Workin' Hard for the Money...

Wow....just applied for 4 jobs. Crazy. But good that I did it. Now I just need to get on top of calling places for apartments. But who knows where that will be because I don't know where I'm working at. Fun. Oh, and I had to fix this outline for class that took me 1.5 hours. Boo for the debacle, but it's done and it's done well. Yeha. Time to relax for a bit. Yeah!

Good News

Hey, at least I did well on my Psalms final project. Came as a nice surprise yesterday.

Jen,

Thanks for being in class this past half term. Please accept my apologies for being so late with this feedback. I am a worn and no human, my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth, I am a sinner since my mother’s womb.

Your work, as usual, is without compare. The project as you lay it out shows a depth of engagement and understanding that should be bottled and sold. Your plan for the retreat grasps and renders understandable the meaning and message and metaphor and …. Searching my brain for one more word that starts with M… means of making God’s presence manifest (found three m words) of psalm 42/43. You are a master. Here is the only way that I could think of to make this stronger: a clear statement at the start of what the message is that you are engaging the people with and some means of covenanting to get them to buy into what you are doing. Also, thinking of other ways to get people to own this stuff.

Great job.

Rolf Jacobson

Don't Drink the Water

Apparently something weird is going on with the water in our apartment. When I took a shower yesterday morning, it smelled like the preservatives of the sharks we disected in bio lab in college. Horrid to think I was trying to clean myself with that fishy nastiness. Karen thinks it's getting better. I've been trying to steer clear of it. We've been away longer and not run the water and didn't have this problem.

Whirlwind Tour

It's been so long since I've written. Easter break was great. So good to be home for a while. Sad that it all went so quickly. Too much church and not enough time to relax. If I wasn't eating, sleeping or at church, I was in a car driving on a trip to pick up/return my brother to college. Just so tiring. And now I've got all this work to do back here for classes. Getting close to catching up. I was writing a paper this morning which prevented me from taking a shower and made me miss 2/3 of a precept today. Oh well. I showed up for the last 20 mins. and didn't really miss much. Stupid class. I have to preach this saturday and sunday and still don't have a sermon. Been working on it for the last two weeks. Now I need to throw in a children's sermon. Oi. Getting there ever so slowly. Have to prepare a series of bible studies for next tuesday. Oh and did I mention I need to find a place to live starting June 1 and I could use a job too? Yeah, the resume keeps getting relegated to the bottom of the pile. Not good. And what am I doing typing this? As if I have time to update y'all? Let's just hope the headache goes away soon.

Talent Show Link

Here's how to view the talent show. Visit the Luther Intranet page (http://www.luthersem.edu/intranet/) and click on the announcement titled "Didn't get to see last week's Silent Auction and "Talent" show?". The file will play in Real Player and it's about 1 hour 15 mins. You'll love it. I promise!

TP the Window, the Window, the 2nd Story Window...

I walked into a bathroom at school today (Gullixson, 2nd floor if you know it) and noticed that the window was open. How nice since it's good weather out! But, on the window ledge between the inside and outside (storm) windows was a roll of toilet paper. Wouldn't it be strange if we had to keep toilet paper chilled? And what a strange place to store it.

Are you a Blog Barfer?

So I'm driving home last night holding the precious cargo of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in the passenger's seat when I have the revelation that I am a blog barfer. I get busy and don't post. Then, when I finally have time, I spew loads of thoughts onto my blog--literally I barf them into cyberspace. Needless to say, there was much laughing in the car last night. :)

A Scrap of Paper

I found this in my bag on a scrap of paper. Thought it might be amusing.

Finally, people aren't about structures and confining spaces. The world has opened up wide and is available to live in (within) on a grand scale. People today live relationally and with permeability (with fewer barriers and structures). We are a dynamic people--not static. Not discrete units to be moved and plugged in and out. We flow and shift. We embody the now and the not yet so fully we don't even notice it.

How Dare You!!

What!?! You forgive me? That means you're accusing me of having done something wrong. But I'm a good person. I'm doing okay. Forgiving me means you're implying that I'm guilty. And I hate being wrong. I hate being the failure. I hate being the loser. Can't I ever get it right with you God? Isn't there anything I can do that will please you? And I also want to know, just exactly how far does this forgiveness go? I mean let's say you forgive me and I accept that fact. Then what? What happens next? What happens when I screw up the next time? Does this forgiveness just take care of what I do wrong or does it permeate into other things--like how I think about things and how I act? Does it change who I am then? Well who am I if I'm forgiven? Cause if you're going to change who I am--not that I gave you permission in the first place, unless you snuck that into the forgiveness and that's just...well, sneaky--then what do I have to hold on to? What becomes my pillar, my grounding point, my anchor? On what do I stand?

2nd Place, 2nd Best

In confessions class this last week we learned about segundophobia--the fear of being second. This of course is in relation to us and God. God and God's Word is first, we're second. How am I supposed to be 2nd to God when I live in a world where I must put myself first because if I don't take care of myself, no one else will? Where's the practical side of this? How do you actually survive in the world when this is the case? When the prof. brought this up in class, I was reminded of a comment he made in a previous class. It made me think: How do I live with myself when I am schizophrenically crying for salvation, but am working towards my own demise? How do you live with yourself when Christ is pushing you out of the way and taking over?

Side-Splitting Talent

Talent shows have the potential to be great or worthless. This last Tuesday was on the great side of things. I haven't seen skits that hilarious since...well, college and camp. Who sings the song "Popular" and dresses someone up like the pope? Who eats fire in the school chapel?? Who dances like a crazy person just for kicks? (Okay, so I occassionaly do the last one too, but when the president does it...well that's another story.) Oh how my abs ached! Good times, good friends, good music, great laughs. They did record the whole shin-dig, but it doesn't seem to be accessible on the web. I'll let y'all know if I find it.

Next Step into Oblivion

I've been wondering recently what life is really all about. It just doesn't make sense ya know?? I mean, what are we really doing here? What's the point? I will have finished all my classes at Luther in May--for my degree anyway. And right now it's hard to justify taking any more classes with out a few dollars saved in the bank. School is always my safety net. Eventually I have to get out there and DO something with my life. I mean school is great and all. I love to learn, but....well...when you learn stuff you're supposed to use it right? It's just that I hate the beginning. Once I get going, I'm great. Here's hoping I have enough faith to get myself out there and get a job and somehow be okay. It's inevitable. I have to do this at some point. I guess now's as good a time as any. So in the end, I think about what life will be like when I'm not at school. Who will be my friends? Who will support me? Who will even care that I'm there? What if my job sucks? What will I do at night when I don't have homework to do? Will I have friends to go out with and have fun with? Or will I just end up alone and unloved? What should I be doing with my time? I gotta tell ya, the bible's not all that helpful on this one. I mean could we be any more amorphous than "fill up your day by doing the ten commandments"? How does my life take on meaning and purpose (if it does...) once I leave school??

FMSC

Thanks to my friend Kari, I have been introduced to a great new service project: Feed My Starving Children. A group of us went this last Monday for a couple hours. It was a really good way to spend Reading Days after coming off of the un-retreat retreat. I have known for quite some time that I have been neglecting my service gene while I've been searching for a project I could do with not so much commitment and yet still benefit people. I hope to go back soon. We packaged enough bags of food (which feed 6 people at a time) to feed 7128 people two meals for a day. I also met a group of home schooled kids--K-~6th grade--and an 8th grader who was volunteering over her spring break. The community of saints is large and looking for ways to be effective for Christ.

Lords and Peasants

Recently I've been plagued by what it means to have a Lord. What is God really saying when he says he's my Lord? What little I know is from middle school history classes where we learned about the feudal system. Lords were in charge of overseeing the land. To do this they needed taxes from the peasants/serfs who were not completely free, yet not completely slaves. Peasants couldn't move to another village, sell livestock or get married without the lord's/priest's permission. The lord of a territory could take portions of his land and give it to people under him who would take care of it--profitably, of course. Peasants would have a plot of land defined by how much you could plow in a day (an acre) and they had a set amount of days they were required to work on the lord's land. Crops were constantly rotated so as to prevent peasants from thinking they "owned" the part of land they were working on.

Of course it wasn't all bad. People gathered around their lord in small communities for protection. Is this a good picture of how God is my lord? Where does this human analogy drop off?

Obviously I didn't remember all of this from middle school. For those who are nerdy like me, check out:
www.historylink101.com/lessons/farm-city/middle-ages.html
www.learner.org/exhibits/middleages/feudal.html
or just google it like I did.

The Un-Retreat Retreat

If you ever fall into the trap that a retreat has to be work, then you haven't un-retreated. Last weekend I was in Alexandria, MN where I did nothing but drink exorbitant amounts of hot tea :), sleep, catch up with my friends and their life journeys, and walk around in the snow by a huge lake. Oh it was gloriously refreshing!! The funny thing about taking a break is that you don't realize how badly you need it until you actually take the break. It was like water to dehydrated food; like nectar to a hummingbird. I highly suggest it for everyone. And let me add that The Farming Game is a great way to unwind and pass the time.