Supposed to...

The list of "supposed to's" or "not supposed to's" have kind of been driving me nuts lately.

I'm at college. Therefore, I am supposed to do homework. I don't mind this one so much, as I like most of my homework. But on gorgeous days like today, where the grass is green and freshly cut, the birds are singing like there's no tomorrow, the sun is FINALLY shining and flowers are blooming, it seems rather sick and wrong to have to study inside. Yes, I COULD study outside. But there's the whole 'desperate seminarian' factor, which so far I have successfully avoided. But it means study INSIDE. Besides, if I study outside, no studying will happen. Drat it.

I'm at a Southern Baptist college, therefore I am supposed to be either Calvinist or Arminian. And IF I know what's good for me, I'll be a Calvinist. No middle-of-the-road-ness here. Yer either white or black. What, you grew up non-denominational where they don't put over-emphasis on this doctrine? Well, honey, that's why God in His sovereignty brought you here. Dang it.

It's preview weekend, and you never know when some curious potential student will go through the two heavier-than-heck-fire doors, down the looong hallway to the VERY END where my room is (it's the banished corner of the girl's dorm. NO ONE goes down there unless 1. they live there, such as myself or 2. they need to borrow a textbook or 3. they are inviting my room mate to a women's ministry major event) Therefore, we are supposed to keep our room perfectly clean for the next week. (this MIGHT be the biggest challenge of my college career)

You are supposed to write all essays in perfect compliance with the Style Manual. Which was invented by an Obsessive Compulsive Perfectionist who had way too much time on his hands, thought computers were type-writers, and thought Microsoft word would always do what it was supposed to. Microsoft Word, any version, by the way, is a direct result of the fall and proves that computers do indeed have minds of their own. Oppositional defiant minds of their own.

I, as a woman, am not supposed to venture out in ministry on my own. I am supposed to either pray really hard for Mr. Right to find me SOON or only minister to other women. Not really even teenage guys. Possibly children, but YOUNG boys if I HAVE to minister to boys.
Not that I'm pining away to be a pastor or youth minister, those are some of the LAST things I want to do. It's just the 'you can't do this 'cause your a girl' attitudes are starting to wear thin.

Just a few examples of supposed to's. I'm also supposed to turn the other cheek, respond with gentleness and patience, love the unloveable, be counter-cultural and follow what the Bible and the Lord tells me to (but be careful how you word that last part as you never know when a cessationist is going to jump out of the bushes and start sermonizing on the sufficiency of Scripture and the dangers of Charismatics or Penticostals)

And, to be honest, my very human self is throwing a fit. I would really like to throw all these 'supposed to's' out the window and be a free-spirited, non-denominational, independantly-minded Yank who grew up on a farm, opening doors for myself and fixing things and squashing bugs and not caring who saw me without makeup with my hair disheveled as I made mud-pies with my brother in the river down the road.
However, I am currently swamped with homework on a campus in the South (yes, we are in the south, people! I don't CARE if it's not as extreeme South as Alabama or Georgia, it's still the south!!) which places high value on women being southern belles and guys being the leader-gentlemen-somethings. Which is perfectly fine.
I'm just really looking forward to summer break!!!!
And then, by the end of summer break, I will most likely be really looking forward to diving back into acadamia where every comment on theology is an open-ended invitation to passionate debate, where guys feel guilty if a girl opens the door for them (unless they are moving her furniture for her), where sweet tea is a way of life and all outfits are coordinated and girls don't run around, but wear skirts and dainty flip-flops and always wear make-up. Oh, and were you fry EVERYTHING, including ice cream, cheese-cake and oreo's. Not just chicken.

BUT in the meantime, I have to finish reading my psychology book and write a report on it, finish reading my articles for Ancient Near Eastern History and write reports on THOSE, and book my plane ticket to Romania and find a camera I can afford.

And between you and me, I REALLY wish that Calvin and Armenius had stuck to Farming and left the Reformation to Luther. I really think if they just left it at the 99 thesis, we'd all be a lot happier. Well, Wycliffe did some good things too. Okay Luther and Wycliffe. But that's it!!

~Princess Ouch~