From: eric
Date: Fri Sep  1 09:03:04 MST 2006
Subject: tim keller

Hey Blanca, Joel said you were listening to a lot of Tim Keller sermons. He talks about this question in almost all of his messages, so I was just wondering what you had learned. Eric

Edit this response
Write a response Email the author

From: Karen
Date: Fri Sep  1 11:13:17 MST 2006
Subject: Choice vs. feeling

Emily, I totally relate to the "whoop de doo" comment. On the hard days, although I know I'm committed and am not going to change my mind about that, it still feels like a "marriage of convenience," if you know what I'm saying. If I'm the bride, I think of the Streisand/Neil Diamond song: "You don't bring me flowers anymore." The honeymoon is over... (or maybe we never really had one?) If I know what the point of being alive is, how come I can't make myself feel it all the time? I guess all you really can control in yourself is not bowing to the other gods. All those gods itemized in Ecclesiastes, for example. The feelings do come and go (as the moon goes through its phases, as the barometer rises and falls...) and what you're saying makes me think, we're not responsible for ridding ourselves, or generating in ourselves, the woo-hoo feeling. We're just responsible for obedience to God. "Just" for that! Ha-ha. "It's by grace you've been saved."

Edit this response
Write a response Email the author

From: Karen
Date: Fri Sep  1 15:56:18 MST 2006
Subject: More thoughts...

I can't help but seek the underlying meaning, the reason for x, y, z. Why was my teacher, Audrene, allowed to die suddenly of heart failure before her son was even weaned? Why was my friend Larry allowed to die at 16: half-awake, he got caught in his blankets and hit the back of his head on the bunkbed ladder, smacking his brainstem, stopping breathing, instantly. What is the point of investing deeply in other people's lives, when it's all so fragile? What's the point of investing in anything, anything that could be lost, stolen or taken at any moment? What's the point of getting my students to engage with a poem when so much in our culture implies that art (because it's not practical, it's not wealth-producing) is not worth the effort or time? What's the point of anything, anything at all? I guess "there is no point," in a way. But I must do it anyway. Because that's how God will "get" to me, through the engagement with the "stuff" of life. No dropping out allowed. I can take naps when needed, but I can't pull the covers over my head forever. I guess there's really no halfway participation. The school administration brought in a special multimedia presentation this week. There were true stories interlaced with rock music and film clips. There was an indirect, but clear reference to God, early on: our world tells you x, y, and z, all these messages that aren't true, but you have to listen to a higher authority. The underlying message was clear to me. It made me think of the scripture that we sing at Vespers: "Consider it pure joy...whenever you face trials of many kinds, for the testing of your faith leads to perserverance." The filmmakers gave a couple of examples of what NOT to do when your feeling of pointlessness strikes. There was one satirical video clip..."I'm from the United States of Whatever." (OK place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there??) I think offering a blank in response to anything, not having an answer at all, is much better than "whatever." Still fighting the pull to say, "Whatever." And speaking of pull... yeah, I think Julie's right about the weeds. Have you seen Dr. P yet, Blanca??

Edit this response
Write a response Email the author