Semester so far

Well, I logged onto my blog to make a quick update, and was distracted by a pop-up advertisement. It was an opportunity to give my blog a 'new and improved look.' I allowed myself a 10 minute distraction, clicking on different layouts etc. and finally decided to stick with the same-o-same-o. Sometimes the old ways are best. ;-) It looked cool but slightly confusing, so when I have time (HA!) I'll give it a more in-depth look.
In other words, midterms were this last week! Remarkably, I think I did alright on my exams. Surprising to me, given the fact that I was bedridden with a serious cold and then a viral inner-ear infection for two weeks, and not really myself trying to recover for going on two and a half weeks afterward. I have tried to stay on top of homework, but will give the glory and praise to the Holy Spirit directing me on which sections to focus on studying when trying to cram on the exams. :-)
Anyway. My professors have been saying some pretty funny stuff this semester, so I thought I'd quit moaning about my physical ailments and give you a peek at some more college humor. Hope you enjoy. Warning, though, we are NOT politically correct. So if you are part of any kind of rights group or take life too seriously or whatever, this post is not for you ;-) For those of you who go to this school, if you think you know who said these quotes you are probably right.

Anyone ever tasted a medicine that tastes like the lobby of hell put into liquid form? Oh yeah, some o'yo momma's washed your mouth out with soap? Yeah. Yeah, some 'o you know the pain of repentance and how it tastes!

Student: Oh my gosh, we sound NERDY!
Prof: Hey hey hey, who said the 'N' word in my classroom?
Student 2 : C'mon, man, I embrace it!

I'm from the South, so I may say stuff that ya'll don't git. That may be one of 'em.
Here's the problem. We have a block class at 11:30. How many of you are from the South? And I don't mean Kentucky, I mean the REAL south? OKay those of you from the REAL south know that this is dinnertime. Right? 'Cause supper is at nighttime.

Prof: What do you say in the West?
Student: All ya'll.
Student 2: Well it depends on how far west. In California its just 'you.'
Professor: We don't count California as west! That's LEFT coast!
Student 2: Hey. We voted proposition 8!
Professor: Yeah and the Mormon's helped you git it. That don't count.

Professor: I'm a HUGE college football fan. Fall is NOT a good semester to have me. I'll have extra credit questions on the exams based SOLELY on football.

You don't have to read the entire book. You'll just read 98% of it. So skip the preface, skip the index, you'll be good. That was an attempted joke. Go 'head, ya'll can laugh. Good. Ya'll can pass.

If you really love someone, and they feel that you really love them, you can teach them anything!

If you fall asleep in my class I may very well make fun of you. I will find the biggest book I can find and drop it right next to your sleeping head- from ten feet in the air if I can. You will wake up, shoot up, shout up, maybe even throw up.

Time for some investigative research. Find out what time those professors, especially Dr. L, have class and which one of your friends are in it; and how many of them have cell phones they will leave on. If you breathe a word of it I will lie. I will put all the blame on you. And those of you who are sympathetic to Dr. L, I will find you out. Unless you post another video of him dancing on Facebook.

Professor: There are men who read the Scripture, and I know they love it as the inerrant word of God. But it is a good thing I know it ahead of time because I never would have guessed it by the way they read the Bible.

Professor: I have six daughters. Our most recent one is probably last, as my wife has gotten old on me.
Student, also Prof's daughter: I'm tellin' Mom on YOU, Dad; tellin' people she's old!
Prof: I will fail you in this class if you do!!

Good teaching is communicating through personality; transformation/formation of Character, not the transfer or acquisition of information.

Why is he quoting David? 'Cause back in that day, David was the MAN. It'd be like walking around here saying, 'Well John Piper said..." or "McArthur said," or 'insert your favorite puritan here said."

Student: That's like, white trash gourmet!
Student 2: That's the caviar of the south!
Prof: Well, there are more deer than people in Kentucky. Its like Baptists in Texas - more Baptists than people!

Did you think you'd get an hour and a half discussion out of ten pages? That's what happens when you let a philosopher on the loose!

That may sound harsh but I am just telling you what the facts are. If all you have is head knowledge and no heart knowledge then you and Satan could be room mates.

Francis Schaeffer speaking of C. S. Lewis on a topic they disagreed on: Oh, if we could have talked, I'm sure he would have come around.

Tell me what that has to do with anything besides nothing!

Some of you are like, "John Piper said it therefore its the case." Its like the 67th book of the Bible.

If you ever feel that you are good enough for ministry you ought to reconsider.

Remember, throughout our lives, in God's sight there are no little people with little lives. Through God's grace little people with little lives can change the course of our society.

Ya'll are thinking too general. Think specifically, right? Start's with 'G' ends in "od.' Right. Had to find the right drawer int he filing cabinet for that one.

Yes, you should study for the glory of God. I know that hurts some of you a little bit. It doesn't mean you have to make an 'A' it means doing it to the best of your ability.

Anything is improved by friend bread crumbs. You know you're in for some good eatin' when the recipe calls for 2 cups of lard or butter.

Student: Can we use our Bible's on the exam?
Professor: Here's what I always say: I feel like if I tell you that you can't use your Bible I'll go to hell. So yes, you can use your Bibles!

You are so engaged in kicking yourself in the proverbial spiritual rear-end... actually... I guess a spiritual rear-end is not so proverbial...

Now, I know you've got a lot of homework... but good lord, go outside!

Two more points on the outline and then we're done with class for the day. The time of your jail-break is coming! The end is near!

I can't wait until I'm 110 years old because you can get away with saying anything and no one says anything because you are old! My wife is kind of nervous, because she's like, 'You know... you already kind of have no filter..."

We think that dressing like a certain community in Seattle is missional. I mean... I'm going to hear about this later but that's okay. We're going to do this. We're just gonna do this and take the blue pill... or was it the red pill? Well, whichever pill it was, we're gonna take it and go with it, and see what happens. Have you seen John Piper? The man is a dweeb! He is SO nerdy. He's worn the same coat, shirt and loafers, its like, GO SHOPPING DUDE! But some of you are really struggling that I just called John Piper a dweeb because you don't care what he wears, because he's so relevant! A powerful and passionate speaker and you love him.

Dr. B and Dr. J are self-professed Greek nerds. Thanks, I'll stay with being a self-professed evangelist-to-Mormons nerd. They can have their present infinitive craziness. I'll stick with Joseph Smith.

I really must confess... I really have no idea how we got on that tangent... Oh the sticky note hanging on my pant-leg! Next time just let it hang.

For the stoics, reason is kind of done away with. So where then do we find ‘the norm’? Can’t look inside yourself, that would be existential. Can’t do that for the sake of being good, because that teleological.There’s this thing out there called the World Soul. “Yeah ya’ll were like, ‘that’s what I wanted to say I was just afraid. Ddn’t want to dumb it down.”

Professor: Have ya'll heard of the Board of Education? Its a paddle for your B-hind. Or, have you heard the 'young man!' then heard your daddy whip his belt off? I take my belt off at night it still gives me shudders. I know ya’ll don’t do that in CA but in the South-
Student: Oh no, but we do use extension cords.”
Professor: Wow, plugged in? Fray ‘em a little bit and then git a little ‘nyeeeum!

Battle of the desk

"When I was working in collegiate ministry, I very bright student, Sue, came to me. She told me that she was an agnostic but that her best friend, Larry, had become a Christian. He talked to her a lot about his faith and did not neglect her after his conversion. Instead, he brought her to his campus Christian getherings and introduced her to his new Christian friends. He made her feel comfortable and a part of his very different Christian world. He answered as best he could her many intellectual questions about his faith. And most importantly, he loved her.
"I've seen what faith in Christ has done for Larry," she told me. "I see the love these Christians have for each other and for me. I've seen what Jesus is like in the Gospels and a lot of my questions have been answered. But I still don't believe. I'd like to find God, but I'm plagued with doubts. Please don't ask me to pray to receive Christ; it'd be dishonest. What should I do?"
I suggested what I mentioned above, read the Scriptures and look for an opportunity to put it into practice. She gulped and said, 'THat's radical. But I'll do it."
So she began having what she called her "pagan devotions." And the Christians around her prayed that God woud speak to her in the Scriptures and give her ocncrete situations in which she could obey. Several months later she said she wanted to talk to me. Here is Sue's story:
One day I read in the Bible, 'If someone steals your coat, don't let him have only that, but offer your cloak as well.' For whatever reason, that verse hit me between the eyes. So I said to the four walls, "Listen, walls - or God, if you're there - I'm going to do what this verse says, if the opportunity arises today. I want to remind you that I'm trying to do things your way in order to find out if you exist and if Jesus really is who he says. Amen."
The day went by and I forgot the verse. Then I headed to the library to continue working on my senior thesis. Just as I sat down at my designated thesis desk, this guy comes up and starts yelling at me. He told me the school hadn't given him his thesis desk, so he was going to take mine (Everyone knows how important your thesis desk is for your work. Thes chool only gives you one.) I started elling back, and pretty soon we caused quite a ruckus. But it was when he glared at me and said, "look. I'm stealing it from you whether you like it or not,' that it suddenly hit me.
I just looked and him and moaned, "ohhhhh no. NO. I can't believe it.' and to myself I thought, "Look, God, if you're there, I do want to know if Jesus is God. But isn't there some other way of finding out besides obeying the verse? I mean, couldn't I tithe or get baptized or give up something else? But don't take my thesis desk! I mean, with my luck, I'll give up the desk and then discover that you don't exist.'
But I couldn't escape the fact that I had read that verse the very same day someone tried to rob me. Before, I had always been amused to see how Jesus aimed for whatever was controlling the person in his conversation with people in the Bible. But now it didn't feel so funny. I took a deep breath, tried not to swear and said, "ok, let me think about it."
He looked bewildered. But just at that moment the librarian came up. She said she'd heard the conversation and was angered by his behavior. But he immediately began swearing at her and intimidated her so much that she told us we had to see his thesis adviser. So we trotted over to his adviser's office. It was clear to me by now that this guy carried around a lot of rage and was probably a troubled person. The more the guy ranted and raved, the more agitated the advisor became. Finally the adviser said, "Well, what does Sue think we should do?"
All this time I kept thinking about what I'd seen in these past several months. I'd seen Larry's life changed. I'd seen something beautiful in this Christian fellowship, something so real I could almost touch it. Even though I was not a Christian, I had been loved by these people. And I'd seen Jesus in the Bible. I felt so drawn to him. I realized that, even without a thesis desk, somehow I still had more than this poor, pathetic guy. I told the adviser that he could have the desk, and the meeting was over.
When we walked out the door, this guy grabbed my arm and asked me why in the world I let him have it. I told him he would I had flipped out, but I was trying to discover if Jesus was really who he claimed to be. In order to know if Jesus was really the way to God, I was attempting to obey the things he told us to do. 'So I've been reading the Gospels. And today I read that if somebody tried to rip me off, I was supposed to let them - and even throw in something extra to boot." All I could see were the whites of his eyes. "So I'm going to give you the desk, but don't press your luck about something extra."
Then he asked, "Why in the world would Jesus say such a crazy thing?"
Then I said, "Hey, if there's one thing I've learned from reading about Jesus and meeting these Christians, it's that Jesus wants to give us a whole lot more than a thesis desk if we'd let him. I think the basic idea is that it's knowing Jesus that makes us rich, not owning possessions. So that thesis desk is yours."
Becky, as I said those words, I just simply knew it was all true. I knew it from the inside out. I kinda felt like God was saying, "Well done. That's the way I want my children to behave." "

Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Salt Shaker & into the World; Evangelism as a way of life. Pages 89-91

Friday morning thoughts over tea

I am sitting in my living room, leisurely sipping tea and updating my blog. Ahh... what blissful luxury is mine today. :-) I have class starting at 8:30 or 8 am Monday through Friday, and work fifteen hours in those four days as well. The last few weekends have been a little hectic as once I finished my J-term homework I had to start right in on finishing two huge books (one was a doctorate level book... yeah I didn't get too far in that one) for my Apologetics 2 class and then once we got the class discussion out of the way for THAT I was working on a presentation on comparing C.S. Lewis to Francis Shaeffer for the same class. I loved it, I just wasn't focused too much on the concrete realm of reality ;-) In between all of that, my car finally gave up the ghost, but it took a little more for the final diagnosis of 'he's DEAD, Jim' to get proclaimed as we explored various options of life support and heroic measures of eeking out the last drops of life that we could from the poor old Blue Whale (it was a blue 1990 chevy lumina van, that was somehow christened 'the blue whale' and more often than not was 'the beached blue whale') I don't know why, but female chromosones are not designed to handle automobile trouble. It stresses us. I don't know why. It just does. Especially when it strands us in various places of the city. Guys think of it as a cool challenge; girls think of it as distress. So anyway. My Romanian brother and boyfriend got to exercise their 'save distressed female' powers during all of that. *sigh*
Now I am trying to gear myself up to drag myself away from musing on cyberspace and sending it out into the void. I have to figure out getting to the DMV to declare the Blue Whale dead, and I have to read some homework for my Methods of Biblical Counseling class. The lecture part of the class has been interesting if nothing else. I'm still not sure that I'm entirely sold on the paradigm of Biblical Counseling as presented at Boyce, but if nothing else its fun learning a different worldview and approach towards helping others through crisis and stresses.
I woke up thinking about Romania and replaying some memories of my time there through my brain. Along with everything else, I've been doing a lot of praying and soul searching about what God wants me to do after I graduate, what I want me to do after I graduate, what is being the best steward of what God has given me would be, etc. When I first came to college, my goal was to get back to Romania as soon as possible. While I don't doubt that God called me to go there when He did and do what I did, I have been really struggling with the thoughts of, well was that for always or just for a season? And I've been really musing about why I wanted to go, what I did while I was there, and why I loved it. The funny thing is that I went to the orphanage to see IF I could live overseas long-term as a missionary. While I was there I fell in love with various aspects of my situation there, but I lost sight of seeking the IF and decided it WAS. It was for that time, but I don't think I asked Him enough if it was for long-term times. So what is the long-term goal? Bear with me as I sort through my random-global thought process. If you don't want an interesting ride, just scroll down to the end ;-)

I discovered this last week that a girl I'm friends with is fluent in American Sign Language, and she invited me to go to her Deaf church with her sometime. I ended up skyping my friend who is deaf for a while and it was fun rediscovering that part of myself. My problem isn't 'oh my gosh, I've got to scrape together some options as I simply don't know what to do!' My problem is, "Holy schmoly, there are waaaay too many flippin' options of what I COULD do! Which one do I pick?!" I know I don't a normal 7-5 or 9-7 Mon-Fri job... I've mused quite a bit about a Master's in Teaching, but the thought of working in the School System makes my home school heart cringe and shudder for various reasons. A good friend of mine just discovered she's pregnant and asked me to be her Doula. I said yes, and then started thinking of delving back into the midwifery world... I just don't know how long I could handle the hours on a regular basis, as babies don't like to come into the world when its bright outside... they usually like ridiculous hours like 2 am.


The overall theme is wanting to serve people and show them how to serve God better and bringing Glory to God. I could do that in a normal occupation, in a dramatic and wacky occupation, and simply by being who God has created me in all situations He's put me (systematically confounding and irritating people as I go, driving them to their knee's in irritation most likely, but whatever) Whether that's as a volunteer at an orphanage, a missionary to Gypsies, an interpreter for the Deaf, a teacher in various capacities, a Doula or Midwife, a wife and mother, a good friend, or something else entirely that God has yet to show me, I hope to be obedient to His calling and a faithful witness to Him.