Anna’s Blog

Something pretty sweet about going to a university: people who know how to strum guitars, how to hit some drums, how to tickle the ivories, how to work a beat on the bass... and these people end up becoming friends. They jam together. They write a few songs. They play a few shows. They form a legit band.

Something pretty sweet about going to a biblical university: these people love Jesus, and their songs reflect that.

So here's to you, PBU bands.

Inherit the Fall

Into Exile

Viva la Victor

numerous rap and hip-hop artists (ever heard of Trip Lee, for one?)

and the one I want to highlight today:

Food For Sleep (Check them out at their website: http://www.myspace.com/foodforsleep)!

I went to a show they played this past weekend... at a church opening in Baltimore!

Here are a few pictures from the show!

Lee: keys, lyrics and vocals

The Chick-fil-a cow was definitely a fan. (I'm not a great fan of the cow, myself, but I'm not a fan of mascots. At all.)

The band!

Kevin: drums............ Paul: guitar........... not pictured is Jordan: bass

Anyway... if I get my video up and running, I can post a few of their songs!

.......HERE'S ONE! (Sorry, the quality of the video/audio isn't my fave either, but it's a taste of the glory, at least!)

Posted by Anna at 9:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hint: Check out Simon & Garfunkel's song "At the Zoo." I was singing it allllll dayyyyyyyy. (Play this video while you look at my photos from the day!)

My new favorite thing about our proximity to the city of Philadelphia:

THE PHILADELPHIA ZOO
(which is celebrating its 150th birthday this year!!)

This past Sunday was perhaps our last chance at summer weather, so my boyfriend and I hastened to take advantage of it... by going to the zoo!

(The concept of a zoo is kind of a strange one, if you really think about it - which I'm sure you know I'm fond of doing.)

But here are a few pictures that exemplify our day:

I paid toll by looking under seats, tearing apart my car... we didn't need it to go into the city, but we did for church. I just thought it was a cool picture. :)

It's PHILLY!

I found a dinosaur!!! ...Unfortunately, it was not living, but a statue. ...Meh, I'll take what I can get!

These two little froggies were so so cute. And bumpy.

IT'S A LION! KING OF THE JUNGLE! ...OR... THE ZOO!

These, like the dinosaur, weren't real. (Kevin's real, though. He's the man.)

GEOFFREY!

Yep, we're cute. At the zoo. :)

I just wanted to be friends with this peacock... but... he would have none of it. Ah well.

Who'd've known that peacocks can fly?? Because this one did, and it freaked me out. But this is him, sitting prettily on the wall by the polar bears.

PENGUINS!!! (I almost wrote: *penguines*... like... *bovines*.)

Downtown Philly. Pretty.

Nighttime Downtown. Prettier.

A perfect end to a perfect day. Yay. :)

Posted by Anna at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is for their salvation.
- Romans 10:1.

------->>The Chosen. Israel. God's own nation He has claimed as His own.

Theirs is the adoption as sons: theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the Law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God overall, forever praised! Amen.
- Romans 9:4-5.

------->>But...

"ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE."
- Romans 10:21, quoting Isaiah 65.

------->>Disobedient and obstinate, yes... However:

In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.
- Romans 11:5.

------->AND (my hope!) -

[The Israelites] did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!
- Romans 11:11-12.

------->>And doesn't this make sense?

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
- Romans 11:24.

..................................................

As for me, I must admit that I often struggle with God over the fact that I was not born a natural Jew. That sounds strange, I realize. I want to be one of the original Chosen. I know I'm chosen, but they're more chosen. I'm jealous of them - that God might love them just a little bit more than He loves me.

BUT THEN I read passages like Romans 9:25 ('I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, 'MY PEOPLE,' AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, 'BELOVED,' from the prophet Hosea) and Galatians 3:8 (The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU." ). It makes me realize, I was always part of His plan! I'm reminded that I was always chosen. I was and am always loved!

So what a charge is put before me - a la Romans 11:11-12. God is using me (and His other chosen Gentiles) to draw His own people back to Himself. What a crucial role I am able to play as a result of my own Gentility...my goyishness! ...What a blessing! How beautiful, to be an aid in bringing about their completion as Jews! To bring the Chosen back to their Chooser.

I bless the LORD that He is sovereign and I am not. And I pray that I might be reminded of this, hour by hour, moment by moment. Who am I to question His plan and His purpose in my life?

(HAPPY ROSH HASHANAH 2009 - Sept. 18-20.)

Posted by Anna at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Because EVERYONE seems to be getting sick. Change of season?

I'm fascinated with the origins of random words and phrases. Yes, I am, in fact, an English major. (Note the liberal and correct use of commas in that last sentence!) Sometimes I get such figures of speech or cliches stuck in my head, and I just think about them all the time. At least for a day. Today, the phrase is "nothing to sneeze at." Where did that come from? SORRY, 'From whence did that come?' ...Then shouldn't the phrase be, "Nothing at which to sneeze?" That's awkward. And I couldn't get it out of my head. So I did a little research. In this day and age, "research" is synonymous with "Google". (That is an important truth I hope you won't soon forget.) This is what I found:

According to AllExperts.com:

"The original expression was "not to be sneezed at," but the phrase has undergone various revisions over the years. Here is the best explanation I have found for the origin of the phrase:

This sounds like a wild tale. But I found the same origin in a couple of sources so I am pretty sure it's a fact.

NOT TO BE SNEEZED AT – “…People in older times imagined that a sneeze cleared the mind. It certainly gave them a feeling of exhilaration. Suddenly, 17th century Europe caught a craze for sneezing. It was considered the right thing to do in good society. Indeed, the more you sneezed, the more you proved yourself a member of the privileged class. To build up this new status symbol, all kinds of devices were used. It was soon realized that snuff caused sneezing. Therefore everyone who was someone carried with him a little box, containing a mixture of sneeze-producing herbs or tobacco. By drawing an ample pinch of it into the nostrils, a hearty sneeze resulted in no time.

Of course only the rich and idle had time to sneeze or could afford snuff. Hence the self-induced sneeze became synonymous with aristocratic living. If you were able to sneeze ‘on call,' you showed audibly your status in society. But one matter had still to be decided. Just to sneeze haphazardly was not good enough. There had to be a special occasion. Soon sneezing became part of men's conversation. You indulged in it whenever you wanted to show your disapproval of anything said or, even more so, your lack of interest in the matter discussed. A sneeze was an unmistakable way of saying politely ‘you bore me.' Consequently and logically, anything ‘not to be sneezed at' was something really worthwhile.” From “How Did It Begin?” by R. Brasch (Pocket Books, New York, 1969).

I hope this answers your question.

Ted Nesbitt"

Now, for my interpretation of the 'data'. (Note my British-English use of quotation marks INSIDE the punctuation. It's more sophisticated, you see.) It seems poor logic to say that sneezing suddenly caught on as a fad among the upperclass, and then the act of sneezing was brought about by the use of snuff and the like... rather, does it not make more sense that the upperclass took to their snuff, creating the sneeze, and then because sneezing was a result of the upperclass, elite lifestyle, sneezing was a popular activity? I just think Mr Nesbitt got it backwards, is all. Beyond that, I feel his argument/research? is perfectly sound.

Google is a wonderful tool in, well, 'researching' the origins of trivial phrases such as the one noted above... but my favorite FAVORITE website to use for the origins of words is Etymonline.com. It's brilliant. For all you other English nerds out there (I'm trusting there are more of us! Keep hope alive!), the site documents the language influences, the changes in meaning, and sometimes the various phrases in which you will find said word. When I discovered this website in tenth grade, I spent three hours exploring all my favorite words and anything else that piqued my interest. Do it. It just may change your life as it has mine!

Posted by Anna at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)