the glory and the horror

I’m so tired of studying. I’m not all that tired, physically, but my brain is almost gone

My parents come in tomorrow yay!

Just thoughts.

It’s been a while, and I’ll have to use the excuse of studying. In fact, I should be doing that very thing right now. I’m at school, with flashcards and notes in front of me, but I’m not being particularly good at this studying business. I’ve got a test tomorrow at 3, and another on Friday at 1. Not so much fun.

What IS fun, though, is that this friday, my parents are coming in to visit me, and attend the White Coat Ceremony here at school, and we’ll also probably get to hang out with some other family friends from Tyler, Texas. Old family friends, from before I could walk.

Lots of other things have been happening on the home front to complicate life a little as well. Actually, not so much complicate, as life continuing, and things happening that happen as life goes on. Anyway, I’ve been pretty busy. I’m not sure if this is a good busy-ness or not, though. I’m still working on reading the same books that I’ve been reading since I got here to Dallas.

I watched half of an episode of Smallville just after dinner tonight, and I think I really like the show. They deal with very interesting situations, especially since this is Clark Kent before he’s Superman, growing up in Smallville. Definitely something I’ll try to keep up with from time to time.

Just thoughts.

Today was my first fill-up in 3 weeks. Not bad. I’m pretty proud of that actually, although my gas mileage isn’t so great. It’s mostly been city driving, though, so I can’t expect too much.

I took a practice anatomy exam this morning, and I did alright. The real thing is 10 days away, so I’ve got some time, but I think I’m in good shape. I sure didn’t ace it, but I felt comfortable enough in the stuff. I just need to spend some more good time with the material, and I think I’ll do ok. I feel better about the class now than I did 24 hours ago.

So I was reading I Kings 13:11-32, and I was thinking that this is definitely one of the stranger stories in the Bible. This and the lady who was chopped into 12 pieces and sent to the tribes of Israel. And some of David’s spousal issues. Anyway, this story is about a man of God who gets lied to by another supposed “prophet.” The “prophet” outright lies (in the name of God, even), gets the man of God in trouble, the man of God dies for it, but the prophet doesn’t get busted for anything that we can see in the text. In the story, it looks like man of God did most things right, and the biggest mistake he made was trusting that that the prophet had actually said something from the mouth of God, which in fact, he did not. But back in that time, God often spoke through various people, and so I’m wondering how the man of God was supposed to know for sure that the prophet’s words WEREN’T really from God. Yeah, it contradicted God’s previous instructions to him, but the prophet had claimed to be speaking the words of God. I dunno. I guess it’s much like many other false prophets in the Old Testament, especially later on as they try to tell kings that the kingdom is ok, and that God is happy with them, even with all their idolatry and injustice.

Just thoughts.

I’ve been looking at my budget, and it’s kinda interesting. I don’t think I’ve been particularly extravagant, but it looks like I’m already past $800/month. Of course, $510 is rent, but even so, I’m surprised. I suppose living on just over $300/month for other stuff isn’t bad, but that’s more than I want to spend. at the same time, we’ve only been in our apartment 2 months, and only one full month to see how our electricity/water bills and stuff go. And I’m overestimating a little, just to give myself some cushion…. living simply is a little harder than I thought. Or maybe it’s just more expensive than I thought it’d be. Either way, I’m looking at how to continue to live skillfully. A lot of initial sunk costs for the start of school and stuff are out of the way, so that’s nice.

A neighbor and friend, Joel, got an N64 for a wedding present (no, I’m not kidding), along with Mario Kart 64. However, he only has 2 controllers. Ebay to the rescue. I just bought 2 controllers off Ebay for $13.50 plus 6.50 for S&H. Now we can play for real. His wife plays, too.

I got to share in Sunday School at church today about my year. I really enjoyed sharing I think I always like talking about my year. And I love encouraging people to pray for the people there, my team, and just for the hearts of all the Christians there to grow closer to God, and for God to show them His heart for their community, and the world.

Just thoughts.

Just so everyone understands, no, I do not think birth control is a sin. At least right now. I may change my mind later. And then maybe again after that. But that’s not important, since it’s not an essential of the faith or anything like that. It is a nice thing to think about, in terms of how God sees children and families, and how that applies to how I should see them.

Anyway, here’s something fun for everyone. Yahoo News has an article for the world’s funniest joke. However, don’t click on the link at the bottom of the article. It’s a dead one.

I went to the Dallas Life Foundation clinic tonight with John Y., and had a GREAT time down there. I even learned to take blood pressure. My first attempt at playing doctor! A Lot of the folks there for treatment actually knew more about drugs and stuff than I did. And Reese was right. He had said I might be surprised by the people there, and I was, a little. There were nurses and pharm techs, people I would not have expected to be homeless. But then again, it’s also such a small group of people. My experience with homeless people in the SF Bay Area was with a different bunch of homeless, as these were folks in a shelter, and the folks in CA were just the random folks on the street. I’m sure that there are people at Dallas Life that are also just folks that were down on their luck. And there was one person there tonight who freely admitted being a former prostitute and drug user. So there are all sorts. I don’t know much about Dallas Life, but they require the folks to take part in certain programs while staying there, so even that selects for a certain segment of the homeless population. Many who came in talked about their jobs (or former jobs). In terms of the medical aspect of things, it was pretty mundane – lots of upper respiratory infections, allergies, various pain complaints. Nothing particularly unusual. There was one person who did have a couple infected wounds that didn’t look good at all, and he just got antibiotics. But that was probably the most unusual thing. I really enjoyed it, though. The nurses and doctors there are spectacular. They’re very kind, caring, patient, and I think I could learn a lot from them there, just about being a caring person.

Just thoughts.

This is a great little link on the theology and practicality of understanding children as a blessing, as per Psalms 127. Anyway, here are the Articles and Links For Quiverfull Families from a grad student at Cornell. It’s been on my mind somewhat since the idea was first put forth by the one and only Richard Okimoto, whom I have not talked to in AGES. I hope he’s doing well. I know he subscribes to the same theology, and after I’ve studied a little bit of the theology behind the position against birth control, it seems to be a fairly well-balanced understanding of God’s view of children. As the link above notes, it’s not about condemning birth control, so much as it is coming to terms with God’s view of children. Only when one understand that aspect of the idea, can one, with a pure and true heart, go on to the next step.

Just thoughts.

For a man after God’s own heart, David sure had an interesting family life.

Just thoughts.