N.T. Wright is the man! (or an impartial evaluation)

I just saw this interview with the Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright, published in Newsweek. For those that do not know who N.T. Wright is, he is a leading scholar in New Testament studies, a defender of the Christian faith (he has done a lot of work on the origins of Christianity and defending the resurrection of Jesus), and a profound pastor with a lot of depth. Here is the link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/134306
He seems to be taking on the role of the C.S. Lewis of the 21st century (in my humble opinion).

Sam

HA! I post this because I find it funny.

I got this list from another blog. I am not serious about any of these things on the list, but it just goes to show the logic behind some people when you look at the flip side of this list.

Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should NOT be Ordained:

--A man’s place is in the army.
--The pastoral duties of men who have children might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent.

--The physique of men indicates that they are more suited to such tasks as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do ministerial tasks.

--Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

--Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. Their conduct at football and basketball games demonstrates this.

--Some men are handsome, and this will distract women worshipers.

--Pastors need to nurture their congregations. But this is not a traditional male role. Throughout history, women have been recognized as not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more fervently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

--Men are prone to violence. No really masculine man wants to settle disputes except by fighting about them. Thus they would be poor role models as well as dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

--The New Testament tells us that Jesus was betrayed by a man. His lack of faith and ensuing punishment remind us of the subordinated position that all men should take.

--Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep sidewalks, repair the church roof, and perhaps even lead the song service on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the church.

I post this both because it's funny, but also because it shows how illogical this thinking is. Yet, I hear some of the exact same things from some people as to why women shouldn't be allowed to teach in the church (or at least, from the pulpit). Just something to keep in mind...

I didn't lose it (I think...)

Yes, I too am sad about the loss of 'bee-bee.' However, the simple fact that it was lost does not entail that I lost it. I see this inference made far too often, as if the question "where is x?" is equivalent to the question "what did you, Sam, do with x?" The questions are not equivalent (nor are the implied answers to the questions equivalent), for there is a possible world in which something is lost and it was not I who lost it.
Carrie, as she has asserted in print, seems to think that possible worlds of those types, even if they do exist (she does seem to drift between saying that "Sam tends to lose stuff" and "Sam necessarily loses stuff") are quite far removed from the actual world. I would have to disagree based on a Lewis-Stalnaker semantics, for the counterfactual "If something were to be lost, then it would not have been lost by Sam" seems intuitively true. The semantics for that statement are that in the closest possible worlds where something is lost, that something was not lost by Sam.
That implies we should not just blame me! Q.E.D.

We are in mourning...

Nathaniel ready for bed with a book, his water, Tigger and his blankie.

We will miss you blankie!

As I started to write this blog, I realized how ridiculous I'm reacting to the loss we have experienced today. I had to delete what I first started typing because I was afraid that someone would think that someone died. No one has died. But we did lose a close member of our little family.

Today Nathaniel lost his blankie. Strike that, one of his parents lost his blankie.

I'm heart sick. My poor child cried for 45 minutes tonight before he went to bed, as he kept looking in his covers for his 'bee-bee'. I think he was trying to convince himself that if he looked hard enough it would reappear.

We don't know where we lost it (although, I have a sneaking suspicion that it was Sam...), but I have checked church, the library, the restaurant where we ate lunch, the park, the car, the diaper bag...everywhere. Currently Sam is heading back over to the park to retrace his steps in hopes that we can find it. He thinks that Nathaniel tossed it overboard on their way back from the park this morning and he didn't notice.

Ugh. It's ridiculous how emotional I am over this. It was a great blanket too, it came from a friend of Sam's mom and I looked at the website (http://www.kidkouture.com/) and saw that I could not replace it because they don't have his style anymore (and it's 36.00!). I think I'm just not looking forward to the next few nights of crying (Nathaniel, not me). Also, whenever he gets grumpy when we're out, it's an instant pacifier. I just hand him "bee-bee" and he calms down instantly (or throw it on the floor).

Am I crazy, or have other mom's mourned the loss of their child's lovey? Please tell me I'm not alone...I honestly feel like I'm grieving. I'm still in the state of denial (hence the hubby making a midnight trek by the park...eesh).

I need sleep...I think I'm honestly starting to lose it!

Conference Weekend

Hello, everyone. This is officially my first post on ‘our’ blog (by process of elimination, I hope everyone has deduced that this is Sam).
This past weekend I had to give two papers at two different conferences. The first was on Friday; it was a regional Evangelical Theological Society/Evangelical Philosophical Society conference. I read a paper critiquing a naturalist theory of intentional states (in English, I said that a certain way to explain things like beliefs, desires, thoughts, etc… in terms of ‘natural phenomenon’ had serious problems). The conference was very small, and they almost had more papers than participants. That is a hyperbole, but most every session had only four people attending on average. On Saturday was our Talbot conference, and since there were only four papers given, we had a good audience for all the papers. I had to follow the keynote address, which was given by Prof. Tom Crisp. It was brilliant and technical, and the way I was scheduled it was as if my function was to make the paper after me look good! In my paper, I argued against a certain modal axiom (that whatever is the case is necessarily possibly the case) and took heavy fire. I got some good feedback and definitely some points to think about. It was a good weekend (although work that night ruined it!).
Both Carrie and I are swamped and exhausted (I really should be reading right now!). I had half a pot of coffee yesterday and four shots of espresso and I was still nodding off. That isn’t healthy! But the Lord is blessing me; he let me read two papers this weekend, has allowed me to do what I do best to serve the church, I have a great family, and is giving us a break Friday and Saturday from parenting (THANK YOU SO MUCH, JEN!). We initially had big plans to get up early, go hiking overnight to a natural hot-spring. Now, we are just going to go to Disneyland and chillax and sleep in.
Well, I have a paper to write and reading to finish.

Idiots make me angry: or "the many tired ramblings of Carrie"

I know, I know, two blog postings in one day. This can only mean one thing. Major project time. Yes, I acknowledge that I have a 14 page exegetical paper due in Hebrew in one week and that I currently have zero pages written (all of my research is done, I'm just trying to format the paper and figure out what I'm going to focus on, it's actually all really fascinating...). I just have a lot on my mind and have to blog it.

My Hebrew professor said something awhile back that made me think. He usually has these great nuggets of wisdom that he throws out there that I jot down in the margins of my notebook to use later when I'm teaching my students. But this one, I didn't have to wait to use. "Idiots make me angry." Well said, Dr. Curtis, well said.

Let's just say, as of late I've interacted (well, not exactly interacted as have been in very close proximity of) with some idiots and have had to literally bite my tongue to keep from saying something that would damage my reputation and the ministry. I can't even go into much more detail than that because I don't want to gossip or portray anyone in a bad light...*sigh*.

On a completely different topic (kind of)...I hope no one thought that I was seriously angry or sad about Nathaniel learning how to eat an oreo without me! I just find it interesting when Nathaniel has learned something new and I wasn't around to witness the 'learning' part of it. Like the other day when I was trying to get him to pick up his crayone (a very long battle...ugh!) and I was slowly saying, "You...need...to...pick...up...your...crayons!" and he was signing (or at least making up signs) to every word, and completely not listening to what I was actually saying. I guess teaching him sign has been working.

I realized just now that this might just be rambling, sorry. Bear with me and feel free to stop reading this at any time. This is just exhausted Carrie blabbing. I guess borderline exhaustion is like alcohol...it just makes you ramble on and on...

Someone said something to me the other day that made me wonder if some people don't think I consider being a mom a priority. I won't say the exact quote that was said to me, but it made me think. I wonder if people who see me regularly, but don't really know our family situation understand how things work for us. Sam and I don't put Nathaniel in daycare. Not only can we not afford it, but we felt when we had kids that it was our responsibility to care for them and help them grow. Of course, we use sitters when we have to (probably a few times a month, depending on the month and our schedules) but we're home with Nathaniel all of the time (at least, one of us is). It frustrates me when people (especially those who are blessed enough to be called to be stay at home moms, my hats go off to these amazing women) think that I consider work or school to be more of a priority than my family.

Again, I quote my professor..."Idiots make me angry!"

One more thing, if anyone is even still reading this random rambling blog post...I love being a mom. Even when Nathaniel is in the midst of a stage where all he does for 2/3 of the day is cry and throw a fit (because I won't let him watch t.v. all day long), I love being a mom. I love watching my kid discover things. I love watching him play pretend and care for people around him (the other night he kept trying to feed our friends' dog plastic food from the toy kitchen). I love that my kid thinks I'm the neatest thing and begs me to sing him a song at night. I love watching my kid "pray" to a God he has yet to fully discover, and I love that Sam and I get to teach him about that God. I love that when I sing him "Jesus Loves Me" he immediately says "More!" when I'm done, and in anticipation of certain words acts it out (shouting "Strong!"). And I love the fact that Nathaniel no longer refers to himself as "you!" (since we always point to him in the mirror and say, "That's you!") but actually put his hands on his own chest today and said, "Me!" when I was singing. I love it all. It reminds me of what is most important and so, I don't feel bad when my homework sits untouched because I'm cuddling with my son or building with blocks or reading stories to him.

Overall, I love where I am and what I'm doing. I love being a mom, a wife, a student (okay, not so much student...) and a youth pastor in training. Even though I'm exhausted and don't sleep and haven't ran in over a week...I wouldn't trade my life for anything in the world and I wouldn't change a thing...

Except for the idiots.

Crack me up!

I rarely find videos that make me laugh super hard that are appropriate to share (what does that say about me...?).
But this one made Sam and I both laugh out loud. After the week we've had...it's kind of nice to just laugh at something.

Someone beat me to the punch line...

Either my kid is really quick or someone was one step ahead of me in the whole "train up your child" thing. Today, after a wonderful morning at the park Nathaniel and I ran to the bank quick to get quarters for laundry. When we were in line I noticed a plate of generic oreos sitting on the counter, set out for customers. Unfortunately...Nathaniel noticed them too. So...rather than listen to "uhh...uhhh...cookie...please!!! Cookie, please!" I handed Nathaniel a cookie (yes, I know, I'm not aiming for the 'mom of the year' award) and immediately he separated the two halves and licked the creme out of the middle (and set the other half on the floor...gross).

Although I think he's pretty bright, it can't be some sort of new inbred, "knowledge" that kids of this century are born with. Someone taught my kid how to eat an oreo... :( What's the world coming to when a parent can't teach her child the important things of life? What's next, the alphabet?

Monkey see...monkey do. Yikes!

I've been doing homework all afternoon while Nathaniel has been playing around. It's sort of a necessary evil of being in the throes of school...but he hasn't seemed any worse for the wear (today anyways...). As I sat here checking my email I heard Nathaniel "reading" and glanced over to see what book he was looking at. Imagine my amusement when I saw that he had my Intro to World Missions book. I was amused and went to blog about how I see my kid's future as a missionary or a student or something (all tongue-in-cheek of course). As I started to sign in Nathaniel put down the book, grabbed my old cell phone and began to "talk".

Oops...I guess I'm not a good model of a student.

You've got a friend in me...

We got Toy Story 2 in the mail yesterday (strike that, our neighbors got our dvd in their mail. Our mail carrier still can't get the mail in the right boxes...we've lived here over a year). Nathaniel is enthralled. I have to say though, I still like the first one better. It's a little shorter and seems a bit more kid friendly (meaning my kid will actually watch that one all the way through).

We're at the point in our semester/lives where Sam and I are two ships passing in the night. I have so many major projects due in the next few weeks that I am constantly chipping away at (along with the regular homework/church prep stuff) and Sam is working on papers for two conferences this weekend (yes, two) along with school stuff and working a bunch. Poor Nathaniel. It's been a lot of "entertain yourself" stuff this week. It doesn't help when he gets up at 6am either...ugh.

So, today, even though I have a paper, a project, and a lesson to work on (in the exact opposite order...) we're going to the park and then we are going to meet Sam at school for lunch. I want to have some family time together. Yesterday's family day was canceled due to calendar printing for youth group and Nathaniel's melt down over having to eat peas. Sigh...8 more months and I'm finished with all of this (well, except for church stuff and parenting. Just finished with school). I met with my grad advisor and I have 15 units left to finish up. That's five units this summer and 10 in the fall. I can do it!!

Super Why!

Nathaniel isn't normally allowed to watch a lot of t.v. There's quite a few reasons behind this (one being that on a tight budget we don't have cable nor do we have the extra cash to drop 15$ per kids movie, so there just aren't a lot of opportunities for him to watch t.v.). The major reason though is because I like having a kid who is able to entertain himself by looking at books, playing with his little people and just rummaging around our cabinets "cooking".

With that said...there are a few shows that Nathaniel gets to watch regularly. One of those is Sesame Street, because he's a bear in the morning if he doesn't get his milk and t.v. time. The other one is a fairly new show on PBS called 'Super Why'. It's a great show that is geared for preschoolers but still manages to mesmorize my kid. It introduces the alphabet and works on reading skills, all while telling a story. Nathaniel loves standing in front of the t.v. calling out random letters while the show is on (similar to the way he was when Wheel of Fortune happened to be on one day...). I really enjoy shows that are entertaining and educational, so I'm happy my kid likes this one.

However, he also discovered Toy Story and often stands in front of the t.v. saying "Woo-wee!" because he wants to watch it...I'm trying to figure out how we can return the movie to our friends without scarring the poor boy. I'm sure he'll be fine.

That's our regular update for Nathaniel. He threw up yesterday which made me wonder if he was getting the flu that's been floating around. But he only threw up once (poor Sam, I was at work when it all went down--or came up!) and didn't run a fever at all so...maybe it was just something he ate. We made it to Disneyland as a family on Monday evening. That was nice. The hours are later during the week now due to spring and there are flowers all over the park. The area by the Haunted Mansion wasn't too crowded so we just had a nice little evening as a family.

So, even in the midst of the stresses of school (7 weeks left, then 6 weeks of summer school) and work and scheduling we are managing to have family time. It's nice.

Gossip...

Proverbs 11:13 A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.

Proverbs 16:28 A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.

Proverbs 26:20 Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.

Lately I've been wishing that gossip wasn't so prevalant in society. And although I'm wishing that I could get on my own high horse and say I never gossip, or that I'm simply talking about my non-church friends, I'm not. I am the first one to readily admit that at times there is nothing I would rather do than share my frustrations concerning individuals with the world. But, luckily common sense has stopped me quite a bit (recently) and I have learned to shut my trap.

However, there are times where I wonder about others...let's just say that as of late certain things that I thought were private issues between two people have been mentioned to me in passing by a third party (or many third parties...). It's even worse when it's mentioned in a rude, snide manner that just shows how skewed a person becomes when only hearing one side of a story. So, I encourage all of us (myself first and foremost) to remind ourselves of the Proverbs. And, if you just can't bring yourself to believe something written in the Bible, perhaps remind yourself of something your mother might have told you when you were younger. "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I'm sure it will help a lot of people in the long run (and save yourself from being dragged in the middle of something that just might not be your business).

I can't believe I can get excited about this, but I about peed my pants!

Yup, that's right. Good old NKOTB are reuniting! I was just thinking this morning about how some of my jr. high girls like some really awful "musicians" and then I realized that I too liked my fair share of terrible groups when I was younger. My mind immediately jumped to New Kids On The Block, and now they are reuniting...
Anyone game to see if we can get to a concert?!