I'm officially done with finals and my first semester in college. WHOOHOO! It's such a weird feeling to be done. This semester flew by - it honestly feels like I've only been here a week! I'm super excited to have a month off to relax though, even if I'll miss everyone here!
I'm busy gathering up stuff to go home, so I'll post something for real later. I just wanted to share my excitement and share with everyone how truly blessed I am to be in college surrounded by such amazing people. SO BLESSED! My roommate says it best on her new blog - check it out, it's awesome!
And now a few pictures from the last couple of days!
My beautiful roommate trying to figure out how to sell her books!
The laundry I did last night. 4 LOADS! I think that's a record!
As all of you know, the Christmas season is well upon us! We are more than three weeks into advent - the day of our Savior's birth in less than two weeks! How exciting :) With the season, however much we try to avoid the materialistic side of Christmas, comes gift giving - giving and receiving gifts, a part of Christmas I have always loved and cherished. There is nothing like picking out a special gift for your loved ones and watching their surprise and joy as they open it! Ever since I started working during the summers a few years ago, I started spending more on gifts for people - after all, why work if I can't buy things for the ones I love? Lately, though, I've really been questioning this.
I don't think giving gifts in itself is wrong! (just clarifying) I feel that giving gifts is just another way to show love to others. But let's think this one through... when you receive a gift from someone, do you feel less loved when they spend $50 on you instead of $10? Would you rather have a general, expensive gift or something less expensive and more personalized? I love personal gifts, but I've always gone for the extreme end, setting myself a price limit and then trying to go as close as I could to that limit, just because I can! I would always say that my friends and family deserve my money! I believe that they do, but will they actually notice if you spend $15 instead of the $20 limit? Not because you're trying to be cheap, but because the perfect gift for them was $20! Money isn't everything. Maybe this holiday season, we should focus on buying reasonable and thoughtful gifts - gifts that people will remember and appreciate, not for their monetary value but because it made them feel loved and special :)
Lo siento for rambling, but my thoughts on gifts have just really been flowing lately! Another thing that's been on my mind is what a great opportunity gift-giving is. There are so many awesome fair trade products, products that help save the environment, etc! The holidays are a great time to buy someone a beautiful gift that helps make them and others aware of social justice issues around the world, or even gifts that just spread the Gospel :) I was looking through the Not For Sale Store earlier, and found this t-shirt that I absolutely love and would LOVE to get for someone for a Christmas or a birthday:
Love love love it. Honestly, what a great gift (maybe this is a gift for someone who is more passionate about ending Human Trafficking already, but they have a lot of other products on their website that aren't quite this loud!).
That was fun to post those pictures! Maybe I'll make a post in the near future about top Christmas gifts for a socially aware consumer. Look for that in the near future! :)
So, in short, my conclusion about gifts this year: spending less is more, and buying gifts that bring God's Kingdom to earth is the BEST!
And now, for my daily picture...
My love - just taking a snooze. Lazy day after my today's finals were done :)
Lately I have been going super crazy with planning stuff out. Planning for when I study abroad, planning for when I graduate, planning my entire weekmonthyear with lunches and study dates and volunteering and budgeting my time ever so carefully so as to get everything done. It finally hit me the other day that maybe, just maybe, I've been planning too much. I was at a meeting about a volunteering opportunity for next semester - working at an after school tutoring program with 4th graders at one of the nation's worst public elementary schools. I strongly believe that a stronger education system would start solving many social justice issues in our country like poverty, obesity, homelessness, and sexual violence. I realized, though, that I couldn't volunteer because of my class load - I signed up for 18 credits next semester so that when I study abroad next year, I will only have to take 12 credits.
How crazy is that?! Am I so crazy that I would give up doing something I'm passionate about, something that would work to build the Lord's Kingdom, just so that maybe in the future my workload would be easier? And that's IF I get the opportunity to study abroad. How horrible would I feel a year from now I'm bored with so little class work, or even if I don't get to study abroad at all? Pretty stinkin bad. We can't wander through our lives with no direction or purpose, but when our planning starts to affect our lives today, I feel that we aren't being glorifying.
This convicts me every time I read it: "Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil" Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."
-James 4:13-17
So, in case you didn't guess, I've decided to drop a class for next semester! Not only because I don't need to take it, but because it's keeping me from living fully for God today. And that, I woud say, is the most important thing :)
P.S. - I've decided to start posting a picture or two along with my blog to sum up my day! It will probably have nothing to do with the blog, but maybe sometimes they'll be pretty or interesting.
This picture might seem similar to my last post... it is! I have three finals tomorrow, and these notebooks and books have been my good friends this weekend. Wish me luck!
For the three or so people who read this blog, I'm sorry that I always post about school. So lame, right?! But I mean, I guess it's a good thing that my classes are sparking enough interest in me that I'd post about it?? Hmmmm. Anyways, English class this time! Our last reading of the semester is from the Jefferson Bible. If you've never heard of it, it's pretty crazy! Thomas Jefferson literally chopped up a King James Version Bible and rearranged and pasted parts to his liking. This isn't the whole Bible of course, just the story of Jesus! He's crazy though! He took the four gospels and mixed them all together into a crazy work. If you don't believe me, just check out this website. It just so happens that the Smithsonian came out with an exhibit about the Jefferson Bible. You can literally see how he used scissors and glue to make this.
For class, we just had to pick one chapter that seemed to exhibit a significant amount of cutting and pasting, compare it to the original version online, and just think about why he would have chosen those specific passages. Our teacher mentioned in class today that Jefferson took out most of the 'spiritual' aspects of Jesus's ministry, like healing and feeding 5000 people. He was instead most interested in the parables. He wanted a picture of Jesus that was merely philosophical. Most think he did this because he was trying to discern how to best run the newly independent, religiously tolerant and free America. He wanted all the little tidbits of advice without all the "unnecessary" spiritual stuff.
I chose to read the last two chapters of his Bible - I was excited to see what His version said about the resurrection! After all, we wouldn't have Christianity if Jesus wasn't resurrected... we would still be bound by sin, separated from God by the temple curtain. This story wouldn't matter without the resurrection. So i get to the end, and this is what I read:
"Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus: and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed."
The end.
Seriously?? It's like the disciples were walking away saying "oh well, another one bites the dust" and "maybe another prophet will come along next year". That's it! Jesus was just another man who died. Big dealio.
No no no! That's not it at all. The resurrection means EVERYTHING! Jesus defeated sin, he defeated death! If Jesus wasn't raised from the dead in a literal body, then the devil has won. But no! God has won! YAY! Hahah I could honestly talk about this forever, and I wish I had time to. But honestly, I just can't get across how much the resurrection matters and how surprised I was that Jefferson had even excluded that part. Jesus wasn't just another prophet that disappointed his followers when he hung dead on the cross. He wasn't just another false Messiah. No, Jesus was the real deal, changing everything ever by his death and resurrection.
Another thing I found funny about this was that Jefferson said later that one of his main goals was to simplify the Bible "for the Indians". Because obviously an Indian could understand parables but NOT the message of grace, hope, and love? Obviously. That makes soooo much sense. Bravo Jeffy boy!
Hahah. Oh man. I'm so tireeeed. Time to go to sleepy so I can wake up and study my butt off some more for finals next week. Whoot! Gooooodnight :)
Oh, also! This video is probably the saddest thing I've ever seen, but very inspiring! My friend Jessica who goes to Michigan State told me to watch it, and asked me to spread it around if I liked it as well. This guy is a friend of one of her friends. He posted this video just two days ago, and it already has over 60,000 views. It's going viral! God always loves us!
Today in theo, my professor talked the entire class about Martin Luther. Most of it was pretty boring - he's spent his entire career studying the life of Luther, so he knows a lot about the guy. He said a couple of things, however, that were super interesting and definitely got me thinking a little more about the whole justification issue. I'm not going to discuss it here (my best friend Kyle has a great post about it tho, check it out!) because i'm not well versed enough about it and don't have enough time! Here are just a few things about the life of Luther that made me think a little more about the issue:
1) Luther had a case of scruples for a lot of his life. He had a hard time feeling forgiveness for his sins and feeling God's love. Maybe his reason for putting so much emphasis on faith?
2) Luther believed that having faith will lead to good works - they naturally belong together and cannot be separated!
3) Luther wrote a lot about the law, and what it means for us after the resurrection of Jesus and the beginning of a time of freedom from sin. He said that the difference between following the law and fulfilling the law is faith. Maybe this was why he often wrote of faith alone - faith alone is what transcends the gap between following and fulfilling.
Well, that's honestly all I have to share! For a guy whose theology led to many churches who don't emphasize a life change and only tell the parishioners to have faith, I found it interesting that this is not even close to what he meant. Just something to think about as you wrestle with justification :)
Finally, a little Michael Bublé for you! Love this song and love him, awww yeah.
I am getting so excited for Christmas it's insane! I really do just love Christmas. All the girls on my floor decorated our lounge tonight - we put up lights and snowflakes and paper stockings and made a fireplace and Christmas trees! It looks gorgeous. I love them all and I feel so lucky that I've gotten to know them this year!
One thing that I find awesome about the Episcopal church (the church I grew up in!) and many other more traditional churches is that they follow the liturgical year. Seasons that rise and fall with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When reading the Old Testament, we are able to witness the Israelites observe many holidays to remember important events like their deliverance from Israel. Now, in this new age since Jesus, we also show remembrance, but instead of the Israelites to Jesus!
Right now we're of course in the season of advent, the month leading up to the birth of our Savior. The service and prayers change slightly, but my favorite part is the advent wreath - a wreath containing four candles and one candle in the middle. Each week of advent, one more candle is lit. This simple wreath adds to the excitement and build up of the season. I'm better able to understand how the Israelites felt when waiting for the Messiah - so hopeful and expectant! I can't help but be joyful, though, since I know the story ahead of time :)
I encourage everyone to get in the mood of the season this year! And by that, I don't mean by buying lots of presents and stressing out over having the best holiday decorations (although I do believe both of these things can be glorifying when done properly!!), but instead by recreating these feelings of hope by reading the Christmas story and going to church! And other things! Seriously though, following the liturgical year is so rewarding.
I hope everyone is feeling loved this advent! Even if you don't feel it, you are :)
