TheLionRampant.net

No, I’m not going to do one of those things where I ask you a bunch of questions. At least not now. For the moment, I just want to ask you one question…

The first chapter of Jonah recounts a narrative that is familiar to all Christians. God tells Jonah to go preach to Nineveh, and Jonah runs the opposite way. He boards a ship, the seas get rough, and the sailors are crying out to their gods to save them. Jonah says he is at fault, and gets thrown overboard. Jonah is then swallowed by a great fish, where he remains for three days.

We have all heard this story many times, and have likely heard it preached on. The sermon may go something like this: “God called Jonah to do something, Jonah didn’t want to do it, God punished Jonah by commanding a great fish to swallow him. God has placed his call on each of our lives, and sometimes that entails doing something we don’t want to do. But if we run away from God, we risk incurring God’s judgment as well. What is the ‘Nineveh’ in your life? Will you answer the call of God, or will you run away from him?”

Pretty straightforward, eh? Here’s my question: is this a valid interpretation and application of this passage? Please leave a comment and simply answer yes or no, so as not to influence others. I’d really like to get a lot of answers to this, so if you’ve read this far, please leave a comment. Thanks!

***update*** It just occurred to that you might not want to make your views known publicly. While I think we should all be prepared to say whether or not a position is biblical, I’m more interested at this point in getting a bunch of people to respond. So if you prefer, enter some bogus information into the comment section and cast your vote anonymously (I tried to figure out how to set up an anonymous poll, but could do it easily). So comment away, regulars and lurkers alike!

If you want to close your store 10 minutes early, make that the official closing time. But when I show up 5 minutes before you close and you won’t let me in, it really ticks me off. That is all. For now.

1. Since most days I walk at least 3 miles (to Uni and back) I have some pretty nasty tough skin on my heels. Hooray for getting a bathtub when we move — I can soak and scrub the bubgeebers out of them!
2. Hooray for 2 new (to us) blue armchairs for free! Gotta love that people stick furniture out on the street here all the time. We just picked them up, washed all the cushions, vacuumed the chairs and lit candles around them and started our dehumidifier by them to take out the smell. They’re really cozy, although I do feel a little white trash picking up used furniture while people from our building see us moving them. Oh well.
3. We slept in way too late today — but that’s a lovely thing too.
4. We watched “My Blue Heaven” in bed last night with some pumpkin pie (Bryce requested I make it, so I did; I sure don’t mind making desserts most times!). “MBH” is quite a tradition in the Hales’ household. I wonder how certain movies get to be *the* movie?
5. I had a random dream last night. I was hanging out with some girls I used to cheerlead with, except we were at some speech competition. Then, one of my friends here was going slickly wacko and we were all sleeping in a huge hotel room in single beds. We were going to some sort of dress-up party next and I kept trying to get my fishnets to stay up (one was black and one was red). There was some discussion of how short I am. Then I was waiting on top of a windy hill (kind of like Arthur’s Seat) and braiding my friend Amy’s hair while waiting for Bryce to show up in his spider-man costume. He came and we went down the mountain and dodged a number of scaffolding around some buildings. That’s all I can remember. Odd, I know.
6. We move in 2.5 weeks!! My friend Jutta is giving us a bunch of boxes after she moves into her new flat. Boxes can be rather expensive when you don’t have any money.

UPDATE– MORE thoughts I wanted to share:
* most of my good friends here come from all over: Germany, Denmark, Canada, USA, Scotland. I think this is so great! It definitely makes the grad school experience much more worthwhile.
* my tomato plants are growing and doing well — hooray! They are still very wee but I got to make little stakes out of kebab sticks and twisty-ties so they don’t fall down. I hope they really grow tomatoes and don’t die on me!
* I recommend that instead of drinking Coke you drink sparkling water with a lime. It’s my new (well, okay, not so new since I’ve been drinking it for at least a month consistently) favourite drink — yummy and carbonated without the sugar, caffeine or calories. Plus the co-op brand of sparkling water is only 50p here for a 2 ltr bottle, much cheaper than Coke.
* I find the merchandise options in supermarkets in different countries interesting. For instance, you can easily get Greek yogurt, swede, marinated olives, parsnips and tinned vegies here, even in small stores. Try, however, to get chickpeas (very rarely in our neighbourhood ScotMid), skim milk in larger sizes, fruit besides apples, bananas and clementines, and French’s mustand, you’re outta luck.
* Does anyone want to try to go on a no-caffeine (or very little) and no (or very little) sugar health kick with me?

Perhaps we’ll start a feature on Media and Society and why TV fries your brain (a la Neil Postman), perhaps not. But I thought I’d post some interesting statistics on TV-free families.

Here’s a little teaser on what I learned about the TV Free Families who responded:

–They have about an hour of meaningful conversation per day with their children (national average: 38 minutes per week).
–They come from 43 states, all walks of life, income brackets, levels of education, races, etc. Most are in their 30s, married with 2 children, have college degrees, earn $60,000-$80,000 per year (range: less than $20,000 to $130,000 up), two thirds have religious affiliations and 41% send their kids to public schools (private and home school equally divided the rest).
–92% of parents say their children “never or rarely” complain about the lack of TV or pressure them to buy brand names and popular toys.
–As to their children’s heroes, most votes went for Mom and Dad. Others include teachers, Harry Potter, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Grandparents, and Michael Jordan.
–80% feel their marriages are stronger due to no TV - more cuddle time (see essay)!
–They are readers (adults and children). Get the majority of their news from NPR, newspapers, and a few national magazines.
–They (kids and adults) rarely feel they’re missing out - totally on the gain side.
–More than half of their children get all A’s in school.
–The computer does not take over the role of TV in most homes. Though 98% own a computer, only 1-3 hours of recreational use per week was reported by adults. (When asked if their children use the computer more or less than kids who watch TV, nearly half felt their children use it less due to the passive nature of the activity.)
Children entertain themselves and play for long hours with fewer sibling fights. 70% of parents felt their children got along better with no TV.
–One family with an ADD child reported removing TV from the home (under their pediatrician’s advice) - the child blossomed and took tremendous strides in development.
–As for why they’re TV-free, one man’s comments reflected much of what the survey showed: “We have not watched TV for more than 16 years, not out of a statement against society or any overt religious injunction, but a simple desire to have TIME for a more meaningful marriage and family in the face of a busy life.”

Information found here

So, what do you think about being TV-free? Is it snobbish, a good decision or a way to lose touch with one’s culture?

…what name would you pick?

Bryce says he’d be Ned Barnes. I don’t believe him. Ned Barnes is a pretty sad name (of course, if your name is Ned Barnes, more power to you).

I think I’d be Charlotte (or Cordelia or Julia or Kate) Stewart. Who knows.

And I’ll divulge what my mom as a wee girlie wanted to be named (of course she told her mother this quite loudly up and down the supermarket aisles)…Diarhea. lol.

The “Intellectuelle” contest is in full swing! Here are the starting entries for your reading pleasure. Feel free to comment on them and/or trackback to any ones which pique your interest. There are some very thoughtful ladies out there; I’m looking forward to reading the rest!

Also, if you are a woman (and no female pseudonyms!), it’d be great fun to enter the contest yourself before the middle of June; there are only 20 spaces left for entries!

Voting will take place (via some format Marla will mention) on 17 June! (You vote for your top 5 favourites).

Blog-hopping from Marla’s website, I found a great read: Blonde Champagne. Hysterical I tell you; go visit and have a good, witty laugh. Here’s a highlight:

Competent Official College Professor UPDATE: On Friday, I was talking to one of my superiors, by which I mean a person who has been teaching for longer than one episode of dBlind Date, and we were in my office, and I stood up to shake his hand when he came to introduce himself, and when I went to sat down, I leaned forward and cracked my forehead against the ledge of my computer desk, and attempted to pretend that this had not, in fact, just happened, which the profuse bleeding made somewhat difficult.

and another favourite excerpt:

I was the faculty representative of the Young Unpaid Person at a graduation last week. We lined up for the procession by order of tenure, which meant I marched into the auditorium eighteen miles behind the university president and slightly ahead of the guy in charge of unstacking the folding chairs. Trailing behind me were the only people more loathed by a college administration than adjuncts: The ROTC representatives. Which was awesome, because then I got to go around telling everybody that I entered the procession under military guard.

I am beginning to realise in a very practical way that sanctification, besides justification, is a part of God’s sovereignty over my life. Yes, I understand that faith (both justifying and the everyday variety) are acts of God working in me and purging my sin and replacing it with Christ’s righteousness; I know sanctification is about sovereignty, but I often don’t believe it or live it out. For example, I keep a mental log of how many times I do (more honestly, don’t) read my Bible and spend time in prayer. Thinking that what I put in (reading my Bible X times a week and praying for X amout of time) will make me a better Christian — forgetting that my ‘betterment’ is only about Christ and none of myself. I also know that a steady diet of hearing his Word, gathering to praise with other believers, and celebrating Christ in the sacraments, increases my faith.

The thing is, however, I’ve been sadly lacking in consistently reading my Bible and spending time in prayer. I sing “In Christ Alone” less- and nearly un- moved lately. How can recounting the gospel of Christ with other believers in song fail to move my mind and emotions? Well, flat out, I’m a sinner and I turn and run from God, even in church at times.

But, I’ve also experienced little glimpses of sanctification this last week (well, maybe not quite, as I’m going to share it with you!). Yesterday for instance, I was crabby and a bit snappy at Bryce, for no real reason; and so I apologised. I didn’t make excuses, I didn’t try to pin my emotions on some small thing my husband did. I just went into our bedroom and told him I was sorry for my attitude and the way I’d treated him, full stop. It was great and forgiveness came easily to him. (By the way, I’ve always had a hard time apologising and realising I’m wrong).

I am in NO way saying that this came in direct correlation to me not reading my Bible enough or not praying enough; yet, it came *in spite of* these facts. The Holy Spirit, who convicts and helps, will indeed ‘teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I [Jesus] have said to you’ (John 14:26) — starting for me with the command to love and respect my husband.

Well the booksale is over. Can we all observe a moment of silence in respect for all the books that were not sold and go to who-knows-where?

Okay.

We’re done now.

Bryce and I stopped by on Friday for the 1/2 price day. I picked up a watercolour book for my mom, a Woolf book for fun, a Hawthorne novel I didn’t think I had (but I do — at least this copy is cool and old though and it was 75p), Elisabeth Elliot’s The Glad Surrender and Annie Dillard’s Living by Fiction. Man, I’m an eclectic reader. Total book count: 24. Bryce can tell you about the 50-some-odd books he bought for roughly 30 quid if he’s interested. I think used books are just as great as new ones; besides it being wonderful to own another book, used ones are worn and loved and have a story, kind of like the Velveteen Rabbit.

***

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

You may have noticed that we recently added a link the the new ESV Bible Blog. Crossway, the (US) publisher of the ESV, shows once again that they are a forward thinking group of people by starting a blog to interact with their customers. They have recently announced plans to come out with a glow-in-the-dark edition of the Bible; a plan which, in all honesty, I just find a little strange. I posted a comment about it on my (not so private anymore) personal blog, and to my surprise, Crossway responded to my comment on their blog! I’m a little disappointed by their response, but I have to give them credit for responding at all.