Thursday, February 11, 2010

Lots of words today

Wow ... I've enjoyed writing today, but my brain began to run out of words at some point! It took a little while for me to generate new ones for this blog.

Today I spent a lot of time reading and writing for my God in History blog. While I'm here at the cabin, where it is quiet and I'm fully alone, I find it much easier to write and think, read, study, research. So, I write at least a week ahead on my other blogs. Of course, the fact that I do this makes it interesting for me to talk about what is happening in the blog. This afternoon as Max and I were discussing the God in History blog, I found myself completely confused as to what he already knows from what I've written and what is coming up. He's pretty patient and doesn't mind finding out what's next - even though the little nuggets I've found are fun to discover.

I'm up to about the tenth century and it has been really fun for me to watch how the spread of Christianity throughout Europe has occurred and has affected Western Civilization. It's also been really interesting to see how our ideas on doctrine for the church have developed - things that we take for granted were being written down by incredible scholars as they thought on the things of God. It's interesting to see the moral decay occurring within the church as it gained political power.

You know ... Jesus came to bring salvation to a world that was in the midst of hideous sin. The Israelites had moved from being God's chosen people - twelve tribes that moved together through some amazing times, but began to fragment as they got comfortable living in the world.

Christians have done the same thing. In the early days, they called on the power of God to carry them through the awful persecutions of early Roman emperors. But, after Constantine brought peace and safety to them, they grew in power and began to fragment.

Just as the prophets of the Old Testament would be sent by God to re-energize the Israelites and bring them back to the fold, events happened within Christendom that would revitalize the church and remind people that their faith was greater than anything in the world.

I have done a lot of 'out loud' complaining today because I just didn't get a good education in Western Civilization. So as I'm trying to write short synopses of these events, I have to read and research a lot so that I have a full understanding of the time surrounding the events. I know that it's good for me, but sometimes I feel like there is SO MUCH that I don't know, I become overwhelmed.

The Matrix (the movie) offered me a science fiction idea of how to manage all of that information. I often think that I'd like to be jacked into the Matrix so that I could have all of the information out there available to me at just a thought. Jack me in ... jack me in.

The other night at rehearsal, the girls in the high school choir watched as I googled several different questions that came up. Someone turned to me and asked how I ever existed without the internet. The answer to that question is, "I have no idea." I think part of the reason I married my husband is that he is a walking encyclopedia. The reason I am returning to get my Master's Degree is that I want them to forcefeed more information to me.

So, here I am, writing words about learning and writing and reading and studying and researching. Wow, this is obviously a passion of mine. Would someone please hire me to do this for them on a daily basis? (ok, I'm kidding ... well, not really)

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