“Nothing's forever. This could stay the same, or it could change again. It depends.” --Greg Anderson

Things that I have forgotten over the summer:

• One must always show one's ID when purchasing things on campus with one's debit card
• The fountain inside the student center is incredibly noisy
• Some people believe that skipping chapel is a one-way ticket to hell
• Drinking two glasses of coke at lunch before a 12:30 class is a terrible idea

Other than that, a thus-far uneventful day at the seminary.  

On the brightest note, though, I saw Jo Lynne today.  She's commuting in from Hattiesburg two days a week right now, and hopefully will be living here next semester.  We ate lunch together and chatted for a while.

Old Testament may actually not kill me, and I can download my books from Kindle or other apps.  My only books, per se, are one text book, and the Bible.  Fancy that!  Right now I need to read Genesis.  I think I'm going to enjoy Old Testament.  I've always liked reading from it (except for 1&2 Chronicles, and books like that...because...well...several hundred pages of family litany, while historically important, are just not my favorite).  My theory as to why I enjoy the Old Testament so much lately, is that we as Baptists have focused too heavily on the New Testament.  I'm not bashing the gospel, or saying that it is not the single most life-changing part of the Bible, because without those passages concerning salvation, the rest is meaningless.  What I am saying is that the Pauline letters are focused on 70% of the time, the gospels 20% of the time, the rest of the New Testament 7% of the time, and the Old Testament about 3% of the time.  Now, while these figures are just a general feeling with no data to back them up, I know that from my experience learning and teaching, and from listening to the experiences of my friends, the resounding feeling is that past fourth grade, we do not focus on the Old Testament at all.

When teaching children, it's easier to teach them simple narratives, rather than airy theories.  For instance, 

"And then, God told Noah that because everyone was sinning and choosing their way over God's way, he was going to flood the WHOLE earth.  He gave Noah special instructions on how to build a big boat, that he called an ark, to carry Noah, his family, and two of every kind of animal in it, so that they would be saved from the flood."

See?  Easy peasy lemon-squeezy.  Teaching them that the church is one body, and each has it's part, and how each part is very important is a little more difficult to translate to a kid-level.  We therefore focus in childhood on those easy narratives which are found mostly in the Old Testament.  

Then, when we grow up, we grow out of those little kid stories, and move on to "more theological things" in the New Testament, and we forget to focus on the vast amounts of wisdom and teachings available in the Old Testament.  

I'm ready for Judges and Jonah.