Philippians

When I first saw that we were blogging about Philippians, I got excited because not only was I already familiar in this book, but it was something that I actually enjoyed. Score! Paul is in jail as he writes this letter to the church of Pilipi. He does not know whether or not he is going to make it out of jail alive or be executed. This is one of my favorite books in the bible because there re so many things that Paul says in this little book that we can apply to our lives today. One of the things that Paul says verse 21 of the first chapter is “for to me, to live as Christ and to die is gain.” I feel like we use that quote from the Bible a lot but we don’t really understand the significance let alone actually believe it. If we really believed that why are we not going out and risking our own lives for the sake of Jesus Christ. I couldn’t really find any metaphors in this book. Maybe I didn’t look closely enough. As many times as I have the book of Philippians, I mostly look at as a reminder for life. I when I read a little more closely, I came upon the part where Paul was talking about doing ministry with Timothy. In chapter two he says “like a son with his father, he has served with me preaching the good news.” In chapter four, Paul goes on speaks words of encouragement to the church. He tells us not to worry about every but in everything with prayer and petition to God giving thanks. I haven’t heard of anyone who was in Jail and possibly on death row to speak words like that. He also talks about only think about things that are worthy to be praised as well as being content at where are. I feel like if threes anything we can apply to our lives today, it’s this entire book.

   On Friday night I went to see the man who came to dinner. I went as an usher to see for free. I can’t really say that helped me read anything better. I had a hard time understanding what the whole play was about. I think everyone was scratching their heads at the end of the first act wondering what the plot actually was. There were some funny parts in it like the running joke about the penguins. Overall, I thought everyone did an awesome performance. Our school is blessed to have such talented actors. But I am glad that I helped out as an usher.

           

When I look back at dr. Fettke’s essay, I can see that he is an inspiration to a lot of people. I think my favorite quote in the essay is

“for him to be “healed” would mean that who he is right now is of

little value. Also, for him to be “healed” would also mean that he

would not be who we have come to know him to be in his 23 years

of existence. Thus, he would not be the one whom God created as a

person who happens to be autistic”

I have great respect for dr. fettke and his wife as parents because they show that they have become content in who their son is.  We often look being disabled as some kind of curse or even to go as far as some kind of demon possession. But the way I see it is that these people in AFI are actually blessed beyond what most people can see. A lot them do not have the worries of this world or have concerns are the daily thing that “normal” people stress about. That is a huge blessing to have, to not know what is  better.

symbolism

It’s a symbol, or cymbal. Or a base or a snare. I had to throw my corny jokes in there J

I never looked into symbols like the reading in our text did.  When I worked at a summer camp this past summer, we had a lot of counselors who were from other countries like England, Scotland, and Australia. It was always fun and interesting to compare certain symbol with American and English culture. For example, when Americans hold up two fingers its like the sign for peace. But in England and Scotland, it’s a curse word. Its interesting how different symbols mean different words or phrases in different countries.  Sometimes we have to find out the hard way unfortunately. Towards the beginning of the story, it talks about stop signs and how we have naturally programmed in our minds that a stop is a red octagon with the word “stop” written in the middle. We would often pass by a stop sign with a different design because we have not programmed our minds think stop when we see something other than the red octagon. When I read this I couldn’t help but to think of how we look at the bible sometimes. In a common verse such as john 3:16, I think a lot of us have simply just memorized it and move on. But it takes a lot of attention to understand the fullness and meaning of john 3:16 and when we don’t see it or don’t get it, we just move on. We keep driving because something in front of us is unfamiliar and instead of stopping to look closely at the symbolism we just brush it off..Or run the stop sign.  

I also saw this play on friday night. I'm not gonna lie, it was hard for me to follow. I didnt really understand the plot of the play and it was actually kind of boring to me. I'm glad I was an usher.

So in the past couple blogs I mention that reading the articles by Dr. Fettke and going to the alliance for independence made me think of a story in John chapter 9 when Jesus healed a blind man from birth. I figured I would tell this time. “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” The key part of that scripture is in verse 3. So that Gods work might be shown in him. In Dr. Fettke's article, he talks about how he asks questions to God about why his son is mentally disabled. there is a reason for everything and the very reason may be so that Gods work is lifted up and God gets more glory.  In the second page, he talks about creations and asks different questions pertaining to what “normal” is. Dr. fettke talks about a life force that most people have. The ability to think straight and be creative. One of the quotes he said stick out to me “Is it possible that Gods spirit  is still operative even in those we most often considered as having little ‘life force’?” I heard a story about a mentally disabled kid one time. his name was Gabriel and his parents were having a hard time accepting that their kid was disabled.  One of the things that Gabriel had trouble with was writing his name. when he started to be able to write it, he could only write the first three letters. And he would actually spell out the word GOD. Which answers dr. fettke’s question about the spirit being among the disabled.

This morning we took a field trip to the alliance for independence. I was not sure what to expect for this trip. All I knew was that we would be taking a tour. One of the first things I noticed was that the age range was pretty spread out among the people. Some were actually elderly. When Ashley, our tour guide was explaining how people got paid and how money and stuff works (I don’t completely understand how all the business and money stuff works) I realized that they don’t get much funding. They need to have fundraisers just to keep the place running. It made me kind of sad because I realized that people with special needs really are kind of pushed off to the side by the government. This was definitely an enlightening trip though! I love that everyone is together. It was like each classroom we went in, they were like a family. There were different group levels. There was the group that was ready to work and take care of themselves, the group just below them who were training to get jobs and the group below them who were learning basic life skills. Most of the people were doing elementary school work when went into the different classrooms. I thought it was great how the teachers allow them to study things that the students are interested in rather than making them learning something that they do not want to. Going on this trip helped me to understand the play better and I also enjoyed it more. This scene where Lucien speaks to the senate in an adult and articulate tone was the most moving for me. I definitely want to see the stage play to get a better feel of the story and dialogue. Thinking about people with special needs always brings me back to John 9 in the Bible.

more thoughts on Mary Oliver

The past few classes have been focused on nature. I never really focused on the bible having so much nature poetry in it. But it has been good to read different texts pertaining to nature. We read the short poems from Mary Oliver too. My favorite sections were six recognitions of the Lord and musical notations. I felt like these poems were a lot more accessible to me than the other poems we read. When we went outside to the lake, I found one of the quotes interesting to me when Corrigan was reading it out loud. “When I first found you, I was filled with light, now the darkness grows and it is filled with crooked things, bitter and weak, each one bearing my name.” When I heard that, I actually thought of myself. And for some reason, I liked the musical notation section. I did not understand it all the way but I still liked it. One of the lines said, “The luna moth, who lives but I few days, but sometimes only a few hours has a pale green wing whose rim looks like a musical notation. Have you noticed?” I didn’t even know what a luna moth was so I googled it. To be honest, I really could not see the musical notation. I was kind of disappointed but that just showed me that poetry really is someone else own interpretation of something even if it seems way off..

I started reading The Spirit of God Hovered. The first few paragraphs were pretty powerful. Why wouldn’t a parent question God for their son or daughters disability? In the text, the Steve Fettke said that having a son disabled from birth, caused him to question things that had to do with creation. As I was reading it, I thought of a cool story that a pastor told at a conference about a disabled child. Also what comes to mind is john 9:3. Look it up :-)

Right in front of me

poetry is not my thing, so bare with me:

The dry air, the hot sun,

I look around, and all I see is green

The color brown is strong, due to the lack of rain

the feel of “vacation spot Florida” disappears.

No palm trees, no beach, no Disney world signs

Plant like and animals dominate the fields

Looking at the lilies of the field

The flowers that grow

Everything constantly growing

Everything in its entirety,

On time and on schedule to when something blooms,

Grows, hatches, births,

Why do I still doubt Him?

How can I still doubt Him?

Is something not clear enough?

Or do I just ignore Him

Trees, grass, squirrels, alligators, the blue sky.

Everything is right in front to me

I look at my reflection in the pond

He is right in front of me

I went to Circle B bar reserve and stayed for at least 45 min. When I went to circle B bar nature reserve. I wanted to go to the place that was recommended because I actually do like sitting outdoors in silence. It’s a good time for me to pray, think and just have simple conversation with God. I wanted to go in the evening at sunset but I was running around too much so I had to go during the day, alone. I was definitely hot. When I got there, I saw a mom and her kids walk in one direction. I was going to walk behind them but I saw another path looked a lot shadier with all the trees hovering over it. As I walked on the path, I just listened, and prayed some. I was kind of disappointed because I hadn’t seen any significant body of water yet. I wanted to see some kind of lake that I could use my fifteen minutes of stillness at. I eventually turned around and started to walk in the direction that the sun was beating down. Before I headed down the path I saw a warning sign that gators live in the swamps. I started walking and the first thing I see is a swamp. No thank you. I turned around and chose another path to go. When I just sat for fifteen minutes, I took the time to listen and to the birds and insects. There were even these two squirrels chasing each other up and down a tree.  It was kind of funny because these squirrels were actually normal size, compared to the obese squirrels that live on campus. It was definitely very peaceful. It was nice to get away from school for a little bit and just be in a quiet place. Although, it made me miss home a little bit. In Maryland, there’s a place called Sugarloaf Mountain. It has an elevation of about 1300 feet. Once you get to the top, the view is amazing. So I have to say that this nature experience was nothing compared to what I have seen before, but I still enjoyed it. One thing that I was reminded of was end of Matthew 6. Which is in my poem J