One month later...

Good morning!

Many blog posts begin in the way that I am going to begin today: I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT IT HAS BEEN THIS LONG SINCE I POSTED LAST! There. Now that's out of the way and I can get on to things of greater interest and importance, starting with last night.

Dinner was late last night as we ended up eating at 7 due to the fact that our burgers literally went up in smoke on the BBQ. By the time 7 rolled around, I was getting a little shaky (hypoglycemic?). We ended up having chicken burgers and as we were finishing up, Chris arrived from a reception on the Hill. He mentioned that the reception was like a mini-PNE sellers market, but with legitimate and established products. He also mentioned that they were giving away large bags of free samples from each of the vendors. Melissa and I were regretful that we had not been there and promptly decided after much deliberation to run to the Hill ourselves and see if we could snag some samples for ourselves. Dragging Amanda with us, we ran upstairs, changed into decent clothes, and literally left the house jogging up the street.

When we got to the Hill, the vendors had just started packing up. We were informed that had we arrived even just 15 minutes earlier, we would have been able to get in on the action. Needless to say, we were crushed. I'm still trying to get over my disappointment, even though the Party Lite lady gave me 2 catalogues and a wall sconce.

The past two weeks have been crazy. We had a two week intensive course with Cal Townsend who essentially informed us more than once that we were boring as far as LLC classes go. Apparently, going to sleep between 10-11 is not the norm? Luckily, he did find one movie watching buddy in Keharn who generally stays up until the wee hours anyway. And, he affirmed our attention and engagement in class.

The course was a whirlwind tour of the effects of the Enlightenment juxtaposed with ancient paradigms of knowledge (aka the way that the ancients viewed the world). It was extremely helpful for me to think through how the application of the historical-critical method to Scripture is relatively recent. Taken to its logical conclusion, applying this method to Scripture removes all supernatural elements from it. This is exactly what I had been buying into during the last couple of years. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that Scripture cannot be read by itself, but needs the interpretation of the Church that originally formed it.

Christianity is not a rational religion. This is not to say that at least some aspects of it cannot be defended and/or explained using reason, but that Christianity requires a leap of faith of sorts. Living in the "sphere of reason" for the past few years has made it increasingly difficult for me to take that leap and believe the irrational: God on a cross and later risen. The truth is that I must choose to believe it each and every day, to move forward in the hope that one day "my faith shall be sight."

In the meantime, I struggle to read the Word without destroying it by reasoning it away, I struggle to pray amidst conflicted understandings of the purpose of prayer (Thy will be done), and I struggle to break free from cynicism in order to embrace each moment with a joy that is beyond superficial.

Just scratching the surface...

Nicole