I'm getting late starts to the day all this week, apparently. Woke up at close to 9 (not counting waking up at 2 first...). The good thing is I had devotion time for three days in a row now, hope to keep that going (although from past experiences, this is going to take some effort). Went to school and was greeted with an over-enthusiastic Berkant. When asked show he's going, he answered with a hearty "I'm wonderful!" And we all laughed at the ridiculous level of happiness that he's exhibiting...heh. It's kind of infectious, eh? Anyway, I tried to do research, but was unable to do so, and wasted a few hours there. Met Carlos and Graeme for the first time in a long time. Came home, had a brief nap, then off to pre-study for Saturday's Bible study. I was still agitated and nervous before pre-study, not knowing how it's going to be like, or how many people will show up. But to my surprise, all of them showed up, and the pre-study was not too bad. Much better than it would have been had I been the only one to prepare for it, and that's really the purpose of the reform that I was suggesting. Came home for Timmies dinner, and that's about it for the day.

Random notes...

• I was reading Your God is Too Safe early this morning (like 2am). The chapter is titled "The wounds we share." I was struck by it deeply. Mainly it's talking about the wounds that friends inflict on us or vice versa, and it hit me too close to home...especially when the author quoted from Psalm 55, which really expressed what I felt back in the days of the Francis conflict...

  If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it;
  if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him.
  
  But it is you, a man like myself,
  my companion, my close friend,
  
  with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
  as we walked with the throng at the house of God.

  So...the lesson is, the wounds may not heal (they may always be there), but these wounds may heal us, and bring us closer to Christ's wounds, for which I'm partially responsible for wounding. It's a hard lesson, as it is really easy to be hateful rather than turn to God. I just pray hard that I will really learn this lesson...
• I left the prestudy with a sense of lost...I don't quite understand why. It's like, there's so much we can talk about in the topic of God is Creator, we can only talk a tiny little fraction of it, feels quite unsatisfying. Or perhaps it's the feeling that leading the Bible study is overwhleming. I don't know.
• So I'm going forth with the puzzle option. I regret not being able to take the wedding option, but I really can't do both, unfortunately. As Eugene suggested, if I do win the championship (which is impossible), I can shout out "This is for Jackson and Rebecca!" (..........)
• The leaves on the trees just outside my window are changing colours, and falling pretty quickly... But then maybe these are special leaves, because when I look further toward the campus, most of the trees are still as green as...well...trees. The tricky thing is the timing for going north to visit Algonquin again...
• When I met Carlos and Graeme, they asked me how I was doing in the recent past. I said there was a family trip, which occurred for the last week of August. And then there was last week...but I don't remember how I spent last week...it's all a blur to me. It was that bad, eh?
• I wanted to apply this protective plastic film to my mPod, but I really suck at this kind of thing, so eventually I gave up on it. I couldn't put back the original film that was on it, so now my mPod is, well, unclothed... I've heard that its surface is easy to scratch, so I guess I'll have to care for it a little. Then again, isn't this supposed to be a music player only and not a decoration? So yeah...anyway.
• Even with all the serving that's been done, I still have lingering doubts...mostly about myself. Is my heart right? Do I really love Christ? How come I have trouble listening to God? Am I back to being a theoretical Christian? Have I really been released from the bondage of sin?

I'm grateful to God for...

• leading us through the pre-study this evening;
• making my stomach feel a bit better now;
• His presence in the time of devotion this morning;
• the lesson about the wounds; and
• finally settling the wedding puzzle question.