Got Life?

Notes on Peter Gregory
InTents - SAU
Monday
9.29.08

Background
Garden - Surrounded or covered
Eden - Pleasure, delight, or happiness
Garden of Eden - Hebrew meaning: Surrounded by pleasure/covered with delight/immersed in happiness.

In the Garden of Eden there were 4 rivers. A river, in Revelation, is life. River of Life. (Revelation 22:1-5) The Hebrew meanings for these 4 rivers, all have to do with being ALIVE!

• Pishon - grow up/increase/get bigger
• Gihon - bursting forth
• Hiddekel - rapid/speed
• Euphrates - much fruit

We all want to live our lives like this! Growing up! Bursting forth! Moving forward! Being fruitful!

What they lost
When Adam and Eve sinned and left Paradise, they weren't leaving things such as flowers, animals, and beautiful lakes. Those things were outside the garden as well. But they were leaving 3 things they could not take with them.

1. Tree of Life - represents that life should be eternal (Quantity of time)
2.Garment of light - represents that life should be lived without shame (Quality of time)

• Genesis 2:25 - Adam and Eve were naked but they were NOT ashamed
• Genesis 1:26 - We were made in God's image
• Psalms 104:2 - God has a covering of light
• Conclusion = They were not ashamed because they had a covering of light just like God

3. Face to face communication with God - life should be full of conversation with God

• Genesis 1 - "God spoke and it was..." Genesis 1 is full of God speaking!
• We were made in God's image so we were also made to talk
• Because God speaks and we are made in His image, then we represent God and his character by our words!
• God gave us the ability to talk so that we can talk to HIM!

After sin
After sin, there are three main desires that humans always try to fulfill:
1. We want to live forever - do everything we can to postpone age
2. We long to shine - be the best at whatever we do
3. We long to talk - communication and relationships with those around us

Sanctuary: an answer to our need
Exodus 25:8 - Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.

• By creating an earthly sanctuary, God was bringing Eden down to the human race to answer those needs that humans had been trying to fill on their own
• The Sanctuary was surrounded/enclosed/covered - just like the Garden of Eden!
• The Sanctuary was a mobile Garden of Eden
  

There were three things when you enter the Sanctuary that immediately fulfill our 3 needs:

1. Table of Showbread - Everlasting life
2. Golden Candlesticks - Light
3. Altar of Incense - Prayer (Communication with God)

Our answer today
Again, God has provided 3 ways to fulfill these needs that we still have:

1. Showbread = Bible
2. Candlestick = Holy Spirit
3. Incense = Prayer

Through these three things, we can have our own Paradise on earth. When we use these to fulfill our needs, we will feel Alive in Christ and be fruitful!

Aaron's Rod

• The rod was a piece of stick. It was dead. There was no life in it.
• Many times we are like Aaron's Rod - spiritually dead. Not even a desire to come alive.
• Numbers 17:8 - When the rod was placed IN THE SANCTUARY, it came alive!
  
• The rod went through the Garden of Eden experience!
• WE need to go through that same Garden of Eden experience. We need those 3 essential things to become ALIVE!
  

At first, it can be very boring. It can be monotonous. You've been dead, so it's not very fun. But consistency is key. Even if it's only 5 minutes a day, make it a consistent 5 minutes every day. Stay with it and experience life!

In order to buy back the Garden of Eden for us, Jesus spent time in the Garden of Gethsemane

• In order to buy back the tree of life, Jesus carried the tree of death
• In order to buy back our garments of light, Jesus became naked and was covered in darkness
• In order to buy back our face to face communication with God, Jesus was cut off from God
  

Jesus Himself was the essence of the Garden of Eden

• "I am the bread of life"
• "I am the light of the world"
• "In my name you pray to the Father"

CONCLUSION
We try to buy our own paradise by working all our life for monetary goods. And finally when we have made "enough" money and are ready to enjoy our "paradise", then our body fails.

Why are you here?
What are you trying to buy?

When you wake up in the morning, do you buy your paradise in heaven or on earth?

ALWAYS Remove That Tourniquet!

It was a quiet day on 300, a Pediatric Floor of T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital. A group of young Southern students were standing at the nurse's station looking for something interesting to do, as their patients didn't require a lot of monitoring.
Seeing an opportunity for a learning experience, the clinical instructor sent two of them down to the Children's ER for some observation time. Upon arriving at the ER, they were saddened that there weren't any patients with life threatening situations. It was mostly kids with fevers who would rather pay $500 for a note to get out of school then to just skip school itself. They had just missed out, they were informed, as a half an hour earlier they had saved a small infants life who had been seizing continuously and wasn't breathing.

Not to be deterred, these two assertive nursing students started asking the nurses (and the Dr's) if they would like to have an IV started on them. None of them volunteered their services but they did provide the supplies for the nursing students to practice on each other.

After one failed stick, the first student, let's call her Christy, hit crimson gold and successfully threaded the catheter up the vein, attached the tubing, and flushed it. Now it was her turn to be "practiced" on.

She sat on with an almost convincing stoic expression on her face as her friend, let's call her Dellyn, attempted a stick on her left hand. After a bit of fishing (apparently it wasn't the right type of bait), she attempted again on the right AC. It was a direct hit! In her excitement, Dellyn forgot to release the tourniguet that was milking that liquid gold. The force of the blood against the needle began to push it out from the cather before Dellyn had pushed the catheter fully into the vein. Blood began to flow freely down Christy's arm. She looked on in a calmed daze, seemingly indifferent to the pool of blood forming beneather her arm and dripping onto her white clinical pants.

Dellyn (royally freaking out): "What should I do!? Did I hit an artery! I'm just going to take this thing out! Uh, we're bleeding over here. Hey! Nurse! You! We have a small problem!".
Christy: "Um... maybe you should put some more pressure on it"
Dellyn: "That's not stopping it!"
Nurse 1 (quite calm - they're very used to this kind of thing) : "Well, first, you might want to remove the tourniquet."
Dellyn: "Oh! Yeah, probably should do that"
Nurse 2: "And you might want to push the little white button on your needle"

Christy stared on, realizing that the needle Dellyn had hurriedly taken out of her arm was dangerously close to her clinched fist.

Well, the rest of their observation time was spent cleaning up the blood all over the counter, floor and Christy's arm, hands, and pants. Peroxide worked wonders for the stains on the pants. Christy was excited because they sent for a pair of surgery scrubs (which, if you've read my blog for a while, are the most comfortable things EVER) but they didn't arrive in time.

Despite loss of blood on Christys part and fright on Dellyn's, they both learned a valuable lesson. ALWAYS remove the tourniquet on first sight of blood.

p.s. While this isn't as cool as last week's rescue (Oh wait, I never posted about that one. Well here's the basic gist: Friend falls 45 feet while rock climbing. Christy is first on the scene. Exciting!? Yep, that's what I thought too! Thankfully, friend wasn't dead, far from it in fact. We carried him out but he only injured his left foot. It was quite the miracle) it does give you a look into a day at the hospital for a SAU nursing student.

Laundry Longevity

If you're anything like me, laundry is a dreaded, time-consuming task that is not very high on your to-do list. Here are a few "laundry longevity" tips so that you can put it off for as long as possible.

• Buy extra socks. It seems like sock (especially during winter or when exercising a lot) are one of the first items to run out. And then you have to do laundry just to have clean socks! So figure out what items are making you do laundry more often, whether it be t-shirts, socks, etc and get a few extra.
• Do not, I repeat, DO NOT wear your jeans only one time and then wash them. Whoever said that jeans got dirty after one exposure to outside air. Please, that is a foolish notion that society has tried to confuse your mind with. Jeans are hardy pieces of clothing. They can stand multiple beatings before laundering. Same can go for t-shirts as well. If they didn't get sweaty and they still smell pretty, why waste water, soap and time? Refold and wear again!
• Make some friends OFF CAMPUS who have a nice BIG washer and dryer. Since you're not going to be doing your laundry as much, you'll have more to do. In the dorm, that would be a problem. But off campus, you can do it in the same amount of loads OR LESS if you plan it right.
  

Well, that's about it. And if you want to know the real reason I posted my slightly embarrassing opinions on laundry, it's because I couldn't resist naming a post "Laundry Longevity". You must admit, it's a great title.

Sssssseating Auditions (Part 2)

So, many of you might be wondering how those "Ssssscary Sssseating Auditions" went. Well, I'm kinda in the back of the orchestra. And yes, 3 of the 4 new cellists (Cello's are taking over!!!) were placed in front of me, which is most definitely understandable since I haven't been able to take cello lessons for the last 3 years. (Note: My tone of voice is more amused than defeated)

But God worked it out, because my stand partner is great! I've been wanting to get to know Allie's younger sister, Allana, ever since I first met her last year. So I was greatly excited to see that she's my stand partner!!! So we're having lots of fun and I'm very glad that I was placed with her. So that's the happy ending to my Ssssscary Ssssstory! (lol)


While it may look like she's sitting in front of a Bass, she's not. It's just the angle that I took the picture. She is definitely playing a CELLO!

"Folding Laundy In Neat Little Squares" How-To:

1. Get two crazy people in the same room

2. Fold and Color Coordinate
3. Take picture of pretty stack

4. Put laundry away (eventually)

It's been a long time since 6th grade. Nine years.
I haven't worn a skirt to class since then. (Well... There was that one time in 7th grade when I wore a skirt for picture day. But rest assured, I had a change of clothes close at hand!)

Until today...
Kasey snapped a picture to record the moment for you guys :)

Flexible Bookshelf

You can bend it into whatever shape you want.


Buy it here: http://www.highbrowfurniture.com/storage/products/bookworm/

(But I really wouldn't recommend spending that much. However, it's still cool!)

Summer Classics

3 posts in one day?

i've been feeling rather prolific tonight

but a soporific feeling is upon me

good night

how perfectly odd

20:13 me: Jon, I have to write a paper on this book called Silence by Shusaku Endo. it's a historical fiction about the persecution of the Catholic Christian church in Japan in the 1600's. its a very discouraging book (i had to keep reminding myself that it was FICTION) but asks a bunch of tough questions. i think you would like it. well, no, not LIKE it, but, like me, be made to ask hard questions because of it

20:14 Jon: hmm...maybe i'll have to read it then..it's on my list of books to read now..

20:15 me: maybe i can send it your way once i get the paper read. i got it off of amazon real cheap

20:16 and now i'm about to do something ridiculous, especially since i have this big paper looming on a book that is very confusing and my thoughts are all mottled about and so therefore it makes writing a coherent paper very difficult. anyway, i'm putting on HAPPY music (big step since that hasn't been the trend of late), sitting down with my mug, and pouring myself a nice cup of sparkling apple juice. now isn't that odd?

20:18 Jon: yes and no..yes because that hasn't been the recent trend and no because that's the christy i know

20:21 me: i'm glad there is still a little of the old me left

Jon: i'm glad too

20:22 i knew it was in there somewhere..

20:25 me: its a very odd feeling to be listening to happy music, drinking happy apple juice, and contemplating torture, apostasizing, and the skeleton that is the catholic church

20:29 Jon: hmm..

oh..the irony!

20:30 me: aha! and for a new blog! (i haven't posted this many blogs in forever!) I'm going to use this recent chat as my next blog! What do you think about that!?

20:34 Jon: i think that you like to blog excessively..j/k

i think that would be a good idea

i just wanted to say that cuz if you put it on the blog..then it'd be on there too

me: along with a picture that i just took! you'll have to go take a look!

20:35 yep! isn't this exciting?! You're going to be famous!

20:36 Jon: hahaha...you're hilarious

alright..well i've been grading but i gotta go..

sorry

i'll ttyl

6 minutes

20:44 me: now, at what point should i stop this conversation and copy & paste it to my blog

oh, well, i guess now would be a good time. since you're gone. bye :)

Have you ever been having an honestly AWFUL day (or week, or month, etc) and people ask the standard question of the promenade (or the cafe' line, or the dorm hall, etc)

"How are you?"

And you're really not doing great. In fact, you're pretty down under and tears might even be just about to flood over the gates you've barred up. But you don't want to tell them all that, because in reality, they don't want to know. For them it's just a formality, a greeting to acknowledge the presence of an acquaintance or old friend, and then continue on with their lives.

Synonyms for "good" rise to your lips and then fall away before ever making their escape. You don't want to lie. Because all those nice words wouldn't be the truth. And truth is important. So you stutter out one of those in-between words like "decent", "alright", "ok", or "fine". They might notice that your tone of voice is lacking in cheeriness but their mind is already reviewing for the quiz of the class that they are late to. So they rush off. And a tear overflows the barrier you've put up. and you walk on, alone.

Then you're sitting down at a club meeting, the potluck table at church, or in your dorm room. A friend sits down besides you, looks you directly in the eye, says those three words that you've been avoiding all day.

"How are you?"

And for the first time in a while, you know that the words are sincere. Finally, you muster the courage and force your tongue to form words that have been building up all day: "not so good", "awful", "not great", "could be better", "hurting", "sad". Relief floods in as you admit that the world isn't all it's cracked up to be. That sincere Christians indeed do have things that make them cry. That you're not the perfect person you pretend to be. That deep down, you're hurting as well. For the first time that day, you appreciate the three words that so many times make you cringe. And more importantly, you appreciate that person, close friend or not, who took the time to care.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not trying to be accusatory or make anyone feel bad. I just thought that maybe others have had these same feelings once upon a time. I like to say things that most people think or feel, yet never really want to say out loud. You can blame it on my friend Jon Van Ornam. He's the one who taught me.

Sssssscary (Seating Auditions)

This doesn't scare me:















This doesn't scare me:


















This doesn't scare me:























But this, most definitely scares me.























It seems no matter how hard I practice, no matter how ready I am, EVERY single time I sit down in Mrs. Minner's office for seating auditions, I inevitably play about 10 times worse than I know I can play. In fact, I've got it down to a science. I've thought about telling her my plight; somehow trying to explain the fact that I really can play it much better and that the problem is just that she scares the living daylights out of me. But.... I never thought that would go over so well. So, this morning, for the third year in a row, I walked out of her office biting my tongue and resigning myself to yet another year in the back of the orchestra. Oh well, it's good for my pride.

"Christy.... *sheepish grin* Will you help me write a symphony?" *Hopeful, eager, Jen look*

uh.... what do you say to a question like that?

Be Still, My Soul
Katharina von Schlegel
based on Psalm 46:10 and 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every change He faithful will remain
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end

Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake
All now mysterious shall be bright at last
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last