Have a little Season's Reasoning!

This was written on Dec. 22nd 2010; it was something I wanted to share.


I had a beautiful drive down the coast this morning to see my doctor. Along the road I normally take is a home that has a billboard. It normally proclaims that he's ordained to do marriages or during a political season, you'll see his extreme right views. Today his board read: "It is NOT Xmas! Keep Christ in Christmas."



WOW! Thanks for that. It makes me laugh because here is an extremely religious person, protesting a religious abbreviation. People like this see it as offensive to say Xmas, but they don't even know where the term comes from! The "-mas" part is from the Latin-derived Old English word for "mass", while the "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word translated as "Christ".



I find it amusing, but it's not the secularism of Christmas that I object to, after all it was originally a pagan holiday. I find issue with the commercialism of the season; Stores packed with Christmas items before thanksgiving, the rudeness of shoppers trying to get the best deal, and the massive amounts of money spent on gifts and food.



I try to focus on loving people and instilling kindness into my kids. We like to have fun and celebrate the holiday for what it is. We spend the time making home made crafts and cooking. I love Christmas/Xmas/Winter solstice/Hanukkah. I love to decorate and enjoy some of the music.



My advice this season? Love each other and enjoy the time spent together, everything else is just stuff.



MERRY XMAS!

Feeling down and out

Why do we feel such lows? Is there a reason and a purpose behind them? Do they help us grow? Do they help us appreciate the good moments?

There's no hard or fast answer for this. Tho I'll admit that sometimes I'm looking for that quick easy answer.

Christianity will tell you that there's something wrong with you if you are depressed. Well meaning people will tell you that if you are feeling poorly about yourself or your circumstances, then there's something wrong with your faith. I disagree. See, I don't think faith is a matter of will power; something we "drum up" inside of us. I believe our faith comes from a limitless outer source. So if our faith comes from someone else, how can our feelings be a result of a lack of it? Simply, they can't.

See, as human beings we were created with a unique set of emotions/feelings. Not all of them are pleasant, but none of them are bad. There are institutions (religious or psychological) that will tell you feelings like anger, depression, disappointment, etc are bad or that you need to "deal" with those emotions (by which they almost always mean obliterate or stuff them). I say feel your feelings; they were given to you for a reason.

There are no easy answers in life, in fact I enjoy questions now more than ever. I don't have to know why. And nothing is ever JUST black and white. So if you're feeling a little grey...that's alright. The sun will come out sooner or later and if you're feeling something; you can be thankful you're alive to feel it.

The Amazing Truth Treasure Hunt

My kids love Indiana Jones. I decided to take that love and make it real for them. I drafted a letter from Indy which held a request for their help. It contained a message that they had to first decipher and a map that would lead them around our property. It was a thrilling moment for them. They hurriedly decoded the clues and their eyes lit up when they realized the map was of the woods in our back yard. They had a passion for their new mission. Counting steps as they paced through the trails, they quickly found the area they needed to search. It didn't take long for one of them to hold up their treasure -- The Silver Apple of Sardis. (Picture an apple encased in tin foil) The joy and the excitement of this treasure hunt has stayed with me.

Just like my kids I get excited about treasure hunts, but these days I am motivated by hunting for truth. A lot of times it's an accidental find and that makes it precious to me. I read many things on Facebook that friends of mine write and through comments and discussion I stumble onto truths.

The question of HOW I know things to be true comes to mind. I know people ask it often. "By what authority?" The answer is simple, the spirit within me KNOWS. You can call that spirit whatever you want, but I know it is there and it guides me. I believe that spirit IS truth. I'm human, I make mistakes, but I do know how to listen. Other people will say that you can't listen to your heart; that it will lead you astray, but I disagree. That voice inside is worth listening to.

I was reading a post about Buddha and the things he stood for and taught. There was much debate from several angles but I don't think the debate matters. It doesn't have to have the name of some religion stamped on it to be true. Buddha taught some amazing, true things. He talked about a spirit at the core of everything. Whether Buddha conceded that the spirit he talked about was God or not. Does it change the truth? What is the glue that holds everything together? Call it God, call it spirit, call it a complex chemical process -- it does not change what IS. And truth can be found in part or whole. You can agree with one statement and disagree with another...no one said everything Buddha taught was correct. But he did teach a lot of true things.

I encourage people to read and learn for themselves. You will find truth.
I think the spirit of God is so amazing because he's planted truth in the most interesting places, just waiting for us to find it! It's just like an amazing truth treasure hunt!

Confessions of a former Wesley-Bapti-Costal

Because we are approaching the “sacred” holiday which marks the 2 year anniversary of my release from guilt, I find myself pondering my past and the path which brought me to where I am now.
I was raised in a home where religion/hypocrisy reigned supreme. We were at our local church every time the doors were open. My father was involved in the hierarchy of the church and my mother served as secretary/treasurer of different ministries. At home my mother was a doormat to a lunatic adulterer and my father was an abusive masochist. But at church, everything was happy and shiny. I’ll never forget black eyes, beatings, and my Father’s Layman of the Year award. I learned that double standard and practiced it well. As youth group president, I partied and did all sorts of things a good girl DOESN’T do. Is it any wonder I despise this human condition?
As an adult, I “came to my senses” and attempted to be what the church said God wanted me to be. Isn’t that asinine? To listen to a middleman instead of going right to the source? I helped in every ministry I could find and became a “good girl”. So why didn’t I feel any closer to God? Why did I feel even further from him? Maybe it was because I was taking someone else’s cues again and not his. When we decided to step down from our membership at our church it was at God’s leading. Of course it really was my compromise with God. He was telling us to leave altogether but I couldn’t fathom that. Once we were grilled and belittled by our pastor and his wife and then treated with so much disrespect and distain from people we thought were our friends, we decided to not return. And for me that first missed Sunday had to be Easter. Because there are 2 days that even people who don’t go to church, go to church: Christmas and Easter. I needed to make that harsh break with tradition (I heard someone once say that tradition is French for boring).
And it seems to me that if you are living your life with an all consuming love for others, why do you want to exalt several days over the others? Love should be a 365 celebration. (It’s why I cook for others. It’s my way of loving random people.) But celebrating Easter is silly. It is a conversion of the Jewish Passover and again that is another tradition. I don’t mean that I don’t like traditions or that holidays are somehow evil. I simply wish to know where these traditions come from and then choose to celebrate them for fun or nothing. Saying that these days are special, more holy than others, is just attaching God to a holiday. It’s like trapping the wind in a box. It’s silly.
I find the harder you try to reach God, the further away you get. Is there a lesson in the tower of Babel? Yes, but of course in Christianity that is exactly what you are supposed to do. You must work hard. You must build. There’s a to-do-list or check list of things you have to do to be close to God. And you are often judged by the things you don’t get done or are not doing. Is there something bad happening in your life?? How’s your prayer life? Are you doing daily devotions? This kind of reasoning is ignorant at best. I heard a “joke” once that a man asked a stranger to hold a ladder for him so that he could reach God. Another person came by and asked the man holding the ladder what was happening. He smiled and replied, “He’s looking for me.” I believe in a God within us and around us. He’s closer than our next breath and not high in the heavens judging us or waiting to zap us.
If you disagree that’s fine. I just have a hard time following rules my God did NOT create. Call me a heretic or a sad lost soul, but I may not hear you…I’m busy dancing to the tune of love.

The face of Love

For those of you who don't know Johnny and Kate Brooks, I'd love for you to "meet" them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5_DfFu_yE4&feature=channel

http://www.afutureandahope.net/

They gave up everything to go to Kenya and take care of orphans! They are not supported by any religious organization. Their funding comes from word of mouth.
This is LOVE in a very real and tangible way.

A Quote from their site:

"We believe in order to give orphans a future and a hope, they need a ‘Mom and Dad’ to love them and encourage them through the ups and downs of life. Our personal home, aka A Future and a Hope Headquarters, has 8 orphan girls in it. We live together and function as a family.
We bring a Future and a Hope to more than just orphans. We live out our faith by taking care of ‘the least of these’ here in Kenya by feeding the hungry, bringing medicines to the sick, clothing the naked, or just by being a friend to the unwanted."


What they are doing just makes my heart sing!