The Book of Joel: Post for 9/21/2010

So often we hear quotes from the Bible that are taken out of context. I didn't think that I had ever heard anything out of the book of Joel until I came across a frequently quoted piece of scripture, "And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions". Just before that statement are the words, "It will come about after this that I will pour out my Spirit on mankind". What came before? What was the prerequisite for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? In the previous section of scripture we see that the people had been delivered from the troubles they had been facing. God was blessing them for returning to Him and staying with Him. As I continue to look back further I start to see all of the different trials they went through. It speaks of darkness and gloom. There was starvation and drought. There were locusts that came. Am I saying that, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, all of these things have to happen? Of course not!! I am just trying to say that some people expect it to be so easy to receive prophecies and visions and dreams when in reality it isn't. In order for God to bestow upon the people in the book of Joel these gifts they had to go through a lot. When we come to God and He puts us through trials and tests it helps us grow. I think He is building us up so that we can handle the tremendous responsibility these gifts are. I also think that, though we don't go through actual starvation and drought and darkness, we get something like it. We all go through dry places in our walk with God (drought) and sometimes we feel He isn't giving us what we need(starvation). Sometimes we can even think that God isn't there (darkness). Sometimes the enemy tries to find ways to attack us, often through things or people that are important to us (locusts). I believe that when we get through these trials we come out stronger and God blesses us for staying with Him.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Post for Thursday September 16th

Our reading assignment to do before Thursday was to read Professor Corrigan's article "Darkness, Questions, Poetry, and Spiritual Hope". I am going to focus more on the "darkness" part of the article. If there was no darkness then we could never tell what the light was either. The Bible tells us that we, as Christians, are the light of the world. If you think about it, if there was no sin or worldly temptations, the "dark", you couldn't really tell that we were the "light". There would be nothing to compare the light to, no opposite that wants the light to lessen so the opposite can grow in size and intensity. I think sometimes it takes darkness for us to truly appreciate the light we have. When we see the sins and the situations that make up what is darkness it makes us happier and feel blessed to be in the light, at least it does for me. Funny thing about darkness, every time the light gets closer and more luminous it retreats further back and shrinks. If we think of that in terms of the enemy and us we have a little bit of the spiritual realm revealed to us. We see that every time we step closer and take a strike at the enemy they retreat. They run and hide. They are fearful of the light. Light destroys them. We don't really have to be afraid of the dark. Darkness is much more afraid of the light. Light can increase in intensity and grow on its own. Darkness depends on the lack of light to increase and grow. Darkness can only advance if we, the light, back off and give it the opportunity to. Why be afraid of something we control? The darkness is afraid because we control it! Did you that the dictionary definition of darkness is the absence or deficiency of light? I'm not sure where I am going with all of this but it is what comes to mind when I think of darkness, especially in spiritual terms.

Cemetery Visit Post for Tuesday September 14th

Instead of going to Tiger Flowers Cemetery, I went to Townsend House Cemetery. I stayed for at least 40 minutes. As a commuter student, it was difficult for me to make a trip to Tiger Flowers Cemetery that fit in my schedule. Townsend is less than five minutes from my house. It is also where my great-grandmother was buried when she died in 2006. Her name was Alice. I can't say that I ever had a period of mourning for her when she died. Before you think I am cold and heartless I have to explain why. I mourned her loss even while she was still alive. You see, we knew she was dying. She had dementia, which slowly causes memories and knowledge of everyday tasks to be lost. She hadn't been right for a long time, probably around six or seven years before she died. For the last three years or more of her life she didn't know me by name. She thought I was a woman named Joanne who was almost forty by then. She was still thinking of Joanne as a teenager just as she still thought of me as the little girl she made rice crispy treats with. You want to know something funny? Alice had lied about her age so many times over the years that she didn't even remember what year she was born in. We had to put off getting her headstone until we could find out her real birthday. Her favorite thing to eat was McDonald's chicken nuggets. She got her hair done every Friday because she always wanted to look her best. At least until she started to get worse. The loss of my great-grandmother wasn't nearly as tragic as C.S. Lewis' loss of his wife. I can't pretend to imagine what he felt like, even after reading A Grief Observed. In fact, I think the book showed me that I know even less about grief than I had thought. As I walked through the rest of the cemetery I wondered how many people buried there were still remembered and missed. I also wondered how many had been forgotten. I saw headstones there with death dates before the 1850s and even more that I couldn't read because age had made the etchings unreadable. I am including a few pictures from the cemetery. I know that nobody else visited this one so I want you to see it, too.

Post for Thursday September 9, 2010

I decided that I would paint a picture for the blog this time. Because we are reading A Grief Observed, I figured that it would be appropriate to paint tears in someone's eyes. C.S Lewis mentions crying. He says, "But the bath of self-pity, the wallow, the loathsome sticky-sweet pleasure of indulging it-- that disgusts me."(p.4) This statement compelled me to paint tears.

Post for Tuesday September 7, 2010

When I saw the Star Wars reference in Chapter 3 of our textbook I laughed. There has been a marathon of all six episodes on TV yesterday and today. I watched every one of them with my dad. Can you say NERD? But, it is okay. It really helped me to better understand the concept presented when the text mentioned Star Wars; that music is key to the theme of a film.

As I watched every episode I noticed how certain music would play for certain characters, especially Darth Vader. When the action picked up so did the music; it would get louder and created a sense of urgency. When there was a romantic moment between Leia and Han Solo or Anakin and Padme the music would become softer and more elegant. Music sets the tone and creates an atmosphere for a situation. If you had an epic fight scene you would find it odd if the music was fit to inspire tears. Music helps you connect emotionally to a movie. How do you think silent pictures worked? The characters never said anything. Sometimes there would be dialogue written on title cards but that only goes so far. Gestures and facial expressions can sometimes be misread. Music played a large role in how the audience responded to what was happening on screen. If there hadn't been any music, the film would be made primarily of people making funny faces and flailing about.

Have you ever seen a movie, or even a TV show, that didn't have some type of music in it? I can't think of one. Wouldn't it be weird if there was never any music in films or TV shows? I think it would be almost awkward. Would they be as memorable? I don't believe so. Would you be able to relate to them as well? Would you feel sympathy for the characters? Would you feel the love they feel? The pain? Sorrow? Joy? Relief? Probably not. Imagine Darth Vader walking down a hallway in the Death Star. No music is playing at all. I would be thinking something along the lines of: Why is this taking so long? Who is the freak in the space get-up? Why does he breathe like that? Is he supposed to be intimidating? Ha!

Literature Post for Thursday September 2, 2010

The view of love portrayed by the world (including the people in our story, What We Talk about When We Talk about Love) is vastly different to the Christian view of love. Love, as defined by the world is something like:
Lust. Lust is the foundation of the feelings you have for your significant other, be they your spouse or boyfriend/ girlfriend or some other title. When you stop lusting after them you stop "loving" them. If you look at our story it mentions that every one of them had either been married or lived with another person before. What happened to those relationships? They were built on a foundation that easily crumbles with time and troubles. The people involved didn't make that constant choice of "I am going to love them despite our disagreements and our faults".
Obedience. Women obey their husbands. The character by the name of Mel in the story tells his wife to, "Just shut up for once in your life. Will you do me a favor and do that for a minute?" He is expecting her to submit to him. He is not even regretful later on about his harsh words to her. I know that God tells us that men are the authority in the household but I am sure He did not mean for them to be cruel.
Violence. The character of Terri in the story was abused by the man in her last serious relationship. Though he beat her, she still insisted that he loved her. But why would you hurt someone you love? We are seeing the situation of abuse more and more often. So often the abuser's excuse is that they hurt the other person because they loved them. I just don't understand how that works. If you love someone wouldn't you rather protect them from pain instead of being the one who inflicts them with pain.
Envy. People often become envious of what another has or what they themselves don't have. They think that the other spouse is prettier, kinder, not as whiny, not as demanding, etc. If you truly love another person why would you even look at another? We should enter into a relationship accepting the good and the bad. We shouldn't look for what we think is "lacking" in a spouse in another person. Even Mel in the story tells the other man's wife that, if he didn't have his wife and her husband wasn't his best friend, he would fall in love with her. I'm not really sure what to say to that.
As Christians we think of love quite differently. We think of love in a 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 perspective. “Love is patient, love. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” I believe this is the way love was supposed to be.

Kristen Looper: Litertaure Post for August 31st

I couldn't have been more than two when my grandmother began to make up stories for me. There were so many that it eventually became a series called Susie's Prayer with little Susie and Susie Too as the main characters. Grandma was so inspired that she typed them up and began to sketch pictures along with them. One of my favorite phrases was, "Grandma!! Tell me another Susie story!!! Please!". It wouldn't matter if she had just finished telling me one, she would make up another. This is one of my fondest and earliest memories concerning literature. When I was just beginning school I didn't like to read much, but as I grew I developed a love for books. As a matter of fact, the reason I am writing this post today and not yesterday or earlier is because I was caught up in a book. Even as I am typing I am wondering what will happen next to Meena after she was just attacked by a man whose impossible rants further convince her that he is, indeed, crazy. Or is he? Though this book isn't a truly significant literary text, it is the most recent literary experience I have had. As recent as twenty minutes ago. I have also read my share of significant works of literature as well. I love Jane Austen books such as Pride and Prejudice and Emma, typical of almost any female book lover. I have read many of Shakespeare's plays, such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The list goes on and on. Though I have not enjoyed every classic or other book I have read, I can appreciate the time put into each work and why it is significant in its own way. Literature matters because literature transfers knowledge and life experiences among people, not only in the time each piece was created but long past that time. Literature impacts people long after its writers or speakers no longer walk among us. Literature is for learning and interaction, not just for entertainment.  Literature only does not matter to those people who don't see it for the importance it has and have not experienced it the way it was meant to be experienced.