You get a little extra blogging this week simply because I'm in the middle of doing 2 months of documentation from work and I need a break from reality right now. I'm so full that I could be sick which has got to be one of the worst feelings in the world. I think I would rather have a hangover than to have a food hangover. Tried out a new (to me) place tonight. My friend Aryn states she can smell it from her house and has been wanting to try it out. When I told Jessicuz where I was going she confirmed that the food is as good as it smells. So, out the door I headed to meet Aryn at Fox Brothers barbecue. The lack of parking further confirmed the anticipation of a good meal and they did not disappoint. Pulled pork, ribs, mac and cheese and cornbread dressing that I later found out was Jalapeno cornbread dressing which would explain the heat in the bites. The meat fell off the bones and there was a lot of it. I brought half the meet home to Donald. Still, I am so full 3 hours later that i think I would vomit if I put another thing in my mouth, even drink.
I suppose you could say it was a celebration meal or a lament meal depending on how you look at things. We got our first Exam back today. My grade was what I suspected it to be but nonetheless I was not happy about it and want to do better. Nonetheless another new friend, Zeb, reminded me via his blog that it's not about the number but about learning "new ways to engage with our God and with the communities God lovingly sets us in." This reminded me of my Uncle Stan's advice a couple of weeks ago when he told me how he and his wife had told their professors their last year in seminary that they didn't want to know their grades. They would accept any comments but they didn't want to see the grade. He said this was very freeing to him. It freed him to enjoy and concentrate on the experience of learning.
I am so thankful to have a professor who is so passionate about the old testament. Today's revelation is that Grace comes before the Law. So many times we think of the Old Testament as Law and the New Testament as Grace. This is a flawed assumption. It was God's grace that gave Israel the law via the Ten Commandments (or more literally, I learned, the Ten words) The children of Israel were in the wilderness. It wasn't like our idea of wilderness trips in the Jeep, four wheeling in the mud and showing off our virility. It was a dangerous place to be. A place without food and without water, with scary creatures. It was a place away from the towns and the governments that provide structure. It was a place of chaos and with the Ten Words and grace God gives order to the chaos. Just as he ordered the world from chaos in the creation. Just as he brought salvation to Noah and company out of the chaos brought by a flood. God recreates, and recreates. Why isn't that exactly what God did and is doing with me when he took me out of the chaos of a lost job, and uncertainties and placed me in the midst of this wonderful community called Candler School of Theology. I think it is, God continues over and over again to order the chaos and to recreate us! Praise Be to God!
One last thing for the day.....I discovered one of the ghettos today. I'm a bit surprised that it was the ghetto. It didn't really feel like it. I was anxious to get away from the school building today so went to McDonald's on Candler ave. to have a diet coke and read some Communalism in America. I picked a quiet corner and planted myself there. The manager, a young African American man, was the most enthusiastic manager I have ever experienced in a McDonald's. He didn't stop talking the whole 2 hours that i was there. "Way to go grill, good job getting those orders down." he took a walk through the lobby "everything okay mam, can i get you anything." I realized what was happening when toward the end of my visit he asked me my name and then told me I looked just like his former manager in Arkansas and he thought that I was there spying on him to see how he was making it as a manager. Bless his heart. That is not how I knew I was in the ghetto though. Another young man came in. He wanted to charge his phone. He went to what he thought was an outlet and it appears there was once one there. "do y'all not have any outlets." "No." replied the young lady mopping the floor. "When did that happen." "I've been here 6 months and there have not been outlets." "only in the ghetto would there be a place with free wi fi and no outlets." That is how I found out I was in the ghetto. I enjoyed my 2 hours in the ghetto today. I might even go back.......if I survive this food hangover.
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