honors response 8

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

1 Corinthians 10:13


In Chapter 10 of Living the Sabbath, Wirzba seems convinced that our educational system today is not fulfilling God's will.  That we are people who are fully devoted to ourselves and only ourselves.  He states, "For the most part, our educational aspirations have a self-serving focus that encourages us to disregard the particular needs of the place we live in, given the need to 'grow the economy,' even if that means destroying or degrading local habitats and communities." (133)  Now, I can't really disagree with this statement. I do think that today's society has put an extreme emphases on education in order to get somewhere with our lives.  As time has progressed, education has become more and more important.  It seems as if you can't get a decent job without having a good education. So I agree with Wirzba on the terms that in today's world, nearly everyone is focused on themselves and how to get ahead of everyone else.

I believe, however, that Christians are called to do the opposite.  It is stated throughout the entire Bible that we as Christians will encounter situations in which we are tempted to follow the ways of the world, such as focusing on ourselves in our education, instead of following the ways of the Lord and focusing on Him.  In 1 Corinthians 10:13, God says that we will be put into temptation, but it won't be anything that we can't handle.  He says that He will provide a way out of the temptation.

We are given such a great opportunity to spread God's light in the selfishness of this world.  1 Corinthians 15:10 says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."  If we go into our classes with the mindset that God has gracefully given us the opportunity to be educated and that we will work as hard as we can for Him and to please Him, then I think that we can further God's kingdom.  We can cause questions to be asked.  We may even eventually have the opportunity to change the mindset of some of those going through the education systems down the line.  But it all comes down to our mindset.  Are we doing it for ourselves and to further our lives, or are we doing it for God and to further His kingdom?

honors response 7

Growing up, my Sundays, and weekends for that matter, consisted mostly of soccer. Probably about 2 weekends every month I would be out of town at a soccer tournament.  When I didn't have soccer, I'd go to church and then we would clean the house.  That's how it went in my house.  I didn't realize until this past week in class, that that is not how a lot of families spend their Sundays.  It shocked me how many people were telling me that in their house, Sunday was a day of rest...aka the Sabbath.

I mean, I know what the Sabbath is.  A day of rest. But that's just not something my family and I have practiced, after all, I come from a family of 9, all of whom are in sports.  I just thought that it was something that people in the biblical times did, and no one today did.

But is it really a day set apart?

Throughout our whole discussion on Thursday about the Sabbath and from what we read in Living the Sabbath by Norman Wirzba, I kept thinking that maybe the Sabbath is more of a state of mind.  Okay, I'm not saying that it's only a state of mind or its only a day set apart for rest, this is just what I was thinking about.

Wirzba states, "So what is at stake in Sabbath observance is not simply that we manage to pause and refuel enough to continue on in our frantic and sometimes destructive ways.  The real issue is whether we can learn to see, and then welcome, the divine presence wherever we are." (23-24)

Just this simple statement makes me think that maybe the Sabbath doesn't always have to be a specific day.  I just think that if the Sabbath is only one day of the week where we totally focus on God, then does it give us an excuse to do whatever we wanted the other days of the week, just as long as we take a step back from our daily lives once a week? I know that might be taking things to the extremes, but it can happen.  Wirzba's statement above makes me think that the Sabbath is more of a state of mind in that we are at peace with our lives and with God, just knowing that He is in control and He is everywhere, looking over us.

What I struggled with is why does Sabbath always mean a specific day to be set apart? Yes, it's always good to have a specific day set apart for God.  But it's so easy to just put Him on the back burner throughout the rest of our week because He's already taking up an entire day so we have to make up for that day.  But if we go throughout each of our days acknowledging Him and His greatness, that seems to be the more, for lack of better words, effective.

honors response 6

This past weekend I had the opportunity to Shipshewana, Indiana, an Amish town.

Now I'm gonna be honest.  I was not excited for this.  I thought that I knew everything you need to know about the amish.  Horse and buggie, no technology, etc.  However on this field trip I realized that I didn't really know everything about the amish.

Something that really stuck out to me throughout the whole day was the sense of community.

While we were at the furniture shop, the men who owned it told us about the fire that had happened in their shop, completely destroying it.  They continued to tell us that other people throughout the town came together and helped them rebuild the entire shop.

This is incredible.  In our "world", this would probably never happen.  Sure, you'll have one or two people who will tell you that if you need anything, they'll help you out, but that's as much as you'll get from someone.  I remember when my neighbor's house burnt down.  My parents helped them salvage as much as they could from what was left of their house, but that was the extent of the help we gave.  Now, I'm not saying that my parents are terrible people for not helping my neighbors with the actual handiwork of building my neighbor's house.  The amish just have different values and live a different life than we do.

However, I think that we can take some notes from the amish.  Nowadays it just seems like we have our eyes and minds set on ourselves and what we are doing.  The verse that comes to mind when I think about this is Ephesians 4:2, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."  Just being around the amish community for a few hours it was clear that they clearly care about others.  I think that if we start looking outside of ourselves and our own lives, we can really have an impact on others.

Overall I did end up enjoying the field trip.  It was eye-opening to see just how self-focused we all are.  I really learned to take a step back and think about others and how I can help them.

 Workshop:

Farm:

honors response 5

"Natural systems may have been transformed by human presence and agency, but that does not mean that humans could (or ever can) control these systems.  Rather, we are included within them; our life depends entirely upon their continued integrity.  If we are wise, then, our life depends entirely upon their continued integrity.  If we are wise, then, we will recognize that the land rightly 'expects something from us.'"

This particular section of the readings we did for class really stuck out to me.  Coming from taking two semesters of biology, I know all about this process, at least in scientific terms.  In condensed form, plants require carbon dioxide to live and we humans require oxygen to live.  How do we get these? As we humans breathe in oxygen, we breathe out carbon dioxide.  And as plants take in carbon dioxide, they release oxygen.  As you can see, we require plants to live, and plants need us to live.  It's a mutual relationship between plants and humans.

Throughout the Bible, God seems to reward His people with good harvest.  A lot of the relief He brings is from drought, and condition of soil.  The text states, "That destiny is fulfilled, but only after the flood has washed away the human-initiated 'ruination' of the earth, when God has restored the steady cycle of 'seedtime and harvest' and through Noah initiated the covenant 'with all flesh on the earth'."  God knows that we live off the harvest and the earth, especially in biblical times.  Ending a drought or providing a good harvest could possibly be the greatest reward of all.

To connect this to the major questions that have been asked in class so far this year, we ask how do we Christians take on the responsibility of taking care of God's creation?  How much responsibility do we take on, if any?

Well personally,  I think that we should take care of the earth, simply because without it, we would not survive.  In Genesis 2:7, its says "Then the Lord formed a man from the dust of the ground..."  We were formed from the earth.  Therefore, I believe that it is our responsibility to upkeep the earth to the best of our abilities.  It is God's creation, as are we, and we should do our best to help it survive, so that we as well may survive.