Dog vs. Toy

Some dogs trounce around, head held high, toy in mouth…some shake their heads…some play tug of war…some fling it around. Mallory?  Well, she finds the first available spot to settle down and get to work….shredding! It’s her thing, I guess.

Where does my time go??

Ever wonder where all the time really goes in a week?  Well, I don’t anymore, I guess. According to a survey at DTS, here is my average week:

What’s in a Name?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
 – Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)

I guess you could say that my sentiments echo Shakespeare’s words, especially towards family names. I am not against family names by any means…they often represent a rich heritage and/or tradition, but I have never been particularly inclined to follow this tradition…nor not follow it, I guess…when I have children. This becomes quite a significant issue when you do have a child and go through the process of choosing a name. See, for me, it is not the name that makes a person…it is the person that makes the name (if that makes sense.) Yet naming your child is an important task and I have a loving wife who has honored me greatly! Thus my ramblings are all to say that we have chosen a name for our son:

LUKE ANDREW SEABOURN

So there you have it (my middle name is Luke, in case you did not know)! In additional baby news, all is going well in growth and development. We had a checkup on Friday and weight, measurements, and heartbeat are all good. Meredith has departed from the land of morning sickness and is back to enjoying food only 1 time around. I find that if I take a hungry, pregnant woman to the grocery store, we come home with all sorts of goodies and treats It’s a good thing that the father doesn’t have to participate in regular weigh-ins!

Quotables

“You totally just scooby-doo’ed me didn’t you…”

- Hurley from LOST

Belief in God

We recently had a lectureship series at school on the “New Atheism”. One of the devlopments traced is as follows:

Pre-Reformation: Implausible to not believe in God
Post-Reformation: Possible to not believe in God, though rare
Modernism: Implausible to believe in God

This reminded me of a reflection (this is unedited, unrefined, and not exhaustive) I wrote on one of my Trinitarianism class lectures. It is as follows:

 

“Do you believe in God?”

            “No!”

            “Why not?”

            “Because you cannot prove him to me.”

 

            In a sense, I wish conversations with the World were as simple as the one above. These conversations occur very frequently, but too often the real issue is cloaked in fancy words and rabbit trails, so the Christian misunderstands the underlying issue. And yet, even if the fluff of arguments were swept away, I think that Christians today still make a serious error: we take the responsibility to try and PROVE the existence of God. Why do we, Christians, think that we need to prove God, when He himself never wrote that proof?

            Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the beginning of God’s interaction with the earth and world that we live in. It is interesting to note that there is no account of where God came from. God was…and then He created, starting everything. Let us look, then, in the New Testament to see how the apostle’s understood the beginning, a look back. In John 1:1-2 it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Again, concerning ourselves simply with investigating the existence of God, we see that God was in the beginning and so was the Word, who we know to be Jesus, the Son. So even an apostle, when looking back to the very beginning, having the same revelation that we do today, makes no case for proving God. There is an assumption that God is and therefore no need to prove that He is.

            Why is it then, that today Christians battle the challenges to prove that God exists? Clearly it is because science has become the standard by which man measures all that is around him. But, the issue actually descends deeper into man than this. Man was created to rule over all else on this earth. Man has achieved this position today using science. So science is really a means to an end that man seeks. The problem, though, is that man is seeking to place under his rule God. Man is attempting to apply his created standard of measure to God, the Creator who is. This cannot work, and it does not work. Instead of understanding that man’s measure cannot be usable on his creator, God, man chooses to reject God because his belief is that his measure is faultless and all encompassing.

            The result is that man does not want to accept the existence of God because he cannot define Him, grasp Him…ultimately, control Him. By God’s design, the earth has been put under man’s rule, but man is reaching out for more to rule over. That which man cannot rule, he rejects.

            Christians, therefore, should not be caught up in the arguments for God’s existence. The Scriptures teach us about God, but they are written with the assumption that God exists. I think we, as Christians, should take the same approach. It is not ours to prove God’s existence, though we can indeed offer insights here.

 

Ludicrous Lunacy

In light of the shooting that took place at Northern Illinois University, people are seeking answers to the pressing question: how do we stop these slayings? Here is a proposed solution, at least on some college campuses: allow students to carry concealed weapons on campus. I cannot believe that this is a “solution” that is seriously being considered…yet it is!! Listen to what a Virginia Tech student had to say (click here for the article): “He said it is unlikely that bringing guns on campus would make school more dangerous.”

Naturally, when this type of event happens, people feel that their safety has been threatened and thus try and sort through ways to regain what has been taken from them. But seriously, allowing 18 year olds to arm themselves and then add little sleep, maybe some alcohol, maybe drugs…sounds like a solution to me….yeah right! I fear the next story that makes headlines…Student Enters Class Late, Fatally Shot. Taking arms is not going to stop these types of slayings…if anything, it will only add to the madness!

I guess I still hope for common sense to preside…Wishful? Perhaps.

Quotables

Today was a good day for quotes, all from the depths of profs’ minds!

“You’re gonna be a cooked goose!”
(If you don’t study your Hebrew paradigms)

“It’ll save your bacon”
(Hebrew principal parts for verbs)

“Seems to me there’s six in one and half a dozen in the other.”

Reflect-ing

I am taking a Christian Ed. class about how to develop a higher education course. I am really enjoying it…though the one aspect I see becoming slightly annoying down the road is REFLECTION. It is an emphasis in current education philosophy, mainly because it is toted as a “high level” learning activity. I’ll spare the details, but in honor of the emphasis, lets reflect!

This has been a much better semester than last, in terms of course load. I really don’t know what I was thinking trying to take that 5th class! However, my Greek and Hebrew classes seem to be taking more time than before…just never can get that extra minute…

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the US Men’s Natl. team play Mexico in a friendly (this is futbol I’m talking about). I was a little disappointed in the final outcome, but the US did field a youth-laden team. Seems the coach was trying to get a feel for their play in the interanational arena. The veterans were really the ones that disappointed. Donovan seemed to be a non-factor, especially at anchoring the midfield and possessing the ball, as well as making slicing runs to give some sort of target. It was entertaining to see Howard in goal, though. Props to the Wheelers for the venue!

In participatory sports….I played ultimate frisbee on Saturday. There are 5 teams and we played 2 back to back…and they were the 2 teams with the organizers, thus the group that apparently play every weekend. Yeah, so we were slaughtered 11-1 and 11-2. Of course our team captain was being a great encourager and focusing on the positive…we scored all of our goals when it was 10-0, so good job in not giving up. I couldn’t help but think about the fact that in both games, the opposing team changed their line-up at this point, so we were playing our 5 guys and 2 girls against their 3 guys and 4 girls…and NO, I didn’t mention that! Anyway, I think we will have a better result against the other 2 teams in the league.

We had an interesting debate in my church history class today. The prof split us into 2 groups, each having to argue support for the patriots or the loyalists in the American Revolution…from strictly a theological standpoint.  I was supporting the loyalists, which was splendidly easy. Got me thinking about which side I might have joined had I been a part of that time in history.  Hmmmm….not really sure….maybe I’ll just claim the pacifists!

Okay, that is enough “reflecting” for now. I have even reflected on my reflection and realized that I did not reflect effectively because I have not moved much beyond relating events and into analyzing what I have learned….ahhh enough of this!

Keeping Perspective

There are in life those blessed individuals whose words help you keep things in perspective. I use the term “blessed” quite loosely…in fact it may be more akin to “bless his heart,” those words said when you really have nothing proper to say about someone and you figure you won’t be asked for any further clarification of your true feelings about him or her. Mere encountered one such “blessed” individual today.

Mere:  “People keep commenting that I don’t look very pregnant. I think I do.”
“Blessed” Individual: “Well, either you are doing a great job of hiding your pregnant belly, or you were so fat and disgusting before that no one can tell the difference.”

I laughed for a long, long time when she told me the comment. I know it sounds harsh, but the comment was made in jest and the individual is a good friend. If you knew him, you would not be surprised!

Recipe for a Healthy Family

The studies that we conduct never cease to amaze me. Actually, the results/conclusions of the never-ending string of studies are really what tend to baffle my mind. I really am not against studies because we do learn quite a bit from them, I just have to laugh at the thought process by secular society. Today I listened to a discussion on NPR about the benefit of having a family dinner. Apparently, families that sit down together for dinner every night can solve society’s woes of drug addictions, alcohol abuse, pre-marital sex, and gang involvement. This, according to a study done on children of families who regularly have dinner together. Wow!!! Who knew the power of the family dinner?!?! So, to all my friends and family out there who want a healthy family….engage in the family dinner.

Sure, I’m scoffing a bit at the study, but you would too if you heard the discussion about the mystery of the family dinner! Towards the end of the discussion someone finally piped some sense into conclusions from the study. No, there is not in fact some magical mystery behind the family dinner. Yes, a logical conclusion would be to look at the factors surrounding the family dinner…to evaluate what is being accomplished:
  – face to face conversation amongst family members (specifically parents to children)
  – interaction (more than grunts and mumbles)
  – behavior assessment/evaluation/discovery (parents to children)
Whatever the context, these types of behaviors will provide positive results. It is amazing what happens when a family actually acts LIKE A FAMILY!!!!

 So, you want a healthy family?? Just sit down to dinner together. Mixed with a few other ingredients, a pinch of conversation, a dash of interaction, and you never know what might be served alongside of the food!