Texas is not my friend right now…

Allergies have never been a huge problem for me. Growing up I would occasionally have a slight problem, but only if I like rolled in a field of dandelions or something (which I did often as a child). Well apparently that was just in KY or AL because Texas is a whole different story. You know how they say everything is bigger in Texas? Well apparently that includes allergies because I am miserable! Runny nose…and we aren’t talking the occasional need to blow…no I mean faucet on full blast runny…itchy eyes…scratchy throat…and I think I have sneezed a gazillion times today! I have never experienced allergies like this in my life. I have even been wheezing when I run! And no…i’m not THAT out of shape:)

I don’t think I can blame it entirely on Texas….I have been cleaning a house. The folks I work for just moved into a new home, so I am cleaning their old house so they can rent it…the house they lived in for 23 years! I’m pretty sure some of the dust and bugs I cleaned up have been hiding under their furniture all 23 of those years. So needless to say that has not helped matters at all.

Now…here I sit…needing to do “pre-homework” (what the crap is that?!?!?) for a class that starts Tuesday and I have no motivation. I made a trip to CVS and got some meds and puffs plus lotion (they feel so nice!). I also picked up some chocolate milk because the thought of it coating my itchy, burning throat excited me (and it didn’t disappoint).

So here I am…tissue to nose…blogging instead of doing homework. When I don’t feel good I feel like that is a green flag to do what makes me feel better…which is definitely NOT homework! Any advice on how to knock out these allergies??

I phone

Been a while…crazy last couple of weeks. I finally finished all of my papers…wrapped up a few finals…and am very pleased with my second semester. Two down…two to go!

Along with finals came birthday week. you see birthday week starts May 1, Ross’s birthday and ends May 7 with my birthday. Between that and finals it has been quite the eventful week! Birthdays were wonderful..I got Ross a grill for his new house. Currently it is still in the box in his parents garage waiting for closing day to come…but he is excited to grill some stuff up!

My amazing boyfriend got me an iPhone for my birthday…from which I am typing right now! Was I excited? Of course! It’s so awesome…however…Now that Ross and I both have iPhones we have already started talking less and it seems as though this may be how our Saturday nights end up for a while:)

At least until the newness wears off…

Exegesis update

This is the first time I have ever gotten worked up over any assignment I have had in school…..ever. I was so worked up that at one point I thought about paying someone to write the stupid thing for me…not really…but it would have been a good thought (those of you who know me know that I can’t break rules like that). I did however email my professor and ask him if I could change my paper topic so that it was a normal research paper. I was basically at my wits end. He said no…of course… and offered more guidance in a paragraph of an email than he has all semester!  So I resolved myself to trekking ahead and writing this paper….because I had no choice.

I decided the library was a good place to start since I needed more sources.  So I went and I found the greatest resource ever…a book on how to do AND write New Testament exegesis….LIFESAVER!!!  It gives me a step by step by step approach….and its easy to understand.   So then I moved on to sources.  I had already been to the library 3 previous time to find sources, but I could not find the good academic commentaries my prof had been suggesting.   I had looked everywhere….well….everywhere but around the corner.   Let me explain…the commentaries on Philippians are at the end of an aisle and they only take up about 3 shelves, and there are two empty shelves underneath of them.  So  logically I deduct that that is all they have.  Well…my deduction was wrong…Yesterday I walked around the corner to the next aisle and BINGO there in front of me were ALL of the commentaries I needed….PRAISE GOD!

Here I am Saturday morning…back where I have been the last 4 nights…sitting in front of my computer ready to start this paper…this time however I have a new attitude…or maybe its just that I have no other choice, but this time I WILL start typing

Soooo…If you are sitting home on Saturday sulking because you are bored…maybe it’s raining…or you have to clean…just be glad you aren’t staring into the face of the meanest exegetical paper ever! (and pray that I get this thing done today:))

Exe…who?

This is me….procrastinating on yet another homework assignment.  But for once I have to admit this procrastination may be legit.  I am about to start my 3rd of 5 papers that I have due in the next couple of weeks and I don’t know how to do it.  I literally do not know how to write this paper.  Yes i have already gotten the common responses of use a pencil and paper….or the ever popular…just move your fingers on the keyboard…and no I don’t really appreciate the sarcasm at the moment.  Bottom line is I have no clue what I am doing.

Let me explain….I am in New Testament…nothing too horrible.  I have actually really enjoyed becoming more familiar with the text and the history behind it.  this is my second semester and I was looking forward to a fairly smooth semester.  Last semester we had to write one paper and mine was on the history of crucifixion…which is extremely interesting!  So I was thinking this semester would be along the same lines….well I was wrong.  This semester my wee (and he is wee..probably about 5′ or 5’1″) little Korean professor informed us we would be writing an exegetical paper.  And that was it.  No guidelines…no this is how you do it…all we got was a handout that told us what sources to use.  For those of you who aren’t in/familiar with seminary let me explain.  There is a class.  It’s called hermeneutics…and it’s purpose…for an ENTIRE semester…is to teach one how to exegete a passage from the bible.  (Basically exegesis is the historical investigation into the meaning of the biblical text)

Well lucky Whitney hasn’t had that class yet and now I’m sitting in front a blank computer screen with no clue where to start.  And apparently no one has the book in stock that he recommended we use to help with our paper.  AWESOME…so looks likes every night from now until tuesday is going to be spent thumbing through commentaries writing what I find…hoping that it is close to what he wants…Here goes nothing!

…any of you seminary experts have any advice?

seminary in all its glory

Im sitting in front of my computer as I do many days a week putting off homework.  It seems like the minute I mark something off my school to-do list, three things get added right back on.  I realize that this is what  I signed up for….but 16 hours of graduate work stinks!  Undergrad was simple…read occasionally take a few tests and…bam…you get a degree.  Well apparently undergrad being so easy means grad school will be worse…X20!!!  Honestly though it is totally worth it,  I am being stretched in ways I never imagined…finally learning what I believe (as opposed to what everyone has always told me to believe)…and learning to push myself (which is always good since I don’t EVER go at things hard!?!?!) Ok…let me get to the actual point of this whole entry.  I was told by several people who have gone before me that seminary will screw you up…and…wow…its true.  No I don’t mean like screw you up into not believing or understanding, but screw you up…push you until your breaking point.  Seminary has forced me to take off the blinders that many years of passive Christianity has created.  I have been forced to look at what the bible actually says (funny that it took seminary when I…and the church for that matter..should have been doing it all along)…forced to figure out where I stand on tough issues…and forced to realize that just because someone in a position of leadership says it..doesn’t mean I have to believe it (including pastors, professors, and presidents (US and seminary))  I’m screwed up!  My theology is ever evolving…ever changing…and ever growing.  Like I said not a bad thing.  The question I am facing however, is: why did it take seminary to screw me up.  Why was I never challenged, never pushed, and never forced to form my own theology…why did I never push myself to that?.  Oh trust me, I know all the stories, all the verses, all the right and wrong things to do (didn’t always choose right), and all the answers, my Dad is a preacher for goodness sake, but not once was I pushed to really view all sides of every issue and form my own theology.  I know that that is the point of seminary, but how do we expect other “strong Christians” (that is a typical label I may have received prior to seminary) to formulate their own theology when all we do is preach at them what to believe.  I’m glad seminary has screwed me up because otherwise I would still be a mediocre Christian bumbling through life comfortable…being unsure…being pushed…being challenged has made me uncomfortable and I like it that way.  The question is can we find a way to make Christians uncomfortable without sending them all to seminary?

Weekend classes are crazy

I’m sitting in class right now…yes at 3 on Friday…when I normally have NO classes…I am sitting in class.  However this is not any ordinary class.  It started at 12…and doesn’t end until 7.  Thats not all…it starts back tomorrow morning at 9 and goes until 4.  Am I crazy…yes…but my verdict on this whole deal is still out.  When I am sitting in the middle of the dad-gum thing I think that whoever created this idea should be burned at the stake…but considering this is my second semester to have a weekend class and  I will have another one next spring maybe I’m the crazy one!  It always seem like such a great concept when I’m making my schedule.  I only have to attend class 6 times and I’m done…and its on the weekend so it doesn’t interfere with work or regular classes.  Then it comes time to go to class and I want to cry!  It seems like every weekend there is nothing to do….well of course until the weekend of my class.  Then there is 100 more pages of homework to read, a friends wedding I cant attend, and something cool going on that is “ONLY IN TOWN THIS WEEKEND!”  Never fails…so here I am in class….listening to a lecture on parent modeling (no not “super” model…but “how to be a christian” model)…(incase you don’t know…I’m not a parent!)  which is great….but I’m struggling with application!  Right now….im hating my life…but don’t worry….as soon as its over I will be totally amped thinking about the fact that  I only have 2 more days of class before its over!  I guess I will just be fickle…

Heaven on earth

How can a sauce with anchovy as one of the ingredients be so delicious?

God is not obvious at all….

Apparently I am stubborn…or don’t pay attention…or just need a little more encouragement than other people because when God wants to bring something to my attention he does it in a big way.  I’m talking like giant billboard with fluorescent lights on the side of a major highway big!  Let me explain…Im in seminary so I am always studying the bible or something related to it…I attend two different churches during the week (man I am a great Christian:)…j/k I’ve got a long way to go) so I hear different sermons…and this week I even stopped in at the youth worship at my church.  Normally I am encountering God in each of these areas, but rarely do they connect (in an obvious way) so I spend most of the week trying to sort through everything.  I’ve got phneumatology swirling around in my head with a mix of New Testament, parenting, principles of teaching, and what ever the sermon topics were for the week.  Often in my life I am experiencing quantity rather than quality when it comes to my relationship with God…pretty sad huh?

Well the past few weeks…especially this week…the story has been a little different.  Lets see…the sermon series at my church is going through I Corinthians, which can mean an array of topics, however that last two weeks have talked about LOVE.  The sermon series at  SEVEN, another service I attend, is on LOVE and dating.  The youth worship service….yup you guessed it…LOVE and relationships.  New Testament…we are covering the Corinthians, the book of LOVE….Human growth and development…socioemotional development of children…and how their parents LOVE affects it…Biblical parenting…well thats just all about LOVE.  On top of all of this a few weekends ago I attended SL conference LIVE LOVE!  Do you see the recurring theme?!?!  Yeah…it took me awhile.  I was sittin in chapel today (attempting to pay attention…I promise:)) when it hit me.  Okay God I see…then I pondered what about LOVE am I supposed to realize?

The obvious that most of you jumped to (don’t play like you didn’t) deals with a boy in my life…Ross.  Don’t get me wrong…I love him very much…but God said no Whitney you think about that enough…I want you to think about my love for you.   Ok…have you ever REALLY…I mean REALLY thought about God’s love for us.  A love that is more pure…more real than anything we can humanly grasp.  A love so perfect that it cost us nothing but cost him his son.  WHO AM I TO DESERVE THIS?  Well guess what…I don’t..and that is what His love is for us.  The challenge for me and I think for everyone of us is to love like Christ.  Is it even possible…NO…we are human BUT we strive to love like Christ. As I try to get my head around this love…to wrap my thoughts around how much I am loved…I am overwhelmed.  But at the same time challenged..how can I mirror this e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y?  This is a huge order, but I can’t wait to see what will happen if I am even able to mirror an ounce of God’s love for me to others.  

So I guess in reflection of this past weekend and the love day that it held…remember what true love looks like…it looks like a son on a cross dying for sinners.  That may sound “churchy” but its real.  So heres to mirroring love…real LOVE.

Hello world!

My head has been swirling with all this stuff in it lately.  To the point that I sit in class and can’t hear anything but whats in my head, I try to do homework and i’m consumed with these thoughts, I see my boyfriend talking but similar to Charlie Brown’s teacher all I hear is WAA WAA WAA WAA….so I’m trying something new.  I’m hoping that putting these thoughts down on paper (the internet is paper right?) will make a little more space in my head so I can once again function as a normal human being!  So…here it goes..I’m not promising any philosophical, deep words…it will probably all be emotional blabbering…I guess we will see!