a great weekend

The sight of: David's face when I surprised him on Friday, Jamie and Mimi, the old Tallowood worship center transformed (sad), new Monks to watch (yay!), the GREASE set at the Hobby Center,

The smell of: mom's new Bath and Body Works fall plug-in, David's cologne on the way to Grease

The taste of: a banana chocolate vivanno, delightful hummus and tabouli on friday night, a Prince's hamburger, a M&M and Reese's blizzard, creamy tomato soup from Panera,

The feel of: David's strong arms around me, my daddy's bear hug, my big nice warm bed at home, excitement as we are getting ready to see GREASE

The sound of: Vince Vontaine introducing GREASE to us on Saturday night, "I love you," Austin and me jamming in the car to "accidentally in love," Angela and Gabriel's encouraging words, the GREASE music

God's foreknowledge & prayer

In our theology class we had a discussion about open theism... the idea that God does not have the future planned or settled. Those who uphold this idea stand in contrast to Calvinists and traditional Arminians who believe that God does have the future settled. Calvinists believe this is so because they believe God has predetermined the future. Arminians believe this because they believe God has 'exhaustive foreknowledge.' Open theists (can, but doesnt have to, include some Arminians), though, claim their view is helpful; they claim it answers many questions we have about God. How do we deal with verses in the Bible that talk about God changing his mind? If our prayers don't have an effect on God, why do we pray? Why is there evil in the world?

Open theists claim that these questions can be answered by believing in a God who knows all that might be, but who doesn't know what will be.

I tend to lean away from the open theist point of view. And I get really riled up when they go to prayer as a reason why we should believe in open theism. I think it is presumptous of us to say: why pray if we can't change God's mind. Our changing God's mind is not our purpose in prayer, and if it is, we need to do some reevaluating. It makes prayer selfish.

There is tons of worth in praying even if we will never change God's mind. In Jesus' model prayer, the first half is spent adoring, praising, and thanking God. This should be our primary foucs in prayer. This should be more than enough reason to pray.

And when we do intercede for others, our prayer should be like that of Jesus'.... that we pray for His will to be done. This affirms in us an inner trust in the fact that His will is the best way. If we don't believe that, we will have a hard time authentically praying for His will. So if we are not at that point, maybe our prayer should be "make my will in align with yours..."

Hippodrome

On Friday night, Amber and I went to see Singing in the Rain at the Hippodrome.

It was an appropriate movie because it was pouring outside!!!

Anyways, I absolutely fell in love with the Hippodrome in downtown Waco. It was built in 1914 and is beautiful inside. It is such a fun atmosphere.

So, if you have any free weekends in Waco, check out what is happening here.

Hebrew

Last night, I got really discouraged with my homework. I felt behind and rusty and just overwhelmed. It was taking me at least forty minutes to translate a verse, and then I realized I didn't even have the parsings right. Ugh.

________

I have loved Hebrew from the first time I laid eyes on it.

From learning to write the alphabet, to analzying syntax and grammar, I have loved it. Every minute of it (okay, maybe not every minute of it....)

I loved the community that Jamie helped to create in our class. I loved that we sang Psalm 133, about how good and pleasant it is to dwell with brothers. I loved studying like crazy, forming my opinion about how this certain participle was being used and then going to class and arguing for it till I was blue in the face. I love seeing a kid and asking their name and then writing it out in Hebrew for them. I love the smile on their face.

My favorite story about Hebrew: I was with Laura in Provo, Utah at a nursing home. There was this lady there who saw my necklace (it is a charm with the Hebrew symbol for 'life') and wanted to know what it meant. I explained it to her and she was instantly mesmorized. "Will you teach me the Hebrew alphabet?" she asked cautioulsy, gazing up into my eyes. "I would love to," I replied.

She took me to her room, pulled out some paper and crayons and set me to work. As I wrote each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, she asked how to pronounce it. Then she would take the crayon from me and write out a way that she could remember it. I was amazed at how earnest and excited my new student was! So for 'alef' she wrote 'all-if' and so on. It was great.

Finally, after we finished the alphabet, I asked if I could tell her about my favorite Hebrew word. She of course, said yes. I wrote out for her the word 'hesed.' I told her that this word told us about God's love for us, but that it wasn't just any type of love. It was a special love. It is a love that pursues us. It is a love that is stubborn. "Aren't you so glad that God is stubborn in his love for us? That he doesn't give up on us?" I asked. "I am," I said confidently. She was mesmerized.

I hope that this lady saw a true picture of God's love for her that morning. That this helped her to see Him more clearly. I know that somehow God is still stubbornly pursuing this random woman in a random nursing home in a random city.

This is why I study Hebrew.

I can do this, and I can be self-disciplined enough to review the things I need to. I can go over vocab, and re-work my way through the grammar book. I can do this. I want to do this.

I want to create a community like Jamie does. I want to teach people like the lady in the nursing home.

I'm gonna keep working towards it. Even at forty minutes a verse....