Struggling To Find Ourselves

At the University of Chicago Divinity School each year, they have what is called “Baptist Day”.  On this day, each one is to bring a lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area.  Every “Baptist Day”, the school would invite one of the greatest minds to lecture in the Theological Education Center.  One year, they invited Dr. Paul Tillich.  Dr. Tillich spoke for two and one-half hours proving that the resurrection of Jesus was false.  He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book.  He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless, emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense.

He then asked if there were any questions.  After about 30 seconds, an old, dark skinned preacher with a head of short-cropped, woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium.  “Docta Tillich, I got one question,” he said as all eyes turned toward him.  He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it.  “Docta Tillich…” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”My question is a simple question….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”and I can’t recite the Scriptures in the original Greek….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”I don’t know nothin’ about Niebuhr and Heidegger….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….He finished the apple….”All I wanna know is: This apple I just ate….Was it bitter or sweet?”  Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: “I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven’t tasted your apple.”  The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at Dr. Tillich and said calmly, “Neither have you tasted my Jesus.”

There seems to be a lack of teaching our children good hygiene habits.  Now, hygiene is NOT just brushing their teeth.  Hygiene also involves washing their face properly, so they will have less problems with acne when they get a little older, hopefully.  Hygiene also involves bathing properly, and frequently enough, as well as changing clothes appropriately.  There are very few things that upset me as much as parents, or ANY adult, not teaching and making SURE children use proper hygiene habits.  I mean, not only are you trying to help them establish GOOD habits for when they are older, but you are also trying to help them stay healthy.

Life around here has been….okay….lately.  Things have been busy, with appointments and everything else going on.  School will be starting in about 2 weeks, so that will make it seem like it’s even busier.

We’ve been reading quite a bit the last few weeks, too, whenever we get the chance.  I’ve been reading my Bible most days.  I finished the book of Matthew today.  I’ve also been reading at bedtime too.  Looks like we are going to have a pretty good list of books that we’ve read in 2008!!!

Other things are going okay.  Court, lawyers, appointments…you know…the regular things going on.  What can we say?  Life is life, I guess, and this is our’s right now.

Everyone is doing okay, though.

More later.

I have walked a total of 6.4 miles on purpose this week, so far.  And, for those of you that are wondering, no, it has NOT been every day.  It seems like one of the “fads” right now is exercising.  And there are several ways I could have walked that 6.4 miles.  I could have gone to the county recreation center in a nearby town and used their oval track, or one of the numerous treadmills.  There are NUMEROUS roads out here where I live that get VERY little traffic, so I could have walked on some of those. 

When you exercise, though, you need to know WHY you are exercising.  Is it to lose weight?  Is it for cardiovascular health?  Is it just for something to fill time with?  Maybe it’s to burn off some frustration?  Whatever you reasoning, exercise IS good in moderation.  Have you exercised this week?

In addition to going to the pool, with Summer here, ALOT of people are trying to keep cool by exercising the a/c compressor on their air conditioner.  What can we say?  In this day and age, with the way society is, air conditioning is nice….but then society seems to have gotten soft in the last decade or so.  I think it was the invention of cars that did it, but who knows?  We just aren’t the same as we used to be.  But, they call that progress, or so they tell me.

GHOSTS

Yes, I DO believe that ghosts are real.  I DO believe that, sometimes, they interact with the physical world we live in.  Have I seen one?  No, but I would swear on a Bible that I’ve lived in houses that have had a ghost…or even two, maybe.  It’s just….like feeling their presence or something….especially when strange things happen in the house…or items are moved with NO explanation….or when the television comes on in the middle of the night or is on when you come home from being gone.  Who knows?  Ghosts and the spirit realm is one of those great mysteries that all the scientists on Earth haven’t figure out completely yet…and probably never will.

With Summer here, ALOT of people have been going to the swimming pool.  In our trips there this Summer, I’ve noticed that swimwear just isn’t what it used to be.  There are people wearing things that BARELY cover what needs to be covered, and this includes young children sometimes.  What ever happened to modesty?  Oh, nevermind, I forgot that’s not taught in the schools much anymore.  You’d think that instinct or SOMETHING would kick in on these people who are showing WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY too much and tell them that it’s NOT something they should be doing.  Maybe that’s ANOTHER thing wrong with todays’ society….not listening to the conscience.

Yep, I think I’m done in here for now!!!!  I’m surprised the websites have been cooperating for me tonight!!!  But I DO thank God for that, because I NEEDED to get some entries done to annoy you all with!!!….*L*

Hope all is going well with wherever you are tonight!!!  Don’t forget to leave me some more notes!!!  I LIKE notes!!!  Take care, and I’ll try not to be so long in between entries!!!

When she grew tired of looking at the trophies in her display case that brought her such mixed emotions some days, she went down into the basement to her wine cellar.  There, she inspected the temperature of each of her wine refrigerators to make sure that they were keeping her wines at the perfect temperature.  Wine was NO good, in her opinion, unless it was served at the perfect temperature for the type of wine it was. 

Well, public school starts again in the first half of August.  Can you believe that?  If the tend for public schools keeps going like it is now, they will be getting out of school on May 24th and starting the new school year on May 25th.  And there are some that don’t understand why I want to home school!!!…*shakes her head*  Oh, and with lunches, can you believe we are looking at approximately $450 for the cost of school?  I guess it’s a GOOD thing I don’t plan on him eating breakfast at school much at this point, huh, because that would be about another $175 or so.  And to think that I could home school him for SOOOOOOOO much less at this point!!!….He is looking forward to going back to school, kind of, I think…even though it wreaks havoc in our lives with the mental health appointments and everything else going on…*shrugs*….Oh well, it’s what we have to do right now, so we’ll do it and make the best of it that we can.