Christmas Plans, Google+, Everything Drime, and Wisdom

Christmas Plans, Google+, Everything Drime and Wisdom: what do these have in common? You could try to come up with something, but I have no idea. Maybe just that I've been thinking about all of them in the last 24 hours...

Christmas Plans
Yesterday my travel buddies and I sat down to plan our route over Christmas break. I feel like we'll be doing a whirlwind tour of five countries in Europe. We'll start by spending two days in Copenhagen before going to Sarah's home in northern Germany. We'll stay there until after Christmas, visiting nearby cities like Hamburg and Berlin, and then head south to Stuttgart. In Stuttgart we'll tour with some other friends from Bible school. Then we'll head further south to Salzburg and on to Vienna where we plan to spend New Years. Then it's on to Venice, Rome, and finally Paris before hopping on a train back to Sweden. I'm getting excited to travel, but I almost feel like we're going to try to go so many places that we won't get to spend much time in any of them. We'll probably stay mainly in hostels to cut costs and also plan to take two night trains. I'm sure it'll be a blast!

Google+
I just finished talking on Google+ with my family. It's so nice to be able to connect with people back home and even see their faces as well as hear their voices. It's not as good as in person, but it's way better than email or snail mail. Here's a snapshot from our conversation:

Jeremy got some sweet shades from Tyson and you can even see his computer screen reflected in them.

Everything Drime
Last night we had another youth group come to visit. I was part of a drime (silent skit to music) to the song "Everything" by Lifehouse. I was 'Greed' and dressed up sort of business-like. I don't think anyone filmed ours, I posted a link to a version on youtube since it's the same drime that a cabin at camp did this summer. I think it's the first drime I've ever done, and I enjoyed it.

Wisdom
Some friends and I have been listening to old lectures on wisdom by a lecturer name Scott Wallt. I've found it really challenging and helpful so I thought I'd share some of the highlights here. It's hard to explain here the urgency and importance of these thoughts. Wallt starts out by emphasizing the importance of pursuing wisdom; Proverbs 3:13-16 says that wisdom is more precious than silver or gold and nothing you desire compares with it. Proverbs 2 says we should search for wisdom like we would for hidden treasure. Wallt then looks at passages that say that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and explains that fear of the Lord is awareness of his presence and his eyes on me like a coach that wants to correct me in order to help me improve and succeed. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because wisdom is in your day to day choices, applying understanding in a way that produces  blessing. Proverbs encourages us to search for wisdom actively and gives four sources where we can find it: God's Word, wise friends, seeking and taking advice from wise people, and accepting correction and rebuke. If you want to become wise, spend time in the Bible, reading, studying, thinking about it, and applying it your life. Choose friends who are also seeking wisdom and make an effort to spend time with people who are wise so that you can see how they live and fruit it produces in their lives. Seek advice from people who have experience in the area you want advice in (your friends are often not the best choice); it's especially important to seek advice in the areas of friendships and other relationships. Last, make sure their are people in your life who you give permission to correct and rebuke you, and if possible, give them options if you refuse to listen to them the first time. Do you really want wisdom?