Well, I'm trying to wake up early and be a morning person. Trying. I
used to be so good at this, and then I started working at FBC. We like
late nights, late mornings...I like my sleep. So I'm making a new goal.
Despite skepticism, I've woken
up before 7:30 the past 3 mornings! What!? And be impressed, because
this goal was set to start on my birthday (yesterday), but I actually started waking
up early the day before. Now, Friday was a surprise, as I intended to
sleep in. But a certain little brother who needed a ride had other
plans. I ended up reading a whole book with all the extra time I had
while I wasn't sleeping in. It was quite nice.
I
woke up at 7:30 on my own Saturday, and then had to get ready to meet
someone for coffee and a wedding shower. So that wasn't half bad. I will
say, I was falling asleep by about 10:30 last night though. We party
hard here.
This morning, I woke up at 6:15 and ran to
Walmart. I meant to go last night but torrential rains prevented it. So I
woke up early. Slowly but surely I'll be a morning person.
This is what I learned at 6:30 at Walmart:
1. No one is at Frisco's Walmart that early...
2. The sunrise happens if you get up early enough to see it. (:
3.
People are way happier early in the morning! I had pleasant
conversations with about four people who were either working or just out
doing the same thing I was. And they were FRIENDLY. In my pre-coffee
state, I wasn't sure I could formulate any real words, but it was as if
we all shared a bond because we were up and out before 7. Walmart man,
it's the place to make friends!
4. By 4:30 I was in much need of a short nap! So that's what I did in the lovely porch sun...until my dog stepped on my face...classic.
In
all seriousness, it is worth thinking about. The people I encountered
early in the morning were almost friendlier and more open to a
conversation than many other people I encountered throughout the rest of
my day. Is it that they realize that being awake allows you to savor
more of the day? Do they spend more time filling with the moments the
Lord gives them? Does it allow more time to breathe in a day, as opposed
to just rushing through?
Tales From Life in the City
This Small Town College Girl's Post-Grad Adventures In The Big City From Arkadelphia to Dallas and Beyond
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Friday, December 5, 2014
Making Much of This Christmas
It’s Christmas time.
Is anyone else excited about this?
Here are a few things I love about Christmas:
Here are a few things I love about Christmas:
- It’s an excuse to drink coffee and tea ALLLLL the time! (because it’s socially acceptable when the weather’s actually cold)
- Christmas lights make me really happy. Inside. Outside. On trees. Everywhere.
- Christmas music speaks to my heart.
- Merry Main Street. A classic Frisco Tradition.
- Christmas Eve candlelight service
- Movies such as: Holiday Inn, Christmas Carol (especially the Muppet’s version), A Christmas Story, and The Year Without A Santa Clause
- Christmas cookies and Gingerbread houses
- Christmas Parties.
- Tacky Christmas sweaters
But the thing I love most about Christmas is the excitement
that comes with knowing that we’re celebrating the coming of Christ. I mean, let’s be real, everyone loves the
gifts and Christmastime does makes people a lot nicer. But to me, I get excited about the Christmas
story but not just because a baby was born in a manger. Because we’re anticipating an event that
happened 2,000 years ago, as a precursor to the event that we’re still anticipating. Christ came on a quiet night in a backwoods
town to a couple who were nobody. They
had wed and were turned out of the “inn,” or better known as their families’
homes, because the coming of the Messiah was uncomfortable and unconventional
to normal society. But God gave up His
heavens – which cannot contain Him – to be held in a tiny hand. The infinite God becomes infant.
And I love this story.
That Christ was born to a mother and carpenter. That Shepherds were the first to know. And then foreign kings came to worship. But that’s not what gets me giddy at
Christmas. It’s that He came, and He saves! That Jesus was born so that this aching world
might have hope. And as we look at the
Christmas tree, we can be reminded of another tree 2,000 years ago that was
hung upon, just as we hang lights upon ours, so that we might be able to
celebrate today. Jesus came and lived a
perfect life, a life that was coming to a completion on the cross. So that we can have life and freedom to
celebrate Christmas this season.
One Christmas when I was in elementary school, we had a
little store at the school. You know the
school store, right? All the leftover prizes or bad toys that teachers didn’t
want were dumped on a table in the hall.
So it was pretty much a junk-sale.
We could bring money and get gifts for people. So I was so excited to pick something out all
by myself. So I bought Brandon this hot
pink monster truck Hotwheels car. And I
brought it home, wrapped it, and knew he would love it! (We used to play Hotwheels all the time.) Well, in between the school store and
Christmas was at least a week. And when you’re in 3rd grade, that’s
the longest time ever to keep a secret. So because of my excitement, I showed Brandon
what I got him but told him not to let mom or dad know I had showed him. Well the stinker, on Christmas day, did a
horrible job of masking his lack of surprise.
He loved it, and my parents found out that I had shown them. But I was just too excited to give him a gift
to keep it to myself for any amount of time.
Sometimes I think that’s how it ought to be with
Christ. You know? God was so willing to send Himself for
us. He couldn’t just leave us where we
are. There’s excitement there in saving
His people. And in that, he invites us
to meet Him. He’s reaching for you to
have a relationship with him. We find
full satisfaction when this relationship is right.
So where are you?
Some of you, of us, are reaching back for that relationship, striving to
walk with Him daily. Some of you, of us,
might not fully grasp what that means, what Christmas means. God is inviting you to Him today. And then some still are wanting to be used,
to be called even deeper than we are, to make the most of this Christmas
season.
In Philippians 3, Paul talks about a race. Like an Olympic footrace. He’s talking about how he’s grasped
salvation, as many of us have, but he says he hasn’t yet grasped
perfection. Paul, who wrote so much of
the NT. Who healed people, planted
churches, who I consider such a spiritual giant. He says he still hasn’t got it yet. Woah.
So in those times that I think I’ve “arrived” I am reminded that even
Paul, in all his knowledge and faith, has not yet arrived. He says that only Christ can make him
perfect. He is covered in Grace, but
then this is what he says: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” So
think of a track star: they strive for that finish line, right? The Sprinter sees that 100 meter finish line
and pushes with all their might towards that line. They forget everything around them and look
toward that goal. He also says that his
prize is the “upward call of God.” I’ve
always viewed this word as God picking you.
Like “you’re called so you better do it,” type of thing. But here, Paul’s talking about salvation, and
the call is more of an invitation to a banquet feast. Like a giant royal banquet feast with the
best guests, the best food, the best entertainment. This is what God’s calling
you to. And just like a wedding
invitation, you can choose to accept or to not.
But wouldn’t it be a shame to miss it?
So I challenge you not to miss it this Christmas
season. To make much of this time. And I think I’m challenging myself too. Because I get so caught up in the busyness of
life that I forget to slow down and remember the excitement of life and of the
Gift that God’s given. And then God
reminds me in the red of the changing tree or through His Word. So let’s celebrate the season with gifts and
silly movies and great traditions, but let’s also be excited that Christmas
marks the coming of Christ and that He is returning to make all things new,
that he gives hope and he has defeated death & sadness & pain. He has come this Christmas, and He is coming
soon! Come, Lord Jesus, Come!
What do you do to make the most of this season?
Monday, March 31, 2014
Fighting Culture
Dear Christian,
My heart hurts for you tonight. And not in the way you probably want it
to. But my heart hurts at the way you’ve
been responding to culture, to the world.
I’m not writing this to you for a guilt trip or to be another voice
among the many calling for a response to our world lately. But I needed an outlet and wanted to shed
what I hope and pray is truth.
Because you see I’m fed up.
It’s been one of those days and I’m sick of it. I’m ready to go to the mats. Others (or Office Space) may see it as a bad
case of the Mondays, but I think it’s been coming long before Monday hit.
I’ve been watching Christians and non-Christians, alike, for
a while now and have the strongest desire to fight both cultures. And I strongly feel that Jesus wants to fight
both as well. And I want what Jesus wants;
I want to do what Jesus did. If we look
at His life, really look at it, we’ll
see that He came into conflict with both worlds – the Jew and the sinner. For the non-Christian the problem is simple:
the need Jesus. They don’t know that
they don’t know; they aren’t alive in Christ. Tonight it’s the Christian trends
that are keeping my mind reeling.
The trends I see are two-fold. First, I see Christians becoming more and
more closed-minded and ignorant of the world around them. And then to combat that, if Christians aren’t
trying to stay as clean as possible and removed from the culture and world
around them, they are in it so deep that one may not even be able to see Jesus in
them. I want to fight for a happy
medium. I want us to be followers of Jesus
who can have a conversation with a non-Christian, while upholding a holy
life. I want to live as Jesus lived, and
if you look at His life you’ll see that He was perfect yet still shared meals
with the worst of the worst; He touched the sickest of the sick, called out the
self-righteousness of those deemed most righteous, and set the example of a life
lived inside of God’s statutes. If He
did that, and still died for our sins, how can we be so self-righteous that we
see ourselves as too mighty to get messy.
Life is messy. And the more we
separate ourselves from the call God has for us, the messier it will get.
I wish it wasn’t that I had to fight the mess Christians
have found themselves in, and that I could just fight for those who don’t know
Christ to come to know Him. However, we’ve
messed ourselves as Christians up so much that it’s hard to tell what we’re living
for anymore.
I ask, dear Christian, that you step out of the
close-minded, ignorant, self-righteous mindset and culture that you’ve set up
around yourself. I ask that you become
open to the opinion of other’s, that you are aware of what is going on around
you, and that you step off the pedestal that you’ve placed yourself on and see
that it is only because of God’s grace that you are anything. You’re no better than anyone else; you’re
just saved by Grace.
In saying that, however, I also ask that you live holy
lives. That you live “in the world, but not of it.” Which means abstaining from sex before
marriage, not smoking pot with the kids next door, watching language, or
speaking truth instead of lies. However,
it means that you are connected to those around you so that you may relate to
them, show them how you live, and share Jesus with them. But if we’re separating ourselves so much
from the world, we risk never encountering anything. We risk being able to connect or have a
normal social conversation, which in turn is a lost opportunity to have a
conversation about knowing God.
This culture we’ve set up for ourselves as Christians is
toxic. Reactions to movies such as Noah
don’t help our cause. (See my thoughts here).
Don’t you see, dear Christian? These
reactions are the very reason the unchurched won’t dare to step inside of a church. We are portrayed as uneducated, close-minded,
and not open to any opinion or view other than our own. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe our perceptions at times might be off? That
Noah really was a dark man or that a Christian organization should allow people of all kinds – saved or unsaved, gay or
straight – to work for them in hopes of being light to them?
Reactions such as these make me cringe. And maybe I’m writing to myself tonight more
than anyone else. Or maybe it’s that I don’t
want to conform too much to one way and I’m in the wrong. But I truly believe that if we are to reach a
lost world for Christ we need to be quick to listen and slow to speak. We need to have an educated basis for which
our opinions are based. If not the world
will eat us up!
So here’s what I ask, and maybe my heart will stop hurting
for you: I ask that you stand for what Scripture calls us to stand for. I ask that you open your minds to new
ideas. You don’t have to agree with
every one of them, but at least be open.
I ask that you allow other people to make up their own minds. Stop throwing your opinion around so that it
prevents others from finding out and learning for themselves. Just because you hated Noah doesn’t mean that
you should tell others not to see it. I ask
that you change your culture, Christian.
Change your culture to fight self-righteousness, to get in the world,
and to live as Christ lived – how He really lived.
I ask that you fight the culture that we’ve created over
centuries of “church” so that we may focus instead on fighting the culture of
the lost world.
Sincerely, a concerned fellow Christian.
Thoughts On Noah
Today I talked and listened about Noah. All day. Seriously, all day long. Sure I had a million other things to do, but
Noah was the discussion of the day. And if
I’m not mistaken, I think it’s been the discussion for a few weeks in my world.
Let me back up and get some perspective and then maybe you’ll understand why we
should fight…or at least feel like fighting. Or you'll understand why I'm tired of talking about Noah. So let me get it out there then I'll shut up.
A week ago this little movie called “Noah” made its way to
the screen. Critics and Hollywood
probably saw it a few weeks before last Thursday. So naturally the buzz began. People were writing and posting and talking
about this movie. Many had yet to see
it, many had already seen it. Mixed reviews
were had by all: some love it, some hate it.
But there was talk! There are
some pretty good reads out there, and if you want to spend some time thinking
and listening, I would encourage you to read reviews of both sides about Noah.
When I saw the preview about a year ago, I began to get
excited. I have thought for some time
that the story of Noah in Scripture is over-glamorized. We take the awesome story of God bringing
justice and mercy to the earth through destruction of all but one family and reduce
it to a happy, little children’s song. “God
told Noah to build him an arkey arkey…the animals came in the arkey by twoseys
twoseys…” But we forget that GOD DESTROYED THE EARTH. Death and destruction are the pivotal point
of the story. It’s a beautiful story of hope and mercy
because the world was corrupt and evil, yet God choose to begin anew with Noah,
a righteous man, bringing about the salvation of mankind through Noah and then
eventually through Christ. So when I saw
the previews for this movie I got excited that a realistic view was going to be
shown. Besides, a live-action film on the
story of Noah has not been on the big screen since the 1920s (Wikipedia.com).
Well, apparently the Christian community began to get
excited as well. For the past month,
people have been posting their opinions about the film. Great, share your opinions. However, please have a basis for which those
opinions lie. Dear Christian, it hurts
to see ignorant opinions thrown about. At
least wait until the film has been released to say why it is unbiblical or
not. And can I just point out that
Hollywood is making a Biblical film! If anything, be excited that the story of Scripture
is becoming a source for movies, as it should be for it is the greatest story
of all and the format for how storytelling begins.
Anyway, Thursday I went to see the film with some
friends. I had mixed expectations
because we had been reading the buzz. I knew
a few things though:
- The makers are not believers.
- The story of Noah in the Bible is short. There isn’t much to it, so we knew that the writers of the film had to take some liberties. It takes about fifteen minutes to read, so naturally it would be a bit more elaborate to expand a two hour movie.
- It was said to be dark, but we weren’t sure how dark.
Here’s why:
- For the most part, the liberties taken were not blasphemous, anti-God, or blatantly unscriptural. They all pertained to inter-character relationships, which are not mentioned in the Bible.
- I think that non-Christians are very likely to see it and start asking questions. What’s it mean that God destroyed the earth? Who is this Creator? Why Noah? Etc. Whereas a movie like God’s Not Dead or Facing the Giants appeal primarily to the Christian crowd, being a bit “too-in-your-face” for non-believers.
- It raised good topics: In the telling of Creation, evolution is hinted at or not hinted at – it’s pretty vague, and I think that opens questions and conversation; there are many mentions to free will, which leads people to the predestination/free will debate; Noah questions why God choose him, and what to do with that responsibility, and I feel that that leads people to ask what task they are given in life and can lead to the understanding that we must do the task God calls us to.
- It is an awesome conversation starter. I had to re-read Genesis once I saw it to fully grasp the whole biblical truth and purpose of the Flood. It raises lots of questions and I think people will seek truth because of the visual representation of the Flood.
- It gives a real look at Noah as a person and what it means for God to destroy the earth. He was dark. And while the Bible doesn’t explicitly say that Noah was a dark person, if we think about his life, it makes sense. He was selected to build an ark that took 120 years, watch all of humanity except his family die, and then to start over. To spend 120 years building an ark is neurotic enough, but to add on watching destruction makes it pretty believable that he was messed up. Which Scripture says, right? Noah then grew a vineyard and got drunk. If he has a drinking problem, he is probably in a dark place.
I didn’t super like:
- The Nephilim are portrayed as “Watchers” and are weird. The Nephilim are the “fallen angels, the warriors of old” who begin to have relations with humans and creates more wickedness among humans, one of the main reasons God sends the Flood. These are shown as rock-creatures – weird – and are given grace to help Noah and it is implied that the Creator forgives them. The only part of it that is in Scripture is that the Nephilim were real fallen angels. But maybe my interpretation is off, it’s a weird and confusing thing in the Bible. One of my Old Testament Profs said that the verse about the Nephilim is the “most confusing verse in Scripture.”
- There is a man who slips onto the ark, which is not biblical. Only Noah’s family were saved from the Flood.
- The story between the family is dark. Noah threatens to kill his granddaughters because he feels that humanity should not continue. It’s a drastic twist to show almost killing little babies, but gives a good foreshadowing-type feel to Abraham and Isaac and good insight into the questions plaguing Noah.
So what do we do with Noah?
Well, we take it as a movie. A movie.
It’s not a documentary, it’s not the Bible. It’s one man’s interpretation of Noah. And the man did his homework. The ark was constructed exactly to Scripture’s
specifications. There were theologians
on set helping with interpretation.
We take the movie, the questions raised and compare them to
the truth. We seek God’s Word for
answers. And then we have
conversations. I think that this tool is
an awesome conversation starter. I think
that it is a great opportunity to take a friend who does not know God and have
a conversation afterwards about what it means that God would destroy the entire
world.
Because in the end, the story of Noah is awesome in that it
ends in hope. God is still merciful and
is creating a people for Himself. Through
Noah salvation comes, for Christ comes from the line of Noah. Grace is shown to one family so that life may
happen again and we might know the character of God and be saved.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
"Our adolescent girls aren’t looking for tourists – adults who are only interested in seeing the beautiful spots, taking a few pictures, and then leaving after a short while to go back to their comfortable lives. Rather they are looking for pilgrims who will wade into the muddy adventurous mess of a journey of adolescence with them. Pilgrims who aren’t looking for the comfortable, easy path but are willing to take the hard road of understanding the issues that adolescent girls face, issues that are unprecedented in their magnitude. - Ginny Olson "
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)