Golf is not my game . . .

. . . especially when it involves my brother.

As I mentioned in my last post, my brother qualified for the Iowa High School Golf Tournament. Today was the first day of play and since I have no "real" job at the moment, I headed down to Ankeny to watch him play.

I'm not the loud, super excitable type, but when my brother (or my sister for that matter) does something cool - I get pretty ecstatic about it. So the whole round, I'm holding back when all I really want to do is yell and scream: "Go Dan!" And run up to him and pat him on the back, or rub his shoulders just to encourage him. But I'm so afraid I'm going to say something to screw up his focus - or worse: get him disqualified! that I find it best to just shut my mouth. Oh, and contact? Yeah, it's illegal!

Despite my frustrations, My brother is doing pretty well. He shot a 78 on a 71 par (18-hole) course, and is tied for the 13/14th spot in the state. We'll see what happens tomorrow!

Way to go, Stallion!

My Brother: The Stud

My brother's going to State.
He's gonna win first place.
And YOU have an ugly face!
- Adapted from "The Little rascals"

My brother's, Dan Korthals, final District Golf Tournament took place on Thursday, May 19, 2005. At this tournament, he turned in an amazing score of 76 for the 18-hole course (38/38 on each nine). Unfortunately, this score was only good enough to tie him up with two other players for the third and fourth place spots (the last two spots to advance on to Iowa's State Tournament in Ankeny Iowa). In a dramatic, nail-biting, three-hole shootout my brother beat out both his contenders for the third place district spot . Yes, after four years of hard work, he has achieved the dream he has dreamt since he was a freshman on the George-Little Rock Varsity Golf team. Congratulations, Bro!

Love much . . . Love little.

"Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."
~ Luke 7:46-48

This verse has always been really discouraging to me. I've been a Christian since I was like 6 years old, I grew up in a Christian home, went to Church every Sunday. I was the good kid in school. I'm a follower by nature. I follow the rules, I respect authority. I was the goody-goody of my class - and I earned the nickname. I don't have any HUGE, blatant sin in my past that God had to forgive me for (ie. - sex, drugs, drunkenness, theft, murder, etc.), so I feel like I can't love God "much," because I haven't been forgiven for something huge like that. I actually always wanted a rebel period - to go out and have a one night fling, get dead drunk, or (gasp) walk home alone at night! - to be able to relate to unbelievers from that sort of background, but also to be forgiven "much."

But it occurred to me recently that I have been forgiven much! Even though I never acted on those rebel desires. Everyone has been forgiven much because we all fall HUGELY short of God's standard. The only thing that differentiates those who are forgiven much from those who have been forgiven little is how much we realize we've been forgiven. If I go through life thinking: "Oh, I'm not so bad. God didn't have to forgive very much in my life," I'm not going to appreciate His sacrifice and I won't love Him very much.

This reminds me of the Pharisee in Luke 18 who thanks God that he is not like "other men" or even "this tax collector." He doesn't think he has anything to be forgiven for, so he can't feel love for God like the tax collector does. The tax collector understood that God was his ONLY hope! And when you really understand that someone has saved you form eternal pain and death and has accepted you despite your intense ugliness - how can you NOT feel amazing love for that person?

As I grow and learn what God wants from me and how I fall short of that, I realize that I HAVE been forgiven much. I'm prideful and hugely selfish. I don't love people, and I consciously hurt my friends and my enemies. At this realization, I come to appreciate Christ's sacrifice more and therefore love Him more for making that sacrifice. The thing is we all have the potential to love much. God sees all of our sins as equal - so it's up to us to realize the weight of God's sacrifice. Not to go out and sin so that we can be forgiven more.

*sigh* i'm such a girl

so this is my first humorous story of the day because you never know i could have more. so anyway i was moving stuff from my dorm room to my apartment for the summer this morning and i was going to put sheets on my bed, which by the way i am super excited to have here because i like my bed, a lot, cuz it's pretty and i made it, :) yeah for my bed, but back to what i was saying, i went to make my bed and i saw a dark spot on part of my bed where i was pretty sure there was no dark spot. going closer to see what it was i discovered that it was a big black bug. 1-1 1/2 inches long and really quite ugly, gross, and i have no idea what it was. so what is my first reaction... to call my dad, of course he won't be a lot of help since he is in burt. i wanted to kill the bug, bug dead = good, but my bed is a daybed and it was on the long side of the bed down by the bottom where it is hard to reach with my mattress and springs there, plus i was wearing flip flops which aren't the best for causing death and destruction to a big bug. so i went to get a hanger to push it to the floor with and to call my dad because i really did need to talk to one of my parents, really. so when i got back of course the bug was no where to be found, why is it they always do that, disappear when you want to be able to find them and kill them. bug alive = :( sadness.
another funny story of me and a bug or in this case a spider, it was a couple weeks ago when i was baking stuff for the rock. i was in the kitchen on 3rd floor because the one on second is a bit dirty and the oven doesn't work. i was drying some of my dishes and noticed out of the corner of my eye something dark moving on my shoulder. it was a spider and so i was holding on to my towel and the spoon i was drying in one hand and trying to squish the spider and kill it. it however wouldn't die and wouldn't fall off. i then started flailing around trying to get it off because i wanted to squish it and it was starting to make me kinda mad for not dying already. i then got the spider to fall to the floor and i managed to drop my spoon and towel as well. i then squashed the spider on the floor with my hand and it was fun.
i guess that's two funny stories but they didn't both happen to day, i hope you found some amusement in them.