class

so i just sat down at the computer and looked around the desk while i waited for the internet and realized that i have completely forgotten to pay bills. whoops. (little warning for you - this is not about adorable little children or fun times being broken down on a road trip. this one's chalk full of what we're talking about in seminary and i'm just kinda babbling - i don't have any filters on my brain right now so forgive me if i'm boring or rude.) i love going to school. i love what i'm learning and i love the way my teacher teaches it. i want to go ask him to teach me to teach. i love that he is so obviously and completely knowledgeable about his subjects and at the same time not showy about it. i told him i really liked the class and he seemed almost embarassed. there are so many people that seem to just revel in the knowledge that they are knowledgeable about something and he is so not like that. i love that. and i love that he takes the time to get you to come to whatever point he's making on your own. he doesn't just tell you, he shows you the steps and walks with you until you come to the conclusion. the class is an old testament survey and today we talked about genesis. we went through several stories of the patriarchs/matriarchs to get the general vibe of what the narrator was trying to say about them. and the one theme that comes through loud and clear is that they are jacked up. abraham passes his wife off as his sister "so it will go well with [him]" (which seems to mean he'll be safe and get rich) - twice. then isaac does the same with rebekah. abraham and sarah act like rude whiny people in the way they talk to each other and especially god. isaac, among other things, played favorites with his kids and was incredibly egocentric. jacob played favorites with his kids and was all about "grabbing" as much as he could get for himself. he ran for his life more than once after he'd grabbed everything he could get his hands on. joseph was a little twirpy bratty kid. but in the end it seems that he was the one guy that got "it"... in the end he is able to reframe the horrible things that have happened in his life in a way that brings meaning and life instead of bitterness, hatred and dysfunction. he is able to climb up on the step stool and look over the top of things and see that while others meant these things for evil, god meant them for good. anyway, it was interesting in class as delamarter (the professor) tried to help everyone take off the rosie everything-the-"heroes-of-the-faith"-do-must-be-good-and-righteous glasses, and actually listen to what the narrator was saying instead of what we like to impose on the text. so instead of genesis being a book full of people that we point out to our children and say "hey why don't you grow up to be like them", its full of people that are just messed up. instead of the brady bunch its the osbournes. (not so much the prince of darkness bit - more the everybody is in rehab and dysfunctional part) or whatever. but the whole point is not that god loved and blessed the patriarchs/matriarchs because they were faithful and righteous, but that god loved and blessed the patriarchs/matriarchs despite their horribleness. (aka grace) which is what most people talk about/preach about and what the new testament is all about - but kinda cool that there it is as the punch line (point) in the old testament too. i don't know if that actually makes any sense when i try to type it out or whatever, but there it is.