Wakeup Call

Last weekend, one of our church's volunteer staff members taught about how the Church is part of God's spiritual army, and how the momentum of the day-to-day makes us blind to the supernatural that surrounds us. That is so true.

C.S. Lewis makes a similar point in his work The Screwtape Letters, in which a fictional elder demon writes his apprentice with advice on how best to keep people in this stupor. I've included an excerpt for your benefit:

[Avoid] strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it "real life" and don't let him ask what he means by "real".... Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes.

So how do I ever expect to fight that? I can't exactly run away from my responsibilities, but I don't want to fall into a trap of the enemy.

I just happened to stumble on the answer this morning:

You must warn one another every day so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. - Hebrews 10:24

There you go. Orders from our C.O. to us on the front lines. "Men, look out for each other. Watch the line, and don't let any of you take your eyes off it for more than a day. Don't neglect your other duties, and sleep in shifts."

Such a simple thing, and it can revolutionize our faith. A lot of us are asleep in our fox holes. We need someone to wake us up every time we have watch duty, which is every day. We need to make ourselves as familiar with the supernatural as we are with homework, morning breath, and attending church.

How? I don't know. Verbally, in a letter, by email; whatever it takes. Just make sure we don't miss anybody.

It's a Gift

So, last night in small group we took these spiritual gifts tests to find out which of the seven spiritual giftings each of us were strongest in. I honestly feel a little uncomfortable with these tests. Not that they are bad. But they just leave so much out.

For starters, Paul seemed to use the phrase "spiritual gift" to indicate any gift from God that builds up the spiritual side of people. True, he lists examples of some of these gifts in his letters, but I don't think they were ever indended to be comprehensive. It seems like some artifice of men to say these seven categories of abilities are the "spiritual" gifts, while everything else is just a talent or skill.

Also, the tests can seem to generalize what traits are required for a specific gift. In truth, some traits can be a gift in some cases, but a vice in others. For example, I have an analytical personality. When I was younger, this personality, untempered by experience, caused me to often come across as critical and judgemental of others. It still does from time to time. Black and white. Right and wrong. I'm right, you're wrong. The test said I was most likely to have the "spiritual gift of prophecy". Really, I was an insensitive bully, more interested in being right than helping others. I hurt people. I hope that gift came with a receipt, because people are telling me I need to take it back to the store.

Over time, after saying many things I regret and hurting several people, I've learned it more important to show love than to be right all the time. Now, the tests rate me a mediocre prophet at best.

What happened? I become more loving, striving to be like Christ, and yet the test says I lost a "spiritual gift". Something ain't right here. If that's what spiritual gifts are like, I would prefer to have as few as possible, thanks.

So anyway, as far as spiritual gifts go, I tend to think of every good and perfect gift from God as having some spiritual benefit, as well as some practical, physical benefit. This includes skills, but also circumstances, emotions, and even just plain things, like hot fudge sundaes! If I'm good at coding computers, I find a way to minister to the body with that. If I'm in the right place at the right time to help someone, I should do it. If you have money and things, give to those who don't. Even your pain can be a blessing in disguise, if it makes you sensitive to the pain of others, or a better spiritual warrior, or whatever.

Everything has a bright side, because God is all around and He is working through all things for good. So take what God has given you, whatever it may be, whether it's on the list or not, and share it with others the best way you know how. That's what being a part of Christ's body is all about.

Maria, Llena Eres de Gracia

We have to write a movie analysis in Spanish for our semester report. Really short. Just 250 words. The hardest part will be coming up with an analysis. I already watched one of the movies on the list: Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, or "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown". :) It's kind of vulgar, kind of funny, but mostly just weird. I didn't much like it. The first movie with Antonio Banderas that I don't like. Last night, Kathy Bowersox, my pastor's down the street neighbor and my classmate from Spanish, had a bunch of friends from class over to her house to watch a different movie from the list called Maria Llena Eres de Gracia ("Maria, Full of Grace"). It's about a rural Columbian girl that gets caught up in a heroin smuggling ring and all the fallout from that decision. It's a gritty and compelling story. Much better than Mujeres al Borde.... I also had a dentist appointment to get fitted for a new occlusal guard. One of my subconscious stress relievers is grinding my teeth in my sleep. Not sure what a psychological profile would say about that, but it's starting to wear down my front teeth. So, my dentist said I needed a guard. It sure was strange wearing this thing to bed, especially for someone who never had braces. I'll eventually get used to it. The bad thing is that I can't pronounce "s" and "t" sounds with it on, so I look and sound just like an anthropomorphized beaver. Kind of funny.

Spring to My Step

It's SPRING!!! I love the springtime. I love the flowers and the grass, the birds and the balmy weather. But most of all, I love gardening. Three weekends ago, Kris and I decided to take a walk down to our garden plot at Winfield Village and it had already been tilled. We wasted no time at all getting our landscape fabric down to stifle the weeds. We also put in our lettuce, spinach, and Chinese cabbage.
Two weekends ago, I spent all of Sunday installing a rabit fence. Since rabits can go right under a fence, you have to bury it about 1/2 a foot down. It wasn't easy, but I'm sure going to appreciate having a crop of broccoli and peppers this year. Last year the little vermin nibbled every single plant, right down the row. Thankfully, the peppers kind of bounced back. But the broccoli never made it.
So, this past weekend, Kris and I bought some broccoli transplants and I planted them and the onion sets, as well as some more spinach and lettuce. I can't wait until we can plant the corn, peas, beans, and peppers!
Our strawberries and raspberries that we planted in our little back yard are really taking off. We're going to get a bunch of yummy berries this year.
At the end of the day last Sunday, Kris and I had just barely enough energy to clean out all the dead plant material on the side of our townhome to make room for all the herbs and flowers we are seeding there this year. It looks nice, now. We were really tired, but gardening fatigue is a good kind of tired. I love that feeling.

Ever Have One of Those Days?

Me too. This wasn't one of them. Actually, other than the fact that I spent the first half of the day at work writing my fifth bureaucratic report for the Office of the Chief Information Officer for the USDA, the day was pretty good.

Funny thing, the government. My former bosses, Charlie and Mary, both just received personnel background check forms for my application for employment. News flash: I've been working at this job for over three years now! You'd think they would want to check my background *before* they hire me. And people wonder how 9/11 happened. Sheesh!

Spanish class was good tonight. We're learning really important things, like how to talk about global warming and the Kyoto Protocol. Still haven't learned my shapes, or "over, under, and through", but hey, that Sesame Street crap is beneath us, right? Got a 96% on last Wednesday's test, though, so I can't complain too much.

So now, here I am at 1:15 in the morning writing to myself when I should be resting. Had to work on the Grand Canyon Gallery, part 2. Writing these captions is so relaxing. It's like going on the trip all over again, only without the blisters and bruises. Even so, it's way past my bedtime. Good night.

Grand Canyon Gallery, part 1

Okay, Part 1 of the visual Grand Canyon tour is finished!

Yay!

Movin' to Blogger

Sorry all you Xanga.com fans, but my Xanga is going away. It's Blogger.com for me. It's so much better! One example of how cool Blogger is: I'm writing this post from my email account. I send it to a secret email address, and wallah! It's posted. No browsers. No logins. Just like writing a mass email to all my friends. How cool!

I like the interface better too. Oh, and I can hook it up with Google's Picasa 2 software! The best free photo software in the world, IMHO. Grand canyon picture gallery is about 50% done, by the way.

Anyway, it's a Friday! What the heck am I still doing at work? Time to go home and sleep for twelve hours straight. ;)