7:30pm Yager Stadium, Oxford
Miami 45, Marshall 6

Ah… the score pretty much says it all. The Redhawks came on fast, the defense didn’t let down, and the offense was stellar as usual. Roethlisberger brought his A-game and (obviously, since they killed Marshall) the whole team was hot.

I wasn’t actually at the game, just listened on the radio, so I am not in much position to give a game summary. I can say it was extremely windy, the game was over by the middle of the third, and Miami has got one heck of a football team this year. I don’t know or care to hunt down statistics, but I can safely bet it’s been awhile since we’ve beaten Marshall by so very, very much. And that’s that. A final score of 45-6? Yep.

7:35pm Goggin Ice Arena
Miami 4, Alabama-Huntsville 2

My first hockey game of the season… a good one to start off with! When you’re playing a team from Alabama, you expect to easily win. No offense to Alabama, but it’s Alabama… and hockey. And ice is not a big part of many southerners’ heritage. However, the game was a close one. Miami controlled the ice for the better part of the first period, and put the first goal on the board. Alabama-Huntsville responded minutes later — and then scored again only a couple minutes after that.

The teams traded penalties but, while the ‘Hawks prevented the Chargers from scoring further goals and running away with the game, they also failed to answer AH’s second goal. The second period ended with the score still at 2-1 and things looking sluggish.

With under five minutes left in the third period, the puck started finding the back of the Visitors’ net. Miami scored their second goal to tie the game. Seemingly before Alabama-Huntsville knew what hit them, the next face-off led to another Miami goal, putting the hawks in the lead with precious few minutes remaining. Adding insult to injury, the Redhawks scored their fourth goal with under a minute left in the game, after AH removed their goalie for additional offense.

7:30pm Yager Stadium
Miami 33, Bowling Green 10

MAN! As far as MAC teams go, Miami looked like a juggernaut tonight. We were all hopeful – Bowling Green has been ranked in the top 25 for several weeks and seemed to more than deserve the attention. But our offense has been cranking out touchdowns like it’s nobody’s business, and the team has looked consistently good since week two. Yet all the football wise men kept going on about Northern Illinois… and then BG beat them. Miami was having a great season — Bowling Green was having a better one.

Not tonight. A game that started out pretty messy for both sides soon became a solid beating. BG quarterback Josh Harris could not make much happen, and Miami’s defense made one heck of a showing. And although our offense struggled at first, once it kicked into gear an upset seemed imminent. While the first half closed with Bowling Green’s first 7 points (following an earlier missed field goal) and the failure of Miami to build a strong lead, the Redhawks came out ready to play for the second half. Starting with a 10-7 lead going into the third, Miami scored 14 more points and held BG at 7 to put the game all but out of reach headed for the fourth. Another Harris fumble and only 3 more BG points later, this game was one for the books. Roethlisberger won’t win the Heisman (at least not this year) but he is not bad. Final score: Miami 33, Bowling Green 10.

I was walking to class one morning last week, thinking about the three tests I’d be taking over the next two days. I realize something funny: because I had studied, the idea of taking tests did not make me uncomfortable. Mostly because I never study, this was a new feeling. I considered how nice it was being able to enjoy the sun and changing leaves without a dark test cloud hanging over me.

I realized, what a cool trade-off! It wasn’t fun studying for a couple hours the night before, but even four hours of studying would have been worth it for the peaceful feeling that came from being more prepared than usual. I knew I had made a smart decision for once, and had foregone an evening of TV or laughing with the guys in order to be more responsible. Yes, I would even go so far as to say I was GLAD I’d studied!

As I walked down the street – I don’t know whether it was God or just my mind wandering – I got to appreciating how most of the decisions we make are big trade-offs. Granted, many of them are so unbalanced they are hardly choices at all. If you buy gas you’ve got $15 less to spend on other stuff… but there’s not a lot of other stuff you can get to when your car’s out of gas. If you have the joy of being a business student, you’ve heard all about opportunity costs in accounting. When you make a decision you have to consider the value of each alternative.

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” they say. Which I have never understood, because isn’t eating cake the only benefit of having it? The saying should be “you can’t eat your cake and eat it too” but then, that doesn’t roll off the tongue nearly as well. Good saying or not, the point does seem to be true. And anyone serious about being responsible with their money (accountants, for instance) knows the importance of making informed choices. Most big opportunities come around only once and if you miss the train, tough luck.

Time itself is much more important than money – if you do it right, it’s far from impossible to save more money than you can spend. In that case, you can have your cake and eat your cake, or do whatever else you’d do with it. But, although time is harder to manage and impossible to hoard, we often give our days less attention than our dollars. Every hour comes only once and we only get so many; do we weigh each trade-off as carefully as we should? Aren’t our hearts and souls more important (and harder to handle) than our cash?

I definitely do not put my decision making energy where I ought to. I am really bad about starting off my morning without prayer or time reading the Bible, although I know both of these will ready my heart for whatever the day holds. I know God’s there for me but most of the time still try to do everything on my own – and I wonder why at the end of the day I’m burned out. But the crisp fall morning mentioned above, I made a point of spending more than three sentences talking to God, and I let the few verses I read before class sink in.

It turns out God reinforced me after all! As much as it felt good to know I’d studied, my peaceful mood held something deeper, too. It’s amazing what God will do if you give him more than a passing glance and a “thanks for the fruity pebbles” in the morning. I stop to think about which stocks I should invest in and how I should lay out the newest page of this website, so why not give my spirit a fair share of time? When I start my day by reminding myself I’m clumsy but loved, it takes so much weight off my shoulders and proves the most obvious trade-off of all.

2:00pm Yager Stadium
Miami 42, Cincinnati 37

Well the Redhawks should have really killed the Bearcats. At first things were scary – Roethlisberger had a couple early interceptions. But the Hawks pulled away and the game was ugly and I was pretty sure they would win by 30. Probably EVERYONE was pretty sure they were going to win by 30 because it was a three touchdown game and the Hawks showed no signs of slowing down. Then bad things started to happen (I left for the concession stand) and somehow UC scored. Then they tried an onside kick, which we recovered…somehow our offense had crapped out though. Two onside kicks and some more frustrating UC scoring later, the game ended with the Hawks still on top but the lead reduced to 42-37. But, a W is a W…

Sheesh… I don’t know why I even leave my room. I came with my friends to this church so I could worship and learn a little more about God, and here I sit worrying about some girl in the crowd. But this discontent is not about the girl – not about this particular girl, at least. Most of the time I’m fine with being alone, I suppose as a product of being alone for so long. Lately, though, I wonder about the assurance I’ve always had that someday I will find someone and get married. A wife and kids are and have forever been vital characters in the full adult life I’ve imagined – but I’ll be twenty in less than six months and haven’t been on a date for more than a year. How far past a year could this stretch without so much as a spark last?

My feeling of only semi-severe but no less authentic loneliness lasts only a moment, which is longer than it should. Two more seconds of my thought are wasted on the pretty girl sitting at the front of the sanctuary. I think of how apathetic she seemed the last time I tried to talk to her; the front of the sanctuary might as well be miles away. As usual, this depressing thought leads me through a catalog of the girls at school I have considered dating – they all seem a little too popular to pay attention to me. This point is where I usually give up on every female I know and tell myself if I could only be patient, I would meet the right one.

But for the first time my daily quarter-minute of feeling pitiful does not stop here, with halfhearted self-assurance and loneliness mutated into sentimental hope. Something causes me to honestly reflect on what I’ve been thinking. I give my heart a chance to reject the all-too-accepted idea that as long as I’m single, I’ll be missing out. As I allow my mind to slow from its buzzing pace and force myself to look away from the girl, the floor of the church catches my eye. Suddenly I feel God’s hand firmly on my heart: simple but beautiful, this hardwood paneling and the tall, beautiful stone building above and around it have stood for over a hundred years. My current crush will not last for a fraction of that time, and as I grasp this a smile sneaks onto my face.

Like so many others, this unexpected realization’s power is in its simplicity. I know that God is with me, loves me, and has a great plan for my life. And every time I have moped the way I started to just moments ago, I’ve looked back with shame for being so childish. Noticing how irrelevant your worries are is an excellent way to kill them. This should be obvious, but one way or another we always let ourselves forget. Instantly a handful of examples come to mind where I tied myself in knots over someone, spent energy trying to impress her, and in the end wondered why I stressed over her at all. Does this mean I should not think about or talk to girls; that I should swear them off for life? I certainly hope not – but sense and experience prove that I ought not obsess over brief glances or 12-word conversations.

What an incredible truth I’m finally getting into my head! Here I am sitting next to a great friend in a beautiful church with a couple hundred cool people, worrying myself about a minor relationship I’ll probably have forgotten in six months. Maybe the girl I’m into likes me, maybe she does not, either way I should relax and simply be myself instead of trying to plot a possible date or think of perfect things to say. Greater still, this idea of peace applies to everything: I’ve got tests next week but will have enough time to study. My GPA is a little lower than it needs to be but I still have my scholarships and am doing well this semester. I’m angry and pessimistic more often than I’d like but that’s slowly improving, too.

Is there any aspect of my life that God can’t take care of? I doubt it. How could there be, when He designed my mind and soul and the very stone used to build this church? The last few years, I’ve seen that the more seriously I focus on God, the more things seem to fall into place. He has gotten me through difficult times, helped me realize when I’ve messed up, forgiven me when I ignore His direction. I may be single, but I am not alone. I don’t doubt that God will guide me into far better times even than this, mold me into a stronger, kinder person, teach me patience, joy, and peace. Right now, I have so much to be thankful for – I’m at a good school, I’ve got a good roommate and reliable friends, I’m healthy and near my family. I am learning, very, very slowly, to relax.