Ok, self, we're doing this thing. Enough procrastinating. Enough excuses. I've got 20 minutes before my next class... ready? Go! haha.
Craziness. That's the word that keeps coming back to mind when I think about the last...week and a half? Something like that? Two weeks ago I spent my whole weekend working on a research paper for my 20th Century British Lit. class (I spent over 25 hours on it in 2 and a half days), and as a result, had to neglect several assignments for my other classes. I spent all of last week doing "double duty" trying to catch up. I'm still not quite there. Praise the Lord, though, the list grows shorter every day!
Then this weekend was crazy too. All day Saturday morning I spent watching the women's soccer game against our cross-town rivals Aquinas College. It was a good game. We probably should have won, but ended up with a 1-1 tie and our goal off a penalty, so I suppose we should be happy with the result... It was fun to watch. It was also FREEZING and raining the whole time. Haha, I wish you could have been there sometime after the 2nd half started to see myself and my 3 guy friends all huddled under 1 very soiled, very large, very old umbrella that Cynthia found for us under the stands(??). Haha, good times. :-)
That night I went with Breana to her team's Halloween event, "pick-a-date." It was sweet. Ha. The women from the women's team each ask a date to the event and then each couple has to dress up crazy. Last year we all met and split up into groups of 4 and did a picture scavenger hunt; this year we all met at Jess's house for a Halloween party, including some crazy pumpkin carving. Haha, I'll have to put up a few pictures when I can get my hands on some -- I forgot my camera in the car, so all the evidence is on Breana's camera. I'll save telling you what we dressed up as until you can see the pictures, haha. Oh, and by the way, we won the best costume prize. ;-)
Then Sunday I had the privilege of going to an all African-American church downtown for my Diverse Populations class. It was only my second experience in such a church (I was 5 years old for my first...), but I really enjoyed it. It was funny -- our whole class of 20 white, middle class Cornerstone students were there, sitting in the 3 rows reserved for us in the very front of the church, and during the worship, I turned to see the WHOLE sanctuary swaying and singing, and then turned back to see our group -- singing loudly -- but still as statues. Hahaha, cracked me up!! As my disclaimer, however, I normally do a bit of swaying myself when I sing, so I didn't feel TOO out of place, but it still made me laugh. The feeling of being the only white people in a very distinct cultural atmosphere was actually refreshing for me. That was my life for the 8 years that I lived in Spain... It felt like home. Except for the fact that I had to remind myself that here, everyone actually spoke English. :-)
Anyway, and that leaves me at today -- 2 minutes late to my next class with a LONG night of homework ahead of me and another early morning tomorrow... Blah. God, give me strength. :-) More to come!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
imago dei
I've been reading a book called "We Can't Teach What We Don't Know" for my educational Diverse Populations class this weekend, and last night I read a section on a social theory called "Minimal Group Paradigm." I don't know if you've heard of this idea, but it's a secular social theory based on several studies that basically asserts that human beings are prone to discriminate against each other, essentially creating invisible social hierarchies in which one group is superior to another. In this book, this theory is applied mostly in the context of racism and racial dominance, as difference in skin color is an easy difference to recognize, making it easier for people to separate into groups based on appearance.
However, the author gave another example of a time when he went to a small town in rural New York to give a multicultural seminar to the student bodies of the two public high schools there. According to the author, the two schools were "virtually indistinguishable demographically, [but] the students from one seemed to invest a great deal of energy in perpetuating a stereotype of students from the other school as 'a bunch of hicks.'" The author decided to play on this during his seminar, and soon found the students in heated arguments concerning the "degrees of hickness" of each group. Here, minimal group paradigm holds true even without the help of skin color to distinguish between the groups -- we humans are "pre-disposed" to discriminate, and if there is no basis for racial discrimination (as in this example), we will find another way!
Why do we revert to this?
I honestly believe Don Miller was right when he proposed that this problem goes back to the Fall and something that happened to our "humanness" in the severing of our relationship from our Creator when Adam and Eve first disobeyed God. Don Miller believes that humans were originally created to receive their affirmation from God -- it was their Creator who named them and walked with them and confirmed their beauty and purpose, and they were originally so connected and so confident in their purpose that there was no such thing as "low self-esteem" (to the point that Adam and Eve walked around naked and knew no shame). Humans were not originally created to compare themselves to one another -- comparison has only come about as a result of the broken connection between us and God and people's need to find their worth in how they measure up to others. And it is this hole in each of us -- this need to be affirmed and valued and loved -- that we somehow twist, not to fill with God's love, but with finding our value by our ranking in our social ladder.
So we create these invisible social hierarchies to validate ourselves and fill our "God-shaped holes." We are drawn to "fashionable" clothes to fit in, we play sports to determine the "best" teams, we align ourselves with social stereotypes (nerds, athletes, drama people, etc) to find community, and we work literally around the clock to quench our insatiable greed and desire buy our way to fame and popularity. Everything we do stems from our deep-rooted desire to be loved and accepted, and yet once we reach that point, it seems that we turn around and degrade the next person, separating ourselves from him or her for the mere purpose of raising ourselves higher.
It all makes me SO angry, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how embarrassingly guilty I am of perpetuating this sickness.... God, have mercy!
I'm just fascinated that what I thought to be a "Christian sociological hypothesis" formulated by Don Miller actually has an existing parallel theory in secular sociology -- even non-Christians recognize this aspect of human brokenness!! They just don't know the whole picture...
I know that I've written about this before, but I just find this whole idea so compelling, because it truly is a sickness, not only of humanity as a whole, but especially in the Western world -- the same Western world that cries "Freedom! Progress! Education!" as the saving ideals for humanity -- the same Western (and might I add "Christianized"??) world that looks down on (again with the comparisons!) cultures with actual social hierarchies in place, like that of India, and see ourselves as culturally advanced and supreme as a result. But then I think of what Jesus said in the gospels -- "If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light within you is really darkness, how great is that darkness!" Because that is the thing about self-deception -- you don't know that you are being deceived...
Are we really any better off than the Indian culture, then, simply because we have not legitimized the invisible hierarchies we have already set in place in our culture? I realize that the hierarchical system in India is a HUGE evil and great tragedy, and I do not mean to trivialize it by comparing it to our invisible hierarchies in the Western world, but I simply mean to point out that we are no better off! We are just as lost, just as sick, and embarrassingly, twice as hypocritical, because I am afraid that our "light" is actually darkness in disguise...
God, have mercy on us... Root your children in your perfect love, so that we will be "complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." May your love overflow in us and through us into the broken lives of the people around us, so that you will be given glory in all things -- in our lives and in our world.
However, the author gave another example of a time when he went to a small town in rural New York to give a multicultural seminar to the student bodies of the two public high schools there. According to the author, the two schools were "virtually indistinguishable demographically, [but] the students from one seemed to invest a great deal of energy in perpetuating a stereotype of students from the other school as 'a bunch of hicks.'" The author decided to play on this during his seminar, and soon found the students in heated arguments concerning the "degrees of hickness" of each group. Here, minimal group paradigm holds true even without the help of skin color to distinguish between the groups -- we humans are "pre-disposed" to discriminate, and if there is no basis for racial discrimination (as in this example), we will find another way!
Why do we revert to this?
I honestly believe Don Miller was right when he proposed that this problem goes back to the Fall and something that happened to our "humanness" in the severing of our relationship from our Creator when Adam and Eve first disobeyed God. Don Miller believes that humans were originally created to receive their affirmation from God -- it was their Creator who named them and walked with them and confirmed their beauty and purpose, and they were originally so connected and so confident in their purpose that there was no such thing as "low self-esteem" (to the point that Adam and Eve walked around naked and knew no shame). Humans were not originally created to compare themselves to one another -- comparison has only come about as a result of the broken connection between us and God and people's need to find their worth in how they measure up to others. And it is this hole in each of us -- this need to be affirmed and valued and loved -- that we somehow twist, not to fill with God's love, but with finding our value by our ranking in our social ladder.
So we create these invisible social hierarchies to validate ourselves and fill our "God-shaped holes." We are drawn to "fashionable" clothes to fit in, we play sports to determine the "best" teams, we align ourselves with social stereotypes (nerds, athletes, drama people, etc) to find community, and we work literally around the clock to quench our insatiable greed and desire buy our way to fame and popularity. Everything we do stems from our deep-rooted desire to be loved and accepted, and yet once we reach that point, it seems that we turn around and degrade the next person, separating ourselves from him or her for the mere purpose of raising ourselves higher.
It all makes me SO angry, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how embarrassingly guilty I am of perpetuating this sickness.... God, have mercy!
I'm just fascinated that what I thought to be a "Christian sociological hypothesis" formulated by Don Miller actually has an existing parallel theory in secular sociology -- even non-Christians recognize this aspect of human brokenness!! They just don't know the whole picture...
I know that I've written about this before, but I just find this whole idea so compelling, because it truly is a sickness, not only of humanity as a whole, but especially in the Western world -- the same Western world that cries "Freedom! Progress! Education!" as the saving ideals for humanity -- the same Western (and might I add "Christianized"??) world that looks down on (again with the comparisons!) cultures with actual social hierarchies in place, like that of India, and see ourselves as culturally advanced and supreme as a result. But then I think of what Jesus said in the gospels -- "If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light within you is really darkness, how great is that darkness!" Because that is the thing about self-deception -- you don't know that you are being deceived...
Are we really any better off than the Indian culture, then, simply because we have not legitimized the invisible hierarchies we have already set in place in our culture? I realize that the hierarchical system in India is a HUGE evil and great tragedy, and I do not mean to trivialize it by comparing it to our invisible hierarchies in the Western world, but I simply mean to point out that we are no better off! We are just as lost, just as sick, and embarrassingly, twice as hypocritical, because I am afraid that our "light" is actually darkness in disguise...
God, have mercy on us... Root your children in your perfect love, so that we will be "complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." May your love overflow in us and through us into the broken lives of the people around us, so that you will be given glory in all things -- in our lives and in our world.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
global opportunities???
It's always so interesting to me how college life seems to come in spurts of "Fridays." It's not like the rest of the week isn't filled with excitement and work and life-giving experiences, but...there's just something about Fridays. Something about knowing that your work is done for a time and that you don't have to worry about what needs to be done or what you "should" be doing. There is time to read, time to chill in the Corum, time to observe, time to enjoy just for the sake of enjoying it. Time to journal..... ;-) Sometimes I can't wait until the day when we find ourselves back in Eden...living life in the fullness of our new bodies and in the overwhelming light of the Father's amazing love... One day we will see face to face... :-)
But all that to say that I'm loving life right now. It has its ups and downs (last night being one such "down" -- I worked on a paper all night until about 3am..blah) and I have my fits of mood swings and attitudes, but overall I really couldn't be more content or feel any more blessed. :-)
It was Global Opportunities Week here at Cornerstone this week, and that has really got me thinking about some things, particularly about my future and the call that I have felt on my life since my senior year of high school to serve Christ overseas. I've had a wide mix of feelings and thoughts on that subject throughout the week, but most of them have centered around my anxiousness about the whole thing. It's not that I've started doubting my passion for serving overseas or knowing God's calling to this area, but it's just been a general vague feeling of being overwhelmed...of not knowing where to start...when to start....what I should be doing to prepare to start... And I guess just a general fear that this will all turn out to be another dream (if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that's I am a dreamer, an idealist, and a romantic; I'm one of the best "brainstormers" you'll ever meet, but I struggle on the practical end of things many times...) and never something I will actually take hold of and take initiative in to actually make happen. And I don't want that. I don't want my dream to serve to end up being an empty wish. I struggle believing whether I trust myself to follow through; maybe that's what it boils down to. I never want to become "comfortable" with being "comfortable;" that is one of my greatest fears.
So for now I'm praying, I'm examining myself, and I'm trusting Him to complete His work in me until it is accomplished. I know that as long as my desire is to please and glorify my Father, He will do in me and use me the way He intends. It hasn't been a week of worry or stress in this sense, it's just been in the back of my mind... and it's been good. It's been a good week. :-)
But all that to say that I'm loving life right now. It has its ups and downs (last night being one such "down" -- I worked on a paper all night until about 3am..blah) and I have my fits of mood swings and attitudes, but overall I really couldn't be more content or feel any more blessed. :-)
It was Global Opportunities Week here at Cornerstone this week, and that has really got me thinking about some things, particularly about my future and the call that I have felt on my life since my senior year of high school to serve Christ overseas. I've had a wide mix of feelings and thoughts on that subject throughout the week, but most of them have centered around my anxiousness about the whole thing. It's not that I've started doubting my passion for serving overseas or knowing God's calling to this area, but it's just been a general vague feeling of being overwhelmed...of not knowing where to start...when to start....what I should be doing to prepare to start... And I guess just a general fear that this will all turn out to be another dream (if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that's I am a dreamer, an idealist, and a romantic; I'm one of the best "brainstormers" you'll ever meet, but I struggle on the practical end of things many times...) and never something I will actually take hold of and take initiative in to actually make happen. And I don't want that. I don't want my dream to serve to end up being an empty wish. I struggle believing whether I trust myself to follow through; maybe that's what it boils down to. I never want to become "comfortable" with being "comfortable;" that is one of my greatest fears.
So for now I'm praying, I'm examining myself, and I'm trusting Him to complete His work in me until it is accomplished. I know that as long as my desire is to please and glorify my Father, He will do in me and use me the way He intends. It hasn't been a week of worry or stress in this sense, it's just been in the back of my mind... and it's been good. It's been a good week. :-)
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