Time for a Change?

I've been studying the book of Numbers the past few weeks, and although it has given me quite a bit to think about, my study hasn't yielded many "Aha!" moments. That is, until a few days ago when I looked at what I like to call "The Quail Incident".

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, it's found in chapter 11, and what happened was that the Israelites, as was their practice, were complaining about something. The NIV has them "wailing. . . 'If we only had meat to eat (vs. 4)!'" Then God basically said, "You want meat? I'll give you meat! You'll get so much meat that it'll come out of your noses!" God caused a wind to blow and it blew in so much quail from the coast that the minimum gathered per person was about 60 bushels. Now that's a lot of quail! Sadly, they didn't get to enjoy it much, because before it could even be swallowed, God struck dead all the quail eaters. That place then, for obvious reasons, became known as "Graves of Craving" or "Craving Graves".

This passage has often been used by dedicated vegetarians as an illustration of the perils of eating meat, but I think that if one focuses solely on that aspect, they are missing the point. One commentator said that the Israelites had more food variety than one may think. The manna could be prepared in a couple of different ways, plus they could get milk and curds from their flocks, plus there were sacrifices in which the person offering would share a meal with the priests. A meal mainly comprised of meat. Also the majority of the things the Israelites were pining for were non-meat items (see vs. 5). The main problem wasn't so much that they were craving meat. It was that they were craving Egyptian meat; meaning that they would rather be slaves in Egypt than to be free under God's guidance.

The lesson that struck me this time around was the whole "We want something else!" concept. I had found myself recently wanting a change simply for change's sake. Sometimes the routine of life can seem a little tedious, but if the routine is of divine design, then we should think twice before demanding something different.

A Second Job

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but as most of you know, I've been busy doing other (more important) things. Wow, who would have thought that planning a wedding would be so much work, and, of course, it's more work when you're on a budget, and we can't just pay people to do everything for us. It's not that the work is difficult, it's just that it is constant. It's my second job.

Thankfully, things are coming together rather nicely, esp. considering that we have only two months to go (Yikes!). Simone is very good at finding deals (on materials, food, etc.), as well as finding people who will help out for little or no compensation.

I might go into a bit more details in future posts, but I thought that I'd just give you all a little update on what's going on in our neck of the woods.

A Quick Summary of My California Adventure

Wow, I can't believe that it has been so long since I've posted something on here! The past few months have been so crazy/busy that I don't know where to begin. I will try to sum up events so far:

- I flew here (Loma Linda, CA) in the middle of April to visit Simone, my romantic interest/girlfriend not really knowing what the future might hold.

- Despite the fact that I was in a bad economy and now a bankrupt state, I ended up getting a full-time (and decent paying) job with a SDA ministry.

- And due to the two above items, I am now planning on flying back to MN with the goal of having Simone meet my family and to drive my car back to CA.

Who would have thought of such a series of events would have taken place. There is no way I could have planned such a thing as this, but I know Who could.