An Anomalous Belfry: October 2005

10.31.2005

Heads Down, Palms Up

OK, first things first.

Before I get into the main body of my post, I would like to welcome a new member of the blogging community and a new like to my "Other Friendly Blogs" list. He is "Man on Fire". Take a look at his blog...it is a lot different than the others ones that I have linked to and I like what he's done with the place. He makes comments on different things in the news and in sports (he's a rabid Pittsburgh Penguins and wicked ball fan) and runs the blog like a personal newspaper/magazine. Good reading...check it out, make comments, encourage the guy to write more; he's a new guy (I still consider myself new) and we all need our encouragement.

OK, enough of the free advertising.

In recent days (all three weeks of them), I've been introduced to the concept of "Palms Down, Palms Up" prayer. My mentor introduced me to it and it has really helped me organize my thoughts and emotions before God. This idea is rather simple and I encourage people to try it at least once; you never know...it might work for you too!

You start with the "Palms Down" phase. During this phase, you pray with your palms down; whether it be on the table in front of you, at your sides, whatever. The key thing is that your palms be physically face down so that it is a physical reminder of your prayer. As you pray at this time, talk to God about all of your problems, negative emotions and any other cares that you need to cast before the Lord. That's why your palms are face down; indicative of casting your cares before Jesus because he cares for you.

In the "Palms Up" phase, you praise God and give thanks to him for everything that he has done for you and for all the blessings that you have recieved from him. Know that you can thank him for everything and anything.

The challenge with this method of prayer is to try to get the two phases balanced in how long they take. Essentially, it helps you build trust in God and to learn how to be thankful.

Give it a shot.

10.26.2005

Marriage is What Brings Us Together Today...

No!!

I am not getting married! Put it out of your mind right now...out! Out, I say! I would have posted things on here to that affect long before I sprang it upon you, my faithful readers.

Instead, I am today reflecting on the 15-minute teaching session that I just finished (actually, I just finished lunch, to be technical). It was on the subject of Levirate Marriage; so that I don't have to have this degnerate into an online teaching session...read the book of Ruth. What happens with Ruth and Boaz is called Levirate marriage. It's that simple. I merely was in charge of reiterating the culture surrounding the practice.

I enjoyed teaching, as I always do and I was nervous, as I always am. Interestingly enough, my nervousness came not from my lack of intimate knowledge on the subject (I had gone as far as trying to figure out questions that I could be asked in class as I prepared for this), nor did it come from nervousness about being in the class. No, my nervousness came from the method that I was using - a combination of overheads and writing, which worked out fine (as most of my worries do).

So, not much happened this time around. I apologize if you were looking to read another one of my misadventures...life just moved on this time. Sorry.

I will be thankful for that though, it's a little thing that has kept me sane today.

10.21.2005

An Inedible Crescendo

Ok, I know, I have a weird habit of coupling the indefinite articles of our English language with unusual nouns and adjectives which really don't seem to fit together, but hey, it gets the point across...and it makes you think.

So, no apology!

(sorry to get your hopes up...)

The reason why I called this one an "inedible" crescendo is because lately the only type of crescendo that I've been able to think of is the Mcain's rising crust pizza variety (that's what happens when you're baching it and looking for convienient food that's cheap); which is not what I want to talk about today.

Instead, I want to reflect on a musical crescendo. Now, those of you who've read my blog recently are familiar with my muscial misadventures in the classroom and weirdly enough, today's sense of awe was birthed there once again. Fortunately, this time, I didn't have to sing.

Intro to Christian Life class once again looked at Psalm 103 and being that this is about the fourth time in the last two weeks that I have either read it in part or whole, I figure that God wants me to listen up! So, if you'll turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 103...

PSALM 103

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children-
with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.
Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.
Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.
Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, O my soul.

Taken from the NIV @ Biblegateway.com

Can you feel the crescendo? A rising sense of awe and wonder! To think that he forgives all our sins, heals our diseases and redeems us! This same God who warrants such amazing praise and rules over all...wants a relationship with me! It's just amazing and it takes my breath away every time I read it.

Wow...

We have an amazing God.

10.20.2005

Epiphanies and Other Problems

Epiphanies can be funny things...those sudden reailzations of truth (bad truth, bad!).
Sometimes epiphanies can be really uplifting moments when you come to grips with your creator and realize "Hey, this is how God loves me!" or "Hey, forgiveness looks like this!" (Which are both epiphanies that I have had in the last week and a half.)
Sometimes epiphanies are more irritating, like the time when, during the Philco Wars of last year (which Philco Frat House got hugely beaten in), we said, "Hey our toilet seats are missing!"
Why is it that truth can be so varied and still be true? Or, should I just be taking a more optimistic view on life?

Maybe, I should just follow my own advice sometimes...

Live life,
Love God,
Let everything else fall into place.

10.19.2005

Why Not Us?

This is the post where I was going to put in detail just what happened during our illustrious FGBC Stubble Bowl in the Storm's quest to answer in the positive the questions "Why not us?" "Why can't we win?"

Unfortunately, we did not win the tournament. Things were close, but Saskatoon beat us on an interception that was run back for a touchdown where no one could seem to get to the guy with the ball, much less grab his flag. There wasn't even really good blocking on the play. People just slipped and caused a disastrous chain reactions of tripping and such. We tried to come back from a 14-0 deficit, which we did once already in the tournament, but we only managed to close it to 14-8 before the final whistle blew.

*sigh* I guess life just happens...

Which leads to the battle cry indicative to Rider fans everywhere (which is marginally suitable considering the college is in Saskatchewan)..."Why not next year?"

10.12.2005

Taking Things for Granted

I think I'm being taught a lesson today from the "man on high".

Never, ever take things for granted.

Cases in point:
1. When setting an alarm clock for 7:30 in the morning, one should really make sure that it is set for the morning...not the evening. Yeah, my alarm clock was unceremoniously set for 7:30 all right, 7:30 PM. This means that I missed community group.

2. Speaking of community group, that is why I woke up at 9:30. You see, one of the cooks phoned to see if someone from my community group was there. Thankfully, I co-lead a community group and it was assumed that we met at my house. Never taking that one for granted again...probably coulda slept until noon at the rate I was going.

3. Before class, I was shown a song and asked if I knew it. I said yes. At the end of said class, I was asked to lead it. I knew the tune, but they asked me to lead...oh, boy. After the first verse, I was asked to lower the key that I was signing in because it was too high. "Key?" What is this key you speak of? I sing in two keys; loud and not so loud - that's it! After finding someone that could sing in said mysterious muscial reference - they didn't know the tune of the song. So I led again...

4. Never assume that the keyboard is plugged into the computer! Coming to write this blog entry, I found that the keyboard was malfunctioning. I had just seen it used, though. I was about to reboot the computer (that usually kills a lot of malfunctions...) but I thought of checking the wires first. Thankfully, that was the problem.

I wonder what's coming up...

10.10.2005

Thanks-giving

I have been back here in Eston for all of about 10 minutes and I have a need to just sit down and type out my thoughts and reactions to what the weekend transpired for me. I don't think that it will be awfully profound (but who knows...), but this is a place where I, theDING, have chosen to hang my hat online.

But first, a public service announcement...

theDING wishes for all those that make religious rounds of the FGBC "blog circuit" to know that as the name of the blog suggests, that this blog will be updated anomalously (in short, when I feel like it...). I don't want to scare y'all away, I'm just warning you straight up so that you all know this ahead of time. Continue to make yer rounds and stop by, because you never know when an update will hit.

Kapesh?

All right, back to reality...

Life has been kind of crazy over the last couple of weeks and I have been looking forward to this weekend, possibly leaving and never coming back to the craziness that the town of Eston has turned into for me. (Ok, so I'm not too serious about that, but things have been rather draining as of late)

However, I spent the entire weekend encapsulated with a family that loves me, spending some time with some friends that I have not seen for a very long time and realizing that life isn't nearly as bad as I have made it out to be. For that, I am extremely grateful. I now have peace in my soul about the situation at home, more peace about how things stand between my family and I (they love me!) and a sense of determination that, even though I did no homework all weekend, that with discipline and God's help, I will pull through.

I think that this thanksgiving was a time where I could truly give thanks for all that God has done for me. I see this weekend as a carefully engineered time where I could just rest on him and rediscover his love for me.

It was a rest that was definitely needed...

(Told you it wasn't going to be that profound...)

10.02.2005

Rationale

You're probably wondering where I came up with the title for my blog...so we'll start with some basic definitions and then I'll put them together to give you an idea of what I was thinking.

Belfry: A belfry is the portion of older churches where the church bell(s) were hung. People known as ringers would go up there to call people to worship or to signal to the town in a time of emergency.

Anomalous: Deviating from the norm; out of the ordinary.

The reason that I picked the term belfry to appear in the title was based on my name, theDING, because it has to do with a location where bells were kept. I added "anomalous" to put a spin on the normal appearance of a belfry.

When I envisioned the title, I saw an old church tower appearing through the thick morning mists among the green, rolling hills of Ireland. It had been built simply, yet in the sturdy fashon of the old style that has allowed the structure to stand for centuries. The sudden appearance of the belfry would give a weary traveller a small glimmer of hope that he would soon reach a place where rest, rejuvination and fellowship might be found.

It is the same thing that I hope to do with this blog. Over the course of time, I hope to be able to post things that are inspiring and others that will allow my friends to keep in touch with the goings on in my life.

10.01.2005

Signing On...

Well, this is it!

I have finally decided, after making large amounts of comments on other people's blogs, to finally take the plunge and start my own blog. There is a bunch of people around the college that blog and I figured that it might be a rather constructive way to get out some rants, experiences and to give a general shout out to people.

So watch this space for developments...

An Anomalous Belfry