Thursday, June 19, 2014

Things I've Learned (nothing original)

  • You can't change people. I mean, really, you can't. 
  • You can only change yourself. 
  • If you don't like something about your life, you can change it. 
  • Unforgiveness is not worth the price, including when you don't forgive yourself. 
  • God typically asks us to wait far longer than we would choose. 
  • If given a choice, I don't believe we would choose to wait on anything. 
  • God's end result is always very different and so much better than what we would have come up with. 
  • Being 30 something is so much better than being 20 something. 
  • You have to show your friends a lot of grace, and they have to show you a lot in return. 
  • People are always more important than power or money or process or plans or programs or agendas. 
  • Everyone has baggage from their past; some have learned to deal with it and put it in its proper place, others are still controlled everyday by it. 
  • The more stuff we have, the more we worry about it. 
  • The best things in life are really the things you can't buy with money. 
  • Life this side of eternity is fragile at best and necessitates clinging onto Something bigger than you are. 
Melrose Abbey

Remembering Scotland part ii

Stonehaven

Stonehaven

Stonehaven

St. Abbs Head

Remembering Scotland

Melrose Abbey

Melrose Abbey

Dryburgh Abbey

Dunottar Castle

Dunottar Castle
Can I please go back?

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Fantasy-land, part 1

(heads up: this is a long post.) 

A few months back the singles' class at church did a short dating series. Although the class was only two weeks long, the discussions and facebook article posts have continued for months, due to the obvious interest in the topic.

The premise of the series was "dating is for the purpose of finding a marriage partner". With that premise, the teacher asked us to name the different qualifications and characteristics we look for in people we date, and potentially marry. After about 20 min, there were 40+ items on the white board. Then the teacher asked which items were biblical, in the sense where you could find a verse that clearly defines them. Only three made the cut: Christian, opposite sex, and not married. (Yes, you could argue that other characteristics such as financially secure, attractive, well educated are also Scripturally substantiated,  but for the purpose of his lesson, he kept the main thing the main thing.)

That evening I had a light-bulb moment: we make fantasy-lands out of Scripture to justify how we live or don't live.

This was the start of another journey of healing -- healing from my past of legalism and "I kissed dating goodbye". I literally kissed dating goodbye when I was about 12 (I was probably more like 16) and basically everything else that went along with that, including marriage. In my defense, I didn't know I was throwing the baby out with the bath water. I really thought I was saving myself for marriage. Saving myself from the situation where if I talked to a guy, it would go too far and we might get pregnant. (I'm only exaggerating sightly.)

What I didn't know is in the process of  kissing dating goodbye, I was locking myself down, emotions, body, communication, and yes, trust in God. The focus was on what not to do, instead of what God was calling me to do. It was fear-based, outcome-based, worse-case-scenario-based.

(In my parents' defense, while we attended this legalistic church and they sent us to all the associated youth conferences, they didn't buy into the movement hook, line, and sinker. My dad, especially, saw the legalism and the thinly supported framework. In fact, they even let us have guy friends! And we didn't even get pregnant when we were out building forts and having Bible studies. Miracle of miracles. But I was a very impressionable pre-teen and teen who consciously and subconsciously absorbed the idea that the only thing I should be kissing was dating as it was headed out the door.)

The "I kissed dating goodbye" movement was a fantasy-land built out of extruded verses of Scripture. I believe its original intent was to honor God, but it's motive was ultimately based in fear: "if I do this, this might happen, so I'm not going to do that". It took the focus off of what God wants from us -- to love Him and to love people -- and put it on how to best protect ourselves from the world. We put the burden of protection on ourselves, instead of trusting God with it.

I say "start of a journey of healing" because I think what we experience as kids, we will always have to deal with as adults; but as healthy adults, we put those experiences in their proper place instead of being controlled by them. They may not ever go away, but they will be in the woodshed out back, instead of taking up residence in the living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms of our lives.

More to come...

Monday, June 2, 2014

721

I don't know why, but I've been thinking a lot about my dad, my biological dad, lately. His AZ Highway Patrol badge number was 721, and I've been seeing that number a lot lately, mostly on my phone at 7:21am and 7:21pm.

I wonder what he would look like now that he would be in his 60s. Would his hair be sandy grey? Would he still love peanut butter? How would his life experiences have shaped his faith and walk with God? What would his friends be like? What would our relationship be like? Would we be close? Would I confide in him? Would I ask him for advice on life and love and hard things? What would it be like to stand next to his 6 foot 7 inch frame? Would I feel small?

When I see 721, I always think of him. I think of him when I hear the verse about "cloud of witnesses" in Hebrews 12. His faith still impacts my faith today: though it was short-lived, it was bright and vibrant and spoken. I wonder if my faith will ever have that same reflection?

Reminders of him are always sweet and sometimes poignant for the reasons above. I sometimes long for eternity, where a lot of these questions will be answered.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Open up my eyes

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
~ Hillsong