This is why taking Greek rules

O de Theos pases charitos, o kalesas umas eis ten aionion autou doxan en Christo Iesou, oligon pathontas autos katartisei, sterixei, sthenosei, themeliosei. -PETROU A 5:10

And the God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered only a little, will himself restore, fix, strengthen, establish firmly. -1 Peter 5:10

"That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory." -CS Lewis

Looking at my favorite verse in the Greek sheds a whole new light on it. The NIV says "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."

In the Greek we see the word eis, which can mean 'into', not just 'to'. We are not called to his eternal glory just to stand outside it looking in, but "indeed we share in [Christ's] sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

And the phrase "after you have suffered a little while" actually contains the word oligon which means 'only a little.' What a great way to phrase it!

The last few verbs are great:
katartisei - mend, restore, set right, make complete
sterixei - strengthen, make firm, establish, fix, set up
sthenosei - strengthen
themeliosei - found, establish firmly

What a great verse. :)

Don't you put me on the back burner

It has happened twice. In a row. And different people did it to me both times. GAH.

Monday: I'm in the lab 3:30-6. 6:05 rolls around. I get worried. This cannot be happening again. I check some facts, realize the girl coming in 6-8 had emailed asking for a replacement, so I don't even know who I'm waiting for or if she ever found anyone at all. 6:10 I am getting extremely ticked since I know Gretchen is already at SAGA waiting for me and even if I do decide to close it will take at least til 6:30. I call Gabbie several times, no answer. I leave Gretchen a message apologizing in case she gives up and comes back to the dorm. At 6:30 I start working on closing. I am writing a note explaining the lab is closed when the girl comes sprinting in about 40 minutes late. I leave, head to SAGA cursing under my breath and stomping along. I miraculously find Gretchen, we make cookies and watch Children of Dune and chill in the lobby, I feel better, I go to bed.

This morning: I woke up at 8:55 and had to throw on clothes and run over here to the BGC for my 9:00 shift...oops. Hehe. I figure I deserve to be late after my last couple of shifts. I update my journal and whine about it.

C.S. Lewis

"[God] is not proud...He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him."

"If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it that you don't feel at home there?"

"Many things--such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly--are done worst when we try hardest to do them."

"God has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense."

But the steel eye, tight jaw say it all

*Sigh* Long week. My dear friend Gretchen has been having a rough time, she's doing much better now but could still use your prayers.

My days in the rat lab have been going well, except Saturday. I woke up in a kind of bad mood, and the walk to work didn't help. Why is it that some boys think yelling obscenities out car windows at people walking down the street is a cool thing to do? I've experienced this delusion alot, walking down the street with Heidi or Katy K., and usually we just laugh at their stupidity, but on Saturday it really upset me.

My rat lab shift was 12-2, and at 2:15 when the next girl hadn't showed up yet, I was getting a little worried. I called her room, no answer. I called my friend Gabbie's room, no answer. I called Gabbie's cell, no answer. I realized that both Dr. Struthers and David, the TA who runs the lab, were out of town. I called Gretchen's room, no answer. Gabbie finally called back. Her only advice was to either stay, or shut the lab down early. I'm technically only allowed to work 10 hours a week and I was about at the limit, so I wasn't going to stay and work pro bono for two more hours. I was just about to start kicking people out to close the lab when at length, at 2:45, the girl showed up. "Sorry, by the time I realized I was going to be late I realized I didn't have the number for the lab." I was too tired to care, I just left and grabbed a burger at the Stupe.

My night improved when Gretchen and I borrowed Dune and Children of Dune from Joey and started watching them. We watched more last night and are now one-third of the way through Children of Dune. I'm really inspired to reread the books now. At the moment I'm in the middle of a book of short stories by Flannery O'Connor. She's almost like Salinger in that it's really hard to figure out what her point is, but she's somehow less captivating to me...still interesting, but I haven't fallen in love the way I did with JD.

I'm in the rat lab once again by the way, 11:30-12:45 and 3:30-6 today. After this first shift I'll go meet Gretch at SAGA and get me some grub! I hope they have good stuff for lunch...

Just another manic Monday

What a long exhausting weekend...even with my early Lenten bedtime I have been entirely drained.

On Friday Gretchen cut her hair, it's very short and pixie-ish now, it suits her really well.

My dear friend and former suite-mate Hannah came to visit. What an amazingly wise woman. She has an incredible knack for helping people see the beauty in life. Gretchen, Gabbie, and I are so thankful that she will be back next year, we've missed her ALOT. Even through the joy of our greetings, she took one look into all of our eyes and said, "You're all not okay, are you? I can tell." All our jaws just dropped. Yes we'd all been having a hard time, it had been a stressful week or two, but none of us, especially not I who hide these things so well, expected Hannah to figure it out so easily. She is just that amazing. :) Talking with her helped the three of us quite a bit.

On Saturday Gabbie, Gretchen, and I went to Chicago and took the el up to Belmont to go shopping in all the fun vintage and punk stores. I got an awesome skirt at a thrift store for four dollars:

I also got these cool buttons and this patch:

Miss Jamie Joy, one of those Adidas pins has your name on it!

On the train home there was a random drunk guy across from us. He was actually drinking a beer at the time. Not sure if that's legal. He was really smily and quiet, but goofy. His head kept lolling around. Then we heard the telltale *kshh* of a can opening. He was having his second beer. Really quite amusing, especially since we seemed to be the only people noticing it.

Sunday was draining. I was going to an African-American catholic church with some of my sociology class. We had to meet the van over by SAGA at 9:45. The van was really late and it was rainy and cold. Then we got lost in the city. When we finally found the church it was a little after noon and the service had started at 11:15. It took a while for the ushers to find us seats. We ended up on folding chairs in the aisle. The service was very focused on civil rights, race relations, and black history month. It felt more like a political rally than a church service. We stayed til 1:30 then left even though the service went for another hour. It took us FOREVER to get back, I ended up back in the dorm about 3 I think. So my entire day was spent mainly in the van...grr. I'm still digesting the experience.

The rat lab job is going well, I worked six hours last week and I work seven this week. Today I work from 3:30-5.

Happy Valentine's Day, or Single's Awareness(or appreciation) Day, or if you prefer, my friend Jason's new term: Singles Who Enjoy Everything Time (SWEET). I especially like that last one. :)

Ashes to ashes

What is the proper greeting for Ash Wednesday? I was about to type "Happy Ash Wednesday" but that seemed inappropriate.

"You are dust and unto dust you shall return" is the litany of the day.
"[The ashes] symbolize death and so remind us of our mortality. Thus when the priest uses his thumb to sign one of the faithful with the ashes, he says, "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return," which is modeled after God's address to Adam (Genesis 3:19; cf. Job 34:15, Psalms 90:3, 104:29, Ecclesiastes 3:20). This also echoes the words at a burial, "Ashes to ashes; dust to dust," which is based on God's words to Adam in Genesis 3 and Abraham's confession, "I am nothing but dust and ashes" (Genesis 18:27). It is thus a reminder of our mortality and our need to repent before this life is over and we face our Judge."
"Ashes are a biblical symbol of mourning and penance. In Bible times the custom was to fast, wear sackcloth, sit in dust and ashes, and put dust and ashes on one's head. While we no longer normally wear sackcloth or sit in dust and ashes, the customs of fasting and putting ashes on one's forehead as a sign of mourning and penance have survived to this day. These are two of the key distinctives of Lent. In fact, Ash Wednesday is a day not only for putting ashes on one's head, but also a day of fasting."
-James Akin, Ash Wednesday Q & A

I enjoyed this reading that I found:

Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent and leave behind him a blessing, Offerings and libations for the Lord, your God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly;
Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom quit his room and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep, And say, "Spare, O Lord, your people, and make not your heritage a reproach, with the nations ruling over them! Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?'"
Then the Lord was stirred to concern for his land and took pity on his people.
JOEL 2:12-18.

The focus is not what we decide to give up, but our hearts... Is your heart broken today? Does your heart weep for the lost? For the suffering? For the complacency in our churches? Take time today to feel compassion, to have Christ's heart for the lost and broken, to mourn in your ashes and sackcloth, yet rejoice in His love for you.

She works hard for the money

My first shift at the rat lab went really well. The TA, David, spent a while walking me through everything and it's all really simple. There were no students coming in today, so all I had to do was a little cleaning. It was great because there wasn't much to do. I could indulge my obsessive-compulsive tendencies and still leave early. Dr. Struthers was supposed to have some handbooks for the Lab Assistants, but they weren't there so while I cleaned David staked out his class to try and catch him during the break. He ended up not having a break and David came back down just as I was finishing.

Tomorrow I work from 3:30 - 4:30 and I'm also covering David's 6-8 shift for him. He has a lot of hours since he just stuck himself in the schedule for any time that other people couldn't work. I also have to meet with Dr. Struthers to discuss my wages. :)


Chapel this week is "Missions in Focus" and Rev. Jim Wallis spoke today. He was focused on the issues of poverty and social justice. One thing he said that really struck me was that "The conservative evangelical has painted a picture of a Jesus that is pro-rich, pro-war, and pro-America only." While I may not entirely agree, I still think that it's true to some extent. That is not my Jesus. My Jesus is represented by three gospels that mention poverty every ten verses, and one that mentions it every seven. My Jesus is Saviour for all people, not only America. And if that is the view my liberal friends have been given of Jesus by Christian conservatives, that is unacceptable.


Fun quote from the Forum Wall: Attn Girls: It is ok to touch guys. There is nothing sexual about it. He does not have to be your boyfriend. Your mission for today: Hug one guy friend of yours.

Thank you Forum-Wall-post-er for attempting to gradually introduce normal human contact to Wheaton's campus. :-P

K Bayles has a job

Tomorrow I start work in the psych rat lab here at Wheaton. My shift is from 9:00 to 10:30 tomorrow, I'm opening and I really don't know what I'm doing yet. Yikes! The TA who runs the lab hasn't talked directly to me about anything yet. My friend Gabbie emailed him about my interest and all his correspondence has been with her. The only email he has sent me was a general one saying the lab opened tomorrow, not today. I'm rather scared about all this, since as many of you know I HATE it when I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do in any given situation. *sigh* Oh well, it's money, it's cute little ratties, I'm excited. Pray that it goes well?