Mud Pies in the Slum

This sunday I was perticularly struck by this quote of C.S. Lewis' book The Weight of Glory delivered in a sermon on Hebrews 11: 13-16:

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

Too often I feel like that ignorant child in the way that I choose to spend my very short time on this earth. Too often I see myself in pursuing a little bit of what Moses gave up in Hebrews 11:24-25 instead of living my life in light of the gospel and looking aheaed to my reward. Far too easily pleased indeed.

*sigh* Christmas

Gotta love it. Mario Kart, Starcraft, good food, no worries, lots of love, lavished affections, cherished friends and more good food. Today it was cheese day. Every Christmas my mom takes the opportunity to buy special cheeses and today we got to dig in. Jalepenjo Havarti, Smoked Gouda, Brie, and a mozzerella-capicollo roll complete with an assortment of crackers and smoked salmon. So good.
I got to spend some quality time today with John Kimmer as well. We had dinner for about 2 hours together! It was great food and great conversation followed by mints! We then went to my house where we sipped cappuccinos and I spanked John at Mario Kart 64 :)... alright he spanked me, but I kept it close. The thing about playing Mario Kart against John is you have to put up with all of the smack-talk. I discovered though that if you can get him going with his mouth sometimes he won't notice the little black bomb heading towards him on the horizon. Oh boy. What a wiener but boy do I love him.
Well, I must be off now to the land of unicorns, minataurs and turkish delight. goodbye.

S-dub

Morning Glory

Well as some of you may know, my dad's parents hail from Calgary Alberta in the foothills of the impressive Rocky Mountains. I would just like to share a little bit of beauty from that part of the world with you all. My grandparents are exactly my style of grandparents... I mean who else's grandparents would wake up, hike to the top of a hill in the snow to enjoy the beautiful sunrise over their city? The two of them probably wrote the Calgary dayhike guide because they've been everywhere. They are truly inspiring people and I would just like to publicly thank them for inspiring in me a spirit of outdoor adventure that shows no signs of dying.
I love you both... and the rest of you as well.

Stew

Stewart: 3 - Exams: 1

Done am I. I killed three of the exams. Shot em' dead and left em' bleeding in the exam room. One of them took me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me across a really large cheese grater, then proceeded to pour salt and lemon juice all over my bleeding body. While I was writhing on the ground in agony it came up to me and kicked me right in the gut... yeah, I didn't even finish my Outdoor Leadership exam. Actually only one kid did... my room-mate which made it even worse. Oh well, I had fun writing it. We were presented with a very unwinnable emergency backcountry situation and we had to come up with how we would handle it while looking after our clients according to the industry standard of care. The situation was as follows:

You are solo guiding a group of six teenagers in Banff National Park (grizzly country). You are two days in when one of the teens falls three meters off a cliff and you must suspect a spinal injury (ie. improvised transport is not an option). While providing first aid one of the kids knocks your satellite phone off your pack and breaks it! You are 25Km from the parking lot where there is a payphone. It will be raining in forty minutes and the weather is deteriorating for the next few days. What do you do?

After finishing my answer, I announced to the class that I had killed just killed six kids. After the laughter subsided, the tears filled my eyes and I struggled through the rest of the exam :) Boy it was a blast.

Anyway I rocked my papers and now I'm really tired and in desperate need of Christmas break.

Love you all.

S-dub

Oh Sweet Relief

I just finished my last project/paper for the semester and let me tell you it was a doozie! I think that it ended up being about 50 some-odd pages long. It was a trip planning assignment for Outdoor Leadership and there were just so many things that we had to include. But it's over now... I feel like one all nighter per semester isn't the end of the world... although I went to my 8:00 class when about half the class skipped! That felt backwards... shouldn't I have been the one skipping? Nope, not Stewart Reimer.
Ok so previous to this weekend I was sick like a dog. I had a fever that soaked my bed with sweat at night (so gross), a sore throat that felt like someone had sandpapered half way down my esophagus, a splitting head ache, aching muscles and joints, a night time cough and during the day I was coughing up bloody phlegm! So on thursday night I bought some NyQuil and DayQuil, some vitamin C, some Halls with Echinachea and Vitamin C, and some Buckleys mixture all with money I didn't have to spend on such things. The reason I did this was because the next day (Friday) was Outdoor Leadership "Hell Night". It began at 04:00 hours when a United States Naval Petty Officer dressed in full fatigue breaks into the room where we are all half asleep and demands us on our feet with our pack and in formation. The day went from there. I will summarize by saying we snowshoed through 2 feet of snow in sub-zero temperatures for 34 hours without sleep or food. It is a great story but it's too involved and detailed for my blog... ask me about it in person.
So after this brutal day/night I thought that my Christmas holiday would be ruined and that I would get pnumonia or something and probably die. Well the opposite happened. The next morning after 16 hours of sleep, I woke up fully well except for a slight cough (but I still had my little flask of Buckley's so it was all good). I beat the illness out of my body. I was impressed. I also prayed a lot that day... I think God heard me.
So exams are next week and then we will be sweetly reunited my friends. I can hardly wait.

S-Money