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Lots of Things
I just got the results from my throat culture: negative. Whatever I had, it wasn't strep. Doesn't matter to me, I guess, I'm feeling a LOT better and the antibiotics are the only reason for it, so whatever they did, I'm grateful.
Not that there aren't other things in my life to be just as frustrating. Take, for example, CSU. I swear I registered for Kirkland's 329 class last spring, but it's not showing up and it's not letting me register now because the class is full. I emailed Kirkland, who is quite wonderful and willing to work with me, but he said the override he gave me is still valid, so I tried again. Still no dice. So off I went to the registrar's office, where they told me I need a different override in order to get into the class because now it's full. My recommendation to all teachers from now on is this: when giving overrides, always make them for every freaking reason they could possibly be needed, and that will avoid this problem altogether. Sheesh. So now the ball is in Kirkland's court once more - he has to re-override me so I can get into a class for which I already registered once. Gah. And I can't find a single one of the final category 2 classes I need in the schedule, so it's possible that they're not being offered, which is lame because I need one. I don't even care which one, I just need one. So I'll have to go down and talk to the English office tomorrow and figure out how to get that little problem resolved. I hate bureaucracy.
Okay, and am I the only person in the world who doesn't find it necessary to stomp when I walk? Or am I just incredibly light on my feet that the entire house doesn't shake when I walk across the floor? My mom was dreadful about this. I'd be down in my room and I could hear her stomping across the floor, thud thud thud thud, and I could always tell how angry she was by how hard she was stomping. And now my roommate does it, too. The freaking dishes rattle when she walks. I know I'm not the most ladylike at times, but at least I don't sound like a herd of elephants when I walk around my house. In fact, I make a specific effort NOT to do that. Grrrr.
Ooooh, here's something my mom sent me that's quite hilarious. Uncle Jay is going to be the only way I get my news, I think. Okay, not really, but I'm going to enjoy following his comments on the news from now on, even if I think he's a little bit on the liberal side.
Now, I need to work on my paper for Sylvia. I have a vague idea of what I need to say, but I've been out of this particular loop for so long that I'm going to have a hard time getting back into it. Which is frustrating, because I know I need to and I know I'll enjoy it, but I just can't bring myself to start back up. And I should have been doing it all along, I shouldn't need to be doing this. I should have been constantly working on writing papers or analyzing that confirmation curriculum. Stupid me.
So my paper this time is going to be about people-pleasing. It's one of the biggest problems I see with most Christian organizations today, not just churches but youth groups and Bible studies and everything else. We are so preoccupied with worrying about how we're going to please the people who are going to be attending the functions we put on that we forget to worry about how we're going to please God. Or we assume that pleasing God's people (or, in some cases, pleasing people in general under the mistaken assumption that we're all God's children - I'll explain that inflammatory claim in a minute) is pleasing God, which isn't always the case, unfortunately.
Okay, before I move on, one thing about the mistaken assumption that we're all God's children. In one sense, it's not a mistake at all. God made us all, and he made each of us to be his children. But here's the thing: we've orphaned ourselves, and now to become one of God's children requires a conscious decision. Jesus is God's only Son - we, however, can be adopted into the family if we choose to do so. However, those who chose not to be adopted will not be forced into it, and so those who have chosen against being God's children are not, in fact, God's children. God loves us too much to do anything to us against our will. That's the beauty of Christianity.
Now that we've cleared up that little mess, back to what I was saying. I realized this most recently when I was reading the official abortion policy of the PC(USA). Very little of it has anything to do with God, what He wants or commands. It's all about what's best for the woman involved, and secondarily what's best for her family, her husband, her unborn child, and society in general. But there is a predominant sense throughout the entire document that the authors were not writing with the intent of glorifying, or even obeying, God. Rather, they were writing to cater to the feelings of everyone who could possibly be affected by the article. They are careful to skirt the issue, to make sure that when they do lay down what might be considered an assertation, it's so sugar-coated as to be practically unrecognizable. Don't believe me? Read it for yourself!
The frustrating thing about this is, it removes the entire purpose for the church's existence. The point of the church is to display the glory of God to the rest of the world, not to hide God under a rock and only offer quick glimpses in hopes that the public will miss his less popular attributes. The point of the church is to be a beacon to guide people to the truth, not a collection of people whose main goal is to make the rest of the world happy. We are to serve our fellow men, yes. But service does not include compromising the truth. Service does not include bowing to the popular opinion regardless of God's opinion. It is rather a disservice to hide God from the world. What do we think we are doing with this? Do we think we are protecting God? "Well, yes, Sir, I know what your opinion is on the matter, but you don't know what it's like out there! We'll just compromise with them, there's a good fellow, and eventually there will come a time when your opinion can be voiced." Ridiculous! What kind of moron would say that to God?
To be fair, I don't think any of the morons who would say that to God are in the church, or at least very few of them. No, the morons in the church are of an entirely different sort, the sort which firmly believe that God actually wants them to compromise His word in order to make the rest of the world more comfortable with Christianity. That God has decided to change His mind when it comes to human life and its importance, or how we can attain salvation, or how we may speak to Him. That we can pick and choose which parts of the Bible are true based on what we want to believe, rather than pick and choose what we believe based on what Truths are revealed in the Bible.
....And I just thought of something rather unrelated. Here's my train of thought: the church is the Bride of Christ, and as such it's her job to help uphold her husband's reputation, isn't it? I mean, what bride wants her husband misrepresented to the world? And then I though, you know what, I think there's something in Proverbs 31 about how a wife is supposed to uphold her husband's reputation (you could take verse 23 to mean that but I don't know for sure). But either way, if the church is the Bride of Christ, and Proverbs 31 talks about how a wife should be toward her husband, doesn't it follow that Proverbs 31 should give an idea of how the church should act? Hmmm. I'll have to look into this. After I write my paper for VOW.
-Jaya-
thankfulNot that there aren't other things in my life to be just as frustrating. Take, for example, CSU. I swear I registered for Kirkland's 329 class last spring, but it's not showing up and it's not letting me register now because the class is full. I emailed Kirkland, who is quite wonderful and willing to work with me, but he said the override he gave me is still valid, so I tried again. Still no dice. So off I went to the registrar's office, where they told me I need a different override in order to get into the class because now it's full. My recommendation to all teachers from now on is this: when giving overrides, always make them for every freaking reason they could possibly be needed, and that will avoid this problem altogether. Sheesh. So now the ball is in Kirkland's court once more - he has to re-override me so I can get into a class for which I already registered once. Gah. And I can't find a single one of the final category 2 classes I need in the schedule, so it's possible that they're not being offered, which is lame because I need one. I don't even care which one, I just need one. So I'll have to go down and talk to the English office tomorrow and figure out how to get that little problem resolved. I hate bureaucracy.
Okay, and am I the only person in the world who doesn't find it necessary to stomp when I walk? Or am I just incredibly light on my feet that the entire house doesn't shake when I walk across the floor? My mom was dreadful about this. I'd be down in my room and I could hear her stomping across the floor, thud thud thud thud, and I could always tell how angry she was by how hard she was stomping. And now my roommate does it, too. The freaking dishes rattle when she walks. I know I'm not the most ladylike at times, but at least I don't sound like a herd of elephants when I walk around my house. In fact, I make a specific effort NOT to do that. Grrrr.
Ooooh, here's something my mom sent me that's quite hilarious. Uncle Jay is going to be the only way I get my news, I think. Okay, not really, but I'm going to enjoy following his comments on the news from now on, even if I think he's a little bit on the liberal side.
Now, I need to work on my paper for Sylvia. I have a vague idea of what I need to say, but I've been out of this particular loop for so long that I'm going to have a hard time getting back into it. Which is frustrating, because I know I need to and I know I'll enjoy it, but I just can't bring myself to start back up. And I should have been doing it all along, I shouldn't need to be doing this. I should have been constantly working on writing papers or analyzing that confirmation curriculum. Stupid me.
So my paper this time is going to be about people-pleasing. It's one of the biggest problems I see with most Christian organizations today, not just churches but youth groups and Bible studies and everything else. We are so preoccupied with worrying about how we're going to please the people who are going to be attending the functions we put on that we forget to worry about how we're going to please God. Or we assume that pleasing God's people (or, in some cases, pleasing people in general under the mistaken assumption that we're all God's children - I'll explain that inflammatory claim in a minute) is pleasing God, which isn't always the case, unfortunately.
Okay, before I move on, one thing about the mistaken assumption that we're all God's children. In one sense, it's not a mistake at all. God made us all, and he made each of us to be his children. But here's the thing: we've orphaned ourselves, and now to become one of God's children requires a conscious decision. Jesus is God's only Son - we, however, can be adopted into the family if we choose to do so. However, those who chose not to be adopted will not be forced into it, and so those who have chosen against being God's children are not, in fact, God's children. God loves us too much to do anything to us against our will. That's the beauty of Christianity.
Now that we've cleared up that little mess, back to what I was saying. I realized this most recently when I was reading the official abortion policy of the PC(USA). Very little of it has anything to do with God, what He wants or commands. It's all about what's best for the woman involved, and secondarily what's best for her family, her husband, her unborn child, and society in general. But there is a predominant sense throughout the entire document that the authors were not writing with the intent of glorifying, or even obeying, God. Rather, they were writing to cater to the feelings of everyone who could possibly be affected by the article. They are careful to skirt the issue, to make sure that when they do lay down what might be considered an assertation, it's so sugar-coated as to be practically unrecognizable. Don't believe me? Read it for yourself!
The frustrating thing about this is, it removes the entire purpose for the church's existence. The point of the church is to display the glory of God to the rest of the world, not to hide God under a rock and only offer quick glimpses in hopes that the public will miss his less popular attributes. The point of the church is to be a beacon to guide people to the truth, not a collection of people whose main goal is to make the rest of the world happy. We are to serve our fellow men, yes. But service does not include compromising the truth. Service does not include bowing to the popular opinion regardless of God's opinion. It is rather a disservice to hide God from the world. What do we think we are doing with this? Do we think we are protecting God? "Well, yes, Sir, I know what your opinion is on the matter, but you don't know what it's like out there! We'll just compromise with them, there's a good fellow, and eventually there will come a time when your opinion can be voiced." Ridiculous! What kind of moron would say that to God?
To be fair, I don't think any of the morons who would say that to God are in the church, or at least very few of them. No, the morons in the church are of an entirely different sort, the sort which firmly believe that God actually wants them to compromise His word in order to make the rest of the world more comfortable with Christianity. That God has decided to change His mind when it comes to human life and its importance, or how we can attain salvation, or how we may speak to Him. That we can pick and choose which parts of the Bible are true based on what we want to believe, rather than pick and choose what we believe based on what Truths are revealed in the Bible.
....And I just thought of something rather unrelated. Here's my train of thought: the church is the Bride of Christ, and as such it's her job to help uphold her husband's reputation, isn't it? I mean, what bride wants her husband misrepresented to the world? And then I though, you know what, I think there's something in Proverbs 31 about how a wife is supposed to uphold her husband's reputation (you could take verse 23 to mean that but I don't know for sure). But either way, if the church is the Bride of Christ, and Proverbs 31 talks about how a wife should be toward her husband, doesn't it follow that Proverbs 31 should give an idea of how the church should act? Hmmm. I'll have to look into this. After I write my paper for VOW.
-Jaya-
giddy