Not Always Right

I have a new favorite website.

www.NotAlwaysRight.com

Check it out. It's absolutely hilarious!

A BABY!!!

Gotcha! No, no... we're not having a baby! I just figured if I used that as my post title it might grab someone's eye and make 'em read this ;) I know, that was borderline evil. Sorry!

But "baby" DOES have something to do with this post!! And since you've already opened this post, you might as well finish reading it, right?? As most of you know, I am an avid Ted Dekker fan and I have touted his novels many a time on my blog(s) and will probably do it many more times.

Anyway, he recently wrote a blog that I found interesting and though provoking and wanted to share. You can find the blog and comments in their entirety by clicking here. In the meantime, I am going to copy the post into my post so people who have trouble with links *cough cough MOTHER cough cough* can read it easier :)


The Baby, the whole Baby, nothing but the Baby, so help us God.

SCOURGE OF THE EARTH or compassionate lovers of human kind? Depending on where you live and what your experience is, Christians may be identified as either one, and, much to the chagrin of those who use the label to describe themselves, legitimately so. It all boils down to what you mean by the label ‘Christian.’

Regardless of what we think any particular word should mean, it actually means what society interprets it to mean. Linguistics 101. Like the word gay. I’ve been quoted as saying that I could have once properly been branded the gay author because, although I have always been heterosexual, I once was… well, gay. Twenty years ago the word meant happy. Today it refers to sexual orientation. So although I was once gay, I am no longer gay, not because I’ve changed, but because the understanding of the word in society has changed and it no longer describes what I am.

So it is with the word ‘Christian.’

Jesus summed up his message as follows: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Armed with this simple mandate of love, millions of his followers have forsaken the relative safety and affluence of a comfortable life to extend love and hope to the downtrodden over the centuries. Much could be said to explain how and why Christianity has embodied compassion in a world torn by war, terror, and heartache. It’s all about love, my friend. They may hate you for your love because to the guilty love sometimes feels like salt in a wound, but they will still know that you are Christian by your love.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of many, Christianity is now far better known for much more and much less than love. Not all of the associations are bad, mind you, but they are a far cry from the message of love that ultimately cost Jesus his life. Ask any pedestrian and, depending on where they live, they will tell you who Christians are.

Ask the question in the Middle East and you might be told that Christians are killers whose bombs have killed thousands of innocent bystanders in Iraq; murderers who have brutally killed thousands of Muslims in Lebanon. Christian militia entered the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut in September 1982 where they raped, pillaged and murdered with impunity for three days during what became known as the Shatila massacre. The first suicide bomber in Lebanon was a Christian, blowing up Muslims. The scourge of the Crusaders is still alive in the Middle East. This is what ‘Christian’ means to many in that part of the world.

My father just returned from a town in India where Hindus have killed many Christians over the last 12 months. When he asked the pastors if it was because Christians followed Jesus, they surprised him by say no, it was because Christians means ‘Western values’ to the Hindus. “So then,” my father said, “if you are dying for a term that doesn’t describe you, are you not dying in vain? If Christian means western to them, not follower of Christ, then to call yourself Christian to them is deceitful, is it not? To the Romans, become Roman, the apostle Paul says. Speak their language.”

If you ask a pedestrian in Seattle who Christians are, they will likely tell you that Christians are judgmental, insensitive, hypocrites who are out of touch with reality. Or worse, angry right-wing bigots willing to resort to hate speech and violence to protect their narrow way of life. That they are a political group committed to a particular platform, willing to take up the sword or home-made bombs to enforce that platform.

The last thing that will come to their mind is the concept of sacrificial love or Jesus who showed us that love. Just like the word ‘Gay’ the meaning has changed, like it or not.And it’s not just Lebanon or Seattle. According to a Barna Group poll, only 9% of those outside the church think Christians in America are nice, loving people. What every happened to you shall know them by their love? Throughout most of the world Christianity is simply no longer associated with the core beliefs of sacrificial love that birthed our faith. It has become like a large vessel of dirty bathwater, full of nasty associations and improper human behavior. Newsweek’s April 7th cover story cited the dramatic decline of Christianity in the United States. We live in a post Christian world, many would say. They might be right. And who’s to blame them? No one wants to swim around in dirty bathwater.

But wait a minute. There is more than dirty bathwater in this vessel. There is something precious and live-giving! And there is a rising generation of thinkers who are as eager to protect and cherish that life as they are to throw out the dirty bathwater.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, we say.

It’s interesting that Jesus’ first recorded miracle was turning dirty bathwater (in this case water used to wash dusty feet) into precious wine, a beautiful portrayal of purification. My generation wants that wine back and many are willing—check that, eager—to rid the vessel of the bathwater and replace it with that wine, that truth, that core message of love that Jesus gave his life for.

If Christian means judgmental or bigot to most or even many, than to them we are not Christian. We are neither bigots nor hate-mongers nor killers nor whatever else you might think a Christian might be, we are passionate believers in a person who came with a message of love, and his name was Jesus. Our identity is not stamped with any specific political party or ideology however good or bad it is, but to the man who avoided being identified by any political ideology whenever possible and offered only the sage advice to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.

We are not defined by any specific social agenda, however necessary or good, but by the love that embraces the downcast in need of a helping hand. We do not follow any moral creed invented by man however honorable, nor spit in the faces of those who struggle to put others before themselves however deserving, but we carry the burden of forgiveness and step aside so that he without sin may throw the first stone, if indeed such a man lives.

Our stories are not about pot-lucks and Sunday school playground squabbles, but about that monster called hate and his futile attempts to dash the hopes of the Great Lover. Perhaps you could call us post-Christian Believers, defined solely by the man we follow, not the institution that bears his name.

We believe that our first calling is to love God with all of our hearts and that our second calling is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and for us that is a difficult enough task to waste the rest of our lives on.

We are not partial Christians, not red-letter Christians, not a new kind of Christian, not non-Christian; we are far more and far less than Christian, children of an unfortunate but very real phenomenon that has dirtied our bathwater so now we want out, but out with the baby, please. The baby the whole baby, nothing but the baby, so help us God.

We are many, very many, millions of many. This is the way we roll and we are on the rise.
Does this describe you? Speak here, let your voice be heard. Then visit the poll on the home page.



So that's it. What do you think?

Advanced Cat Yodeling

This is great! If you haven't seen the original, An Engineer's Guide to Cats, you have to go check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXBL6bzAR4

SOLD!

It's almost official... The chick who put an offer in on our house finally accepted our counter. I can't believe we've only been on the market about 2 months and the house, our HOME, is already selling! Wow. We signed the contract today and she's having an inspection done on Monday. We're still showing the house until then, in hopes of that million dollar offer still coming in, but otherwise, we're pretty set. I can't even begin to describe the multitude of emotions I'm dealing with right now, so I won't. I'll spare you all of that torture!

Anyway, now we're on the hunt for tons of moving boxes (if anyone has any that they'd like to give away, we'll GLADLY take them!). We'll start boxing stuff up and then begin the mad dash search for storage. I need to find a pretty inexpensive, yet totally safe place to store our junk for several months. That's a task in and of itself. Oh well, we'll figure out something. Right now, the tentative close date is June 5th, then we'll lease it for 3 days until the 8th to get moved. Yikes. That's like.... 3 weeks. What the heck did we just get ourselves into?!

We're going out Sunday afternoon after church to look at a bunch of homes. The plan right now is to keep just semi-looking like we've been doing for awhile. Honestly, we're basically just trying to get a feel for neighborhoods and see where we might want to end up. If something fabulous come along, of course we'll jump on it, but we're planning on living with my parents for several months to build up a nice down payment so we're not seriously looking right now. That should be interesting! Hopefully while living there, I'll get to pick back up the guitar and various other instruments. Josh wants to learn to play mandolin or something else fun, so hopefully we can accomplish that! (for those who don't know, my parents house is Music Central. Seriously) That, I am soooo looking forward to! I miss the music get togethers at my folks house! Living in Saginaw made it awfully hard to go to them all the time!

In the meantime, I'm sitting here bored, having exhausted the search function on realtor.com. It sucks that I have all this free time, but I can't really utilize it doing stuff I need to do!! I have hundreds of photos to edit from Jenn's bridals the other day, I need to start packing and making phone calls, I need to run errands, I am in the midst of planning a bridal shower with my mom for my cousin... Work is such a waste of time sometimes ;) It gets in the way of actually getting stuff done!!

So I've moved on to looking at floor plans! I am majorly in love with this one:

Here's the bottom floor floor plan to illustrate why I am completely enamored with it... see that porch? See how it wraps almost completely all the way around? Yeah. L.O.V.E.

I also really like these:

I realize they all look very similar. What can I say? I like a certain style!

Alas, these homes will have to stay in my dreams. Unfortunately, most available lots in DFW with a reasonable price tag on them aren't wide enough to fit one of these beauties. I've not given up hope just yet, but most likely, I'll have to save this dream for retirement. If not then.... I wonder if the mansions in Heaven have gorgeous porches like this??

An offer

For those who haven't heard, we got an offer on our house. Not a great offer, but an offer. We're working through all the details and trying to come to an agreement. We countered their offer so hopefully they'll take it. Prayers are greatly appreciated! I am absolutely freaking out. Excited, but majorly freaking out nonetheless.

The Lettered Cottage Giveaway!

If you've never clicked on The Lettered Cottage link on the left hand side of my blog, you really should. Layla is an incredibly talented decorator extraordinaire! Plus, she knows Lacey from Flyleaf, and I grew up knowing Lacey and the rest of the Mosley clan, so that makes Layla extra cool in my book!

Anyway, Layla is graciously giving away a super cute pillow from Hudson Goods on her blog and I admit, I totally want to win it so I'm shamelessly plugging her blog. Not that she needs to do a giveaway to get me to plug her blog though! Heck, that's why I have her linked from my blog! Anyway, here is a link to the giveaway post. Aren't these pillows so cute? I think this firetruck would be precious in a little boy's room.

But, I think I am totally loving this blue star pillow the most. So classic. Plus, even though we're hopefully moving soon (that's another post) I kinda have an Americana theme going in my dining room and think this would look awesome!

So go read Layla's blog. And go check out Hudson Goods. They have super cute stuff, like this awesome lantern!

And this sailboat:

Check it out. And be sure to check out Layla's blog. Girl's got mad skills!

Vacations shouldn't be this much work

I have completely fried my brain trying to figure out this vacation stuff. If I didn't need a vacation before, I DEFINITELY need one now!! And we still haven't figured it out. AHHHH!!! I have been tirelessly putting itineraries and prices together and still coming up with a "not sure" vote from me and Josh both.

Here are the options so far:

Orlando

We'd fly in and drive home (Hertz has an awesome deal right now where if you drive a car out of FL and start the trip by June 30, it's only $24.99 for the entire WEEK!) We'd do Disney for 2 or 3 days, go to the beach for a day, maybe go to NASA. Busy, fun stuff.

Road trip through Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado

On the route I have planned out, we'd go to White Sands Nat'l Monument, the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, and Mesa Verde. It'd be fun, but LOTS of driving... and we probably wouldn't go until August, so it'd be way too hot to camp! (That picture is of the new Skywalk thing at the Grand Canyon... I really highly doubt I will walk on that thing if we go there. Um, scary-much!?)

California

Fly into LA or San Diego then rent a car and drive up the coast to the Redwoods then fly out of San Fran I've ALWAYS wanted to do this, but it could get really pricey between renting the car, flights, and all the awesome stops on the way up. Plus, Josh hasn't been to Cali so it could be really fun! ANDDDD I'd probably get to see one of my college roommates again so that totally adds "cool points" to this option!

Arkansas/Tennessee

One of these. Not sure which or where though. It's close, so it'd probably be cheap. That's why they're on the list. Maybe Hot Springs, or Gatlinburg Tenn. I haven't really thought this one through yet! I just keep thinking I'd be bored. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Hawaii

Yeah, this is a long shot and pretty much way out of the question, but I keep trying to convince Josh that we can fly to Hawaii then camp the entire time. It's only $5 a night to camp at their state parks!!! How freaking awesome would that be!??! And we have a small tent so we could totally pack it in our luggage! I'm still pulling for this one, but I'm fairly certain it's being overruled :) We'd probably have to swim to Hawaii in order to afford getting over there!

Maine

I haven't even looked this one up yet, but I think it'd be fun to fly up and drive around the coast up there. I've been to Maine once and it was gorgeous and I'd love to go back!

Chicago

Also haven't thought much about this one yet. Is there really THAT much to do in Chicago?! It seems like a better weekend trip than a week long trip. Am I wrong? This seems like another option where I might get bored.

Long Beach Island, NJ

Ahhh Long Beach Island, how I love you. If we go this year, we'd likely drive up. I used to drive up as a kid and I'd love to do it again. Ok, technically I didn't do the driving, my dad did, but I was there. Anyway, we created so many awesome memories on those trips! I'm dying to do it again. It's tough when you're a grown up with a regular job and can only take 1 week off at a time though. (My parents were both teachers so we'd easily be gone for an entire month or two in the summer... it was the BEST) So this is maybe an option, but we went their last year. While I could totally go there every single year, I don't think Josh really wants to go again this year!

Those are pretty much our options. Anyone have any recommendations for any of them? Or somewhere else? We just want to get outta town! I'm just so tired of thinking about it! I'm starting to confuse my Travelocity prices with my Priceline prices with my Kayak prices with my... oh you get the point. Everything is starting to run together. I just want to do them all, but sadly, neither of our jobs will let us take off work for a couple months. Darn.

Precautions!

Josh is worried about the swine flu so he's started wearing a mask. I kinda think it looks like a turtle and not a pineapple. Heros in a half shell! (c'mon, someone else out there remembers the theme song, right!??)