straight talk from WKQZ

Bad:

“I’d like to tell you about my spiritual journey.”

Good:

“I’d like to tell you about Jesus Christ and his exclusive claims.”

This from Alistair Begg, whose preaching my mom is listening to right now on Christian radio.  Wow,

Begg also  just said that walking in the truth is not easy; it’s an every day, uphill battle, kind of like taking up your cross daily.  I want to think about that some.  I’m feeling a bit convicted.  I do think, though, that it’s possible — and important — to tell people about unnegotiable (to me) truths in a way that’s a bit more winsome and humble and empathetic and dialog-conducive than opening with “I’d like to tell you about Jesus Christ and his exclusive claims.”  Besides, I do think that in some sense we are *all* journeying on this earth, even if we’re not all trying to get to the same place, or any place in particular.  If not, why on earth should we listen to each other?

Trancendence and Meditation in Elizabeth Goudge

Almost two years ago now I posted about how people like to use the word trancscendence but I personally don’t like the word because I don’t know what it means.  Ironically, since that post I’ve been using the word semi-regularly.  I think it’s connected to meditation, i.e., what meditation is trying to get at. I like the German word for meditation here – my friend always says Betrachtung, which actually means “observation.”   Here’s a description from one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Goudge (an English Catholic novelist who published between 1936 and 1970) that expresses well what I think meditation is reaching for:

The marble seat was white as the last rose blossom, opening unexpectedly in this late glow of warmth.  She felt the cool petals against her cheek and turning her head she saw the leaves like lifted hands holding it out to her. She lifted her hands too and then dropped them, afraid to touch the flower lest she bruise it. Instead she looked deep into its heart, that glowed golden at the center of the exquisite whiteness.   The very faint perfume came to her. She looked and time ceased.  The world went away too, even Golden Grove.  Only she and the flower existed.  Then she too stole away from herself, though sight remained that could look upon the flower, and song remained, for she was singing to it.  When she first began to hear the song she did not know that it was herself that that was singing, she thought it was a seraph behind her in the tree; or the tree itself.   Yes, thre tree was certainly singing.  They sang together for a while ….

- Elizabeth Goudge, The Child from the Sea, New York: Coward-McCann (1970): 123-24.

Taking Stock

the continuation of a list I started in December…

Just a few things that I won’t miss about Germany:

• I’ll say it again: bureaucracy
• the way no one ever busses their table at Starbucks
• the business hours.
• preserved fish
• the astronomical cost of school supplies.
• stinginess with condiments
• a general tendancy to bean-count
• kitsch and efficient sterility – the two most common styles of decor
• university “seminars” with zero student discussion
• a prevailing fear of sticking one’s neck out
• cultural Christianity, in the sense of milquetoast sermons and in-club back-patting

Just a few things that I will miss about Germany:

• cultural Christianity, in the sense of majestic church buildings, an abundance of beautiful music, and a general appreciation for tradition and ceremony
• teachers who enjoy the nitty gritty, willingly put students on the spot, and are comfortable with the Bible
• German milk, the drink of the gods
• Laugenbrötchen and -brezel – the platonic form of bread.
• Gundel, the bakery just down the street from my dorm, where I get said bread and quiche Lorraine
• diet coke tastes better here
• the Süddeutsche Zeitung
• the dirt cheap and not untasty student dining hall
• Deutschlandfunk (the equivalent of NPR…well, I can still listen to it online, I just wanted to give it a shout out)
• bike-riding to get from point A to B. It’s way more fun here than in the states because it’s so much better integrated into society – you don’t feel like a pathetic loser/ treehugger out there risking your life on the roads all alone
• I’ve done more than my fair share of complaining about German manners, but I’ve come to appreciate that people don’t go out of their way pretending to like someone or be curious about their day, if they’re not. It saves time and energy.
• Schoko Knusper (a kind of cereal)
• German
• the sharp little hills surrounding Heidelberg, the prettiest place I’ve ever lived
• people like M.R., who has more pressure on her than any young adult I’ve ever known, but still (or because of that?) has deep wells of compassion for the marginal and disadvantaged; or H.-J., who in the absence of fluent German expresses her affection (to all and sundry) with caresses; or C.M., who’s both an Assyriologist and an authentic, caring human being, or C.G., who reminded me that grad school should be fun and meaningful (at least some of the time), or B., who always speaks up in house meeting if she thinks something is fishy, or A.Z., who says I see appreciate facets of her that no one else sees, or S., my Japanese roommate who after much drilling learned to greet me with “’s up?” and a head tilt, or M.B., who calls ‘em like he sees ‘em but is also kind, or A.G., who walks the talk … and more.

spiritual check-up

I had a friend call me on my negativity today…not in general, about something in particular that bothers her.  But even though it kind of hurts, it’s salutary to be reminded in a caring way that there’s still a lot of that uncharitable, black-and-white thinking kid in me.  Or as my sister has been telling me all my life, I’m mean.  I’ll probably never have that beat, but I do want to work on it.

Thanks, God, for friends who speak the truth in love.  Please help me to get better about the love part.

moral dilemma

So, because for a while I was thinking about dropping out of or taking a leave 0f absence from grad school, and then because I told myself I didn’t have to think about anything that stressed me until I absolutely had to, I’m just now seriously looking for housing for next year.  For someone looking to live walking distance from campus with non-undergrad roommates who smokes, pickings are slim indeed.  I am really surprised at how many people who posted ads chose “non-smoker” rather than “no smoking preference.”

So I have some questions here.  1) In most cases should I assume that these people really don’t want a roommate who smokes at all, even if they don’t smoke in the house?  The last time I searched for a roommate through this website I made that assumption; mentioned casually to a nice-seeming potential roommate that I am a very light smoker (that was true at the time), and found out that she meant that non-smoking thing seriously, because she’d had a smoking roommate before and “sometimes his coat stank.” (Princess.)

2) Should I email people who seem like good fits and tell them I’m a smoker but was hoping they didn’t really mean it / would be willing to make an exception, or, given the fact that things are getting desperate and I’m about to have to settle for living in the middle of nowhere for $700 a month, should I just keep mum about my filthy habit and see how long I can conceal it from them after I move in, knowing that there won’t be much they can do?

And please don’t anyone answer “use this as an opportunity to quit.”