Surprised by Joy

Since I "did" a book review on C.S. Lewis' book, his concept of being surprised by joy has been with me ever since. The way I relate things to "glimpses of heaven" is the same idea as Lewis' definition of "joy". And as I take an unprecedented break from reading for my term paper, I am a bit fascinated about the things I'm learning. The break really is a bit unwarranted right now because I decided to take FAR too long before I started doing the biggest paper of my first term at Bible school.

So, uhh, my paper is on the doctrine of sin. I'm so glad that I picked this topic because living life is all about our battles with sin. Of course, the battle has already been won by God through Jesus dying on the cross; but it is in each of our lives to live out that victory that was granted to us. The word that has been floating in my mind throughout this whole process is "fascination". I'm almost being blown away by what I'm discovering.

It should be a well known fact by now, that I am awful at reading. If I had my own Wikipedia page, that fact that I suck at reading would be under the "character traits" section of my page. C.S. Lewis said he often found his type of joy when he's reading through all his literature and mythologies; and I am finding a very similar experience as I'm reading Thomas Oden's "The Word of Life". The book is basically about Jesus and his role on this earth. So most of what I'm reading is what sin has to do with Jesus. I don't want to bore anyone with a ten page essay on all the theological stuff about what I'm reading (other than my prof), so I won't get into the tiny little details.

I think a lot of us "Christians" have a good grasp at this whole doctrine of sin. What is sin? Where did it come from? Why is it significant? How do we escape it? All that kind of stuff we have a good idea on; or at least I hope so. There were a couple of pretty cool questions that I came across while reading Oden. One of them is: if man had never fallen, would the incarnation of Jesus still be necessary? I think this question is pretty debated; I haven't looked into it, but I would imagine that it is. Another cool point is raised in Jesus' baptism. Getting baptized is a sign of being sanctified from sin. Jesus was born as a man without sin, so why did he get baptized? There is a more definitive answer to this question than the first one, but I still thought it was pretty cool that it was talked about.

Anyway, I think that's been the highlight of the last couple of days for me, other than the fact that it's so incredibly cold outside. I think I made a mistake to say that it was okay that I'd sacrifice travel distance to school in order to have a smooth transition. I'm not someone that lives with regrets, but this is getting pretty close to it. Of course, the transition has been pretty ideal. I'm comfortable, I'm living with people that I knew prior to moving here. Everything outside of school has been pretty decent. But the reason I am here is because of school, and I have to say that things aren't the best. I'm not complaining by saying it's bad, but it could be better. Like I said, I knew what I was getting myself into when I chose familiarity over being thrown right into the wolves; but I'm a bit second guessing my choice right now - which is also a thing that I don't really do. However, at the end of the day, I'm beyond content with what God's given me. So I'm going to choose to see it that way; and I always will.

Going to get back to work now. I'm actually a bit surprised that with these doctrinal stuff being so fascinating, that there isn't an entire horde of people who actively do this whole "Bible college" thing. It feels so great to be learning something that I love, and it's definitely been a change for me compared to my time in high school and the UofA.

Maybe if the Oilers can win one, things will be even more joyful! Haha, who am I kidding...