AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that about sums things up.  

The Good News...

...is that I made MAJOR headway on the seemingly insurmountable children's ministry paper today.  I changed the topic from second-generation immigrant cultural identity to "moving from cliques to community", which fits wonderfully with my very community-centered small congregation for that much-detested case study that was a surprise requirement of the paper.  Did that sentence make sense?  Well I understand what's going on, and ultimately that's what's most important.  None of you are going to read my paper.  In any case, today I acquired 9 typed pages of research from 10 sources, which will shortly be organized into outline form, from whence I will write the actual paper itself (this is my patented three-day paper-writing process, although it's going to be squished into two days in this case).  Hopefully I'll do that tonight (it's 11:45, but I'm not tired yet and it's all copy-pasting) so I can focus on writing tomorrow.  Ideally, I want to whip out a Theological Reflection Paper for my internship tomorrow (that little gem is due next Tuesday night at midnight, which is the day after I get back from Thanksgiving).  Needless to say, if I can achieve my ambitious goal of writing two papers tomorrow, it will be a very good thing...leaving me to focus on studying for my two December 5 finals and writing a final paper that is due on December 7th.  Follow all that?

I'm actually really hopeful about being able to write those papers tomorrow...I'm planning my strategy today, which was "Suck it up and just do it" (very profound, I know).  Thanksgiving break is a good motivator...nothing on my to-do list will be neglected, I am adamant about that.

In other news, week two of the kid's fellowship ministry I designed for the church where I'm interning was SPECTACULAR.  Literally flawless.  I couldn't believe it.  It was exactly how I envisioned it.  The kids were well-behaved, we had enough food, every kid had a seat at a table, the volunteers got to eat, the kids were excited to come back.  It was a beautiful thing.

Back to paper land.

Update:  I power cleaned.  And in an hour I had a clean apartment, and knocked 5 things off my to-do list for tomorrow.  Boo ya.

Can you answer these questions?

#1: Vanhoozer states,  “God’s revelatory words always accompany God’s redemptive deeds.” (in McDermott, 44). This seems similar to the claims made by Cone and González about how revelation and/or scripture is correctly interpreted. Is this assessment correct? What are Vanhoozer’s commitments when it comes to scripture and its authority? (e.g. How does he understand inerrancy and infallibility?) Compare Vanhoozer’s position with either Cone’s or González’s (within the scope of the assigned reading). Which do you think is more satisfactory and why?


#2: Ellen Charry attempts to define parameters as to what counts as Christian Theological Experience (CTE). She identifies parameters against which an experience can be tested to see if it can qualify as a source of knowledge of the God which Christians profess. Why does she undertake this project? What is she worried about with respect to experience? Does she clearly identify what the parameters are? If so, what are they? Does she ultimately succeed in offering a helpful and constructive proposal as to how we out to think about Christian theological experiences?


#3: “The God of Abraham and the God of the philosophers are alien, and great harm is done by any attempt to bring them together.” (Holmes, in Webster, 57).  “Any God whose existence can be proven is an idol.” (González, 90). What reasons do Holmes and González give for their distrust of the philosophical method of discerning the attributes of God? What does each think about the ability of language and reason (or natural theology) to “reach” or adequately describe God? Does Marshall’s method of using liturgical tradition to identify the God Christians worship provide a way of addressing Holmes and Gonzáles concerns?


#4: Drawing on the selections from Sanders and González, identify what is meant by the distinction between the economic Trinity and the immanent Trinity and why it became a dominant framework in 20th Century theology. Sanders references "Rahner's Axiom" which states that "the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity and vice versa." According to Sanders (or other sources in our readings), why did Rahner insist on the identity between the two? Sanders claims that if Rahner's axiom is taken seriously, this would lead to a denial of the immanent Trinity apart from salvation history (in McDermott, 41). What is Sanders’ reasoning for making this assertion? Does Sanders’ claim, if correct, also lead to a denial of the immanent Trinity? Is Sanders saying Rahner’s position is really a form of modalism? How would Athanasius respond to this conversation?




If you can't answer these questions, then I don't have time to deal with you right now, because I have a midterm tomorrow and I have to be able to write a full-fledged essay on one of these topics in 11 hours.  Please check back later for your daily dose of wit and candor.

Eek!

That quintessential mid-October panic is ensuing.  Although this panic is familiar to every grad school student with whom I am familiar, it is nonetheless unbidden and unpleasant to deal with.

My particular panic is brought on by my Systematic Theology midterm on Friday (the most notoriously difficult class at Perkins, aside from the Christian Heritage class that covers 2,000 years of church history in one academic year).  Unfortunately, due to the (otherwise very fortunate) visit of one of my best friends to Dallas over the weekend, I didn't start studying until today.  I outlined 2 of the 5 possible essays in about 3 hours this morning.  Add in 7 hours of work at my job (including a 1.5 hour evaluation meeting) and 3 hours of reading/response questions for my children's ministry course (coming to me live at 9am tomorrow) and you basically have a rough outline of my day.  That leaves 11 hours of the day unaccounted for: 9 of those were sleeping (midnight to 8am and a nap from 11-12), plus half an hour for lunch and half an hour talking to my mom on the phone, and you'll reach 11:00pm, which is the time right now.

Needless to say, it's been a long day...and tomorrow's going to be just as long, if not longer.

The bright side of the day is that part one of my work evaluation went well.  Part two comes on Friday...as does the midterm.

Is it Saturday yet?

Work, Class, Study. Such Is My Life.

Today was just like yesterday, but it involved work and class in addition to the marathon library sessions.  And a chinese buffet for lunch, which is always good.  Highlights included tropical shrimp and a seafood biscuit.  I'd go back to that restaurant just to eat a plate of those two items.

As far as work is concerned, it continues to go well.  Today I went with Edwin, the associate pastor, and his wife to help at a food pantry down the street - packing food into boxes, stocking shelves, etc.  Edwin took some pictures for the church, which is good for you blog-readers because it allows for illustration...

Class was kind of a struggle to get through - I was tired from work and becoming more and more overwhelmed with the amount of homework awaiting me at the library post-class, and these factors made my professor's Argentinian accent more difficult to understand and my classmate's irrelevant comments more difficult to put up with.  The class is mostly first-year students, and they haven't been "broken" yet, as I say...meaning that they are still naively unaware of their naivete and still trying to sound super smart by making connections that don't need to be made.  I'm also fairly certain that Hermione Granger's upper-middle-aged American counterpart is in my class.  But anyway, I don't mean to rant...I'm sure they're all wonderful people, and I'm probably just more annoyed with them than usual because I'm tired and stressed by the time I arrive in class.

Anywho, I headed to the library directly after class and finished all the reading for my systematic theology class tomorrow, but I haven't written up the half-page response yet.  I'm worried for tomorrow because I'm going to have to write A LOT for my Thursday classes, including a reflection essay for my internship that I haven't started yet.  Here's hoping that tomorrow is a day that I work well under pressure instead of becoming paralyzed in my studies...otherwise, I could be looking at an all-nighter in the second week of the semester.  And that definitely doesn't bode well for the rest of the year.

All this being said, I did sincerely enjoy the food pantry and the chinese lunch with my work colleagues, and even sitting in the library reading was nice (for awhile) after a day of running from one thing to the next.  Now I just need to make it through tomorrow, and the homework avalanche will be stalled enough for me to catch my breath briefly before diving into next week's assignments!

Garh.

That's the sound my life is making today.

I've been working all day on Greek stuff, and somehow I haven't gotten ANYTHING done...apparently four days of having company and therefore barely touching Greek homework was enough to knock every bit of my knowledge of the language out of my head.  NEVER have I had so much trouble with Greek homework, and as I'm entering the last week of class (complete with two tests), it's truly freaking me out. But try as I might, I can't make sense of things...just looking at my Greek homework makes me sick to my stomach.  I'm at the point now where I think I just have to give up, and hope that being in class for four hours tomorrow will jog my memory enough to make it through the week.

Essentially, I think I need to get back to my routine...it's like I've been living in a parallel universe of my life for the past week, and it's gotten me all messed up.  I feel like I had things well in hand until about the middle of last week, and now it just feels like a race to the finish line.

I also have to figure out how I want to renew my lease for next year, which is also stressing me out since I haven't the slightest idea what my plans will be post-graduation, and don't know how expensive a 10-month lease would be compared to the (already more expensive than my current lease) 12-month lease I was quoted.  I'm hoping to go and talk to the office tomorrow, if I'm back home in time after the afternoon study session I have planned with some classmates.

Oh, and I need to set up my mail to be forwarded while I'm gone.  Can't forget that.

In the meantime, I keep eating a bunch of random junk out of boredom/frustration, and I suddenly have an overwhelming urge to drive to McDonalds or Raising Canes and acquire some kind of fried something.  I also have the urge to crawl under the blankets in my bed and hide from everything.  Neither of these options seems super productive either.

Let's just say that I'm ready for a vacation...and even though I feel like I need a week and a half to get everything done, I'm still kind of relieved to know it's only 4 days away...

Anyone have any Stress Management ideas?

What can I say about today?  All in all, it was fairly un-extraordinary...like yesterday, I spent the bulk of the day doing homework, avoiding homework, and eating less healthy food than I should.  I'm going to have to go grocery shopping tomorrow, I'm thinking I need to pick up some sort of healthy snack food.  Also, I'm falling back into the eating-to-kill-boredom/stress eating thing that I seem to do so well.  Actually, I may do a complete kitchen clear-out, and get rid of all the unhealthy things hanging about...or maybe not.  We'll see...yes, I should.  But I don't want toooooooooooooooooooooo!

OK, I'm done being a baby now.  Besides, it's almost midnight, and I don't fancy going out to the dumpster in the darkness.  If anything will be done about the junk food lingering in my cupboard and refrigerator, it will be done in the morning.

On the bright side of today, I finished the reading for my Tuesday education class (quite a feat, since this week's assignment was to read an entire book), and went to the small group I've joined since committing myself to the "getting involved in a church" goal.  That was quite enjoyable.  I'm glad I've been forcing myself into expanding my social circle.

Alright friends, I need some input from you...I need healthy, productive stress-management technique suggestions.  Because, as I'm getting deeper into the semester, I find myself moving back to my old unhealthy habits (both physically and emotionally)...these include, but are not limited to, boredom eating, excessive internet usage (Facebook and Youtube specifically), and to a certain extent, negative self-talk.  Anyone have any ideas for better stress management??  The semester isn't even all that stressful yet...it's thinking about what's to come that's got me thinking I need to prepare now...