I was sitting in my office yesterday, hard at work on scheduling some disciplinary meetings (woo...) and trying to talk some professors into helping with an event I want to do, and this older couple knocked on the door and walked in. I'll make up a name to protect their privacy, but this is how the conversation went -
(Older gentleman, in a very genteel southern voice) "Hi, mah name is Gerald Miller and this is mah wife Annie (indicating the gorgeous, diminuitive, and dark South American woman by his side). We're missionaries to Guatemala and we work with the Mesquito Indians theyah. Nah the Mesquito Indians do not speak Spanish, and we've had to learn theyah language as we live in the poor rural areas with them and try to increase literacy. Most of the Mesquito Indians only get about a fust-grade education, and weyah tryin' to recruit teachas that'll be willin' to invest theyah lives in these communities. Nah, Ah don't know which buildin' is which around heya, and Ah was wonderin' if you could help me find Doctah Evearett. Ah was told he could help me out when my cah broke down a couple of months ago at the beginnin' of our tahm back in the States. You see, a policewoman pulled ovah behind us to help and she was a nice young lady that had graduated from this college..."
Actually the speech went on for quite a while longer than that before I was allowed to introduce mahsel...I mean myself. They were such a funny couple, and the guy could not quit talking about his vision for these Indians and their education. I ended up traipsing all around campus with them, since Dr. Evearett is retired, and Dr. Drexler wasn't in his office, and I finally got them to someone they could talk to, and "Gerald" proceeded to talk and talk and talk.
It was so strange. They're "not representin' any pahticular denomination," and wanted to know if Covenant had a missions placement program "like Tennessee Temple and Lee told me that they have. Nah, we've just been visitin' the Methodist church down in Trenton that helps support us, but we'ya not interested in ahyaments and fightin' ovah doctrines and rules, as long as we all believe in the savin' powah of Christ. Ah mean, Ah'm a Baptist when it comes down to it, but that's just because it was through the Baptist church that Ah fust came to the Lord and that's what Ah have become comftable with. Nah Ah know that the Presbyterians have often come down to work with the Moravian churches in the area - my wife Annie heya is Moravian - you know they were a church started long long ago that has remained alive in our area though so many of the undaheducated people have embraced the lies of supahstition and pray to the rivah gods as much as they do to the Lord..."
The man went down so many slow, explanatory rabbit trails that I felt like I do when I walk along with a nursing home resident with a walker. There was nothing I could do to speed him up, so we just listened. Eventually I was able to get him out of the office we were in and back down to my office so that I could give him some information on area churches and MTW (which he had requested).
And this is the strange thing. He was such an annoying person in one way, but beautiful in another. He had a newsletter with him that he proudly showed me about the people and the work he's with, and for all his rabbit trails, hick appearance, unnecessary information, and refusal to follow normal rules of conversation, I ended up really delighted with him. His little wife never said a word, and I could not tell anything from her expression or body language, though she had a wonderful smile when we said goodbye. By the end of the 1 1/2 hours or so that I spent listening, I was curiously refreshed and wished them well wholeheartedly.
It certainly takes all kinds of people to make up this world. I think we're going to be surprised when we arrive in heaven together - and I'm going to find Gerald and Annie and thank them for taking me outside of myself so completely for a bit of my busy afternoon.
Hey, I finished getting my act together and put some photos up on Katana. There are some old ones and new, including a few from Emily and McGee's wedding.
Coincidentally (except I don't believe in coincidence), I got this just now from my aunt, reporting on what her senior pastor said in church last Sunday -
"Paul was resentless in his pursuit of Christlikeness." I thought that was a pretty good sermon in itself!
Yes, it is. Dang it. My pride is so irrepressible that the moment I'm humbled I get self-righteous, and when God points it out to me I get my feelings hurt. Well, here's to the resentless pursuit of Christlikeness! (lifting my contract-approved sparkling beverage.)
(Yes, oh my past classmates, I still have to abide by the campus rules!)
I spent the last week gloriously with Emily and McGee as they prepared to get married. I'm glad to say their hitching went off with only a few hitches, like the fact that I failed in my prime duty as maid of honor and left McGee's wedding band sitting on the kitchen table until after the wedding. I could spend pages and pages on hilarious stories about the week, but I'll leave that to Emily when they get back from their honeymoon.
An odd week, and a good week, filled with late nights and active mornings and much shopping and cutting and hemming and talking and shooing Mr. Shaw away from the Jordan almonds which were almost entirely ignored at the reception anyway. The wedding and reception themselves, and the brunch the next day, were entirely good and happy. I lived with Emily's family for a year once and I love catching up with her parents and her beautiful Grandma Scotty, who welcomes me almost as her own. She always likes to hear me play the piano if I get a chance, and I was so ashamed that I couldn't remember the whole of any piece to give her in decent shape since I haven't been practicing regularly.
That, and some other passing incidents, began a long and complicated process which I can hardly define in my own mind. I come away from the past week with a dissatisfaction with myself - a need to stop coasting and start accelerating. It took a while to get used to the demands of my job, but I hadn't realized how lax I've been now that the first crunch is long past. I need to spend time praying. I called my dear friend Rachel last night to discuss it, and we ended up meeting for lunch today, praying together in a small park downtown while shooing wasps away. I had also met with my other dear friend Steph who gave me good counsel over breakfast. A good friend that pulls you upward is worth more than anything, and I am rich in them!
I was aching at new knowledge of my inadequacies last night as I prepared for bed, and as I flipped toward my current reading in 1st Timothy, something in Job caught my eye. Wisdom, Job said, is nowhere to be found by man. God had to find the way to it and tell us. I'm familiar with the verse that says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but reading the whole context freshly reminded me that wisdom isn't even anything I can define or search out for myself. There is no way around immersing myself in the Lord if I want to live a worthwhile life of bringing wisdom, firm grace, truth, and mercy - all in real love - to others.
And all that, of course, is nothing new, not to any of us. But I always forget it. I don't know how many times I've had to be painfully taught it. Please remind me, when you see me.
Oh, life is a wonderful thing!
May be old news to those of you that would care, but I found out that Homestar Runner guys and the band They Might Be Giants are in cahoots with each other.
From tmbg.com -
TMBG and the fine folks at homestarrunner.com are teaming up for a number of projects. The folks who brought you Strong Bad have just complete [sic] an animated internet video of "Experimental Film", TMBG's next single off "The Spine." Check it out at homestarrunner.com
John and John also recently sat down to an impromptu jam session with the Homestar puppet and performed "A Little Help from My Friends" and some Billy Idol songs nobody knew the words for.
Hear TMBG music at www.homestarrunner.com ( [strong bad] email #99)
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Now we're getting somewhere. Who says the world isn't becoming a better place?