Religion's a big decision

So my Religion professor was lecturing today about the Great Schism, and midsentence, a guys walks into class and interupts him, says he needs to talk to him. At the time I thought this was kind of rude. Literally, he was in the middle of a sentence. So they talk out in the hall for a moment. My professor then walks back into the classroom and starts to quickly gather his things together, saying he has to go and that this guy "Scott" will pick up where he left off. No explanation, he just leaves. And so "Scott," who never tells us his name, finishes up Mr. Lane's talk on the Great Schism and dismisses us an hour early.

So we still don't know what's going on. I hope everything is ok. Mr Lane has a two-year-old adopted son and a beautiful wife (I know this because he showed us pictures on the first day of class.) and I hope they're ok. He also wasn't here last Thursday. This guy filled in for him, Will Williams (I know, who gives their kid the same first and last name? His middle name better be good. Sorry if you're Will Williams and you're reading this.) who kept us a couple minutes late, but had on an awesome blue bow tie with white polka dots.

It was a curious turn of events. And now it's 10:24 and class is over for me for the day. Since I dropped my 3D Design class, I have only one class on Tuesday/Thursdays. I'm in the SUB (student union building) now, waiting to eat lunch with Molly.

Anytime someone says the word "Religion" (outside of my religion class) the line of a song plays in my head. It's from We're All In This Together by Ben Lee and goes "And then Relgion, it's a big decision." Really, every time. I always wanna sing it out loud, but I know no one would know what I'm talking about. I'm not saying that to be a music snob "Oh, I'm so cool because no one knows that song and I do," but it's just a fact. Do you know that song? I didn't think so.

Speaking of religion, I was reading my religion book yesterday for my aforementioned religion class and came across a few interesting sentences that jumped out at from from the otherwise boring text, like, "The frightened cardinals soon withdrew from Rome, declared Urban's election invalid, and denounced him as a demon and antichrist." And, "The townspeople outside the cathedral gleefully burned them in effigy." I thought those were some pretty exciting sentences. I underlined them, so the next student who has my textbook will take note of them. They probably will think I underlined them for their scholastic value, but really, it was entertainment value.

I like the use of the word "gleefully."

The Second Star To The Right

Sing Alliance made PigSkin! Yay! For those of you who don't know what that means, let me break it down for you: Sing consists of19 7-minute kind of mini-musicals. It's a pretty big deal at Baylor. I was in one of them with the organization Sing Alliance (it's the only non-Greek organization in it). It's two weekends long, six performances in all with different judges every night. The judges score the performances based on things like entertainment value, vocals, choreography, etc. The top eight go on to PigSkin next fall. And we're in the top eight. Yeehaa! And we got People's Choice for Best Backdrop and Best Theme Development. So that's pretty freakin awesome.

It's been a really good weekend. And now Sing is over and I'll have so much free time I won't know what to do with myself.

Someone put our performance up on YouTube. I'm debating whether to put it here or not so you can know what I'm talking about . . . but watching it on YouTube is nothing compared to real life . . . and I don't know If you'll know exactly what's going on. . .eh, what the heck, here it is. I'm a lost kid by the way. And the theme is Peter Pan.

I Heart Relevant


I'm reading through the newest issue of Relevant and wanna share some of this stuff. So here are some random, thoughtful, insighful, interesting blurbs...

from "Jesus Wrecked My Life" by Shane Claiborne:
"I know there are people out there who say, 'My life was such a mess. I was drinking, partying, sleeping around . . .then I met Jesus, and my whole life came together.' God bless those people. But me I had it together. I used to be cool. And then I met Jesus, and He wrecked my life. The more I read the Gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued and hoped for upside down."

from "7 Big Questions," which was an interview with "seven core leaders of faith."
This first one is Lauren Winner's response to the question "What is a negative tendency of this generation as it relates to the faith?":
"Our failure to tithe. I hear it all the time: 'I just can't afford to give right now.' I hear that from my middle-class American peers. I wonder, if we 'can't afford' to give now, why not? And if we 'can't afford' to give now, when will we be able to afford to give? I know of nothing that will transform someone's spiritual life more abruptly than beginning to tithe. If we want to learn about dependence on God, tithe. If we want to have our treasure in heaven, tithe. If we want to have any hope of having solidarity with the poor, tithe." (This struck me hard because of the financial state of my church in Waco, UBC. Every Sunday they put in the bulliten how much money is needed to keep the place running and how much money was recieved in the offering the last Sunday. The numbers are embarassing. Like this past week "tithe: $4873.50, needed weekly: $6600." And that's actually more tithe than I've seen in the last couple weeks. Rarely every does it hit the amount that's needed weekly.)

This is Mark Driscoll's response to the question "What do you see as the greatest challenge for young Christians in the next 10 years?":
"There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tatto down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can bet up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity." (I agree in the danger of being a "cultural Christian," because I feel the tendency to do it myself. But at the same time, I know a lot of people who find it easier to worship a "hippie" Jesus making "pithy Zen statments about life" than one with a "commitment to make people bleed")

Relevant is amazing. And they also had a feature article on Ben Folds this issue. That was pretty sweet.

I ch-ch-choose you

'Tis Valentine's Day. There has never been so many flowers and sweets and baked goods in our apartment at one time. I feel like this is the semester when we will all gain like, ten pounds. (which reminds me of a line in an Alanis Morrisette song "..that I would be good, even if I gained ten pounds..." it's a good song) But then there's Sing, to offset that. It opens tomorrow by the way. Eeee! We had our dress rehearsal tonight and preformed in front of actual people. It was fun, but pretty nerve-wracking. We're always being told to be sharper and happier and "Sing faces!" and how much we have to prove ourselves to everyone and make Pigskin (sorry for you non Baylor people who don't know what I'm talking about. There's like 20-something acts in Sing in the spring and then the best of them, about seven, go on to PigSkin in the fall. It's pretty intense. A big deal) Really, I'm less concerned with making Pigskin and more with just having fun and entertaining the audience. I wish everyone would just stop freaking out and ENJOY IT.

This week is going by s o s l o w by the way. I think it's all the Sing practices. Oh, and I have exciting news (for myself anyway)...I can sleep in tomorrow! My only class is cancelled and I am NOT setting my alarm. Ooooh yeeaah. I haven't been able to do that in so long.

Life is good though. I like life.

Claire got a fondue pot thing (I don't know what they're called) for her birthday which was last weekend (on MY half birthday, the 11th). And we heated up some chocolate and dipped various foods in it and it was GLORIOUS.

Taco Tuesday

Oh man oh man. I'm so full of Rosa's tacos and rice and beans and tortillas with honey and diet coke. So...full. I think I just ate much too quickly. I find when I eat with only boys I eat faster, because they just stuff their faces, and I follow suit. Oh man oh man.

It was worth it though. So good.

So the weather has been absolutely marvelous outside these last few days. Today, I actually ate lunch outside and I actually got hot and the sun was actually in my eyes. It sounds annoying, but really it was great. And I've been riding my bike to class. That's nice. Except when you almost die. But don't worry, I'm ok and it was totally my fault.

Man, I wish I had something incredibly cool and insightfult to say, but I don't, and I usually don't. But then if I did I'd just feel like I was being pretentious. Like "oo, read my blog. I'm so insightful. Look at me."

Whatevs.

This year has been fun, you know? As in sophomore year. It's been fun getting to know these girls I'm living with. It's fun to really get to know a person--all their quirks and idiosyncrasies. What kind of food they like, their sleeping habits, how they act when they like a boy, how they deal with messes, their laugh--little things. The idea of living alone appeals to me, and later I think I'd enjoy it, but right now I can't imagine not being with people. So much happens when everyone is just sitting around studying or getting ready for bed or doing laundry. It's fun.



We're cute.

My next hairstylist is going to hate me

So my hair caught on fire yesterday. I was eating dinner in my loft with some of my roomies and we lit a candle because the light bulb directly over the table had gone out. Claire had made herself some yummy-looking chocolate-chip pancakes and I was offered a bite. As I was leaning over the table to procure said bite, I began to smell burnt hair. I then looked down and saw the my hair was directly on top of a open flame and that was the source of the awful stench. So I screamed and jumped back. I didn't actually see my hair catch flame, just smelled the smell and afterwards saw the curled, charred ends of a small section of my hair. I spent some time last night going through my hair and cutting the ends that had burned.

My throat is all scratchy, I've been sneezing a lot, and I woke up this morning with a runny nose. I don't want to be sick dag-nab-it.

edit:
And just so you know, the yummy-looking chocolate-chip pancake was delicious.