Month: April 2010

Categories Reflections

Music Moves Me

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With a long day (22 hours on 4 hours of sleep) on Saturday and a wedding early Sunday afternoon, I elected to not attend church Sunday morning. My hostess in the Master’s College dorms had invited me to chapel on Monday morning, so I knew I’d still have a chance to worship with a body of believers this week.

I was excited to be there, to worship with these college students. I was supremely grateful to Kim for inviting me. It wasn’t until I got into the gymnasium and took my seat next to Kim in the aisle about halfway down that I started to get nervous.

It was then that I suddenly realized that I had no idea how these people conducted their musical worship. I know a wee bit about Master’s college’s theology–after all, John MacArthur is the president of the school. I know MacArthur’s theology to be quite conservative, and dogmatic on certain issues that I consider secondary issues (ones over which true believers can and do disagree). It made me wonder whether this conservatism would carry over into musical worship.

Because my worship style… Well…

Music moves me.

And I don’t just mean emotionally.

That I know of, I have never been able to keep my body still when music is going. Try as I may to keep myself still, my body sways, my feet tap, my arms begin flowing.

In my church, with its very open worship-style, this isn’t really a problem. “That’s just Rebekah,” the congregation says of the girl with the long hair who’s almost dancing in the front row. But then again, my church is fine with people actually dancing–the jump up and down and twirl in circles kind of dancing.

But what happens when I enter a more conservative congregation?

Usually, I know in advance that I’m entering a more conservative congregation, and I have a pew in front of me that I can grasp to stabilize myself–to keep my body from giving me away.

Here, my hostess has selected the row with a big break between it and the one in front of it–a horizontal aisle for people to cross back and forth. What’s more, she’s given me the aisle seat. This is the seat I’d normally choose, the seat I’d desire if I knew the church had no problem with my worship style. Aisle seats mean I have plenty of room to simply worship, without worrying that my unconscious movement would run into anyone.

Except that I have no desire to place a stumbling block in anyone’s way by allowing myself such freedom in worship here.

For the first song, I tightly grasp my hands together in front of me, trying to focus on the lyrics, trying to focus on God–but mostly just focusing on keeping myself still.

When a member of the worship band half raises his hand towards the end of the first song, I breathe a sigh of relief. This expression of worship is allowed.

I begin to see some students with hands half raised, so I allow myself that freedom.

Now some have their hands fully raised in the air. I relax a bit more.

They begin the song “Before the Throne of God Above”.

My heart is overwhelmed with thankfulness for the
“great High Priest whose name is love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.”

I forget myself and simply worship.

I want to honor God by honoring His body. I also want to honor God by fixing my attention on Him alone in worship. The difficulty is when fixing my attention on Him might be a distraction for others seeking to do the same.

So I continue to walk this line.

Because music moves me.

Categories Recap

Recap (April 11-17)

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On bekahcubed

Book Reviews:

Photo Albums:
In honor of Amy’s wedding this weekend and the reuniting of four of the five “Unveiled Daughters” from Jacksonville STP 2006, I’ve posted some Jacksonville Summer Training Program Photos.

  • Ladies Retreat (We camped for a night in Jacksonville for our “ladies retreat”)
  • Dying my hair (In preparation for my role as “Posh Spice” in the upcoming costume party)
  • Spice Girls (Our team as the Spice Girls for a costume party)
  • Team Time (Miscellaneous pics of my team)

On the web

A Series I’m Really Looking forward to…
As someone who has had the privilege of tutoring an underliterate (my word) student and seen her literacy dramatically improve as she grasped hold of the joys of the written word, I’m really excited to hear about Janna’s experiences tutoring a 16 year old boy who couldn’t write the word “remember”.

Check out Janna’s first post of the series–and go back on Monday for the second.

“We set the date and time for our first session. What would I discover about his reading skills? How desperate would his need be? Would I really be able to make a difference? I prayed and told God I was willing, but that He would have to direct my mouth.

He arrived Monday evening and after answering a few “getting to know you” questions, we got started. I asked him to write the word “remember.” He hesitated, twirled the pen in his long, brown fingers, and looked around. I asked him again and he scrawled three letters. “Keep going,” I encouraged.
He added a few more letters and leaned back.

The paper said, “remomble.””

News to take note of:

Thought-provoking posts:

  • Placing my faith in God, not in His acts. My cousin shares what God has been speaking to her in a fabulous post.
  • An open letter to fetal humans. In this pro-life satire, Joe Carter helps fetal humans understand how to reduce their risks of being aborted.

    From the intro:

    “You have made it to the second stage of life. But you’re not out of the woods, as they say, until you’re out of the womb. In America there are roughly 250 abortions for every 1000 live births, which means that you have (all other things being equal) a one in five chance of still being aborted. Here are four reasons you might be aborted and what you can do to avoid this gruesome fate.”

    From the conclusion:

    “Your best hope is to pray and hope that others are praying for you too. With any luck you’ll survive the fetal stage of development and move on to infancy, adolescence, and adulthood. Once you reach this stage of life you’ll be able to join other Americans in exercising one of our most cherished and incontrovertible rights: the right to kill a fetus for any reason you choose.”

    RT: 22 Words

Videos worth seeing:

  • Mark Driscoll on the four streams of the emerging/emergent church–in which he makes a distinction between emerging and emergent. I had a conversation with our church’s youth pastor about the church while I was going through the book Why We Love the Church here on my blog. Jeremy (our youth pastor) mentioned Driscoll’s distinction between emergent and emerging. I kept it in the back of my mind–but now I’ve finally found the source!

Random:

  • Somehow a tweet I tweeted way back in the day made it on to Joshua Harris’s blog. Weird. Amazing the things you find when you google yourself (or your nom-de-plume, as the case may be.)
Categories Everyday Life

I’m off…

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to Southern California to see a dear friend married.

I have many hours to fly, to layover, to drive. I have brought grading and books and notebooks. I did not bring a computer (I’m old-fashioned that way–I like my computer to stay put on my desktop!) So there shouldn’t be much activity this weekend–and might not be at the beginning of next week either, since I’ll be busy inputting grades and catching up on all my school/work-ish stuff.

Wish me well on my journey and send a prayer of blessing for Amy and Craig as they begin their married life together!

Categories Everyday Life

After the Rain

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There’s nothing more beautiful to my eye and my soul than Nebraska springtime after the rain.

East Campus

I was overwhelmed with thankfulness as I walked into class this morning, beholding the land, breathing in the sweet scent of spring. I’m so thankful to be located on Lincoln’s lovely East Campus, strewn with flowering trees, green grass, and freshly turned fields.

Fields and flowers

As the agricultural campus of Nebraska’s land grant university, we enjoy a bit of farm life right in the middle of the city. Little plats of experimental fields surround the campus. In summer and fall they are green or brown with corn or soybeans or the like. But in spring, they are the dark black of rich, life-giving earth.

Fields and Flowers 2

After a rainstorm, the gravel roads that lead to the fields turn muddy, dandelions pop up seemingly overnight, and the grass grows so green it almost hurts to look at it.

Grass and Dirt, Green and Black

This is my favorite part of springtime in Nebraska–the sharp contrast between the rich dark soil and the startlingly brilliant green grass.

I long to take off my shoes, to run in this grass, to squidge my toes into the earth. And sometimes, I do.

Yesterday I was wearing a pair of shoes that were unkind to my feet. I took it as an excuse to slip them off and to walk on the grass beside the walk instead of on the walk itself. Undoubtedly I looked undignified, wending my way through the grass in my stockinged feet and proper skirt set. When I took off my stockings at home, they were ruined–completely grass-stained. But a pair of stockings is a small thing to sacrifice for the delightfulness of walking (nearly) barefoot on Nebraska’s good land–in the grass after the rain.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: TAing

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Thankful Thursday banner

Today I’m thankful…
…for the compliment one of my students unwittingly paid me today
…for two wonderful instructors to TA under
…for the student I was administering a test to this afternoon not showing up to my office hours before I did (I was right on the line and how I HATE to be late. Kind of weird to be thankful that my student WAS late, though!)
…for the decent amount of grading I got done this afternoon while proctoring said exam
…that although the Blackboard course management software eats up large chunks of my life, it is NOT my life.
…that I have a job for next semester (even if I don’t know who it’ll be with–if one of them doesn’t take me, another has already told me I’m her first choice)

Oh, and I just about forgot…

I’m also thankful…
…that I’m leaving on a jet plane
even if I’ll be back again
after a few short days
in sunny Southern Cali
seeing my friend Amy wed
rooming with Veronica
catching up with Sandra
It’s the opposite coast
from where we met
but it’s where we’ll meet again
Another juncture in our lives
as we run this race together

Categories Homemaking

Thursday starts…

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For me, Thursday starts on Wednesday night when I gather everything that I need for the next day, bathe, and pack myself into bed (hopefully not too late.)

Thursday is my “long day”–so named because I’m gone from 7 to 6. Certainly, it’s not the longest day I’ve ever had–one semester, I did two 14 hour days every week–but it’s long enough that I need to be prepared ahead of time.

So every Wednesday night, I put together my Thursday stuff.

Thursday stuff

Clothes and shoes set out, down to jewelry? Check. (I’ll add my glasses as soon as I take them off this evening.)

Bag of books, including graded papers to be returned and lab manual? Check.

Anything extra needed for lab? Check. (This week it’s returning the flour, salt, pastry dowels, and pastry blender I used to make pie crust–and, of course, bringing along the pie crusts I made for demonstration.)

Necessities for afternoon office hours and class? Check. (This week I’m not meeting with my dad for lunch, so I’ll have a spare hour to run home and grab the text and extra tests I’ll be administering during office hours. Usually, I’m a bag lady carting half a dozen bags around campus.)

Computer off. That’s the tricky part.

I’ve got to actually get off the computer and get to bed if I really want to have a successful Thursday.

So, as Thursday starts for me, I bid you good night.

Categories Health

Smokeless Smokes

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Have you ever seen one of these?

Electronic cigarette

I haven’t ever seen one in real life. But I’d love it if I did start seeing them in real life.

That is an electronic cigarette–a battery powered cartridge that atomizes a small amount of nicotine without producing smoke.

It’s a boon to public health, because unlike traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) do not produce smoke–and therefore eliminate the problem of second-hand smoke.

What’s more, e-cigarettes do not produce any of the carcinogens tobacco produces when it is burned–so they’re safer for the “smoker” as well. The only similarity between the output of e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes is the presence of nicotine. Nicotine is a legal but controlled stimulant that is similar to caffeine. While nicotine has some slight risks, they are few compared to the enormous risks associated with smoking.

This suggests a great health boon to people who have tried to quit smoking multiple times–but without success. E-cigarettes approximate the look and feel of cigarettes, as well as delivering small doses of nicotine through the incredibly sensitive mucous lining of the mouth–but without the risks to self or others.

There are some who decry these little glowing sticks, convinced that nothing that looks like a cigarette could be positive.

Certainly, I’d never encourage someone to induce nicotine addiction in any form. I don’t want anybody to start smoking–or using smokeless nicotine.

But if switching from cigarettes to these smokeless smokes can protect both the smoker and those around him from cancer? I’m all for it.

Categories Reading My Library

A delightful tale, for sure!

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What happens when one silly chicken loses a feather and giggles “The more I pluck myself, the more gorgeous I look”?

Hans Christian Andersen's For sure! For Sure!Not much, except that another chicken hears and tells her best friend.

And Momma Owl hears the chicken friends discussing it and rushes off to tell the nice owl next door.

Who then shouts the news to the pigeon house below.

The story spreads and spreads until the coop where the silly chicken lives hears the dreadful story. Apparently five chickens had all plucked themselves bare trying to prove that they were pining away for the rooster. Then they had pecked each other to death!

Of course the story was true–everyone said so, for sure.

The original silly chicken was an upstanding citizen and roundly renounced the goings on, not realizing that she was the chicken who had started the whole rumor.

Hans Christian Andersen's For sure! For Sure!Hans Christian Andersen’s For sure! For sure! translated by Mus White and illustrated by Stefan Czernecki is a timeless tale about gossip and how rumours spread. I had never heard this particular tale of Andersen’s and was delighted to discover it in my trek through the children’s section of my local library.

The story was told just as stories for children should be told: using straightforward language without overly simplifying sentence structure. The story never once use the word gossip or rumors–but it makes its point clear nonetheless. Many an author could take a note from Andersen’s book and show instead of telling.

Reading My LibraryThe bright, simple illustrations perfectly complemented the text, indicating the delight the many birds were taking in sharing their news with yet another person.

This picture book has definitely got my thumbs up! For sure!

Categories Everyday Life, Reflections

I see a theme

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I didn’t get any sleep last night. Darn this… well, I don’t know exactly what it is that’s had me not sleeping lately.

Anyway, I didn’t get any sleep last night, so I slept from six to noon this morning (with only a half hour or so interruption in the middle). It was actually one of my best “nights” of sleep for the past few weeks.

But not long after I woke up, I read Lisa’s note (tee-hee) on running. She said something that struck me: “Doing nothing when you’re supposed to do something is too risky. ”

I could see a theme emerging.

Last week, I was reading in Mark and commented on Jesus’ sense of immediacy.

Then Anna writes about not hanging out in the contemplation stage.

And then Lisa writes about doing something, about running instead of hiding?

Yep, there’s definitely a theme emerging.

I spent the afternoon grading and reading journal articles and writing.

I didn’t read many blog posts. I didn’t write many blog posts. I didn’t read many books. I didn’t get my house clean.

I did school. ‘Cause right now, that’s what I’m called to run–even if I’d rather hide.

Categories Family & Friends

I don’t read your blog

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I love my siblings dearly. They’re all wonderful, and wonderfully supportive.

But some of them DO NOT and WILL NOT read blogs. Others do and will read blogs–just not MY blog.

Three siblings have blogs of their own and read mine in turn (Anna, Joshua, and Grace). My mom reads my blog faithfully. The other 3 siblings don’t read blogs (except maybe ones very specifically related to politics, the Marine corps, eRepublik, or Husker football). And my dad reads plenty of political blogs but not mine.

I don’t anticipate this changing anytime soon.

Here’s a simple excerpt from an old e-mail to give you an idea for why I might think that way. Daniel writes in an e-mail with the subject “Blog”:

What’s with the multiple color schemes and formatting depending on which page you are on?

I am not reading it … just trying to find out which class you teach … you can check the times … too short to read

daniel

Don’t you love that? He wanted to know what the deal was (I was switching from all html pages to php constructed html pages while changing my blog design)–but wanted to make sure that I knew that he wasn’t reading. And to make double sure, he reminded me that I can check my statistics to see that he didn’t spend enough time on my site to actually read anything.

If you don’t read my blog, by all means, let me know!