I've been thinking lately about the pictures we have of people. Intentionally or not, we store away little bits of memory about the people we meet. As you see people at action, you learn about their characteristics, likes, interests, values, abilities, etc. which all come together in this amalgamation I'm calling a 'picture'. Naturally, the longer you know someone the more in-depth your picture of them is going to be. (I think they call these pictures 'schema', can anyone verify that?)
Now, about our picture of God... How much of our picture of God has come from direct experience of Him (henceforth 'experiential knowledge') and how much has come from what we've been told (henceforth 'transmitted knowledge')? I got to wondering this after pondering some of the characteristics of God. Not many would argue that God is not loving, merciful, just, mighty, good, etc. But how many of these have I actually experienced directly in my own life, not just heard or read about? Do you think there is a place for both experiential and transmitted knowledge, or is one a 'truer' way of getting to know God than the other? For that matter, would you classify the Bible as experiential (directly relating to God, since His Word is living) or transmitted (learning about God from someone else, since it was written from other people's experiences of God)??? Or *gasp* could it be BOTH?!
I guess I'm leaning towards the idea that both are essential to getting to know God. We need to learn from others, because others have a lot of wisdom to share, and let's face it we all need help. Without it, our knowledge of God would be limited to only what we ourselves could experience or comprehend (don't know about you, but I sure don't know everything!). However, if we're coasting along only on what has been told to us about God, then we're not going to grow either. You can't have relationship with someone you're not experiencing personally. Otherwise you're just learning theological facts. It's an interesting exercise to try and identify just where specific ideas you might hold about God have come from...
Any thoughts???
Saturday 30 December 2006
Friday 29 December 2006
For Christmas, Stoz gave me a ring...!
... pull opener. A ring pull opener - how thoughtful! :) Now I don't have to be phobic about opening ring pull cans anymore. (For those just joining us, I'm referring to my little accident about a month ago.)
It's been a while, so I guess I should update you a little:
* Christmas was hard and low-key.
* I finally went swimming (after two recommendations from my 'therapist'), and it took me five minutes to actually get into the water.
* I went and saw Happy Feet with Cara and Sammy.
* Sammy dyed my hair chocolate brown, but nobody even noticed...
* I am madly trying to organise everything in the rapidly disappearing number of days I have available - but what else is new, really?
It's been a while, so I guess I should update you a little:
* Christmas was hard and low-key.
* I finally went swimming (after two recommendations from my 'therapist'), and it took me five minutes to actually get into the water.
* I went and saw Happy Feet with Cara and Sammy.
* Sammy dyed my hair chocolate brown, but nobody even noticed...
* I am madly trying to organise everything in the rapidly disappearing number of days I have available - but what else is new, really?
Friday 22 December 2006
I miss you, Omi...
My grandma, Omi, passed away this Monday, the day after her 84th birthday. Tough as us Germans are, one can only take so much. The fourth heart turn, along with infections, cancer and other body failure, took her life. It was so sudden, and my whole life feels like it's been thrown upside-down. You know in your head that they won't live forever, but your heart never really lets you accept that until after it's happened. Even now, I struggle to believe it. It's been a terribly hard week, and will be a terribly hard Christmas.
I've learnt three hard lessons this week...
1. You don't get a warning.
A year or two ago while on mission in Warrnambool, I had a dream that the family was all going off to dinner because it was the last meal we would have with Omi. She was going to die, and we knew the time, so we were having a goodbye feast. I woke up creeped out and crying. Often in life we have send-offs for people moving away or going on long trips. But you don't get that in these sorts of circumstances. We did get our goodbye feast with Omi (her birthday celebration), but we didn't know it was that at the time.
From this I've learnt that we all need to be prepared for two very big things:
a) Be prepared to face your Maker - are you really ready to do that?
b) Be prepared to lose your opportunities. You never know when the people you love will go to face God - have you told them all you can?
2. Don't delay obedience.
Along similar lines, we need to realise that - unlike homework tasks, assignments and projects - we don't have forever to carry out God's instructions to us. We need to be ready to jump up and do what God has said, with urgency. I'm haunted by the questions: What if I had prayed more? What if I had talked to her about God?
3. Your spiritual life needs to be constantly activated.
I went along to the physio on Wednesday and we began training my transversus abdominis (TA), which are kinda deep core muscles responsible for generally holding us up and together. Part of my problem is that these muscles are weak, and my body uses the 'action muscles' to do most tasks, hence they become strained or spasm (or something like that). The goal of the exercises is to train up my TA by 'activating' it more and more, until it becomes second nature to have it 'on' while doing other things and to be using it as it was intended.
Sitting with my unchurched family all week, I felt so disconnected from anything spiritual. As they talked about death, it was the first time I can recall ever hating my faith. My faith told me things I didn't want to think about. I wanted to believe what my family believed, because it was easier to bear. I struggled to keep my quiet time - I was afraid of what God might say to me. But, much like our TA, the spiritual side of our lives was designed by God to support the rest of our lives, not to play backbench. It was designed to be constantly activated. Like my TA, it needs to be trained up so that it can reach this point. When we try to rely on our own strength or substitutes for God, it's like relying on our outer muscles - we get strained and break-down. This means sticking to God in the tough times. It means being obedient to Him. It means living godly always, not just on Sundays or during your quiet time. [Interesting note: I would never have considered myself a 'Sunday Christian', but am I at risk of limiting God's place in my life to a mere window of quiet time each day???]
I wonder if I could use this for a 'sermon' some time?
I've learnt three hard lessons this week...
1. You don't get a warning.
A year or two ago while on mission in Warrnambool, I had a dream that the family was all going off to dinner because it was the last meal we would have with Omi. She was going to die, and we knew the time, so we were having a goodbye feast. I woke up creeped out and crying. Often in life we have send-offs for people moving away or going on long trips. But you don't get that in these sorts of circumstances. We did get our goodbye feast with Omi (her birthday celebration), but we didn't know it was that at the time.
From this I've learnt that we all need to be prepared for two very big things:
a) Be prepared to face your Maker - are you really ready to do that?
b) Be prepared to lose your opportunities. You never know when the people you love will go to face God - have you told them all you can?
2. Don't delay obedience.
Along similar lines, we need to realise that - unlike homework tasks, assignments and projects - we don't have forever to carry out God's instructions to us. We need to be ready to jump up and do what God has said, with urgency. I'm haunted by the questions: What if I had prayed more? What if I had talked to her about God?
3. Your spiritual life needs to be constantly activated.
I went along to the physio on Wednesday and we began training my transversus abdominis (TA), which are kinda deep core muscles responsible for generally holding us up and together. Part of my problem is that these muscles are weak, and my body uses the 'action muscles' to do most tasks, hence they become strained or spasm (or something like that). The goal of the exercises is to train up my TA by 'activating' it more and more, until it becomes second nature to have it 'on' while doing other things and to be using it as it was intended.
Sitting with my unchurched family all week, I felt so disconnected from anything spiritual. As they talked about death, it was the first time I can recall ever hating my faith. My faith told me things I didn't want to think about. I wanted to believe what my family believed, because it was easier to bear. I struggled to keep my quiet time - I was afraid of what God might say to me. But, much like our TA, the spiritual side of our lives was designed by God to support the rest of our lives, not to play backbench. It was designed to be constantly activated. Like my TA, it needs to be trained up so that it can reach this point. When we try to rely on our own strength or substitutes for God, it's like relying on our outer muscles - we get strained and break-down. This means sticking to God in the tough times. It means being obedient to Him. It means living godly always, not just on Sundays or during your quiet time. [Interesting note: I would never have considered myself a 'Sunday Christian', but am I at risk of limiting God's place in my life to a mere window of quiet time each day???]
I wonder if I could use this for a 'sermon' some time?
Sunday 17 December 2006
Ice, Ice, Baby
Sammy and I hit the town and did some ice last night. In other words, we went out for a gelati and good old fashioned chat! Great fun.
I looooove ice-cream! I used to eat it all the time, until I learnt about a little thing called nutrition. I have some fond memories of ice-cream, and times shared eating ice-cream (time shared, not ice-cream shared - that's just wrong!), and great anticipations of future ice-cream experiences. Sound fanatical?
Here's something just for fun: What flavour ice-cream are you?
I looooove ice-cream! I used to eat it all the time, until I learnt about a little thing called nutrition. I have some fond memories of ice-cream, and times shared eating ice-cream (time shared, not ice-cream shared - that's just wrong!), and great anticipations of future ice-cream experiences. Sound fanatical?
Here's something just for fun: What flavour ice-cream are you?
| You Are Strawberry Ice Cream |
 A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream. |
Friday 15 December 2006
My pilates instructor
I have a pilates instructor - how Hollywood is that?! Well, technically she's a 'clinical pilates' specialist, but let me go back to the beginning...
When I was 8 years old, my older brother broke his arm. About a week later, I also broke my arm, which made for an interesting sight, the two of us in slings. After the plaster came off, along I went for physio, which is where I learned a very useful word for hangman. At 8, I thought I was very clever to be able to spell P-H-Y-S-I-O-T-H-E-R-A-P-Y, which I had learnt from staring at the sign in the waiting room (that's a crazy tendency I had as a young child - a fascination with spelling).
Ok, perhaps a tad far back for a beginning. Anyway, now twelve years on, I'm once again getting physio, this time as the next step in my journey to uncover the meaning of my chest pains. Many of you would know my predicament (cramping, debilitating pains that strike out of the blue) and my efforts to find a solution; visits to my GP, a trip to casualty, an ambulance from New South Wales (honestly, Dad!), ECGs, x-ray of my lungs, a cardio specialist, an echocardiogram (like an ultrasound...), osteopathy, x-ray of my spine, a bone specialist, (not to mention prayer and fasting)... and now physiotherapy.
I'd been thinking about looking into this option for a while now, and a conversation with a physiotherapist and her excellent recommendation of a centre has meant I'm finally doing something about it. Like each new step, I'm excited because there is the hope that the end might finally be in sight. I've had two visits, and what they have said has been very promising. I can already feel the results of some simple posture correction - it's really amazing! I'm really impressed by how they can see so easily where things aren't working. Just by watching me hop around, bend and stretch she's been able to point out where I have some instabilities, all the different parts these effect, and explain how we're going to fix it. It won't be an instant fix, but considering I'm already resigned to spend my life with these pains, any fix is fantastic!
You learn the most interesting things about your body when you visit all these specialists. It's a little embarrassing to find out that you can't move your muscles the way they ask because you're completely unaware of where those muscles even are or how they move! The most interesting fact I learnt was that I'm actual a 'mobile' person, meaning I have extra flexible joints... which has ironically lead to me being as stiff and inflexible as I am.
Anyway, sorry for the lengthy ramble, but I'm excited about all this! (As you might have guessed.)
When I was 8 years old, my older brother broke his arm. About a week later, I also broke my arm, which made for an interesting sight, the two of us in slings. After the plaster came off, along I went for physio, which is where I learned a very useful word for hangman. At 8, I thought I was very clever to be able to spell P-H-Y-S-I-O-T-H-E-R-A-P-Y, which I had learnt from staring at the sign in the waiting room (that's a crazy tendency I had as a young child - a fascination with spelling).
Ok, perhaps a tad far back for a beginning. Anyway, now twelve years on, I'm once again getting physio, this time as the next step in my journey to uncover the meaning of my chest pains. Many of you would know my predicament (cramping, debilitating pains that strike out of the blue) and my efforts to find a solution; visits to my GP, a trip to casualty, an ambulance from New South Wales (honestly, Dad!), ECGs, x-ray of my lungs, a cardio specialist, an echocardiogram (like an ultrasound...), osteopathy, x-ray of my spine, a bone specialist, (not to mention prayer and fasting)... and now physiotherapy.
I'd been thinking about looking into this option for a while now, and a conversation with a physiotherapist and her excellent recommendation of a centre has meant I'm finally doing something about it. Like each new step, I'm excited because there is the hope that the end might finally be in sight. I've had two visits, and what they have said has been very promising. I can already feel the results of some simple posture correction - it's really amazing! I'm really impressed by how they can see so easily where things aren't working. Just by watching me hop around, bend and stretch she's been able to point out where I have some instabilities, all the different parts these effect, and explain how we're going to fix it. It won't be an instant fix, but considering I'm already resigned to spend my life with these pains, any fix is fantastic!
You learn the most interesting things about your body when you visit all these specialists. It's a little embarrassing to find out that you can't move your muscles the way they ask because you're completely unaware of where those muscles even are or how they move! The most interesting fact I learnt was that I'm actual a 'mobile' person, meaning I have extra flexible joints... which has ironically lead to me being as stiff and inflexible as I am.
Anyway, sorry for the lengthy ramble, but I'm excited about all this! (As you might have guessed.)
Tuesday 12 December 2006
It's not what it looks like!
Today I went to Seniors. Well, the Seniors Christmas lunch, that is. And I wasn't exactly there, so to speak, but more so in the kitchen... That's right, I was washing dishes for the Seniors! Apparently I was asked for by name... interesting, eh? If they thought I was a top dish-washer than I’m afraid they were mistaken - I must admit I'm an appallingly slow dish-washer... must need practise.
I like helping people. I’m not dynamic or charismatic, but I just like to help. I’d do almost anything you asked me to, not in a passive, can’t-say-no kinda way, but because I care. This makes it a little hard for me to understand people whose help-radar is set to low; not people who are uncaring, just people who have been made to react differently. They’re like getters rather than givers, but not in a bad way. Perhaps it’s all about intrinsic (inner) versus extrinsic (material) motivation (oooh, teacher words!)? I don’t know.
Anyway, I’m wondering… Are you a giver or a getter? Are you first to offer help, or first to expect it? What are the pro’s and con’s of being what you are?
I like helping people. I’m not dynamic or charismatic, but I just like to help. I’d do almost anything you asked me to, not in a passive, can’t-say-no kinda way, but because I care. This makes it a little hard for me to understand people whose help-radar is set to low; not people who are uncaring, just people who have been made to react differently. They’re like getters rather than givers, but not in a bad way. Perhaps it’s all about intrinsic (inner) versus extrinsic (material) motivation (oooh, teacher words!)? I don’t know.
Anyway, I’m wondering… Are you a giver or a getter? Are you first to offer help, or first to expect it? What are the pro’s and con’s of being what you are?
Monday 11 December 2006
Fifty
For those who are interested, today marks Stoz and my 50th 'monthaversary.' Probably not all that significant, but a nice, round, impressive number nonetheless.
It's funny and kinda cute how new couples make a great fuss about one month, six months, one year... travelling great distances, buying gifts, planning surprises, etc. Would anyone call me silly if I indulged in the newbieness of celebrating 50 months?
Thanks for the big 50, Stoz. I love you.
It's funny and kinda cute how new couples make a great fuss about one month, six months, one year... travelling great distances, buying gifts, planning surprises, etc. Would anyone call me silly if I indulged in the newbieness of celebrating 50 months?
Thanks for the big 50, Stoz. I love you.
Funniest. Thing. Ever.
This is just for you, Sammy:
Next time you're playing the Wii, be sure to check the FCC ID on the side of the remotes/controllers...
(picture hopefully coming)
Next time you're playing the Wii, be sure to check the FCC ID on the side of the remotes/controllers...
(picture hopefully coming)
Sunday 10 December 2006
O Tannenbaum
Yesterday Stoz and I went out and bought a Christmas tree! I'd never done that before, so it was very exciting for me. The tree was of course from our favourite store, Aldi (with which I happen to have the good fortune of sharing a street, I might add). The decorations are predominantly gold and blue, with some red for contrast, and as of yet no tinsel. We also picked up some LED lattern-shaped lights, because LEDs use less power and last longer, and so in Stoz's words are "good for the environment, good for the pocket" (plus they just have that 'cool' factor).
Finding the tree-topping star was the hardest part. We couldn't find anything that didn't look really tacky (there were nice glass ones at Aldi though), but finally found one in Safeway of all places. This was another LED decoration which does this cool fade between colours, retro fiberoptic tree style!
We got all the stuff back to Stoz's house and managed to set it up - a feat of several hours. The tree happens to have a 'bald spot' which is at least not so noticeable with the decorations on it. We didn't have enough lights to fit around it, and we hung the lanterns in the back room near the dining table (they look great there). So five hours from when we began, there is now a tree in his lounge room. Not bad for a first effort. In fact, I'd say pretty good.
P.S. O Tannenbaum = O Christmas Tree (German)
Finding the tree-topping star was the hardest part. We couldn't find anything that didn't look really tacky (there were nice glass ones at Aldi though), but finally found one in Safeway of all places. This was another LED decoration which does this cool fade between colours, retro fiberoptic tree style!
We got all the stuff back to Stoz's house and managed to set it up - a feat of several hours. The tree happens to have a 'bald spot' which is at least not so noticeable with the decorations on it. We didn't have enough lights to fit around it, and we hung the lanterns in the back room near the dining table (they look great there). So five hours from when we began, there is now a tree in his lounge room. Not bad for a first effort. In fact, I'd say pretty good.
P.S. O Tannenbaum = O Christmas Tree (German)
Princess Party!
Deep down inside, every girl is a true princess, and we should be allowed to feel like it every once in awhile (and treated as such all the time!) - and that was exactly my intention with my princess party. On Friday night, after much planning and preparation, the royal festivities took place at my house, and I must say, I'm impressed with the effort everyone made! Everyone looked so beautiful, and I think a good time was had by all. Many tiaras, gorgeous shoes, stunning dresses, and some great creativity: a medieval princess, a fairy princess, the littlest princess, and of course the two most gorgeous princesses in white and red. I myself was a princess in pink, complete with tiara. Mum was fretting about not having enough food, of which there was sufficient to sink a battle ship (like always!). Aside from the great food, we had a princess parcel, watched Ice Princess and did the general 'girly chat thing.' I only wish I owned some decent CDs so we didn't have to listen to 1997 flashbacks of Aqua! Sorry girls.
So unleash your inner princess! (Or brave knight if you are male...)
So unleash your inner princess! (Or brave knight if you are male...)
- Princess Steff of Lockwood
Thursday 7 December 2006
Wiik excuse for a post
As many of you may have been eagerly counting down (or patiently tolerating those eagerly counting down) the new Nintendo console has finally been released in Australia. If you're actually interested in that, I suggest you check out Stoz's blog.
Thanks everyone for the overwhelming response to my Santa question - I don't know what to think anymore! It's almost time for another question, but for now I'm busy with preparations for the ultimate party! (More on that later in the week.)
Thanks everyone for the overwhelming response to my Santa question - I don't know what to think anymore! It's almost time for another question, but for now I'm busy with preparations for the ultimate party! (More on that later in the week.)
Saturday 2 December 2006
Decemberween
The first of December kicked off with the Odyssey break-up/Christmas celebration on the theme 'old, new, borrowed, blue.' Here's one of the better bon-bon jokes:
Two goldfish were in their tank.
One turned to the other and said,
"You man the guns, I'll drive."
Oh, I love a good pun. In other news, I am pleased to announce the very first of my weekly (or at least hopefully-regular) controversial questions! As we have just begun December, my favourite month, and are rapidly hurtling (tautology?) towards Christmas, why not have a Christmas-themed question?
The question: What would you tell your kids about Santa?
(please comment!)
Two goldfish were in their tank.
One turned to the other and said,
"You man the guns, I'll drive."
Oh, I love a good pun. In other news, I am pleased to announce the very first of my weekly (or at least hopefully-regular) controversial questions! As we have just begun December, my favourite month, and are rapidly hurtling (tautology?) towards Christmas, why not have a Christmas-themed question?
The question: What would you tell your kids about Santa?
(please comment!)
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