My husband or my master?

There's a comment by one of my professors that is just stuck in my head recently. We were in class discussing Hosea, and there's a section in chapter 2 where God tells Israel that He is planning to take them back into the desert, and they will remember their love for Him, and call Him their husband instead of their master. It's a very tender scene: picture a husband begging his wife to go on a second honeymoon so they can rekindle their love. And in the discussion, my professor said this: "When you are in the desert, God is all you have. And you are all God wants." What a contrast between desire and dependence! God comes to us in passionate love and desire, and we respond so often by only turning to Him when we have exhausted every other possibility. It's as if I chose to spend all my time and energy on other people, and only saw Dale when everyone else was tired of me! In times of great joy and contentment, when I have all I want, how often to I turn to God and offer him my love? Isn't it more often that in times of struggle I turn to God and cry out in desperation? God almost has to take us into the desert to get us to even talk to Him.

So much of what we teach in Christianity has to be turned on its head to make sense from God's perspective.

Know It All God

I've had some time now to reflect on my seminary education, and I find it interesting to look back and see how God has been directing it all. When I first decided to pursue a degree, I lived in VA and had no intentions of moving. I was looking at 2 schools, Marymount and Regent. Marymount had the degree I was most interested in: a joint degree in theology and counseling which would gain me licensure as a social worker. But I knew that I needed to wait, so I waited nine months. And in those nine months, my GRE scores expired. When I went to apply to both schools, I discovered that the GRE wasn't required for any theology degree, but that the particular Marymount joint degree I wanted did require a GRE. Well, clearly I wasn't going to take it again, so off to Regent I went. And then we moved!
After we moved to Raleigh, I had thoughts about Duke Divinity School. And now I am taking Hebrew there, surrounded by first year mDiv students. And as I look at their degree plans and hear them talk about their work, I realize again that God directed me right. If I had waited any longer to apply, I would've known that we were moving and applied to Duke. But quite honestly, I feel like my courses at Regent are much more relevant to current ministry than my courses at Duke would be. Regent has required me to consider personal spiritual development as a credit course: required me to look at all aspects of my life: health, diet, intellect, spirit, heart. At Duke that sort of thing is done as a non-required small group. Regent focuses on leadership, discipleship, missions, world religions, in a way that is very relevant to what is going on in the church today. Sure, I have to take Hebrew and Greek, where, as a friend of mine points out, Spanish might be much more relevant for ministry here in NC. But that just means that I have to pay attention to my intellect.
I'm not trying to bash on Duke at all. I'm sure their program is excellent. But I am confirmed again and again that God put me at the right school at the right time. And I love the way God did it by strategically opening and closing doors - you always hear about it but it's not often easy to perceive.

Time passes

Last night, or maybe it was Sunday, Dale pontificated on the random humor in an ad. A TV ad. It must've been Sunday, because we didn't watch any TV yesterday, except for Oprah. Side note: Dale got home early yesterday, as I was settling in for an hour of "me-time" watching Oprah. He sat next to me with his computer open, presumably because men don't watch Oprah. Within 10 minutes he was watching with me, computer long forgotten. heehee. (let's see if Dale sees this post and rebuts...)
Anyway, the point being that life can be very pleasant, and yet nothing to talk about. Dale and I have spent the last few days going about our lives, cooking, taking walks, watching football and Amazing Race, and solving the Rubik's Cube we bought on Saturday. That's pretty absorbing, by the way. It took 2 of us a full hour to decipher the directions and solve it the first time, and yes, we used the directions. The last time I solved a Rubik's Cube sans directions I used the old "swap the sticker" method. Even now, it still takes one of us at least an hour to solve, USING directions.
But I have a point and I'm coming back to it now. One of my favorite quotes, I think from George MacDonald, is something to the effect that fictional good is boring and fictional evil is fascinating, but real life good is fascinating and real life evil is boring. (Obviously, this is a bad paraphrase). So Dale and I have a great life, but not much to put on the old blog. Because while the fish we had for dinner last night was really yummy and enjoyable, a blog post it is not. And this is probably why reality TV is so atrocious: it tries to take real life evil/badness entertaining. When it's really just sad, pathetic, and boring.

Mastermind!

Thanks to Stacey for sending me this super fun link!
http://www.irt.org/games/js/mind/

Heartwarming Tale

It has only been four short months since the Bayless family expanded, welcoming home a sweet little girl by the name of Duchess Pita of Bayless Barn. Duchess Pita, or as she prefers, Duchess, came into a home with two established cats, Shadow and Pipsqueak Bayless. They initially regarded her with suspicion, wondering whether she was a friend or enemy and how long her stay would be. They ostracized her, consistently leaving the room whenever she entered it, and greeting her only with hisses and growls. Pipsqueak staged a hunger strike for a week, which gained him plenty of extra attention but failed to accomplish his true goal: removal of Duchess.
Now, however, open hostilities have ceased, as the two brothers have learned to accept their younger sister as a part of everyday life. All three cats have been known to sleep on the same couch without incident, and the boys no longer leave the room whenever Duchess enters it. They have been trading tricks as well. Shadow has taught Duchess how to meow at top volume in the morning when it is time to eat. Pipsqueak has taught Duchess how to scavenge for food continually. And Duchess has taught Shadow and Pipsqueak the joys of roaming wild and free on the kitchen countertops.
Still, it's not all peace and quiet at the Bayless Barn. Duchess insists on using Shadow's and Pipsqueak's tails as toys, and especially enjoys stalking them while they drink at the water fountain. Pipsqueak finds this especially annoying, and the two of them happily race around the house hissing and jumping on each other. Shadow is not quite so tolerant, and will generally box Duchess' ears if she provokes him too greatly. On the whole, however, the three cats have come to love each other in a very special way.

2008

So, we started out the year with our usual movie marathon: Steve Martin this year. After a few days of freezing cold, offset by mom and dad's hot tub, we headed home to Raleigh, to hungry cats and old Christmas decorations. We got them all taken down and almost all put away when Dale's back gave out. Happy New Year.
On the good news side, the house was in pretty good shape when we returned - no massive cat-related destruction to be found. Our petsitters were wonderful, and the cats must have thought so too! We also got our christmas letter sent out, a bit late but better late than never. I have a new bookcase in my office, and I'm just thrilled to see empty bookshelf space! There is nothing more beautiful than that! One day I'll have to clean out my books, but it won't be until this summer. My classes start Monday. Dale's classes don't start until February, and then he gets to graduate in May. Lucky Duck.