I get it!!!! (only 8 years late)

I remember in seminary my Greek professor say, "It's not a level playing field. Some of you guys who have families are not going to be able to spend the same amount of time on your work and you simply may not be able to get the grades you would like."

I remember hearing that and just thinking, why can't these guys keep up? What's the big problem?

Now I'm in the situation of realizing that I have more than just one goal. Being a good husband and father are 2 of many other goals that rest alongside the goal of learning French. And ultimately, all of these goals are subsumed under one principle goal: becoming like Christ.

A few months back I was reading the book "Sacred Chaos." The author commented how at one stage of her life, her kids with grand kids moved back in with her. All of a sudden, the tranquil time in the morning where she could simply read her Bible and pray in silence was gone! After an episode of mourning the loss of tranquility, she asked herself, which scenario is more likely to make me like Christ?

This not at all to say that we shouldn't look for times of tranquility. However, a little chaos is good if your goal is becoming like Christ. Thus, I probably won't be as good a French student as a I was a Greek student, but I hopefully will become more like Christ.

And it's very possible that I'll also have a little fun too with my added chaos.

You know you're in France when...

You go out to dinner at 6:00pm and you're the only ones in the restaurant until after 7:00.

You have a sandwich for lunch and people wonder if you're going to be ok.

There is a case of wine in the fellowship hall of the church...ready for the potluck Sunday.

 Free refills...what are those?

Every meal that you have at someone's house has at least 4 courses and takes a minimum of 2 hours to eat.

Your daughter thinks that underwear comes from the grocery store (which it does).

The biggest vehicle on the road is a minivan.

The treat in the McDonalds Happy Meal is a "Back to the Future" DVD...wait a minute...

You have to constantly watch the sidewalk because although it is the law, people do not clean up after their dogs.

You have to ask for ice in your glass (and I'm not even sure you could get it at some places when you ask).

You keep eating chocolate because it is just that good and there are so many varieties you haven't tried yet!

Whenever you have a half a glass of coke, people ask why you're drinking so much!

My brain

I think that I have discovered that there are 2 parts to my brain, the part that figures out what is being said, and then the part that remembers what was said.  I have also found recently that if the first part has to work too hard, the second part has trouble working at all!  For instance, sometimes I have to work so hard at understanding people when they introduce themselves to me that the next week when I see them at church, I have no idea what their name is! 

I saw this clearly last night when we went to a special seminar by a Bible school teacher here in Paris.  I was following along quite well for most of the time.  He spoke very clearly and slowly, and I could understand him well.  Because I could fairly easily understand him (although it still took some work!) I was able to remember some of the points that he made and relate them to earlier points (just the normal way you would listen to a message).  At one point he began to use a word that I didn't know though, and I started scrambling in my mind trying desperately to figure out what in the world he was talking about!  And because of that one word (which was quite important to the point) I have no idea what he said for the next 5 minutes.  And even if I heard it and understood a lot of the words, it took way too much work to remember.  

I guess everybody misses bits and pieces of life here and there.  I just hope I don't miss anything too important!