29.10.06

Thoughts

"The most important thing about a person is what that person thinks when they think about God." A.W. Tozer


We often speak of the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament, as if to say that they are separate beings. In our minds we juggle the concepts as they battle each other. We struggle to blend the image that the Old Testament portrays with the image portrayed in the New Testament - Holy and Just with a dash of jealous and vengeful vs. a loving Father who made the greatest sacrifice to save us. Who wins?

I know I tend to lean towards the Old Testament God when things are going well, figuring he's going to "get me" soon, like some sort of supernatural boogey man, and something bad will happen; I hope for the New Testament God when times are tougher, that he would come love on me.

But really - there's only one God! The 1001 rules God is the love and grace God. It almost doesn't make sense, but the thing of it is, it's true. There is only one God and He's never changed.

Now hold on just a second! How can that work? How can He be the one God and be the same "yesterday, today, and tomorrow?"

The answer lies in the fact that God does not exist in a vacuum: He created us so He could love someone - not something, like I love warm socks, but someone. And by loving someone he's created a relationship, and relationships are dynamic.

God is our father, and like a father's love must take different forms as a child grows and matures, God's dealings with us have changed as we grew more mature, and in order to cause us to mature.

With a toddler, you spend your every waking hour (it would seem) saying "No." I think of the 10 commandments and some of the subsequent laws as a long list of No's. As the child gets a little older they start applying this - imposing their own No's on others, even their parents. Hence the Pharisees and the Saducees and all the regulations added in our attempt to use what we thought was the right way to live.

But at some point a parent needs to break that cycle and show the child grace and a little trust, both because the child is maturing and ready to understand and to push the child to further mature. This is where we are in the New Testament and beyond - God is now the father of a teenager/young adult - we screw up a lot, but we're beyond the spanking stage. Now he must love us until we learn the ways of that love.

It's not God who has changed, it's us. But we're still in that teenager/young adult stage - we're conflicted and we only accept things in parts. We still try to impose regulations where we shouldn't; we go too far in love sometimes and allow ourselves to do things we shouldn't. We get angry and sullen when we're frustrated. We try to do damage to ourselves. We try to fix some of our problems on our own, so we won't have to own up to them. We're on the cusp of beginning maturity, we're complicated, and we're loved.

And we think that we are the only constant in the equation, but we are constantly changing - He's always been the same.

18.10.06

A visit

The boy's parents are spending a few days with us this week. We just hung out this morning, as all of us were feeling restful. They got in pretty late last night, and they were not happy because some of their luggage hadn't made it here with them. We got that today, so now all is well.

Tomorrow I think we're going out to lunch, and then I'm going to show them around the station. Then later we're going down to take the boy some dinner, and have a mini tailgate party down at the shop.

It took us a little work to get the apartment back in to "company" shape, but it's nice to be all neatened up now. Hopefully, I'll have good tales to relate after the visit.

16.10.06

I have a desk again!!!!!

We were so productive this weekend, it was great! We cleaned out the second bedroom, and claimed the desks that my grandmother had wanted to give us. No more big scary project looming over our heads, and now there's a place for the boy's folks to sleep when the come tomorrow night. Ah, motivation.

I'm so happy to have a desk again!!!

13.10.06

Playtime

We do not stop playing because we grow old.
We grow old because we stop playing.
- Anon.

Besides my impatience in waiting to play with some of the new features offered by Blogger in Beta, my goal with this blog re-design was to make the site more conversational - to tie together a community of blogs and comments. So to start things off, I'm branching off of a friend's blog.

Sure, at a certain age, our bodies get too old for certain activities, but somehow, I don't think we were made to stop playing in some fashion. - Hanski

And she certainly has a point.

When do we reach an age where we are too important for play? And perhaps more importantly, why does the thought possess us that we're too old to play anymore? I believe it must occur around the same time that we lose all of our youthful bravado and confidence in ourselves. So, for most of us, middle school. We are suddenly caught up in trying to fit into someone else's mold of coolness or perfection, and we let go of anything that stands in the way of our fitting in. There's an element of depression to it, as we cast aside parts of ourselves, parts we loved and valued, and feel embarrassed that we ever loved them. It kills the spirit.

And with that our sense of fun, our love of play is gone. Sometimes forgotten. We can look back and wax nostalgic about the joys of our childhood. We can deny that which we find embarassing (I used to own Barbies, for example, don't die of shock).

Or perhaps we can latch back into our playful side - and start having fun again. We can start up regular games of ultimate frizbee. We can indulge our imagination with books that are far below our reading level, but have the kind of innocent creativity lacking in most adult fiction. We can spend as much time as possible playing with children - inspire our inner child. We can try hard not to squash the imaginative fun of future generations.

Or we can shamelessly watch old episodes of the Muppet Show - it still makes me giggle. Yes, I giggle.

3.10.06

Nuggets

-The Shower Experiment-
The new Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower cleaner is a wonderful invention. I know, I bought one . . . for an experiment. The plan was to use the two bottles of cleaning solution up and see what we thought. If we didn't think it worked, such is life. If we didn't like the solution, I had a substitute to try. Well, the device works pretty well, and though it doesn't cover every square inch of our rectangular tub/shower it does hit the toughest spots and help keep them clean, so I don't have to devote an hour and some serious sweat equity to cleaning the shower. However, the solution they made for it, sucks. That's not to say that it doesn't get rid of the mechanic's grime and mildew - it does. But I'm not sure I can say it leaves the shower clean. If I stood in the bathroom while it sprayed the shower, my face would burn for a good three hours afterwards. The cleaner built up on the boy's soap and got in his eyes - he wasn't happy. I'm not a fan of having to clean up after my cleaner. So, I rinsed out the bottle and filled it with white vinegar - shower's still clean, and nobody's getting burned. Do you think I could convince them to sell the sprayer with an empty bottle? Didn't think so.

-Cleaner Laundry-
On another vinegar related note - I'm also a big fan of the Downy Ball - for delivering the white vinegar to my laundry after the wash cycle is over. I own two downy balls (the apartment building has two washers) but I've never bought Downy in my life, and I probably never will.

-Spiders-
Spiders are great - so long as they are outside where they belong. The same goes for crickets, but roaches get to die anytime I see them.

-Protestants-
I have joined the ranks. As one who was "sprinkled" as an infant, one of the steps for me to join the church that the boy and I have grown so fond of was an adult baptism. So I got dunked Sunday - I'm a protestant now.

-Knitting-
I've been doing a good bit of it lately. Sorry there are no pictures, I should take some. However, since the vast majority of my work lately has been for Christmas presents I can't post some pics 'til later. I have been playing with Kool Aid dying - man if that isn't fun! The colors are great, and there's no wet wool smell. There was, however, the faint scent of cherries.

-Stairs-
Are not really my friends. I have trouble walking up and down them successfully. But, on the upside, I now have this stylish, sophisticated, sexy little black ankle brace that is making my left ankle feel so much better. How much talent does it take to twist both ankles but only sprain one of them? That's how much talent I've got right now.

-Health Food-
Yeah, so I'm not a fan of "Health Food." And those so called "healthy options" like artificial sweeteners, artificial butter etc . . . yeah, keyword: artificial. Artificial = Bad. It's funny though - I must be turning into an adult; I'm choosing to eat healthier and I actually like it. I've basically stopped drinking soda. I prefer coffee or iced tea. I've found that I like the taste of brown rice and whole wheat pasta over their bleached counterparts. I love vegetables, even ones I used to avoid. I've even craved salads - for me that's wierd. I'm still a fan of chocolate, cake, and cheese flavored potato chips, so I guess the world is not completely on it's ear.

-State of the World-
Speaking of which, what is up with the world lately? I mean really - three school shootings in less than two weeks? And this last sicko?? Guns, zip ties, KY?? Seriously! And while it amuses me greatly that tonights 90 minutes of news included a school shooting, adjustable breast implants, and the Illinois bathroom Jesus - I'm really tired of stories about school shootings. How about we just talk about the bathroom Jesus for a while.

So . . . that's what's been going on in my head . . . my apologies if you read all of it - take a tylenol.