#that i have to watch a 45 minute lecture BEFORE my 1 and half dedicated lecture time???

[mysicklove]

whoever thought that “reverse style” classrooms are a good idea in a college environment deserve to be in jail

[canaryatlaw]

Okay, so today was all around a pretty good day. I woke up to my alarm at 8:45 and got out of bed (even though I didn’t really want to) and started getting ready for church. It was supposed to be like, ridiculously hot out today, which is kind of annoying because it was 40 like two weeks ago and now it’s 90. like, why can’t I have spring dammit?? sigh. but this meant I can wear one of my summer dresses to church for the first time this year, so that’s cool. I grabbed some snacks and headed off. the way my public transit schedule has been going lately isn’t great, because I end up just missing a train out of the station when I get off the bus and then have to wait 11 minutes for the next one, which makes me like, a minute or two late to church (which I know isn’t a big deal really but I hate being late) but like, going earlier means I get there way too early and it’s like, awkward. so I’m a tiny bit peeved about that but it’s not a big deal. Got to church, worship was great, and it was Baptism Sunday, so the message was on Acts 8, not a passage I’d particularly studied before, but it has to do with a guy from the early church named Phillip encountering the eunuch (it’s never really clear if that’s an accurate translation, but not the point) who he talks to about the church and Jesus, and the guy is really getting into it, and is basically “what’s stopping you from baptizing me right now?” and Phillip was basically like shit you right and they went to the presumably close by body of water and he baptized the guy, just off the side of the road they had encountered each other one. The message was specifically focusing on how sometimes people think they have to clean their lives up before they can get baptized, when in reality God wants you to come to Him just as you are. And of course at the end of the sermon they make the call for any person in the church wants to be baptized, they will do it right now, and they do. they always get a ton of people. my service ended up being super long because 41 freaking people were baptized, and that was just in one of three sermons. To add some context to this, the church I grew up in is easily 4 times the size of my church now, if not larger, and they do baptisms like once a month, and there’s like, 4 people on any given Baptism Sunday. And here’s where I really appreciated the sermon and my church’s way of conducting baptism, because that church that I grew up in makes this huge deal about it, before you can get baptized you have to take a 6 week course about I don’t even really remember, but I guess about baptism and its significance. And like, that requires a lot more effort, and it does kind of communicate the message that you do have to clean up your life and make things right before coming to God and that’s just....straight up unbiblical, honestly. Whereas my church says we want you to come right here, right now, and experience the holy spirit. I also appreciated a comment my pastor made about those who were baptized as babies, in general catholic and like traditions, and he said that adult baptism doesn’t do anything to cancel out that, but rather that infant baptism showed an intention for your parents to raise you to follow God, and getting baptized as an adult is the fulfillment of that intention, which is definitely the best way I’ve ever heard it described, he basically attributed the purpose behind baby dedication, which we do, not infant baptism. Adult baptism is never a you have to do this to get into heaven thing, it’s an expression of your faith and a intention to follow God. And man, standing there singing and watching person after person get baptized, I cried so many tears, because it was honestly so moving. Two of the girls who were sitting next to me went up and did it, and their friend was recording it, and I was just like, I feel so happy for them. I just love that we take a we want you to come as you are, come right now, if you’re feeling it we’re going to make it happen, and like.....I just love it all so much. I’m gonna really, really, freaking miss my church if I end up leaving Chicago. I’ve never been to a church like it before, where I felt so much like I belonged and the other members feel the same way I do about the things I consider important (let’s just say we don’t have any Trump supporting gun crazy “evangelicals”, that’s for sure), and like, I now know we have several gay couples who regularly attend and like, that just makes my heart so happy to see, to see people who have been largely rejected by the church, but yet they press on because they want to know God, and they’ve now found a place that accepts them for who they are, tells them that yes, they are made in God’s image, and anybody telling you that you were made wrongly is on the wrong side of the gospel. Well that was a tangent, but I hope you appreciate it. I ended up ducking out a few minutes early because we had huddle up for the kids ministry before the next service, and the current one was pushing an hour and a half, a solid 20 minutes over regular. So we had our huddle and got sent off, I was the only person technically signed up for the babies/walkers room, so one of my friends who’s recently taken on more of a leadership role helping coordinate things stayed with me, for good reason because things ended up being a bit hectic. At first we had 4 kids, and 3 of them were screaming their heads off, (the 4th was seriously the cutest little girl, she was all smiles the whole time even when she took a bit of a tumble I held her for like 15 seconds and she was done crying). So that was a bit much, to say the least lol. One of them is a girl who’s been coming for months and months now and has always been fine, but for some unknown reason she was shrieking her lungs out today, like that really high pitching blood curdling scream that just makes you wince, and she was not calming down, so we ended up texting her parents and they came and picked her up. I have to wonder what happened there. Some kids do just spontaneously develop anxiety issues about being left when they used to be fine, but this was such a drastic difference, it had me wondering if maybe she witnessed something potentially traumatic (I mean, traumatic from the point of view of a 1 year old) but it’s definitely not my place to be suggesting such things, I just wonder about it from a child psychology perspective. I think we ended up with 6 overall, so a pretty solid number. There was a very cute little baby, I think about 3 months or so, and like most babies at that age she mostly just ate and slept, with some minimal crying mixed in. There was a little boy I played with for a while, he was kind of jumpy and definitely could easily fall back into crying, so I had to be careful with him for a bit but then he started engaging and he was fine. Then there was that super adorable little Indian girl I was talking about last week, who is in her prime my parents cannot leave me stage, so her mom was in with her for a while, and like, every time her mom tried to edge somewhat closer to the door she would be all over her pulling her back. Her mom did end up leaving, probably with about 15 minutes left in the sermon, which of course resulted in her furiously crying, but she was definitely improved from last week as far as lulls between crying fits and seeking out comfort from us, so that is progress at least. It can be really hard with some kids, and sometimes it just takes time, but it’s so much easier to get the situated at this age rather than waiting until they’re older, because a screaming 1 year old is much easier to deal with than a screaming 3 year old, trust me. But yeah, overall not bad, there were a couple of moments that were touch and go but we made it through. Headed home after, and once I got here I jumped right into bar prep. I guess what they’re doing is having the lectures during the week and then doing review questions over the weekend, which was the majority of my work today, and then there was a essay writing workshop thing that was.....interesting, I know I need to get over my ego when it comes to writing and accept what I’m being taught, but like.....I know how to write essays lol. I can talk the structural tips and all sure, but I know how to write. so that was not my favorite thing, but we’ll see how it goes in the future. They started with a “reading comprehension” test where they had you read a passage and then fill in the blank of sentences from the passage and like, I got almost all 30 of them right lol. No surprise there tbh. At some point I decided I wanted sushi for dinner, so I ordered that and it came here surprisingly fast, the app said to expect 60 to 70 minutes, but it was here in under 30, so I was impressed with that. I finished up my work around 7, so a solid 4 hours of work, not bad. Then I transferred over to the couch and sat down to watch my great british baking show episodes intercut with the “masterclass” episodes where the hosts show their version of the challenge they just had them made, and that’s mostly what I ddi for the rest of the night, while doing some other computer things like updating the company tumblr like I do every Sunday. And yeah, I watched that until I decided it was time to go to bed, and damn it’s 2:20 already?? I’ve been writing for a long time, clearly, so I’ll end it here. Goodnight friends. Have a lovely Memorial Day tomorrow.