update

well, i heard back from target today. apparently i wasn't "what they were looking for, for the available positions". not really sure what that means, but it's ok. i know that God has a plan in all of this. i started thinking about whether i would have been comfortable at target...with the suit and the tie...not really me. also, it was easy to take because i recieved a call from epic systems (another company i've been interviewing with), and they would like me to come up to madison for another interview. this company's corporate culture will more likely allign with my personal comfort level. they follow the whole wear what you're comfortable in. so if that's jeans and a t-shirt, go for it. so we'll see, i'm waiting to get an email about when to come up. anyways, i'm going to a movie now. peace.

funny

“In St. Paul, Minnesota, City Hall removed a display of an Easter bunny, pastel eggs and a sign with the words ‘Happy Easter’ because they might offend non-Christians. Good thing. You certainly don’t want anything Christian tainting a city called St. Paul.”
- Jay Leno

business trips and rainstorms

well, it's been quite sometime since i last posted anything, and i thought tonight might be a good time to break that streak. as many of you know, i went to minneapolis, minnesota last thursday and friday for a job interview at the corporate headquarters for target. honestly, i felt the interview went really well. i'm super excited because this seems like a really great job opportunity on top of the fact that i would keep doing my own fine art photography on top of the job. so i'm pretty happy about that.

the big news is that they told me i would be contacted by tomorrow, and since i haven't heard anything yet, i'm assuming that means i will hear from them tomorrow. it's really strange, in the past, i would have been freaking out about this, and worried and nervous, but i feel like God has really put me at ease about it all. case in point, the rainstorm going on right now. i just went outside a little while ago and sat on the porch for a while and watched the rain and listened and thought. rain always has a really calming effect on me, even during massive thunderstorms (kinda like this one was a while ago). i'm not really sure why the calm me, but they do. so i just went outside and revelled in the fact that this thunderstorm was like a calming gift from God. so as i sat there, i just thought, and listened, and i can't say that anything profound came, other than it felt like a short, intimate time between me and God. i haven't had a lot of those lately with all of the craziness associated with my graduation coming up, so it was nice to just kick back and relax for a little bit.

i'm sure that in a few hours there will be another post, relating to the world what happened with target. until then however, i'm going to sleep.

countdown to the end

today at church i was talking to my friend luke, and he said, "man, i can't believe i'm getting married in 5 weeks." so i asked him if that was before or after school ended for the year, i honestly didn't know. he said it was about a week and a half or two before school ends. so i realized, i'm now under 2 months to the end of my school career. 2 months... where have the years gone??? but it's cool, i'm ready to be done. and i'm almost there.

in another conversation from church today, with none other than josh graber, i realized, that i'm pretty excited about the possibility of living in minneapolis next year if i can land the job with target. we were discussing the idea of living in big cities. basically, we decided that minneapolis/st. paul has all the advantages of being a big city (e.g. cool downtown apartments, arts, sports, etc.), but they don't have the closed off attitude that a lot of people in other big cities have. basically, as i put it, it's a "big city that still feels like your hometown".

twin cities...here i come (hopefully).

sweet 16

Bradley and Wichita St. are going to the sweet 16!!!!!! suck on that cbs analysts. hope you know see that talent that exists in the mvc.

MVC

Here's a little breakdown by conference from the first round of the tournament.
America East 0-1
ACC 4-4
Atlantic Sun 0-1
Atlantic 10 1-2
Big East 5-8
Big Sky 1-0
South 0-1
Big 10 3-6
Big 12 2-4
Big West 0-1
Colonial Athletic 1-1
Conference USA 1-2
Horizon League 1-2
Ivy League 0-1
MAAC 0-1
Mid American 0-1
Mid Continent 0-1
MVC 2-4
Mountain West 0-2
Northeast 0-1
Ohio Valley 0-1
Pac 10 3-4
Patriot 1-1
Southeastern 4-5
Southern 0-1
Southland 1-1
SWAC 0-1
Sun Belt 0-1
West Coast 1-1
Western Athletic 0-2

i think i'm missing a team in there somewhere, but that's not the point. seeing that i attend an MVC school (Bradley, which upset #4 Kansas last night), i was a bit peturbed on selection sunday when the analysts from cbs were ragging on the selection committee chair for giving 3 at-large-bids to teams from the MVC, which put them to a total of 4 tournament teams. well, the big problem with that was that meant they had the same number of teams as the ACC which could not happen, because the ACC is the college basketball golden child, and no one is better than the ACC (please note, that's a sarcastic comment). Well, anyways, 2 of the MVC teams advanced, and quite strongly beat the teams they played, and the two that lost gave their competitors quite a game. so to all you MVC hating analysts out there, get off your high horse, and realize that college basketball does exist outside the ACC, and the mid-majors are ready to make a name for themselves.

God's will: part two

as i'm sure you may have assumed from my last post, there would be a follow up. and here it is. i thought maybe i'd give a little of my own interpretation and thoughts about the article i previously posted.

lately, i've been thinking about God's will, and the "plan" for my life everyone keeps telling me about. i've been wondering if it were really possible for there to be exactly one job, one city, one woman, one everything in my future. is it really possible that God has planned my life out in advance for me? i'm not so sure i believe that. if that's it, then life feels like one big guessing game, kind of like memory, that God is just seeing if we can figure out. and frankly, that type of thinking stresses me out. so i started looking more into God's will, and what the Bible says about it.

i think maybe the key point to following God is more like seeking him, and spending time with him. prayer, meditation, learning, i think those are the things God really wants us to be doing. i heard a good analogy once. God's will is like a pasture, and the fences are his moral boundaries for us. and as long as we stay within them, his blessings will continue in our lives. so basically, no matter what job i take upon graduation, so long as i continue to seek God, i'm living within his will. that, is a very relaxing revelation. i don't feel as much pressure to make sure i'm making the right choice. so for now, i'll just continue with the prayer and the reading and things, and just make the decision that seems best for me.

God's will: part one

I call them Blue Like Jazz Boys. I’m sure you know a few of them. Maybe you’re dating one. Maybe you are one.

A Blue Like Jazz Boy is someone who manages to seamlessly weave an enthusiastic recommendation of the book Blue Like Jazz into every conversation he has. I had a hunch that two such boys were sitting next to me at a table in Starbucks. Several clues gave them away, including their lengthy analysis of the latest David Crowder Band CD and their excessive use of the word “postmodernism.” Oblivious to my eavesdropping, the boys continued conversing while sipping their $5 lattes.

“Did you decide about California yet?” “Nah, not yet …” “It’s a tough decision …” “Yah … I know … it’d be a great opportunity, but I’m just not sure … I’ve been praying a lot … reading my Bible … just really trying to figure out which choice is God’s will, you know?”

I tuned out the boys so I could begin reading my book. I had just come from Barnes & Noble, and my book was brand new; their conversation, on the other hand, was not. I have heard many twentysomethings discuss their future in much the same way, talking as though God had pre-picked a specific route for their life—which college to attend, which major to choose, which place to live after college, which job to take, which person to marry and so on.

These twentysomethings routinely say things like “I’m just trying to find God’s will for my life” or “I’m wondering what God’s will is.” Their very language implies that deep down they believe God is playing a big game with them. He’s created a great riddle for them to try and solve … a divine round of hide-and-go-seek in which they are forced to participate. But I don’t think God delights in making things difficult for His creation. Although we might all wish that God would spell out His thoughts regarding what job to take or whom to marry, that’s generally not how it works.

People who become obsessed with finding and doing God’s will right before they have to make big life choices often miss the point entirely. That’s because the only time we really need to know and do God’s will is right now—in this present moment. Whether we follow His will in the small choices we make during the next hour of our lives has the greatest significance.

St. Francis of Assisi offers a good example of this. While he was raking leaves one day, a neighbor asked, “If you knew for certain that Christ Himself were coming back in a half-hour, what would you do?”

St. Francis replied, “I’d finish raking the yard.”

Many of us have come to view our daily routine as boring—just empty space to be filled with an array of distractions. But the key to knowing and doing the will of God is seeing that empty space for what it is: exceedingly important. We need to become vigilant about that space and remain unwilling to take small detours from God’s will—speaking disrespectfully to loved ones, watching trash on TV, wasting valuable time at work. It’s the wrong choices we make in everyday life that put us instantly out of God’s will for our lives.

In The Will of God as a Way of Life, author Jerry Sittser says, “The Bible tells us what we must do today, which often involves mundane tasks we tend to overlook. It tells us precious little about what is going to happen tomorrow, except to say that God is in control. We spend much of our time wishing the reverse were true. ‘Forget today,’ we say to ourselves, ‘I already know about that. It’s boring. I want to know about tomorrow because that’s unknown and exciting.’ But Jesus wants us to devote our time and energy to all the little tasks we must do every day, not just to the big decisions we have to make every so often …”

The good news is that we can decide right this moment to get back into the center of God’s will—by simply making the right choice in the next decision we’re faced with.

I wanted to tell the single-white-male-seeking-God’s-will-in-Starbucks that he had already found it. He was praying and reading God’s word; he was obviously concerned about giving God a central place in his life. Therefore, he was right where he needed to be—-trying to please his Creator through his ordinary, every day life. If he continued doing that, he’d probably remain in God’s will whether he moved to California or stayed in Chicago.

I glanced up from my book as the two boys stood up to leave. “See you Wednesday?”
“Yah, I’ll definitely be there…we changed it back to 7, right?
“Yep … Oh, and don’t forget to bring Blue Like Jazz for Dave to borrow …”

I looked back down to hide my smile.

Jennifer Ruisch is the author of Faith and the City (RELEVANT Books). She lives in Des Moines, Iowa with her husband.