Only Wonder Grasps Anything

Has living in the South changed my speech?

Wow! Look at this:

Two years ago I took this same blogthing language test and was 65% General American English, 25% Yankee, and 10% Upper Midwestern. Apparently my Upper Midwestern father-tongue hasn't changed at all, but my percent "Yankee" has increased while living in the South.

Perhaps this emphasizing my northeasternness is my way of dealing with culture shock. I've now been living and working in the South, after college, for about two years, which is about when culture shock is supposed to hit the hardest. I know it's not a different country, but there are significant differences between southern and yankee culture.

However, since I live here, my calling isn't to dwell on the differences or think of what I grew up with as somehow better. Rather, the Lord calls me to love the people with whom I work, worship, and interact, because He's calling people from every culture to himself, and the variety of cultures is yet another way in which the incredible glory and fame of the Lord is shown in the world.

Praise the Lord for our differences, and for what we have in common! He is Lord over all, and has loved us and given his life for us. "O, for a thousand tongues to sing... the triumphs of his name." Or as I remind the younger kids Wednesday nights when we're singing, "Hallelujah" is Hebrew for the command, "Y'all praise the Lord!"

good, lazy friday night

Tonight I'm sitting at Rembrant's cafe in Chattanooga, reading blogs and thinking and perhaps (if this goes well) writing a bit. I'd thought of heading up the mountain to see the play, but am more in the mood to simply relax and reflect. I attended two conferences the past two weekends, one up on Lookout Mountain, and the other in the frozen, snow covered city of Rochester, MN.

The best part of the second weekend was hanging out with good friends, Jess and Bekah and Christine (and her husband Andrew and their cute just-barely-over-one-year-old son), meeting some new friends, and seeing my Uncle Paul, Aunt Marie, and cousin Livy in Batavia, IL, on Wednesday night before spending six hours at the Art Institute of Chicago.

While I was in Rochester on Friday, 17 February, the high temperature was at ten in the morning: -4 degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperature fell until in the wee hours of Saturday morning it reached -19 degrees Fahrenheit, which broke their 1936 record low for 18 February in Rochester. Rochester has a whole network of underground tunnels that have shops and carpet and everying, and overhead skyways connecting buildings, so its a great place for a winter conference.

There were about 7 inches of snow on the ground, but it was way too cold to enjoy being out in it--though it make looking out the windows beautiful. I love winter.

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Two weekends ago I attended the Kaleo Conference on Gender and the Church up at Covenant. It was good...

There were some disappointing quotes from major theological heavy-weights (i.e. Origin, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, on page 14 in my notes) on women not being made in the image of God; a reminder that even the best heros are fallen and that no one has a perfect understanding of God's word.

Those quotes also make Jesus shine all the more clearly in his interactions with women: he talked with the woman at the well, loved his mom and his friends Mary and Marth, showed himself to women first after his resurrection and entrusted them to take the message that he was alive back to the disciples.

In Carolyn Curtis James' lecture, on page 7 in my notes, she spoke of the rich, expansive view of women which the Bible holds: that women equally bear the image of God as men do, that the Hebrew word Ezer shows us women are warriors alongside their husbands for the kingdom of Christ, and that when men and women recognize their fundamental equality before God as image-bearers and the differing roles the Lord has given them within marriage, there is a blessed alliance which radiates the glory of God more fully that the two could individually.

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Last weekend I flew up to Rochester, MN, for the L'Abri conference, Living in a Brave New World. It was incredible to reflect on the truthfulness of Scripture and how it speaks to every area of life. I found Jerram Barr's seminar on Common Grace: God’s Commitment to Care for all Creation really encouraging. Because all people are made in God's image, though that likeness is marred and broken, we can find in everyone we meet good reflections of the Lord to commend in them and use to call them to trust in their Creator. This is what Paul does in Acts 14:17 when he appeals to the good gifts of the Creator on all human kind as a witness to the reality of God and a reason to turn from worthless things to the living God.

We don't have to give up the good things in the world's rich and varied cultures when we follow Jesus, rather we receive them with thankfulness and prayer, and direct our praise to the Lord as the giver of all good gifts (1 Tim 4:4,5).

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I've been sitting outside and am getting cold, so I think I'm going to head inside (or perhaps home) and curl up with hot chocolate (or a good beer: Yuenglings Lager) and read and write until I fall asleep.