Sup erbody

I haven't posted (nor has anyone else) on here for awhile so this might be kind of long. Or it could be short. I haven't thought through what I'll actually type yet so who knows...

First, thanks for your prayers for my family. Things went exceedingly well down in Atlanta with the memorial service for my grandfather. It was a time that I think will affect everyone in our family for the rest of our lives because of the realization of how blessed we are by our grandfather/father/husband's example of a life lived loving God and loving others. Fortunately every single person on that side of the family was able to make it to Atlanta for the service which was amazing considering there are 30 of us total. The fact that my grandfather was a believer and that most of the family are believers changed the whole atmosphere considerably. It's hard for me to describe how drastically different it would have been if it weren't for the hope we have in Christ and also the joy and pride we have in seeing a life well lived. To give you an example of the kind of impact my grandfather had on those around him: we went to scatter his ashes at a golf course where he played gold 4 days a week for the last 20 years, and half of the maintenance crew (including a guy who no longer works there but came back just for this) was there to say a last goodbye. They were there because every day my grandfather played golf there, he would arrive an hour before his tee time and bring all the maintenance guys and cart guys a box or two of Krispy Kreme donuts and shoot the breeze with them before he went out to play his round. Another example: my mom was given the job of going to the grocery store where he shopped each week and telling the deli workers that he had passed away and when she did, they all stopped what they were doing and actually teared up out of sadness for our loss, again because he would go in and make sure he had enough time to sit and ask the workers there how their families were and what was going on in their lives. We heard so many stories like that while we were down there, and it was amazing to see the reality of how a godly example of marriage and respect for others has impacted our entire family, all the way down to the grandkids. We're a big family, and very diverse, but every time we all get together there's never any stress or drama. Everyone has a good time; everyone respects everyone else. And after hearing more and more about my granddad's life, I realize that we have him to thank for that.

Enough sappy stuff. Last night I got to go to a debate on our campus between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson. It was okay. Not great but not a waste of time. Here's a blog post that a friend wrote about the debate. I disagreed with some of his conclusions and so I posted a pretty lengthy comment that you can read to get my take on the debate.

What else...I'm dating someone, which is nice. She's from Richmond, VA. She went to William and Mary and then interned with RUF at Stanford for the past two years. She's at WTS to get an MDiv in counseling. It's been great so far. Really laid back but intentional at the same time. Low stress, which is great considering my previous relationship and also the amount of school-induced stress I've got going on right now.

Speaking of school, I still haven't heard back from Princeton, but I've made up my mind to stay here at Westminster either way. I've found a group of guys that are in the same place that I am theologically and I'm really enjoying learning and discussing what we're learning with them. I'm not sure that I would find as many people with theological similarities at Princeton as I have here considering the type of people the school seems to attract (very very liberal) so the idea of leaving this behind is tough. I've started to interact more with the profs here and that's been really fruitful as well. There's a lot we don't agree on, but one of the benefits of coming in right after the controversy of last year is that the whole faculty is on high alert for student dissatisfaction so they're all going out of their way to meet with students and discuss issues, which is great.

I miss you guys. We'll have to find sometime to get together when I'm back in SC over Christmas break (Dec 12-Jan 3). What are you guys up to now? Let's get a roll call here. Post what's going on in your life and give us an update. Not in the comments section of this post, but on your own post. It doesn't have to be long.