Monday, June 18, 2012
I'd love your thoughts, and feelings...
I'm putting together some thoughts on emotion at present. Currently looking for feedback on a definitional-type statement that I've spent some time working on.
"Emotions function to alert us to, and allow us to experience, the significance of some aspect of reality that we perceive."
Would love thoughts and wisdom from friends.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Post-project reflection
Well, it's been an interesting time.
Firstly, Linden was right. It did take longer than I thought to finish the last stages of my project. But then, I already knew that too, if I'd bothered to really ask myself about it.
Secondly, I'm still constantly doubting my premise. It's just that every time I go back and think it through I'm re-convinced that it's right. The experience of re-doubting so many times is fairly harrowing and soul-winnowing. I think it's actually because I'm quite afraid of being wrong on this. I'm not sure why I'm like this.
Thirdly, I'm excited about getting the idea from my thesis out there, for more people to hear it and believe it. I think that so many of us have somewhat impoverished views on the gospel and, more broadly, salvation history because we've only got one model through which we can view it. Only one lens. But the Bible has so many images, illustrations, metaphors that it seems strange that we try to boil the meta-narrative down to one inadequate model.
Well, strictly speaking, that's not true. I'm actually entirely positive about such attempts. The problem that I have is that we seem to think that one is adequate to give us a big picture of salvation history that is theologically rich and reflects the richness of Scripture. I hope to continually gain more and more angles on the nature of the gospel (and thus interpretive frameworks through which to view salvation history) as I read Scripture and put different pieces of the puzzle together.
Fourthly, because I've blabbed so much about this project to so many people, it feels now like it's actually quite a public thing. As if people are interested in it. As if it's got some sort of public profile. And that's weird. I'm finding it uncomfortable. It probably doesn't really have any public profile, but it's been enough to get me thinking about the idea that it does. I feel strange about the idea of my work being public. But that's the subject for my next post...
Firstly, Linden was right. It did take longer than I thought to finish the last stages of my project. But then, I already knew that too, if I'd bothered to really ask myself about it.
Secondly, I'm still constantly doubting my premise. It's just that every time I go back and think it through I'm re-convinced that it's right. The experience of re-doubting so many times is fairly harrowing and soul-winnowing. I think it's actually because I'm quite afraid of being wrong on this. I'm not sure why I'm like this.
Thirdly, I'm excited about getting the idea from my thesis out there, for more people to hear it and believe it. I think that so many of us have somewhat impoverished views on the gospel and, more broadly, salvation history because we've only got one model through which we can view it. Only one lens. But the Bible has so many images, illustrations, metaphors that it seems strange that we try to boil the meta-narrative down to one inadequate model.
Well, strictly speaking, that's not true. I'm actually entirely positive about such attempts. The problem that I have is that we seem to think that one is adequate to give us a big picture of salvation history that is theologically rich and reflects the richness of Scripture. I hope to continually gain more and more angles on the nature of the gospel (and thus interpretive frameworks through which to view salvation history) as I read Scripture and put different pieces of the puzzle together.
Fourthly, because I've blabbed so much about this project to so many people, it feels now like it's actually quite a public thing. As if people are interested in it. As if it's got some sort of public profile. And that's weird. I'm finding it uncomfortable. It probably doesn't really have any public profile, but it's been enough to get me thinking about the idea that it does. I feel strange about the idea of my work being public. But that's the subject for my next post...
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Monday, November 07, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
a day of rest
Just finished up our first ever 'day of rest' for Night Church.
The plan was for a Clayton's church camp. There was no costly accommodation, no uncomfortable beds (unless you chose to 'sleep' over a friend's place on the floor), very little organisation work for the members of the congregation and it didn't take up the entirety of the weekend.
We took the very Hebrew chronology of dusk Sat to dusk Sun.
Saturday evening began with chicken wraps* and drinks under a member's house. We just hung out for a while, and later we kicked into hearing God's word with the first of our talks in Deuteronomy from Danny Mitchell. Moses says that God's instruction - his torah - is for our good that we may live long in his place. Sweet.
Afterwards, we took home-made cold rock out to the campfire, sung a couple of songs to guitar, prayed and shared some things God had been doing in our lives. We then skedaddled (apparently there is a correct spelling of that word) to our chosen 'sleeping' locations.**
----placeholder for photo----
Sunday morning started at 8am at the lovely Pelican's Nautical Treasures (got to get a better name for that, Matt!) in its 'upper room'. Grabbed a tall cappuccino, that came in a pink mug.*** Then, came breakfast, which was fruit salad with side-dishes of meusli, honey and Greek yoghurt for me, and eggs benedict, massive scrambled eggs and bacon, etc for others.****
Next up, was more of God's word. Danny opened up Deuteronomy 6 to us, where God tells us to love him with everything we've got. We then took a half hour to go for a stroll with one other person by the bay. We spent some time in the fresh air, sharing and chatting about what things incite us to forget God and how not to let them. We then came back together for our final talk from Deuteronomy 30. Moses exhorted us to choose to follow God and no other, and in so doing choose life for ourselves. Awesome.
Bassie and I got a game of chess in, while Daniel filled in some time by powering up and summoning a spirit bomb, Goku style.
By this point, we're starting to feel like our massive brekkies have started to digest. Just. So we headed out to Wellington Point to have a BBQ, paddle some kayaks, climb trees, throw ice at each other out of said trees, kick a ball, run into some old friends and generally enjoy God's creation with thanks. This continued for some time. :)
Overall vibe: An awesome 24 hours. Cheers to everyone who came, particularly those who helped out.
Constructive self-criticism: If a couple of things hadn't "come up" unexpectedly we could've had more time dedicated to reflecting on God and his word. Aside from that, and the fact that more people couldn't make it, I was well chuffed with the day.
The plan was for a Clayton's church camp. There was no costly accommodation, no uncomfortable beds (unless you chose to 'sleep' over a friend's place on the floor), very little organisation work for the members of the congregation and it didn't take up the entirety of the weekend.
We took the very Hebrew chronology of dusk Sat to dusk Sun.
Saturday evening began with chicken wraps* and drinks under a member's house. We just hung out for a while, and later we kicked into hearing God's word with the first of our talks in Deuteronomy from Danny Mitchell. Moses says that God's instruction - his torah - is for our good that we may live long in his place. Sweet.
Afterwards, we took home-made cold rock out to the campfire, sung a couple of songs to guitar, prayed and shared some things God had been doing in our lives. We then skedaddled (apparently there is a correct spelling of that word) to our chosen 'sleeping' locations.**
----placeholder for photo----
Sunday morning started at 8am at the lovely Pelican's Nautical Treasures (got to get a better name for that, Matt!) in its 'upper room'. Grabbed a tall cappuccino, that came in a pink mug.*** Then, came breakfast, which was fruit salad with side-dishes of meusli, honey and Greek yoghurt for me, and eggs benedict, massive scrambled eggs and bacon, etc for others.****
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Overall vibe: An awesome 24 hours. Cheers to everyone who came, particularly those who helped out.
Constructive self-criticism: If a couple of things hadn't "come up" unexpectedly we could've had more time dedicated to reflecting on God and his word. Aside from that, and the fact that more people couldn't make it, I was well chuffed with the day.
| * | The hummus was divine. Apparently, no garlic in it either. Who'd've thought? |
| ** | 'Sleeping' may include glad-wrapping other members' cars or removing a tyre in revenge. |
| *** | They know my colour. |
| **** | I was trying to make up for eating a whole packet of twisties while watching Arsenal v Chelsea the night before.***** |
| ***** | Which Arsenal won 5-3. Sweet. |
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Psalm 50 Illustrated
I was on the QTC chapel preaching roster this Tuesday, and was asked to preach on a Psalm. I ended up picking Psalm 50, as it seemed pretty cool on first read. It's awesome. Read Paul's Areopagus speech in Acts 17 and tell me that Gamaliel hadn't set him an assignment on Psalm 50 when he was in Pharisee school. Awesome use of the Old Testament applied to the gospel era.
Anyways, I stewed on it all week, but found it hard to write. I ended up grabbing some scrap paper the day before and trying to re-write it out with my own indentation to try to 'get' the meaning better. On attempting to write it out in words, this is what ended up coming out.
I'm not sure what you call it, but my mind was thinking in the style of those videos that have someone illustrating the concepts of a talk while someone's talking over the top. Kinda like this video. You know the style I mean? In my head, I was doing a video like that.
So my question is, did it flow so well because that medium matches the way that I think and so the internal could be expressed on paper very easily? Or has the way that I think been altered by watching so many videos like that?
Edit: Or is it just a Psalms/poetry thing?
Anyways, I stewed on it all week, but found it hard to write. I ended up grabbing some scrap paper the day before and trying to re-write it out with my own indentation to try to 'get' the meaning better. On attempting to write it out in words, this is what ended up coming out.
I'm not sure what you call it, but my mind was thinking in the style of those videos that have someone illustrating the concepts of a talk while someone's talking over the top. Kinda like this video. You know the style I mean? In my head, I was doing a video like that.
So my question is, did it flow so well because that medium matches the way that I think and so the internal could be expressed on paper very easily? Or has the way that I think been altered by watching so many videos like that?
Edit: Or is it just a Psalms/poetry thing?
Monday, October 24, 2011
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