Buttermilk

I ran out of milk yesterday. I walked down to the store (yes, you actually walk to the store here) and much to my dismay there was only two options left, 1% buttermilk and Vitamin D milk. Now the Vitamin D milk expires Nov 2nd and the buttermilk says it can hold out to Nov 11th. I decided I would figure out how buttery buttermilk was. I looked at the fat content, trans fats and the saturated fat to figure out if buttermilk was crazy high and would cause me to fall over dead after a bowl of cereal. Tangent: San Francisco is the only city you would find a campaign insane enough to think that they can actually ban trans fats (good idea though if it was possible). So after looking it over, buttermilk was actually healthier in all fat categories over Vitamin D milk. I picked the buttermilk, I mean who wants milk that expires in like three days? Well, I walked back home and poured my new buttermilk all over my cereal. Something odd happened. The milk didn’t really soak into the cereal. Early in the morning you really don’t think too much about these kinds of things, so I took a bite. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever put orange juice on your cereal before, but I have. Let me tell you Lucky Charms and OJ weren’t designed to be combined like that. The same can be said for buttermilk and cereal. Yes, I probably should have known better, but I never tried buttermilk, I figured it couldn’t be that bad. It was. It was that bad. I tried to water down the buttermilk so I could handle it. Buttermilk and water separate like water and oil, I don’t know, but I suspect that buttermilk has properties that make it more like oil than water. I guess that’s why it’s called buttermilk and why it was still on the shelf when all the EDIBLE milk had been picked clean. Yes, buttermilk and Elmer's glue are close relatives.

No words to describe

Just read this:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/143/21.0.html

the body

I have been reflecting on what I think God has been teaching me in the long term here. Besides the fact that I need to read more OT (it rocks my face off), I have been realizing the body (Christian community) more. I think it's pretty common in America to feel as though we really don't have very much responsibility if we're not a missionary, and indeed we do need more missionaries. I think the problem has stemmed in my mind from the hero mentality we have. Someone is always supposed to save the day. One person steps out alone to face the world. I think I’m realizing the need for a community of heroes.

I most certainly have come across people who I’ve been floored by. They usually have an incredible portion of brains, or they can sing well or everyone seems to be strangely drawn to their personality. These people I see being used in ministry in great ways and I wish for them to step up. On some secret level I think I’ve simply neglected the others from ministry, the ones who don’t have talent seeping out of their very being. I will call them…. normal.

By our very nature I think we elevate some as heroes and ignore the normals and sub-normals. I have been struck by what I believe is God’s deliberate method of not letting us do this very thing. A simple example, I don’t believe God will as readily answer our prayers, until we ask and get the body to pray and help each other. Our individualistic, selfish souls refuse to work together. I have come to the point where I want to pray for tons of people, to do whatever I can for them in love and realize my dependence on the community (God’s provision) for me. When this happens, I see him then act to answer prayers. Not that he won't other times or ways.

Just something that’s striking me.

Wendy's Remodeled

I went to Wendy's again today. It's been a while since I last was there, I think you all remember the ketchup that I ate off the lid. Anyway, I was surprised to see they've replaced their trash cans. They now resemble the Panera Bread cans with a hole above to drop your trash in and a tray holder above that to set your tray on. So, I don't think I'll have the same problem with them now... And yes, the playground still consists of a large orange cone and a few stumpy pieces of wood buried in the ground.

In other news, I'm officially looking at Beeson Divinity School for next year. Asbury is great, and I may stay, but part of me in really interested in diversity among faculty & students in the denominational realm as well as having incredibly small classes (12 students to 1 faculty ratio) and they only have 120 M. Div students! It reminds me of Regent in Canada. Sorry no funny posts yet… I’ll work on it.

Deep end of the Greek pool

Foreign Language may be the hardest thing you take in seminary. I'm the big doof who decided I really needed the comprehensive route. In less than 13 weeks I go from knowing a few Greek letters to being able to work my way through the New Testament pretty well. I can keep up now, but it requires me to cut back on my hours of work (earning income), hours of study in other classes and plays tricks with my mind. Then today a new piece of the puzzel came down the pipe, we have to learn two new chapters for next week's exam. Yeah, that's right, exam. I don't know how I'm going to make it through Greek and honestly right now I don't know if I can handle taking another semester of it come spring. I hardly have time to open books for my other classes if I want to be proficient enough at Greek to be able to keep up with the teacher. It reminds me of that scene in Goonies (a classic) when the guy is peddling a little girl's bike and some punk in a convertable grabs his hand and takes off. He was peddling so fast you thought his feet would catch on fire. Well, it's kind of like that. God is good though, on this I rest. I press forward knowing that somehow, and I do think it may take a miracle, I'll be able to keep up as we "start going faster" the second half of the semester by God's grace to me. Keep me in your prayers and Adam too, there's a reason they say "It's Greek to me!"

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Dawn! She turns the big 21 this weekend! You'll still always be three years my younger sister! Ha ha ha ha ha.

A painful call

I’m guessing by now you want the juicy details of what happened. Yeah, I did remove the last post. I decided I really didn’t think it salvageable no matter how hard I tried, much like the post before it. Yeah, I called the girl. It was completely awkward and neither she nor I was really excited about either the call I placed or her call back. No, nothing about long walks on the beach or anything straight out of Love Connection.

The phone conversations were painful to the end and when it was all said and done she invited me to come visit her church on the other side of Lexington, which I declined. She said she was coming to visit Clay (a guy in my dorm) yesterday, so I told to swing by and I’d say hey. I didn’t see her, I made an honest attempt but in the end I had to eat and go to class yesterday evening.

So we have never met before and I’m ok with it. Ok, actually I’m kind of glad we haven’t. I’m sure she’s a cool girl, but this is not the way to meet people you may want to date in the future. While I’m not opposed to hanging out with her in a group setting, you won’t see the Dumples on any hot dates anytime soon. I’ve made it clear to my friend’s wife that I won’t take numbers she may receive in the future. If she wants to bring a girl to hang out in a group that totally fine. Just let things happen natural. That's all I'm asking. Relationships don't come in test tubes.

Ale81

Ale 81, the soft drink of Kentucky has been growing on me steadily. Unforntuantly it seems I am continuing to get more tired as the school year progresses. I'm unsure if learning this intensily is making me tired or if I'm getting sick again or what, but I am becoming Rip-Van-Winkle.

In other news great deals of studying on the background of 1 Tim. has shown me that just about everyone has a different interpertation on what the culture of Ephesus should mean to us today. Thankfully, some seem like more of a stretch than others. I'm glad we have as much information as we do.

I'm working on, ok, I hope to shoot a video tour type thing soon so everyone back home can see what this place looks like.... Back to studying for me.

Here's an interesting article you may want to check out.