= Está bien Recordarse de Cosas que Sabemos I just had my first lecture of the year; on Paul! I'm doing a module on 'The Letters of Paul', and as it was the first lecture, it was more of an introduction to what makes Paul interesting (and difficult!) to study and his main ideas, etc. Anyway, the lecturer said something really interesting. Dr. Simon Gathercole is lecturing for this module and he is GREAT - his speaks clearly and like he genuinely enjoys his subject and he's very talented in the world of New Testament studies! I even wrote about him in my personal statement when I applied; well... I thought I'd better find someone who's work interested me at the university I was applying to! ;-) But because we're going to be studying Paul as a theologian - looking predominantly at his ideas and his additions to the intellectual history of Christianity, Dr. Gathercole wanted to highlight to us that there is a danger in that you can start to think of Paul just as a head - just a brain; just thinking. But he’s not. He’s a man with passions and he was a Christian. A lot of the time, we treat ideas as if they come from a vacuum and aren't the product of people with passions, but that makes no sense, because we know they are. And he pointed out that Paul was both an itinerant missionary (going from place to place, preaching the Good News) and a missionary pastor, remaining in one place for a number of years and leading the Church to grow there. His life was characterised by movement and settlement, movement and settlement, etc. The point being, Paul didn't sit in a state of prayer, solely seeking after knowledge of God all the time. Paul actually DID thing. He went out into the world and told people about Jesus, told people of God's glorious grace, and showed them God's love for ALL people. And something I only really realised that I had realised today, when I was responding to an email regarding my recent mission trip, was that going away to the DR and spending time with Christians who have given up so much to follow God and love the people he has called them to love, reminded me that if you truly love God, you simply CAN'T do nothing when you see someone in need. Doing Theology at Cambridge is great; I'm learning so much and delving further into the Bible, God, Christianity and so on, more than I ever thought I would! But occasionally, you get hooked into academic ideas and the importance of what you think on certain technicalities of Christianity - for example. My trip brought me back into the real world! Christianity isn't a set of ideas, it's a life lived in love; God's love for us and God's love for other people. I cannot love God and not love other people. I remembered something I have known all along but had been pushed out of the forefront of my mind; that to love God is more than just what you think and the theology in your head - it means actually, truly, holistically, genuinely and sacrificially loving people as well. And you can't do this if you know there is a need but refuse to do anything to help.
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= ¡Jugo de Piña! Jugo de piña - pineapple juice!!! :-D The other night, my family and I had gammon with fried egg and pineapple (and vergetables, obviously! :-P), and so we had the juice from the tin of pineapple pieces leftover in a glass afterwards. This is a rarity in my house - we never really have pineapple juice! AND I WAS SO EXCITED!!! :-D While I was in the DR, I got a little obsessed with the pineapple juice at the hotel. I don't really drink alcohol very much (because it tastes DISGUSTING!!!), and it was far too hot to drink tea all the time like I do back home. So I decided I liked the pineapple juice and so would have this at every meal, and for every re-fill; I'm a creature of habit!!! It got to the point where one of the waiters would see that my glass was empty and bring me over another glass of pineapple juice without even asking! I quite liked this, and he thought my obsession with it was hilarious so he always came over laughing to himself! So my pineapple juice the other night made this beautiful memory in particular come flooding back to me! Just wanted to share it with you all!!! :-D |
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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