Funny from today

Admist the stress and craziness of ARP and graduation and summer planning (or maybe because of it) strange stuff happens and there is nothing I can do but laugh about and then share it with all of you.
I was sitting in philosophy class today and we had already established that the collective body of knowledge from our class consisted of the fact that it was Monday and that 2 + 2 = 4.  (We later also established that barking dogs bark and fleeking zerbitzes fleek and squares have four sides, but those all took prompting)  The entire class period my right hearing aid had been bothering me.  It just didn't sound right or feel right. I'd just given it a fresh battery late last week, so I knew that wasn't the problem, and I'd checked it for ickies before putting it in and it was clean, so I knew that wasn't the problem.  Finally, after about 40 minutes, I was ready to give up on it and take it out.  So I reached up to turn it off and take it out, only to realize that I had failed to actually turn it on.  I turned it on and it worked just fine.   That's just kind of the picture of my day today...that and singing the VeggieTales theme song before Pre-min seminar tonight, just because.

One more funny before bed (told to me by my friend K).  I was standing in the hall talking to my friend A and K was in her room with the door slightly open.
Me: do you want to do it here? maybe we should go sit down. 
A: maybe we could
Me: I mean, I could do it here, I've done it in the hall before...
A: let's go to my room.
So apparently that little exchange sounds really humerous if you have no idea what we are talking about and it made K laugh.  (We were just discussing where some editing should take place...stop being so silly!)

That's all for tonight.  Sleepy time for me! Hope I made you smile.

Sunday Again

So once again it is Sunday and I feel obligated to put something up here.  This week has been a bit up and down, with lots going on.  Advanced Research in Psychology (ARP) is eating my life. If you are a Central student, living on campus, or if you know a Central student living on campus and you have not yet participated in my research project and are willing to give me about 30 minutes of your time, please, please, please, let me know.  I'm about 13 participants short of my magic number and I present my research on the 27th, which means it has to be all wrapped up and pretty by about the 23rd, which means I need people! It also means I need to actaully do my lit review...I don't like lit reviews.  But when I get this done, I will be that much closer to graduation, which means I will be that much closer to more school...
Aside from ARP school has been crazy busy, but that's life.  I may have to hibernate from the internet world for awhile this week and get papers done.  Aside from the ARP paper, I have a philosophy paper due Friday and a Cog Psych article review due Monday....
Aside from school, life has been decent.  The weather has been much nicer which makes staying in and working that much harder.  I"ve had a bit of health stuff going on this week that has caused some concern, but I'm hoping it's nothing serious.  If you are the praying type, some prayers would be appreciated.  I really don't have time to be sick right now.
Prayers would also be appreciated as I make decisions about the summer.  I'm not sure yet what I will be doing/where I'll be living/what the best plan is, and time is running out to sort that out, so yeah...prayers would be good.
Now I need to attack some more homework before going to the Calm.  I'm excited for the Calm.  I kinda really like Jesus time.

Who do you say I am?

Identity can be a tricky thing.  Last week someone identified me to someone else as "Joy, you know, the one who has seizures..."  It's not the first time I have been identified that way, but for some reason it stuck with me more this time and it bothered me.  There was nothing untrue in what this person said. I do have seizures, but there is so much more to me than the seizures.  In any case, this spurred on a lot of thinking about identity (possibly at the expense of some of my school work).  It reminded me of a story in Matthew, where Jesus asks his disciples two questions.  First he asked them who people in general said he was, then he asked them who they said he was.  The story is below:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. 
Matthew 16:13-20

I wonder why Jesus asked his disciples those questions.  Since he was fully G-d as well as fully man, he had to have been all knowing, and if he was all knowing, then he would surely know what his identity was, and also who people said he was.  I think (my theology may quite possibly be awful and off base) that this passage shows Jesus' humanity. I think it mattered to him who people said he was. I think maybe (and here my theology gets sketchy) it mattered to him for who people said he was for the same reason it matters to us. Sometimes it's hard to sort out who we are, so we turn to other people to help us. Who people say we are does have to be held to some standard and sometimes taken with a grain of salt, or outright rejected. If someone said they thought I was an ax-murderer, I'd reject that pretty fast...just because someone says it's so, doesn't mean it really is so and just because someone says it is not so, doesn't really mean it is not so.  There are certain aspects of identity that cannot be changed, no matter what anyone says.  No matter what anyone says, nothing will change the fact that I am a beloved child of G-d.  We don't exist in a vaccuum, so therefore we must exist in the context of community, and therefore, who people say we are must matter, at least to some extent.

So, I'm curious.  Who do you say I am?  (hey, if Jesus can ask that question, so can I)

Seder Pictures

Here's some pictures from my makeshift seder tonight.  It was a little weird doing seder on Easter and not on the Thursday afore Good Friday, but it really was combining two of my favorite holidays, so it works.

Charoset before it turned brown...no nuts this year because bad stuff happens if I eat nuts.

The kitchen table at school as I worked...

Very nice looking GF, egg free Matzo balls, before they failed

Matzo ball fail.  But the pudding type stuff should make a decent breakfast. It tastes alright.

Our makeshift Seder plate...we were missing horseradish (Maror) and the shankbone (Zeroah)

Our table.

Easter is HERE!

Anybody who knows me well know that I love Easter.  I love Easter more than any other holiday.  Even more that Christmas.  I am an Easter person.
Not being able to go home for Easter this year was tough.  I would rather miss Christmas with my family than miss Easter with them.  I jsut love the whole season.  I love lent (I know, I'm strange.  If you didn't know that by now, it's time you learned).  I love memorizing verses with my brothers and sisters and hanging them on the memory cross.  I love helping mom make the play-doh for her class.  I love Palm Sunday and watching the kids process in, poking each other in the eye with palm branches and singing the same songs I sang when I was one of them.  I love welcoming the new members into our congregation. I love cleaning the house for the seder.  I love getting out the passover dishes and setting the tables.  I love the smell of all the different foods as they arrive on Thursday evening.  I love the somberness of church on Good Friday morning and the potluck that follows.  I love eating leftovers from the seder on Saturday.  I love Easter morning.  I love waking up and knowing that today we are going to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I love hunting for my Easter basket.  I love reciting my verses so I can get my clues so I can find my eggs.
I love going to church and greeting everyone with a hug and the words "Christ is risen" and hearing the response "He is risen indeed".  I love getting together as a family and dying dozens of eggs with white crayons and dye and then sitting down to eat them with bread and butter and meat (and raisin bread!) and smashing them into each other (or someone's head).  And I love Easter Monday, even if it does just mean more homework and such.
Yes, I love Easter and not being able to be home for any of it this year was hard, but, G-d is good. Last night as I sat at my computer journalling, talking (instant messaging) with friends and working on my paper (I like to multi-task...) and G-d brought some scriptures to my mind.  Some really good ones (All scripture is good, but these were especially meaningful at the time).  I grabbed a book to try and find some more clarity on the topic and ended up stumbling (not literally) onto some really good stuff that I needed to read right then.  G-d is good, G-d is faithful, and G-d blesses me so much.  Hallelu....JAH!
I finally went to bed at about 1:15 this morning...when it comes to Easter I'm worse than a kid on Christmas Eve, no joking.  I love Easter.  Then I was up shortly after 5 so that I could be at church for the 6am sunrise service.  Yeah Easter! We sang some of my favorite Easter hymns and everyone else had communion and then we had breakfast and then more church...After that though, it was nap time.
After nap I went down to the kitchen to start prepping for the seder.  At home we usually do the seder on Thursday afore Good Friday, but when you are in college you improvise sometimes.  Really most of the seder was improvised this year.  I was celebrating with friends who had never celebrated before though, so they didn't know the difference.  Now I am very full and very content.  I like Easter a whole lot.

How to Write a Paper (in 45 simple steps)

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As a college student I often have to write papers.  I have a feeling most college students find themselves in this place frequently.  So a little "how-to"....
1. Put on your painting clothes.  Paper writing could get messy.
2. Turn on some fun tunes.
3. Open a word processor and type a title.
4. Make a sketch of your next painted masterpiece.
5.  Have a snack.  Paper writing is hungry work.
6. Write a few sentences.
7. Gaze longingly out the window at the beautiful weather.
8. Go on facebook and update your status.  Something about how awful it is that you have to write this paper.
9. Erase what you've written and start again.
10. Work on your painting.
11. Go on facebook and check your groups.  Someone may have posted an important question.
12. Type a few sentences.
13.  Have a snack.
14.  Go upstairs and give your friends hugs.  After all, it takes 4 hugs a day just to survive...
15.  Rewrite your title.  After all, the title is the most important part of the paper (Especially if Joe B. is your prof)
16.  Go on YouTube and check out the video that everyone was talking about in class.
17. Get inspired and type a whole paragraph.
18.  Realize that your paint has dried enough that you can do the next step. Paint some more.
19.  Go outside and chase a few squirrels, just for fun.
20.  Go to lunch for a couple hours.
21.  Panic over how little you've accomplished and type diligently for about 5 minutes.
22.  Go on facebook and read everyone's status updates.
23.  Facebook chat.
24. Do some more painting.
25. Type some more on your paper.
26. Grab a friend and go for a walk (or watch a movie, depending on the weather)
27.  Nap time. Paper writing is exhausting!
28.  Go on facebook and look at everyone's photos from last weekend.
29. Type a few more sentences.
30. Read children's books to your friends.  They needed a study break.
31. Check all your friends' blogs.  You might miss something important if you don't.
32. Decide to make a blog post of your own.
33.  Go to supper.  Spend a couple hours there.
34. Resolve to work on your paper and nothing else until it is done.
35. Watch the sunset and take pictures.
36.  Post the pictures on facebook.
37. Realize your paper is due in the morning and you have wasted the entire day.  Panic, close facebook and all forms of IM.
38.  Eat a snack.
39. Get bored with your paper and go on facebook to see who else is still up working on papers.
40. Do some detail work on your painting. (you need a study break every once in awhile)
41. Finish your paper, go to the lab to print it, realize the printer is out of paper, decide to print it in the morning and go to bed.
42. Stumble into class with your freshly printed paper and eyes half open.
43. Turn in paper.
44. Vow never to procrastinate on a paper again.
45. Repeat.

Good Friday Thoughts

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It’s Good Friday. If I were at home I would have gone to church with my family and then pot luck after church, followed by going home for leftovers from last night’s seder. But I’m not home. I’m at school.
In honor of the holiday I’ve been listening to !Hero: The Rock Opera while writing a paper and painting a new shirt. Later tonight there will be some Jesus Christ Superstar action happening, but for now it’s paper writing and !Hero. (!Hero is a retelling of the story of Jesus set in New York which is being ruled by an "iron-fisted" government known as ICON...think rock-and-roll meets Broadway meets the Gospel)
As I write this I’m about half way through. If I remember correctly this song (He just had to stir things up/leave here) is sung when Maggie (Mary Magdalene) is trying to tell her prostitute friends about Jesus and what he has done in her life. The lyrics (in part):
Prostitutes: Who does this man think he is? None of us need his help. Why don’t you just take your big kingdom to someone else? You shouldn’t be here. We don’t need you telling us how we should live our lives. How do we know you’re not just telling a pack of lies? You shouldn’t be here. Leave here. We don’t welcome any outsider inside the gang. We’re just malcontents but content to keep things the same. You’d better leave here. We don’t take our spiritual guidance from vagabonds. We don’t need a miracle worker to wave his wand. We’ll make you leave here.
Maggie: what’s the matter with you mental giants? Just afraid of what you can't explain. He only offers you a chance to try it, but all you do is mock him and complain.
Prostitutes: Hey girl let's remind you of something that you forget. You're just of us so go work it and paint your lips. white trash girl Maggie. We don't need you telling us how we should live our lives. How do we know you’re not just telling a pack of lies? Tell him to leave here.
Maggie: You really hate it when a person changes. Do you feel better when you call me names? My life's been clean since I met this stranger and all he does is offer you the same

As I listened to this I put myself in place off all three groups of people: Jesus (!Hero), the prostitutes and Maggie. I wondered how Jesus must have felt to be rejected before people even gave him a chance. All he was doing was offering hope to these people and they wouldn't even give him the time of day. They wouldn't even try to trust him. How does Jesus feel when I don't trust him? How many times do I tell him (maybe not in the exact words) that I don't need him telling me how I should live me life and that I've got it all under control?
And Maggie...she's met Jesus and she wants to tell others about the hope she has, but they won't listen to her. They can't see that she has changed. They still see the old Maggie. It must be frustrating for her. She knows she's changed and isn't the person she used to be, but no one else will accept that. How many times to I treat people the way the prostitutes treated Maggie? How often do I refuse to move beyond the past and accept that someone has changed? How often do I believe, even subconsciously, that someone is too bad for Jesus to change?
The prostitutes: they were scared. They didn't understand how or why Maggie had changed. How would they support themselves if they gave up prostitution? Who would accept them? They had a history after all. They aren't happy with the way things are, but the are more scared of the unknown. A chance at real freedom and healing is standing in their midst, but they are too scared to even give it a chance.

It's a lot to think about. Unfortunetely thinking about this does not give me progress on my paper on the five marks of global missions, so I will have to stop thinking and get back to work...Have a blessed Good Friday and remember that Sunday is coming!