since i am the bestest i know at not doing homework, i decided to blog a bit. get those crazy thoughts that keep circling through my head out so i can focus on my finals (book reports for preaching and church leadership; proposal for intergenerational ministry; history essays; mission research paper; lifemap; prayer journal). i admit, some will be way easier than others. and all would be easier if i don't wait until the last minute to read course books. or if i didn't lose all my class notes from october and november (which, just for the record, totally sucks).
here is some quatsch (german for nonsense):
hanging out with jess and katie tonight. our conversation, which was not even an hour (ok, maybe it was), covered a lot of topics. from cankles (i thank my genetics that i am blessed and do not have these) to the rapture. from talking about the 17 inches of snow that fell yesterday to planning a weekly nora roberts reading (i love sappy romances). workouts to hair cuts. i think you get the drift that we hopped topics...
peter rollins' how (not) to speak of God is an awesome book. thought-provoking and something i would love to figure out how to implement. because i am beginning to realize more and more that the culture i find myself in the midst of needs to have a new way to talk about God. i like his emphasis that God is the one thing we cannot help but speak about while at the same time we can't speak about because we have no idea what we're talking about. i'm reading it because of my preaching class and i'm gobbling it up like it's chocolate (i'm a chocoholic and proud of it!)
praying the psalms has been an adventure and a half. i love being able to structure my day with an intentional time with scripture and journaling. i was really good at it for a few weeks. but as is my nature, i lost momentum. i'm beginning to realize more and more that i like to have constant change. somedays it's weird because then change becomes the constant, but i find that i struggle to keep myself in a one-track frame of mind. i have limited abilities when it comes to not multi-tasking.
i love my family. i miss not being with them, although having a great community at seminary helps to ease the pain of not being with my family. i'm looking forward to being home in a week. hard to believe that i could be hanging out with blood relatives soon. not that i'm starving for attention. i hung out with my aunt and uncle on thursday. not the best of circumstances since it was because he was having surgery to fix a ruptured disc in his back, but was a nice day overall. well, the weather was pretty bad. but i had a good time with my aunt. who in all honesty is more like a big sister in some ways. like the fact that she's nine years older than me. and her daughter is the about the same age as my niece (i think they're 6 or 7 months apart). makes for confusing age gaps.
i need to clean my apartment. it's really messy right now. i live in chaos. it's not dirty or unhygienic. but it could probably use a good vacuum. and some major organization skills. and some blocks of wood so i can put together a shelf i bought...
i have a problem. i'm addicted to escaping the reality of my world. this means i don't watch or read the news beyond the headlines (well, sometimes i do). it means that i prefer to read books or watch tv and films. anything for me to escape. some days it's easier to return to earth than others. but i'm learning how to connect what i experience through others' imaginations to the reality i live in. how to merge different realities in a way that will be able to enhance the here and now. it's taking some time and creativity, but i think that in our era of internet, video and constant visual/auditory barrage, we need to learn how to filter and focus. our learning styles will have to take into consideration that we no longer read one book at a time. instead we (well, i know that i do this) have three email accounts open while reading four blogs on the computer while watching tv (or movie, depending on if there's anything good on tv).
limitations and change. i'm hearing a lot about how our world is changing how leadership needs to change along with it. i think the way we talk about religion needs to change as well. as a future church leader, i have a vested interest in learning how to navigate these changes. i personally find great joy in being able to test out new theories and try new ways to experience God. which means i can butt heads with those who like the way things were. they don't like the way things are since things are changing and they don't like change. it's a challenge. that and the fact that i'm part of a generation that is becoming known for being tech-savvy (remember how bereft i was without a personal computer?), global (contacts everywhere), adapting/changing (new stats suggest that people are changing jobs and careers every few years), pluralistic and tolerant of others' beliefs and ways of living. sad fact is that those currently in charge are not enthusiastic about a complete bottoms-up reversal of power. with good reason, they are being cautious. unfortunately for people like me who want to experiment, we perceive this as old-fashioned, outdated and downright annoying. the times they are a changin. so we need to change as well...but i realize i need to learn about reflecting upon change, not just always going with the flow. easier said than done...
well, these are some of the big (and not so big) thoughts flowing through my head at any given time. there are more, but i think i'm going to work on a paper that's due tomorrow evening. or maybe watch something on netflix or hulu. not sure. should do the paper, but i hear the internet beckoning me...
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