growing up is hard to do...

"I shall never grow up; make believe is much too fun." -Eisley

If only...I begin my student teaching on Thursday which is kind of scary. Reality has yet to set in though - regardless of the fact that I spent 7 hours training today and the fact that I've been in email correspondence with my "cooperating teacher" as the educational field calls it. I feel like it was yesterday that I was the high schooler giving my student teacher a hard time...and I do not feel prepared to face all of those "me's" (you know the smart ass cynics who think they're way better than anyone...) that I'm sure to encounter.

Anyway, I was driving back up to school yesterday listening to one of the old caedmon's call cds and was reminded how much I love them! If you don't know of them, check them out. There's one song in which they paraphrase John 3:16 (For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [RSV]):

For You so loved the unlovable,

that You gave the ineffable.

That who so believes the unbelievable,

will gain the unattainable.

Even though I am a linguistic nerd and thoroughly enjoy depth and critical thinking when it comes to texts, I think the reason I like this so much is because it is so simple. We are unloveable. Jesus is ineffable. Eternal life, without the ineffable, is unattainable. Incredible. Just because God loved us. Ineffable (according to my handy dandy built-in dictionary on my computer) is defined as "too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words". Wow. Did you know that in Webster's Dictionary, there are over 315,000 words...and not one of them can describe what God did for us. Incredible. I think there comes a point that even the most scholarly among us have no words, and at that moment we must "be still and know" that God is God. Be still. Just shut up with our powerful words (all 315,000+ of them)...and know that God is God. Sometimes that's hard. Especially for me.

I think this semester of student teaching will be great for me. I'm looking forward to the many lessons I will learn. I've been told about domestic violence...and drug use...but I've never seen it up front. Part of me hopes I do this semester. I need to experience different aspects of life that I haven't considered. I'm ready and willing to accept the challenge. Here we go...