Intelligence

I did attack my bookshelf yesterday. I did not take allergy medicine. Which means I feel like I've been hit by a train. awesome. (Okay, I was also burning candles... maybe that was it. No candles until I'm back from my half marathon just in case.) I also baked. I made a batch of chocolate chip scones, and then wrapped them in aluminum foil. I can just pop them in the toaster oven to warm up and there I go: the breakfast of champions! (See, sometimes I do make intelligent choices.) You can see what Merriam-Webster says about intelligence here. To me, intelligence is interpreting information in context and making the most appropriate choice. I know I need to eat breakfast, and I know I need to get to work early. Viola, the scone plan is born.

In Bible study, we've been reanalyzing some of our favorite "children's" Bible stories. All but two of them were Old Testament. The Old Testament is about obeying God, plain and simple. Things are announced as matter-of-fact, there is not a relationship tone (as we see in the New Testament). At first glance, rereading our stories in context, most of us had to wonder "why was this a children's story?!" The two stories I presented were Lot (that's a real upper!) and Daniel in the lions den (par-tay!) BUT when the stories were read, truly in context, things made sense. We could pull out the greater themes. Find the greater good, despite the horrible events.

Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, but God used that to help Abraham understand, and ultimately deepen Abraham's faith in God. Lot hadn't been doing what God had asked of him; he could have perished in the city as well. Even though he had compromised on God's standards, God was still merciful. Even though God had heard how terrible the injustice of Sodom and Gomorrah had become, He still sent angels to see the cities first hand. He had to make sure things were unchanged before He acted out judgment. He takes the control of our lives very seriously, because He loves us.

The lions den was not so bad in comparison to the story of Lot. The only hard part is when the accusers, along with their families and children, were thrown into the lions den. I like this story. It's a testament to the dilemma of who you want to be: do you want to be cool or do you want to be trustworthy?

My current dilemmas:

Work: adapting to new coworkers, and new dynamics that come with the new coworkers. new expectations. good expectations, but poor execution in achieving those expectations.

Church: general growing pains.

Africa: I can only do so much so fast. People keep asking questions that they want set answers to. Set answers are something I cannot provide just yet.

Running: two weeks. yikes!

Time: never enough

Today I have class and a meeting. I also want to go running and check off my to-do list. Maybe more baking... Pulling out the suitcase and starting to pack and finding a rental car. (yikes!) Hopefully some quiet devotion time, including time to look at my dilemmas intelligently and face them accordingly. Happy Tuesday!!!