Odd questions by an odd man

Religious Questions:
1. If God had it to do over again, would he?
2. If we were all "in the light" as He is in the light, what would He have to keep himself busy?
3. Why don't pastors ever discuss Hosea from the pulpit, or Onan?
4. Is there another earth, created by God, where his experiment didn't fail?
5. How come animals don't talk, like Baalam's donkey did?
6. At what point did having 700 wives, like Solomon, become unacceptable?
7. Did Jesus ever talk back to his mother, or would that negate his sinless life?
8. How do we make sense of Jesus descending into Hell and preaching to the dead?
9. Why is it dangerous to communicate with the dead?
10. Is everything in the Bible literal?

Career Questions:
1. At what point do I just accept that a kid is not bright?
2. Why do faculty members act like high schoolers when they disagree?
3. Why do students feel the urge to write on the whiteboard?
4. Why do students beg for extra credit and then not take the opportunity?
5. Is it a law of nature that in every class I teach, there has to be one emotionally draining student?

When teaching is insignificant

Spring break represents a new life in a way. The trees blossoming in the courtyard, flowers budding in front of the office offer the teacher refreshment. One more quarter go. I spent my spring break grading essays and planning the last push towards June.
Monday morning arrives with a spring shower and a coolness in the air. I print off my next assignment sheet and head to the copy room. "Attention staff, there will be a brief faculty meeting at 7:oo a.m. in the faculty room." Unusual, I think. I head over.
The principal gathers us all in and tells us that over the break, we lost one of our students. JK, I'll call him here. He died last Thursday at 18.
Teaching doesn't seem to matter much today. Literary analysis or self-to-text connections, unimiportant. Third quarter progress reports, pointless.
I taught JK, last year and the year before when I long-term subbed in his English class. His is a story worth much more than what I can offer here. But, I will do my best.
JK suffered from Cystic Fibrosis, a disease that debilitates a person, and causes massive fluid build up in the lungs. My uncle died of Cystic Fibrosis in 1984. JK spent much of his school year at the Children's Hospital, always wanting to be at school. When I taught him last year, he attended school maybe 1/3 of the time. But he always asked for his work before he went back to the hospital. He ran for ASB office and won. He was elected homecoming king. He wasn't big, the disease stunted his growth. He wasn't physically strong--most of the time he looked pale and weak. But when it comes to strength, he possessed it where most of us lack it.
To be able to push on, as JK did, requires an internal fortitude that I cannot comprehend. To live life to the fullest, in the face of impending death, is to be the most human that we can be. To be a selfless young man, when no one would question selfishness, is to demonstrate the best and most fantastic about humanity. To fight, literally until your last breath, when giving up seems just as noble, is to demonstrate for all those that knew him, what true courage is.
JK, we have been blessed to live alongside you; we have been honored to learn from you. I pray your life will forever be remembered by our storied traditions here. Let us revel in your life and grow in your death. Thank you, JK, may you rest in peace.

Romans 8:28

In Susan Howatch's Absolute Truths, Lyle Ashworth, wife of Charles Asworth, the bishop of Starbridge, is infuriated by the verse, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God"(KJV). She says, "I still think that's the most infuriating sentence St. Paul ever wrote....It wouldn't calm me down....I'd just want to grab a gun ans shoot St. Paul"(40).

I relate to Lyle's irritation at this overused verse. Well-meaning Christians pick it up early in their Christian Language course and drop it wherever it seems appropriate. Your daughter finds out she has breast cancer--but don't worry, all things work together for the good. A marriage falls apart and the prayer group encourages, all things work together for the good.

There are a few different ways to go with this thought. One would deride the triteness of the Christian Language. A second would deride the unthoughtful Christian, who can rely only on that trite Christian Language. But instead, I would like to question whether or not the statement is true, as we've come to believe it.

But to do so, I would much prefer to use the word intermingle in place of works. It is simply my distaste for the word work, which to me implies a singular goal that must be met. I suppose I have great difficulty believing that everything I do has already been decided for me, and thus all things in my life are working to that goal. Something about losing my free will that irks me a bit. Intermingle conveys a relationship, a partnership between the events of our lives and the reactions we tender. Theologically, in my version of reality, which is the only version I have, I can come to grips with daily life and personal response relating to each other on a grand scale.

So, now that I've inserted my word, intermingle, now let me try to convince myself that truly all things intermingle for the good, with the qualification that this only occurs for those that love God. I believe I love God. Though as a Gemini, oops now I'm not doing so good at loving God, I tend to have these two personalities intermingling inside of me. But, I guess that you too, have two personalities working inside of you. St. Paul calls one of them the sinful nature. The other is the nature of God, which, I suppose, was left with us at creation--if you believe in creation. Like St. Paul, often I do things that I don't want to do, or at least don't mean to do. Because let's face it, many of the things that entice us are rather fun--which is an interesting idea that is expounded upon in Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar when it reads, "Adam was but human--this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake; he only wanted it because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent."

So if I do thing that are in accordance with my sinful nature, at what point do I no longer love God? As a child, I was regularly asking Jesus to forgive me of my sins because it seemed to me at the time that after each sin, I was no longer a part of the fold. I spent a lot of time praying for forgiveness--ask my parents. How many sins does it take to get to the center of...oh that is something different. But in all reality, is this verse a truth to which we can hold dearly to. Meaning that, in the midst of the storm, the type of storm that even Jesus wouldn't have been able to sleep in, can we always rest easy knowing that all things are intermingling for the good.

Where is the good in the death of your sister? Hell, you can't even comfort yourself in knowing for certain that she is in a better place. Only God knows that for sure. And even if you could know that for certain, what good does it do you in the midst of your pain?