Mountains Vs. Valleys

by UCM Prez Jenn Baerg

Valleys and Mountains what is the difference? Actually quite a lot – I believe your perspective defines your faith and your view of God. My choice, personally I prefer the valleys.

My mother has been focused on mountain tops as of late – namely one on or around August 19^th (MCAT test day). She’s sure it was a mountain top; personally I think it was more a cruel joke than some spiritual blessing. Mountain tops are not my thing, in life or in spirituality. I’ve found that mountains are the site of my greatest failures, of my darkest times; they are not places of serene beauty they are places of tremendous pain brought on by low oxygen resulting in bad decisions, sharp cliffs and hazardous weather. Since when has the top of Mount Everest been an easy place to be? On the lower ones you can see the expanse below and the journey you’ve past, but what perspective is it really, are we at an advantage being able to see the edges of the horizon, or is it like I feel August was a mirage as I believe these “mountain tops” can grant a false expectation of the future. The valleys are where I prefer to be. They may be the places of the mundane and the muddy mixed together. The low places in this world ensure one thing; it’s not too much further down, they’ve been where I, amidst all that everyone else seems to hate, have found my sweetness in life. This isn’t about self loathing, or a poor me – it’s those places the world loathes; those slog onwards valley journeys that I prefer to sitting on some shade less, rocky mountain top.

Maybe I have been unknowingly on the edge of some mountain cliff for the last few months, just waiting to go up and instead finding I was heading down. I received my MCAT score this week – in my room I sat in front the same screen I logged many hours doing practice exams and questions all summer, to end up wondering if it was all for naught. Whether you believe the score was bad or not is not the issue – I feel that it’s not representative of my abilities, but that isn’t even the issue, we’ve all gotten used to that feeling – especially I with as many years as I’ve spent at SFU. It’s the greater issue – the one that I’ve been grappling with since I started down this road Spring 2005 – what am I doing? Each step on this journey has been hesitant – I described it in a recent blog as,

“this continual process of taking one step and waiting - holding my breath and hoping that everything doesn't cave in and then being pushed to take the next step. This old duality - both are like Indiana Jones moments - you push the stone and hold your breath - nothing bad happened so I picked the right one, meanwhile it's like the floor is falling away - got to make that decision, do it, with no hesitation.”

Well right now I feel like the floor dropped out from under me. So apparently I was not in a valley. Am I now? Right now I’m sitting here, still trying to figure it out, wondering if I should just sit, or keep running…. like they tell lost hikers to stay put when they are lost, I think that’s what is going to happen until I find that dusty valley road again…

And so my question is, is there such thing as a “mountain top” or is the Christian journey a series of hills, amidst a greater more imposing valley? If there are no more “mountain top” experiences as defined by Christian culture, then what is next? If I don’t want the mountains or they don’t want me, then what? If there is no “reward” feeling to this striving for intimacy, but rather continual struggles and trials where is the motivation to press onwards, or is that in itself a misconception? Do I need to or even want to make an active effort in my faith and therefore change this notion of the valleys and mountains in the Christian walk? Or are my problems, this feeling of “failing” within the assumed structure, a personal failing, and should I come to an acceptance that I’m likely not going to see one, and meander on. I could become a sort of modern Job or Jeremiah, holding to the blessings, the little things, those fundamental truths, like the sun rising. We can look at Isaiah; he pursued only his calling although he knew Israel would not listen. We can see in men like Abraham, there are life’s rollercoaster’s; Paul’s joys paralleled his pains. If that’s the case, do they just equal each other out in the end and giving us an overall flat journey?

Just something to think about, and for myself although I prefer the valleys I can’t figure out where I am right now, so I’m just praying to hold on – until I figure out if I need to pray to move up or down – if I am still on a mountain I really want down, like now before another storm comes on through.

Kickin House Par-tay!

Well, I think we can all say that it took a week to get over the house party enough to post about it!

Ha ha! Well, the truth is that Vanessa and more than 20 of her closest UCM friends and neighbours lit it up at the UCM Kickin' House Party last Friday. I was there and it was great! We narrowly missed fights breaking out over Dutch Blitz (okay, friendly fights), one group plotted world domination via the Trump Game, we ate, made merry and ate smores from a real fireplace.

AAAAAwesome. Any other stories anyone wants to share? I was dumb and didn't bring my camera. Does anyone have pictures of this event?

UCM Kickin' Midterm-relief house party

The low-down on the hoe-down:

Hi everyone we know that you have been stressed with school between exams and projects etc. So we are having a great Kickin' UCM house party at Vanessa's this Friday the 20th. Come as a core or with a few non-ucm friends. Please RSVP so we can have enough food.

Vanessa lives at 6809 Dunnedin St. If you need directions print the map below.

Map of 6809 Dunnedin Street
Burnaby, BC V5B, CA
If you get lost call Kirsten at 778-829-2203.
(Oh, yeah, and it starts at around 7:30!)

Space For Rent Free

So. We're almost 6 weeks into the semester, knee-deep in midterms, and still. no. submissions.

What's wrong with you people?

This is prime procrastination time! I should be rolling in submissions for this blog that veritably broadcast your brilliance from hear to Saskatoon! Don't even try to fool me - I know that you sit in front of your computer, pretending to be doing your homework, trying "your best" to focus on your studies while simultaneously chatting on MSN, playing the Sims University, and thinking up what you could possibly bake with the half cup of flour, quart of olive oil and a package of smarties you've got in your cupboard. This is the most productive time of the season for extra-curricular activities!

I know you - you're just waiting for an opportunity to spend five more minutes away from your Chemistry textbook. Well wait no longer! The opportunity has arrived! This blog's pages ache for your content! (And hey, if you're a CMNS major, you could justify it to yourself as 'research.' Cool, eh?)

Post to the blog and be a legend in your own kind!

(Submissions on anything from school to humor to spirituality - any length, subject to only the kindest of editing. Send to jocelynlt AT gmail DOT com.)

Happy Birthday, fearless leader!

So, here at UCM, we are blessed with an intrepid, selfless, chilled-out guy named Seth. Seth planted the UCM ministry at SFU about 6 years ago (?) and has been working some long and ...interesting... hours ever since!

Well, today is his birthday (Oct. 13th) and the UCM leaders and staff wanted to say a big

Happy Birthday to Seth!

...and to let him know how great we think he is. You can too! (I happen to also know he really likes music. Just an idea.)

Relevant: Comfort vs. Compassion

In honor of thanksgiving this weekend, here's an article about comfort, compassion, and remaining connected but not complacent (enough C's for ya?):

My hedonistic tendencies spill over into my social life, too. I tend to gravitate towards people who make me feel good about myself. More often than not, these are folks similar to me—people who are the same age, wear the same clothes and share the same outlook on life.

I can really identify with this. I have all the best intentions for loving others, reaching out to the "unlovely" (or whatever poetic way I choose to frame those I am uncomfortable with), but at my core, I want to be like the cool people. I think it might even be evolutionary. (Un?)Fortunately, The Way was never meant to be that way.
What do y'all think? how good are we (in the church) at being comfortable with those whom God loves? How do you think we could be different, or should we be?

Happy Thanksgiving from UCM!

Hi, congratulations you have survived the first 5 weeks of school! I hope you take the thanksgiving weekend to catch-up on your reading, as you enjoy your family and some turkey dinner.

UCM is launching a second worship and prayer time next week on Wednesday at 1:30 by the coffee kiosk in the AQ 3174 follow the signs. We hope this will give some of you who can't make Tuesday's time an opportunity to join us. If you attend the Tuesday worship and prayer time please continue to do so so we have enough people for that one as well.

Just to remind you the small groups on Mondays are cancelled but the rest of the week is on schedule, as is our worship and prayer on Tuesdays at 11:30.

-- Seth Greenham (ucmsfu AT gmail DOT com)

Thirsty to hear from God

For those of you in UCM "cores" or small groups, next week's study follows our 'Thirsty' theme, 'Thirsty to hear from God.' Keeners can check out Psalm 19 for some pre-reading.

Biblegateway Psalm 19
BlueLetterBible Psalm 19

AMAZING race!

I just got back from UCM's AMAZING Race 2006.

Am. So. Tired.

Five teams competed, with strong showings from SFU residences and Vanessa's crowd (shoutout team zero!). This year it was bigger, better and crazier than ever!

From Metrotown to Lonsdale Quay, from the Renfrew McDonalds to Central Park, we ran (a lot), we shouted, we chugged slurpees and did chin-ups and generally left mayhem and confusion in our wake. The end result was a two-way tie: Team Zero: Vanessa, Sam, Chris, Joanne, and Jocelyn; and Team... Two? Also known as Team McKinley: Mckinley, Josh, and co. These two teams were following each other from the SeaBus to the finish line. Great times were had, a few underhanded tricks were pulled, a few knees were scraped... but I think we had fun!

Big thanks should go to those who put the Race on this year: Seth, Karleen, Ryan, Kirsten and Mandi. (And props to Seth's kids Hannah and Isaac who stayed up WAY past their bedtimes on a school night to watch a bunch of crazy university students dance for 10 minutes in the middle of a train station!)

If you have pictures to add to the Flickr site in progress, please send them to seth: seth_ucm AT hotmail DOT com, or me: jocelynlt AT gmail DOT com. (this means you, Vanessa's roommate!)

Deep and Thirsty Thoughts

In week 2 of our bible study series, we looked at Psalm 139 while we pondered the idea of being "Thirsty to be known." While I was preparing beforehand (it sounds like more than it is, I promise!), I was struck by the connection between our Thirsty theme this year and what I saw as the central point of Psalm 139. It made me look deeper into what thirst really is, how it is understood in the bible, and what it has to do with God knowing us.

In Psalm 139, David describes to God (and to us) how he is known (just count the references in these four verses!):

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
(Ps 139:1-4, BibleGateway, emph. added)

This got me to thinking - how do we become thirsty in the first place? What draws us to know God at all? I'm pretty sure that if left to our own devices, humans would be content to fumble along, alone and incomplete. So how is it that we become thirsty, and how do we have this thirst to be known by God and by others?

To answer my question, I dusted off my trusty Wikipedia and opened my handy BlueLetterBible. Thirst is thus defined by our Wiki friends:

Thirst is the basic need or instinct of humans or animals to drink. It arises with a lack of fluids and/or a surplus of salt. If the water volume of the body falls below a certain threshold, or the salt concentration becomes too high, the brain signals thirst. The salt concentration in the blood is measured with specialized sensors in the hypothalamus, notably in two circumventricular organs that lack an effective blood-brain barrier, the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis and the subfornical organ.

I don't know about you, but I was a Biology major. I think scientifically first, and when I read this, I thought, "huh. Salt makes us thirsty... Salt and Light..."
Salt in the Bible is one of those quantities (like soil, light, cities, etc) that Christians are likened to. We must be salt in the world - so we can make others thirsty in the spiritual sense.

Next, I looked up thirst in a Bible Dictionary:

dipsao (greek) or Tsa'me (Hebrew)

1) to suffer thirst, suffer from thirst

a) figuratively, those who are said to thirst who painfully feel their want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, strengthened

This put the spiritual meaning of "thirst" into context for me. I just think, if I lived in a desert land, not a western rainforest, what meaning would "thirst" have for me? A serious need, a longing, a gnawing necessity. This is what Psalm 139 seems to say about God: that that spiritual thirst was created and cultivated by God, before we even knew ourselves.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book,
before one of them came to be.
Ps. 139:13-16, BibleGateway

So - we are thirsty to be known, created that way by a God who wants to know us. We make others thirsty by being salt to them.