Exam Season

Here at Prairie Bible College it is Exam Week. And so in keeping with this theme, I've provided a couple exam questions for whoever wants to read my blog.

On Sunday night, my favorite hockey team, the Calgary Flames were eliminated from the playoffs by the Detroit Red Wings (you just knew the Wings were not going to lose out to an Alberta team three years in a row!). And with our wedding just 11 days away there were a couple of "interesting" thoughts going through my mind about if the Flames had advanced in the playoffs...

Question #1. If you were considering how to watch your favorite hockey team while on your honeymoon, you should be thankful that they were eliminated because...
a) ...your wife would have killed you (and rightfully so!)
b) ...your marriage would have died (or at least been starting on life supports)
c) ...you would have died (if being with the person God has brought you together with for life is not more exciting than a hockey game, than you either should not have married this person or you should "get a life")

Question #2. The best things about the honeymoon is that it means...
a) ...the wedding went perfectly.
b) ...all the wedding plans, preparation, and activity is over.
c) ...you and your spouse can be alone together.
d) ...you and your spouse begin to understand and experience a different aspect of God's love for the human race and for individuals.
e) ...your perfect marriage has now begun.

That's all the questions for now. One question as a bit of a humour with some theology mixed in and the other question, a bit of theology with some humour mixed in. Leadership means having both, humour and theology, well-balanced.

Last Day of Teaching (for a while)

I planned to blog about this on Friday... but the incredible amount of snow falling in our wonderful town of Three Hills meant that the power was out most of the day and so there was almost no one around the office, myself included. Fortunately, I know why all this snow is here this weekend - because my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Lois, who arrives from the Philippines tomorrow evening wanted to see snow when she arrived! (She must have a much more direct connection to God right now than the rest of us, eh?)

Thursday was the last day of classes here at Prairie Bible College and thus, the last college class I will teach... at least for the foreseeable future. Strangely and/or amazingly enough, it was not a difficult matter to think about or to go through. I thought I might be more "emotional" about it - and yet the fact that I'm not leads me to conclude that this is another confirmation from the Lord that the next step He has called me to is indeed, His good and perfect will. I may indeed be nostalgically "emotional" next Saturday at baccalaureate and/or graduation - and that's fine, even good. I don't think that will mean I'm NOT in the Lord's will. I guess I just am surprised that such a significant life transition is happening with the sense of God's calm peace.
By the way, I'm very excitedly and sentimentally "emotional" about the other MAJOR life transition happening in my life - in two weeks!!! Its beyond incredible that I will be marrying the most beautiful (in every way) woman in the world, Sarah Lynne Hunt, in 14 days!!! God is TOO Amazing! I am being blessed beyond all I can ask or imagine. Thank You Lord!

The Case for Reality TV

An interesting article by Michael Handschon in The Atlantic (May 2007) on the merits of "Reality TV."

Breaking News

Last week in my posting "Tears for Blessing" I mentioned that the Lord brought another incredible blessing my way. Join with me - as many have already done - in rejoicing in God's Amazing Goodness!

Women in Academics and Ministry

Looking through the Chronicle of Higher Education and came across the sad report from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary about the termination of a female faculty member in the school of theology. Over the past couple weeks I've also been reading Women in the Canadian Academic Tundra: Challenging the Chill (edited by Elena Hannah, Linda Paul, and Swani Vethamany-Globus, McGill-Queens Univ. Press, 2002) a book about the "chilly climate" for female faculty in Canadian post-secondary institutions. Seems like we (white) males really do a HORRIBLE job at honouring women, both in academia and in the Church - and in SBTS's case, both!

My only encouragement right now is that here at Prairie Bible College, we are offering a spring session course titled "Understanding Women and Ministry." The course is for both men and women and will attempt to deal with various views on the Biblical passages as well as looking at church history for examples. Most of you probably know I have very "heretical" views on this topic. Or as the Chancellor Emeritus of PBI Dr Ted S Rendall has said, "You show me the verse where the Scripture talks about "ordaining" men and I'll show you the verse about ordaining women." Fortunately PBI had a great history of women in significant ministry/leadership positions too!

Tears for Blessing

A combination of three "things" converged last night. First, I'd made the comment in our Spiritual Formation & the Church class the other day (Wed or Thurs) that "I find its always valuable to have a good cry every couple of months." Second, my incredible fiance, Sarah, had her bridal shower last Sunday (March 25) and we have been amazed at the incredible generosity of people towards her (us). In addition to the gifts last Sunday, every day last week (literally) she received a couple more gifts, one or two were wedding gifts, but most were bridal shower gifts. And it has been simply overwhelming. Third, last night, after a great dinner at Samosa Grill in Calgary to celebrate Sarah's birthday with Mom & Dad Hunt and Jon, and Mom & Dad Ibby and Amanda, and after reading Scripture and praying together, my beautiful bride-to-be started humming the words to the song "In His time," having read the phrase from Ecclesiastes 3:11 that was noted in another bridal shower gift stood out - "He has made everything beautiful in His time." And so those three things converged and I just had a little cry with tears of blessing. Both Sarah and I have heard that song - and a few dozen others like it - and talked to God knowing it was true, believing it was true, and yet not seeing how/when the Lord would work that out. And now to see God's incredible grace to bring that to each of us together... its really is overwhelming. I headed back to my house shortly thereafter, had a bit more of a cry in my bedroom and then turned on ShineFM and the second song that played was another of those songs - More than Enough (Chris Tomlin?). Thank You Lord!

PS There were other incredible blessings also last week that I'll talk about in a future posting.