Hey, lovER

Here's a thought or two that's been swimming around in my head...

First, try reading a translation of the Bible you've never read or know anything about--and DON'T have your NIV (or whatever standard translation you use) right next to you to compare it to. When you come across something that doesn't make sense to you because it isn't phrased the way you were expecting, think about it. Why doesn't it make sense? What truth is the translator reading and trying to convey?

This comes out of the fact that, for whatever reason, I decided to snag my little green Gideon bible and toss it into my backpack the other day (you know, those free little New Testaments+Psalms+Proverbs that religious people pass out?). I was at lunch on Grand River and I decided to read some of it. Turn to a random book, I didn't care. I wanted a story. So I opened to 1 Corinthians, and the first chapter had some awesome stuff in there! And I was done eating, and the staff were cleaning up after the lunch rush, so I didn't want to keep sitting there, but I also didn't want to leave and go back to the chem building to study. So I decided, Hey! I'll go dump my stuff in my office and take this little book with me, and nothing else (except my office key--and my cell phone...couldn't quite let that go...what if I had an awesome revelation and someone else needed in on it!...) and go read it somewhere on campus or just walk with it?

Secondly, I now have a hankerchief in my bag that I will probably be carrying around for a few more days. Remember how I said that I had a brick to carry around for a week? Well, I wrapped it in a handerchief so that it wouldn't scuff everything else up in my bag. We (meaning IV people) were supposed to carry around this brick all week to remind us of our burdens, to give us a physical something to attach to our burdens. On Thursday, we were to (when we were ready) lay those bricks down at the cross in the corner. So I had been carrying this brick around in my bag for a week in a hankerchief, and I left the apartment Friday morning, and I felt like I was missing something. Now, when I picked up the brick I was thinking, yea, and then once I don't have to carry it around anymore, my bag will be lighter and I'll notice this. I didn't notice this. What I noticed was the fact that I could fit my laptop in my bag again, so I wasn't carrying my laptop. I felt like I was forgetting something; oh yea, my burdens! So that was really cool. But then I hadn't taken the hankerchief out of my bag, so when I opened my bag at school, I saw the handerchief--but didn't have to mess with the brick wrapped in it in order to fit things in my bag or get something out of it. So I'm keeping the hankerchief in there for a few days to remind me of the absence of the burdens--and that the burden is at the cross and I am not to try to pick it up again.

Third, have you ever heard people refer to God as their lover? If so, how did that make you feel? Did it make you uncomfortable, make you squirm? It did me. Why? Is it the connotation of mistress, of a string of nothing but one-night stands? Or is it the level of intimacy? Then I suggest looking at the definition of 'lover' and figure out what a lover really is. And then go to God with this definition and see what he shows you.