Day 40

Amos 4:4-5: "'Come to Bethel and transgress,
At Gilgal multiply transgression;
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
Your tithes every three days.
Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,
Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings;
For this you love,
You children of Israel!'
Says the Lord GOD."

Using the above quote, since ever since I read Amos for my assignment, it struck me how strong the tone of the book was. And the thing that shocked me most was God's use of biting sarcasm, as detailed above. Its kinda nice to know that God speaks my language - though, it doesn't feel good to be on the receiving end.

Finished breakfast about 9, and watched three episodes of The Goodies. They were all fairly good, though not as good as the Kitten Kong episode from the previous day - and I don't remember any of these. Actually, I really only remember the pirate radio and the one where they invent a medicine to cure every sickness ever.

Just before I watched The Goodies, I read the final two chapters of Confessions - so I am finally finished that book - its probably been about a year. Not that it was a struggle - just didn't really have the time to read it. The bit before the Book of Memory, where it was his actual life story instead of philosophising on subjects that are too unknowable and abstract, was, on the whole, quite stunning. Very much along the same vein of Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis (which is essentially CS Lewis' conversion) - a lot of the thoughts expressed at the reasons they were drawn to God are similar. But Augustine, by using an odd method of combining past and future, makes a far deeper impression. By that I mean, when most people tell a story about God's grace in their lives - especially in terms of conversion - they like to portrait themselves as utterly lost and without God, and then, suddenly, their life is transformed. In Confessions, its actually hard to find the moment of conversion because he constantly jumps forward into a song of praise, even though, to the ignorant reader, there is nothing, yet, to praise God for. The same tactic is used to lesser effect in, say, Helen Baylor's testimony, where she kinda has a 'chorus' amidst her tale of woe - "But I had a praying grandmother". Anyway....

After that, about 11:15 or so, I did Mandarin lesson 10. And, yes, I actually had forgotten some of the words - like "hotel", which I still cannot remember - something 'dien'......'ju' I think. Or something. But, on the whole, I got through it very easily. Which was pretty sweet.

I then had lunch while watching a little of the first episode of the second disc of The Goodies. It seems these ones are considerably not as good. And still none I recognise - though a lot of the starting credits look very familiar.

I then went for my walk down to Broadway, since I had to post my letter to the ICAA telling them I wouldn't be attending. Supposed to be only 20 degrees, or so, but, man, it was warm. Its also clear that Fairway is on a more than slight incline, and, typically, the down bit is the first half. The whole thing took me about 35 minutes, and the post office bit was probably around 5, or so, so about half an hour of walking.

I read my textbook and finally finished the chapter on Numbers - its been on hiatus for about two weeks, or more. I then got about halfway through the chapter on Deuteronomy (its a rather long chapter). The next section is the prophets (after the pentatuech) - but I think the order is more based on the Hebrew bible, which has the 'history books' (Joshua, Judges, Samuel & Kings) as included as prophets. So they will probably be next. The regular prophets (barring some like Lamentations and Daniel, I think) will be after that. Ruth is put with books like Esther, since it is not really along the same lines, from a literary perspective, as Kings, et al. Chronicles, as well, is put right at the end - I think because the general view is that a lot of it is sourced from Kings etc.

Went through lecture 1 of week 10 - about, surprisingly, Jonah. I once again wanted to grab the TV and try and shout what I thought to the people. The question was re: the great fish (of course), about what we would say to a non-christian who wonders how such a thing could happen. Now, call me crazy, but a man staying alive inside a fish for three days is far more likely than 1) a man being swallowed by such a creature in the first place
2) just about every other miracle in the bible. Water from a rock? City walls falling down cos of singing? Great rivers parting down the middle? A guy walking on water? Talking donkeys? People coming back to life? Creating everything from nothing (even if not in only 6 days)?
What is the big deal about Jonah? Why do people find the fish story so impossible? The fact that evangelicals who go on and on about 'signs and wonders', yet try to prove that Jonah is entirely in the real of scientific possibilty, is the greatest evidence, for me, to agree with the lecturer that the book is probably exaggerating to prove a point. I don't understand why they do it, but it seems that they do.
One thing that was instrumental in my life as a young christian was being finally accepting that there are certain things which I do not know, and will never, during my earthly life, at least, be able to know. I was then, gradually, able to say that its OK if, scientifically, things don't make sense, because I believe in a God who can do ANYTHING. And the bible, if it does nothing else, agrees with me 100% on this point. People....who knows how they work?

I finally got back to playing my sax. Went through lessons 8 and 9 - took me about 25 minutes, which is considerably longer than it took when I did them before. But, surprisingly, I really haven't forgotten much, and the skill level still seems pretty much the same. Which is a good sign for the future, when there possibly will be long breaks between practicing.

I did lesson 11 after that. Again, not really any problems at all.

Started watching 'Great Expectations' after dinner, until House. So far, Robert Deniro has been by far my favourite part of the show - apart from that, I'm not really very impressed.

And finally - two reasons why today is important:

1. Day 40 of my unemployment - is the wilderness wandering over? I received a call (at 8:45 PM!) regarding a possible interview next Monday or Tuesday. I'm not reading anything into it. I don't count this period as a wilderness, anway. Though it does, possibly, bear some relation to a time of 'waiting' and of 'preparation'. Perhaps.
2. It is two months until I am a quarter of a century in years. If I was normal, I'd start having a mid-mid-life crisis. But those who know me would know why I won't. But I shouldn't use that as an excuse not to have some sort of crisis. I mean, why spoil my fun?