my first blog entry. cool.

my first blog entry. cool. i have a lot of things running through my mind currently. mainly (but not most importantly) i have a giant exegetical hermeneutics paper due and i am uber behind in everything. i'm finding that "grad school" means "you're behind in everything because we assign way more than a normal human being can keep up with ... school". NEVERTHELESS, i'm enjoying a ton of it and the dialogue in the classroom is really cool. plus Paul's letters seem to be coming even more alive to me now.

what i really want to talk about though is something that struck me on my one-year anniversary. we have three different dates we celebrate... oct. 16 (our civil ceremony in the states - 1st wedding).... nov. 11 (ceremony in guatemala city - 2nd wedding) and .... jan. 19 (day Danneth got here and we could finally start co-habitating like every good married couple should!)

the last year of married life has been the best year of my 33 years on this planet. marriage is an amazing adventure and when you begin to experience it you see how it is God's extraordinary display of His covenant in two human beings. when you dive in and give your life to another person in this way it sheds new, deep, intense and beautiful light on the meaning of relationship with Jesus Christ. i could go on for a long time about all of the things God has done in the last year with us as a couple but i/we don't have that kind of time right now. there is something though that stands out to me in such an important way - a revelation that opens up greater opportunities, deeper relationship and a more pervasive peace with Christ - that is thankfulness. try this out: begin thanking God for the little things, often. appreciate subtlties like the taste of a piece of fruit, the laugh of someone you love or care about, the details that you see in the leaves on a tree - whatever it is ... and start thanking God. thank him for a good grade you got but thank him for the near miss on the road, thank him for hearing that one song that you love, thank him for how good a bowl of cookie crisp is when you are mad hungry in the morning, thank him for the fact that you don't sleep on concrete or without heat in the winter, thank him for the little and the big things... but do it often. begin to appreciate what he lavishes on you.

when you make this a lifestyle God will begin to trust you with more. He isn't out to spoil us but to raise us as beautiful expressions of thankful, humble, strong children of Him. watch what happens when you start walking with thankfulness. our Father gives good gifts like the one i received when i didn't even expect it. my beautiful wife. there is so much we are given. so give back to Him with one of the most powerful expressions of worship - thankfulness.

Hoffy