Lies about Christians

     Okay, here's the thing: as humans, we love to spread foolish rumors. We believe that ostriches really stick their head in the sand and ignore problems (they definitely do not), lemmings jump off cliffs in groups (they don't), and if you see a piranha while swimming you will likely be eaten (people living around the Amazon river swim with piranhas all the time without injury). We really spread stuff if the rumor is sensational. Right now the rumors are really flying about politicians, but I want to address rumors about Christianity and Christians.

Lie: Christians worship 3 gods.
Fact: Christians worship 1 God. God is triune, meaning he has 3 parts. This is weird and hard to understand and is one of the mysteries of the Christian faith. To say that Jesus Christ is not equal to God the Father is considered heresy; it also means that God himself did not die for our sins if Jesus is some sort of lesser deity.

Lie: Christians or Jews have ever offered human sacrifices to God.
Fact: Nope. Abraham was ASKED to offer his beloved son and heir, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. This sacrifice did not happen, God just wanted to see if Abraham was willing to give up what he loved most in the world for God. What Abraham loved most just happened to be his son. We're also called to love God first and foremost, loving nothing else above him. God intervened because he did NOT want Isaac to die. A ram showed up and Abraham offered that as sacrifice to God. A rumor spread in the centuries after Christ came that Jews kidnap Christian babies to offer as sacrifices. Such a lie!

Lie: Christians condemn unbelievers to hell.
Fact: Each person decides where to go. No person can send anyone else to heaven or hell. God alone is Judge and we each choose whether we want to be with him for eternity or if we'd rather not be with him. We can either say to God "Thy will be done" or He will say to us "Fine, then, have it your way."

Lie: Bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people. So Christians should only have blessings.
Fact: Christianity doesn't believe this; Islam does (obviously replace "Christians" with "Muslims" above). The Bible says the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous and we all get rain too (Matthew 5:45). The idea of karma is not in the Bible. Many a saint lived righteously and yet had way more than their 'fair share' of bad stuff happen. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean that Christians are not blessed, we just expect that pure joy and true happiness are once we are with God, i.e. after death.

Lie: All Christians believe the exact same thing. So we all hate the same stuff and approve of the same things.
Fact: There are basic beliefs that define a person as being Christian, but other stuff is interpreted differently. To be a Christian you must believe in only one God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We acknowledge that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and he died for the sins of all. Another key belief is sincere repentance to God for the sins we commit and acceptance that 'Jesus Christ died even for me'. Just Google "Nicene Creed" to see what Christians must profess. 
     Stuff we differ on can be according to denomination or even person to person: whether tattoos are okay, whether Harry Potter is okay to read, whether abortion is ever okay, if women can be ministers, what's appropriate to wear to church....frankly the list goes on forever. Yes, we argue about these things (*sarcasm ahead* thank you Facebook for making it possible for people to slam me for being "a pagan priestess" conducting "lesbian wedding ceremonies" when I Celebrate Communion *sarcasm over*). 
     You will find Christians who are thrilled that gay marriage is now legal in all 50 states, and Christians who mourned the decision. Just as there are Democrats who disagree with other Democrats and Republicans who fight with Republicans, Christians do disagree on things, though they usually aren't as exciting as the press would have you believe. We disagree on mundane things such as is there only one valid form of baptism or Communion, what are the functions of a deacon, and 'is this hymn the best choice for Easter services?'

What crazy claims have you heard about Christians?

Weird Bible Verses 3

      Deuteronomy 22:5,  "The woman shall not wear that which pertains unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God."

     Remember Louis XIV, the Sun King? That man rocked a skirt, hose, and heels, and it was still obvious that he was a man. This famous painting of him shows it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_XIV_of_France.jpg

Did you notice the long, luscious locks on his head too? Yet we look at him and can tell that this person in the painting is a man.

    Think about what people wore in Jesus' day: a long robe, maybe a sash, and head covering like a long hood. So....kind of like dresses. Men and women. How did people tell the difference? Men always had a beard, and women usually couldn't completely hide the bumps from that secondary sex characteristic that is breasts. 

    This is where the Bible gets misunderstood and or ignored. Women are allowed to wear pants. Men can wear kilts. Women can have short hair. Men can have long hair. The gist of the passage is that you must be able to look at a person and know which gender said person is. 

Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

    This does NOT mean what people think it means. 

     This is one of those verses where we need to look at the entire context, not a verse out of context. A single verse out of context can say something different than that verse within its context. We can edit things to say the opposite of what they really mean (although it can be called slander or libel). For example, if I go on and on about my favorite TV shows, someone listening to me might zone out for a minute and snap back to the conversation when I say "The sexuality is through the roof." What was I referring to when I said that? The person doesn't know, because the entire context isn't known. Same thing here. Look at the entire passage:

        “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be            judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see                  the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own                    eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’                    when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your                own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

    The word hypocrite in verse five is the key to this passage. We are not supposed to judge others for the same sins we are committing, or the same problems we have. If you have an immaculate home (I do NOT) then go ahead and give cleaning advice and organization tips to me. If you live in a pigsty, I'm going to think you're nuts. I had a friend who gave me advice regarding my marriage, and she's never been married. In fact, all of her relationships have been disasters! 

    This is why Alcoholics Anonymous chooses people who have been through alcohol addiction to be sponsors to those beginning treatment. I wrote a sermon I refer to as the Star Wars sermon (though I can't find it to post on my computer). The gist of it is that Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vader has always had anger issues. Remember when he found his mom and he killed that entire community of Tusken Raiders? Yoda and Obi-Wan tried to talk him through his wrath before that happened, and Obi-Wan tried again during the lava scene and quadruple chop of Anakin's limbs. But Luke Skywalker also wrestled with wrath. He worked on it and finally learned to control it so that it didn't spiral out of control, leading him to hurt others. Palpatine even noticed that the Skywalkers were prone to anger, it was a generational sin for that family, for he said of Leia that "She has the Skywalker anger....like her brother....like her father." We also know that Yoda told Luke to beware of anger, fear, and aggression. Because of his own journey of staving off wrath, Luke is qualified to confront his father about his temper. 

    So yes, we are allowed to judge, that is, confront someone about their issue, when it's an issue we have personally wrestled and conquered.

Vatican City

 

     We just went to Italy for vacation. No, my son with autism did not go! He got spoiled by his Mamaw and Papaw (my parents) for a week and a half. We went with another couple.

     Vatican City has been a place I've wanted to go for years, and I finally went! It was a nice day for standing in line in St. Peter's Square. I checked out a gift shop that confirmed I can't afford mosaics, but I did buy a snow globe of Pope Francis in his Popemobile for my son. It lights up and changes colors. He was far more interested in the chocolate I brought back for him.

     St. Peter's Basilica is free, but you have to stand in a line that wraps all the way around the Square. In the meantime there are beggers making their rounds and guys selling selfie sticks. One beggar woman went down the line, holding a cup for coins, bent over at nearly 90 degrees. My friend Ann later saw that same woman cross the Square, pass through some of the pillars, and then stand straight up and go on her merry way. Guess she thought no one was paying attention!

     So we got into the Basilica and it's HUGE. Awe-inspiringly huge. There's a joke that when Pope John Paul II died and went to heaven, he wasn't impressed with heaven because The Vatican is so extravagant, right down to the papal apartments. Pope Francis doesn't live in those fancy-shmancy apartments by the way. If Diana was "the people's princess" then Pope Francis is 'the people's Pope'. The Pope is both head of the Catholic Church and king of Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. Please read this to learn all about the Pope & King thing, it's very interesting: 

http://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/vatican-city-explained

     I love the videos this guy makes, he does a TON of research. He talks really fast in his videos, so I have to watch them a few times each.

     If you watched or read the links above then you know what The Holy See is. Now, I've been in many churches of many denominations, and some of very plain, some are ornate, some feel like a church, some are clearly churches meeting in a strip mall (usually temporarily while they get a building). Here's the catch with St. Peter's Basilica--it doesn't feel like a church. It feels like a museum to the papacy, or a beautiful, historical tour through The Holy See.

     We were all disappointed. 

     Honestly, I nearly had a deeper religious experience with some of the food I ate while in Italy. There was a church in Venice that I had a wonderful time praying at, Chiesa degli Scalzi. Somehow I didn't get any photos of that church though. I took some photos on my iPhone just so I had them so send via Facebook messenger to family members. So here's one of St. Peter's Basicila (the large wooden structure that appears to be at the front is not at the front, there's another 1/4 of the church beyond that!):

     Beautiful mosaic work

     This is Peter, originally named Simon but renamed Peter by Jesus. Peter is considered to be the very first Pope. I thought this was a statue of Jesus at first. Saints are depicted with halos because of their obedience to God and godly lives. This is gorgeous mosaic work!

     The Pieta

     The tour to go to the Sistine Chapel costs about 12 Euro. This shot of looking straight up a door gives an idea the scale of these buildings. I'm 5'4".

     The Sistine Chapel itself felt much more like a church, as it contained artwork depicting Jesus Christ (instead of Popes, like in the Basilica). Photos are not permitted there, and there are several uniformed men who specifically tell you not to take a picture if they see with you with a large, expensive camera around your neck or your cell phone out. They also regularly shush the crowd. This shushing was common in every church we visited. The Sistine Chapel isn't as big as movies and such make it appear to be. The iconic painting of God reaching out His finger to touch Adam, who is mostly reaching back but hesitating, isn't as big as you would think either. The entire ceiling is amazing anyway. I really think those churches should have lounge chairs that lay back so visitors can admire the ceiling without killing our necks. I'd pay a Euro for five minutes laying down just to look! So now pics from the Sistine Chapel, but here's a couple of tapestries along the tour:

So I read a (heartbreaking) story about a baby born with SMA named Avery. At birth her parents were told she had 18 months to live tops. So they made her a bucket list. It included things like 'draw on the walls', 'have a tea party', and 'celebrate my half birthday'. She died at the end of April, just after her half birthday. But it got me thinking: why do we wait until we have an obvious expiration date to decide what we really want to do? We need to start sooner, people! We gotta start while we're young enough and healthy enough to do this stuff. 

So here's what I have so far on my bucket list.

Skydive (tandem jump) May 31, 2014! 
Go to the movies alone (it's a confidence thing) Saw The Hobbit: Battle of the 5 Armies 2/22/15
Get highlights in my hair 7/11/2013 I got copperish-red lowlights  & 5/22/14 highlights!
Go on a hot-air balloon ride (maybe wearing Depends)
Take my son to the beach (June 29, 2012)
Go canoeing or kayaking (as a rower, I was in a canoe as a little girl but don't remember it)
Go to Hawaii or somewhere tropical (with a pound of bug repellent) for vacation
Go to the National Archives (9/28/2012)
Go to the National Cathedral
Go to the Jefferson, Washington, and Lincoln monuments(9/28/2012)
Go to the Holocaust museum (9/27/1012)
Tour the White House (10/2/2012)
Go to Italy (scheduled for March, 2015!!) Went March 8th-16th, 2015
Go to Germany and see Schloss Neuschwannstein (that's the castle on which they based Sleeping Beauty's castle)
Shoot a handgun at a shooting range (August 15, 2013)
Learn how to climb a tree (this is influenced by the Hunger Games books)
Do archery again (
Make my own clotted cream (because homemade whipped cream is NOT the same thing)
Paint a room (May 28, 2012)
Jog a mile
Get a facial (9/7/2012)
Plant a tree
Have a garden that doesn't consist of weeds
Take dance lessons (like ballroom)
Do a backbend and/or the splits (I have this thing about being somewhat in shape)
Buy a lottery ticket (won $5 today on my annual birthday lottery ticket!--May 28, 2012) (Won $25 on my 32nd birthday ticket 5/28/2013)
Learn about spiders and snakes (because knowledge is power and they both scare the dickens outta me)
Polar Bear Plunge! January 4, 2014, the ocean was 40 degrees!
Solve a Rubik's cube (April 18th, 2015)

I know I will continue to add to this list (because as of today, I'm only 31) as I cross things off and think of new stuff and my tastes change. The list consists of things that are huge deal things and more mundane stuff, obviously, because marking little things off the list helps me feel I'm accomplishing things. Whenever I make a to-do list I like to include ridiculously easy things or even something I've already done, just for the satisfaction of crossing that item off the list. It's like building up momentum.

So here I go.

Another Bucket List Update

So I've marked several items off my bucket list so far this year, though not as many as I would like since some of them are smaller items. The slightly mundane things like having a garden that isn't weeds or making my own clotted cream haven't happened yet, but I've done some interesting things!


I went skydiving as my birthday gift to myself (as adults get to do that). I got photos and video, and they are not cheap! The instructors wear a camera and recorder on a special glove. They're used to aiming it and posing. After my class, which lasted about half an hour, we saw video of a guy who had just jumped. He had gages in his ears, big ones, and he had to take them out to jump. So in his video his ears are flapping around in the wind, which was hilarious. You have to sign several forms and even write out a paragraph saying you understand you could potentially die.

So here I am in my harness, which means I'll be on the next plane to go up.

I chose a height of 10,000 feet, which was the lowest option. The other options are 15,000 and 18,000. I would do it again! But next time I would wear a jumpsuit, as I was so cold that my freezing hands and arms took the focus away during my free-fall. Speaking of which, here's a picture of my 35-second free-fall. I'm all derpy, but so is Andres, my instructor. I'm making Spock's Live Long and Prosper gesture here. Everyone else gives a thumbs-up, so I had to geek outside the box.

When you fall out of the plane (you don't really jump), you have to put the back of your head on the shoulder of the instructor. Between that and getting the harness on and off, it's like a third date, LOL. Another guy, a stranger, was also on the plane with his instructor, and he said it was scary because one second I was sitting by the door and the next I was gone! The planes are little Cessnas. They only hold four people and the pilot. There are seatbelts on the floor and you buckle in for the ascent. But then the instructors unbuckle you and attach your harness to theirs. I was right next to the door, and it was very cold and very loud once Andres threw it open. I was told to put my feet on a little step on the outside of the plane. I was still reaching for it with the leg furthest from it when Andres pulled my head back and we were falling!!! But with my head back I wasn't watching the ground. We were so high up that there was no sensation of the ground rushing toward us as everything was too small. 

And here we are once the parachute has opened. We spent five minutes or so floating around, and I got to drive the parachute for a bit. 

Most injuries happen during the landing, and they consist of an ankle sprain. I didn't sprain my ankle though, but we fell on our butts. You have to pick up your legs until the instructor tells you to put them down. There are other people waiting on the ground for you, and they grab your chute and direct you to a 15-passenger van with the seats out. The interior of the van was bigger than the interior of the plane! 

I would do it again. I suspect if I had been ready to go out of the plane I would have been more aware and maybe more scared. As it was, it seemed like my brain was still on the plane for at least half of the free-fall. 

I'm Ready For My Closeup!

      Today I read a blog post by a mother who has one son and one daughter. The daughter is four and takes dance. During the photo session, the little girl was dismayed to see that the other little girls were each wearing a face full of makeup. Her own sweet little face was wearing very minimal makeup, including glittery pink lipgloss. Looking at the other girls, she told her mother, "I'm not beautiful." 

     Of course, her mother immediately told her that she is beautiful. But the little girl was doubtful. To her, the made-up faces of those other little girls had become the standard of beauty for that photo shoot. It wasn't that she felt less beautiful, she felt she wasn't beautiful at all. This is the cost of comparison.

    Grown women do it too, except we can buy makeup and use Pinterest to learn how to apply it. We have beauty procedures as minor as facials or extreme as cosmetic surgery. Many of us look at Kim Kardashian's face full of makeup and wish we could look so beautiful all the time. But we also look at pictures of celebrities or we see women we know who don't wear makeup, and they look beautiful! Yet the media likes to print pictures of celebrities sans makeup just to show the contrast and convey the shock that a woman would go out in public without first performing her full beauty routine.

    There's a three-fold problem here. First, we compare ourselves to other women and think "That woman is beautiful, so I'm not, because I don't look like her." Second, we look in the mirror or at photos of ourselves and see our face with makeup and without makeup, and we prefer the made up face. Third, society teaches women and girls that our value lies within our external beauty, so we owe it to society to be beautiful. 

    I used to fall for that first trap. I looked at pictures of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Rachel Weisz and their dark brown hair was much silkier than my blonde frizzy curls. Their dark eyes appeared soulful and mysterious, while my blue eyes appeared plain. They had smooth skin and lovely complexions but I sported acne and peach fuzz. Society says that long hair is always superior to short hair, so I felt ugly when my hair was above my shoulders. Most men prefer long hair on women, according to polls, but I've also noticed that the longer my hair, the more often I am sexually harassed. 

    

    The thing is, we need to teach everyone that another person's beauty isn't dependent on someone else's ugliness. We just had the winter Olympics, and obviously the athletes who left the Games without a gold medal do not automatically suck at their sport and life in general. 

    I admit it, I prefer my face with makeup. It evens out my uneven skin tone, hides blemishes, accentuates my eyes,  and gives my lips healthy brilliance. It's a pain that I have to haul all my makeup on overnight trips and to the gym though, as well as makeup remover. I could be ready a little sooner if I didn't apply makeup. I used to have longer, thicker eyelashes, but sleeping in mascara every once in a while has damaged them! 

    How ridiculous is it that the the things we do to make ourselves look better make us look worse?!

    The whole point of makeup is to accentuate what we already have but it can become an addiction. I like to think I'm not addicted to makeup. I once gave it up for Lent! I don't like the way I look with a 'smokey eye' or lipstick that's more than two shades off my natural lipcolor, but I still wear it to go out. Sometimes I pick up my son from school without makeup on, but that's because I'm just outside with sunglasses on for only two minutes. We start with lipgloss in 6th grade, and every year we add another type of makeup to our routine until it takes us a long time to get ready and we browse Pinterest for ways to organize our beauty hoard. 

    We do NOT owe it to society to look like a Victoria's Secret model. We have value that lies largely unnoticed because we are busy wishing we looked like Miranda Kerr. I hear high school boys say things like "jeez, those girls are ugly! Where are the hot girls today?" When a beautiful woman speaks we want to silence her. Honestly, I think Megan Fox is gorgeous but man she can't act. She has value beyond her looks but she really hasn't found it yet. She has a soul and a brain and she's capable of great kindness, speaking up for the downtrodden, and promoting good will.

    But society isn't always kind to women who don't doll up either. We make fun of women like Hillary Clinton, saying she must have balls. I can't stand the pagan, pantheistic nonsense that the Rev'd Katherine Jefferts Schori spouts, but more often than not she is attacked by conservatives for 'looking like a dude'. Oh my gosh, seriously???

    I read about a youth group activity this past week that's about inner beauty. Frankly, that subject is another blog. But I will say this to close: inner beauty shows up on the outside. I know several gorgeous women who don't wear much makeup or any at all. They have kind eyes, genuine smiles, they laugh cheerfully. They speak kind words of truth, they support other people, and they are wonderful at communicating. These women pray, read, write, encourage, exhort, and they have known and faced and come through brokenness. They are better than cut diamonds, polished and set with other beautiful, precious stones. 

Bucket List Booyah!

Another item marked off my bucket list: the polar bear plunge!! Did this in Ocean City, Maryland and the water was 40 degrees F.

We spent a grand total of 3 seconds in the ocean (got in up to waist level and hit by a wave). We were screaming the entire time! Then we hoofed it back into the hotel and into the heated swimming pool.

Also note my lovely Vera Bradley beach towel ;)