Paper response

My good buddy Heath from Oregon read my paper, and I really liked his response, so I thought I would share it:

I read your paper. you wrote very well. you used plenty of big words and theological jargon, so even if you don't know what you're talking about, it sure sounds like you do. (i'm not implying you don't know what you're talking about. i'm saying you did a good job and should impress the teacher.)

Aggressive

Yesterday at church we talked about following Christ and how this is actually very aggressive. Christians do not meekly cower (sp?) in a corner, trying to fend off the attacks of the devil. Belief and faith is offensive to Satan, and in some sense affects everywhere you go. There's no reason why not to take the power you get from worship with believers everywhere you go. These ideas correspond nicely to a few quotes I liked in the book I'm reading right now called Organic Church. I will give you a couple of them:

Can the church stop its puny, hack dreams of trying to "make a difference in the world" and start dreaming God-sized dreams of making the world different?

If you wake up in the morning and don't run into the enemy head on, then maybe you're going in the wrong direction.

Jesus, about his Church: "...and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it." The implication is that gates are defensive, not offensive. The church should be the offensive party, not trying to withstand Satan's attacks. Light invades darkness, not the other way around.

Just some thoughts. I haven't completely processed all of them yet, but I think they're good to mull over...

Make me work

So, I need to start writing a paper, but I'm tired and would much rather do website stuff. Not a good combination. I'm intimidated by writing this paper--it's been a long time. So what do I do? Blog and work on my website.... *sigh*

Html

I am having so much fun working on my online website for my credential files lately (mypage.iu.edu/~shalspau, if you care). Granted, I'm probably doing this the long way by hard-coding everything, but let's face it--writing webpages by hand is a lot of fun. But, I have to give props to T-Dawg herself, a one Mrs. Aukerman. She has been incredibly helpful as a consultant....mainly saying things like: "Well, what you did works, but try this: it's half as long, and it's easier to read, and it doesn't make you look like a complete ignoramous." Ok, so maybe no one in their right mind uses the word ignoramous...

So now the question is, should I put a picture on myself on the website?

Protecting God

The past few days God has started to show me a glimpse of my self that, quite frankly, is impressively embarassing in its arrogance and ludicrousness (probably not actually a word), and displays a disturbing lack of faith. Basically, I'm trying to protect God. I'm afraid that I'm going to do something wrong and somehow God won't fulfill His promises to me because of me. Or I'll settle for a poptart when God is prepared for me a 5-course meal (for example, in my quiet times). God has been showing me lately all kinds of promises and ways He might use me. What if God wants me to perform a healing? Or lead someone to speak in tongues? Or "simply" bring them to Him? My flesh balks at the idea--I'm totally inadequate. I worry about somehow screwing up and reflecting poorly on Him because His servant is fallible. I want to protect Him. What a stupid idea! See 2 Peter 1:3-4 or 2 Cor 12:9. Why do I always make these types of things about me? If I am in any of the above situations, or just working in my office, God is there with me and protecting me. He will provide me with whatever power/words/etc. are necessary to accomplish His objectives--just get out of His way.

Pi

From the December edition of the Notices

...he wondered whether a computer would ever find the sequence 0123456789 in "pi". ...he later discovered that this sequence actually had been found. In the unlikely case that readers would like to know, the run starts at pi's 17,387,594,880th digit.

So, I have a couple comments about this. First of all, it's just cool knowledge to know--not just the sequence, but where it occurs. Secondly, and more importantly, why wouldn't we want to know where in the run is?!? I mean, seriously--if they didn't tell us where it was, I was going to be very upset. This is a math magazine--I find the odds of us readers not wanting to know incredibly small...

One of those dances

I think I've talked about it before, but Friday night I had another one of those dances--the ones you learn how to dance for. Elyssa and I danced a pretty quick song, and it became clear early on that a table of older people were staring pretty much straight at us to watch. So, not one to disappoint, I tried to pull out all the stops. We danced lindy-hop, tandem charleston, balboa, and east coast, with beautiful transitions between each. Now, I'm not saying the dance was perfect, beacuse we both messed up, but you were very in tune to each other and to the music. A dance where you walk off the floor knowing that was a special dance. It should happen to me more often... :)

Four day weekends

Shawn likes 4-day weekends. And actually, it's more like 4.5. I teach in an hour (11:15-12:30), and then I'm done until I teach at 8 on Tuesday morning. How cool is that? I really do like my schedule... Also, it appears that I have one proof to do (today with an officemate) and one 30-page paper to read (since when did reading become so hard--I must be out of practice) for Wednesday, and I'm done for next week's stuff. Hopefully I'll get a lot of resume stuff done this weekend, since I don't have an excuse not to... :)

At church today...

Had an interesting thought today at church (well, other people had good thoughts which I am hijacking and/or applying to me). Desires are often from God, and it's good to purpose or desire these desires. However, you have to be careful desires don't become idols. It's not far to go from "I desire" to "I need" or "I deserve". If it goes from God-centered to me-centered, that's bad. The thing that popped into my mind is my desire to get married. Now, I don't mind being single right now, but it's definitely a strong desire that I have. So, I need to make sure that desire remains one whose purpose is to glorify God. But isn't that what everything is about anyway?

Grandma update

Well, my grandmother has been checked into an Alzheimer's facility. It happened on Tuesday. My grandfather was supposed to do it, but she refused to get into the car with him because she didn't know him, so my uncle had to take her. Right before she checked in, grandma said, "Don't do this to me." Ouch. I think grandpa stills knows it's the right/only option, but it's still rough. Hopefully he can adjust to being by himself in their house...