DISQUS

Happy New Year Marcus!

I'm thinking the nose of a dog to sniff out truth (from poop).

I want to believe that it all matters - that it all is a high calling, but I find myself feeling very weighted down by that. If it all matters, then we need to have the mind of God on all of it - right - else we're going to get our decisions and actions wrong. Since I'm having trouble seeing the higher calling in day to day life- my own life - I think it intrinsically gives me problems with seeing a higher calling in anthing else - if it's not personal first - how I work, how I clean my house, how I file my taxes, how I do dishes - then it doesn't really matter anyway.

Susan's last blog post..Once Upon A Time

It's so funny - I read through the titles of the poems, chose the one I wanted to read this morning and happily read it - thinking, "what a wonderful poem. I wonder why it sounds so familiar and true?" Then I looked at the original comments and figured out pretty quickly why - funny that it remains one of my all time favorites of yours - maybe I need to play the piano this morning!

Susan's last blog post..CONGRATULATIONS!!!

arghh - for some reason I have no sound on the utube video

I loved the list - thanks. It is always useful to remember that truth is a moving mark, quite different than that of Truth, the same today, yesterday and tomorrow!

Susan's last blog post..CONGRATULATIONS!!!

we figured you were quite busy with the kids!

1) I just read your comment - you are so bad baiting Ted like that (giggle)

2) I never, ever, thought of practice as the same as performance - they are so very different for me. Practice was, at some times, just a pain and something I didn't want to do. But there were times when I would just sit down and play when I had no clue what else to do with my life - oh wait, I still do that, just not as well these days. It soothed my soul and helped me sort things out without me ever knowing how. There were, and are, also times when practice - repetition to get something just right, is very satisfying. It's like a small problem I actually have some control over and can master - how sick is that?

Now performance - that made my knees shake - no joke - so badly that even as an adult I could push the pedal down and it would come up again because, as my mother would say, my knees were as weak as water.

As to the glare - when she's really angry - oh and she can be, it's almost a wicked looking caricature of the expression you see here. Like nothing else in life, teaching has given her great insight into her anger issues.

At the end of the short paragraph, I'm sitting very still at my computer, holding my breath and leaning forward. That's a very good sign that I'm hooked already!

Now if I could just find time to read science fiction rather than science, I would be thrilled because this would be great place to start. No, wait, you said a trilogy, right? So I would anxiously go to the library, look up the authors name and read the inside jacket cover to see which book to read first.

Although at this point in the semester, it's more likely to be in an airport somewhere than a leisurely trip to the public library.

Great first page!

I'm always so jealous when I read a post like this - because I love to read fiction and there's so little time to read the things I must, much less venture off to the things I'd rather read!

Oh Marcus, who but you, at your age, would use the term "super cool" - now if you were in the over 50 generation, that would be a part of your everday..... oh, no - that means it's retro - and my normal life in the 60s and 70s has suddenly come back to bite me....

Sorry - couldn't resist. Do like Crichton and Koontz - my daughter thinks I'm "sick" for liking Koontz especially after we listened to a book on tape while driving cross country.

I'm looking for new books to take on this two week work jaunt, so I'll keep Spin in mind. We just finished Ted Dekker's "Black" - so "Red" is a next must read too.

I'm definitely going to have to purchase a copy of this book for my collection!

Just out of blatant curiosity - just how do you define postmodern? I'm never quite sure what is meant by the term and it is so widely used that it seems to crop up in teh most unlikely places.

gonna hafta agree with Spaghetti on this one - these qualities are what draw me back here too - not that there's not wit and wisdom, for there is - but that's not the primary draw

That is the best you can do for a "sicko, whiny side"? You're going to have to work on that part - it was barely even a whimper. Now when you shake your fist in the air at God and ask Him if He's paying attention what is happening in your life - then I might consider it a bit more sicko.

Seriously - there's a reason the psalmist said, "why art thou cast down oh my soul; hope thou in God for He is yet the health of thy countenance" because at some time, we all feel like that. You came round pretty quickly too - speaks to your level of faith and resilience.

when is this conference so we will at least know when to pray?

OOHH - you are in big trouble with spaghettipie - you didn't read the directions - now what would you say if you were one of your students??????

Hah - I don't think I've ever been called Victorian - what a treat - much better than being a tart! I use He/Him but choose satan just because I want to remind myself that even though I must watch our carefully for him because he is very powerful and would love to do me in, he loses in the end!

The actual question was whether in the phrase "which is, in actuality, He, Himself" - he, himself had been used corectly.

Now, I wrote this perfectly lovely play-doh factory entry which I received no comments on at all from you - so you just need to shape up buddy boy!!

I love to revise, revise, revise - but I use a bottom up method, rather like building a table. It needs a top and at least 3 legs to stand up and bear any weight and 4 legs make it sturdier than 3. So, I start with my hypothesis, what I want the take home message to be.

This, by the way is also how I teach students to teach each other. I ask the students what sentence they want their fellow students to be able to repeat to their parents when they leave and their parents ask, 'what did you learn in Sunday School/Bible study/youth group today?"

Then, after having determined the table top - I choose the legs, my supporting points. After these statements are done, I begin to fill in the subpoints, etc.

And last of all, I print everything out triple space and get a red pen with lots of ink and start reading it out loud. I do my very best editing by, as you suggest, reading the sentences out loud to see how they flow - both within the sentence and whether the sentences flow together.

But, perhaps, scientific writing is totally different than other forms of writing.

which, by the way, still didn't answer the question as to whether they were correct or not!

Hi Marcus, It's funny - I read your post and the article and went away to think about whta it was that I really thought - the idea of balance being something of concern to me anyway. By the time I was back, I had wandered through a Sunday and several other blogs only to find that ESI posted on the same article - so, I shall leave you both the same comment.

I think we have to accept God's definition of balance - which is, in actuallity, He, Himself (are those the right forms of the nouns? I didn't worry about this with ESI, but now I wonder....). Nothing held back but never hurried, never without resources, never lacking, never worried, never rushed, always wise, always gracious, always firm and just yet always merciful and gracious.

To be like Christ, because He is the true representation of the Father, this, for me, is balance. How this is actually lived out - what it looks like in everyday life - I think this will look a bit different in each person's life because each person is fearfully and wonderfully made - like snow flakes, no two alike. And to go with these differences in bodies and personalities, God has given different skill sets as well as different spiritual gifts and different life goals and challenges.

So, all that to say that I think to live a balanced life is to live like Christ - to the glory of the Father.

You are a geek - no doubt about it

And while the internet does allow people to hide, for example, things said on "internet chat" that wouldn't normally have even been whispered

However, it also allows a vulnerability for those that are working hard at being real - because you can't control who is reading about you and your latest spriritual faux pas

If this is as good as "Shepherding", I'm sure I will enjoy it and give away many copies.

Hope the performances continue to gather laughs!

I will look forward to seeing if I get a laugh from you on my most recent post!

good - glad for the broken legs - and yes, laughter is a wonderful thing - nothing like laying yourself out there and realizing they just don't get it!!

grant in - but under the wrong title - always something - looking forward to reading and writing (don't gasp in amazment - this writing thing is growing on me) something other than science for a while!

Grant deadline 4:30 CST - please pray - much warfare and incredible "coincidental" distractions

I think I have to come back and read when not overwhelmed by science - over my head for the moment - but I did want to wish you well in your performance - I was just thinking of Shakespeare yesterday - but of "The Tempest" and the quote of this being the stuff dreams are made of...

Yes, I also would appreciate a little more information about how the title describes both the culture and the work within.