Back in early march I wrote a post titled Bilboards from Phillipians or something of the sort. In that I quoted multiple parts of Phillipians 2 in relation to life and I guess a bit of what I was struggling with. Today it seems a little if someone has realised things weren’t quite clicking and actually wound the film on for me. Self realization is a curious thing. You can stuff around for ages trying to work out what the heck is up, explore multiple options and then suddenly when you aren’t paying too much attention you get this faint idea (which is what I’m writing off at the moment oddly enough) and pray like mad that you’ll at least get enough of a grip to hold what your touching.

Graduates of Tabor College, for I am one of those, had their ‘prayer and prophesy’ day today. It started with a “time of worship” (inverted comma’s indicating worship in singing style) and then we split up according the the number you got shoved at you when you walked in the door. They had various faculty people and others connected with the college praying for the graduating students, who aren’t all yits’ers, and are open as the name suggests for prophesy stuff. This simply makes sense, as prayer is communication with God and I sort of see prophesy as being open to God in a certain way. Awkward explanation, but I think the majority of prophesy is not at all about future telling stuff but far more about the truths in life at the present time ie: Martin Luther King Jr. a prime example of a ‘modern day prophet’.

So I sat with Darryn who was only other YITS’er in my group and we caught up a bit as we waited as it was one of those groups that initially just let one person go at a time which was fairly stupid. Other groups had everyone praying. Anyway it was good because I did get to know Darryn a little last year as we had a few good conversations on those late night Wednesday youth-min classes.

The couple doing the praying for group 2, were ancient, there’s nothing at all wrong with that and I was quite impressed when they knew what I was talking about when I mentioned online stuff. I basically chatted to them for a bit so they knew what I was up to, and knew a little about me. Her name was Helen and for the life of me I can’t remember his. It was a funny little introduction really, because I said my name was Rebecca and he’s like, “Oh, I was reading about you just this morning” (Not that I have an Issac or anything unfortunately ;P) He rambled on a little about meditation and how important it was to keep in tune with God. OK ‘in tune’ is my wording and I don’t intend to steal from the other day’s phrasing, but so be it. So we’re chatting and they end up praying for me after asking about some specific things. He talked a bit about direction, which I thought was fairly irrelevant and noted my ‘busy brain’ (:P) and said a bit about choices, where by I got the, “Well you’re not married yet” thing which slightly startled me as it was said out of the blue 😛 (Hey *snort* there’s hope yet! haha I’m not going to be a permenant single if I follow Rebecca logic lines of thought). Hellen mentioned perseverance and patience and definitely prayed about it. Either way it was sort of nice to have these two people with their attention on me and seeking God for me.

It concluded a little with the guy talking in the way some old Christian men do in getting some verbal affirmation of what I believe, much I think as just a way of talking about God, I was doing the, “This is funny of course I believe, I’m at a Bible College for one.” But later I realized how much I guess I appreciated that subtle but still verbal proclamation of what I do believe.

Something that tripped me a little was when he asked something about sharing your faith and priorities of that. Its funny really. It very easy to do the Christian thing and forget all about it, which hardly seems right and it entirely stupid. I do think of things in slightly different terms now, as I’ve looked at evangelism and my view would be far more post-modern in the perception of, “What exactly is discipleship” in relation to their (age) very modern view. I think that I’m probably more pushed along the lines of discipling ie: more of, golly this is hard to explain, moving people along? than the direct, “Hi, this is Jesus Christ and I’m Rebecca” thing – which btw is a pretty crude way to put it. I guess I still need to keep tabs on that and think about it more. Like, I care about it, but it certainly hasn’t been my focus in the way he worded it.

The predominant thing that came out of talking with Mr. Davies and Hellen was the absolute necessity of God. It’s sounds funny. But leaning into God as the most pertinent thing. This is something thats been hazy on my radar for quite a while, that is, not that it doesn’t entirely happen, but I know something more needs to be done about the importance level. It was kind of nice to have a little jab in the side about it.

I joined another group after that, when I realised what was going on 😛 This time it was far more ‘groupish’. Prayed for several others, including Jess. John Capper and Marko were ‘leading’ this one. Very different. Brief chatting before hand. Prayer. More I guess on the encouragement side of things this time, Capper gave me the Phillipians verses (from ch.2) as an encouragement as I was changing places with Katie, as in, “You’re doing this, keep on at it.” kind of thing. John Capper is cool (and its not just because of his long weird grey beard) I sort of wish I might have had a few more conversations with him throughout last year.

For me the morning was a good experience. Some I think less so, I know there were a few a bit confused about some things around prophesy stuff. Cheryl (College Principal) did have the gumption to talk about it Biblically briefly before hand, so I think they’ll be right.

The click came with the God priority level and the pointer at the Phillipians passage. Keep on. Keep on. Work out my salvation with fear and trembling. Do it, but do it in the knowledge of a God much greater than myself a God worth fearing, honoring.

Lunch was at some conference centre thing. Few speeches. Lots of funny talk and stuff. Shared a table with Jess, Jane, Mark (luskie), Michael, Dan, Marko. Got prepped briefly on what’s happening tomorrow – which is all the formal actual graduation stuff. Hung around late talking with Katie and Alice and Rowan and the others until the centre started using their speakers as a not so subtle hint to leave.

I drove Jess, Sam and Darryn to Croydon so I could pick up my slides. All done, I am isanely happy with them, a few bodgies, but it’s to be expected. Technically they were all okay, just a few asthetically not so suitable. I love my camera. Found the slide scanner at uni the other day, so I’ll get some to show off shortly.

Got a free new release rental when I recharged my phone. So Sam and I went back to my place and watched The Constant Gardenner. Brilliant movie! Talked a bit. And now I am here, my feet have dropped several degrees below body tempertature which means that it is probably time for bed.

(Image by Modigliani)

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I’m really fairly zoned out with the whole tired thing, but I’ve blahhed the uni junk out (which I have been meaning to do for a while now) it was a pretty shoddy job but it’s gotten the immediacy (that’s really not a word) off the plate.

I can’t not mention Young Adults tonight. Peter isn’t back yet from some conference so Ross and Andrew ran it. Woah what a fantastic evening. Had an ‘activity’ to get us talking about how we can describe God then watched the Rythym – Nooma video which, like other Nooma’s was utterly fantastic. Then well over an hour of solid discussions around God. Questions and answers and theories and metaphors and ideas and concerns. I was slightly blown away with the feeling of this is how it should be.

I confess some of it hit home pretty well as I’ve been battling with the ‘knowing God’ thing for a while now. Not so much with the head knowledge, I’ve got plenty of that – but with the um I guess heart kind of stuff. Whether it answered any questions I don’t really know. If you throw yourself on a scale of being perfectly in tune with God in the middle you can sit either side with the head (almost Pharisee notion as I described it) on one side,

“There are people who talk as if they know everything about being a Christian and yet seem way out of tune.”

and the all I’m just “in love” with God I don’t really have the need to search it out more on the other side. Before you critique the scale, we already did VERY thoroughly, I’m just using it as my example. Anyway, if the scale was perfectly sound (which it isn’t) I would and have definitely been a bit too far on the ‘all knowing’ end of things and been a bit stuck on moving right. See the diagram which I’m about to attempt to draw with keystrokes:

~head too much —————-in tune —————–heart too much~

In some ways imoho I think it’s almost harder to see where to move from head to the middle than the other direction. The ‘all heart’ business is a concious descision to actually seek the knowing (tangible/theological) stuff and it’s well – quite directional. I’m still at a bit of a loss, but in some ways this evening smoothed things out a bit more.

We discussed for a long time the metaphor of a song for God. It’s beautiful when you look at the possibilities and some of the things people had to share, but it is of course a metaphor and is thus restricted.

I was very encouraged, despite being dead tired. This is how I like and I think small group stuff should work. I feel quite at home to speak up, despite it taking an age to formulate my thoughts into words (as it always does).

I got to chat with Tim afterwards, this is Tim the outdoor ed. one not the IT one (or the blonde/loudish one as opposed to the dark/quieter one). I was quite amused at the whole thing really, we were talking mostly about how it went and I confess not a lot was sinking in as my head was so wrecked, I was doing my best. I really like when I can start picking out what kind of person I’m talking to, be it my throw back to my Myers Briggs freak phase or not. Anyway he said the word ‘feel’ about 5 times in a short period and then asked me something how I felt of things being done differently. I couldn’t resist dropping in a quick line about how I think first not feel. Oh yes, I’ll just amuse myself by playing with people’s heads. I don’t think he got it, but hey.

And now my head has just about had it. So I think it’s time to knock off and hopefully forget about the 8hrs of work I have to endure tomorrow.

General

Wednesday as you might somehow know by now is my full load day. Today seemed to be overly focused (I nearly wrote ‘phocused’) on photography in some way shape or form. Normally I would love this, as to be entirely honest photography has been the stuff at uni I’ve enjoyed the most thus far. Still images was the ‘intended’ topic of the SIT tute (10-12pm) whereby we played around with digital cameras after doing a bit of talking. Yeah, not hard but kind of boring. Not slrs, just your average little happy snap cannon or whatever. I did take the photo on the left as my ‘contribution’ (ie: to show I was participating) which I was fairly pleased with, but a lot of it was just mucking around. I do like that tute though.

People wise, might be interesting to note a few of the mentionables. Firstly Jen, as I hang out with her a fair bit as she is another Interactive Media student and also in my Digital Photography lecture. You can sort of see her in this photo here… no not really, I’ll just leave it out.

Anyway. We tend to hang around eachother. She’s easy to talk to and I dare say I’ll get to know her a fair bit more before the year is through.

The other guy (hardehaha) we hang round a bit with is Guy. Not sure how that all worked originally. But again, easy person to talk to. Share’s his chips ;P Really don’t know why he tends to hang round us, but hey he does. (Photo is of Studio class, as you can see I did not take it as that is the side of my head. Jen is next to me and well there are other people in the background.)

Also worth mentioning from here are; Justin, the mature age student (late 20’s?) talks a fair bit, likes to answer stuff and I’ve had a few conv’s with him around well erm multimedia type stuff. It’s nice when someone approaches you and actually treats you as if you know something. Um, Muffaro – who was the South African guy (3rd yr) that had me laughing my face off first class, he’s good value and Amilla, the Sri Lankan (I think :S) guy who smiles lots but doesn’t talk much – I think he’s only fairly recently come to Australia.

So to bore you more to tears (let me show you the pain of 7 solid hours). The tute that follows is for Comparitive Imaging (digital photog). Where I hang out with Jeremy who I’ve mentioned before and Zoe who’s a 3rd year Pro Writing student, she’s super nice and always late 😛

The three hour Still Images class finds me with Rebecca and Adina. There are now 4 Rebecca’s in that class of about 30. I shall probably hang around with Jerome’s Bec, but she didn’t make it today. I probably enjoy this interaction most as Bec’s a really cheerful kind of person and Adina’s pretty cool. But boy was that a long class this afternoon. At ‘half time’ about 80% of the class went and bought some kind of caffinated substance. I’m not kidding. Fantastic assignments though, so I can’t complain. And no I’m not kidding. Taking photos is not a duty.

General

You will notice the new design, if you haven’t yet get off your rss feed and get in here! Thanks a billion John. Please let me know if anything still looks wrong – because it wasn’t perfect for me at uni, but looks fine from home.

check out My Friend the Chocolate Cake – bought their cd today.
also saw Weather Man – I don’t know what to think, but I came out slightly depressed.

I picked up the Purpose Driven Life where I’d left off about a month ago. I seem to read it when I’m severely lacking inspiration and it sometimes turns out to be oddly relevant. It also drives me slightly insane and I end up spending a lot of time talking in my head or scowling at the things that happen to be annoying me at that present moment. Or at least thats what it did last night.

Chapter 18, centred around Galatians 6:2

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

And it was a bit like, Bah yeah right I really don’t want to do that right now. I just got off the computer because I’m sick of hearing about people’s issues because sometimes they should just deal with them and things aren’t so bad and some of them are genuine and quite bad but sometimes I’d rather not know, sometimes I’m just worn out.

I really don’t want to have to ask or even hear the “How are you?” question at the moment. It’s such a shallow courtesy.

I’d like a bit of genuine.

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Well it happened and I’m minutely thrilled about it. Talk about an easy assignment.

Studio this morning was on *drum roll* Blogging!

And so we have to set one up and keep one going. I intend to give it a distinctly uni/studio/showcase work flavour to avoid doubling up as much as possible and burning up even more of my scarce time. I had to steer away from blogger to a wordpress one but who doesn’t like new things to play with! It seems however fairly similar, except if I want to customise my own template, well that has to be emailed to the guy who’s running the show.

Regardless of waffle or toast or whatever else you had for breakfast, you can find it here:

www.rebecca.studioblogs.net

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