In the month that I've been here, I have...

...played basketball, racquetball, kickball, sand volleyball, spades, poker, kings on the corner, war, egyptian ratscrew, b.s., and speed

...eaten at the Pancake Pantry, Provence, General Jackson's, Margo's Cafe, Five Guys, Taco Bell, Maggie Moo's, Chiles, Qdoba, Papa John's, California Pizza Kitchen, Cafe Coco, and Mike's Ice Cream.

...visited the Village Chapel, Fellowship Bible Church, Brentwood Baptist Church, Journey Church at Franklin, and CrossPoint.

...written four papers: "Merit-Based Scholarships: Stratifying Educational Attainment One by One," "D is For Democracy," "In Paradisum: Reflection and Analysis," and "Was Ich So Weit Gelernt Habe."

...gotten groceries at Trader Joe's, Target, and Kroger.

...seen the lead singer of Paramore and I'm pretty sure Michael Tait (former DC Talk member and new lead singer of the Newsboys)

...watched the entire Bourne trilogy, Office Space, Monsters Inc., Elf, and the first two seasons of Lost

...done lots of laundry

...made a total mess of my room

...read a lot, especially for class

...had lots of jam/worship sessions

...had good conversations with friends new and old.

It's been awesome, but my, how the weeks fly by.

I need to remember
to take
deep
breaths
and slowww dowwwn.

It's a Rainy Night...

...part of this blog's namesake.

I love a rainy night. I love a sunny day.

It's been a month since I've gotten here, but it feels like so much longer than that. I've already made friends that I feel like I've known for so much longer than just a few weeks.

The people here are from far and wide; I've now got friends all over the U.S. of A. At Samford, people thought it was crazy that I was from 10 hours away, but here, it's no big deal at all that I'm from 8 hours away.

Life is just good.
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The other day I was prompted by something (I don't remember what, exactly) to sit and think about what my greatest fears are. Most of what I was able to list to myself were wishy-washy things that I could get over pretty quickly; I like to think of myself as a fairly sturdy, resilient person. Regardless, the one thing that really stuck out at me was the fear of letting other people down.

Disclaimers to the above statement: I am not afraid of failure; it happens. I know I'm not perfect. I am forgiven again and again by a Savior who let Himself get nailed to a cross for every stupid thing that I have ever done. Many eons ago I used to say, "I know God forgives me, but I just can't forgive myself." Thanks to an inspiring message at K-Life one night, I don't believe this to be true anymore. It doesn't matter whether I can forgive myself or not; God forgives, and that's what matters.

So where does that leave me in the midst of others who have expectations of me? Am I afraid they might not forgive me? Should that even matter, given the One who forgave us all? I don't have any particular situation in mind, but life just begs questions like these of me every now and then.
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Inspiring quotes accumulated in the past month or so:
"Don't ask questions. Just shut up."
"People are stupid. I'm a people."
"You're being sassy again. Sassafras!"
"Daneek!"
"It's a good'n."
"I'm fat." "Yep." "No."
"I have compassion for little overweight kids."
"It's called a clicker!" "It's a comm!." "It's a remote control!"
"You don't know who _____ is!?"
"I'll drive." "Are you sure?" "We always do this."
"It smells like hookah in here!"
"I feel like we've had this conversation already."

tee hee hee

Es ist eine kleine Welt.

It is a small world.

I have made so many random connections here at Belmont that I've got to list some of them:

-I've already met several people that transferred here from Samford, many of whom had the same issues with it as I did. One girl transferred from Samford, but knows people from Bolivar who went to Kanakuk with her!

-Any day that I wear Mizzou apparel, I meet like five new people from Missouri.

-One girl I met from Springfield went on a date with a guy (Jared Reed) that goes to my church in Bolivar!

-A friend of mine here grew up in Jasper, AL, which was on the way to Birmingham for me. I asked him about the one person from Jasper that I had met at Samford, it turns out that he dated her!

-I met a girl from Olive Branch, MS (also on the way to Birmingham), and we talked about the roads and gas stations and restaurants I experienced on the way through.

-Probably the craziest of all...I met another Grant from Missouri (Jeff. City). His full name is William Grant Benton, which is even funnier because mine is Grant William Haun. I casually mentioned this to my parents while they were here for Labor Day weekend, and my mom told me she knew a Duane Benton from Jefferson City whose full name was William Duane Benton (look him up on Wikipedia). She said that he served on the Court of Appeals and that she was on the Missouri Baptist Foundation with him a while back. I asked Grant if Duane Benton is his dad, and he is! My mom knew his dad! How weird is that?

Oh, life.

It's a new day, it's a new dawn, it's a new life...

...and I'm feeling good.

I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. [late January, to be exact]

That doesn't mean I'm not still dealing with leftover stuff, but it's all good bits and pieces of the remnants to wrestle with. To be a follower of Christ is to have a heart that's always a work in progress.

I can't believe how good He is.

"If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking."

yeah

Vision

I see the Man of Sorrows and His long, troubled road
I see the world on His shoulders and my easy load
"When the Saints" - Sara G.

Funny/Crazy Experience

So...I was trying to cut apart two big pieces of chicken when I ended up stabbing my index finger. After freaking out for a bit, I was able to stop the bleeding. After washing the blood off my hands in the kitchen sink, I tried turning off the faucet, but it wouldn't go off. I tried and tried and tried again to twist the knob all the way off, but it felt stuck and the water just kept running at full speed.

I ran to the Clubhouse and had my RA call maintenance to come and fix the problem. I waited around in my kitchen for an hour, but maintenance never came and the water just kept running. Then Jeremy walked in, I told him the story, and he went over to the sink and turned the COLD water knob off. I had been going crazy on the hot water know the whole time! Embarrassing.

Oh, life.

Church

I am looking for a church to attend.

There are a lot of churches in Nashville; it's the buckle of the Bible Belt and the Protestant Vatican. There are a lot of churches that love and serve and follow and teach and worship Jesus.

I don't want to be church shopping the entire year...I'm only going to be here this year and the next. I don't even like to call it "shopping." I don't want to say I'm "shopping" for the Bride of Christ.

Here are my standards: (is it good to have standards? am i being selfish? i really don't know)

1. First and foremost, what I mentioned about loving and serving and following Jesus.
2. Diversity, at least in age and generation if not by race or class. There are quite a few "trendy" churches around here attended mostly by white, middle-class people in their twenties and thirties. It's kind of a sad fact that Sunday morning is the time of week when Americans are the most segregated
3. An biblical emphasis on missions/reaching the lost.
4. A healthy concern for worldwide social justice.
5. A college ministry, perhaps?

Things I'm not entirely concerned about:
1. Worship style, as long as it's worship
2. Distance from Belmont, as long as I'm not driving all the way to Kentucky
3. When services begin or end or how long they are

So...uh, yeah.
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Today was just a good day.

I love it here.

It's funny how you learn so much about yourself from people that you are just getting to know. Recently people have drawn simple conclusions about me that I've never thought about before. The other day, someone said, "You're pretty nonchalant about most things, aren't you?" Huh...I guess I am.

The most random, funny thing happened tonight - Just for the heck of it, Jeremy and I decided to go to a casino night being held in the lobby of Thrailkill Hall. There were 4-6ish tables playing poker with chips (but no money...don't worry, we weren't gambling). I grabbed a set of chips and joined a game. I hadn't played poker since I was like 11, so I was pretty much clueless as I played. I basically bled chips throughout the two-hour game, but amazingly at the very end, basically by dumb luck, I won. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back they announced that I had gotten the highest score out of all the tables! I won a couple of James Bond DVDs.

Oh, life.

My gallon of milk in the fridge expires today, so I've drank over half of it this afternoon and evening. Just a little bit more...

yyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn