The Past Six Months

It's been a long time since I've written. A long time. It's been a good and interesting and hard past six or so months. Has it been that long? I don't know. A lot's happened.

Turned twenty-one:

Went camping at Lake Kachess:

Hiked to Camp Muir:

And just generally have had a lot of (weird) fellowship:

Yeah. Looking at those last few pictures, I'd think, "what the hell", too.

I've been in Seattle a year now. October eleventh marks my one-year anniversary. It's been a good year. The past ten months have been unlike any I've ever experienced. I've met so many people, and I'm so thankful for it. Before I came, I didn't hang out with any of my friends. Granted, most of them moved to Eugene and Corvallis to go to school. I was not social.

I'm so thankful that I've been involved in church, and getting to know God on a personal level. I always called myself a Christian - until I realized I really wasn't. I had the misconception that because I believed in God, I was going to Heaven - so I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I could sin all I wanted to, and I'd be forgiven. Yeah, no. It doesn't work like that. At all.

It took me a long time to realize that I hadn't accepted Jesus Christ into my heart. And even then, it took me a long time to actually let Him in my heart. I'm not sure why. I wanted to accept Him and I prayed about it, but my heart was so hard (and it still is), that it took forever. But finally, twelve weeks ago, I was saved at my desk in the warehouse at work. I felt called to pray and accept Him - so I did.

I've been doing some reading on carm.org (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry) about other religions. It's a really good site for apologetics. Anyways, I was reading about other religion's beliefs, and damn, they're scary. Every single faith is works-based. I couldn't imagine my salvation depending on if I was doing good works and not sinning. That's scary as hell.

I've been learning so much. But, I have a lot to learn. That's an understatement. A huge understatement.

And I finished Redemption Group. It wasn't hard. Although, our leaders told us that they didn't see any of us feel crushed by our sin. Or be disgusted by it. Or repent of it. They said they we pretty much said, "this is my sin," and then not do anything about it. Which was true. I've been praying to feel the weight of my sin. The leaders made a good point, though. They said not to pursue the attacking of your sin, but to pursue God, and in so doing, you'll put your sin to death. It all matters where your heart is at.

I miss my brothers a lot. They were my best friends when I left West Linn. They still are, even if I don't talk to them much. That's okay, though. I guess the time we do talk needs to be made intentional. I love them a lot. One of the things I miss most is watching The Office with them. We'd do that every night. Literally. And it never got old. We know The Office better than anybody. I'm going down to West Linn on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. I'm excited to see Thomas, my mom, Hugh, and the dogs. I haven't been down since mid-August. Been a while.

Anyways, it's been nice to write, since I haven't done it in a long time.

God bless,
Austin.