Today was the last day I had to study and prepare for my economics midterm tomorrow morning at 8am. It will be my first midterm here at Berkeley. After computer science at 3-4pm, I went to the main stacks and studied there with people until 11pm. In the middle, a few of us went and got some dinner.

In the morning, Joseph's dad drove over from Davis to give him a haircut and take passport pictures. Their camera didn't have any power, so I used mine and took pictures for them.

This morning I went into Sean's room to look for something. While I was in there, I noticed that he was sleeping with one of his eyes open. Moreover, the eye that was open was moving around like the eye of Sauron. I took my camera and got some video of it. As I was filming, I whispered "sean" repeatedly, and his eyes opened even more and became even more active, but he still didn't wake up.

When we finally woke up, he told me that he was having a dream about being captured by something like the CIA. They took him into an interrogation room and someone said "Pryor, Richard" over the intercom, and then I appeared and whispered his name while pointing a camera at him.

It's crazy that I was able to get into his dream.

There's a fly flying in a figure eight holding patten in our living room... Its been at it for a really long time. I'm sitting here on our couch studying.

Devotion time questions:

Nehemiah 3

Reflect upon the fact that the rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall was done by men and women of all backgrounds, even goldsmiths, priests, merchants, and perfume-makers. How does this capture the essence of the local church?

The church is one body under Christ the head, and all the members of the body have different properties and gifts, but function towards the common goal of serving the head.

For all but a few, the task of rebuilding the wall was unfamiliar work, outside of their normal range of skills. What does this reveal about what it takes to build God’s kingdom? How willing and available am I to doing whatever task is necessary to further God’s kingdom regardless of whether I feel comfortable doing such tasks, or whether it’s something I am already good at?

God doesn't always call us to do what we think we're best at doing, but what he deems necessary for us to do at any given time. Many times, we may be asked to step our of our comfort zone to serve.

Why might the nobles of Tekoa have “not put their shoulders to the work” of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem? What is truly “noble”?

Perhaps the nobles were too prideful to subject themselves to manual labor for God's work. Therefore, "noble" is purely a status here. However, what was truly noble was all the other high and low class men and women who offered their entire strength in helping rebuild.

How does the nobles’ prideful behavior contrast with the description in the rest of the chapter?

While the other men and women selflessly helped rebuild, focusing only on the task that needed to be done for God, the nobles were more focused on their own pride and self-image.

Notice that it was the practice in general to have families repair the section of the wall near their house. What is the wisdom of this? What does this reveal about Nehemiah as a wise administrator, and the place of common-sense wisdom in doing God’s work?

Nehemiah was shrewed in a positive and wise way. By making each family repair the section near their house, he would ensure the best repairs done on each section of the wall, since no family would be satisfied with living near a poorly repaired section of Jerusalem's wall.

Eliashib, as the high priest, was a man with a revered title and role among the people, and could have easily gotten out of the work. Yet, he is listed first organizing his fellow priests to rebuild the Sheep Gate, through which the sheep for the sacrifices at the temple would be brought in. What impact would this have had on the priests, and the rest of the people working on the wall?

The rest of the people would be encouraged to see the priests join in the same work they themselves were doing, while the other priests would be encouraged to see Eliashib focus on the section of the wall that benefits the community and God.

Notice that though the general practice was to have families repair the section of the wall near their house, Eliashib left that most personally vital part of the wall to lead the work on the section near the Sheep Gate, and others—Baruch and Meremoth—worked on the wall near Eliashib’s house. What lessons about spiritual leadership and community does this picture reveal?

Spiritual leaders need to live their lives accordingly, interested more in serving God and the community under them than in serving their own interests.