Smoothies and Papers

YAHOOOOOOO!!!! Today I handed in my very first Master level paper.... (notice I'm celebrating now because who knows if I'll celebrate later). This was a paper for my Hermeneutics class-- the study or theory of interpretation. It's not the study of a guy named Herman. Although, if he was a cute, Herman, he might be worth the study. Also, dissapointingly there is no interpative dance involved at all. I know, it's surprising! =0) This is a four hour class, I have one day a week that involves a great deal of reading outside of class.

All of us use hermeneutics on a daily basis without realizing it. For example, we interpret a sports story different than an editorial, and a newstory different than the comics. (Although nowadays the comics are probably actually more reliable in their facts)

So to celebrate this amazing accomplishment of ONE finished paper, about half a dozen of us walked over to the campus smoothie bar! Unfortunately, they didn't have any smoothies today!!!! Can you imagine that?-- A smoothie bar without any smoothies? PLEASE! It is a contradiction in terms. Smoothie sales increased by 15.6% over 2003! Anyways, we resolved to return in two weeks at the completion of our next paper.


Wikipedia.org provided me with some other Hermans...

This may refer to:
Herman, a comic strip
Herman, Bishop of Salisbury, an English clergyman of the 11th century
Herman is also a popular given name in the English language
St Herman, a Russian clergyman of the 18th and 19th centuries

There are also several places named "Herman":
Herman, Arkansas
Herman, Dodge County, Wisconsin
Herman, Minnesota
Herman, Nebraska
Herman, Shawano County, Wisconsin
Herman, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin

(It's funny, I'm from WI orginally, and had no idea there were so many Hermans!)

Shower Surprise

Shower Surprise

As I was waking up, I stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the shower. As I pulled the shower curtain to the side, Eminem surprised me. Yes, 'the' Eminem was staring back at me..... in 20 x 24 poster format. I quickly grabbed him (it) out of the shower and wiped it down with a towel setting it aside for my roomate. I hadn't realize she was a big Eminem fan. Apparently, she had got the poster from her sister and stuck it into the shower to surprise me. Definately, something I wouldn't typically expect. Glad I didn't try any kung fu moves or I might have slipped and knocked myself unconcious on the commode!

So... that got me thinking.... I wonder how many people do shower in the morning vs. in the evening. So I Googled it to find out that they don't have any hard fast statistics, but it seems to be dependent upon culture and schedules. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=6314

In Thailand, it appears to be taboo for women to bathe at night, but the majority of the answers seemed to have more people bathing at night then in the morning. When I was in Mali, Africa, the Bambra people bathed in the morning and the evening. It was taboo to let anyone see you before you had bathed. Of course, they also thought if you used soap you couldn't become rich. So the quality or definition of bath/shower may be different as well.

Stories

"Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. I learned God--worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice.”
Psalm 51:16-17 The Message

My parents like to tell various stories from my childhood ranging from me taking on our cow-yard bull, commanding a run-away tractor, or bungee jumping out of my crib in defiance of ‘nap time.’ In fact, upon hearing such stories, one friend commented that Dr. James Dobson wrote The Strong-Willed Child with me in mind. Overall, I doubt my parents would describe me as a rebel dissident opposing their autocracy, but as a curious child asserting my independence.

Sometimes, it makes me wonder if God shares stories about me. Can you see God sitting around telling a comical story of what Tara did today, some comical way I tried to assert my independence? Maybe it’s as simple as refusing to accept help in gluing a ceramic dish back together, and now my hands are super-glued to a ‘civil-war’ plate, separated into North and South. (Never happened, by the way.)

My asserted independence has resulted in comical stories which I’m sure God, family and friends have enjoyed. Stories which they’ve humorously recounted in love and fraternal pride. However, there are other stories, which aren’t so funny. Stories where my independence is really just foolish stubbornness, egotism, or rigid-ness resulting in hurt and shame.

God has a whole book about His strong-willed children. As funny as stories about talking mules and spitting fish can be, I really don’t think He takes much pleasure in sharing some of His children’s stories… I don’t think God condemns independence, but I think if we really examined our independence…. we’d realize that sometimes it’s just a comfortable way of justifying pride.

It’s way of saying, “God, I’ll do it. I really don’t need you, and I really don’t need anyone else’s help either.” It’s funny how I’ll sometimes say this knowing quite honestly how desperately I am in need of God and others.

There are stories where ‘independence’ has really just resulted in a heart-brokenness, a shattered spirit. In Psalm 51:17, God calls a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart an acceptable sacrifice to Him. He wants us to lay it down to Him as an act of worship. To sometimes candidly express, “God, I don’t know how you’re bigger than this, I just know that you are.” He wants to be the one who picks me up, dusts me off, and puts my pieces back together. The very thing I often try to do.

Furthermore, God wants me to realize that I need others. If I’m truly part of a body of Christ, I need to be inter-dependent with others. In 1 Samuel 15:22, we’re told that God delights when we obey His voice, and that “to obey is better than sacrifice.”

We think that sometimes obedience calls for sacrifice, but when we start to examine it through God’s eyes we realize it’s hardly sacrifice at all. After all, we often go through the small pains for the big gain… whether it’s in our careers, investments, child-bearing, or physical fitness. We start to realize that disobeying God, being defiant, asserting our independence, would result in sacrificing the His very best for us. No wonder our lives can feel so heart-broken at times!

God wants to nurture our dependence on Him and my obedience so that I can realize His unending, unrelenting love and graciousness. So He can mold me into a greater likeness of His character, that He can complete His good work in me. That I live a full life, living out my purpose and destiny in Him.

Ask Yourself: Is there an area of your life where you feel a bit shattered? How can you be more dependent on God? How can you nurture inter-dependence with others?

Lord, Bless me in my relationship with you. Help me to be obedient and faithful, relying on you in trust and faith to accomplish your will in my everyday life.

Hello, Hello and welcome to my blog! It's new, and so am I-- learning to navigate this Blog world. As I ponder, searching the recesses of my mind, (My mind has recess? I wonder if there are monkey bars on the playground.) I hope to share with you invariably whatever should pop-up in my life or in my mind. That may be a little scary, but gird yourself with strength, courage, and a good pair of running shoes.

Look forward to talking with you more.