Category Archives: Grace

Brides. Purging. Studying.

Posted on 26 May 2009 | 1 comment

I was talking with my pastor before church started on Sunday, and he shared with me an anecdote:

“Do you really believe the church is the bride of Christ?”

“Yes.”

“If you talked about my wife, the way you talk about the Church, I’d kick your ass.”

While this (possibly) wasn’t directed at me, I still felt its sting. If I really believe that the Church is the bride of Christ, why do I talk about it the way I do? I certainly wouldn’t talk about a friends’ wife the way I talk about the Church.

It’s been a week since I started trying to rid my body of some of the toxins, and the same length of time since I renewed an old commitment to read my Bible everyday. I find it is easier when I have a plan.

I have been able to take away all caffeine now, doing away with the morning green tea. I have found that I can make some amazing smoothies for breakfast; they are more practical and easy to transport. My favorite one is an apple, a banana, milk, honey, wheat germ, cinnamon, and ice. Another good one is carrots, celery, banana, apple, honey, wheat germ, cranberry-grape juice, and ice; although, it is a little grassy, so if you don’t like “greeny-tasting things” I wouldn’t try it.

I have had only minimal refined sugars, because I had a small piece of cake at a friend’s 80th birthday party, and another piece of cake at my parent’s house on Memorial Day (I didn’t have icing on that one, though). The only extra sugar I have been getting is two tablespoons of honey in my smoothie in the morning. I find that it doesn’t make me feel like other sugar, though, with that high/low feeling like crap by 10 in the morning. Not drinking alcohol the night before is probably helping with that.

I am trying hard to eat healthy food, too. I have been eating fresh vegetables, fruits, and grains while cutting back on the amount of meat and cheese I eat.I have to say that I feel pretty good.

I have also been walking about four miles each day, give or take. I am hoping that Bec and I will start taking evening bike-rides this week. I am going to pump up the tires on her bike today in order to encourage us to ride tonight. We did get up this morning to walk the dogs, which is a good step!

I have read the first seven chapters of Genesis, Ezra, Matthew, and Acts. I think this is a strange way to go about reading the Bible in a year, but I am just following the plan, hoping it will all make sense at the end. I can see some interesting threads by putting four books up against each other that I would never have thought about together. I can see hope/despair, light/dark, oppression/jubilation, and holy/unholy as large ideas that emerge when I think about the four texts together. I am sure there are more, but those are the ones that come readily to mind.

Doing both of these things together is helping me to think positive. I think very soon, my colleagues may think I am a Jesus freak. I am not sure that would be a bad thing.

I am growing weary of studying already, and I haven’t really done much of it. The time that Elizabeth and I are spending on Fridays seems to be the most valuable, because I think talking through my ideas using texts that I already know well is more helpful than reading a bunch of texts I have never read before and then trying to see how they fit into the grand scheme of things.

I hope my anthologies come in today because, once I have them, I can start studying specific texts instead of broad sweeps of time periods. Until they come in, though, I am trying to get my mind around the period designations so I don’t accidentally use two books from the same period to answer a question that needs texts from multiple periods. I could see myself doing that in a pinch.

1 Comment

Posted in Grace, Literature, Reading, Religion, School

Okay, I lied.

Posted on 20 May 2009 | 2 comments

I can’t keep from writing here. I mean this is where I sort out my ideas, and think about the things that mean the most to me: God and grace, literature, friends and family, beer, food, and exercise.

I have been thinking for the past few weeks, while I have been on my little writing hiatus and only posting links, that I needed to figure out what my mission is. Yeah, I know, I am thirty-five and just trying to do that. Seriously, Jesus was only 33 when his earthly mission ended and the spiritual one took over, but I think that is the point. We are supposed to marry our earthly and spiritual missions. For us, because of what Jesus did on the cross and who he was in this world, they go hand in hand. Together. He didn’t live a secular life and spiritual life, so why should we?

My work here, is proof of my spirituality. It is proof of where my heart lies. My heart lies with Jesus, so my life should look like it. My life should evidence his grace.

Yesterday I started a bodily cleansing. I am purging processed foods, sugars, and extra caffeine from my diet. I am making a conscious effort to walk or ride my bike everywhere. I am trying not to take the bus. I am doing this because I realize that my body is not healthy and it needs to be.

Today, I began a spiritual purge. I started a plan to read the whole Bible in one year, which will be a first. I think I have read all of it, but never straight through and never in one year. I think this plan will work because it skips around throughout the text, so I won’t get bogged down in Isaiah or Jeremiah. I am also trying to focus intently on maintaining my commitment to thinking positively.

I am a woman of cyclic intention, so I hope that I can sustain this new lifestyle. With God’s grace, I know I can. Changing my dissertation topic seems helpful.

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Posted in Dissertation, Grace, Religion, School, Writing

It’s been such a long time…

Posted on 14 May 2009 | Leave a comment

I am not sure if I actually remember how to write—here or anywhere else. My last post that contained any actual writing was on April 22, and since then, I must confess, I have only done writing that I had to do for school. Since April 22, I have completed a fake application packet and an annotated bibliography that had something like 60 or so sources on it. While it wasn’t much writing, not like the usual three seminar papers at the end of the semester, the two assignments were a little nerve-wracking because they were the last two of the last semester of coursework for my terminal degree. I wanted to go out well, and I did. I was pleased with my grades.

Not surprisingly, I have frequently been thinking about grace and peace. I just read a story, in Reader’s Digest of all places, about an older man who owned one of the first integrated textile mills in South Carolina. When his worker’s complained that the factory was integrated, his response was this: “You are getting paid twice what any other textile workers are getting paid. If you don’t like, you can always work somewhere else.” They all stayed. The grace I find in Sandor Teszler‘s story amazes me. God’s grace and human grace commingle with honesty to make this man another person to look up to.

Given his life story, I think it is remarkable that Teszler lived by the conviction that all people are inherently good, and I agree. I think that somewhere, deep-down, everyone is good. I have to believe this because God keeps putting people in my life that both make me doubt this and who reaffirm this for me.

I am sitting in the Blue Bottle writing this and I am watching the acts of grace unfold around me. A woman who is blind was escorted in by one of the MITS Plus drivers, who seated her and then alerted the staff that she might need some assistance. The driver calls her by name, Jenny, and pats her on her back before she leaves. Then the girl who works here comes to take her order. She sits across the table from Jenny and reads the entire menu for her, places her order, and when the food is done, brings her plate, puts it in front of her, and explains that the sandwich is very hot. She tells her where the food is located on the plate. Not many places, or many people, care enough to provide such service to their patrons with disabilities. The bus driver comes back while Jenny is waiting for her coffee to go, so she waits and then lets Jenny take her by the arm. They walk to bus together.

On this same spiritual front, trying to think positively is going well. It seems to make less stressful when I can do it. However, I am still trying to keep myself from getting sucked back into the negative vortex that I was in for most of the school-year this year. I just wrote on a friend’s blog that it seems like once I get one thing in my spiritual life straight, I find another that I need to work on. Sometimes I get annoyed that I can’t get it all right all at once, and sometimes, I get annoyed that I can’t even get part of it right, part of the time. But I do have hope.

I was going to start studying for comps today, but I decided to give myself this week to relax, read, and write. I have tons of studying to do, because I am not overly familiar with any time period outside my own. I mean I could probably mention a couple of texts in each time period, but to be able to write a cohesive essay using any of them, is a little out my comfort range.

Here is the planned schedule for this summer, because I know some people will want to know:

From May 18 through June 19 (with the exception of June 6-13 because I will be on vacation with the family), I will use all day Tuesday and Thursday and part of the day on Saturday and Sunday to study for comps. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I will work on my assistantship.

From June 22 through August 14 (with the exception of July 25-31 because I will be on vacation with Merideth), I will study while Bec is at work and use the lovely Daylight Savings Time—light until midnight—to paint the house. Probably the weekends will work well to pull up the carpet and to allow myself to have a little bit of fun. I think we can pull it up room by room, and the pain-in-the-ass part will be removing all of the staples. Augh! Good thing we have friends and neighbors for that!