Last day of classes
Wednesday, May 9 2007
Today is my last class ever at Calvin Theological Seminary; fittingly, it’s a pastoral care class. The sky is warm but a bit gray and rainy, as if to say, “It is a bittersweet finale.” Truth be told, while I’m excited to be done, I know that a part of me will really miss sitting in those classrooms and listening to the professors.
Data on religion and churches
Monday, May 7 2007
Somehow in the research for my thesis, I’d missed (until tonight) the Association of Religion Data Archives, a massive repository of all sorts of statistical data about churches, church attendance, and faith issues.
For instance, did you know there were over 11 million more church attenders in the year 2000 than in 1990? Or that there are over 900 congregations in the greater Grand Rapids metro area? Cheers to Penn State, the Lilly Endowment, and the John Templeton Foundation for making this resource available.
The bittersweet taste of the last uphill lap
Tuesday, May 1 2007
While I’m very grateful to have the oral comp exam done, it is but a small piece of the work I have left. I have fewer than three weeks of school left (and only 8 days of classes), yet I have a great deal of work still to submit and plenty of material to write. The poor, neglected Kerux has suffered so badly this quarter that it really breaks my heart. So much work went into it, and so much has fallen away, and the blame is all of my shoulders. But school must come first.
Already I have begun to look around and realize how quickly these last days are going. Classrooms I will never sit in again, professors I won’t have the privilege of listening to, and students I won’t the privilege of spending time with. I am very glad to be finishing, but like all such accomplishments, it is a bittersweet parting.
Pray for me that I would have the endurance to finish well and to delight in the last few days of school. Soli Deo gloria.
Coda
Monday, April 23 2007
Every once in a while a product comes along that totally revolutionizes its industry. In web design software, that product came today in the form of Panic’s new application Coda. After playing with it for all of 3 minutes, it was immediately clear that this is the only program I will build websites in from now on. It brings everything web designers need into one voluptuous package. It is a work of art, plain and simple.
If you’re got a Mac, run, don’t walk, to Panic’s website. If you’ve got a PC, this program alone is worth buying a Mac for.
Now that that’s over with…
Sunday, April 22 2007
Now that the oral comp is over with, I’m spending a lot less time anxiously looking at the calendar waiting for graduation day to come. Granted, it’s only been two days, but my day-to-day life already feels a lot less anxious.
It helps, of course, that the weather has been absolutely beautiful here. It was in the mid-70s yesterday and the mid-80s today. Beth is down in North Carolina covering the culinary team, so I’ve been back here passing the time by drinking lemonade, watching a few movies (Daniel Craig is a great Bond), cleaning, spending time with friends, and going to a Whitecaps game. It may sound uneventful, but a weekend of thinking about not school has been well received.
So, regarding school, what’s still left? A thesis, a Bible knowledge exam, and finishing out classes. Not too bad. The thesis is significant in its own right, but it’s just overwhelming from the perspective of writing, which never bothers me.
I wish that all Sunday nights could be like tonight: warm, quiet, and wonderful. I think I’ll go have some more lemonade.
About us
Six27 is the website of Beth and Christian Bell. We live in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan with our cat Athena.
The name of this website comes from our anniversary date.
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Contact us
E-mail us both: bells@six27.com
If you only want to e-mail one of us, see our respective pages for our personal e-mail addresses.