Winter/Spring Retreat

I have a few thoughts on the Salt retreat this weekend, and I'd like to share them.

Firstly, I'm pretty sure that Paul Sabino is incapable of not "bringing his 'A' game". For the Sunday morning session, where the other 2 retreat speakers I've heard took it a little easy, Paul decides "I'm going to make everybody cry." He was talking about the end of a God-centered life, and looking forward to seeing the King of kings. He used his father-in-law as his example, talking about all the suffering that man went through, and how his only thoughts were "Why.....is God making me stop preaching?" "It's almost my anniversary. I have to do something awesome for my wife. Don't give me any morphine that day so I can think clearly." "I'm going to see mom first." (that one was to his dad) I was surrounded by guys, and there was a lot of sniffling to hear. I've talked to a few people that were surrounded by girls, and they were all just bawling. I tried not to cry, and I almost did every time I could hear that Paul was about to lose it, but then I looked up and saw tears streaming down his face and I lost it. I'm in awe that he would keep the level of intensity up, even when everybody in the room is exhausted. I may have to keep an "agent" here in Ames who will go to the Saturday evening sermon, and let me know when Paul's speaking at C-stone, so I can go to bed early and drive to Ames on Sunday morning to hear him speak.

Secondly, when a fraternity formal and a Salt retreat are in the same place, you get some odd interactions. On one elevator ride, I said that I was with Salt, and I didn't know how to respond to what the guy said next--I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was along the lines of "whatever floats your boat." I also heard one of the frat guys said "Hope we don't ruin your religious weekend." (not to me)

Another side effect of those two groups getting together is that you have a bunch of Salt guys suddenly deciding that the wall--or the floor, or the tabletop, etc--looks very interesting and thanking the Salt girls for their choice in clothes. We tend to overlook their modesty until we run into girls that aren't modest, and that's a shame. To any of you ladies that read this, thank you for not just chasing the next big fashion. It's a big help to us guys in our struggle for purity.

Speaking of women's clothing, some guys are way too comfortable in dresses.

The Anthem songs I seem to like best tend to be the ones that make "Whoa" into a multi-syllabic word. I'm not sure if that's a coincidence or not.