Is Neil ≈ Briana?

The short answer is no, but I would like to think so. Last quarter with little effort on my own part I was able to pull off a 4.0 in all 4 of my classes! This is big and for those of you who have always achieved 4.0's you may need some background as to whom I am and then you may understand what happened here.

In high school I was described by my teachers as being very confident, assertive and self aware. This was not actually true of my character at the time yet flattering all the same. I was also known to be somewhat bull headed and conflict oriented. I often challenged my teachers, class mates, principles, coaches, parents, the church and Jesus who is God. I was not a good student and was pleased with myself when I accomplished B’s and C’s. In fact I graduated with a C average.

For those girls who had studied hard, befriended your teachers and upon graduation peppered your valedictorian speech to excerpts from the works of Plato, Shakespeare or Churchill you may remember me. I was the student who would walk in late, find a pencil on the ground and sit down and get a B on the test without studying. I never did my homework, I often skipped school (my sr. year) and had issues with the authority in my life. Ultimately I was out to have fun, and look and act dumb. I never read a single book and was proud of it, often bragging to those responsible students in my class. I found that by acting stupid, it would be easier to gain social acceptance. So in a reexamination of my character at the time one can easily see that this does not sound confident. This sounds insecure, prideful and rebellious. The person I first described, as confident would have embraced responsibility and intelligence as an attribute which set him apart by allowing God to make him into a man. I on the other hand was not that guy; I was the irresponsible guy who often forced stupidity onto himself in an effort to be accepted. I am often harsh with those who act as I did in high school, and one must understand that I have every right to do so for I was one of them 4 years ago. By the grace of God I no longer am and if they repent, Jesus will do the same for them.

Last quarter, with little effort and little complaint I achieved 4.0’s in all my classes in college! I have never achieved greater than a 3.8 in any one class and I may never do so again. The idea is that God has made me into a geek and the worst of all geeks; I am a Bible Geek! One of my mentors Mark Driscoll has said once that he is a bible geek and I agree with that for myself. God has taken a hard headed and prideful person and done great things with him, this being one of them. Although my offering is small, His ability to multiply what I have is great. In short, this is a miracle. I have given Jesus a piece of dried fish and stale loaf of bred and he has multiplied it to feed five thousand.