Day 15

Day 15. It's been just over two weeks. Half-way through. Am I surprised? Have I been surprised? Is God really doing anything or am I just spotting ordinary coincidences and pretending they're divine surprises?

I've been thinking about that a lot over the past week: what really is a surprise? Sure, I've used the word an inordinate number of times in this journal, but were those fair uses? In a sense I have to say absolutely: a surprise is a surprise, period. The more appropriate question to ask is whether they came from God. Maybe everything would have happened just as it did anyway, regardless of if I'd prayed the "surprise me" prayer. God only knows. What I can conclude, though, is that regardless of whether these "surprises" are really coming "from God" or not, I can still thank Him and I can still praise Him for all of them. God created the world, He created surprises. These random day-to-day events, well, maybe they're surprises sent from God, or maybe they're not, but regardless, I've become more aware of them, of everything around me. Maybe that's the point: just trying to recognize all the gifts God's already put into my life. When I start counting, now there's a surprise!

Today itself was relatively uneventful. I delivered two of the White day chocolates last night before bed (since the recipients are in my dorm) and the third this morning to a PO box, alongside a sympathy card for another friend and a birthday card for Kyle. It wasn't "surprising" when I saw a bouquet of sticks wrapped in newspaper sticking out (no pun intended) of his PO box today, but I still laughed [it's a long story; suffice it to say this was one of the very funny and very fitting birthday gifts I helped Ashley think up for him: instead of expensive flowers, sticks were much less costly, which is how he would want it]. I made the decision not to follow through with a mistake that I really wanted to make, I went to class, I worked out, I came back, played guitar, and then went to Buntrock and the Library for the afternoon to tackle some long neglected items on my todo list.

About my guitar: I reached a dramatic conclusion not too many weeks ago. I realized I can learn to play anything: any chords, any strumming pattern, any song–it just takes time. I'm nowhere near "good" yet, but I'm getting there, and I'm a lot less "bad" than I used to be. I can pick up a guitar and strum out a semblance of not just one, but several songs. That's a good feeling. It's validating. I think it's God's way of telling me that all this practicing hasn't been in vain; there's a purpose behind why I'm learning this instrument.

I also realized just now that I've probably made some mention of my 6-stringed love in almost every entry in this Surprise Me journal. That's probably a good thing. It's important to me, and I'm happy that I've been able to play just about every day.

I'm off to dinner with Amy now. I'm caught up on journaling, I've sent a bunch of emails that I needed to send, I've dealt with the most recent wave of pictures on Wendy's site (have I mentioned? www.reflectionsbywendy.com), and now it's time for food.

Back from dinner. Wonderful and long chat. Decent salad. Banana to go.

I got the email with this week's schedule for Selah, as well as announcing that the semester schedule is now available. I'm on for this week, and then two more times in April and May. What's really neat is that this week I'll have done the lyrics for FCA, Thursday Night, and Selah–it will be my first week acting in a capacity I like to term something along the lines of the "official Christian slidemaster"... or something. I'm grateful God's given me these gifts that I can share with others in all these different groups.

Tonight was fairly unproductive. I did some reading for tomorrow, but I don't feel I really did a whole lot. Maybe that's okay. Maybe I need time to relax? I wish it could have been a more productive relaxation, though.