partsofspeaking

For the next three months in Sunday Bible study, we are facing off with Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. And I thought Ezekiel would be a challenge. The Lifeway study helps are a starting place; at least they limit me as to what I'm supposed to try to cover. But my goodness! These books confront the most existential problems of life--massive human suffering on a personal level, depression and despair, and eroticism. Job is the first one. I get to "Job feared God" and that's about as far as I get. My first lesson should be a Biblical definition of what it means to fear God. None of this "reverential awe" stuff. Job feared God. The ancient world had good reason to. Apparently we do not, despite the tsunami and the recent earthquake in Indonesia over the weekend and then let's not even talk about Katrina. Not that God is nature, but that God controls nature, and we can only prepare and run, we can't change it or "improve it."...

This is a typical Sunday for me, which means church, home by 11:15, lunch, read the paper, take a nap, do personal visits or study, take a nap. My son goes to his job and I take it easy. He is out of school now, and plans not to overexert himself this summer, and I can accept that. He is taking the SAT and ACT in the next two weeks, will have to read four or five books for AP English, is supposed to help his dad with projects, must work on his golf game, and will work about 30 hours a week. So why I can't I be happy with that? What is it about my generation that thinks children have to be so busy all the time? That will come. I wrote a novel and sent it to two Christian clearinghouses. I would like to hope something will come of it--I gave them enough money. My desire to write fiction is keen, and probably the thing I would like to do more than anything, but it's not practical to pin one's dreams on it. I have five or six viable ideas. The Ph.D. work looms up bef...

The topic of the day is Mary of Bethany. This the Mary who sat and listened to Jesus, the Mary who confronted Jesus about Lazarus' death, the Mary who wiped Jesus feet with her hair and an incredibly expensive oily perfume. We know a lot about her for a woman in the Bible, and poor Martha has suffered from comparison to her sister. Was this true all her life? Was Mary the prettier, sweeter one by nature, putting Martha in a position to have to take charge, get things done, and by contrast seem like a grump? Who was older? Were both unmarried all their lives, or widows? So we really don't know a great deal about her, and I'm not sure it matters. The stories are not there to reveal her character, but to advance the story of the gospel. Real people though Biblical characters are, they are foils to an extent. Mary's devotion was profound, and the two stories (Luke 10, John 12) have one thing in common. Mary is criticized for devotion, and Jesus tells the critics to back off...

My handwriting is so bad any more that the blog method might be much better for journaling. Since I doubt seriously anyone will ever read this, I feel secure in my privacy. In studying for my Bible class (read Sunday School) lesson, I read Luke 10, the end of it, and turned over to Luke 15. Martha and the older son are the brunt of a lot of unfair and I would say bad preaching. We do not have to denigrate the responsible to glorify God's grace. When Jesus spoke to Martha, it was with all kindness. None of this "You wicked woman, get your priorities straight and your heart right," stuff we hear in sermons trying to get the audience to have their daily devotions. That misses the whole point of the context. Martha was doing what was expected, and Mary was not. She is not condemned for that. She is just gently encouraged not to be troubled about the temporal, and to realize that the kingdom of God that Jesus is bringing may just turn some typical expectations on the...

In late August I will begin Ph.D. work at Georgia State University. My degree, when earned, will be in public communication, which is a morphing of the old speech communication degree. Starting doctoral work at 50 has its pros and cons. Pros: I'm a lot more worldly-wise than I was in my 20s, a lot more tech savvy than in my 30s, and a lot less pretentious than I was in my 40s. Earning a Ph.D., I know at this age, won't make me smarter or better or "eliter" than anybody else; it will just open professional doors that have been closed up to now. Other pros: More financial stable, my son is almost grown (he'll be almost 18 when I get started, which was the reason I waited until now--I wasn't going to put his upbringing behind my professional goals), a husband that stays home anyway and will take care of the house; more well read in general. I also have an excellent job that will be there when I finish and a boss that will work with me, I think one reason ...

As a college professor, I enjoy the end of final exams as much as the students do. My husband and I are both sitting at laptops, hooked up by a wireless router, surfing and blogging (in my case). I have decided to start using the blog as it was intended, and I hope that others can start to come to it. My real name is Barbara Tucker; I was feeling guilty about the Glenda Boone persona. Now the question becomes, how do I get other people to come (and care about coming) to my blog? If I don't go to another, why should they come to mine?