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Categories Tiny Talk Tuesday

TTT: Sharing a bed

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My mother was at her quilting frame, I was in her rocking chair embroidering. My littlest sister sat at Mom’s computer. Dad walked in to discuss the cabins he’d just reserved for our family weekend getaway.

Dad: Well, we’ve got three queens and four single bunks.

Me: That should work great. You and Mom get one. Dan and Deb get one. And Anna and Grace get one.

Dad: Which leaves the bunks for the three boys and you.

Grace: Wait–which of the boys isn’t coming?

Dad: They’ll all be there.

Me: But Dan will be with Debbie in one of the queens.

Grace: I wish I were married so I could sleep in one of the nice beds.

Me: But didn’t you hear what I just said? You will be in one of the nice beds.

Dad: Yeah, you and Anna.

Grace: I’ll have to share?

Me: You’d have to share if you were married too–you’d just be sharing with a husband instead of Anna.

Grace: Ugh! Maybe I don’t want to get married.

Tiny Talk Tuesday Have I mentioned that my little sister is 16 years old? So she’s not quite “tiny” (even if she is the littlest we’ve got)–but she can still say some pretty outrageous things. And, believe it or not, she isn’t even blonde!

Check out more Tiny Talk Tuesday posts (featuring actual children) at Not Before 7.

Categories Following Christ

Heresy Hunter: A Case Study, Part 1

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Last week, I talked about the heresy hunter and made a case for evaluating information on the basis of truth–but doing it with a humble heart, recognizing the finiteness of our human knowledge compared to God’s infinite wisdom.

I think a lot of people would be with me on this one. They agree that there is an objective standard of truth and that we should evaluate information based on truth. Few people have a problem with me personally evaluating what I hear and deciding to either accept or reject it on the basis of some objective standard of truth.

But what if I tell someone else that what they’ve heard or are believing is false?

What if I say that the concept of God’s love that they obtained from reading The Shack is false? The Shack espouses universalism, the idea that God’s love means that all people will be saved. This concept is clearly unscriptural, as it denies the necessity of Christ as a mediator of the New Covenant (In John 14:6 Jesus states that “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”), the wrath of God towards sin and sinners (Romans 2:5-9 states that those who obey unrighteousness are “treasuring up for yourself wrath”), and the existence of eternal damnation (Hebrews 6:2 places eternal judgment among the foundational principles of the faith).

I know of many people who say they were “touched” by The Shack. Others came away from reading The Shack with a “different view of God.” Perhaps they were touched, perhaps they did come away with a different view of God. And truly, The Shack presents a different view of God than that presented in the Bible. But the view The Shack presents of God is patently false.

Here, a lot more people are inclined to label me as judgmental. How dare you say that this isn’t true! It feels true to me. How dare you say otherwise! Are you saying that my feelings don’t matter?

I’m not saying that your feelings don’t matter. But regardless of your feelings, truth is truth. Your feelings are not a measure of truth. Scripture is a measure of truth. So even if you “feel good” about the view of God presented in The Shack, that view is still wrong.

This is where things start getting difficult for me. What should I do when someone says something that is unbiblical? What should I do when I recognize that someone else holds a false belief about God or about truth or whatever? How should I respond?

I’ve evaluated that teaching or belief and determined that it’s unbiblical. But how do I go about pointing that out to another person? Should I point that out to the other person?

II Timothy 3:16 states that Scripture is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” One of the roles of Scripture is to reprove and correct. And Scripture talks of the role that believers play in correcting their fellow believers:

“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
~James 5:19-20

“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
~II Timothy 2:24-26

The correction of other believers is one means God uses to work repentance, rescue, and salvation.

Okay, but how am I to deal with the rest of Scripture, which makes clear that I am not to judge? How am I to correct without judging?

Check back tomorrow to hear my conclusions to this case study, including cautions for the “corrector” and suggestions for different ways a “corrector” might approach this particular case.

Categories The Week in Words

WiW: On Focus

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The Week in Words

Joni Erickson Tada, on worrying

“I want to stay in the habit of ‘glancing’ at my problems and ‘gazing’ at my Lord.”

I love this quote–and I love the circuitous route it took to get to me. I got it from Vitamin Z who got it from Josh Harris who got it from a tweet by Randy Alcorn.

Stephen Altrogge, on information and technology:

“There’s only one Word that really matters: God’s Word. We have it. Let’s never let the mass of information available push away from the only information of eternal significance.”

via Vitamin Z

Brett McCracken, on relevance:

“Everyone’s got an idea of what Christianity should be (Missional! Emergent! Conservative! Progressive! Post-colonial!…), but part of what I argue in Hipster Christianity is that we need to cool it a bit on the whole “how can we change Christianity to be more current/relevant” thing. We need to instead focus our attention on being a biblical, gospel-centered people whose attractiveness to the world is the result of the Spirit’s edifying work within us, not a result of our Tru Religion jeans, $600,000 sound system, or tasty shade-grown coffee served in the vestibule.”

Read more at McCracken’s blog.

My thoughts:

It’s so important that we fix our eyes on what’s really important: Jesus Christ, and His gospel as revealed in His word. Without that, we’re lost.

Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.

Categories Recap

Recap (August 1-7)

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On bekahcubed

Book Reviews:

  • The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

    Rating: ****
    Category: Children’s Fantasy
    Synopsis: Two runaway orphans get taken in by Venice’s young “Thief Lord”–but when their aunt enlists a private detective to find the two, it might mean trouble for the whole crew.
    Recommendation: If you like juvenile fiction and/or fantasy, you’ll like this. Otherwise, there’s nothing particularly spectacular about it.

    Read the rest of my review

On the web

Books for the TBR list:

  • Dreaming of Dior by Charlotte Smith
    From Bermuda Onion’s review:

    “Charlotte Smith inherited a collection of beautiful vintage clothing from her godmother, Doris Darnell. Her godmother collected not only the clothing but the stories of the people who wore them. At first, Charlotte was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do with all of the clothing (over 3,000 pieces), but once she read the stories, she knew she had to share the collection somehow. She couldn’t bear the thought of it being broken up, so she didn’t want to donate it to museums. Luckily for us, she has created a beautiful book.”

  • Stat Spotting by Joel Best
    Kevin DeYoung says “In a world full of dubious data, this book is a must read.” I respect DeYoung quite a bit and think I’ll take his advice :-)
  • To Change the World by James D. Hunter
    I’d read some responses to this book at Christianity Today, but hadn’t really thought of reading it myself until I read this Coram Deo review. The summary, also posted by Coram Deo, left me fascinated. Apparently, Hunter argues that the entire model for world change (that change is accomplished via ideas and individuals–a “bottom up” model) is wrong. I think this book may challenge a lot of my assumptions–which is what makes it so very interesting (especially in light of how my assumptions have already been challenged while reading The Myth of a Christian Nation by Greg Boyd.)

News to take note of:

  • Experts proposing new recommendations for Alzheimer’s diagnosis, including a “pre-clinical” diagnosis.
    I was initially pretty concerned about this idea, because the pre-clinical biomarkers are found using cerebro-spinal fluid and imaging techniques that I don’t feel should be routinely conducted on asymptomatic individuals. However, when I read a little deeper and discovered that this classification was intended for research purposes (identifying individuals at higher risk in order to study disease progression, prevention, etc.), I relaxed a bit. It’ll be interesting to see how Alzheimer’s research progresses in the next few years.

Projects to try:

Thought-provoking posts:

  • Has our conversation gone downhill?

    “Americans have become notably loose in conversation. Emoticons and abbreviations (I recently heard a dignified woman in her 70s use “omg” in an otherwise important discussion) replace thoughtfulness and articulation. Our attention spans are shorter; we want our colleagues to get to the point and our focus wanders until they do. For decades, the “express yourself” mantra has so overpowered what used to be called civilized discourse that our generation excels most at the one-way conversation—typified on what are called (without irony) social networking sites.“

    Very interesting thoughts–read more here.

Categories Flashback Friday

Flashback: When I grow up

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I’m givin’ it a go with yet another carnival. I’ve enjoyed reading Barbara H’s flashbacks…which led me to Linda’s… and this week, the prompt looked so interesting that I want to play too!

Flashback Friday buttonPrompt: What did you want to be when you grew up? Why did you want to be that, and did you do it? Did you consistently plan to be whatever it was, or did you change your mind often?…

When I was young, I wanted to be a Mom. As the second of seven children, I grew up changing diapers (cloth), grinding baby food, and keeping tight rein on squirrelly youngsters.

In my late elementary years, I wanted to be a homesteading mom. I was entranced by the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, had entered into the normal pre-teen-girl horse-obsessed mode, and was overjoyed to find all sorts of 1970s back-to-the-earth homesteading manuals at our local library.

In Junior High, I started helping out with a girl’s club at our church–and when the teacher had to bail, I took over. I discovered that I loved teaching. I assisted in a fourth grade classroom for one year and actually enjoyed grading papers, writing tests, and figuring out ways to help kids learn. And so I figured that when I grew up, I’d be a homeschool mom. Of course, by then, I was becoming a bit of a pragmatist and realized that I couldn’t just count on being a mom–I should probably have a back-up plan. I would be a teacher.

I was chatting with an aunt one day as we drove through the hills around my grandparents house. Somehow we got on the topic of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said I wanted to be a teacher. She told me she wondered if she hadn’t really explored her options before deciding on being a teacher. She wondered if she’d have still chosen it if she’d felt like she had more options.

She got me thinking, and I spent a while exploring my options. I perused encyclopedias, college course catalogs, and occupational outlook handbooks. Even though I found dozens of degrees and occupations interesting, I ended up with five on my list of serious contenders: teaching, midwifery, nursing, dietetics, and English. Of course, English was quickly knocked off the list as being completely impractical–what can one do, after all, with an English major? Midwifery was struck from the list once I discovered that midwives cannot legally deliver home births in the state of Nebraska.

Which left me with teaching, nursing, and dietetics. I started thinking practicals: Which one would be most likely to let me do what I really wanted to do when I grew up? I finally arrived at dietetics. After all, a dietitian can be full-time and support herself if she has to. Or she can do on the side consulting as supplemental income if she’d really prefer to, say, be a mom or something.

It was decided. I would be a dietitian. I was fourteen years old.

Eleven years later, I’m a Registered Dietitian. Currently, I teach college students (many of them future dietitians) how to cook. Someday, I want to teach mothers how to feed their families. I wouldn’t mind working with a nursing home population, either. Or maybe I’ll get my Ph.D. and spend the rest of my life teaching future dietitians about the importance of food and family.

Or maybe, just maybe, I might be able to do what I’d really like to do…what I’ve wanted to do all along–to be that woman. I’ll settle in a little town or neighborhood. I’ll get involved with the community. I’ll be the house with the revolving door, with kids and adults coming in and out. I’ll share cooking tips with other mothers as we watch our kids play in the neighborhood park. I’ll do workshops and classes through one of the local churches. I’ll consult a few hours a month for the nursing home in the next town over. I’ll homeschool my children, hand-sew all my clothes, and can produce from my own garden. I’ll host Bible studies in my home and five-day-clubs in my yard. I’ll be a local La Leche League leader and maybe eventually become an international board certified lactation consultant. And when the women in the neighborhood need a helping hand, a shoulder to cry on, a woman to help them when they’re having a baby–they’ll know that they can come to me.

That’s what I want to be when I grow up.

A girl can dream, right?

Visit Linda for more Flashback Friday posts.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: A Wonderful Week

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Despite its not-so-great beginning (for any of you who did not have the remarkable privilege of seeing me on Sunday, I was a wee bit morose), I have been having a wonderful week.

Today I’m thankful…

…for Monday’s bike ride and the fellowship I enjoyed with Joanna (I recovered from my little bit of heatstroke by Tuesday–but not early enough to attend book club Monday night. It was the first book club meeting I’d missed, which is kinda sad–but I ended up going to bed at a half-way decent hour, which I haven’t done since book club began.)

…for Tuesday’s news that I have a job! as a TA this semester. (That was an absolute surprise after all the weird events of the summer.)

…for Wednesday’s chick flick and junk food enjoyed with my sister-in-law. (It’s been quite a while since we’ve taken time to be together just the two of us–generally there’s a whole gaggle about!)

Message in a Bottle and candy

…for the apron I was able to get started today. (Since I’ll be teaching a foods lab again, I’ll be wearing aprons quite a bit this semester–and my aprons start feeling old pretty quickly!)

Unfinished Apron

…for the trip to Nebraska City I’m taking tomorrow. (It’s been forever since I saw my friend Tiffany–and I don’t know that I’ve really ever met any of her three kids for any length of time. I’m looking forward to visiting tomorrow.)

Furthermore, I’m thankful…

…for the sweet pickles currently brining in my kitchen. (They’ve given me a blessed something to do with my time.)

Home canned sweet pickles

…for the $5 per bolt quilting cotton I found at Walmart this week. (To those who have heard me say I’m not buying any more fabric until I use up what I’ve got, I apologize for telling an untruth. Since what I’ve got is scrappy, I figured I’d need some fabric for quilt backing–so really, this is just a way to get rid of what I’ve already got, see?)

Bolts of fabric

…for the MP3 player that’s been entertaining/educating me while making an apron, preparing pickles, embroidering, and the like. (I’ve been listening to D.A. Carson’s audio seminar of “The God Who is There”. Follow the link to get all 14 sessions in MP3 format for FREE. This is a great seminar.)

MP3 Player

But wait, there’s still more. I’m thankful…

…that I seem to have recovered my muse (Have you noticed that I’m doing a bit more writing again?)

…that I might be regaining my appetite (It’s still been a bit spotty, but I think I’m seeing an upward trend.

…that whether the seesaw swings up or down, my Center holds. Christ Jesus is my life, my shelter in the storm, my song in the night. In the ups and the downs, whether I feel Him or not, He is there. And His hand is guiding every step along the way.
Thankful Thursday banner

Categories Following Christ

Heresy Hunter

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Yesterday, I discussed the issue of the stereotypical “Critical Calvinist”. In the article I cited, a number of commentors stated that Calvinists were quick to label something heresy. Their most common accusation was that all Arminians are actually semi-Pelagian. (I’ll admit that I’ve occasionally been wont to note the dangerous tendency of Arminian thought towards semipelagianism.) At any rate, the critical Calvinists are also derided as heresy hunters, judgmental, always trying to figure out what’s right and wrong about everything.

I can see how people get that idea. After all, Reformed thought is very interested in truth. I personally am very interested in truth. I believe that there is truth and there is falsehood–and that believers should critically evaluate information in light of truth as it is revealed in God’s word. I believe that there is a right way and a wrong way to read the Bible. I believe that we should read the Bible with the aim of discovering what God intended in Scripture rather than finding what “I get out of it.”

This insistence on truth being truth and not open to individual interpretation already opens me up to charges of judgmentalism from some.

Yet, I don’t think Scripture would agree. 2 Peter 1:20-21 speaks of Scripture saying: “…no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

So the conclusion that objective truth does indeed exist is supported by Scripture.

But I am not just interested in the premise that objective truth does exist–I am interested in knowing what that objective truth IS. I want to know and live by truth–and I want to evaluate and reject falsehood.

When I hear that a student has been told by a speaker that he/she needs to “work to be chosen by God”, I bristle.

This piece of information, this idea is clearly unbiblical. In Deuteronomy 7:6-8, God warns the Israelites against thinking that they have been chosen by any merit of their own: “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you…” Romans 9:10-13 speaks of Jacob and Esau and how God chose one over the other: “…for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls…” Jacob was not chosen because he worked for God’s choosing–he was chosen because God, in His divine sovereignty chose to choose him.

In the same way, none of us merit salvation (or any of God’s gifts). We do not receive favor from God because we have worked for it. We receive favor from God because He has sovereignly bestowed it. We don’t work to be chosen. We are chosen. Period. God chooses, we’re chosen (by no act of our own).

Truth. Falsehood. I have evaluated this information in light of truth and have rejected it. I have passed judgment on it.

Scripture is in favor of is sort of evaluation and judgment of what others say. The Bereans were praised in Acts 17 for searching out the Scripture “to find out whether these things [that Paul and Silas taught] were so.” To evaluate ideas on the basis of Scripture is a good thing.

On the other hand, I Corinthians 8:1-2 warns “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone things that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.”

The problem with the “Critical Calvinist” and the “Heresy Hunter” isn’t that he evaluates information critically based on the Word of God–it’s that he becomes puffed up with pride and uses his knowledge to tear down the body rather than building it up.

Some might read I Corinthians 8 and suggest that knowledge is a bad thing. “We need childlike faith,” they might say. “Why bother with all this thinking stuff?” Much of the church has unfortunately grabbed hold of this idea and embraced anti-intellectualism.

But I don’t think that when Paul said that knowledge puffs up, he was arguing for anti-intellectualism. Instead, he was arguing for more love and humility.

Knowledge, by itself, makes one think much of himself–and little of those around him who have less knowledge. But, as Paul points out, anybody who thinks he knows something shows that he really doesn’t know much–after all, compared to the vastness of God’s knowledge, our greatest knowledge is but the smallest subset of His infinite wisdom.

So keep thinking, Christians (or start thinking if you haven’t been already)–but consider all the while the smallness of your knowledge compared to the greatness of God’s, lest you become a puffed-up heresy hunter.

Categories Book Notes, Theology

Community of the Cross

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Notes on John Stott’s
The Cross of Christ
Chapter 10: The Community of Celebration

In our discussion of the cross thus far, Stott says, we might be tempted to consider the cross to have only individual and/or cosmic effects.

This is not true.

Christ did not die merely to save individuals but to secure for Himself a people.

“…who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. ”
~Titus 2:14

Nowhere is this communal aspect of the cross better seen or understood than in the one sacramental celebration that Christ Himself instituted: The Lord’s Supper.

In the Lord’s Supper, we remember Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

“and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.'”
~I Corinthians 11:24

In the Lord’s Supper, we partake of the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross.

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”
~1 Corinthians 10:16

In the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”
~I Corinthians 11:26

In the Lord’s Supper, we are unified by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

“For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”
~I Corinthians 10:17

Finally, in the Lord’s Supper, we give thanks for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
~Hebrews 13:5

Conclusion:

“The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of its worship is the Lam once slain, now glorified. So the community of the cross is a community of celebration, a eucharistic community, ceaselessly offering to God through Christ the sacrifice of our praise and thanksgiving. The Christian life is an unending festival. And the festival we keep, now that our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us, is a joyful celebration of his sacrifice, together with a spiritual feasting upon it.”
~John Stott, The Cross of Christ

(See more of my notes on The Cross of Christ.)

Categories Following Christ

A Critical Calvinist

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I find myself growing more theologically “Reformed” day by day. Some might call it Calvinist. I’m choosing to call myself “Reformed” because the cultural connotations of that term tend to be more holistic than those associated with the word “Calvinist”–and I’d rather not be known merely as a believer in predestination. So I’m claiming the “Reformed” brand.

But I’m acutely aware of the perception many believers have of Reformed thinkers as being judgmental, supercilious, and argumentative.

One evangelical sent a letter to Scot McKnight, asking his advice on how to deal with what he termed “hypercalvinists”:

They always use the same language and have the same condescending attitude toward everyone else….The problem is that they just are relentless. Absolutely no discussion or compromise. I have had the life kicked out of me at my church this past year by some of these people.

More impressions of reformed individuals come up in the comments.

Eddie says:

To be ‘Reformed’ involves making strong judgements [sic] about the soundness…of everything from books, to Bible translations and on to people.

Tim Gombis states:

They’re not going to converse with you but they will try to rhetorically manipulate you into the position of a heretic so that they can dismiss you with a rhetorical blast.

Julie says:

My experience with all sorts of Calvinists…is that right theology is the cornerstone of what constitutes pure/true faith, exhorting Christians to hold “correct” doctrine is the important work of the committed believer, and conflict/debate over doctrine is the most energizing, enlivening source of relationship.

Again, Julie writes:

The culture of the reformed crowd takes great pleasure and pride in having precisely thought out theological positions that give them deep satisfaction ….They wish to “share” this perspective, but they do so from the point of view of being right-er than the rest….The culture encourages intellectualism and apologetics of the systematic theological kind.

I sympathize with these individuals who have been hurt and offended by people who termed themselves “Reformed”. And I certainly don’t want to be condescending, relentless, uncompromising, judgmental, manipulative, dismissive, or critical.

At the same time, even apart from my quickly reforming doctrine, I am the person described above:

  • I am interested in the theological and doctrinal soundness of books, Bible translations, and people.
  • I do think that “right theology” is central to true faith (since “right theology” means simply right views of God)
  • I do think that believers should exhort one another to hold to correct doctrine.
  • I do consider conflict and debate over doctrine to be an incredible energizing and enlivening source of relationship.
  • I do take a great deal of pleasure in having precisely thought out theological positions
  • I do want to “share” my theological positions with others.
  • I do have a great appreciation for intellectualism.

Even apart from my theology (which really doesn’t seem to enter the conversation at all), I am what many of these commentors hate: I am an ambiguity-disliking, truth-affirming, intellectually-focused, debate-loving person.

In many ways, these traits are simply a part of my personality. Even if I were not Reformed/Calvinist, I would still be these things. In fact, five years ago, prior to my gradual conversion to Reformed thought, I was all of these things. It wasn’t Reformed thought that made me this way–I was this way already.

Of course, my newly Reformed thinking gives me a bit of perspective about these aspects of my personality. Reformed thinking, after all, says that I am totally depraved–that every part of me, including the personality traits that God originally pronounced “good” in the garden, is completely twisted as a result of the fall. I am totally depraved–incapable of good.

Yet somehow by the grace of God, completely apart from any merit of my own (for I had none), God chose me. He called me according to His purpose, He foreknew me, He predestined me to be conformed to the image of His Son. Having chosen me, He is in the process of taking every depraved part of me, including my personality, and overhauling so that it reflects Christ.

I am a critical Calvinist, depraved.

I am a critical Calvinist, being conformed.

Please be patient, God’s still not finished with me.

But I trust God will conform me day by day into His image–not of a critical Calvinist, but a Christlike Christian.

Categories Education, Following Christ

A bizarre turn I’m unwilling to ascribe to fate

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At the close of the last semester, I had every reason to believe that I’d be offered another teaching assistantship for the fall semester. Two instructors had approached me saying that they would like to have me as a TA–but the word around the department was that another person, a professor, was also interested in having me TA for her.

I made my plans accordingly. I had enough money in my checking account to live on throughout the summer. I would spend the summer working on my thesis and then take the assistantship in the fall. Come December, if I had not already found a job, I had enough money in my savings account to last 4-6 months while I searched for a job. I considered it a comfortable margin.

And so I proceeded.

But when May passed and June passed and July started to pass me by without receiving an assistantship offer, I had to assume that I would not be offered an assistantship. I started searching for positions in the Lincoln and Omaha area (having promised my roommate I’d remain in Lincoln until December.)

Today, I received a phone call from a University number–nothing surprising for me since I’d applied for several positions at the University.

But the call was not from one of those positions. It was from the Nutrition Graduate Department’s Administrative Assistant.

“Hi, Rebekah,” she said. “I’m getting ready to process payroll for the fall and realized that I still hadn’t received an acceptance from you for your assistantship.”

“That’s interesting,” I replied. “I hadn’t heard that I received an assistantship.”

But I had received an assistantship–and she’d emailed me the offer May 7, the last day of classes for fall semester. When I hadn’t promptly returned my acceptance, she e-mailed me again.

I received neither e-mail.

This time, she forwarded me the letter and I received it just fine.

She explained that I should pay no attention to the deadline for acceptance. She’d process my payroll papers and I could mail or drop off my acceptance any time.

So I have a job through December. I have the whole time. The rumors were true and I’ll be working with the professor.

A bizarre turn?

Absolutely.

Fate or luck?

I’m not willing to say that.

I believe that God is sovereign over every event of my life–even over misdirected or otherwise lost e-mails.

Why were both of those e-mails lost?

Maybe God wanted me to learn trust. Maybe God intends me to have one of these jobs I’ve applied for and knew I wouldn’t have applied for them if I had been secure in the knowledge of the assistantship. Maybe I’ll never know God’s plan in this.

But one thing I know: God knew exactly the moment each of those e-mails entered the ether–and He had a perfect plan for when and how and why things would turn out the way they did.

Because my life does not rest on the caprices of fate, but in the hands of a sovereign, all-powerful, all-loving God.