Chris' Christian Blog

October 31, 2020

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It's hard to believe November is upon us. My mind is still on sunshine and warm days and soon we will be wearing coats again! Remember to turn your clocks back at midnight Sunday so you won't be late for church!

The prompt for today: I went to the store today and bought a gallon of ice cream. I live by myself so a gallon of ice cream is a lot. Ice cream however is my weakness. As I carried it in, one of the brothers was teasing me. He said, "Your weakness is showing preacher."

As he laughed he said, "Of course, the only reason I say that is because I want your ice cream."

It made me realize however that just like all Christians, my every action is under scrutiny. How might this realization change the way we act and talk?

I honestly do believe that people are more apt to look at our actions than listen to our words. No, my intention in bringing in a gallon of ice cream was not to eat the whole gallon at once, but rather to save some money. When you buy stuff like ice cream you save a lot of money by buying a gallon as compared to a pint. The gallon bucket was $2.50 on sale. The pint boxes were $1.50 and they held 3/4 of a pint. I thought I was getting a good deal buying it in bulk like that. What I didn't realize was that I looked like a glutton carrying it into the building. Of course I explained to the man who was watching what my reasoning was and he agreed that it was better to save money. If I go back today and buy ice cream it would raise eyebrows.

Christians must be aware that we are representatives of Christ. Everything we do is watched and the adversary is always looking for ways to accuse. Let's give him no ammunition!

This has been an interesting week. It seems like yesterday was the first day and the week is up already. Here in space it is difficult to tell time.

Remember to set your clocks back at midnight on November 1. Yeah, I know. I hate the longer periods of darkness too, but we are starship voyagers. We don't see much starlight anyway! Speaking of stars, we are exploring a star today named (185) .

The port or planet is

Below  (E) pastoral poem about my happy place (one of them anyway) #2148738 by Sorji

In this piece, the author speaks of going to their happy place. Tell us about your happy place.

My happy place when I was a child was way on top of this ridge. Nobody could ever find me and I couldn't answer them because I couldn't hear them calling for me. Then as I got older my happy place became my desk. It is still my happy place to this day. I love being busy doing something productive. I especially love learning. I'm an online graduate student so I have the privilege of writing research papers all the time as well as discussion board posts, journals, and blog entries. I love writing and learning new things. At my school, we are on a semester basis, but the classes run in eight-week segments. You have either two classes a week for eight weeks or one class per week for eight weeks. It depends on whether you are a full-time graduate or undergraduate student. I am a graduate student so full time is one-two classes for the first eight weeks, and one class for the second eight weeks. I am currently in my second eight weeks taking Early Church History 505 02 of HCHT 505- section 02. I love history! It was my minor in undergraduate school. I have already completed 3 of the courses I need to graduate. I have one more semester of regular course work and then I go to work on my capstone program. I have one of three choices for it. I can write a thesis, I can do a one-year residency, or I can do the spiritual formation track, which I believe is course work. I think I will go to the thesis route. I am not sure what my thesis will be about yet. It will definitely have to do with chaplaincy though as I am a chaplain. Perhaps Biblical theology. I was fascinated with the theology of St. Augustine and the Apostolic Fathers. So perhaps I'll do something like that. Whatever it is, I will spend time at my happy place doing it.

"Prompt: It's the last day of October and daylight savings time will soon end. Write a good-bye to daylight savings time telling why you will miss it or why you won't miss it."

I don't know that I want to write a letter to Daylight Savings Time, but I will definitely miss it. You see, I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. If I do not get a certain amount of sunshine I become depressed. When I get depressed my energy level goes down as does my interest in things. I am an honor student and depend on my scholarships. I cannot afford to become depressed and deal with the negativity and loss of interest. Last year I was okay. My faith kept me hopeful and I am certain faith will keep me going this year as well. I also have a good doctor who properly diagnosed the Seasonal Depression and the accompanying bipolar disorder and head injury. I am on medications for those. As long as I stay medicated along with being prayed up and studied up, I will be just fine. Daylight Savings time will return shortly. It seems it just started yesterday. The whole year has gone by so fast it seems it just started. Goodbye Daylight Savings Time. Hello Daylight Standard Time.

Prompt: "Happy Samhain or Happy Halloween

It's the last day of October which brings about daylight savings time change and also a reality check. There's only 62 days left of 2020 counting today. Where did the time go? Are you looking forward to the new year or are you feeling melancholy it's ending? I've been thinking of all the things I wanted to accomplish. .What about you how has the year gone?"

Since I am not pagan I do not celebrate Samhain. I am also not Catholic so I usually don't bother with Halloween either. I have been known to join a Halloween party here at the Veterans Home, especially if I am broke and think I might win a little cash playing some of the games. Of course, food is also an incentive. They usually always have some goodies there. In fact, there is a Halloween party today that I may attend because of the food and prizes. As to Halloween itself, I believe it and most Christianized holidays have pagan roots. If I participate, it is not to celebrate the holiday as much as to love on the people who do by serving them.