Still alive, still breathing

I've been thinking about this blog a lot recently, it's like an online, very public journal. A place where I can put thought and they may drift out into the world, and may never be read, but they're no longer confined to my head. 

This blog has been dormant for well over a year. No regrets there, I'm sure that there would have been plenty to write, but that's not the point. 

I have reached the end of my first year of my second degree. This blog went through my first degree so it might as well do the second one. As my previous post (Jan '14...) said, I am now training with SWYM. I took the leap to start a BA (Hons) degree in Applied Theology with Youth Ministry. I am loving it but it is so hard! It may surprise you to know that a science degree does not prepare you for theology. I have had to spend a lot of time rewiring my brain and changing how I think and write. I am grateful that it is all essay and presentation based and that there isn't a single essay in sight, except maybe the end of module feedback forms! (joke!) 

To be able to start to get my teeth into the Bible and into my own faith has been a real challenge. You go from accepting everything and going with it to questioning, often in a good way, why you believe what you've been told. We've had to tackle questions like "how literal is Genesis 1 and 2?", "is everything in the Bible historically accurate?", "is everything in the Bible God's word?". Tough, sometimes controversial, and mostly in my mind without firm answers. But what we're all (I think) coming back to is God Is Real. The Bible shows us who He is, and that is an amazing gift. We are wanting evidence and proof, my science background needs evidence for it to be true. When our evidence is proved wrong, such as some of the historical events, the world thinks they've disproved the existence of God. The books of the Bible were not written at the time of Twitter or Facebook or Google. Moses didn't tweet "still in the desert, manna not running out, lost, lol" (because I think Moses may have put a lol!), there wasn't even someone running after them with a parchment and quill "excuse me Moses, can you repeat that last line for me?". Our world today expects everything to be told as it happened, and for the most part it can. In tragic accidents it is become possible to piece events back together minute by minute. Is there not a possibility that errors crept into the accounts as they were told over time. Good men became great men and great men became like gods? This is all speculation, and not even something that I would necessarily fully agree with, but it's where my studies are starting to take me. 

If you've made it this far, well done. It wasn't meant to go quite in that direction! Life is treating me well and God is treating me better! 

For now that is all, but there are other thoughts rattling around, so hopefully this blog will awaken!

God bless,

Ruth