Saturday, February 16, 2008

Leviticus AND Numbers (AND my Mental Health Weekend)

As some of you know, I am in the middle of a beautiful five day weekend. I am behind in all the reading I am supposed to be doing, and I needed to get away. I can't explain it really- I feel stressed, but not since there is nothing to really stress me in my life right now. No idea.

Anyhow, I packed a bag, checked with Mom, and headed out to Aunt Heather's. On the two hour drive, I listened to the first two CDs of The Dawn Treader. The second one ended just as I was getting out of the car, otherwise I may have just sat there till it was finished!

I've also caught up a bunch in my Bible plan reading; I actually finished Leviticus sometime last week and just haven't written about it. They sort of go together, so I figured rather than make two posts out of them, I'd do one.

The thing that strikes me about these two books is the amount of involvement the Lord had in these people's lives, and yet the amount of disbelief they had. He was in a cloud above their tabernacle. He was in the manna and quail. He sprouted Aaron's staff. He was in Baalam's donkey. One of my camp councelors or small group leaders had a discussion once, and I remember talking about how even though these people saw him in their lives in tangable (at least more tangably than I think we tend to) ways, they didn't believe. And I remember they posed the question: If we lived in Jesus' time (or in this case, during the grand tour of Siani ), would we belive? I like to think so. However, it is discouraging to see these people, generation after generation, doubt.

I'm not saying it's impossible to have periods of doubt. I definitely have, and the worse thing about doubt is it couples with this twisted perception that you are the only one that is experiencing it. However, when the "difficult" thing about Christianity is that it is a relationship based on faith, I just can't see how these people lacked that faith after God showed up in their lives time and time again.

However, it makes me think about the different ways God shows up in my life. No, he doesn't fall from the sky like manna, but I can definitly name situations, experiences, and people he has brought into my life that makes me fully aware of his involvement. For instance, there is an amazing opportunity I have, which I will go into more detail about in March when I learn more. Things like that don't just occur by coincidence.

Tomorrow is the ice fishing derby on Aunt Heather's lake, so we're going to wander around and see who has the biggest fish. There was a chinook today, so there are some fierce winds, but it is + 3 degrees outside right now (at 10:15 pm!)! We may head to Dawn and Bob's. It all depends. I need to work on some homework (I may leave school, but school doesn't leave me!). I hope you all had amazing Valentine's Days. When I'm not on dial-up, I will try to put some pictures up from the walk we took today, the Dawn Treader, and Deuteronomy (aiming for all of this by Monday).

P.S. I call it a mental health weekend based off of a saying my friend Katie had. No, I'm not going insane! At least I don't think I am... ;)

No comments: