Preparing a Thanksgiving dissertation

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Writing a dissertation feels a lot like preparing Thanksgiving dinner. You can’t do much of anything until the turkey thaws out, and at the risk of insulting anyone by comparing them to frozen poultry, that step reminds me of selecting committee members. It doesn’t make much sense to start the green bean casserole or sweet potatoes at the same time as the turkey, but those are still important elements that can’t be overlooked later on. It helps to jot down a menu or shopping list, just like it helps to record brainstorming ideas and potential source materials for future reference.

While the turkey is smoking (or in the oven, if you prefer), you need to tend to it now and then, even while you are working on other dishes. That’s the step that I feel like I’m at, right now. Over the weekend, I received feedback on Ch. 1 from my committee chair AND feedback on Ch. 2 from my advisor. I’m also working on my first draft of Ch. 3. What all this means is that I need to send revisions on Ch. 1 back to my chair for her approval before sending it to the rest of my committee, as well as send my initial edits on Ch. 2 to her for review. When I’m at a stopping point on Ch. 3, I will send it to my advisor for the first green light (and second-draft revision suggestions) before sending it to my chair for further review. My chair will send feedback on Ch. 2 probably around the time that my advisor responds to Ch. 3.

It very much feels like I have food in the smoker, oven, stovetop and microwave, all at the same time. Here’s hoping that nothing burns or boils over! 🙂

Power Source (Prayer Devotional for the week of October 13, 2013)

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Back in the day when the only thing cell phones did was make calls (Gasp! I know, right?), the kids were given a hand-me-down phone to play with after the owner upgraded to a newer model. The battery had been removed, and it was useless for any practical purpose, but they enjoyed playing make-believe with it. (Come to think of it, my brother and I also used to play telephone make-believe, except we used hairbrushes and bananas, because the one phone in the house was attached to the wall.)

Anyway, the point is that without battery power and a service plan, a mobile phone is worthless. It doesn’t matter how many cool apps you’ve downloaded or how tech-savvy you are; if you have no power, then it might as well be a rotary dial.

Our faith can look a lot like that dead cell phone example, can’t it? Some of us may have received hand-me-down religion from our parents or grandparents, but without a personal connection to the Power source, second-hand faith gets us nowhere. Others of us may have started off our faith-walk on a good foot, but somewhere along the way, our batteries have drained, and we’ve lost reception. Sometimes we hold the phone to our ear and pretend like everything is hunky-dory, but it’s just a façade – and we don’t want others to see through our make-believe.

Acts 1:8 promises that the Holy Spirit will lend his power when we walk with the Lord, but real life doesn’t have a Wi-Fi heads-up display to let us know how in tune we are with God. There is no handy-dandy battery icon to show when we need a spiritual recharge. It’s something that we need to do regularly, like getting in the habit of plugging in your phone before you go to bed each night. If we stay charged by reading God’s Word and having conversation with him in prayer, then when he calls us (pun intended), we’ll be in tune to listen.