This week in religious studies...

I had some extra credits that I needed to fill this year so I decided to take a religious studies class. So far, I am enjoying learning about the different world religions. This past week we learned about Hinduism. Hinduism kinda intrigues me and made me explore it, comparing it to what I believe in. So here is what i think. Hinduism is not a static religion, and it doesn't exclude other religious like buddhism or even christianity. It's a polytheistic represented by Brahma, Saktas, Durga, Kali, Siva, Lingams, Parvati, Ganesh, Vishnu, Krishna, Lakshmi, and Rama. Because it is such an accomidating religion it means that there are many ways of coming to the ultimate, or a state of nirvana (beyond the metaphysical(i should clarify this that nirvana is a buddhist term, hinduists try to get out of the cycle of karma , and the best word that i could think of to describe it was nirvana, although the technical name for it is moksha). I have been thinking a lot about the postmoderism world that we live in. The basic premisises of postmoderism is that nothing is absolute, that what you think goes, it is accomodating. In the first class that we had, we explored questions of what is religion. I thought that it was interesting how many people answered the question with the same underlying message: that living a good life, God (or who ever you believed in) you would go to heaven. Most people who were answering said that they had Catholic roots. I would like to know where it says in scripture that " by living a happy life, try to be good, and don't worry about what you really believe in, as long as you think that there is a God, that's good enough". I look at our more conservative churches and I see that same attitude of postmoderism seeping through. Thomas Jefferson tried to rewrite the bible taking out all the miracles in the new testiment. Why does the power of God have to be dumbed down?. I have been reading through Acts and examining the life of the early believers. A word that jumps out to me is devoted. What does it mean to be devoted to something? It means that there lives were centered around to the thing they hold dear. In acts 3:42 it states that "they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer". How far does our devotion go in the church? Is church a ritual and emptied of all power? And what about scripture? When do we as a church exchange the authority of man over the authority of the bible? They early believers lived a radical life, because they didn't live on diet christainity. Our post modern church is making everything comfortable, but what about challenging? And if we were living a radical life, people of this world wouldn't understand the foolishness, "for it is the message of the cross that is foolishness to those who are perishing" (corinthians 1:18) And I wonder if people of this world see a differentiating line. I have been thinking about my own life, and letting myself digest it, because I know that I have allowed things to seep into my life. But when I was studying hinduism, I wondered how it was so different from some of the christianity being preached in north america. Some churches have adopted that "everything goes" mentality and that everybody has their own pathway to God; but where is Jesus?

Little boys and bugs

I was sitting outside when little Jayden came up to me. I asked him, " what do you have in your hand?" He then said, " I have a present for you" (since it's my birthday). I opened up my hand and recieved a june bug, which he named goldie. A few minutes later, he came back, wanting me to give me another present. So I held out my hand and he gave me a ladybug named Josie. We were just about to head in for snack, when Jayden came up yet again to give me a present. Being conditioned to the situation, I held out my hand, only to recieve a spider. I may have yelped, and I am sure I did a funny dance waving my hand in the air. I have never got a spider for a present before!

Momma mia, here we go again, my, my how can i resist you...

Well, I spent my first weekend in swift current! It definity was not boring! Friday, I had a date, with Kathryn (the lady that I am living with). We went and saw Momma Mia, and being the die hard abba fan that I am, it was awesome, although many may have a different opinion than me. Anywho, Saturday, I went shopping with my dear little sister and elsa (a friend from millar). Which, I bought a laser printer (ooohh...aahhh) yes, be in awe, because it can fire out those sheets in a blink of an eye (no exaggeration!). Then I headed over to the college to work at the canteen for the rider party. And when I was told about this rider party, I invisioned a projector and a decent sized white screen, what you would see in churches for worship. As I am walking in, I am wondering why is there a 3000 watt generator blowing up this..."thing-a-ma-bob"? ...also I passed it off, thinking it was one of those play pens for little kids. It definitly turned into a 26 feet high movie screen, seriously, do we really need to see spandex bums that big?
Well, after the rider party, I went home, feeling tired, and I went to bed, only to wake up at 7 am. Which on one hand is nice because for the first time in a long time I may have a normal sleep schedule because I dont' have to work wierd hours...YAY! But I wanted to sleep! because I like sleep! And I need sleep!...i finally gave in and got up and enjoyed the morning sunlight that was filling my room. After I showered I headed off to millar and went to church with pat and elsa. My mom also came up to drop off some stuff for her. Patricia wanted to show mom her intern office, so we headed down there, only to get inscripted to moving her stuff around. During this time, Patricia and I took one of her desks out to another room that was down the hallway. As we put the desk down we could hear, "wee...weee...weee". Curious, Patricia and I walked back to her office, finding out that the source of the "wee's" where coming from my mom spinning around and around in a computer chair. My stomach muscles hurt from laughing.
Coming back home wasn't too adventurous, I only passed a cop going 125Km/h, the cop didn't even pull me over...I had to make it back for volleyball practice...
well, I hope you all had a good weekend!

Ok, seriously, I am just rusty

Today I went to up kill the ball (aka: going up for an attack/spiking the ball). I ran...left, right, together up! Except, I was focusing so hard on my timing and steps that I missed the ball. It hit me on top of my head. Yes, I made the volleyball team.

"let this old life crumble..let it fade...let this new life offer me your saving grace"

About eight months ago, my Savior woke me up in the dead of the night. It wasn't an audible voice, but a pounding in my chest and I knew that I had to pray. I had been experiencing a restlessness in my spirit. God revealed to me what was causing this restlessness, because I know how God can use me, that he has called me for something more, and I am not there yet. I was beginning to be too comfortable with my life in Saskatoon. Not that God wasn't using me for His glory during everyday life, during work at the nursery, or at Emanuel, or with Chantel, or whatever I may have been doing...
But you see, I want to passionately follow my Saviour, and in order to do that I need to step out of the boat and walk on that water. A couple months later, things started to fall in place. Which has brought me to Swift Current. I get a lot of questions asking me why I would move here, really I don't know myself; except God opened that door and I feel peace about being here; that stefan's mom graciously opened her house up to me, that the last credit I need in order to apply into social work is being offered first semester...it's really cool how that all worked out because I planned on coming down here way before I knew about course offerings, or even a place to live (actually I didn't even know where I was living until a couple of weeks ago). I don't know how long I will stay in Swift Current, I don't even know what I am going to be doing when I get back from Africa.
Yes, I am going to Africa. I am really excited about going a little nervous, but it is just another step and He is saying "trust me". I am even more excited that my friend BreAnn is coming with me for the first month. We will be flying on the 10th of January from Saskatoon, then going to Minneapolis, then over to Amsterdam, then finally to Johannesburg. We will be working with the Love of Christ family, an orphanage based just outside of Jo-berg. I got my immunization a couple weeks ago, it's crazy: polio (booster), Typhoid, diphtheria, Tetanus, Hep A...and I still need to get a tuberculosis test and they are telling me that I should get my mumps booster, but I don't know about that one :|
But God is taking me on a faith journey. I don't want to live a life of complacency, and in order for that not to happen, I need to obey.
Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. I will try to keep it up...for you sarah!