In case you were wondering my new apartment is divine. :)
Granted, there are no shirtless military men running around outside for me to gawk at like when I lived in San Antonio (right off the air force base) but then again I couldn't stand on my balcony in a sweatshirt and take in the snowy surroundings by night while sipping hot cocoa when I lived there... I'm thinking, rippling pecs galore aside, it's been a definite trade up. :)
I'm finally getting settled in here too. It's happened all so much faster than when I made the move from Austin to San Antonio this time last year. I never did really feel at home there, come to think of it.
Salina is slow, sleepy, and Norman Rockwellesque. :) It's been kind to me as I've come down off the whirlwind of events that led me here (which began with an unexpected job offer from the regional hospital in town to come and work in their sleep disorders center).
Yep, things happen (across the board!) much slower in Kansas. :)
Case in point, no sooner had I had the Cox Communications people up to the apartment to install cable and internet then the lamp on the bigscreen went out. :(
I got in an episode of the Colbert Report and Tabitha's Salon Takeover and then... ka-put.
I promptly called the store in Texas I purchased the thing from and they assured it me it was still under warranty. They gave me the number to their local affiliate and I had to chuckle when the salesgirl there quoted me "five to ten business days" before they'd have the parts in to repair it!
With TV not at my disposal I have been making a lot of calls home. I'm newly back in state after a three year absence, I've got a nephew on the way, it's the holiday season - there's a lot to talk about with family right now!
My Mom is always up for a chat and the day the TV went out was no exception. She and I had recently just returned from DisneyWorld and were still having fun recalling the different aspects of our trip.
I promptly called the store in Texas I purchased the thing from and they assured it me it was still under warranty. They gave me the number to their local affiliate and I had to chuckle when the salesgirl there quoted me "five to ten business days" before they'd have the parts in to repair it!
With TV not at my disposal I have been making a lot of calls home. I'm newly back in state after a three year absence, I've got a nephew on the way, it's the holiday season - there's a lot to talk about with family right now!
My Mom is always up for a chat and the day the TV went out was no exception. She and I had recently just returned from DisneyWorld and were still having fun recalling the different aspects of our trip.
While we were there I auditioned for "The American Idol Experience" at Disney Studios. It's a show the park runs several times a day in which three of that day's park guests get to perform song snippets on a replica of the American Idol Stage for a chance to win an audition for the REAL show.
Mom was so proud I'd been picked. I sang "Drops Of Jupiter" by Train in front of about 500 people; didn't "win" but it was still one of the most memorable parts of the trip. :)
Before I took the stage I tried to give Mom a quick crash course on how to use my cell phone's camera to snap pictures (she was still fuming that TSA had confiscated the disposable WalGreen's cameras she'd bought out of her checked baggage - lol).
Mom tried but really only got a handful of pics of me performing my ditty that were of any real quality...
I sipped cocoa on the balcony and laughed as we recalled it together and suddenly my phone alerted me I had another call coming in.
This one was from the kid brother. I let Mom go and answered, eager to get an update on how soon I could expect to be an uncle.
"Hey," Neal said, "We just got out of the doctor's."
"So, what's the news?" I asked, stepping back indoors to retrieve some more marshmallows for my Swiss Miss.
I heard Alicia start laughing as Neal continued.
"What's she laughing at?" I asked, cracking a smile.
"She thinks it's so funny that for the last couple days we thought the baby was still breech and really he'd flipped around..."
I thought this over for a minute before admitting, "I don't get it. Explain, please."
I could almost see Neal's eyes rolling as he continued.
"A couple of nights ago I told Alicia I wanted to start singing the baby a lullaby before we went to bed. So for about a week I've been resting my head on her rib cage to sing so that it'd be by the baby's ears. Well, after the doctor told us the baby had flipped Alicia realized that..."
My sister in law suddenly came to life in the background and cut my brother off, "He's been singing to the baby's butt!"
Alicia and I laughed for about five minutes while Neal held the phone in silence. :) And then laughter broke out anew when Alicia relayed Neal had been going on and on about how after he'd sung his nightly lullabies to the kiddo he'd felt the area around Alicia's ribs and hypothesized the baby had a head just like his!
I hung up the phone, crashed on the couch, and laughed for about five more minutes before looking at the big screen in the corner again with disdain.
A little light blinked on the bottom of the unit. Underneath it read the word "Picture".
I still can't believe it's going to take so long for the repair people to get out here to fix said 'picture'.
But thinking about the conversations I've had with loved ones this holiday season I guess it's just in keeping with a theme.
A skewed picture, as a rule, generally takes a long time to address.
I don't know how long we waited for the pics from that Disney trip to be developed (only to realize that Disney World has to be EXPERIENCED because the pictures you take never do it justice!)....
...or how long my kid brother was singing to his baby's ass before a sonogram revealed it. lol.
...or how long I went looking at shirtless military men out my apartment window never realizing the sight of fresh snow weighing down the branches of every evergreen in sight was an infinitely more beautiful portrait.
When you look at a misrepresentation for a long time it can be embarrassing to admit it once you see things for how they really are.
But if you power through the shame you feel for having been looking at things the wrong way for so long you're always rewarded!
Seeing things the correct way for the first time is always just as exhilarating as it is humbling.
That's something I realized in the aftermath of another family conversation I had after my move to Salina.
I don't mean to paint my Dad as the one member of the family who is disagreeable. That's not the case. I can be plenty disagreeable too, believe me! :)
But he and I lock horns pretty regularly over the topic of the inerrancy of Scripture.
That's something I realized in the aftermath of another family conversation I had after my move to Salina.
I don't mean to paint my Dad as the one member of the family who is disagreeable. That's not the case. I can be plenty disagreeable too, believe me! :)
But he and I lock horns pretty regularly over the topic of the inerrancy of Scripture.
I've had a breakthrough this winter season in my new apartment sipping my cocoa. :)
Really, it's just been that for the first time I'm able to put words to something I've been on my way to believing all along.
And no one else has to agree with this - this is merely documentation of conclusions *I'm* drawing in my time alone with God.
For me, if we're talking about forcing oneself to believe that the Zondervan Bible my friend Kevin gifted me before I went to Bible College in 2002 is 'the inerrant word of God'... well, I'm done trying.
Because the truth is it's a copy of a copy of a copy that's undergone several language translations and maybe even in it's original form didn't include all the things it should've or could've.
There are gospels authored by Jesus' siblings and mother that I've no reason to believe are any less authentic or inspired & that didn't make it into 'the final draft'.
A Bible scholar friend even told me recently that Martin Luther (one of the founding fathers of the modern Christian faith!) even went on record as saying that the book of Revelation was included as Scriptural texts primarily because the council that drafted our modern day Bibles didn't fully understand it and were afraid to leave something with so much uninterpreted imagery out!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
Yet given all that - 2000 + years after the fact we're still trying to incorporate every jot and title that *was* passed down to us into our modern lives.
I think God is probably honored by those attempts but I also, as of late, have to stop and wonder if He questions why we insist on looking at THAT as our illustration of choice of His innerant Word.
See, I believe God's Word very much IS inerrant... but I don't believe it to exist between the front and back covers of my Zondervan anymore... at least not entirely because, well, in my opinion it never did.
I sip my cocoa and I suggest ever so boldly that the 'inerrant Word of God' as it exists in its entirety abides only in Christ.
Yet given all that - 2000 + years after the fact we're still trying to incorporate every jot and title that *was* passed down to us into our modern lives.
I think God is probably honored by those attempts but I also, as of late, have to stop and wonder if He questions why we insist on looking at THAT as our illustration of choice of His innerant Word.
See, I believe God's Word very much IS inerrant... but I don't believe it to exist between the front and back covers of my Zondervan anymore... at least not entirely because, well, in my opinion it never did.
I sip my cocoa and I suggest ever so boldly that the 'inerrant Word of God' as it exists in its entirety abides only in Christ.
The Gospel of John begins...
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Christ is the inerrant Word of God. It exists without error only in Him.
And for me, anything else is just a skewed picture... something I think I see as I should but really don't.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Christ is the inerrant Word of God. It exists without error only in Him.
And for me, anything else is just a skewed picture... something I think I see as I should but really don't.
You know, I don't care if it *does* take five to ten business days for Aaron's to get over here and install the parts needed to revive my bigscreen...
The view off the balcony is a whole lot better...
And once you've seen the big, bright, snow covered 'bigger picture' everything else just looks like a cheap dimestore postcard anyway.
As we close out 2009 and get set to sail into 2010 let's all take some time to take in a view of the real world outside our windows...
...and remember, that Swiss Miss is going to need topped off with more marshmallows than what you think it needs. :)
