Ideas

i've been trying very earnestly to live by the motto that i should treat everyone with compassion and respect because you never know what personal battle they may be fighting.

i remember in my freshman year in philosophy class we talked about nonviolence and in this discussion we talked about the Third Way. the way not of violence, but neither of way of submission. rather - the Third Way. a way to act in a situation without both violence and submission.

for instance, Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek when we are struck at. but think about the dynamics of this. if someone initially hits you they will use their right hand and slap your left cheek. if you turn the other cheek - a person would no longer be able to slap you but instead would have to punch you - a completely different strike to a person.

i know i'm doing this explanation no good but i have very little memory of it. i'll go back later and find the text and insert it in here for those reading. what i'm saying essentially is that we all should take on an attitude similar to this one.

and it won't be easy.

because we all know that loving a person is so much harder than hating a person.

but what God has required of us isn't expected to be easy. so i will put my best foot forward and show the world the love that God has shown me.

i haven't been to church in awhile. i must admit.

but it's not because i don't want face God. it's not because i've done something terribly wrong or committed an unforgivable sin in the eyes of my fellow Christians.

simply - i miss the church at my school.

i miss the Christians my age facing the same world that i am.

i miss the community.

i miss how politics hasn't made its way into our church.

i miss the sermons that are short, sweet, and yet altogether meaningful and applicable to me and my life.

i miss my support group.

i miss my bible study of eager followers - ready to learn and easy to forgive.

and of course all this makes me start contrasting and comparing chapel at school and church at home. one of the first things that differs is at school we take no offering. and this started to bother me a little bit.

yeah, we're all "poor college students" barely able to pay for our private college tuition BUT many of us give a tithe at home - so why not at school?

i thought about it some more and realized that by the end of the year i usually have spare change from late night Tbell runs and unspent laundry money lying around. why couldn't i donate that spare change - despite how little it is - and do something good with it?

and if i have spare change then its only likely to reason that others do as well.

AND then what if we took all that spare change and gave it back to the poor - just like the offering is supposed to be used for.

not to knock on churches, but many of them use the money for the church and only give a sparse amount to the poor. that's not how it was meant to be used.

and what better way to use our college change that crops up?

the schools already paying for the chapel. that's taken care of.

anyway that's something i plan on talking to my Religious Life Team about once we have retreat. that and many more ideas.

i want to do a faith and christian wall. where we write the word FAITH in bold and CHRISTIAN across the top of a long piece of paper and leave markers out.

the idea would for people to write down their definition or whatever may come to mind in relation to the word. it would be an interesting study.

also, i would like to bring back the overused WWJD bracelets. i want us to all seriously consider the bracelets as we go through what can be a tempting world that twenty somethings live in. a revolution of WWJD. how very interesting would that be?

nonetheless, with all this positive there comes to mind some negative thoughts as well. such as, if paradise wasn't enough for Adam and Eve how will the paradise the Lord gives us be enough to satisfy us in the end? aren't we destined to fail him again, even after his return?

i hope not. i sincerely hope not. because all i want is to please my God.

and mostly i rely on Proverbs 3:5 to help me through this, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding."

that's what i intend to do.

i trust You Lord. forever. sometimes i will stumble, sometimes i will fall. but for You i will live this life as best as i can. Lord you've given me so much to be thankful for in this life. you've blessed those around me and i want to learn to love you and accept both the good and the bad that you bring to me in this life Lord. my complete trust lies with you Lord.

tomorrow i fly out to Memphis to visit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. i pray that i can be used to do good for this wonderful place. pray for my safe trip and pray that my prayers will come true in regards to doing something good.

Christians

the idea of rebirth is amazing right?

the answer is obviously yes.

but there's this catch that has made me feel a little heartbroken lately. okay, so it's not a catch. it's not like Jesus is trying to trap us or anything. it's just the sad reality of what the world is made up of.

so now i've thoroughly confused you and i should explain myself. with rebirth comes the relationship of new brothers and sisters in Christ. that means - essentially, that i have numerous brothers and sisters out there suffering. suffering from AIDs, cancer, homelessness, broken families, abuse, malnourishment, etc.

i would never ever want to see my blood family suffer and more so why would i want to allow my brothers and sisters in Christ suffer either? it just makes me feel like i need to be doing SO much more in this life - to cure the world of its evils.

combined we can do it. we can cure the the world of its evils with the power of Jesus Christ. He makes it possible for us.

i have a question though. when you hear the word "we" who is that to you? do you identify the we as we americans or we hoosiers or we women or do you first think we Christians? of course in the context that i used it i would hope you thought we Christians. but i mean EVERY single time you hear it.

because first and foremost we in your heart should be Christians. this is something i'm working towards.

speaking of people it is another goal of mine to stop look "at" people and to start looking "into" them. to fully know them. to no longer judge them. to love them and to hear their story.

so many times we look past people (okay sorry that was a vast generalization) I look past someone for what they are on their exterior, rather than digging deeper and finding out who they truly are.

we all should be doing this - looking into people - looking for the Jesus within them.

it's sad that at the age of 21 i'm coming to this conclusion when i can clearly remember the lesson of not judging a book by its cover in preschool. you learn all the important stuff then don't you?

truly, we should be able to see a little of ourselves in everyone else because we are all born in Christ.

as Henri Nouwen puts it, "In the face of the oppressed I recognize my own face, and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hands. Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, their smile is my smile."

Homelessness

homelessness has been on my mind a lot lately. maybe because that's the issue i've worked most closely with. it's something that really gets under my skin and bothers me. i want to do more than the ordinary. but then i'm not so sure i'm capable (that i have the willpower) to do the extraordinary.

you know there are people out there who have given it all up - sold all their possessions and have given their life over to living with the poor. essentially, they're living like Jesus.

i'm just not sure i would be capable of that. i would miss my material things. and i know that's a bad bad thing.

what's funny is that what we consider to be radical - these people who give it all up - was ordinary back in Jesus' time.

people were constantly just living off of what they needed only, sharing with one another, and living as a community. and we think it's radical.

really it's just the way things are supposed to be done.

the United States is wealthiest and yet most miserable country. what does that tell you about material wealth?

it's so discontenting.

it's so disgusting.

it's so difficult to let it go.

and that's the reality. we can't let go of these material icons that have us so captivated. that have us living so comfortably. we've become used to a life of these material comforts.

it's so very sad.

we're so afraid of losing it all. but that's the way we were intended to live - to have it all in God, not in possessions.

funny thing is we're the ones who created poverty. not the Lord.

i mean, if we had just followed God's plan all along we wouldn't be in the pickle we are. He had it all set up so that everyone was providing for one another and no one would go without.

we screwed it up. in only the way that human ignorance and greed can.

Gandhi once said, "There is enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed."

how true is that?

if we only took what we needed in this life there would not be poverty. God has provided in abundance and we have

just taken more than our fair share.

what a sad reality.

the thing is we don't want to take on full on poverty but being wealthy isn't going to cut it either because that's not

what God desired.

i think verses 30: 8-9 in Proverbs sum up what we need best: "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only

my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?'"

let's pray that we can get to a world somewhat resembling this. personally i pray for some work to come my way in which I can do something meaningful in the name of the Lord.