Day by Day with Gina

God isn't enough?11?l?!(0!)

During my unfortunate battle with the common cold this week, I have been reading A New Kind of Christian and The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian McLaren. The thing I have appreciated most about these books is its ability to challenge every lens and predisposition I have when I approach God, the Bible, and Christianity. God has really been opening my eyes to show me how much of my views are skewed by modern evangelical and conservative upbringing. Don't get me wrong--my modern evangelical conservative upbringing gave me much that I hold dear, including the ability to question it. "Momma always said" I should seek out the truth for myself, and I am thankful for that lesson.

One thing that seems ingrained in me because of said upbringing is the concept of "God is all we need." While I do believe that all we have, need, and will ever know is wrapped up, from, and for Him, God has not just given us Himself. Even when we were created, God wasn't all that man needed. God created the world, animals, and finally, man, and yet, he wasn't finished.

From Genesis chapter 2--emphasis mine

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone [but he wasn't alone--he had God, right?]. I will make a helper suitable for him."

19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found [even though Adam had God]. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man."

From The Story We Find Ourselves In, McLaren writes:
"There's one other surprising thing that the second creation story in Genesis suggests to me. It's something shocking, maybe put best when it's put in a way that borders on heresy: God is not enough, the story says. That has nothing to do with any deficiency in God; it has to do with the storyline God had in mind for us. God doesn't want to be the only reality in our lives, the only relationship in our network, the only message on our screen. In the story we find ourselves in, God wants us to name the giraffe, and laugh as it reaches the tall, tall branches...Noticing and naming and enjoying our fellow creatures...is part of why we're here...This is the story we find ourselves in, isn't it? Caught between two dangers: a hyper-spiritual danger that says, 'It is good enough for human beings to be alone, so all they need is God,' and a hypersecular danger that says, 'It is good enough for human beings to be with the other created beings; forget about the Supreme being from whom all being and blessing flow.' Neither of those options is good enough. The only viable option in our story is for us human beings to enjoy the company both of our Creator and of our fellow creatures...in whom we find a lost part of ourselves restored again...The story is telling us that we were designed to be incomplete and unfulfilled in ourselves as monads, as isolated individuals. We feel an ache in our side, like some part of us is missing, so that we'll always be looking outside ourselves for belonging and connection, for it is not good for a person to be alone--not in this story! And so in this story we live in a garden, with all the creatures around us, and we walk with God in the cool of the day."

A bit long of a quote, but he says it much better than I can. This idea rang true in me, as I have come to appreciate greatly the intimate connection between people. I just wanted to say, to those of you who call to check on me, who challenge me, who question me, who encourage me, and who deeply love me, thank you for being God's creation fulfillment in my life. God created us to need each other. You are priceless treasures!!!

posted by Gina @ 8:20 PM 6 comments

A Sheep or a Goat?

Matthew 25:31-46 (The Message)

The Sheep and the Goats

31"When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. 32Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, 33putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, "Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. 35And here's why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
36I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'

37"Then those "sheep' are going to say, "Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? 38-39And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' 40Then the King will say, "I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me--you did it to me.'

41"Then he will turn to the "goats,' the ones on his left, and say, "Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. 42And why? Because--
I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
43I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.'

44"Then those "goats' are going to say, "Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?'
45"He will answer them, "I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me--you failed to do it to me.'
46"Then those "goats' will be herded to their eternal doom, but the "sheep' to their eternal reward."

⁴⁵"He will answer them, "I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me--you failed to do it to me.'

⁴⁶"Then those "goats' will be herded to their eternal doom, but the "sheep' to their eternal reward."

Am I a sheep, or a goat? If my eternal judgment is based on such actions, where will I honestly be placed? I can count the number of times I have fed the hungry or visited the sick on one hand. One hand!!! What, in God's name, am I doing sitting on my lazy butt in a huge, multi-million dollar facility with my nicest clothes on for a couple of hours while Jesus is out there, waiting for us to minister to Him? What kind of Christian am I if I spend more time in that nice building, comfortable and safe, than ministering to Jesus? What kind of church have we made ourselves to be if we aren't purposefully, habitually ministering to Jesus in our community? How is it that Jesus called us to do very few things, really, and we keep missing them? How is it that I have been in church since the womb, and I am not in the habit of ministering to the needy in my community?

And we can't say that there aren't needs in our suburban, middle-class community. There are needs just down the street.
Ben and I have just spent an hour searching online for volunteer opportunities, and we have only a few resources to show for it. Anyone else know of ways to get involved? Let's research, pool our resources, and get out there and do something!!!

posted by Gina @ 3:20 PM 4 comments

We really did go back in time...over a week ago...

Okay, so my original plan to blog soon after we got home from Korea...didn't happen. Duh, as Ewic would say.
We really did go back in time. Technically, we were on January 2 for about 48 hours. Purty cool...purty rough.

Anyway, our trip home went pretty well. LAX treated us nicer than Hartsfield did, fo' shizzle. I was ready for the worst. We did get delayed in LA for an hour because of bad weather on both coasts. Everyone there was super-nice and really friendly, though. We asked this one guy for directions, and he said, "How did you get such a pretty lady to agree to marry you?" When we continued to ask our directions question, he said, "You didn't answer my question. I'll tell you how to get where you want to go when you answer my question." It was funny.
We didn't get first-class seats on the way back, and it really made me appreciate what happened to us on the way over. Lemme tell ya.

Other than that, things are pretty good. I am still not sure what to do with my career life, but I am just exploring options right now and praying for some direction. And the past week and a half has kicked my tail in a major way. Consider that I have been severely jetlagged and had to deal with my 120 12-year olds again that are becoming more like seventh-graders. Too much for one week, "methinks." There is a reason I don't teach seventh grade. This semester is it. I know what they start to turn into...and I don't like it. One time, one of my kids asked if I could move up to 7th with them next year. I said, "I love you guys right now, but next year, you are going to turn into 7th-graders, and I won't like you then. Trust me, you'll look back and not really like yourself, either." They were a bit hurt and insist they won't be like that, but oh, yes, they will.
There is this angel figurine in the teacher's bathroom that someone made, and it says, "Teachers at (name of my school) are truely angles." Inspiring. Makes me feel better about my job.
We found out today that we get a 4% pay increase next year. That's a good thing for anyone who is staying in the school system. Don't know if that will be me or not...

And I am sorry for not keeping up with blogging this week. I missed it, but it's hard to do when you are falling asleep around 8 or 9PM each evening uncontrollably. A lot of interesting posts on my buddies' blogs, though- highly recommend checking those out. I also HIGHLY recommend the brand spankin' gi-normous batch of pictures my brother, Derek, posted on his blog of his kiddies. Tres-super-cool (with French accent).

posted by Gina @ 9:14 PM 1 comments

In Enemy Territory...Almost...

UPDATE FROM SOUTH KOREA
Sunday, January 1, 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Even though most Koreans don't really celebrate our American New Year, I want to wish you a happy one from South Korea.

Ben, Shane, Jason, and I brought in the New Year by visiting the DMZ today. We got up a bit earlier than normal, got ready, and took a taxi to the Songtan subway station. We had seats the whole way into Seoul, which was great. We had to transfer twice to get to Itaewon, where our DMZ tour began. While we were on our last leg of the subway ride, we were actually the only ones in our subway car, except for two Koreans all the way at the other end. This was quite abnormal, as it has been moderately crowded on the subway every time we have ridden it.
Here, you can see our presence in the subway car and the lack of other people around us. This is when we decided to get brave. Ben really wanted to see how much he would sway if he hung from the handles on the subway. He tried, but he was too tall and wasn't able to both hang and keep his feet off the ground. My young and "subtle" sister was then nominated, being the shortest among the four of us.
If you're wondering, she really didn't sway that much. But, we got some fun pictures and the two Koreans on the other end of the car found us very amusing.

We walked briskly out of the subway and found the nearest Burger King so we could grab a quick lunch before our tour began. As we were waiting to cross the street to get to said BK, we took a look at our surroundings. I would say that only 50% of the people I saw on the street were actually Korean (maybe less). In fact, a rather belligerent pair of people in front of us on the crosswalk were speaking language I would expect to hear on an urban streetcorner in the states. It really didn't feel like we were smack in the middle of Korea at that moment, for sure.

We assembled our BK to-go, then met up with our tour guide in the lobby of the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, which is part of Seoul. Our guide's name was Choi, and when I was making sure I pronounced it correctly, she said, "Like Taster's Choice." I thought that was funny. Not just like "choice," but "Taster's Choice." teehee. I didn't forget her name, though! Maybe that was the reason she picked a mediocre coffee brand to help people pronounce her name correctly.

We got in our van to drive toward the DMZ, and found out we were the only four on today's tour. It was kind of nice, though, since we got to ask a lot of questions and be more comfortable. While we drove the hour-long trip, we ate our BK lunch, talked a lot, saw Korea get colder and colder, and heard some interesting information from our tour guide. One thing she showed us on the way particularly stuck out to me. In the 80s, Koreans used this one large area as a garbage dump. They decided to turn it into something a bit nicer when the Olympics came to Seoul, so they basically covered it up with a bunch of dirt and put a big park and golf course on top of it. So, it's this huge man-made hill covering a mound of old garbage. Kind of weird, if you think about it. But, the mound is still releasing methane gas, which provides the electricity for nearby apartment complexes. Can you imagine? "Yeah, the lights went off again. Guess the garbage dump wasn't decomposing enough today."

We went as far north in South Korea as you can get and stopped at a place called Paju Park. It's kind of the starting point for people wanting to tour the DMZ. The Freedom Bridge is there, as well as several Korean War memorials. What is strange is that they've turned it into a little carnival area. There were kids riding on these carnival rides, in the dead of winter, in the middle of a park that commemorates the Korean War and a very divided nation. It just seemed a but juxtaposed to me.
We walked over to the Freedom Bridge and walked across. The Freedom Bridge is where thousands of POWs were exchanged after the Korean War. There is a kind of shring at the end of the bridge where people hung up items and wrote things. Sometimes I wish I was Data from Star Trek just so I could read all of the different languages, ya know?
We then walked to the war memorials area. The largest one was dedicated to American soldiers who fought in the war, of which Ben's maternal grandfather was one. 30, 000 Americans died in the war, and 5,000 are still unaccounted for. The number of soldiers missing just amazed me. Can you imagine the families of those people who don't know what happened to their husband, father, brother, or son? Can you imagine the old men that still might be prisoners up there, who have lost hope of ever going home? God bless them...
We climbed on the bus and drove over to a spot called The Third Tunnel. Over the years that the DMZ has been in existence, North Korea has tried several times to tunnel into South Korea so it could infiltrate troops and weapons. We were able to actually walk down into the third one that was discovered, called, you guessed it, "The Third Tunnel." It was a pretty steep walk down, then a pretty hunched-over walk through the actual tunnel that the North Koreans dug. We weren't allowed to take pictures down there, unfortunately, but it was basically a damp, stinky, cramped tunnel. I was amazed at how badly North Korea wanted to invade South Korea, just to control it. There are some spiritual implications there that I'm still thinking through...

After hopping back on the bus, we drove over to the Dora Observatory, where you can get a scenic view of the DMZ. The Demilitarized Zone was basically the cease-fire agreement made between North and South Korea. They agreed to draw a line between the two, with a 2 km buffer on each side. So, essentially, the DMZ is a 4km-wide band running from the east side of Korea to the west that has gone untouched by man for over 50 years. As you might imagine, it's quite packed with wildlife and vegetation. Unfortunately for us, we weren't able to see any of it today, even from the Dora Observatory. It is cold, so everything is brown, and it was snowy today, so visibility was very limited. I would guess we could see maybe 100 feet into the DMZ, but the parts we did see were really cool.

Next, we went to the Dorasan Station, which was built just in 2002 by South Korea. It is the northernmost subway station in South Korea. This is an amazing effort by South Korea for reunification. They are incredibly hopeful that the two parts of Korea will reunite someday soon. I asked Choi, "Do you think it will really happen?" She said, "Oh, yes, definitely within my lifetime." I think it shows amazing grace and forgiveness of the people of South Korea to actually want to reunite with a communist nation that wanted to just control them for a really long time. In an effort to show goodwill and a desire to unify, South Korea built the Dorasan station as far north as they could. One day, when they do unify, Koreans will be able to travel by train all the way into China and the European continent. Now, they have to take a plane or ferry to get into China or Russia. The Dorasan station was built using the funds of South Koreans who had some kind of tie to North Korea, whether they lived there before or still had family there.
Our DMZ trip was pretty much over after that. We made a quick stop at the Reunification Village, which was also settled as far north as possible, and we found out that our own Jimmy Carter helped to build some of the housing in that town. We went back to Paju Park, got on our van with our tour guide, and made our way back to Seoul. After an adventurous meandering through the Seoul Station, we got on our subway train toward our Korean home...Songtan.

We decided to end our trip with an old faithful dining experience...Happy Teriyaki! It didn't let us down. I left the restaurant feeling...you guessed it! Happy. We came back to the apartment, packed our lives into suitcases, and went to bed.

In just about an hour, Ben and I will be on a bus toward Incheon National Airport and we'll begin the 24-hour travel back in time toward Atlanta. We make one stop in LA, so wish us luck with the worst airport in America.

Next time on "Korean Days with Gina," we travel back in time!!!

posted by Gina @ 9:22 AM 5 comments