Workin' for the Man

I'm writing from deep within the vast labyrinth that is the "Emerald City" - the OSU med center.  It is a different world - with level 2 trauma alerts and medivac helicopters overhead and new e-mails and research protocols - but it is as exciting as it is scary.  Hopefully this summer won't be quite as busy as the school year - but 40 hour work weeks combined with summer project every night plus med school applications equals moderate busy-ness.

One amusing side-note:  while being oriented today by my co-workers, I discovered that the large (like 15 ft. diam.) rotating disk that delivers the side dishes in the cafeteria is affectionately called the "wheel of death"!  How appetizing...  Additionally, while in the "gross room", which is where the tissue specimens (which may or may not be malignant) are brought to be processed, stained, analyzed, frozen, stored, etc. right after being excised during surgery - a large bucket containing what looked like a big piece of meat came in.  It was from someone's neck.  Wow...  Hopefully you have a strong stomach like mine.  You're welcome for the image...

An interesting start to the summer for sure.

Currently Listening Dying Star By Jason Upton see related

Check out imAmerz's post for some good insight into worship - and don't forget to read the comments!  I thought I'd share my comment with you all here:

...proper worship puts the correct scale in place for us - magnifying God and minimizing us - while edifying the church corporately and not ourselves in the process...as Paul says in I Corinthians 14, "...and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare.  So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you!'"  After experiencing worship (prophesy in this instance), the outsider will have no doubt left that our God is real - and more than that - that He's alive, active, and relates personally.  This happened when David danced before the LORD in Samuel, it happened in Acts when the Spirit poured out like fire, it happened at the radical Methodist revivals of previous centuries, it happens in Asian house churches singing a capella under threat of torture, it happens in Africa and Egypt, it happens in quiet Mennonite meeting houses, it happens in the structured liturgy of awesome stone cathedrals, it happens in uber-cool candle-laden college churches, and it happens in wal-mart parking lots in New Orleans as Baptists and Methodists worship together out of necessity.  In short, WORSHIP happens when broken people come together to acknowledge, experience, and exalt God.  Worship happens when pride is diminished...

Currently Listening Waiting for My Rocket to Come By Jason Mraz see related

That's Crazy

Ok - so post-New Orleans real life has set in again, and I find myself almost 20% done with the quarter!  Basically my days are too busy that it seems my body, brain, and soul are all in different places - kind of disconcerting.  In all seriousness, though, it is a fun time - and the best part is that God is working continually.  This summer I'll be working at the OSU Med Center - on a research project that applies both medicine and engineering - perfect!  Basically all my spare time will then be spent with this summer program through our church, GCM (http://www.gcmlt.org/events/lt/).  Should be awesome - and hopefully bring us into even more relationships with service opportunities downtown (and I mean true service - not handing out one-time gifts necessarily - but actually entering into meaningful relationships with people, the kind where we can speak the hope of God into lives who have known only hopelessness)  Hopefully somewhere in there will be time for trips to Boston and Colorado...

Thought for today?  How about these:  the body, mind, and spirit are inseparable - despite all the sneaky ways gnostic teachings continually creep in and tell us otherwise.  This is true whether we're talking about sleeping, eating, working, hangin' out, whatever...  Also try this one out - the craziness of God's plan to call redeemed men to be Christ to other men!  And if we resist?  He will still use us to further His plan - so with or without our permission, we're going to be used.  Might as well join in, right?

Above it was mentioned that God is working all over, and just to give some examples:  friends who have been in the dark wilderness for a while have come back, the lost are hearing the Good News at the clinic - and responding by accepting God!, new churches are being planted in urban Columbus (http://www.ekklesiacolumbus.com/ and http://www.villagevineyard.org/).  These churches extend the love of Jesus to those normally ignored while presenting an uncompromised message of the Truth of Jesus... 

Currently Listening October By U2 With A Shout see related

One more thought before I leave you for a while (New Orleans - please pray for us and for the people we'll meet):  Don Miller is right - Christianity is like jazz; it doesn't resolve all the time.  Our God operates down in the muck and mire of real life - yet ultimately makes something beyond beautiful.  Our faith is also very simple - so simple that children can grasp the basics.  This is a paradox:  the God of Creation, with all knowledge and wisdom, can be revealed to little kids!  One aspect that's fun to wrap your head around is this:  the Messiah was fully human and fully God.  We can have complete confidence that what happened to Him as our forbearer will happen to us - and that includes the defeat of death and resurrection into new bodies...

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  - I Corinthians 15

Currently Watching Walk the Line (2-Disc Collector's Edition) see related

This movie was so awesome, I have to write about it...the dollar theater rocks, by the way.  I've seen this film and Munich there for under $2.

Though I knew that Johnny Cash was a colorful character with an amazing redemption story, this movie moves his story beyond mere words.  The music, the acting, the cinematography - all superb.  And the story - it's got it all.  Tragic childhood, father wounds that linger into adulthood, addiction, raw and transparent emotion, redemption...and one of my favorite lines (paraphrased):

"Johnny, you gotta understand that a lot of your fans are Christians, Gospel-types.  They don't want to hear a live album from a prison, with you singin' to murderers and rapists trying to cheer them up."

"Well, then, maybe they aren't Christians."