TheLionRampant.net

Today I am 25.

I am glad today’s my birthday although it won’t be nearly as busy as childhood birthdays or the last month or so here with friends and family here to visit. I’m so happy to have had everyone here and yet I am quite happy to have our wee flat just back to the two of us.

This reminds me of a story I hear about an early birthday party of mine. There are a number of little kids running around, eating sugar and creating a rucous. My mom, busy being the good-party-mom she is, suddenly discovers her daughter is not among the crowd of tiny children. Knowing her introverted daughter, she combs the house to find her upstairs alone and upset. Upset not because feelings had been hurt or anything like that, but upset because I just wanted them all to leave me alone - and now. The crowds were too much - even in the midst of celebration - and I just wanted them to go home. My mom finally coaxed me back downstairs to my guests and all was well. I think there’s some of that little girl in me yet.

Today I am working on my chapter to turn in for my First Year PhD Review due on Friday and then Bryce and I are going to go see a production of Anna Karenina at a matinee for only 2GBP a ticket! This price is absolutely thrilling. I guess the Royal Lyceum has Wednesday matinees at the student price for just 2 pounds as a regular thing. This is cheaper than the cinema and so much better! I’m excited.

Tonight will see more birthday celebration sitting in front of our computers doing work. Dinner will be a delectable feast of left-overs (bread, cheese, salami and wine) and I’m sure we’ll get a few phone calls. Here’s to being a quarter of a century - it’s a bit anti-climatic, but then again, so are a lot of things.

Today (Friday still as I haven’t gone to bed yet) I had an hour to myself to wander around the city as Bryce and Ken and Gillian went on the Scotch Malt Whisky Heritage Tour. On a student budget the 6.50 GBP price for each (student discounted) ticket was a bit steep - especially as I don’t like whiskey really, so I opted out and weaved past spring tourists to the National Gallery of Scotland.

I feel in many ways Easter just crept up on me and I haven’t had much time to internalise and reflect upon the import of Christ’s death and his resurrection. So it was good to be alone for an hour in the stillness of the art gallery. I spent most of my time seated pondering Vermeer’s “Christ in the House of Mary and Martha” and tried to look anew at a familiar tale of the ‘good/quiet’ woman and the ‘busy’ woman. I wrote down a few feeble attempts at verse - something I have gotten out of the habit of, very unfortunately (I’ll try to post it soon). Probably being that today is Good Friday, the way Jesus seems to point towards Mary as one imagines he is in the act of reprimanding Martha seemed rather poignant as the hands which would hold nails a few years later. Jesus seemed to look saddened, patient, gracious, instructive and loving all at the same time. While Mary seemed transfixed almost to the point of boredom, I was really intrigued by Martha, with her hands inches away from the table with a basket of bread to serve to Jesus. She was right in the moment of service and the expression on her face seems one of quiet contemplation, that she is internalising her rebuke from Jesus; she is a Martha who has stopped for a moment (if only in the moment of the painting) and is carefully considering Jesus’ words; she is the Martha who confesses Jesus as the Christ, not the Martha we easily categorise as ‘too busy for Jesus’. Suddenly I realised it’s not entirely bad to be a Martha as long as we’re Mary too.

I don’t know really how to put it. I sort of felt my soul enlarged (or sort of like my spirit was beginning to breathe) being a Mary for a moment, sitting to ponder that painting, having it grow me, rather than Martha-like rushing through the gallery. Or in other words, my regular visits with paintings there are my equivalent to my sister-in-law’s trips to Crathes castle gardens at twilight through the flowers’ life cycles.

I turned in my New Testament essay today. That’s the last essay of the year for me.

My dissertation is due on April 1st (happy birthday to me). I have about 9,500 more words to write.

I have another Hebrew test this Thursday. I really need to do well on this one so I have a high enough average to get me through the final.

My body is trying to get sick, which is really not helpful right about now.

Hopefully I’ll get my next post in my predestination series up soon, but it might not happen before my dissertation is done. We’ll see.

That’s it for now. Maybe my next post will be a little more interesting. Right now I feel like taking a nap…

What we’ve been up to lately –

Friday, our friends from California, the Leslies, came to visit. We met them at the flat they’re renting on the Royal Mile after Bryce finished classes. We hung out and got treated to dinner at Pizza Express that evening. Yum! We also took the younger Leslies out to a pub for Ken to enjoy a Caledonian 80+/ on tap. Saturday, we went to ASDA to stock up on some groceries for our party that evening and met the Leslie clan at the Edinburgh Castle for another meal, more pictures and more fun time together. That evening we had all our friends over here to a party to meet our cool friends. Lots of food, drinks, fun and no sleep (we finally got to bed at 4.30 am)! Sunday, the Leslies joined us at church and we grabbed a jacket potato after church. Planning on going to do tourist things with them, we bailed after finally sitting down to have tea at our flat - we were exhausted. So we cleaned up from the night before, and took a nap; we also skipped evening church - we were just too tired. Today seems much better already. The Leslies are up in the Highlands for the next few days and so we’ll be madly trying to get work done while they’re away! You can see all the pictures that Ken and Gillian are taking here.

*P.S. Sorry for the lack of depth in our posts as of late; I think it’s all we can do to get our work done (just in the nick of time), have clean dishes so we can eat, and try to get enough sleep as deadlines approach. Thank you for your prayers! We’ll be back in form soon. We look forward to Easter and celebrating the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ on Sunday. May your week be filled with the remembrance of Christ’s passion, the sombreness of his death and the joy present in His resurrection.

Many people in Scotland have been quite surprised to find out that I was a cheerleader (and now that I’ve revealed the truth, some blogmates may be surprised too). Loud music. Silly faces. Short skirts. Dancing. Tumbling. And some rocking stunting. That just doesn’t seem to fit into what they know of me now. Cheerleaders are supposed to be well, dumb, or at least not in the Honours classes. Can’t you see the headlines? “Cheerleader turned PhD” - utterly shocking! Cheerleaders, like (American) football players are also a part of enshrined American culture that is virtually and imaginatively inaccessible to other cultures. That is my interesting thought of today (and I’m not even sure it’s all that interesting).

What is something about you that someone might be surprised to know?

1. My throat hurts. And not because I’m sick. Because I’m trying to learn French (the tapes I bought start first with pronunciation) and I’m not so great at the “R” sound. It’s sort of a cross between a gargle and a rolled R. Any suggestions?
2. I’m very much behind on the amount of reading I wanted to have done by the middle of March. I’ve only read about 100 pages of Irving’s The Sketchbook (which contains “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”) and had hoped to read more Hawthorne and Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.
3. I went out for a lovely French meal tonight for the end-of-term meal with participants of the STAR seminar. I’m thankful for a husband who a) is happy for me to do these sorts of things and b) can cook for himself when I’m not around.
4. I’m wondering how people find time to be so deeply involved in so many different things. I’m thinking how can I be reading up on ethical consumerism, theology, the church, my own PhD research and think about looking for a part-time job.
5. Yep, a part-time job. No waitressing. No clothes-selling. That leaves the possibility of working in a small gift shop or bookstore. I’ve dealt with folding clothes and serving food - no more of that. The fact is we need money to buy food and so, I shall have to go back to boring retail-land if I can’t drum up more editing or another research position.
6. Sally brought over my iPod shuffle from the States. I used it today. It’s great - the quality, the ease, the size. I feel cooler wearing it.
7. Bryce was telling me about a lecture he listened to on empiricism (very interesting, make him tell you about it) and there was the question if you can remember, imagine, or otherwise experience in your mind your senses. Such as, can you hear ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ in your head? Can you smell petrol in your head? Can you taste your favourite dessert in your head? Can you feel the texture of cotton in your head? Can you visualise your family in your head? I think this is a very interesting thought. Which of your 5 senses (if any) can you experience in your mind?

Now, I’m going to bed - au revior!

We spent most of the weekend with Bryce’s mum, sister and her kids in a lovely place just outside of Crieff, Perthshire. We took the megabus up to Perth from Edinburgh (for 1 pound each seat each way) and spent a few hours waiting in Brewsters (a family pub restaurant) until they made it down from Banchory to pick us up. We had a fabulous relaxing weekend consisting of walks, exploring, watching some movies, frisbee golf and reading. I love relaxing weekends! (It was especially wonderful once my dad called to say his ‘chest pains’ for which they had gone into the ER weren’t serious and didn’t have anything to do with a heart attack! Thank you God!) Here are some pictures of the weekend (there’s more on the next page).

Here are some questions to think about:

1. What is distinct about Christianity as compared to other religions and/or life systems?
2. Who speaks for the church today? Who are the most prominent and influetial Christians? Who is doing the things that other Christians/churches are trying to copy?
3. What is the message being spread by these people?
4. Does the #3 align with #1?

A few articles that provide some answers to these questions. Think about how you would answer these questions yourself first.

One more question: what do you do when someone hijacks your label? Specifically, how can the word ‘evangelical’ be taken away from those who are using it of themselves, but whose ministries are not truly evangelical? It’s tempting to just abandon the word altogether. But ‘evangel’ just means gospel; how can we stop describing ourselves by the central tenent of Christianity, and leave it to those who are not gospel-centred? There’s obviously no easy fix for situation, but let me know if you have any thoughts…

This is the third post in my series on predestination. Prerequisite reading can be found here.

Before continuing to defend the doctrine of predestination, I need to take a look at a couple background issues. The first issue has to do with the state of humankind after the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This doctrine is commonly called ‘total depravity’, but I prefer the phrase ‘utter inability’. They both mean the same thing, so don’t let it throw you.

God created Adam and Eve in a state of perfection, and gave them authority and dominion over the rest of creation (Genesis 1:28-31). Everything they did was perfect, and they enjoyed perfect fellowship with God. After they ate of the fruit of the tree which God had prohibited, however, everything changed. Their relationship to the land, to each other, and to God was irretrievably corrupted. In Romans 5:12-21 (as elsewhere in the Bible), Paul teaches that through this sin, Adam plunged the entire human race into sin—he sinned on behalf of us all.
(more…)

* Please note our Shameless Self-Promotion on the sidebar. We are both turning 25 in a few weeks and like books, movies and music as well as care packages for birthday celebrations. Ashley’s birthday is the 30th of March and Bryce’s is the 1st of April. Of course, we appreciate e-mail wishes too.

* Here is a very interesting article on the state of evangelical Christianity today. And here is a great article, A Call to Prayer, by J. C. Ryle.

* After reading Ryle’s article, we thought we’d add a feature to our blog: a current prayer requests section to be hosted on our sidebar. This way (if you want to) you can check in regularly and pray for us as well as reading about our general zaniness.

* We may be either infrequent posters juggling all of our work and with visitors coming the next 3 weeks, or if we’re procrastinating, you may see a lot of us.

* Current mood = blah (this results from too much caffeine and sugar and not enough oxygen to the brain).