"Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close."
I love to learn. We're not just referring to sitting in a classroom learning either. We are talking about reading a book and formulating questions and getting into heated conversations with other people who are passionate about learning and applying what they learn to life. There's a secret danger to learning though - what I learn I am now responsible for. I can no longer claim ignorance. For someone who loves knowledge and it's application, that's frightening.
I have had this lyric running through my head for the last week. I don't even remember what song its from, but it is "I will not be silent anymore." I think a more appropriate line (my adaptation) is "I CANNOT be silent anymore." When something is brought to your attention there is so much that comes along with that. When I know about what is happening in Darfur I cannot be silent. When I know about sweatshops and Nike's connection to all of that, I cannot be silent. When I see the hurting and know that they are ignored, I cannot be silent. When I see Christians not acting as Christ would, I cannot be silent.
If I can learn all these things from sources outside of the greatest book, The Bible, the commandments and covenants that God has spoken over me, how much more is the Bible going to tell me that I cannot be silent anymore? If I actually read the Bible and see it as the passionate love song that God is singing over me that is going to rock my world. Am I ready for that? Or do I want to hide in ignorance? If I distance myself from what I am learning I can claim that it is false, but when I experience it, I can no longer turn away in ignorance.

"We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you pit into doing it." - Momma T
Mother Theresa was a passionate lover of God. When I look at her and her life, I can see myself staying single and being more then content. We are only two months into the semester - a semester which is radially different for me. I am only taking 16 credits and work 12 (really less then that) hours a week, and have cut back on my activities. And it just seems like God has been placing these people in my life to love. He whispers, 'This is my child. See Me in them and love them.' I didn't set out on a mission to love, but that is what has resulted. It took a while to realize that if I show genuine love to even a few the results will be a ripple effect, an unstoppable tide of love. It may seem small to me, but the effects are beyond my comprehension. I think that is why God calls us to love him and to love others, because love is what we yearn for and it is what we cry for and it can only come through relationships.

"They (the lepers) had not chosen to live in "intentional community." Their survival demanded it."
I've been thinking a lot about community to. I go to a school that advertises itself as a Christian community. I work for the school and I'm told to sell this for all it's worth. But lately I've been feeling like I'm lying when I stress community - a community that isn't lived out and only exists in our minds. We crave authenticity and community and without it, we die. Just like the lepers who couldn't live without their community, we too cannot survive. When are we going to realize that we are not made to be self sufficient?

"As I left Calcutta, it occurred to me that I was returning to a land of lepers, a land of people who had forgotten how to feel, to laugh, to cry, a land haunted by numbness. Can we learn to feel again?"