"Questions About Angels"

The poem below was shared with us in the writing workshop that I've been taking for the past couple of weeks. I really loved it and wanted to share it with you, not for any real reason, but just because I thought it was nice.

"Questions About Angels"

Billy Collins

Of all the questions you might want to ask

about angels, the only one you ever hear

is how many can dance on the head of a pin.

No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time

besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin

or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth

or guiding a boy and girl across a rickety wooden bridge.

Do they fly through God's body and come out singing?

Do they swing like children from the hinges

of the spirit world saying their names backwards and forwards?

Do they sit alone in little gardens changing colors?

What about their sleeping habits, the fabric of their robes,

their diet of unfiltered divine light?

What goes on inside their luminous heads? Is there a wall

these tall presences can look over and see hell?

If an angel fell off a cloud, would he leave a hole

in a river and would the hole float along endlessly

filled with the silent letters of every angelic word?

If an angel delivered the mail, would he arrive

in a blinding rush of wings or would he just assume

the appearance of the regular mailman and

whistle up the driveway reading the postcards?

No, the medieval theologians control the court.

The only question you ever hear is about

the little dance floor on the head of a pin

where halos are meant to converge and drift invisibly.

It is designed to make us think in millions,

billions, to make us run out of numbers and collapse

into infinity, but perhaps the answer is simply one:

one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet,

a small jazz combo working in the background.

She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful

eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over

to glance at his watch because she has been dancing

forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.

MHGS Paradigm Shifts

Last night, my reading group met for an extended time to "synthesize" all that we have been learning in each of our classes since reading groups usually meet to discuss one specific class. We started our time by individually jotting down different paradigm shifts that we have encountered since starting at Mars Hill. By paradigm shifts, I mean ideas that we have been confronted with that are contrary to the way we have been taught or accustomed to. It was really interesting what everyone had to say and so I took notes on what all was said last night. I wanted to share some of these ideas for you to get a glimpse of what I've been experiencing.

Journey vs. destination

Jesus did not come to earth solely to save our sins. If that were the case, then why are we all still here? If that were the case, wouldn't it be a lot easier for God just to give us all one-way tickets to heaven and be done with it? Jesus came to also allow us to journey and process here. He gave us a model by which to follow in order to live more fully.

The Trinity

God is one but, more so, God is three beings in one. He is equally the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is, by definition, a relationship. Therefore, we are called to be in relationship and to live in community as part of our worship. We aren't fully human without genuinely relating to one another; Eve was created after Adam because humanity was not complete.

Doubt is inevitable

God doubts/betrays himself: The Son cries out, "My God, My God! Why have you forsaken me?" Doubt is actually a part of worship. Those who do not doubt live in paranoia and dogmatism - living with such certainty they are right, they are terrified of encountering something that tells them otherwise.

Salvation

Can people be "saved" without actually accepting Christ? The body of Christ lives because of the Holy Spirit - because God is in them. Therefore, does God give us the power to save others? If the Body forgives and loves someone out of Christ's forgiveness and love, does that count?

Seeing everything through the lens of "story"

We live out of our stories, our narratives. Every person, text, experience that we face is affected by our past stories; the interactions are shaped by what we have already experienced and bring to the table. The Bible is, in fact, many stories that make up one larger narrative - the narrative of God's relationship with his people.

Heightened awareness of how we treat other people

Realizing a sense of communal suffering - we are all truly in this together. We all share similar feelings of inadequacy, doubt, fear, loneliness, and shame.

These are some of the new things that we've been talking through and thinking about. Most of these ideas are new for all of us, so it's been nice to struggle through them together.

Happy One-Month to us!

Last Friday, three of my MHGS friends and I realized that we needed to celebrate the fact that we had survived the first month of graduate school. I proposed that we take some food to the beach, sit by a bonfire, listen to music, and enjoy each other's company. That's precisely what we did. It was such a wonderful time of freedom, experiencing nature in all its goodness, and lots of laughter.

Here, Dana is working on the project that we came up with for our friends.

She wrote this quote on the outside of some pretty, organic-y envelopes:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. -- Marianne Williamson

I wrote each of our names on a piece of card-stock with the meaning of the name underneath and put them inside the envelopes. We did it for each of the girls that were heading to Golden Gardens that night and also for all of our roomies.

Amanda took this picture of Kate and I admiring the view. You can imagine why it deserved such admiration. BEAUTIFUL.

Here I am trying to start a fire with WOOD on a little grill. All of the fire pits were taken when we got there so we decided to improvise. Luckily for us, a group left their pit and told us we could take it.

Mmm....fire.
Amanda loves veggies!

Mmm...kabobs. Unfortunately they didn't really get cooked so we basically just ate raw veggies. But, hey, that's more vitamins for us!

A neat picture Amanda took of us prepping some food.

So beautiful.

Visit from Rach!

Too cool in some new Chuck Taylors.

Sadly, the first couple of days that she was here I had to do tons of reading for class. Lots of quality time in front of our computers. But, as usual, she was a great sport and totally didn't mind.

She won my roommates' hearts with her delicious homemade cinnamon rolls!

Abby came all the way from Portland! We all rode the ferry together!

We got off the ferry at Bainbridge Island and there we found fresh blackberries on the side of the road. Yummy snack :)

We also found a lovely outdoor shopping area where we stopped to eat our picnic lunches.

Me, Abby, and Rach aboard the ferry on the way home. Beautiful Seattle in the background.

Tuesday night Rach and I went to a Mariner's game - so fun!

Always a fan of fresh kettle corn!

Rach and I in front of Safeco Field - along with a million other people.

Thomas, look! I met Ichiro! He's so big!

This is some pitcher from the White Sox team. I took the video because I thought the speed that he throws at was insane. Rachel was standing next to me, fingers clawed to the fence, forgetting to breathe because being that close to a professional baseball player is almost the equivalent of seeing God face to face.

Wow - so beautiful! It was such a great night for baseball.

It's back to studying for me! We've been learning some pretty incredible things in class - you should ask me about them! It's been a lot of hard work to even come close to understanding all of it though :)

I'm coming!

So I am quickly realizing that I assumed wrong about the workload and that I have to bust my butt to finish all of my work before class tomorrow! I want to write and tell you all about my first week and orientation but I just haven't had the chance! In short, orientation last Monday-Wednesday was crazy awesome and overwhelming. After that, I worked a whole lot and participated in a few other welcoming activities through MHGS. I am finally starting to get into somewhat of a regular routine now too, especially after Labor Day.

I wanted to write to say I haven't forgotten you, my blogging buddies, I just have to put you on hold. I'm out here to learn, right? :)

Just for fun

Prior to school starting, my roomies and I shared some fun times. I took pictures of some of them to share with you. I wish you all were here :)

I was making popcorn on the stove for the first time and didn't realize I needed a bigger pot until it was too late. Glory ran and grabbed my camera because the popcorn popped the lid right off!

Our landlords warned us when we moved in that the smoke detector near the kitchen was pretty sensitive. They weren't lying. It literally goes off every time we use the oven so it was no exception when Glory put a pie in and left it to go take a shower. Then our smoke detector proceeded to sound on and off for about half an hour. The video below is our attempt to keep our neighbors from killing us because of the alarm's obscene volume.

Holy moly! Look at that yummy Strawberry Rhubarb pie. It was totally worth the smoke detector fiasco.

Yet another Maggie Moon's run. We're going to be so fat and happy off Maggie Moon's ice cream. This was the night before our first day of class so we thought it necessary to celebrate! (Glory and her friend Rick decided that, although they're not MHGS students, they definitely deserve to celebrate too).

We watched the sunset again in Gasworks park. We got there a little earlier this time so there was more light and lots of neat boats!

Since Glory works for a gourmet pizza place, she decided to take advantage of her discount and get us a yummy treat before our first day as well. Half bar-b-que and half "sunshine," which included feta cheese, artichoke hearts, and roma tomatoes. Michaela looks deviously happy.

Jazz hands! Me, Dana, Glory, Michaela, and Rick. Rick doesn't need jazz hands because he has a cool hat.

Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to share how much my relationship with Dinah the cat has grown and developed since she arrived. The video below speaks for itself (turn up your volume).