOTA BENE: IF YOU HAVE NOT HEARD OF OR BEEN TO THIS RESTAURANT, HEAR ABOUT IT OR GO TO IT RIGHT NOW. RIGHT NOW! I can't recommend it highly enough, and to top it off, it was started by people from church. So cool! And they gave us fake tattoos!


(This is my left arm, if you couldn't tell.)

The next week, my lovely apartment played Bananagrams. I won the last round that I played before heading off to a concert by a phenomenal string quartet, and I took a picture of my crossword masterpiece.


Good times.

This weekend, we went to Lauren's house to celebrate her birthday, but I think that requires a post of its own....