First and foremost, thanks to those who inquired about my job interview that I had yesterday. It was a great interview. I know I presented myself sincerely, truly how I would be if I actually worked there. Also, I got a tour of the facility, which is really sweet. They even have a nursery for the 12 youngest children of employees (I guess at 13 they have to be state registered or something...). The people there are a mix of older, but mostly our age people and they seem like they'd be great to work with. Jack, the marketing manager who I interviewed with, introduced me to everyone, so that's encouraging! He even prayed with me at the end, that we would both search for God's will in this employment, that Tommie and my marriage would be blessed, and that we both would focus on bringing God's love through Christ to everyone. It was awesome. I don't know if I have the job yet, but trust me, I'll keep you posted. I think I should know by early next week.
in other news....
I mentioned in my last post a book I just finished: Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas. I thought in this post I would post a few tantalizing thoughts I gleaned from that read. So here goes:
1. God's primary concern is love, not morality.
DON'T HEAR WHAT I'M NOT SAYING! I don't mean to say that God doesn't care if we run around like hoodlums, slicing each other up and stealing candy from babies. I'm pretty sure that would break God's heart. What I mean is that when someone asked, "Teacher, what is the greatest commandment?" Jesus replied, "The greatest commandment is this, 'Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
I think that sounds easy but is exceptionally hard. I believe God's love and Christ's sacrifice changes us to people with similar morals, but it's hard to not look at someone and judge how much they love God by the way they live their life.
Anyway, when confronted with this issue in front of about 150-200 college students (who tend to be a bit sophmoric if I do say so myself...), here's what the author of this book I read, Kelly Kullberg, said:
"I'm not pushing morality on anyone. the point is that God, like a loving father, doesn't want his children used or exploited. His Word says that that we're not meant to love and then leave, or to be left, repeatedly. Regarding gender, if you thinkn about our anatomies, there's a rather obvious, um, design there. Like pieces of a puzzle fitting together. naturally, we'd see disease and confusion where design is repeatedly abused, and we'd see wellness where design is respected. God wants us to live well in the body. He wants to heal our minds, hearts and bodies, and for us to become merciful healers..."
That doesn't say it all, but it's helped me reshape my mind, not just about sexual morality, but about not sinning in general. It's God's mercy that he instructs us not to sin- he doesn't want us to be exploited by false truths. Praise God for his mercy. Forgive me when I ignore it and plunge headfirst into pain.
2. God is the greatest thing to happen to women since....The Beginning of Time!
I think, not unlike many collegiate women, I've struggled silently with the call of our culture to make a strong name for myself as a women and the desire I have to be loved as a woman in the most traditional sense. It's a paradox of living as an alien here. It's hard though. Here's a thought-provoker from Kelly Kullberg regarding this issue of Feminism and the Bible:
"Feminism started as a Christian movement to value women and men as equal image-bearers of the Creator, not as an effort to de-gender women or emulate a male model for success. rather, the early Christian view honored the uniqueness of women and acknowledged their stories, including the curse to Eve: that we'd be tempted to take our identity from a husband rather than the Lord, that we'd know pain in child-bearing and child-raising, that thorns would pierce our hearts. Christian feminism looked to Christ as the redeemer of that curse... As for the Bible and feminism, my assigned talk tonight, I've read many origin texts that attempt to tell the story in which we live: Native American, Hindu, atheist, humanist, Buddhist, Islamic, pagan and Wiccan. I'm suggesting that only one story has the ring of truth-a personal, loving God created men and women equal. They are equal in his image to love him but have secondary differences in order to love and serve one another. They also have a unique purpose: through an act of love, they continue to create and nurture life in his image."
3. Jesus is the answer to hard questions.
Alot of times we leave our hard questions out of the pool of things we ask God. There's slight fear that maybe He can't really live up to evolution, charges of being unloving in a world full of evil, all-knowing, a healer. We fear these things and dare not bring them before the God we still struggle to believe exists. It may kill our faltering faith. I have found though, as Kelly Kullberg suggests, that it is in the midst of bringing our doubts that God proves most faithful.
"Jesus' offer of forgiveness and new life is the answer to sexism, racism, consumerism, injustice and cynicism. Where there is forgiveness and love, the cycle of evil is broken. Bitterness dissolves and gratitude emerges. With Jesus as our best friend, the world begins to look new and full of possibilities. Full of hope."
We don't need to be afraid to ask, "Where is God in DNA?" Did you know the head of the human Genome project is a Christian and speaks at these Veritas Forums?!? I mean, COME ON!! If that's not a hard questions. We can ask God, what about creation? What about pain? He's big enough. We don't have to deflect questions from others, fearing God cannot answer. We ought to pursue those questions with a fervor-not for simple answers that refuse to acknowledge the possibility of God's existence, but a fervor for looking for God in academics, a place that he has nearly been forbidden from in the past few years.
I loved this book, if you couldn't tell. I think God is speaking loudly through this woman who had the faith that God had more answers than we gave Him credit for. She also had the faith that sometimes that mystery is the answer....
So, go explore! I hope you enjoyed this short, short jaunt into my thoughts from this book. If you happen to read it or explore the Web site, where you can listen to academic experts exhort God, let me know what you thought!
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