Prayer

My Greek class is a really fantastic group of prayer partners.

It's made that way by my professor, who begins every class by taking prayer requests, and asking a volunteer to lift up those requests to God.  This "exercise" (I hesitate to call it that) creates a community where we all know about the good and bad that's going on in the lives of our classmates.  Over the last two semesters, we've all seen some really cool answers to prayer.

This morning in class, a Chinese classmate told about a man in China who was put in prison and sentenced to death for preaching Christ to Muslims in China (he converted to Christianity from Islam himself).  He is set to be put to death at the end of this month (which is only a few days away).  He is 35 years old and has two kids and a wife.  If you're reading this, please pray.

Drafts

My wife is making weird noises at the computer.  She's chatting with a friend, and something amazingly funny or weird must be taking place.

I read about a movie that Spike Lee is making for ESPN Films for which he used 18 video cameras to capture Kobe Bryant's every move during one game (both on and off the court).  That actually sounds to me like it could be interesting.

The NFL Draft starts on Saturday.  I won't be watching it, because I get four channels on my tv and none of them is ESPN.  The Draft has been particularly interesting to me this year.  This is probably the closest I've ever followed it (and by "followed" I mean that I've listened to sports radio and read articles about the Draft more than I ever have before), and I'm basically realizing that mock drafts are all kind of stupid.  You can't know who a team's going to take.  I laughed today because I received this week's Sports Illustrated issue, which includes a "Draft Special."  They put an entire 1st round mock draft inside, but it's off from the very start.  A couple of days ago, the Dolphins (who have the drafts first pick) made a deal with a player and will be drafting him.  This deal must have happened after SI went to print, though, because they have the Dolphins taking an entirely different player.  See?  Now every single pick after that will change, because the first one didn't go as planned.  I'll stay away from predicting the outcomes of things that are impossible to predict.  I wish Hal Lindsey would have thought the same way I do.

Pacifism

I cried a few minutes ago.

The original reason was because I watched one of my favorite movies which is called Tears of the Sun.  It stars Bruce Willis, who plays a Navy S.E.A.L. Lt. who has orders to extract an American missionary from a war-torn part of Africa.  The missionary won't leave the mission without the indigenous Africans who live there with her, and Willis and his team basically have to opt into saving these people from certain slaughter at the hands of rebel troops.  It's a pretty graphic movie, but incredibly moving.  It's also the movie I talk about when I'm describing to people why, even though I try very hard, I cannot be a pacifist.  (Please feel free to try to change my mind.  I often feel like I ought to be "corrected" on this issue of pacifism, so I welcome any challenges to my views -- of course, there are like 1.5 of you out there who read this... so I might not get anything.)

I kept crying because after the movie I looked at some pictures of my 6-month old nephew, who's adorable.  Thanks to my sister-in-law, Pamela, who does an amazing job of posting pictures of her little guy all the time so that those of us who can't see him very often (sad!) can at least see him in photos.

Expulsion, comedy, and feminism

Tonight I translated a couple of verses from 2 Thessalonians from Greek into English.

It kind of wore me out, so I thought I'd write a little.  Also because it's been awhile.  Tomorrow there's a movie coming out called Expelled.  It's a documentary by Ben Stein that sounds pretty good.  From what I hear, it's connected to the Intelligent Design debate.  The movie's viewpoint, I guess, is that Intelligent Design proponents use the same science as evolutionists, but are still being shut out of scientific scholarship for their views... or something.  I plan to see it, but not tomorrow.  See, my wife and I are in the midst of what we've dubbed "No Fun April."  During the month of April, we have vowed to spend not a single dime on recreation of any kind (eating out, going to or renting movies, etc.).  We haven't really ever had the means to do a lot of those things anyway, but I just spent over a thousand dollars on a new computer last month, and there are only a few things in our budget that we have absolute control over... so we're hoping it helps us out a little.

There's a comedian I really like named Demetri Martin.  He says stuff like,

"Swimming is a confusing sport.  Because sometimes you do it for fun, but other times you do it to not die."

and

"I bet drowning is a horrible experience.  But I bet it's a little less horrible if right before, you're really thirsty.  It'd be like, 'Man, I'm thirsty.  Ok ok ok OK OK OK I'M GOOD I'M GOOD!'"

Anyway.  You should youtube him if you've got the time.

Oh!  I wanted to blow off some more steam about this too:  Today in my class on methods of New Testament study, we talked about feminist and queer (GLBT) interpretation of the Bible.  I left the class pretty mad, because we seemed to focus the whole time on all the positive things we can learn from these criticisms, and nobody stated what I thought was glaringly obvious:  They're wrong!  I'm not even saying that feminism or homosexuality are wrong (we can talk about that, though, if you'd like).  I'm saying that the agenda-driven interpretation of Holy Scripture by those practicing feminist or queer criticism is wrong.  It'd be equivalent to me deciding that I don't want to give money to the poor, because I really REALLY like all my cars and video games and my movie collection and my iPod, so when I read the Sermon on the Mount, I'm going to interpret it as though Jesus is saying, "God loves people who have lots of money and hoard it all for themselves."  It's just BAD interpretation, and it made me upset that no one in my class, including the professor, ever mentioned that.  K, I'm done.  Stepping down from my soap box (now there's a phrase I've never fully understood).

Wings

As of yesterday I've been married to Elizabeth for 9 months.

It's hard to say that 9 months is a real accomplishment, but it kind of feels like one a little bit.  Tonight the two of us finished watching the last episode of the last season of the all-time greatest television show, "The West Wing."  It was a little sentimental, even though I've seen the whole series now more than probably anyone else on the planet who is still in his right mind.  I will discontinue rambling now.  I'm tired.  I can hear my bed calling my name.  It's not as creepy as it sounds.

Green

I was just thinking about my blog's title, "Make My Life a Prayer to You."  For those of you who don't know, and do care, it comes from a title of a song by Keith Green.  Keith Green was an amazing singer and songwriter of the Christian faith whom I admire deeply.  He was killed in a plane crash around his mid-30s.  His songs are lyrically solid and moving, and the passion with which he sings makes him my single favorite singer.  If you've never listened to his music, I would strongly recommend it to you.

Also, for all one of you who reads this blog at all, (hi, Krista) you might notice that I've added some links over there to your right.  Under the picture.  Do you see them?  Dr. Groothuis's blog is a fantastic read for anyone who wants some thoughtful insights about today's culture and its relation to a Christian walk.  The others are just some good blogs and whatnot.  You really ought to check them out.  You'd enjoy them.

One Week

Since it's been one week since my last post, I decided to use a Barenaked Ladies song title for this one.  I happen to enjoy that song too, though I think "If I Had a Million Dollars" is funnier.

I'm really tired today.  My wife had to get up at 3:30 a.m. in order to finish up a paper that's due today, and I had to get up at 5:30, because her class starts at 7:30 and with getting ready and driving to school, the process is about two hours long.  I also had kind of a weird dream.  In it, apparently my brother, Joel, was living in our little one-bedroom apartment with us, and he woke up early and went out, and came home with three puppies.  We're not allowed to have puppies in our apartment, (besides the fact that even though I love dogs, I don't want one while we still live in this tiny one-bedroom, with, apparently, three people living in it) so I was absolutely furious.  Oh, that Joel.  What a kidder.

I also dreamed that Elizabeth and I went for a walk, and when we turned around to come home, I suggested that we run home.  That's weird for a few reasons, but the biggest one is that I don't ever choose to run on my own.  Unless there's a sport being played, you'll only see me run if someone very large is chasing me.

There's an elephant with a shotgun hiding in the closet of my kindergarten teacher's classroom.

Greek

I've got some time to kill and nothing to write about.  What does that mean?  A blog entry.

Koine Greek is a difficult language to learn.  I know the rewards will be great, as my teaching and understanding of the New Testament will be greatly enhanced by knowing it, but the process is bogging me down.  I want a Matrix-style program that can be downloaded into my brain in moments that allows me to know Greek in its entirety.  Of course, I can't even afford to buy Microsoft Office for my computer, which I desperately need, so a downloadable Greek program that puts it all into my brain is probably a bit pie-in-the-sky right now.  Oh well.  I study on.

Last night my wife and I attended an alumni event here in Denver for Central College graduates.  There were about two people that I'd ever met before, but plenty of connections, networking, and conversations.  It was actually a lot of fun.  I had no idea how many Central alums were in the area.  Central's graduates also tend to be pretty cool, if you ask me.  Anyway, we had a good time, but we ended up staying later than we'd planned, so we got to bed later than planned, and we got up extra early (a result of a goofy Wednesday class schedule), so we're both really tired.

By the way, I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life.  If you have any ideas, please let me know.  A few things to consider: I have a BA in history, with a minor in religion.  I will have an MA in Biblical studies, New Testament emphasis.  Nearly every job I've ever had involves working with books or other publications, and I've liked them.  There.  Now decide my future for me.