Thursday, June 26, 2008
A Series of Unfortunate (and Humorous) Events
Fast forward to next day. I've gotten maybe 5.5 hours of sleep and have just spent the day with my family celebrating Father's Day and thus am dead tired. I'm finally heading back to my apartment, throw some junk in the back seat, and go to walk to the front seat of the car and realize that I'm stuck. What the... And then I realize that I have managed to slam my finger in the car door and not feel it. I quickly open the door, examine the finger, see that it's bleeding, and try to bend it (and it works so thankfully it's not broken). I figure that it's bleeding well enough that I don't want to drive home quite yet without gauze and some tape and call back up to my parents (they live in a condo), tell them quickly what happened, and request to be let in. I grab my purse, lock the car door, and start walking to the door.
Mind you, the pain of slamming my finger in the car door and leaving it in the uncomfortably position for more than five seconds has not hit yet. I also realize that I've managed to nick both sides of my finger so it's worse than I originally thought. I go and stand by the door and then it all hits at once. I can feel the blood rushing away from my head as a result of this and it's not good! Again, not broken but pretty close so it hurt like a, well, you know. Add in the lack of sleep and some probably dehydration and I start getting woozy and faint really quick. Thankfully there's a wall and I start sliding down the wall in time for my mom to come out and watch me almost pass out. I get my head between my legs, thankfully never lose my consciousness, and keep talking to my mom, who happens to be a nurse which means she's just a step or two under a doctor. And she worked in a hospital for ages so she's seen it all.
My dad gets down there too, the pain is still there but has subsided quite a bit, and I get up to the condo and get my finger under running water. It's cut pretty bad and I start conferring with my mom about whether or not I need stitches. It should be a pretty easy answer for the nurse practitioner but she starts sputtering and can't make up her mind. And then, get this, she tells me she's not feeling well and has to go and lay down, leaving me in the bathroom with my finger by myself. For heaven's sake, my mom is a nurse! So, my little sister who happens to be a nurse in training and my dad who absolutely no medical experience has to start taking care of me while me mom lays down in order to not pass out. Turns out I don't need stitches and I'm prescribed some antibacterial cream, gauze, tape, and then extensive icing.
I'm feeling fine again and get ready to drive home while my mom decides to call it an early night. In her defense, she started a new migraine medication which lowers her blood pressure and nearly watching her daughter faint was enough to drop it significantly.
But yeah, go figure. For the record, the finger is fine now although I'm pretty sure I nicked a nerve making part of the tip of my finger numb which is an odd feeling but I'm getting used to it. My mom informed me that feeling should come back. Until then, I guess I'll just have to be extra careful that I don't slam it in any more doors because this time I really won't be able to feel it.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Ouch!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
The Myth of Relevancy
I did something this past week that I haven’t done for ages; as in, it’s probably been at least since September. And it’s something I used to do all the time, in fact, I was quite obsessive about it up until about three years ago. I went and bought a CD! The new Weezer CD came out and since it is officially known as the Red Album, I had to go and buy it because I didn’t want it to be any generic, burned CD. I suppose I could have colored it with a red sharpie but that’s beside the point. Think about it, when was the last time you bought a CD as opposed to simply downloading the song or album online? Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails both released their last albums pretty much exclusively online. We never thought we’d see the day come but CDS are starting to become irrelevant. But then again, we’ve seen this happen in the past. How many of you have ever played around with a record? Or the even more elusive eight track? Cassette tapes? And back in the day, when those came out, they were the next big thing! They would never go out of style! They were here to stay. But their relevancy faded and soon they became simple collectors items that we keep around for nostalgia’s sake.
And this example illustrates the problem with relevancy. The Source, this worshipping community, claims to be relevant because Jesus is relevant. However, somewhere in here, relevant has come to mean what is hip, what is cool, what is trendy. And if we claim to be relevant, does this mean than The Source or even Jesus can fade out just like the cassette tape, VHS, and rotary phones? Can Jesus run out of his proverbial 15 minutes of fame?
And beyond that tricky question the issue of relevancy gets more complicated because relevant means more than simply what’s cool, what’s in, and what’s hip. The word relevant goes much deeper than that. As we look at the meaning of relevancy more specifically we realize that its complicated by the fact that what’s relevant to the culture in general and what’s relevant to me is going to be different than what’s relevant to you. Since we’re running with the music theme take a second to think about what genre of music is most relevant to you. What music speaks the most to you and what’s going on in your life? Any alternative music fans? That’s me. How about country? Pop? Hip hop? Classical? R & B? Metal? Contemporary Christian? And you know, there’s no shame in liking different types of music or having different things that speak to you on a personal level. See, the other thing about relevancy is that it speaks to us where we are in our life; it is relevant because whatever it is whether it’s music, movies, television, books, sermons, or anything else meets us where we are and speaks to whatever it is that we’re going through in life. Relevant means meeting us where we are in life or as the dictionary puts it, it is pertinent to the issues at hand. But the tricky part of relevance is, as we illustrated by our differing tastes in music, is that everyone will not necessarily experience life and relevancy in the same way. What’s relevant to me might not be relevant to you and vise versa. What speaks to me in my life right now might not speak with you.
And where does that put us with Jesus? If we each experience life so differently and different things speak to us more than another person how can Jesus be relevant to all of us? How in the world can Jesus be relevant to every individual here and to the larger world, to people who don’t even share the same culture and language with us, much less the same music tastes?
Because here’s the deal, as a community the Source will seek to be relevant and current with our messages and music. Like Jesus before us, The Source will try to be relevant by using illustrations and stories and messages and music that speak to the times. But we will seek to be relevant in other ways; we will seek to be relevant like Jesus was relevant, by meeting each other where we are in this life, in the midst of all the pain, suffering, uncertainty, fear, and doubt.