It's Just a Moment

Change of Plans

A big update for y'all- Instead of going to Mexico this summer, I will actually be going to El Salvador! The woman I was partnered with for Mexico dropped out of the program, so they are sending me with the team to El Salvador. Many of you know I went there for a short mission trip in high school, so I am really excited to go back!!

Highs and Lows

This week was intense- full with intense highs and lows. A real roller-coaster of emotions, that I honestly don't want to delve into too much here. Quickly, highs included a talk with my Bishop and a solidified meeting time for my postulancy interviews, chanting morning prayer, and eating lunch with Ellen Davis; lows included not being able to go to Geneva for Easter, getting my credit card information stolen and fraudulent charges on my account, and other various money/emotional issues. I just keep telling myself not to worry about money too much, everything will be ok. And everything else, well to quote the song below- "It's just a moment, this time will pass."

Spiritual Autobiography

I wanted to write briefly about my experience this week telling my spiritual autobiography to my spiritual formation group. I will preface this by saying that my group is not that close. Last semester, we didn't bond all that much, and I'm SO happy to have my good friend Rachel in the group, or I don't know how I'd get through it each week. Our leader can be insightful at times, but more often we wonder what he's thinking... Usually in spiritual formation (a mandatory, non-credit class for first year M.Div students), students present their spiritual autobiographies during the first semester. Our leader decided he wanted to try doing them our second semester. This was not the best decision on his part. Of course he couldn't have known what our group dynamic would be, but I hope that he uses our experience to inform other classes he may teach. There is such a change in the group since we started telling our stories. We're getting to know each other in this deep personal and spiritual way. There's a profound vulnerability that you feel when you let everything out on the line to a group of people. If you've never written a spiritual autobiography, I highly recommend it. This was my third time (in about a 3 year period), and each time new things come up and are highlighted. I wrote mine this time about the strong women who have shaped me spiritually. Many of those women read this blog- so know that I was thinking about you a lot this week :-) [Also, if anyone from St. Andrew's has Terry McCall's email address and could send that along to me, that would be wonderful.] This was a really good time for me to think about my call and about what brought me to Duke and my current studies. Next weekend I'm going on a discernment retreat (a requirement of Spiritual Formation), so I think it will be a nice time to further reflect on these issues. I am so grateful I was able to verbalize my story to this group, and I am so looking forward to hearing all the other stories.

A Look into my Classes

There were some quotes from readings or lecture this week that stuck out to me, and I thought I would share some of them. 

"In the ancient Mediterranean world, mealtime was a social event whose significance far outdistanced the need to satisfy one’s hunger. To welcome people at the table had become tantamount to extending to them intimacy, solidarity, acceptance; table companions were treated as though they were of one’s extended family. Sharing food encoded messages about hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, boundaries and crossing boundaries. Who ate with whom, where one sat in relation to whom at the table- such questions as these were charged with social meaning in the time of Jesus and Luke. As a consequence, to refuse table fellowship with people was to ostracize, to treat them as outsiders…" From Joel Green's Theology of the Gospel of Luke which we read in my New Testament class. 

“The medium by which we can embrace the word of God is not our rational intellect but a heart that echoes.” From Eric Peels's Shadow Sides of God. (Don't read it, horrible book) I liked the language of a heart that echoes. :-)

Some Luther for you, from my paper: "I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered Himself to me; I will do nothing in this life except what I see is necessary, profitable, and salutary to my neighbor, since through faith I have an abundance of all good things in Christ.” (Luther, Freedom of a Christian) Since Christ came to relieve us of our sins and to help us ultimately live in this world, we too are expected to make sacrifices in order to help our neighbor. It is through faith, knowledge, and love of Christ that a true Christian can be formed; one who will selflessly act as an offering and sacrifice for a fellow Christian. (My preceptor really liked this part of my paper. haha)

Notes from one of the best Old Testament lectures, in my opinion. Talking about Micah 6:8: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Stephen "Chaps" Chapman- emphasize the verbs in Mic 6:8--we are not just to be just, but to “do” justice; not just to act kindly but to “love” kindness; not just to live humbly, but to “walk” humbly. Justice, Kindness, and Humility- They are theological virtues, they come from God, they require God, and they serve God’s purposes in the world .

Jukebox Time

I'm so grateful for Brent and Natalie, who reminded me last night how awesome U2 is. Thanks wonderful people! This song in particular is meaningful to me right now.  (And I like this version on the video)

And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass
It's just a moment
This time will pass 

Peace, Love, and Smiles y'all
Christa