Ye Olde Nouvelle Blogge Entry Pour Au'jourd Hui.

...that title takes talent...or something abnormal.

Favorite Things of the Moment:

• Juicebags
• The French Pod Class avec M. Sebastien Babolat
• The Cornfields that surround my house that are perfect for 4wheeling in.
• Picking out where we are going for our mini-vacation this winter. (England is temporarily post-poned due to scheduling conflicts...probably this summer instead)
• Knowing how to say: Volgio averlo adesso, wench!
  

Today was yet another beautiful day. Ended up going to the Ohio Renaissance Festival, which was interesting enough by itself, but also my Grandpa brought over his new 4wheeler he bought today and we had fun testing it out. I have scratchmarks across my face and arms from trees and briars, and I picked out pine needles from hair for a good twenty minutes. Plus I got to talk to two of my most beloved people via cell phone today, which always makes everything a little better. Overall, it was glorious.

Tomorrow morning looms dark on the horizon, however. I am still at a loss for what to teach for sunday school. Im thinking maybe I will start the "Why, Us?" series that I have been working on, or thinking about recently (thank you Shane Claiborne, Donald Miller, and Rob Bell!). When something horrible happens, when we are faced with injustice, poverty, hatred, racism, violence--so often we look around and ask "Why, God? Why would God allow this to happen?" As Christians, we are called to follow Jesus' example, and to be like John the Baptist-- pointing to Jesus and God with everything we are. We are to die to ourselves and become new in the body of Christ, being his hands and feet in this world. So "Why, Us?" Why do we allow suffering and needs to be unmet, why do we allow violence and hatred to consume our world, the creation that God has given to us to take care of? Not Why, God, but Why, Us. (as an interesting aside, at the festival they had a museum of medevial torture devices, some of the worst stuff you've ever heard of...and who put it to use the most...yeah...thats right. The Church.) We are the ones who are failing with our negligence, not God. What does it mean to be born again into a family where every five seconds a child dies of hunger? How do we follow Jesus in humble servitude in a world ravaged by selfishness and greed? Why, Us? What are we going to do about it?

We also have COGTIME, as I like to call it, where we go through the Bible and figure out what we believe as a denomination, what we believe is biblical and true. Last week we covered John 1:1-2. We might continue with the "difficult texts" theme tomorrow. Hopefully it will be nice outside and we can have hippie time under the tree again. I like that. Class rooms are so confining and overly airconditioned.

Tomorrow is going to be sort of a work day for me, catching up on things that I've been putting off or forgotten. I've been working on a few paintings that I would like to finish before my fortieth birthday, and if I dont start now it might not happen. I also need to sit down and figure out what my schedule looks like for the next month or so. Everytime my phone rings Im terrified that its someone about to yell at me because I've missed a meeting, or forgotten an event that I was in charge of, or slept through an appointment or something. It will be good to not have to worry about that so much.