Alpha

So, I've been taking this class at OUMC. I've been wearing two hats: one, as a student in three Disciple classes and currently starting my fourth; the other as a Christian who considers some aspects of his faith new. I have this sort of secret plan (that I tell everybody I meet about; maybe I should be a little quieter about it) to find out what it's like and maybe introduce it at my church someday (UUMC), so I want to see what it's like. And also, at the same time, I'm interested to know if there's anything Important I missed, as I formed my own beliefs about God and Jesus (partly in my "off" years, and partly during the five past years that I've been attending church).

It's been very nice so far. The OUMC folks have an incredible amount of energy for this class. They're in the kitchen every Tuesday night, starting about 4:00 pm, cooking a simple supper for us (well... maybe not quite so simple -- some of those wimmin can cook; I don't think it's the men; sorry to be sexist), there are a lot of people running around serving drinks, they have speakers every week from the church (mostly lay folk; this week, it was a fellow student in Disciple).

I wonder if UUMC can come up with this level of energy. I really need to get more involved with my own church, but, ya know... two nights per week plus a divorce is a gracious plenty right now.

Status update

Got the custody eval report. They recommended a 50-50 split and some sort of followup eval six months after the split.

So, now I'm looking for a house, on the assumption that we'll negotiate that my wife keeps the house and I move out.

Negotiations beginning in the next couple of weeks, I think.

Wheee!

1 Chronicles

So, we discussed 1st Chronicles in Disciple last Monday. I was supposed to have read it during the preceding week, but I hadn't done my reading every day like I should have. I did the first six or so chapters early on, but then stopped, and wound up doing the last 23 chapters Sunday night.

Whoosh! :-S , as they say.

So, the fact that 1 Chronicles is a great big list of names wasn't helped by my reading it that fast. I really do think there is a good reason for this huge list of names, and I wish I could have slowed down and really savored them. Here's some of it (1 Chron. 4). It's stultifying stuff:

¹ The sons of Judah: Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. ² Reaiah son of Shobal became the father of Jahath, and Jahath became the father of Ahumai and Lahad. These were the families of the Zorathites. ³ These were the sons of Etam: Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash; and the name of their sister was Hazzelelponi, ⁴ and Penuel was the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These were the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem. ⁵ Ashhur father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah; ⁶ Naarah bore him Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni, and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah. ⁷ The sons of Helah: Zereth, Izhar, and Ethnan. ⁸ Koz became the father of Anub, Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel son of Harum. ⁹ Jabez was honored more than his brothers; and his mother named him Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain." ¹⁰ Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!" And God granted what he asked.

¹¹ Chelub the brother of Shuhah became the father of Mehir, who was the father of Eshton. ¹² Eshton became the father of Beth-rapha, Paseah, and Tehinnah the father of Ir-nahash. These are the men of Recah. ¹³ The sons of Kenaz: Othniel and Seraiah; and the sons of Othniel: Hathath and Meonothai. ¹⁴ Meonothai became the father of Ophrah; and Seraiah became the father of Joab father of Ge-harashim, so-called because they were artisans.

But, it has little stories embedded in it, some of which happened to no-name people (and, yes, I picked this passage on purpose).

The big take-away I got from our session was that this list of people is full of names, some clearly recognizable (e.g., Judah, Esau) and some not so recognizable. What this meant to us was that the unknowns are connected to the greats; we unknowns are also connected to our greats (and our greats from the past), in one large family, essentially. It's pretty inclusive. We can imagine ourselves listed in this huge roster of names. (The cynical among us will note that it's almost completely male. Well, yeah, it's the Ancient Near East of 2500 years ago. Come on.)