The Most Wonderful Time of the Semester

Last week in my private trombone lesson, my teacher, Audrey, joked that every year she tells the freshmen in her studio that the last month of the fall semester is the worst, but no one really believes her until they have hindsight. She said that in the context of reminding me of that truth, and cautioning me to keep my focus as I finish up the semester.

As it happens, practically speaking, I finish this semester in exactly one month. My last final, Baroque and Classical Eras, is the morning of Wednesday, December 17. I do not know yet when I'll leave campus (I am required to be out of my residence hall by noon on Friday the 19th), but it'll be nice to be finished only halfway through finals week.

Overall, this semester has gone well academically. I have a couple challenging classes, but I'm managing. The only part of my course load that is sometimes overwhelming is having two sets of private lessons: trombone and piano. The practice hours really add up. But I have managed to discipline myself well enough. My two juries will actually be the first events of finals week for me.

Between now and finals week, there are a few major events on my schedule. This weekend, the Symphony Orchestra is presenting a concert, and I have been assigned to stage manage. It's a fairly straightforward concert from a stage manager's perspective, but the music on the program is all exciting repertoire, so I'm excited to hear it.

Then, next week, is Thanksgiving. Tuesday is the last day of classes, and my last class finished at 1:05 PM, so I expect to be at home by three. This break will be the first time I have been at home for more than one night all semester. I am really looking forward to some time to just relax, as well as seeing my extended family.

The week after that is the Wheaton College Christmas Festival. The Symphonic Band is on the program this year, and last week we began rehearsing the music for the festival. We have some fun pieces on our program. I am really excited about performing on the Christmas Festival this year.

And, of course, there is the general enjoyment of being at Wheaton College at Christmas time. We had our first measurable snowfall last night, which is only the first sign of the season. I am sure that a few other adventures will present themselves in the next month.

This is Rubio, over and out.

Day of Rest

This past January, on the Sunday after the first week of classes of the spring semester, Craig Miller, then-resident assistant of Traber 5, led a floor fellowship meeting. I remember us going around the room, mentioning highlights from our winter breaks, and meeting two new residents. Craig then gave us a challenge for the semester: observe the Sabbath by refraining from doing homework on Sundays.

As a music major, a substantial portion of my homework are my practice hours. Since beginning my studies at the Wheaton Conservatory, I have always had four different sets of practicing assignments: trombone, piano, aural skills, and whichever instrument I had in instrumental techniques courses. (I am really looking forward to finishing piano this December and not taking a section of instrumental techniques in the spring, leaving me with just trombone and aural skills for eight glorious months from Christmas until next August.) It is most practical for me to do my practical homework, if you will, in the two buildings that house the Conservatory. At Wheaton College, all the academic buildings are closed on Sundays, so I had already been refraining from that particular part of my homework on the Sabbath when Craig gave this challenge.

Upon returning to my room after floor fellowship, I thought about what completely taking this challenge would mean. On the surface, it simply meant that I would not do written homework on Sundays, either. But beyond that, it would mean a little extra discipline to get all my weekend homework done by the end of the day on Saturday. I decided to go for it. (Thankfully, that weekend included Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, so I had the benefit of a three-day weekend for my first attempt.)

I am proud to say that I have virtually succeeded in not doing any homework on Sundays since. I have also extended my observance of the Sabbath to include any work for my stage manager’s duties (although I would never have events to work on Sundays, I do have clerical duties to do). Sometimes it has been necessary to break the Sabbath, generally when I have collaborative projects and schedule constraints of other group members necessitates meeting on Sunday, but on the whole, every Sunday has been a day off for me. In short, because Wheaton College observes the Sabbath both as an educational institution and as an employer, I observe the Sabbath both as a student and as an employee.

That does not mean that I sit around all day watching movies (although I do like to check out DVD collections of The West Wing from the library to watch on weekends). I attend church in the morning, eat brunch in the dining hall, and then spend the afternoon refreshing myself for the week ahead. I usually manage to get a nap in after brunch, and then spend the rest of the day relaxing, sometimes with friends and sometimes just by myself. I might read for personal pleasure, listen to music, or write blog entries. For dinner, I either get a meal at the Stupe Grill or go out with friends. One thing I always like to do on Sunday evenings, generally not too long before turning in for the night, is go for a walk along the campus perimeter. During the week, I certainly get to many different places on Wheaton’s campus, but I am usually more concerned with where I am going than the actual journey. Those Sunday evening walks give me a chance to appreciate the stateliness of the campus (I particularly enjoy walking along College Avenue, especially when the Christmas wreath is hung on Blanchard tower and some of the evergreens on Blanchard lawn are wrapped with Christmas lights).

I will be honest and say that my determination to not work on Sundays has often led to moderately stressful Saturdays, particularly if I am working at or performing in a concert on Saturday night (or going to Chicago, etc.). But I have been blessed with good time management skills, so I am usually able to get everything done without too much trouble.

Wheaton College is a very active institution. The reputation of Fischer Hall as “the dorm that never sleeps” might well be applied to the whole school. I am not certain that this is the best inclination. Hard work is very noble, and I am sure that it pleases the Lord when we spend our time in our studies and jobs. But we would do well to remember that God Himself rested at the end of the creation week, and that He commanded the fledgling nation of Israel to observe the Sabbath. Even construction of the Tabernacle halted on the Sabbath (Exodus 35).

If you are a Wheaton student (or anyone, really) reading this, I challenge you to take what one might call the Sabbath Challenge. Refrain from anything related to your studies or job on Sunday, and instead focus on worshipping, relaxing, and preparing yourself for the week ahead. Try it for at least a month. For more ambitious types, go the whole semester.

This is Rubio, over and out.

Returning to Wheaton

This week Thursday, I return to Wheaton College.

The journey itself is not complicated. Sometime after breakfast, my mom will drive me (and a carload of luggage) out to the College. The chore of packing is also not complicated – two suitcases of clothes; two boxes or so with books, bedding, and miscellaneous items; hangers of dress clothes; my bookbag; and (incredibly, after a dozen trips back and forth between Oak Park and Wheaton in the last year I have yet to forget) my trombone. Oh, and a shopping bag full of snacks. Snacks are an absolute essential. I should have all my belongings moved from my bedroom in Oak Park to my dorm room in Wheaton before lunchtime.

In the space of a few hours, then, I will have moved back to Wheaton College. As early as that evening, I will be busy. This fall, I am serving as a Big Sib for freshman orientation. My Big Sib partner, A.J. Althoff, and I will have a small group of about eight freshmen with whom we will meet three times during orientation week. The first meeting is immediately following the orientation kick-off Thursday night. I am excited to be a Big Sib. The Big Sib meetings during my own freshman orientation last fall were really enjoyable for me, so I am looking forward to being able to give some of that back to the incoming freshman class.

When asked what about my return to Wheaton I am most looking forward to, some obvious answers come to mind: my girlfriend, my small group, my other friends, fun over meals in Saga, concerts, and things like that. But there are a few specific things that are not so obvious.

First, I am really looking forward to my private lessons starting again in a couple of weeks. The performance component of my curriculum is decidedly the most fun, and my lessons both semesters of my freshman year were extremely rewarding. I have really missed my private lessons and my instructor, Audrey Morrison, this summer, so I am really excited for that to start again. Also, the trombone studio will welcome three new freshmen this year, and having a studio almost twice the size of last year’s will be a treat.

Also, although I have not been out to the campus at all this summer, I know that some major changes have occurred. Major construction for capital projects in the Promise Campaign started just as the 2009 spring semester ended, and I have no doubt that crews have made significant progress in the intervening three months. The most exciting of these projects for most people (and probably the most exciting visually, I will allow) will be the new science center, on the southwest corner of Howard and University, but I am more excited for the extension to Edman Memorial Chapel. As a stage manager, my work regularly takes me into various parts of the building, and the sudden existence of new spaces (the extension is scheduled for use beginning in January) is really exciting for me.

Finally, I am just excited about the concept of being a returning student. As a freshman, almost everything is new when you go to college. (I say almost everything because of course I was already familiar with the campus and a handful of fellow students.) But as a returning student, you are coming back to the same classrooms, the same dining hall, most of the same friends, and (though it will undoubtedly still shock me when it turns nasty) the same weather. Not everything will be the same, of course, and I am interested to see what will be new about my life as a returning Wheaton College student this fall.

I definitely have a lot to look forward too. I do not for a moment believe that this semester will be without challenges, but I look forward to what God will teach me in the coming months and what invaluable experience I will gain. And I am sure that this semester will have a lot of fun times, too. All together, I cannot wait to get back to Wheaton College. It is from that amazing place that I shall next post to the Rubio Room.

This is Rubio, over and out.

Before the Fall

I have called myself a Christian, a sinner surrendered to the grace of the God, for almost seven years (I consider my spiritual birthday to be October 20, 2001). The challenges and struggles I have had in my walk with Christ in the interim are most likely similar to other people who gave their lives to Christ in their early teens and are now young adults. I wrote last fall about my (albeit low-key) struggles with self-worth and how I was learning to find my identity in Christ. Starting college started that particular journey, and after a year I know that I have made progress.

Another struggle common to Christians my age is pride and related struggles, overconfidence in our own skills and intellect, excess of ambition, and failure to trust God with our futures. Such is my topic for reflection in this post.

A note of explanation: recent events in my personal life, which I shall not detail here, have brought me to the revelation that I have failed miserably in the area of trusting God with my future. I have a natural talent for organization and planning, which is extremely beneficial in some of my engagements, but I have learned that it can be very harmful to myself and to others to attempt to plan my life and then assume that the plan is nonnegotiable. God knows precisely what the future holds, and He knows precisely the best path for me to take through the future. As my former senior pastor, Ray Pritchard, often said, “When you need to know, you’ll know.” The fact that I don’t know exactly what my future holds means that I don’t need to know right now.

Now consider ambition, skills, and intellect. All are neutral components of human beings. God has given us the ability to absorb knowledge and then use knowledge to draw conclusions. He has given us minds to intelligently use our bodies in a variety of activities and tasks, from the simple daily acts of eating and talking to the complex activities that form our vocations. The problem is that we forget the role of God behind everything, and we attempt to take control of our lives into our own hands. I do not believe that it is a sin to want to make quality, or even laudable, contributions to human knowledge and experience (one definition of ambition), but lacking a God-glorifying attitude can be very dangerous.

Satan works in more ways than one. He often directly tempts men and women to sin against God by hurting people, but just as often he takes good actions and tempts us to take the credit for the ingenuity, sacrifice, effort, or whatever else led to it. At this point, we are falling into the sin of pride.

I am sure that you have heard the phrase, “pride comes before the fall.” Actually, the phrase could also be, “pride came before the Fall.” Adam and Eve, too, failed to trust God to know what was best for them and to have everything under control. Rather, they tried to take their lives into their own hands, thought they had found a better way, and the rest is the history of a fallen world.

The solution, of course, is what the writer of Hebrews says: “fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith” (12:2a). He alone knows what is best for us, and the challenge is to surrender ourselves to Him. It is extraordinarily difficult, and I am not sure whether total surrender can be achieved in this life.

But that does not mean we should avoid starting the journey in this life. I have decided to adopt that reference from Hebrews as a personal mission statement for my life, at least for this coming school year. I will be sure to comment on this topic again in the spring.

This is Rubio, over and out.