My Easter Prayer

Thank you, God, for sending your Son to die for me and save me from my sin.  Thank you, Jesus, for the sacrifice you made on my behalf.  I could not earn it nor ever deserve it.  Not only did you give your life for me, but you rose from the grave, defeating death and promising me eternal life.  Thank you. 

 

You’ve given me the authority to tell Satan to kiss my ass, which is exactly what I tell him every day.  I’ve already won the battle because of You, and I am eternally grateful. 

Thank you for loving me.  Happy Easter.  ~

An Easier Easter

Easter is such a fun holiday, though I wish it didn’t fall on a Sunday. 

The problem with holidays that fall on a Sunday is that it hinders people from being able to travel and celebrate with their families.  It forces people to have to take Monday off of work, and not everyone can do that.  It also means kids have to miss school on Monday and not everyone can do that either.  For those who have family local, it still puts a damper on the festivities because there is constant time awareness, knowing you have to get the kids home and to bed at a decent hour for school the next day. 

I think we should officially move the Easter celebration to Saturday…that way people can travel easier without missing work or school; and the party doesn’t have to stop at any particular time. 

We could go straight from Good Friday to Easter without the extra day in between.  Now, I know I’ve probably just offended some of my super-duper-religious friends, who feel we should keep the time authentic.  Jesus died on Good Friday and rose from the grave on the following Sunday; therefore we should celebrate on the day of His resurrection. 

Forgive me…but I don’t think God cares what day on which we celebrate, as long as we recognize the true meaning of Easter and honor He and His Son for the gracious gift of salvation.  (Which, honestly, we should be recognizing all year long anyway.) 

The way I see it, we’re not re-arranging God’s schedule, just the Easter Bunny’s... and I don't think he cares either. ~

 

Can I Get an AMEN up In Here?!

I overheard a conversation the other day between two women.  One was having difficulty dealing with daily life.  If I could break down all she shared into the simplest form, I would say she was feeling overwhelmed.  There were no major issues of illness, adultery or murder.  No one robbed a bank, got arrested or assaulted anyone else.  She was simply expressing the exhausting trials associated with juggling parenting, marriage and a career.

There were moments during their conversation when she cried, and my heart wept with empathy for her.  We’ve all been there.  In fact, I live there.  No matter how blessed we are, there are still days when we wonder how we’re going to get through….how we’re going to get it all done…and we feel like we just can’t handle one more thing.  It's those "calgon, take me away" moments.

 

 

As they talked and I eavesdropped, I had to force myself to bite my tongue and resist the temptation to barge into their conversation.  The friend, instead of just listening, took it upon herself to seize the moment for preaching.  She reminded her teary-eyed friend that the Bible tells us to do all things without complaining or grumbling or getting angry or being bitter and upset.  The tears that had pooled in the woman’s eyes now ran down her cheeks as the friend continued.  “Jesus tells us to be holy and seek perfection and to practice self-control…”

This went on for quite some time with the friend quoting Scripture and it took all of my strength not to leap to my feet and yell, “Shut-up!  You hypocritical bimbo!”  That’s what I was yelling inside my head.  Now, I don’t really know if this woman is a hypocrite or a bimbo, but those were the words that popped into my mind.

See, I can’t stand people like her.  I don’t have any close girlfriends who respond this way, and that’s a purposeful decision on my part.  There’s an uppity class of Christians who believe in holding one another accountable before the Lord… and even though the idea of this is Biblical…the method with which they carry it out is not.  I don’t associate with this kind of Christian for this very reason.

I believe God is way more concerned with us uplifting one another than holding one another "accountable."  I believe our main job is to love one another and not to judge.  The woman who got on her preachy high-horse in an attempt to help hold her friend accountable to God’s principals of Christianity, made her feel judged instead of loved.

This, quite frankly, pisses me off, and makes me want to tell every upity, know-it-all Christian what they can go kiss...

 

 

Jesus said, “Faith. Hope and Love; but the greatest of these is Love.”  When a girlfriend is crying, love doesn’t tell her she shouldn’t be bitter or angry or grumble.  Love says, “Cry it out.  I’m here.  I understand.  Life sucks sometimes.”

When a girlfriend is overworked and overwhelmed and feeling that she just can’t do one more thing, love doesn’t tell her she should seek perfection and strive for self-control.  Love says, “Can I help you?  Let me take the kids for a while and give you guys a date night.  Let's go have a coffee and whine a little.” (or wine a little!) 

Love listens…it does not preach…and it never judges.

Christianity is defined as having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” because it is just that:  PERSONAL.  That means it’s between God and you…no one else.  No one else has the right to preach to you or at you or judge you, not even when they are judging you with fundamental, Biblical principles.  Those principles are there for you to hold yourself accountable and for God to hold you accountable.  He doesn’t use them to judge you so what gives anyone else the right?  God uses those principles to help you grow and learn and become all that He has made you to be.  He doesn’t use them against you to beat you up or tear you down.  Only elitist Christians riding around on high-horses do that…and shame on them!

Can I get a frickin’ Amen up in here?!

 

 

   

Notable and Quotable

Today I am going to quote some people I respect.  Some of them I don’t even know as they are writers and philosophers from long ago, others are merely friends in the virtual world of Facebook or Twitter, and some are close and personal.  Each of these quotes are meaningful to me, as I have found them applicable throughout my life.

 

“You don’t have a soul, you are a soul.  You have a body.”

I heard this was said by C.S. Lewis and then I’ve also read that he was not the original, but had quoted it from someone else.  Regardless who said it first, I love this quote because it reminds me that life isn’t about the exterior, but the interior.  Beauty is on the inside and radiates outwardly.  Love, faith, truth, hope …. they are all attributes of the soul, not the body.  Sure, the physical realm is important and there needs to be balance between the external and the internal; but the true purpose of every person lies within.

 

“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” ~Oscar Wilde

This is such simple advice and yet, at times, so difficult to live.  It is hard, particularly for the youth of today, as they are seeking validation, acceptance and a sense of belonging in what can feel like an overwhelming world of deception and chaos.  Conformity doesn’t equal true belonging, but this is a lesson that often stems from a long learning process.  For some, the process lasts a lifetime.  Loving oneself is often the most difficult task.  Accepting oneself, especially when you appear or feel “different” from everyone around you, can be daunting.  But, I believe it is important to realize that God created you exactly as you are and you have a purpose in life; one you can’t fulfill by conforming and becoming something you were not made to be.  True belonging starts by accepting yourself.

 

"Nothing is impossible. The very word itself says I'm Possible." ~Audrey Hepburn

LOVE this quote!  It was said by a woman oozing with class and elegance. What’s more… I believe it.  Nothing is impossible because with God “all things are possible.” (Luke 18:27)  Despite the odds, miracles happen.  Statistically impossible things happen.  Your dream, whatever it may be, IS possible, even when it looks grim.  I hold onto this every day.  I clutch it, cling to it and never let it go.  The world will beat you down unless you stand on a foundation of faith; and there is no greater faith than to look into a world of doubt and say, “Nothing is impossible.”

"If you're going to walk on thin ice you may as well dance!"

Story of my life.  I’ve done some stupid things… some crazy things…some things I hope my children never do.  BUT… I can honestly look back at my life and say I’ve had fun.  I’ve played hard, laughed until my sides hurt, cried so hard I’ve thrown up, loved and even hated.  I’ve pulled people close, pushed people away, hidden in sorrow and been exposed.  I’ve sinned, I’ve triumphed, I’ve hit my knees, writhed in agony, screamed in ecstasy and thrown my share of punches.  I’ve been selfish and selfless, I’ve been used, I’ve been cherished, I’ve been jealous and broken; and I wouldn’t trade any of it.  Every up had a down and every down taught me the lesson which gave me the strength and the wisdom for the next up.

Perhaps there was a time when one could play life safe, but I think those days are gone.  Our world today is reckless and scary.  You can’t go to a movie without thinking about a gunman coming in.  You can’t send your kids to school without thinking about children being massacred.  One might say we are all living on thin ice….that our very existence is on thin ice…  and if it is then isn’t that more of a reason to enjoy every moment?  

 

"If you're judging someone you're too busy to love them." ~Mother Theresa

This is one of my hot buttons.  Jesus told us not to judge other people, and that’s good enough for me.  When I look back at all of my mistakes, all of my flaws and wrongdoings, I think to myself, “Who am I to judge anyone?”  I’m the greatest sinner of them all.  I’m from a generation that loved sex, drugs and rock-n-roll and guess what?  I still love all three.  The point is, truly loving someone means I’m not going to judge them and what’s more, I’m not going to try to change them. 

There are Christians that proclaim to be non-judgmental, yet they actively pursue people in order to “save them from their sin.”  Homosexuals often endure this un-spoken condemnation.  I have seen and heard this many times and it repulses me.  Because the Bible says that God doesn’t like homosexuality, some Christians take this as license to condemn and try to change the homosexual person; all the while arrogantly proclaiming how they have been gracious enough to accept this homosexual into their life.  This is not love.  This is judgment.

“I have homosexual friends, and I pray for them.”  I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard a fellow Christian utter this sentence.  It’s really repulsive and what’s more, it’s a form of condemnation and judgment. 

If a person is non-judgmental it means that they do not distinguish one individual from another based on external factors.  We’ve all heard the expression “love is blind.”  What that means is that truly loving someone gives you the ability to become blind to the external, unimportant things and to see and accept who they are on the inside.  It means it doesn’t matter whether someone is homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual or metrosexual.  The color of their skin, their nationality and their religion don’t matter.  True love is when you realize everyone is equal and on the same level in God’s eyes.

As a Christian, your job is to love people, not analyze what you deem as sin in their life, try to change it and silently reward yourself for being so gracious as to “accept them anyway.”

Everyone has sin in their life.  

  

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." ~Dr.Seuss

It’s hard when good things come to an end, but I think it is important to take the goodness and the lesson from each experience and hold onto it.  Be thankful you had the opportunity to participate in something wonderful or get to know someone wonderful.  If you cherish those memories they will forever make you smile.

 

“Faith. Hope and Love; but the greatest of these is love.”  ~ Jesus

Self-explanatory.

 

“The greatest danger facing the Church today comes not from outside the Church but from within it, from people who are too eagerly twisting millennial expectations and the radicalism of youth to their own twisted ends.”

If you are involved in a group that alienates you from your family or your friends, that financially isolates you, that robs you of your individual identity, that looks down upon you for questioning and even punishes you for what they deem as disobedience, you could be in a dangerous situation.  Seek help.    

“Stay close to your friends. Stay close to your family. Stay grounded in the truth.”

Missing the Point

I posted this photo to Facebook last night and then stepped away from my computer to get the kids ready for bed.  As one friend put it,   “That was like dropping a water balloon off of a building and then not waiting around to see who got soaked.”  He was right.  By the time I sat back down in front of my computer, a heated debate had erupted all over my wall. 

What instantly struck me was the fact that most of the people completely missed the point of the picture.  The point was NOT to condone, condemn nor debate homosexuality; the point was that bigotry is an act of hatefulness, one clearly depicted in the images of the adults and children holding signs.  The point is bigotry in any form is wrong.

Many people quoted Scripture which was focused on homosexuality; again, not the point of the picture.  The picture is making a comparison between acts of love and acts of hate.  No matter how you personally feel about homosexuality, you don’t have the right to judge other people.  Bigotry comes in many forms.  It can be against color, race, religion, sexual preference, etc.  Bigotry in all forms is simply a cowardly act of spreading hatred.   It is not an action of love.

 

No one holds a sign up that reads:  “God hates you,” as an act of love.  No one holds a sign up that reads:  “God hates Fags,” as an act of love.  Jesus didn’t and wouldn’t act this way; nor should His followers.

Ironically, a passage of Scripture that was not quoted in the debate was Mark 12:28-33.  It reads like this:

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

³² “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³ To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Last I checked, loving your neighbor didn’t mean shoving a sign in their face that says God hates them or that they are going to hell.  

Again, the above picture was not about whether you think homosexuality is right or wrong; it is about bigotry being wrong.

“Faith, hope and love…but the greatest of these is love.”  I Corinthians 13:13

F A I T H

The other day someone asked me to define my faith.  At first I thought, "Wow, that's a tall order!"   But the more I thought about it, it became clear to me that the answer was really quite simple.  My faith doesn't hinge on hoping God will, but on knowing He can.  My faith is believing in the unseen, the untouched, and the unheard.  My faith isn't connected to a particular religion, it's housed in my relationship with God.  I trust Him in all things because I believe that from Him came all things.  ~