Parent for the Evening....

So my folks are away for the week on a cruise, celebrating their 24th anniversary. This means that my brother and I have free reign of the house. We agreed that he could have people over on Tuesday night (which happens to be right now), and that I could have people over on Wednesday. What I had in mind was maybe 3 or 4 guys over to watch a war movie and eat pizza or something like that. He apparently has something else in mind. There are currently about 15 of his classmates in our house right now, and the number is steadily increasing. When I saw how many high schoolers were infiltrating my domain, I thought it might be a good idea to vacate the premises to either Panera or my favorite Starbucks (which absolutely no Master's people know exists because it's on the other side of town), but when I saw how... "friendly" some of the girl-types were being with the boy-types (and when I say "friendly", I mean friendly like "oh you've got something on your lips.... let me use my lips to get it off..."), I decided to stay and be on hormone patrol. Right from the start there was this one girl who was sitting in her boy-of-choice's lap, sucking his face; and I walked right outside, pulled up a chair next to them and just started asking questions about what colleges they were thinking about for next year.

Gosh I sound like an old man... I just turned 20 two days ago.

But sensuality is nothing to fool around with (no pun intended). I know from experience. I never got into anything sexual when I was in high school, but boy do I regret the times when things got too sensual. It's dangerous. It's not God-honoring. And so I am stuck (by my own volition) in a house with what has to be by now 25 high-schoolers. But as I was apparently embarassing my brother (he shot me that look that says "you're embarassing the heck out of me"), I am taking a brief hiatus up in my room, blogging for a bit.

I've wanted to do a little review on a couple of gifts I got for my birthday. My folks know I am a C.S. Lewis nut, and so my mom bought me The Great Divorce. This book rocked my world. I just finished it this afternoon. It is a figurative story in which a narrator recounts the visitation of the inhabitants of Hell to Heaven. It is a collection of smaller stories that depict why and why not people are saved or damned. Most of all it is convicting-- right to the bone. There is much in there that I see in my life that I need to repent of, but the thing I took away most of all is this: I need to love God for God's sake. Not just because He made it so I don't have to go to Hell. Not just because He fills my life with Joy. Not just because He gives me mercy and grace and hope every day. I need to love Him first and foremost because He is God. I need to love Him because He is. There are some things in this book that raise a few theological red flags, but overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the biblical paradox of Free Will/Predestination, and what it means to "deny ourselves daily and take up our cross" more.

I'm also a Caedmon's Call fanatic, and so my dad got me the new Caedmon's Call worship album: In the Company of Angels 2: The World Will Sing. This is not their all-time best album, but then again, I don't think that any of their albums are really better than the others. Each one has it's own flavor-- but I can assure you, this album's flavor is amazing. The album lives up to the standard the first Company of Angels CD set: very worshipful, very praise centered. Unlike the other Caedmon's CD's, there are no political statements, no boy-girl love songs, no allegorical theological discourses set to music. Don't get me wrong, I pretty much love every Caedmon's Call song (except "Not the Land" and "Stupid Kid" from their self-titled album, and "Somewhere North" from 40 acres-- gosh I hate those songs.... nice going, Derek Webb), but this album is great in that it is simple, unadulterated praise. This is the most God-centered CD I've really listened to since I got Jars of Clay's Redemption Songs last summer (which is an incredible CD in and of itself). If you do not have this CD yet, please remedy that situation as soon as possible.

Well, that's pretty much it. I think I should be returning to Hormone Patrol. Adios.