Week 3

The big news for this week was Mark--he fell in a soccer game
Saturday. His wrist hurt, but brave boy that he is, he didn't
complain. We took him to the doctor Monday morning since everything
on the Internet said that if it still hurt a day later to go to
doctor, and he had broken a bone in the wrist. He has his first cast,
and has lots of signatures on it. He has to drink 5 glasses of milk,
or take a calcium table for each omitted glass, and so he swigs the
milk to avoid the horse pills.

Matt called Sunday (we try to talk every Sunday) and said that he had
helped kidnap new fraternity brothers and take them to Iowa for
football game. He was driving home. As we talked the cell signal
degraded, and he said he would call back soon. He didn't, and didn't
answer my calls since he went straight to work when returned to
Columbia, and turned off cell phone at work. I was so worried about
him, of course imagining him on the side of the road in rural
Missouri. He did call late, and I was so relieved. I really hate
being away from him and not knowing how he is doing.

One of the best parts of seminary is the worship opportunities. Three
days a week at midday, we have a service, usually with word &
Eucharist on Tues, word on Thurs, Eucharist only on Fri.

This week one of the third year students preached and did a wonderful
job. He spoke about "hitting the wall" the third week every semester.
I haven't "hit the wall" yet, I seem to be finding a rhythm of class,
study, weekly O.T. quizzes, writing weekly colloquy paper, rest, etc.
I estimate that I should be reading 180 pages a day for Tues-Fri
classes, and I get most done before class, but seem to slip and get
the Thurs morning readings done after class instead of before. I'm
more worried about next week when other classes start adding papers
and midterms. That's when I expect to hit the wall.

Our student preacher used a cute phrase--he called himself a card
carrying member of the "FPA"...which stands for "Future Pharisees of
America". He had some really clever lines about getting the card
laminated, whipping it out when needed...and it was a clever phrase to
use to make his point. Over lunch afterwards, a few of us decided
that the current definition of pharisee is anyone who doesn't agree
with what I believe. :-)

Part of the reason I feel better about the rhythm is that I'm finally
doing well on the O.T. quizzes. I started doing online trivia games
to help me remember details. I like the one at:
http://trivia.crossdaily.com/ which allows me to select a book of the
Bible to quiz from. I am a bit resentful about being quizzed about
details, like in which chapters of the Pentateuch do you find the
worship calendars, but it has changed the way I am reading the text to
be more careful about details.

Also, the Jewish study Bible doesn't have the mid-chapter subject
headings that I am used to, and I realize now how much I
subconsciously depended on these to tell me what I am reading, or to
go back and find a verse that I know is somewhere around chapter 13.