The blowing of my mind.

So, earlier tonight I determined to spend some face time with God before bed (something I've been neglecting lately):  a little worship and prayer and Bible reading.  Historically I've been really bad at sticking to a reading plan, so I was mainly flipping idly around in the Old Testament.  I have no idea why I landed in the middle of Joshua 22, but I started reading from the middle of the chapter and almost immediately saw this verse:

"If the land you possess is defiled, come over to the LORD's land, where the LORD's tabernacle stands, and share the land with us."  (Joshua 22:19) 

Even without the context (Most of the tribes of Israel are speaking to a couple fo the other tribes, who were allotted land on the other side of the Jordan River outside Canaan and built an altar where they weren't supposed to), this verse really struck me.  This very thing that the people of Israel are doing is what we as believers and Christ-followers are supposed to do.  We're supposed to call people out of the "defiled land" where they live, and invite them to share int he Kingdom of God and His glory and His presence.  SO CRAZY.  As in, so incredible, and fantastic, and a bit frightening (I mean, shoot, that's a pretty prestigious responsibility).  We're supposed to tell people how good we've got it as citizens of the Kingdom, and invite them to share in that.  It makes me want to pray my face off.

This was encouraging to me for the reason that, basically, I generally don't care a whole lot for Bible reading.  I don't hate it, but it's awfully rare for me to get excited about it, either.  I've read everything in the Bible before, some of it dozens and dozens of times.  And it's hard not to go into it with that mindset.  I so often can read it and praise God for who He is, but I virtually never feel like I get anything new out of it or feel like I've learned something.  I don't have fresh eyes for the Bible.  This encounter was interesting because, for one, I honestly don't really recall this story, so it was sort of new in that way, but mainly because if I had read that chapter straight through and read that verse in all its context, I would probably never have taken particular note of it.  I would never have taken ten minutes to be totally floored by God and what it means to be a Christian.  I feel like God was sort of saying, "Even though your heart is only half in this, since you're deliberately seeking Me and even sacrificing some sleep to do it, I am going to give you a totally new experience and have fun watching you have fun getting your mind blown."

God is so good, and holy, and brain-boggling.

And that's one verse out of context!  How much more could you find in this whole passage by reading it normally? My mind's now doubly blown, because even though i've been told countless times that God;s word is multilayered, I never really give that much thought or ask or seek to experience that.  i wish I always felt as excited and curious about the Bible as I do now.  (Don't think I haven't prayed about that.)  It would be so much harder to get disillusioned so quickly.  The Bible is amazing—why don't I experience it like it is more often?

a stuff sack of my life in recent weeks.

In keeping with the title, this will be a rather random jumble of things all tossed together into one paragraph—I hope I don't hate myself for this later.  I've been catching up on some reading and writing and Doctor Who the last few weeks, since getting out of winter classes.  It's fantastic.  I've been going to the library an average of twice a week.  The only thing is that I have gotten far too used to writing papers and now have to check myself every time I write because otherwise I will not put contractions in anything.  I also dinked around with Wordpress.com, and I vow to never complain about Blogger's stupid html code again.  Wordpress literally reduced me to tears.  In all fairness, it was two in the morning and I was already feeling a bit emotional, but still.  It's absurd.  Right now I'm taking Interpersonal Communications.  We just had to turn in an assignment where we had to go talk to a random stranger as if we knew them, and write a paper on it.  I struck up a very affable conversation with the gruff bus driver about books and The Lord of the Rings and the pros and cons of making movies out of famous fiction (turns out he's a lot less purist than I, which probably makes for a more enjoyable moviewatching experience).  It was pretty neat, but it took me days to psych myself up for it.  I saw HPA's Annie Get Your Gun last weekend, which was fantastic, as HPA plays are by definition.  I saw the new Jane Eyre movie last night, with Mom and Rachel and the Demskes.  It was quite good.  There was some really neat cinematography, and the music was composed by the same guy who did the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack.  There were also lots of famous BBC actors, which is always a ball. The oddest thing was seeing Judi Dench play a nice, motherly, lower-class character, haha. I also took Rachel to Goodwill and Barnes & Noble, although since we spent all our money at Goodwill we could only "window-shop" for books. it was pretty fun, and I feel like I barely see Rachel any more, so it was fun just hanging out for a few hours.  I finally spent some of my Amazon gift cards from Christmas and my birthday *shakes head and rolls eyes*.  I ordered a copy of The Passion of the Christ soundtrack (ah-MA-zing) and a copy of The Legend of Sigurd and Gúdrun, by Tolkien.  (Yay!)  Shipping costs are murder—I managed to get both the CD and the book for $2.84, and they charge me a whopping $7 in shipping.  It completely deflates the balloon of awesomeness that swelled in me when I got such a nice deal on the actual items.  Ha.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. " – James 1:5