Awkward questions

This past weekend was my best friend, Theresa's, big wedding shower in Menard. Of course, I was excited to go see Theresa and my family, so I had a blast. The only bad part was the very thing I knew was inevitable before I left Abilene. You see, I had an almost identical shower with most of the same people about six months ago, so I knew what everyone would be asking me this time around: "So how is married life?", or for those who are creative, "How's married life treatin' you?" I hate this question. It is so loaded. Everything about their expressions says: "Newly weds have a lot of sex. I bet you're having a lot of wild, crazy sex." And since I know this is what they're thinking, I feel really awkward saying "Married life is great" because what they hear is "I have a great sex life", which I do, but that is beside the point. This post is even getting awkward. I am going to end it now.

An afternoon snack

I just got home, and it seems as though BJ accidently left Sienna out of the kennel. No one has been home for about 6 hours, so Sienna has had free reign for a while. There is unusual amounts of kitty litter all over the floor of the guest bedroom, more kitty litter that Tony could ever drag out of that covered box. So I think I know what Sienna has been up to. BJ's dog is disgusting.

I'm a preacher's wife, and I think I like it

Please forgive me, but I am going to take a moment to brag on my husband. I never heard BJ preach until after we were married, and before then all I had ever heard was how he never wanted to be a preacher. Well, since then, BJ has preached at several small congregations in order to pick up some deperately needed money. What I keep finding myself amazed by is what a knack BJ has for preaching. Now I know I'm probably biased, being his wife and all, but I'm really harsh when it comes to sermons. Even the preacher who did our wedding said he sat in his office wandering what I might like for the sermon in our ceremony because he knew I was so picky. This being said, BJ keeps passing all my test.

Yesterday morning, we traveled to Nugent for a preaching gig at a predominantly elderly twenty-person congregation. In the morning service, BJ opened his sermon by talking about the TV show Thirty Days. In an episode from this show, a pro-choice woman goes to live with a pro-life, Christian clinic. The youth group for the church there passed out horrendous pictures of cut fetuses to people on the street. The congregation also stood at abortion clinic practically harrassing those entering. The woman was appalled at the confrontational spirit with which these Christians tried to prove their point. BJ told this story and then paralleled it with Micah, eventually hinging the sermon on Micah 6:8, "And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God". BJ challenged a room full of fundamentalist, rural Texan Christians to uphold their faith not through confrontation, but through peace. I was so proud of him.

Later, at the night service, BJ read Genesis 1. I was a little disappointed when he said that was what he was going to preach on because I have heard so many bad sermons on this chapter, but BJ actually did manage to make me think about it in a way that had never even remotely occured to me. He read and told the creation narratives from a couple of the Mesopotamian cultures that were writing their own narratives around the same time Gensis was written. In all of these narratives, violence is a part of the creation process. He then juxtoposed these narratives with Genesis one. Suddenly, the simple statements of "God saw that it was good" took on a new beauty and peace that I had never seen before. For the first time, I really saw the nature of God in that passage.

I've also been amazed by the reception these small churches have given us. I wander what they think when this guy with an earring and wife who looks about fourteen walks in to preach to them? An yet, at the end of a fairly liberal sermon, the people at Nugent complimented BJ profusely, invited us back, told us how they had never gotten that much out of Micah (I don't know if I had ever read it all the way through), and took us out to Dairy Queen. Isn't it just mind boggling how God has the power to close age gaps, culture gaps, and even the gap between generally conservative and generally liberal people when we practice our faith with peace and love? Due to a few sour apples in my home congregation, I have often viewed small, rural Churches of Christ as the enemy to the view of Christianity I hold. But, thankfully, God has shown me in the past few months in places like Nugent and Oplin what a gift these brothers and sisters of mine are.

Mi familia esta loco

I just completed Spanish homework, and I'm happy to announce that I've got a lot of check marks on my to-do list. However, I can't remember there ever being a weekend in these past few days. It was one big blur of homework.

The good news is that the wedding was tonight, and it went really well. Dad and I had a lot of fun playing the piano. It was an outdoor wedding, so when one of us was playing, the other one would keep the music from blowing away using a nifty concoction of clip boards.

It was great having Dad in town for the past day and a half. It makes for some really good Gospel Advocate bashing, Democrat praising, and a whole lot of politically incorrect statements. Of course, this is especially refreshing being that it is all said from a rural Texan, Church of Christ guy who should hate the Democrats and love the Gospel Advocate. The best part is seeing Mom try to keep Dad, Bro, and BJ from saying all the things they say simply to make her cringe. I love my parents.

My life is one big to-do list

I can sum up the past week in three words: I did homework. That is a sad life. And to top it off, here is the must-have-done-by-Tuesday list:

read two books of poetry
write a paper on each book
write four poems (last time this took about four hours)
read 42 additional poems and write down at least one favorite line from each poem
write an essay in Spanish
read two (giganto) chapters in Art History
finish (a very unfinished) painting
study for Monday's mid-term exam in Art for Elementary teachers
make a pop-up card for the above class.

Let me clarify that this is not the should-do list. This is the must-have-done-by-Tuesday list.

Oh, and on top of all of this, I am playing the piano for a friends wedding Monday night, which, of course, means rehearsal on Sunday.

I should end this post with an optimistic "On the bright side..." paragraph. But I don't want to. So if I've ruined your day by complaining, go eat chocolate. At least, that's my plan. Then, I'm going to cuddle up with Tony and one of those books I'm supposed to be reading and fall asleep.

Mmm, prunes

Well, my posts have been rather harsh lately, so I've decided to revert back to my old standard of writing about gross bodily functions. (On this note, I really think Dr. Weather's would like this blog, which Bro and Kayla will both understand). Anyways, as I mentioned in my last post, stress causes constipation, and BJ and I have been under a bit of stress between losing jobs and not getting jobs. So this led us to the following conversation:

BJ: You need to eat prunes. One day when I was at Mom and Dad's house last summer I hate an entire bag of prunes. I was on the pot all day.
Kalyn (disgusted that she will be spending the rest of her life with this being): Only you would eat an entire bag of prunes.
BJ (defensive): Well, plums never did that to me.
Kalyn (as I said above, disgusted, buy also laughing): Yeah, when was the last time you ate 10 plums in one setting.

So even in the midst of near poverty and unemployment, the gross bodily functions God for some reason blessed us with allow for a little laughter.

I like gooey things

Well, he didn't get the job, so it's back to applying for about a bajillion a week (I like making up numbers).

I won't lie. It was pretty devistating for me after he got two call backs only to be turned down on Monday. I sniffled in my corner of the library while I was at work, and this time it wasn't because I was too cold. After ten months of BJ getting turned down for jobs, it is really hard to not wonder if God gives a...

But BJ has taken it amazingly well, again. His persistent contentment and hopefulness forces me to remember that God does indeed give a...

...and even a bit more than that. Today started out horribly. I couldn't hardly stay awake in my classes because I was up late at the hospital with a friend who went into a false labor of sorts. To make matters worse, I felt really sick (apparently, stress can be linked to constipation. Sorry for the rude detail). Anyways, so I was in Art History feeling sick and bruised from yesterday when I finally managed to wake up long enough to see some really beautiful Picasso paintings. As soon as class was let out, I ran upstairs in the Art building and worked for about two hours on the painting of a still life we are doing in one of my classes. It isn't due anytime soon, so it wasn't really necessary. But the gooey oil paint spreading over the course canvas felt so good, I couldn't stop. One day I'm going to look back on that painting and think how horrible it is since it is one of my first attempts, but I don't care. Today it was my therapist.

When you're mad at God and hoping He won't take it personally

Last week was rough. BJ got called into work, told that a mystery shopper had giving him a bad review, and was fired on the spot.

BJ actually took it better than me. Whereas I reacted by isolating myself as much as possible and internally arguing with God throughout the day, he just seemed to accept it as the will of God. Quite frankly, it was a little irritating in my begrudged state.

To make matters better or worse, depending on the mood I happen to be in at that particular moment, BJ has spent the past two weeks being interviewed and waiting, and being interviewed and waiting some more for an admissions counselor position at ACU. Last we heard, we should be finding out something solid this week. I'd like to think I'm an optimistic person, but, well, I'm not (or at least I wasn't last week), so this whole ACU job thing has just been making me nervous and sick to the stomach daily because it takes people so long to get results on jobs.

I packed up all of my bitterness and lugged it along with me to church this morning. It was heavy, but dang-it, I was bringing it. And of course, John Willis, the cute, sweet, eighty-something year old, theologian mastermind of Highland Church of Christ, reads Psalm 105 and says that we remember to get us through the times when we can't see God working.

And so I'm now forced to remember a post I did August the sixth entitled "How we paid our electricity bill this month" in which I knew and believed God had taken care of us. I have to embark on this coming week, for better or worse, and I am finding that it is quite difficult to trade in my bitterness for hope, but it seems worth it.