Iowa Shucks

Whelp. It's been a week and a half since the end of my first year at Taylor, and it's two and a half weeks until my 21st birthday.
I'm definitely entering into a new season in my life, and not just summer of 2009 - God is actually taking me to a new place, and to be honest it's pretty exciting. Some of it I'm sure I will blog about in the future as I enter more fully into the changes that are taking place in my life. In the meantime though, I'm living at home in Iowa. Prior to summer break I was fairly excited about summer and the many possibilities it held for me, but now that I'm here it is really kinda lame at times. I don't start working at my summer job for another two weeks, I'm in Iowa, and I find myself fairly secluded from people beyond my family here because none of my closest friends from pre-college stuck around this place like I am right now. I will probably look into getting a job on campus next summer if I can, although that all depends on job opportunities. I bought this weekend, so I have immersed myself in the process of now gradually paying it off.
It has been good to be with family though. My parents are marriage counselors and I have gained a great deal of knowledge and wisdom from them and the stories they share. I've been gradually dealing with issues from my past - like, even little issues that began from the times of my first memories - and it has and will continue to be a time of healing I believe. For instance, I have always had a fear of rejection. Why is a question I never really figured out. But then through talking with my mom I found an answer. I was the youngest child for 5 years, and being a severe asthmatic, I got a ton of attention from my parents. That is until my little brother came along with asthma as well and diverted my parents attention away from me. I never realized that ever since then I had held on to things like that, and let it affect the way I live today. And, by the grace of God, I can be free from those kinds of fears. I can forgive the wounds I felt as a child, and move on with a lighter load. This summer is a time that I've been growing closer to God as well, giving Him more thought and priority than past summers, and I'm looking forward to where that will take me as well. With the help of a very amazing friend of mine, we're keeping each other accountable in daily devotions, and - being that devotions have been one of my biggest struggles as a Christian - it has been one of the most beneficial things so far this summer.
So while this summer will be far different from any other summer in my past, I am encouraged by not only the hope I have in what God is doing in my life right now, but in the hope I have in the future - particularly as next semester comes along and I return to Taylor with a whole new set of responsibilities.
Yeah, life can be rough sometimes, but even in the rough spots - it can be pretty wonderful.
Share some smiles with people this week, you never know who needs one.

Dustin

The Tears and Music of Love

I'm sitting here at Payne's and I have a ton of homework, so obviously I did this instead.
These are songs (in no particular order) that, for a lot of different reasons and memories - good and bad, serious and silly - have affected me, or still do.
I'll probably want some of these on my funeral soundtrack, but I'm pretty sure you should try to listen to them before then if you never have.

Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape - Underoath
John Wayne Gacy, Jr. - Sufjan Stevens
Renegade - Styx
Lowrider - War
There are Places I Remember - The Beatles
Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie
Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Question - Old 97's
You Put this Love in my Heart - Keith Green
Everything is Glorious - David Crowder Band
Unashamed - Starfield
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing - Sufjan Stevens
Do You Realize? - The Flaming Lips
Jesus, Etc. - Wilco
Real Love - The Beatles
I'm the Man Who Loves You - Wilco
I've Just Seen A Face - The Beatles
Float On - Modest Mouse
Can't Lose You - Derek Webb
But for You Who Fear My Name - The Welcome Wagon
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Leaving on a Jetplane - John Denver
Young Pilgrims - The Shins
Pencils in the Wind - Flight of the Conchords
I am a Pilgrim - The Byrds
Bowl of Oranges - Bright Eyes
Gaurdia Forest - Chrono Trigger Sound Track (yes, the SNES game...)
Sea Lion Woman - Feist
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane


Happy Mother's Day, and treat your mother right!

Our Faithful Father

Over the past while I've been told a fair number of times that I look very contemplative. And this is because I have, in fact, been very contemplative. I've been quite aware lately that God is specifically at work in areas of my life, and it's been hard because I'd come to realize how distant my relationship with Him had become. It's never easy, but through a lot of prayer and conversations, I've been tearing down the walls that have built up over the months.
However, last night was especially amazing, and that is what I wanted to share about. A bit before 1am I went to the prayer chapel next to Morris Hall for the first time this year to spend some much needed time with God. To make a long story short I cried out to Him and asked that He would give me some word or scripture or anything to help and encourage me right now. So I waited on Him, and the first verse that came to me was Jeremiah 6:22 followed by the words "faithfulness" and "love". So I'm like, okay... whatever, that's random and generic. So I looked up Jeremiah 6:22 - Thus says the LORD: "Behold, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth." The chapter heading was "Impending Disaster for Jerusalem". ... Awesome. So pretty much I'm just like, okay that was apparently a failure. ... So I keep on praying. Eventually I get back up and turn to my Bible. Now I don't really suggest this as a method for seeing what God wants to tell you, but I randomly flipped through the pages and ended up back in Jeremiah and read the first verse I came to: Jeremiah 31:8 - "Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here." Immediately I noticed a parallel, with the chapter heading being "The LORD will turn Mourning to Joy". I can't explain it, but my heart began to skip a bit. I started reading the rest of the chapter and came to verse 3: the LORD appeared to me from far away. "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." ... Our God, He's a clever One.
Maybe in the end it was all just coincidence, but whatever the case God used the whole thing to speak to me. Those verses together have kind of been my testimony over the past year. After YWAM I went through a osome of the roughest and spiritually draining things I've been through since I've really begun to follow Christ. My life on the inside was basically a disaster. But I can see clearly now over the past weeks and months that God has been turning my mourning into joy. Yes, I have felt very distant from God, but He's still calling out to me, and I to Him.
Last night I didn't get any huge revelations about what I'm suppose to do; God didn't give me any divine guidance and I still have no clue exactly what I'm doing. But what I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt is this: God still loves me with an everlasting love, and forever and always He will continue His faithfulness to me. I don't need to know all the answers, God has shown me again and again that all you and I ever need to do is trust Him. He knows what He's doing, which is more than we will ever be able to say for ourselves.
I pray that you will be blessed in your own walk with Christ and can find the joy that is so abundantly offered to us. We serve a God who loves us desperately; run to Him no matter what it may seem to cost you. Throw off everything that is holding you back... Live this life to hear in the next, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Your brother,
Dustin

The Perks of a Coffee Maker

So here I sit, realizing for some time that it has been months since I have had any input in this blog. Life has been interesting. Interesting but good. It is almost the end of the school year and I ponder on my life. First semester, I focused a lot on school and not so much people. I got good grades and everything, but come end of the semester and my relationship with God was suffering. To make a long story short, this semester I have spent much more time investing in my relationships - with God and with people - and it has been excellent. I realize more that God has made me to be a relational person, and not just lots of surface ones, but much rather a few solid deeper ones. However, my grades aren't as stellar as the previous semester... but I would like to think it has been wholly worth it.
It's been an encouragement though. Next year I'll be PA on the floor, with which I feel there are a lot of expectations that I will only be able to meet with Christ's help. I'm truly excited for that responsibility though and grateful that I've been given the opportunity to specifically invest in the lives of the guys on my floor, however challenging it may be. Additionally, I just this weekend finished my application for a Lighthouse (missions) trip next January. I didn't want to go at first so I put it off to pretty much the last possible moment, but now that it's finished my excitement is steadily increasing. My 2 months in Jordan last spring changed so much in the way I view missions, relationships, cultures, religion, my own relationship and walk with God and so on. I am excited for another opportunity like that, especially in that ministry setting where I will hopefully get to know people outside of my floor very well! I am really hoping I can go to Czech-Republic because it seems like the one I am most equipped for and feel the most connection to, but I am excited to go wherever God takes me and to can use me the best!
*Intermission Report! : Tim McD, Ryan G and I went to the abandoned train on Friday night: scariest night of the semester. The End.*
Today was pretty sweet. We went to the Mercy House and Matt (the regular pastor) didn't preach. But despite our initial skeptical reaction to a new speaker, the service was one of the most church-healthy ones I've been to in a long time. It was on Titus 2 where Paul talks about (among other things) servants and women being submissive. It was made very known that this is a touchy subject, and at the end the speaker left half an hour for open dialogue: however, men had weren't allowed to say anything, the floor was given completely over to the women. It was so encouraging for me as a guy to hear women in the Church share their voice with a congregation. Nothing any of them said was bashing on men or negative towards guys at all, but it was purely a healthy dialogue and although it didn't get terribly deep, it was a huge step in the right direction for our Church. Okay, but that was just the morning. We then went to a Creole restaurant with was sweet. Then we went to Burger King and it was just super weird for me, ask me in person and I'll tell you the short story. A little later in the afternoon, Jordan got some eggs and we (he) fried those and I blew a bunch of eggs out to keep the shells. They’re for art, it’s probably cool.
Anyways, I still have much to do before the semester ends but for some reason I’m not stressed. Tuesday = my first Cinco de Mayo here; Wednesday = season finale of LOST; Everday = time spent with amazing people.
Who is blessed? ... This guy.
This week in an eggshell: Stalking, Spelunking, MyBrute, Shoe Boot-Camp, Canadian Bacon, Camera Obscura, Freaky Train People, Bosco Sticks, Women's Rights.

Sicerely yours,



Dustin K. Friesen

Christian Duties. heh.. heh.

I realized today that for a while now I have been very distracted from life in general. (Part of the reason why I haven't blogged in one month despite wanting to often). I don't know exactly what it is... but I found myself with a deep need and longing to discover something - it was reminiscent of an epiphany of my life. Unfortunately my current situation has me in the middle of the heartland of conservative cornfield-laden Midwest America. Not a victory in and of itself. So I think subconsciously I have suppressed that need to discover something and accepted a mediocre lifestyle. It has become my life, and without a question of fruitfulness I partake in my daily events, yet I find myself at times loathing it. I need more time outside. Alone. Thinking. Praying. Me and God. It is something that I plan on doing more as it gets warmer outside.
Thought: I find myself in the middle of the dialogue who are trying so hard to be even more politically correct then my public high school English class teacher. I am fearful that we have all in different ways allowed the Church of this culture to develop a form of Christianity that is continually attempting to be more and more accepting and agreeable to the world around us. We are trying to find a sense of stability, that we can be Christians in our culture and still justify enjoying the apparent fruits of the two. We are trying to logically justify enjoying what this world has to offer by looking for someway to attach God to it (ie finding God in movie themes, or in music, or in books, or in television) and then saying it's okay - because we can learn some Spiritual lesson from it. I am fearful that in doing so we have created a very un-radical and muddled Christianity. I don't want to jump to any conclusions and say that we are wrong in doing this, but... I think we are wrong in doing this. Fact: studies show that there are more Spiritual lessons found in God's Word (that's the Bible) then in any other work of literature or media ever created. I have recently found myself getting so fed up with the compromises I have made in what I allow into my mind that something has begun to shake within me. I am not unlike you, I am quick to find some train of thought that justifies the movies I watch and the music I listen to, and not that it's always wrong, but all I am trying to say is that we already have something so much better. And, we already know how Satan works. He uses a little bit of truth to bait us, and then loads the hook with a ton of lies. And I am afraid that is what is happening. Yes, we can find God in nearly everything these days - which makes sense because the fact still stands that everything was indeed created by Him - but that in no way means that God is in everything that we can in some way associate with Him. Okay, okay... so I've been having a major ramble section.. and it's pretty late for me, so I probably wasn't as articulate as I so wish I could have been... and I wish I could have included more scripture to back myself up - but I didn't. I'll hopefully write more soon... maybe something more like "So I got the position of PA on my floor, I've been giving up sweets and red meat for Lent, and tonight I hung out with friends and went to Payne's and played Jenga and it was great and that's a bit of my life. Happy Day!" I do like writing those kinds of things, but tonight was not that night. I'm trying to love more, because this world is in desparate need of love. I have Christ in me, and Christ is the epitome of love. So therefore, I (like you) should in some way be an embodiment of love spreading light and joy into the lives of everyone I meet. I should, but I fail. But I'm okay with that because I know what I hafto do, and I am on a constant journey, a constant struggle upwords towards the goal Christ has set ahead of me. Someday, I have no doubt, victory will come.
Go love people, no matter how you feel - they deserve love as much as you and I.

Sincerely yours,

Dustin

"You have a fantastic moustache."

As the second week of my second semester of my second year of college draws to a close, I look at my life and shake my head, and I ask rhetorically what God is doing in my life. I'm not gonna lie, there has been a lot going on in my life and I've been getting this weird almost paranoid feeling once in a while that there is something huge going on behind the scenes and God has something ridiculous up His sleeve for me - like, much more so than I normally do. Scary-ish, but man is that exciting. I wanted to list, leaving some intentionally vague and others detailed, what is the dealio of life for me right now.
I am applying to either be a D(iscipleship)A(ssistant) or a P(ersonal)A(ssistant) on my floor. I am contemplating on whether I should choose a photography or a graphic design focus for my Visual Arts major. My dream would to freelance for missions organizations over seas - traveling wherever I am needed. Anyways, that's just something that's especially been on my mind lately.
I realize that obviously most people don't ever feel the same way about this next thing, but I genuinely wish relationships with people were easier - in every capacity. Although... I know that if they were, a certain beauty of them would diminish, and the relationships I do have and have had would lose a huge part of what makes the nature of love and of pain within human relationships so special.
As I quote a portion of the Beatles:

"There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain

All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all"

I do believe that all these ups and downs that I've gone through, and that face me still, do have incredible meaning in my life. I am trusting more and more that God will continue to use even the broken relationships and lift up the people I haven't been as much of a blessing to as I look back and wish I had been. Our God is a redeeming God, and He makes all things new! That is a promise that makes me smile.
One thing I love about Taylor the most is the people here. The community that I so blessed to be a part of is awesome. Over the past couple days amongst a couple of my close friends here we've "discussed" some pretty simple yet very difficult spiritual/moral questions (i.e. Is it always a sin to lie? [such as a lie that protects someone from harm]). Ask that question to even 5 different people and you may see for yourself that it can turn pretty heated if you are not careful. But that being said, it is turned out to be an extreme encouragement to me - that even though we had completely opposite stances on the things we discussed and even though ensuing conversations did get semi-heated at times as we expressed our beliefs on different ideas, we could come out of it still loving each other because in the end we are still brothers in Christ and there is nothing on this earth that is ever greater than the love we have in Christ.
It's getting pretty late, maybe I'll write more later or maybe it'll be next week. But I want to end with my Top 4 favourite somethings right now:
Movie: Slumdog Millionaire (inspringly solid storyline... will probably stay in my top 10 for a while)
Music: Matisyahu (Christian/Messianic Jewish Rabbi who sings Reggae beautifully)
Quote: "The shortest route is not always the best route because it can bypass some of the most precious lessons in life." - Ravi Zacharias
Short Movie: "Validation"

Go in peace, and, seriously, make someone smile.
Dustin

CellarDoor

It is J-Term Break!
Last night I played in the snow and took lots of pictures. A security guard asked if I was okay. I said I was. I added the pictures onto my photography site: dkfriesen.com.

a statue of samuel morris.

a tree.

Also, a bunch of us watched the movie "Taken" and it was super and one of the most intense movies I've ever seen. I recommend it. Then later Ryan G. and Ben F. and I built a snow fort at 4am. It is nice to start seeing everyone come back from J-Term trips, etc.
I decided to go on a missions trip next year for either J-Term or Spring Break, I'm interested in Eastern Europe... but tonight I watched "the Constant Gardener" and it made me really want to go to Africa. Whatever happens I am super excited to see what God will do with that! I really, really want and need to grow my relationship with God... so much. I think back about my time in YWAM and how amazing that was, it is almost surreal. I know what I need to do but it is so hard... the sacrifices I need to make to grow closer to the God I love and so long to know better. There are so many things I know I should do, so many things I need to do, so many things people want me to do, and yet seemingly few things I actually do.
This next semester holds a lot, it will certainly be interesting to see what comes of it.
Blessings.
Go make someone smile.

Dustin