The Argument Clinic

Well, here are my comments/thoughts on today’s passage.  Its obviously a section of the Bible that I am familiar with but that doesn’t mean I can’t get anything out of it…I am writing these comments down as I read each chapter…so as I type this intro I have no idea what my comments are actually going to be yet…we’ll see…

Chapter 1

Well, I’m not going to discuss the whole “was it 7 24 hour days or a longer period of time”-thing because, quite frankly, I find that argument to be really boring and get tired of hearing it.  So, now for something completely different…

As someone who doesn’t have a very active imagination (have been told that I am a “linear thinker”), I am not really the type of person that reads the passages detailing God’s process for creation (such as “God said let there be light and there was light”) and tries to picture what that might have looked like (well, I can imagine that it was pretty dark before it was light [profound isn’t it? ], but my imagination doesn’t really take me too far past there)…because I know I am lousy at visualizing things in my head (not that I don’t believe/have faith in things that I can’t see, I just don’t really try to imagine what they might look like).  I find myself wondering how I would read these passages differently if I were the type of person who could see things in a more artistic, less engineer-y kind of way   But I will never know I guess.

And, of course, verse 1:27 (”So God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him”) makes me wonder about what it really means to be a reflection of God’s nature (its worded in that way in the message version).  Then I find myself asking the obvious question of “how can we really be a reflection when we all fall short?”.  But then I remind myself that a reflection in a mirror, for example, is really just a 2-dimensional representation of something that is actually 3-dimensional…the image in the mirror is obviously lacking a lot of the qualities that are present in the 3-dimensional object/person that it is trying to represent.  The image is never the equivalent of the original…just like I will never even come close to being a perfect representation of God.  Luckily for all of us, He loves each of us enough not to expect us to be.

Chapter 2

The part of this chapter that stood out to me more today was the whole concept of God taking a day to rest.  I have always thought of that whole concept as pretty bizarre.  Not only because it begs the question “hey if God needed to rest why do I feel guilty doing it sometimes” (note I said sometimes, given that this is a 3 day weekend I plan to do plenty of that whole relaxing thing over the next few days and I won’t feel bad at all )…but because my brain just can’t comprehend the thought of God needing to rest.  It just doesn’t make sense to me because of the image of Him as all powerful…why does someone who is all powerful need to rest?  Its not that I don’t believe that He did…its just that, like so many other things, I just don’t understand it. 

A part of me finds comfort on a daily basis with the thought that He doesn’t rest…because if He did how would I know He would be there for me when I needed Him?  And since its never mentioned that God needed to rest after this point, I assume that was the only time He did….right before we came along and started wreaking havoc down here.  This is pretty close to #1 on the list of things that makes no sense to me though…and most likely never will.  But, the real point of the fact that God rested seems to be to encourage all of us to periodically.  And that’s what I really need to take away from it, not just the fact that it doesn’t really make sense.  Hmmm….maybe He rested so He could use that to teach us that it is important for us to rest as well.  I’m sure He knew that the only way to encourage some of us to rest was to use Himself as an example - “hey if I needed to do it, you do too”.  After all, He would have known ahead of time that many of us would need that encouragement (and even with that encouragement…still insist on going and going and going and going….).

Chapter 3

Yep, this is where all the problems started…(well technically that was when we were created, but this is when the problems really kicked in I think….).  I always found it funny that God asked them who told them they were naked and asked them “What is this you have done?”…its not like He didn’t already know. 

Today the verse “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day” stood out to me.  Once again, terrible at visualizing things…and when I read this passage, its one of the few times when I wish I did have an imagination of some kind…not that any of us can really picture what God would sound like walking in the garden (or what it really means for Him to be walking)…but sometimes I would like to be able to try to picture it.  I’m sure its difficult for people with imaginations to understand the complete blank I draw when I try to picture something like that.  Hmmm…

Chapter 4

I have always wondered about why it bothered God so much that Cain brought the fruits of his labor before Him.  I have always been taught that the work that each of us does is important…and that we are supposed to dedicate those efforts to God…why were Abel’s more important?

Hmmm…God asking Cain where his brother was always seems pretty passive aggressive to me….I’m pretty sure God knew.

The passage “So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden” stood out to me today…what does it feel like to be sent away from the Lord’s presence?  Can we, as people who came after the gift of the Holy Spirit, really relate to that?  Even on days when I feel far from Him, the reality is that I am not really far from Him….it seems that it was different for Cain…that he felt the separation in a way that I, as someone in the 21st century, can’t really feel in the same way.  You see, on days when I feel a little further from Him I have faith that that will change and that its somehow temporary for me….I just can’t imagine being able to get through the day if I believed that was a permanent situation.  I really never thought about that passage as much before today.

Chapter 5

Ummm…yeah, I don’t have anything much to say about this chapter.

So, final thoughts before I wrap up this entry?  My kitty, thea, is so cute right now…she has been curled up next to me while I type this :)  Oh and the new paninis from lean cuisine are really good…stocked up on them at Price Chopper.  I highly recommend them.  Ohhh….you meant did I have any final thoughts on today’s passage?  Oh well, hmmm….not really.  Nothing more to see here I guess (for now)

For someone who doesn’t really like traveling all that much, it seems that I have to do a lot of it over the next few months…Philadelphia at the end of this month, Phoenix next month, Orlando in March followed directly (like the day after that trip is over) by San Diego.  Most of that being business travel (Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego are all for soil vapor intrusion conferences/meetings), I don’t anticipate most of it being very relaxing, but at least the meetings I am attending will be well worth it…even if I do hate flying (I don’t mind the landing when I get home, but I am not a big fan of the rest of it).  I won’t be flying to philadelphia at least - decided on the train because the only direct flight I could find from albany to philadelphia was $780 at the time I looked (and hello? that is not that long of a trip and that was 2 months before the departure time…so its not like I waited until the last minute), and though I’m not paying for it…couldn’t justify that anyways…could get it down to $650 with a connection, which is still expensive and I am soooo not putting up with connecting flight hassles to get to a city 4-5 hours from me.

Its not that I’m not interested in seeing other places…its more the hassle of the trip itself and the stress involved in catching flights, etc. that I don’t particularly enjoy.  And for those of you who may not be that familiar with business travel, unless you choose to extend your time with vacation days or through a weekend, you very rarely get a chance to really see the places you go to…mostly an airport -> hotel -> airport -> home type of deal.  I usually spend most of my time in airports or on the plane.  The most I typically see of the places I travel is limited to my drive to and from the hotel in the shuttle/taxi/rental car….and perhaps the view out the window of the airplane (and since I need the extra leg room and sit in aisle seats, that isn’t a whole heck of a lot).  For example, for my trips to phoenix and san diego, I fly out on a wednesday (the trips take most of the day), have day long meetings thursday, and fly back first thing friday morning.  And though I could extend my time through the weekend, I just really haven’t gotten used to the whole sight-seeing alone thing enough to do that effectively (or enjoyably), so I almost never do that.  I guess it would depend on where I was going though…if I ever had a business trip to hawaii for example (which is ridiculously unlikely), I’m pretty sure I would talk myself into extending that, so I suppose there are exceptions (however far-fetched)

I guess I am just one of those weird people who prefers driving most places (of course, with my cute little 2005 subaru wrx, who wouldn’t? ).  And, when it comes down to it, I really do miss being home where I can be more comfortable, be closer to friends and family, and relax in the evenings with my sweet, little siamese cats (thea and ladi)  So traveling is just something I have to struggle to get used to.  It makes me relieved that God didn’t call me to a profession that requires tons of traveling because, although 3 business trips in 2 months may be more than some people need to do, the amount I travel is still significantly less than some people who seem to always be “on the go”, so to speak.  And, even though I always stress about the flight (I really hate that whole being in the air part?), I do know that God is watching out for me….even during those dreaded times when the conditions are so turbulent that the pilot asks the flight attendants to sit down and put their seat belts on for the remainder of the flight (I feel sick just thinking about that….).  And on days when I am too scared about flying to remember He is there, He is patient about reminding me - like the time when I flew back from Antigua (that was personal travel, obviously) and the guy looking through my luggage started singing a familiar Michael W. Smith worship song and we got to talking about church, worship songs, etc. or the time when the woman sitting next to me was reading Psalms throughout the flight and we had a nice conversation about what churches we went to and how even if you are a different denomination, the important part is to focus on Christ and what God has done for us, and not all the little denominational differences that make very little difference in the grand scheme of things.  Little reminders of that help me to get my focus back on Him and remind me that I am just as close to Him at 30,000 feet as I am in my kitchen at home.  And the fact that God is loving enough to arrange little reminders like that for me makes me think of one of my all time favorite verses, Psalm 27:1:

The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

If you haven’t seen it yet, I encourage you to check out this article.  Alissa is a fellow RPI alum and she is doing a great job as the editor of the career and finance section of Relevant’s online magazine.  She is looking for some thoughts on this article - so I encourage you to drop her a line and send her yours

For the past year or so I have been wanting to go back and read through the Bible again (cover-to-cover) and decided that this would be a good time to start.  So, each day I will be posting the day’s reading and any thoughts I had on it.  Partially to allow you to read/comment along with me if you want, partially to allow myself to keep track of my thoughts as I go through it this time, and partially to hold myself accountable   I plan to read between 5-6 chapters a day, but that could vary depending on the book (parts of the book of Numbers, for example, might be gone through rather quickly ).

So here goes…today’s reading is Genesis chapters 1-5.  Comments/thoughts to follow later today