Karaoke and snack time

A friend of mine used to do women's ministry at a church I was a part of. She told me once that she had met a lady after church one day who was visiting. My friend asked her what she thought about the service. The lady said, I loved the Karaoke and the snack time...

In Christian language... worship and communion. Ha ha.

Dan Allendar and Delighting

I went to the Dan Allendar conference a few weekends ago. He talked about many things, but one thing that stuck with me was about learning to delight in God on the Sabbath. He talked about doing things that bring you delight and help you want to praise God.

So yesterday, I ended up delighting in God in a way I did not expect. My church meets at 5:30PM so I usually take my Sunday mornings to sleep in, truly enjoy a cup of coffee, read, and look out the window. Yesterday, I decided to head over to Forest Park for a walk. It was a dreary day yesterday, no sun, damp air, and general wetness. There were few people there and it was still. I walked around the art hill area and the pond. What I did not expect was what I would get to delight in...

Ducks! Yes, there were tons of ducks and they were so beautiful to see. They were having a blast! They were also arguing a lot. It seemed like there was a lot of courting going on. There were trios and pairs of ducks everywhere. One particular trio was fun to watch. 2 boys and a girl. One of the boys kept trying to get closer to the girl and the other boy would get in the way. At times they would take off and fly all around the girl in the lead, desperately trying to get away from the unfavored boy.

At another point of my time there, a couple Canadian geese started arguing about something and making a HUGE racket. It was quite amazing. The pool at the bottom of art hill is somewhat closed in so large noises can echo a little. The honks of the geese filled the air. Suddenly they took off, one pursuing the other, honking all the way.

It was fun to be surprised by nature and get to delight in it.

A friend of mine sent this devotion from Henry Nouwen to me recently. She sent it to encourage me in my search to find deep and meaningful relationships in St. Louis. Enjoy.

'Creating Space to Dance Together' by Henry Nouwen
When we feel lonely we keep looking for a person who can take our loneliness away. Our lonely hearts cry out, 'Please hold me, touch me, speak to me, pay attention to me.' But soon we discover that the person we expect to take our loneliness way cannot give us what we ask for. Often that person feels oppressed by our demands and runs away, leaving us in despair. As long as we approach another person from our loneliness no mature human relationship can develop. Clinging to one another in loneliness is suffocating and eventually becomes destructive. For love to be possible we need the courage to create space between us and trust that this space allows us to dance together.

hmm

I feel like my general theme for my blog is... "it has been so long that I have been on here..." Ha! Oh well. Its true!

Smallest country... for sale!!

I heard about this about 8 months ago, and I had not checked on the status of the Principality of Sealand. This little country is for sale!! Take a look at the news www.sealandnews.com/ and consider making a purchase!! You could own your own country! Wow!

Do take a look at the history of Sealand. It is quite interesting. Also, keep an eye out for a movie about it. Sometime around 2008.

Like refreshing water

Who knew it? I mean, I certainly did not! Who knew that someone expressing non-fundamental, non-judgemental, non-exclusive THEOLOGY would give me the sense of laying in a stream of cool, flowing water.

Growing up in a church filled with the TR, spending more time talking about the Westminster Confessions and Calvin than the Bible, I had come to think that discussing theological beliefs was a big waste of time. All it does is divide people more, right? Hearing Reformed and Fundamentalist believers making exclusive statements about their theological beliefs, makes me want to run out of the room screaming. (And in reality, judge on them back.)

In our first class we discussed Postmodernism and Younger Evangelicals. Ughhhh... I was wondering, will I have to drop out of seminary? What if he says, "Postmoderns are evil, are sinful, are just plain wrong." (Language I had heard in order to exclude others.) If our teacher had said that, I was certainly going to pack my bags and leave. Instead, he talked about the good of this emerging generation (those growing up under Postmodernism) (i.e. Me!) ~ the desire for the emerging generation to LIVE OUT their beliefs, not to just speak them, as well as other things. More specifically, he talked about the Younger Evangelicals wanting to "release the historic faith from its captivity in the Enlightenment."

Robert Webber says in his book, The Youger Evangelicals:

"My head became filled with arguments, proof-texts, distinctions, and a kind of intellectual arrogance. In the meantime, God became an object; faith became a system; and my heart grew cold. My commitment to faith as intellectually verifiable did not strengthen my resolve to live in the pattern of Jesus' death and resurrection."

Yes!!! I completely agree.

As we talked about in the class God and His Word, all that really matters, the only hill I am really willing to die on, is Salvation. 5 points and other theological points are interesting to think about, but really, God is not going to ask me, "So Joanna, are you a 5 point or not?" He is going to ask me who my Savior is. Is my Savior my theological beliefs or is it Jesus. Do I serve my system of beliefs, or do I serve my Savior?

So here I am, sitting in a Theology class at a Reformed Seminary hearing non-exlusive language. I no longer have to feel GUILTY for not caring about the 5 points. Because... I dont care. Where I want to care more is, am I loving my God, myself, my neighbor. Am I glorifying God in what I do? Am I becoming more like Christ every day? Am I an Image Bearer?

Wow, I feel free from a system of guilt that has lost its grip on me. I could cry with joy!

P.S. God, make me non-judmental towards those that value understanding the 5 points.

In an attempt to get people to comment on my blog, I thought we could have a forum on (drum roll please), our favorite pirate sayings. This is also an attempt to honor International Talk Like a Pirate Day, since most of us could not observe it. Here are a few of my favorites:

"Aye, sea turtles." - Pirate of the Caribean
"Piratey things" - Larry the Cucumber

On top of that... Veggie Tales is putting out a movie: The Pirates who dont do anything!!