Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hermionesviolin) wrote2006-11-02 11:48 pm
hermionesviolin) wrote2006-11-02 11:48 pm
[CAUMC] devotional: trusting God
I walked in to CAUMC tonight and Megan said, "The small bowl is the meatless pasta." Awesome.
And at dinner, Andrew was talking about Citizen Kane (which I still have yet to see, despite having been spoiled for what CAUMC!Eric called the punchline, like three times) and he said that it's the closest he's ever seen a movie come to being like a novel -- in terms of the layers and the tangents and everything, which of course totally sells me on wanting to see it.
*
Tonight was a devotional night, with the theme being trusting God.
Amy mentioned a BU Wednesday night chapel from a couple weeks ago where the preacher talked about faith as like duct tape -- you can't fix it, but this holds it together until somebody else can. I loved that.
I was thinking about my "Be still and know that I am God" incident a couple weeks ago and what my mom had said about Pastor Bill's sermon on faith that Sunday -- about how faith is not denial and how faith enables us to do what has to be done -- but having difficulty figuring out just how to articulate it/them, especially within the framework of the discussion.
At one point, Eric said that he could see the two extremes: of going after everything so aggressively intellectually that you tear everything down and end up an atheist... and at the other end of believing that everything that happens, even if it's not predestined, is under God's hand. I said I thought that was the first time I ever saw myself in a description of an extreme of faith-having, and went on to talk about some of the things I said in that LJ entry.
One of the meditative readings was Isaiah 55, and it reminded me how much I love Isaiah and made me want to read all of Isaiah. (I can't remember how much of it I read in OT class, but I think I will forever associate it with the live coal passage -- and by extension, the "Here I Am, Lord" hymn).
Afterward, Trelawney asked if anyone had any closing thoughts, and I commented that I was really struck in the Isaiah reading by the abundance... that God wants these amazing wonderful things for us, and that we'd been talking about how it can be scary to trust God, and how I'm totally on board with that, but it kind of takes me aback to see this statement of what God is promising us if we trust Him, of what He wants to help us to have, though there may be suffering during the journey and perhaps even in the times of abundance.
I pointed specifically to verse 12:
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
*
Affirmations:
* Trelawney said that I'm very intellectual and analytical but that I also have this sweetness which is very freeing.
* Amy said that as someone who tends to take things very literally, my frankness was... I believe "comforting" is the word she used. She mentioned how a a few weeks ago I had said of my roommates and myself "We're all queer," no beating around the bush or anything.
* Andrew said that I'm very intellectual and analytical (yes he mentioned my taking notes on tv shows, again) and that it could be so easy to be overwhelmed (not his word) by that but that I'm not and I could for example respond at an emotional level to the Isaiah passage and that that balance was really an example to him.
* Megan's was about my openness and humor -- citing my statement about seeing myself in a description of extreme faith-having.
* Mike used the word "inspiring," which I was really blown away by, even more so than by Andrew's comment about my being an example. Again, it was about that balance of intellectual engagement and faith.
* From Eric's I mostly remember the phrase "flowing neatly"... I think about how I seem really comfortable in my journeying and questioning, that I"m not stressed out about it... I feel like this articulation is definitely not as good as his but like I said, I mostly only remember that one phrase.
And at dinner, Andrew was talking about Citizen Kane (which I still have yet to see, despite having been spoiled for what CAUMC!Eric called the punchline, like three times) and he said that it's the closest he's ever seen a movie come to being like a novel -- in terms of the layers and the tangents and everything, which of course totally sells me on wanting to see it.
*
Tonight was a devotional night, with the theme being trusting God.
Amy mentioned a BU Wednesday night chapel from a couple weeks ago where the preacher talked about faith as like duct tape -- you can't fix it, but this holds it together until somebody else can. I loved that.
I was thinking about my "Be still and know that I am God" incident a couple weeks ago and what my mom had said about Pastor Bill's sermon on faith that Sunday -- about how faith is not denial and how faith enables us to do what has to be done -- but having difficulty figuring out just how to articulate it/them, especially within the framework of the discussion.
At one point, Eric said that he could see the two extremes: of going after everything so aggressively intellectually that you tear everything down and end up an atheist... and at the other end of believing that everything that happens, even if it's not predestined, is under God's hand. I said I thought that was the first time I ever saw myself in a description of an extreme of faith-having, and went on to talk about some of the things I said in that LJ entry.
One of the meditative readings was Isaiah 55, and it reminded me how much I love Isaiah and made me want to read all of Isaiah. (I can't remember how much of it I read in OT class, but I think I will forever associate it with the live coal passage -- and by extension, the "Here I Am, Lord" hymn).
Afterward, Trelawney asked if anyone had any closing thoughts, and I commented that I was really struck in the Isaiah reading by the abundance... that God wants these amazing wonderful things for us, and that we'd been talking about how it can be scary to trust God, and how I'm totally on board with that, but it kind of takes me aback to see this statement of what God is promising us if we trust Him, of what He wants to help us to have, though there may be suffering during the journey and perhaps even in the times of abundance.
I pointed specifically to verse 12:
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
*
Affirmations:
* Trelawney said that I'm very intellectual and analytical but that I also have this sweetness which is very freeing.
* Amy said that as someone who tends to take things very literally, my frankness was... I believe "comforting" is the word she used. She mentioned how a a few weeks ago I had said of my roommates and myself "We're all queer," no beating around the bush or anything.
* Andrew said that I'm very intellectual and analytical (yes he mentioned my taking notes on tv shows, again) and that it could be so easy to be overwhelmed (not his word) by that but that I'm not and I could for example respond at an emotional level to the Isaiah passage and that that balance was really an example to him.
* Megan's was about my openness and humor -- citing my statement about seeing myself in a description of extreme faith-having.
* Mike used the word "inspiring," which I was really blown away by, even more so than by Andrew's comment about my being an example. Again, it was about that balance of intellectual engagement and faith.
* From Eric's I mostly remember the phrase "flowing neatly"... I think about how I seem really comfortable in my journeying and questioning, that I"m not stressed out about it... I feel like this articulation is definitely not as good as his but like I said, I mostly only remember that one phrase.
no subject
no subject
Citizen Kane is a much smarter movie. It doesn't sock me in the gut, but I can appreciate the craft. I think you should rent it.