Jess: Well, life has been going pretty well for both of us since the last post. The summer has been progressing well. I started and finished reading the book for my August class, Wes finished his internship, and we watched the entire first season of How I Met Your Mother, which was great. Katherine, Wes' little sister, came to visit us on Sunday, and she's here through next Tuesday, so we're super excited about taking her to NYC, the beach, and whatever else we decide to do. The only setback to the week has been that I have to attend school full-time this next year. I'll be driving out to Philly at least two days a week for 10 weeks. Not the end of the world, but not exactly what I wanted to do while continuing to work. I'm excited about my classes, though!
In other news, we're getting a cat! We have been discussing getting a pet for a little while. I've never had anything but fish because my parents are lame. Just kidding, Mom and Dad. But seriously, I only had fish. Then, my brother had a lizard once, but that thing died pretty quick and made us all sad. I think my parents killed it out of spite. Again, just kidding...sort of. :-P Wes has had a variety of pets, so we had a long discussion as to what to get. Fish are okay, but they get kind of boring. Lizards and snakes are okay, but neither one of us was really ready to get an animal that eats mice and crickets. I think both of us really, really want a dog, but we don't have a fence, it snows freaking half the year here, and we just weren't ready to make all the life changes involved in having a dog. So, we landed on cat. Cats are cuddly enough without being too needy. In other words, perfect.
So today, we went to the store to pick out a cat with Katherine today. Our plan was to let her help us pick out a cat, then buy it when we return from Texas in a couple of weeks. But someone (ahem, me) fell in love with the cat we picked out and decided we couldn't wait. So, instead, we ended up buying a litter box, toys, food/water bowls, a collar, and a bed for the cat. Then we called/applied, and we'll be getting our cat, who we're going to name Tigger, in the next few days. He's 3 months old, already litter box trained, and very active--he already knows how to climb over gates. So, there we go...we've taken the next step in our relationship. Everyone knows that first comes marriage, then comes pet, then comes babies. But don't be expecting that last one anytime soon. We still have all that stupid school stuff to work out.
In other news, we're getting a cat! We have been discussing getting a pet for a little while. I've never had anything but fish because my parents are lame. Just kidding, Mom and Dad. But seriously, I only had fish. Then, my brother had a lizard once, but that thing died pretty quick and made us all sad. I think my parents killed it out of spite. Again, just kidding...sort of. :-P Wes has had a variety of pets, so we had a long discussion as to what to get. Fish are okay, but they get kind of boring. Lizards and snakes are okay, but neither one of us was really ready to get an animal that eats mice and crickets. I think both of us really, really want a dog, but we don't have a fence, it snows freaking half the year here, and we just weren't ready to make all the life changes involved in having a dog. So, we landed on cat. Cats are cuddly enough without being too needy. In other words, perfect.
So today, we went to the store to pick out a cat with Katherine today. Our plan was to let her help us pick out a cat, then buy it when we return from Texas in a couple of weeks. But someone (ahem, me) fell in love with the cat we picked out and decided we couldn't wait. So, instead, we ended up buying a litter box, toys, food/water bowls, a collar, and a bed for the cat. Then we called/applied, and we'll be getting our cat, who we're going to name Tigger, in the next few days. He's 3 months old, already litter box trained, and very active--he already knows how to climb over gates. So, there we go...we've taken the next step in our relationship. Everyone knows that first comes marriage, then comes pet, then comes babies. But don't be expecting that last one anytime soon. We still have all that stupid school stuff to work out.
Wes: So here is my philosophy on pets: if you can't pet it, it's not a pet. Thus, fish, lizards, most birds, insects and spiders, and most snakes do not count as pets.
That's not at all what I want to talk about, though. I want to share with you this cool thing that my churches are doing. We are going through this book right now called The Story, that goes through the entire biblical narrative in 31 chapters. We're doing a chapter a week, so it's a 31-week sermon series. So far, we've covered from creation through Exodus. We've learned something very important about the Bible that has most of the people in my congregations struggling: God is not always easy to understand. Sometimes, God does things that seem to us as very un-God-like, and we have to wrestle with the meanings and implications of it.
We struggled a lot with the plagues in Egypt, especially when people and animals died. We struggled with God telling Moses that God would strike down any Israelite who would not heed God's warnings. We struggled with Moses having to seemingly convince God not to wipe out the entire nation of Israel for making a golden calf to worship as God.
And we don't have a nice, easily explained answer as to why God says the things God says and acts the way God acts. It is something that we as a church, that we as individual people of faith, have to work through and struggle through. Sadly, a lot of the time our churches try to push these stories under the rug and they refuse to talk about them because they are not easy to deal with. This should never be the case. We should not bow away from something just because it's difficult to talk about. This kind of mentality has not led us anywhere good, and it weakens the stance of the church.
So I have three questions that I would leave you with, and I would love to hear your answers:
1. Has your church/pastor tried to tackle the question of why God acts the way God acts in the Old Testament?
2. How do you deal with this struggle?
3. What is your favorite kind of pet?
That's all for today! You stay classy, World Wide Web!
-Jess and Wes
