Devotional Blog:

So you’ve probably noticed by now that (1) I don’t always post every single devotional topic/entry from the book and (2) sometimes they are out of order. I am caught up to the current date in my reading but I choose only to post on those topics I come across that matter to me or that I actually have something to say about. Do you all really want to hear my thoughts on menopause??? Ya I didn’t think so…and it was two days of devotional time in the book. Aside from the fact I couldn’t relate remotely to what she was talking about, I didn’t really feel the need to expound on the subject. Nor do I feel the need to tell you all about when I got my first period. Fair enough? Plus some of her topics that she attributes to the various verses are just well meh or too gooey and I’ve quite frankly nothing to say about them. So with that…lets get on with the topic today.

Topic: “Pursing praise”, 10/8/2011; Proverbs 7:13-27

In this section the idea of ‘pursuing praise and accolades’ is discussed. How some of us are so hungry for recognition we strive for it, we live for the ‘kudos’ of other people and she talks about how spiritually unhealthy that is. Ultimately she states that the only kudos we should look for are from God by living our lives to please him and that what other people say to us shouldn’t matter. Easier said than done is what I was thinking. No one likes to ‘suck’.

I thought this was funny…and I could relate to some of the ‘evaluations’ so I thought I would share. These quotes were taken from federal employee evaluations, crazily enough. I wonder if advisers/bosses knew that their employees could read the evaluations they’d still write things this harsh? Probably. Her women would follow her anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity. Since my last report she has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.

So I’ve gotten a few curious emails as to why only on this blog do I preface it with ‘Devotional Blog’. To answer: there are people who don’t really want to read about thoughts pertaining to faith, the Bible, religion in general so I’ve prefaced this blog so that those who want to skip it can do so easily without having to read it. Also on the right hand side of my blog are links by category topic…so those that want to read about specific topics can do so without having to sort through all the blogs on the front page.

OK, moving on…the following has stemmed from a conversation with a friend about love, grudges and forgiveness.

Devotional Blog:

Topic: “Forgiveness”, 10/7/11; 1 Peter 4:1-8

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” -1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)

Who hasn’t been pissed at someone else? A friend, a relative, an immediate family member, the random Thai person that walks .25 miles/hr 3 people abreast blocking your ability to go around them and completely oblivious to your attempts to politely get through them…With friends usually the solution is fairly simple, you get mad at each other, you yell or heatedly talk through it and come to a resolution which hopefully keeps your friendship intact and usually does. Friends usually have a wide flexibility in pissing each other off because of how long you may have known them and the extenuating circumstances of the fight. You are usually willing to give them a voice to explain themselves before writing them off…usually. The same goes with family, or should go with family. There are grudges in my family that have withstood the test of time though–a few going on a a decade plus! Its amazing sometimes to realize how deep a persons anger or hurt goes and often times they don’t voice these problems face to face, leading to decades of silence each party believing themselves justified in their anger and judgement over the other person. And I’m not saying they don’t have good reason, in their position I don’t know what I would do. But today’s passage has made me think more about my own ‘grudges’ and anger at those who’ve insulted me in the past or done hurtful things.

Devotional Blog:

Topic:”Light”: 10/5/11: Matthew 5:11-16

There’s a children’s sunday school song that goes:

“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This little light of mine I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine….”

The verse talks about holding fast when you are persecuted for your faith as you are called to be a ‘light’ to others through the example of faith your life. The author talks about persecution in China and how believers there withstand a lot of harassment and yet still share their faith, assemble in their churches and strive to be light in a harshly and strictly controlled religious environment. I am fortunate to live in a country that does not persecute my faith but rather encourages respect for all faiths. Not to say that respect for faiths always happens in our American culture but we are free to believe, practice our beliefs and share our beliefs without fear of being dragged off to prison.

I have never personally experienced religious persecution…if I’ve been criticized or ridiculed it was more likely due to something inanely stupid that I did or said rather than a direct attack on my faith. I’ve always been open to sharing my faith with anyone curious but I’ve never been the type to walk out and just wallop a random stranger with my beliefs–“BELIEVE!!!…oh and by the way hello, my name is Mel”.

A list of how I will not spend my time: worrying about what others think holding grudges drinking bad wine finding ways to ‘avenge’ my hurts from others cuddling things that are not soft arguing illogical people trying to be someone i am not allowing the stress that came up during my Ph.D. to ever enter my life again eating Lima beans or mayonnaise picking on myself These are the things I will not spend time on…whether it actually happens remains to be seen but sometimes it’s interesting to put down a ‘not to do list’ rather than a ‘to do list’.

Devotional Blog: Topic: The Middle, 9/28/11; Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 I don’t know which book is more ‘happy go lucky’, Lamentations (everything is sad) or Ecclesiastes (everything is meaningless). A lot of time in this book is devoted to talking about how meaningless is everything and how we should live in the gifts of the moments as they are from God. It goes into detail on how Solomon feels that nothing is worth it…Ecc 2:17, 19; 5:10; 6:2; and 11:10 for instance.

Devotional Blog:

Topic: “Nothing to show for it”, 9/27/11, Psalm 90: 1-6, 12-17

After reading this verse and section I found myself taking an almost opposing stance to what the author suggests. The take message coming from Pslam 90:12.

“Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom.”

She goes on to discuss that instead of wasting our time watching TV we could make lists, clean, pray, write a book…use the time to ‘prepare’ for something. She goes on to say that the Bible has over twenty references to a ‘moment’ which is just an instant of short piece of time and that if a moment is important to God, then it can be important to us. That much I agree with…moments matter.

So in case you’ve been living under a rock there’s a huge hub bub about neutrinos breaking the speed of light. Here’s the published work. I don’t have much to add as I’m not a physicist, but I think it’s cool that they are offering to ‘eat shorts‘ if the calcs are right. and pretty much this…credit www.xkcd.com

Devotional Blog:

Topic: Slippery Slopes, 9/22/11, John 15:1-11

So I realize the author only has a page to get these topics aired out given this is an ‘on the go’ devotional, but this one…

Excerpt: “In my twenty-plus years of ministry, I have seen the slippery slope in many a woman’s life. She didn’t ‘mean’ to have an affair. She didn’t think a few glasses of wine would lead to alcoholism…”

And then she spends the rest of the section on women who ‘unequally yoke’ themselves to unbeliever men and how that leads to a slippery slope of marrying a non-believer and how that’s not right…I could tell she was trying to find a way into this topic specifically so she could spend the majority of her time there. Now I have grown up staunchily ingrained with this belief system. Don’t unequally yoke, don’t date a non-believer, don’t associate with non-believer men…And Christianity isn’t the only faith to somewhat ‘demonize’ (ok that’s a strong word) relationships with the non-believer. Infidels to islamic extremists, it doesn’t even have to be religion–mixing of cultures historically was taboo as well. An Indian buddy of mine during my internship at Yale said that his family specifically told him in college to ‘have as much fun as he wanted’ but marry an Indian girl. During the 1940’s in Russia it was unthinkable for a Jew to marry a Christian…and many of these values/divides between religions and cultures remain today.

This whole manner of thinking rather religious or cultural –I really hate it.

So kudos to my cousin Lauren and my friend Heather for reminding me I still haven’t posted about Nepal…but the Masala tea I sent them did make it to them…woohoo! Sometimes mail even from a US APO address may take a lifetime to reach its destination, it might as well have been put on the slow boat to China for all I know…except maybe that wouldn’t work–China is actually quite close to me. But you get the idea.

So back in August I traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal to attend a conference/workshop on Flu in SE Asia and it was quite interesting. Though the majority of the workshop didn’t really deal with my specific field I did learn a lot about epidemiology and analysis that goes with that kind of data which is supplemental and valuable to know. So that was neat.

The first day I arrived I was really tired and though I arrived in the afternoon I had little energy to venture beyond the hotel, Dwarika’s Hotel. I made it as far as the intersection. I don’t know what I expected, it was a lot more chaotic than I’d expected and there were tons of people. In my head I was thinking…damn if I can’t handle this how would I ever survive going anywhere in India?! Haha. I think it was just a lot to take in at first. The hotel was amazing, thank God for per diems and conference discounts that allowed me to stay there, it really was beautiful.

And just a note: In keeping with the chaos that Nepal was this blog is written in an organized chronological manner with absolute chaos with regard to the pictures and text. I’d like to think its my underlying ‘motif’ or ‘commentary’ on the crazy…but alas, I am not that smart to have thought that up prior. Instead its more a result of my lack in ability to use wordpress to post pictures in a non-chaotic format with respect to the text. I got better toward the end though.