Back At It

Y’all I am back at it. Charles in Charge is home in Minnesota and I have returned to translating Aramaic and whining about translating Aramaic. All is as it should be. Except that it would be nice if my dad were here every day to hang out and chat and buy me things.

Bad news update: My burn is healing and the scab is coming off, but the letters aren’t going away. What am I supposed to do?! No one will want to marry a girl with a curling iron brand on her leg, right? This is dire.

Weird news update: My apartment complex keeps shutting off our water for the entire day. Seriously, they had it off from 8-5 yesterday and they’re doing it again today. So hopefully no one has to shower or wash their face or make a meal or use the toilet or drink a cool, refreshing glass of water because it is apparently not allowed where I live. Also, this has made me realize, yet again, that I would not have done well on the prairie. They had to lug buckets of water from a well just to brush their teeth or make coffee. I complained today as I turned on the tap (before eight of course) to fill the teapot in case we needed some extra water during the day. It’s a tough life.

Good news update: Axis had its very first banquet last weekend and it was so great. More than 250 people came, and I felt so honored to be there hearing about all the great work they’ve done in the last few years. A bunch of my good friends came to the banquet to support Axis. My Springs crew and my Denver friends both came out, and I was so grateful. After the banquet, a few of us went to the Broadmoor since we were all dressed up anyway.

Best news update: March Madness starts today!!!! I do not give a thought to college basketball until this very moment. And from this very moment until the end of March, I will care about college basketball more than anything else in the world. Did you fill out a bracket? Who are you cheering for? Minnesota is not an option because they are awful at playing basketball. But Colorado has two teams going to the big dance (that’s what we basketball lovers call the tournament, you guys).

Bible news update: So, in case you were wondering, I am taking Aramaic because small parts of the Bible were written in Aramaic. Mostly chunks from Ezra and Daniel — those books took place around the Babylonian exile, and Aramaic was the language of the Babylonians. So, we have portions of our Old Testament that are in Aramaic instead of Hebrew. Aramaic is pretty similar to Hebrew — the same alphabet and pronunciations. It’s the vowels and suffixes and prefixes and some of the vocabulary that are different. We’ve been translating Daniel 2, which is the passage where Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that no one is able to interpret. This upsets him a tiny bit so he decides to have all the wise men of Babylon killed. But Daniel saves everyone because he is able to interpret the dream.

Yesterday, I translated the section about the dream — it’s that big statue with a head of gold, a chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. Daniel interprets the meaning of this statue — it is a line of kingdoms that will reign and rule. But a stone would come and smash the statue — a great stone that would turn into a mountain and fill the whole earth. That stone, Daniel said, would be a kingdom that would endure forever — long past Babylon, Greece, Persia, or Rome. When Nebuchadnezzar heard that interpretation he fell on his face before Daniel and he said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries.”

As I translated that passage yesterday, I was so grateful that our God reveals mysteries, that he knows the future, that he has a plan for how things will turn out. He is God of gods, and his kingdom will endure forever. Pretty sweet.

K, you guys, please quit distracting me. I have so much whining to catch up on and a lot of basketball to watch! Talk to you tomorrow!

Because I Missed You

I’ve missed you, friends. I took last week off of the bloggy because Ohio wore me out and gave me a cold, and then school decided to be rude and start back up again. So it was kind of a weird week and I was tired and mainly just wanted to lay on the couch or snuggle up in bed instead of blogging or doing Aramaic or working. But I missed you. Throughout the week, I would think of little things I wanted to tell you, or a video I wanted to show you, or a picture of a teacup piglet I knew you would just love but then I remembered I needed a little break. But now I’m back. Let’s be friends.

I have so many things to tell you! I got my hair cut and the Brazilian Blowout treatment on it last week. I LOVE it, you guys. First of all, the stylist was so great, and I highly recommend him. If you live in the Denver area, let me know if you want to try him out (if I refer people, I get a free service!). Secondly, the blowout was amazing. It made my hair so smooth and shiny and manageable, which are things I have never said about my hair once in my entire 29 years. The treatment lasts for three months, so you should so get one. You’ll love it. This picture is a bad representation because I took it myself with my iPhone, but still. The shiny!

So, spring semester started! I am apparently trying to become all kinds of lingual because I’m taking Hebrew and Aramaic this semester. Hebrew = awesome. Aramaic = less awesome. Aramaic tricks you because it has the same alphabet and many of the same words as Hebrew but then it sneaks in some weird endings and some odd letter switches and some trickster vowels. So when I read it I feel like I should understand it, but I don’t. It is mean.

I went to my friend Sean’s wedding last night. He married a sweet girl named Abigail and they will live happily ever after. It was a beautiful ceremony in a cool old building with a gorgeous stained glass window. The reception was in another cool little building with hardwood floors and old bookcases. We had Thai food for dinner, which I thought was a supremely awesome idea. Here are the very few pictures I took (notice that I failed to get any of the bride and groom).

It was a really, really fun wedding.

You guys, lately I’ve been realizing how truly evil I am. I am rebellious and so sinful and so heard-hearted. I am stiff-necked and always straying. Every inclination of my heart leads me to be selfish or thoughtless, cruel and idolatrous. I have been convicted of so many things in so many different areas lately. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been a Christian for so long that I forget or overlook all the sin in my life that Jesus has rescued me from. I know that I am a sinner saved by grace, but I don’t feel it. Lately, I feel it. And I am grateful. I am so overwhelmed with my inability. I can’t become good on my own. Half the time I don’t even want to. I walk — eyes wide open — into sin. Who can rescue me from this death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me though Jesus Christ our Lord!

He is compassionate. He is gracious. He is merciful. He has saved me from myself. So good.

Finally, I would like you to watch this Gungor video for two reasons. 1) The lyrics are awesome. “When death dies, all things live.” I look forward to the end of death, no more sting. 2) There is a beatboxing cellist. Bam. Enough said.

Happy Monday, friends! So glad we’re hanging out again. See you tomorrow!

All Your Very

Y’all.

I am exhausted. I was at school yesterday for twelve hours, working on a paper in which I had to do Greek word studies.

Umm, I don’t know any Greek.

Not knowing Greek makes Greek word studies less than enjoyable. And by “less than enjoyable,” I mean “worse than Satan’s breath after he wakes up and drinks a cup of coffee while munching Doritos.” I’m writing a paper on 1 Peter 3:1-7 and I’m supposed to get a bunch of opinions and then form my own about what Peter was talking about in relation to wives and submission and whether or not to wear weave and gold bling. I may blog about my findings at some point, but right now I will punch you if you talk to me about 1 Peter and its Greek. My head is tired.

OK, let’s be happy now.

Talking about Minnesota sports should make us happy, right? … No? Not so much?

Well, here is something lovely. Thanksgiving is next week! That means 1) a week off of school, 2) time with friends, 3) no school, 4) cornbread stuffing, 5) a break from classes, 6) cheap seasons of Friends at Target’s Black Friday sale, and 7) school is for suckers.

I love Kendi Everyday and her awesome style. But I have to admit that I was not a fan of her pleather pants last week. She looked cute in them because she’s so skinny, but all I could think of was when Ross wore those leather pants on Friends. The lotion and the powder made a paste, you guys.

So my small group has been discussing prayer lately. It’s something I want to be so natural in my heart — to turn to God for everything, to thank him right away, to petition him with my needs, to share with him like I do with my friends.

The Jewish people start and end each day by praying the Shema — Deuteronomy 6:4-9. These verses remind us to love God with all that we are, with everything that is in us. His commands are to be on our hearts; God’s words are to be so natural to us that we talk about them at home and on the road. They are the first things we think about when we wake up and the last thing to cross our mind when we lie down.

The Shema says to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. In the Hebrew, the word that we translate “strength” is actually “meod.” In Hebrew it means “very” or “muchness” or “abundance.” God wants us to love him with all our very, all our muchness, all our abundance. Every. All.

That is my prayer — the Shema. That loving God with all of me would be my biggest desire. That turning to the Lord wherever I am, whatever time of day, would be my first instinct. With all my heart, with all my soul, with all my very.

Isn’t Hebrew so much better than Greek? That’s right, Peter!

OK, I best be going, Pea Pods. (That is apparently my new nickname for you.)

Have a good day and love with very muchness!

 

 

JeNOvah

That title is probably kind of sacrilegious.

I would like to start out by saying that some people named Chad (names have been preserved to expose the guilty) think it’s pointless and sad to blog about things like Friday Night Lights. Also, some people named Chad will probably get beaten up by Tim Riggins and The Smash. Just. Saying.

Well, how is your day? Yesterday I left my house one time to go to dinner with my sweet friend Martine. The rest of the time I was inside, wearing sweatpants, drinking coffee, and looking at the snow. I also managed to squeeze in about 4.2 minutes of work. It was so nice not to have to go anywhere though, you guys! Sometimes I really like not doing things.

So, here are some things my professor talked about in Hebrew the other night. Jehovah isn’t a word. Surprise!

Vowels aren’t original to Hebrew — they were added later to help with pronunciation. Also, vowels in Hebrew look like little dots and dashes under or over the consonants. And yes, it is terrifying when you’re in your first semester of Hebrew and you look at the Bible and all the insanely foreign letters are surrounded by Morse code.

So, a group of Hebrew scribes called the Masoretes were super detailed and good at transcribing. They’re the ones who put together the Hebrew Bible I use in my classes today, and it is their Hebrew text that we base our English Bible translations on.

Anyhoo, the Masoretes (along with the rest of the Jewish people) had a great reverence for God’s name, first revealed to Moses at the burning bush. We pronounce this name as “Yahweh,” although no one is exactly sure how it should be pronounced (because the vowels aren’t original). In our English Bibles, any time “Yahweh” is used, we see LORD in all caps instead.

The name Yahweh with no vowels.

Because God’s name is so holy, the Jewish people don’t pronounce it. The Masoretes wanted to make sure that people didn’t accidentally pronounce God’s name, so when they added vowels to the biblical text, they used the vowels that you would use to pronounce the word “Adonai” or “Lord” around Yahweh. This way, when people were reading and came to God’s name, they would see the consonants for Yahweh, but because of the vowels around them, they would know to pronounce it as “Adonai” out of respect for God’s name.

Is this making any sense? Are you sleeping? Rude.

Anyhoos, this is consistent through the Hebrew Masoretic text. But then someone like me — someone non-Jewish and not familiar with what the Masoretes were trying to do — came along and tried to pronounce the name of Yahweh according to the vowels. They didn’t know that those vowels were there so that you would say “Adonai” instead. They just started sounding out the word according to both the consonants and the vowels.

Seriously, any sense at all? Wake up! I’m almost done.

When you sound out the consonants and the vowels in the Hebrew text, it sounds like Ye-ho-vah. Jehovah.

So that’s where it comes from, but really it’s not a word — it’s just a mispronunciation of Yahweh according to the vowels that were put there to make sure you didn’t try to pronounce Yahweh. I guess it didn’t work. Poor Masoretes. They tried so hard.

As my professor pointed out, this is bad news for Jehovah’s Witnesses. And for all of our songs about Jehovah Jireh.

Why yes, you are very welcome for this fascinating Hebrew lesson!

Whew. That failed attempt at teaching I just did wore me out. I had better get back to not doing things. Talk to you soon!

Shade

Oh, hello.

I’m just here in Colorado — you know, where it is the dead of winter.

I am originally from Minnesota, so I can handle tragedies like early snowfall. (I cannot handle tragedies like the Vikings 2011 season, however.) But a snowstorm I can take in stride, you guys. Don’t even worry about me. Especially since it’s Colorado so it is likely to be 95 degrees again by the weekend.

So I’m learning Hebrew, you know. Sometimes it’s kind of hard. But mostly it’s very awesome. Hebrew is a very physical language — the word for “anger” has its root in the word for “nose.” Because when you’re angry, you flare your nostrils, you see. So we know that “Yahweh is gracious and compassionate, slow to flare his nostrils and rich in love” (Psalm 145:8, Denise’s Third Semester Hebrew Version).

Hebrew is a very physical language, and the Jews are a very physical people. When Ray Vander Laan is teaching, he often has people close their eyes and call out words that describe who God is. When he is here in America, with people like you and me, he gets answers like “omnipotent, holy, omnipresent, good, love, infinite and transcendent.” These things are all very true of who God is. But, he says, if you were to ask that same question of a group of Orthodox teenagers in Israel — if you were to ask them to describe who God is, they would say things like, “rock, shepherd, shade, eagles wings, and a father who taught his children to walk.

I think the way the Scripture describes God is very meaningful. When I’m driving on the highway and I look over at the mountains, I can remember that God is a rock, upright and just. When my friends have babies and I see them holding on to the fingers of their sons and daughters as they attempt to move chubby little feet, one in front of the other, I can be reminded that God guides our steps, teaches us to walk in his ways.

I hiked the Grand Canyon with friends once. It made me very whiny. The trip down was wonderful. It was still morning and it was cool out, and the view was incredible. At the bottom we splashed in the icy river and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Then it was time to hike back up.

It was the middle of May; by the time we were halfway back up the canyon it was 94 degrees. The switchbacks were endless. My friends kept telling me we were “getting there,” but they were cruel liars. We would never be to the top. I would die in that canyon — hot and dusty with blisters on my feet. Tragic.

Every mile or two on the trail there was a little stone shelter, built for the fools who were dumb enough to be trying to hike their way out of that canyon of death. I would see the shelter in the distance, nine million switchbacks away, and I would put one foot in front of the other, trying to make it there. When I’d arrive, I would plop down, so grateful to be shaded — for just a few minutes — from the blazing Arizona sun.

I wish, when I did that hike, when I finally found shade and sighed with relief in those shelters, that I had remembered that the psalmist tells me that “Yahweh watches over you — Yahweh is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.”

That is what the Bible can do for you. We can remember God in the things we see every day. He has given us these images in his word as reminders of who he is and what he does. It’s a beautiful thing.

Have a wonderful day, friends. May God be your strength and your shield.

p.s. Make sure you enter the drawing for the great prize package! And find me on Twitter!

The Girl With the Hebrew Tattoo

In chapel today, I saw a girl with a Hebrew tattoo on her foot. They’re so hot right now, you guys. All the cool Christians have Hebrew tattoos. Sometimes I kind of want one too, but then I feel like I’d just be hopping on the Hebrew tattoo bandwagon, and I am my own person, you guys. Also, I’m kind of scared of pain and needles and pain.

Anyway, back to chapel and the girl with the Hebrew tattoo. (That just reminded me that that new movie about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is coming out. It looks kind of creepy. But kind of intriguing. Have any of you read the books? Are they good? Are they creepy? Does anyone have a Hebrew tattoo on their foot?) Ok, for reals. Back to this boring story I’m telling you. Anyway, I was awkwardly staring at this girl’s foot, trying to figure out what it said. I finally figured out the word and how to pronounce it, but I didn’t know what it meant. Luckily I am at a seminary and it is filled with boring books like Hebrew dictionaries. So I just looked that word right on up. It was just three little letters, but the word means “to seek or take refuge.” I thought that was kind of beautiful — taking refuge in the Lord. Maybe I want a trendy, Hebrew tattoo after all.

I just wrote a blog post for Boundless and told everyone about all the biblical holidays we’ve been celebrating. Maybe we should make it a yearly event? Pretty soon we’ll all be living in little sukkahs, sporting our Hebrew foot tattoos and being awesome together. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Shalom, friends!

Bees, Geese and Scarf Drama

So, I call this outfit “Accidental Bumblebee.” I didn’t realize until after I left the house that my color combo was a bit special. Oh well. Also, what do you think of the scarf tucked into the belt? It made me nervous, but I am trying to be brave and bold during this challenge, so I decided to go for it. I’m not sure if it worked. And just so you know, I will probably be wearing this belt pretty much every day. Get used to it.

 

You guys, it was so nice out yesterday! I ate lunch outside, and then just sat in the sun for a little while, and then tried to think of more excuses to stay outside so that I didn’t have to go to the library and start translating Hebrew passages. Unfortunately, my fear of failing classes eventually drove me back inside.

Also, you guys, there has been an outbreak of goose attacks at our seminary! Not “geese” attacks. It is just one evil, cranky goose. It sits in the parking lot and flies at people and then hisses at them. There have been upwards of three people attacked. One of them I saw. I was still in my car while this poor man was being attacked, so I tried to rescue him by running the goose over with my SUV. I got really close, but then I felt kind of bad about being a goose murderer, so I didn’t run him over. Also, the guy had escaped to safety by then.Seriously, though, I heard of at least two others that were attacked and hissed at. I am wondering if this is a goose who has a wife and he is helping her protect her egg. Do you think? And apparently they’ve decided keep and nurture their egg  in an asphalt parking lot. The geese’s natural habitat. Also, did you know that geese have tongues? They do. You can totally see them when they hiss at you.

In conclusion, it is probably not a good idea to dress like a bumblebee on the day that the killer goose is on a rampage at your school.

OK, I best be going. Today I am thankful for God’s grace — that He is forgiving and flings His remembrance of my sin as far as the east is from the west. I don’t deserve it. He is nice to me.

 

Back to School + I Am Lazy = More Blog Posts!

We;; upi gius. O

, bacl tp scjpp;p

Yes, that is what I was just writing to you all until I realized that my hands were not quite correctly placed on the keyboard. I’m a writer.

I think 4 p.m.  is a great time to publish a new post for optimum blog traffic, don’t you? No wonder it’s just my mom and her Deer River friends who show up here.

So, I am back to school this week, which is good news for the old bloggy, because it means that I will probably be around a lot more to avoid studying. I’ll do anything to keep from being productive.

This semester, I am continuing to stumble through Hebrew. I’m also taking two different theology classes–one about Christian theology in general, and one about the theology of the Old Testament. This is the book I have to read for OT Theology.

It talks a lot about covenant, the Law, sacrifice, God’s unique relationship with Israel, and other things weirdos like me will be interested in it. Some of you may even like it. (I’m looking at you, Jeff Abel.)

I’ll also be doing this whole mentoring thing that the seminary makes you do. Bleh. It’s not that I’m against having a mentor — I think I’m actually going to enjoy the time with my mentor. However, I also have to do all of this other junk so that it can actually be counted as a credited grad school class. Boo to extra work. That is my official life motto.

Since all I do is talk about TV, I thought I’d make sure that everyone out there loves and devotedly watches Parenthood. It is one of my favorites, and I love Crosby and Zeke and the gang. I’m quite upset that the State of the Union Address will prevent me from enjoying it tomorrow night. Stupid jerks who want to be informed about the condition of these United States.

As it is the new year, I’ve committed to my annual resolution — losing 800 pounds. I’ve started working out again, and getting my health food on. Since I also like to get on health food kicks every once in awhile (usually when I read a book like “In Defense of Food” or watch a movie like “Food Inc.“), I’ve bought lots of fruits and vegetables and started to make smoothies with them. Now, I am very much enjoying the smoothies with bananas and protein powder and almond milk. But do you know what I am not so much enjoying? The smoothies with spinach and peaches and grapes. These are called “green smoothies” and some claim to love them and their greenness. I am working on it. It’s been a rough start. But I’m going to keep at it because I have 30 pounds of spinach and kale and flax seed in my fridge. (I go big or go home, people.)

In conclusion, I should be going because I am already failing Hebrew. On a related note (and by “related,” I mean, “look, there’s a butterfly!”) I was reminded today of how much I love this video from Rend Collective Experiment. You should watch it. It might make you cry. (If it doesn’t, let me know and I’ll pass along some of my Hebrew homework. That’ll do it for sure.)

Joves, friends!

Minnesota Moments

Loves,

How are you, even?! Let’s quit pretending that I’ll ever be a consistent blogger. It is my dream, but I don’t think it will ever be realized due to school, work, lack of payment and extreme laziness. But I do enjoy it when we get to chat, don’t you?!

Well, the Christmases have come and gone. You guys, I went home for two weeks. Who in their right mind does that? It was actually pretty good–relaxing and like such as. Also, very cold and snowy. Seriously, Minnesota is insane with snow. You couldn’t even see cars coming out of the side streets because the plows had piled the snow so high. Meanwhile, it is 50 degrees in Denver today. Poor Minnesota saps.

While I was home, I surprised Charles in Charge with tickets to the Black Nativity, which was a superawesome play with wonderful music. We got all fancied up.

Dad thought I was getting him tickets to the Minnesota Gophers basketball game, so I think he was a little disappointed with the play at first. However, he and Bonnie just got back from a trip to Mexico last night, so guess who is getting zero sympathy from me?

I got to go to Detroit Lakes to see my grandparents and my mom’s side of the family. My grandma held an auction for the family. Serious. She gave us each four dollars and then auctioned off a bunch of things she had recently bought–DVDs, blankets, cloth hangers, a trendy cassette player. We had to bid against one another. Now you see where the crazy comes from.

I spent about a week in Deer River, where my mom lives. The old DR is a town with about 900 people. The hot spots of this booming metropolis are the Blueberry Bowl and the local co-op. Also, the hospital. (The town is mostly old people, so they like to come hang out at the clinic for fun times.) Although Deer River is small, it is very pretty. I love the view of giant snow-covered pine trees from my mom’s kitchen window. So peaceful and naturey.

A big snowstorm came through Deer River while I was there, so we pretty much got trapped in the house. But seriously, if you have to get trapped in a house, wouldn’t you want it to be in this one? My mom is my decorating hero.

We had some of my mom’s friends over for lunch one afternoon. They were funny and nice and put up with our bad cooking. I would like to give them (Kerry, Cindy and Morgan) a shout-out because my mom apparently forces them to read my blog. (There’s really not much else to do in Deer River.) It was great to meet them, and they all made me laugh numerous times, which is always good. Here we are, lunching it up.

So, now I am back in Colorado and trying to enjoy my last few days of freedom before school starts up again next Monday. Back to Hebrew verbs and dissecting Christian theology. Yay?

You guys, I started watching Friday Night Lights while I was in Minnesota. It is the best show ever! I think you should start watching it right now and then email me and let me know if you too want to marry Tim Riggins, even though he is a Bad Guy. I also kind of want to marry Landry, even though he is The Nerd. That show is just so well-written and the way they film makes it seem so real. I’m all about moving to Texas to coach a small-town football team. Who’s with me?!

OK, I’m done with the boring updates, folks. Next time I’ll try to report on something more interesting, like how I nearly sliced my finger off while washing a knife last week. DRAMA.

Until then, happy MLK Jr. Day! Thank God Almighty — in Him, we are free at last!

Hipsters and Hebrew

Hi!

Would you like to know the very last thing I should be doing right now? Writing a blog post. Next week I have two giant finals on Monday, a big paper due on Wednesday, and another paper due on Friday. That means I have this week to labor without ceasing and put my strong, midwestern work ethic into action — studying diligently and with fierce resolve at all times.

So, I shall write you a blog post.

Let’s see — what has happened since I last wrote? Oh, I went to Austin to see Jaci!

You guys, you should all go to Austin! It is such a fun city. I went in the middle of November and it was in the mid-70s, so that’s probably the time to go. I may not have enjoyed Austin quite so much if I had been there in the summer, dying of humidity, heatstroke and hipsters.

Yes, all the cool hipsters of Texas flock to Austin to ride bikes in their skinny jeans. It’s great. Because of Austin’s desire to be unique, they have lots of cool stores. Jaci and I spent pretty much an entire day on South Congress, shopping in cute boutiques with darling dresses and fun t-shirts that we couldn’t afford. (Don’t worry, though, we both managed to purchase just a couple of things.)

Another great thing about Austin is that they have food carts everywhere. Our shopping expedition was hard work and we needed sustenance to maintain. So we stopped for fried avocado (SO good). Come to think of it — Jaci, Josh (her husband), and I managed to stop quite frequently for treats on my Austin trip. We went to a place called Juan in a Million, and Jaci and I both got the “Don Juan” taco. It was only $3.80, so we didn’t realize that we were each ordering an entire platter of potatoes, eggs, bacon and cheese that we could wrap in hot, tasty tortillas. Let me tell you — Juan knows what he is doing when it comes to delicious breakfast.

We went downtown one night because we are still cool and young and hip and love being out in the city with all the weekend party action. Mostly, we shook our heads disapprovingly at girls in short skirts, talked about how we were glad we were wearing our practical, flat boots instead of 4-inch heels, and ate hamburgers.

Anyway, it was a great trip, and Josh and Jaci were wonderful hosts. (I especially think Josh enjoyed having me around — he loved going shopping and holding my purse for me while I took pictures, and listening to Jaci and me talk about the pain of high heels. What a sport.) Austin is super-cool fun times, and I recommend a visit — I mean, look how pretty!

So, now I am trying to finish out my semester and pretend that I know some Hebrew so that I don’t fail my final. It’s been kind of a tough fall, which maybe I’ll blog about later, but one thing that has been so precious (and horribly frustrating) to me is stumbling through Hebrew. It’s always been something I’ve kind of wanted to learn, but it wasn’t until I started the process, that I realized how very meaningful it is to read and hear the Bible in its original language. Even when I don’t fully understand what I am hearing, you can sense the poetry and depth and purposefulness of Hebrew.

Although the ultimate goal in biblical studies is to learn the language in order to translate it, our professor wants us to hear and speak it as well, which I love. We sings songs and read from the text, and answer questions in Hebrew. We are moving very, very quickly — I am amazed at all we’ve done in a semester — and it is hard, but it is so good. I had to translate four verses from Jonah for my homework the other day, and although it was difficult, I was able to do it. Fourteen weeks ago, I didn’t know the Hebrew alphabet. Bless God!

One of the verses we’ve learned is from Psalm 118. I wrote it all out for you, but I can’t figure out how to get old WordPress to accept Hebrew font. So, if you want, you can look at it here (verse 24). In English, we often translate this verse, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

It is interesting, because when you read it in Hebrew, the pronoun we often translate as “it” could just as likely (perhaps more) be translated as “him.” Let us be glad in Him!

Secondly, the word for rejoice is “nagila,” which is a very physical descriptor.  We are to literally dance and sing and shout for joy because of the day God has given us.

This is such a good reminder for me lately. Even on days when things are not exciting — when I have homework or work or quiet — I am to rejoice in Him because He has created another day and has allowed me to be a part of it. He has caused the sun to rise, and He has woken me up so that I can rejoice in Him through whatever the day brings. It is a good reminder in the times I tend to think that life is mundane. It’s not. God is always doing a new thing, and this day means we are one step closer to the full redemption He is bringing about through the coming of His kingdom.

OK, I gotta go study and stuff. You know me and how I am never distracted by blogging or Facebook. Or videos of baby monkeys riding on tiny pigs.

Bye, friends. The Lord is a good God with good gifts. “Nagila” in Him today!