Don't look at me that way, with doubt in your eyes. You don't know what you're doing with your degree? you say incredulously. What are you studying again? Linguistics and exegesis (translate: language and Bible) What can you do with that, teach? I chuckle helplessly and say yes, but I don't really want to teach. Maybe Bible translation. So you don't know the next step? How long is your program? No, I'm waiting for God's timing. I've got another year and a half, or so.
It's not a problem, people! I don't have a disease! I DO have purpose, and I know what it is. To bring glory to God and enjoy him. To love the people around me. To serve where I'm needed. I smile when I see people, cook and clean to make them smile too, go out for coffee, babysit, volunteer. I have lots of reasons to live. Just because I don't know what the next step of my career is doesn't mean I'm wandering aimlessly. I have been called, by God, to British Columbia for whatever reason right now, and I am living faithful obedience. I have dreams for the future, yes. Lots of options, in fact. But right now, I'm allowing God to craft me more into the person He wants me to be. I'm becoming more and more like the Future Self I envision when I think ahead. One step at a time, following the Leader, living in relationship with Jesus and the people around me. The external stuff of a long-term plan doesn't really matter. I'm not worried about it. So don't you be, either.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
I love stimulating homework!
I
begin with what seems to me to be an undeniable truth. Schooling is mostly official.It always has been. It
derives from the views and interests of our masters and mistresses:
politicians, inspectors, and advisors. These views and interests – corrupt in
the sense that they pretend to be about the interests of children and are
really about statistics – are filtered through and then further corrupted by
elements that have little to do with learning: the media and its need to influence people and the
politicians' need for votes.
Fred Sedgwick (2001) Teaching Literacy: A Creative Approach, 1.
Fred Sedgwick (2001) Teaching Literacy: A Creative Approach, 1.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
The Heart of Worship
Stimulating thoughts from class today:
The quest for meaning will not be answered by turning inward on the self but by focusing on the external revelation of God. Then he will tell you who you are.
The substance of worship is RELATIONSHIP. Rightly ordered relationship in which we recognize God in his place, and he gives us our place.
Worship is not limited to Sunday mornings.
Worship is a matter of the heart, not methods.
Prayer is the center of relationality. It is the substance of coming to know one another. Prayer is a deep walk into the heart and life of God.
Memorizing Scripture promotes intimacy between you and God.
We must liberate ourselves from the conventions of cultural religion. WE are not advocating an abandonment of culture. But a recognition that Christian theology has a responsibility in culture, not to it. We are salt, light, and yeast. We must discover the possibilities of "littleness."
(Taken from Prof. Archie Spencer's lecture notes for Believers Church Theology.)
The quest for meaning will not be answered by turning inward on the self but by focusing on the external revelation of God. Then he will tell you who you are.
The substance of worship is RELATIONSHIP. Rightly ordered relationship in which we recognize God in his place, and he gives us our place.
Worship is not limited to Sunday mornings.
Worship is a matter of the heart, not methods.
Prayer is the center of relationality. It is the substance of coming to know one another. Prayer is a deep walk into the heart and life of God.
Memorizing Scripture promotes intimacy between you and God.
We must liberate ourselves from the conventions of cultural religion. WE are not advocating an abandonment of culture. But a recognition that Christian theology has a responsibility in culture, not to it. We are salt, light, and yeast. We must discover the possibilities of "littleness."
(Taken from Prof. Archie Spencer's lecture notes for Believers Church Theology.)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Possessions
I took a walk with God in the sunshine yesterday, and I was pondering Ephesians 1. As I wandered, ogling the flowers coming out and the mountains in the distance and the white clouds in the bright blue sky, I was amazed at life, and God's handiwork. I was also struck, meditating on words from Ephesians, by my utter creatureliness.
The first phrase to catch me was, "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of his glory." I thought about the words "God's possession." It seems to objectify people so much. Just objects to be owned. Really, it works well with the idea of redemption. God bought us back, paid something for us. That's how we relate to objects we own.
The next phrase was, "we were by nature objects of wrath." Again with the objectifying! Just recipients of divine anger and punishment. I mean, the verse even says "objects."
In Christian talk, it's easy to say that everything belongs to God. We easily say (not necessarily act) all the things we own are really God's possessions. We even say that we belong to God. But yesterday my mind stopped short on this idea that I am really not in control. I am truly a possession, an object. God is the actor. I like to think I'm in charge, that I have a will and the power to carry it out. This is true to some extent, maybe, but really - I'm a creature. Something that God created. I was an "object of wrath" but now, through the redemption bought by Christ's blood, I am God's chosen possession. There's not really anything I could do about it, or that I can even do now. I am the clay in the hands of the Potter.
It's humbling to be reminded of that. I am reminded that I am not in charge. God acted. God acts. Maybe it's not such a horrible thing to be objectified. And by the riches of God's grace, which he freely LAVISHES on us, knowing full well what he's doing, we are precious despite our creatureliness. Or because of it?
The first phrase to catch me was, "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of his glory." I thought about the words "God's possession." It seems to objectify people so much. Just objects to be owned. Really, it works well with the idea of redemption. God bought us back, paid something for us. That's how we relate to objects we own.
The next phrase was, "we were by nature objects of wrath." Again with the objectifying! Just recipients of divine anger and punishment. I mean, the verse even says "objects."
In Christian talk, it's easy to say that everything belongs to God. We easily say (not necessarily act) all the things we own are really God's possessions. We even say that we belong to God. But yesterday my mind stopped short on this idea that I am really not in control. I am truly a possession, an object. God is the actor. I like to think I'm in charge, that I have a will and the power to carry it out. This is true to some extent, maybe, but really - I'm a creature. Something that God created. I was an "object of wrath" but now, through the redemption bought by Christ's blood, I am God's chosen possession. There's not really anything I could do about it, or that I can even do now. I am the clay in the hands of the Potter.
It's humbling to be reminded of that. I am reminded that I am not in charge. God acted. God acts. Maybe it's not such a horrible thing to be objectified. And by the riches of God's grace, which he freely LAVISHES on us, knowing full well what he's doing, we are precious despite our creatureliness. Or because of it?
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