A Pleasure

One of the most powerful college experiences I ever had happened while I was alone in my room, doing homework. I had just come out of a class on poetry in which the basic rules for the sonnet were introduced, and we were told to try our hands at it. As I was packing up my things, I wrote down a single line of pentameter:

She stood and broke her alabaster box

I had some thought of rhyming “box” with “fox,” and I went back to my room to play around with it. Five hours later, I had finished Memorandum.

I’ve always been pleased with that poem, but the effect on me of writing was profound far beyond the pleasure of a nice bit of verse. The sensation of executing something flawlessly after hours of profound mental exertion was cataclysmic on my psyche. (Rather unlike the previous sentence.) I really don’t know how to explain the rush I got.

The only other times I have experienced a similar sensation have been times of intense prayer, when the very heavens have been opened, or during powerful worship services where God clearly and profoundly made his glory known. And here I had gotten nearly the same sensation from writing a poem. It made me think this was exactly the sort of thing that the character Eric Liddell talked about in Chariots of Fire. “When I run I feel His pleasure.” It is the certain pleasure that comes from functioning in accordance with the nature God has given you.

Judge then, my increasing dismay, as over the next two years I slowly realized how infinitesimal were my chances of successfully embarking on a career as poet. Judge my consternation as I have come to terms with how difficult it is to establish a career as a writer of anything. Judge my surprise at my experiences of the last few weeks: Continue reading “A Pleasure”

B.S., MPH, CNA, Mrs., and M.O.M.

I think I can actually say that I represent the new and improved stay at home mom. I am part of the growing group of young mothers with a good education, mountains of debt, and an intense love for being a wife, mother and homemaker. Even with the occasional fussiness there is nothing that can beat the giggles of a ticklish snugglebug who can be chewing on your pocketbook stap one minute and jumping joyfully the next.
Continue reading “B.S., MPH, CNA, Mrs., and M.O.M.”

Evaluating the Baptist proper rituals standard

###The Controversy###
There is a bit of a controversy going on right now, coming mostly from the Baptists, about baptism. I believe the conversation begins with a sermon series by John Piper, though I first learnt of it via Fide-o. Other comments by Jason Robertson (Fide-o) here. John Halton gives us a take from the Lutheran perspective here and here.

Excluding the silliness of those who don’t take baptism and communion very seriously, the argument as I understand it boils down to a plain reassertion of the traditional Baptist position on baptism. Baptists hold to a particular form of baptism: It must be done by immersion; it must be done upon (that is, immediately after) confession of faith. So it rules out sprinkling, and the baptizing of infants. But the tricky part is the position that *only* credal baptism by immersion is acceptable. For Baptists, properly, there are no sacraments, only ordinances (those things which Christ has ordered us to do) – baptism and communion. So the value of doing of those things is not their direct spiritual impact, but the value of obedience. If you didn’t do it the Baptist way, it’s not just a little whoopsie.

This is where Baptists prove that they are still anabaptists – re-baptizers: The argument goes that if you didn’t follow the prescribed ritual, it isn’t that you didn’t do it wrong. You never did it at all. Sprinkled? Unknowingly “christened” in your infancy? It wasn’t obedience; it wasn’t baptism. You’re unbaptized. And unbaptized people can’t take communion. You are officially excommunicated.

And here I got a little theological education. I had been under the impression that to excommunicate was to say, in effect, that the excommunicated was not a Christian. After all, the scripture says to treat such a person as if they were unsaved. Evangelize them, but don’t offer communion. But Frank Turk informs me that you can still be a Christian even while excommunicated. Even though we should treat you like you’re not.

###The Standards###
Regardless, the traditional Baptist position on baptism boils down to these two tenants:

  1. Baptism must follow a specific set of rules in order to be done **right**.
  2. If it wasn’t done **right**, it wasn’t done **at all**.

The first point usually get’s all the attention, but it wouldn’t carry water without the second coming right behind it. Hence John’s Lutheran response: “I *am* baptized! So there!” And yet, you hear constantly all the arguments for the first point, but never even a hint as to how to evaluate the second. Where does it say that if it wasn’t done right, it wasn’t done at all? I don’t know.

I think I have come up with an interesting criteria for evaluating the doctrine on baptism that if it wasn’t done right it wasn’t done at all: by comparing it to other similar rituals and seeing what happens if a similar rule is applied. I have two such in mind: communion and weddings. Continue reading “Evaluating the Baptist proper rituals standard”

Doug Wilson on Roman Catholicism

  1. If the daughter of one of your parishioners desired to marry a committed Roman
    Catholic, would she be marrying “in the Lord?”     She would be marrying inside the
    covenant. She would also be marrying unwisely and sinfully.
  2. John Calvin recognized a distinction between the individual and the institution;
    would you say that the Roman Catholic Church is a true church? (elaborate).     In
    the same way that an adulterous husband is a “true” husband, I would say that Rome is
    a “true” church. But in the same way that this same husband is being untrue, I would
    say that Rome is being untrue. Rome is still covenantally bound to Jesus Christ, and
    consequently she needs to stop cheating on Him. And incidentally, to acknowledge that
    a lying, cheating husband is still legally married is not to approve of the lying and
    cheating.
  3. Would you list some areas of deficiency within the Roman Catholic Church? Let me state it more strongly. These are not areas of deficiency—they are areas of
    covenantal rebellion. I would include on this list the idolatry of the Mass, Mariolatry, the
    worship of images, the papacy, their system of works/righteousness, purgatory, and
    much more.

This is strong language, I know, but I found it particularly helpful in dealing with the dilemma that Roman Catholicism is to Protestants. On the one hand, I think it is impossible to say with a former pastor of mine that the RCC is a “false religion.” A false religion knows nothing of Jesus Christ, or faith, or repentance. A false religion can’t sign on to the apostle’s creed, let alone the Nicene creed. yet the RCC happily does all of these and goes on to beckon protestants to return come in out of the rain. At the same time, Roman Catholicism partakes in all these creepy systems that seem to be totally at odds with the glorious lightness of the gospel. What do you call this thing? Covenantal rebellion might just be a good fit.

Advisio: commentary in the sidebar

You may have noticed, even as Valerie and I have begun posting more frequently, we still both of us don’t actually post all that frequently any more. There is a reason.

Really, there are two very different models of blogging out there. The first is what you might call the newspaper model. Newspapers are published every day, with articles prepared on a set deadline. If your newspaper were delivered erratically, you’d cancel your subscription and ask for your money back. All the famous blogs that I’m aware of post according to this model, and that is why I try not to read any of them. When I was first getting in to blogging, the mantra you could hear from every angle was “Post every day, no matter what, no matter how hard it is. Blogging is a discipline, and you have to keep your name in people’s minds on a regular basis or you’ll never get anywhere.

Of course, all that was before the advent of feed readers like Google Reader. Continue reading “Advisio: commentary in the sidebar”

Wiki Power

Since this has been the longest contiguous time that I have spent unemployed, I’ve been a little caught off guard by the amount of record-keeping I’ve had to do as I dug further into the job search process. I mean, I’ve been looking in two different states, in several different sectors, and also contemplating school options. On top of that, my note-keeping skills have never been very good.

Usually, when I’m researching something, I stick to one topic at hand and pursue it until it’s complete. Then I can keep track of the entire thing without taking a single note. This has usually worked so well for me that, when I was writing papers, it was actually counterproductive to take notes. When I sat down to actually do the writing, no matter what notes I actually had to hand, what I wrote would take end up pulling on something else that I had read entirely. I usually had to go back and find my references after I wrote the paper. But with the job search, not so much – I’m going everywhere, and I can’t remember when I applied for what. Plus I have all these leads to follow up on, and it’s hard to keep track of what stage each one is at.

So the toss up has been that, since I started looking for work, my productivity plummeted. It took hours to get started each morning, because I dreaded dredging up in my mind where I was last when I left off. Finally, I gave up. If I’m going to take notes this thoroughly, I need a database. So I tracked down WikiDPad, which Howard Tayler uses.

Basically, it’s a downloadable program which allows you to created interlinking notes using wiki-style formatting. In other words, it’s an offline wiki (very convenient that, since I don’t have any desire to share my snarky job search notes with the whole world via the Internet. The system isn’t perfect. I probably just need some more time learning the hidden tricks for proper formatting, but there is a noticeable lack of style buttons and drag-and-drop linking.

Nevertheless, using a wiki to keep track of research notes has made an amazing difference. It makes it so much easier to treat the job search process just like another job. Now when it’s time to get to work, I can sit down and fiddle with the database for the first hour instead of wasting time trolling CareerBuilder for low-hanging fruit.

Actually, I got so excited about using wikis to produce interlinking documents, that I tried to use WikiDPad to set up that Latin textbook series I’m playing with in the off hours. It didn’t quite work. The formatting issues were just a little beyond me for the complexity of what I’m trying to build there. So for the textbook project, I’m using MediaWiki. You can find it at https://neumatikos.net/ilovelatin. Be warned, though: It is very much a work in progress, and I need serious training in the areas of layout and formatting. But it’s a start!

Winnie-the-Pooh and Job Apps?

Ok, yesterday I mentioned that my NC nurse aide training and testing were not acceptable to the sovereign state of TN. Fine. So I started looking for work that didn’t require certification and found a job open at Fort Sanders Medical (the hospital where I was born) for a non-certified nurse aide. So I clicked on it and started to apply.

After four or five reminders to only send in one application for all the open CNA type positions, I finally got to the application and began to fill it out. Most of the application is rather standard: what facilities would I like ot work at, how do I handle stress, criticism and conflict, have I ever been terminated from a job, what’s my philosophy for working, what are my short and long term career goals, etc. etc. etc. In fact there are a lot of questions to be answered for a positions that requires mostly common sense and compassion. And then I hit the doozie of all questions:

35. If you were a Winnie the Pooh character, who would you be most similar to?

Followed by:

36. What is it about your personality that causes you to reach this conclusion?

My first reaction: Are you kidding me?!? What kind of question is that? What kind of Winnie-ther-Pooh character am I? What in the world does that have to do with anything?!? That question is SO facebooksurveyish.

They are completely serious. The question has drop down menu choices and everything. My first thought was to put down Rabbit because I sure felt like I had Pooh stuck in my front door, but then after consideration and a decent night’s sleep I’m going to go with Kanga since I don’t have to option to be a little black rain cloud or a woozle. Wonders apparently never cease, and I sure hope someone on the other end is not the complete moron they seem to be by asking a question like that. I also hope I get a job offer with all the effort I’m putting in to their fifty million question application.