Current View from My Front Door

Time to reassess?

To single folks out there, I'd like to offer the following as food for thought and discussion.

We all have it: the list of traits we'd like to see in our spouses. What's on your list? Mine has always gone something like this: "Strong Christian, spiritual leader, good sense of humor, gets along with my family and friends, someone I can have a good time with." Is yours similar?

My friend and I started a women's Bible study a couple weeks ago, and we're reading "Safe People" by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. This week part of the first chapter got us talking about outward appearances, specifically how little they mean to God. We read Psalm 15, and then considered the following (lengthy) passage from this book.

One evening, I spoke to a group of Christian college students about dating and relationships. At the close of the talk, I asked, "What qualities do you look for in a potential date or mate?" The answers went something like this: "I want someone spiritual, godly, ambitious, fun to be with," and so on. They replied as I had expected. And that disturbed me, for as a counselor and as a person, I know that these are not the issues that cause relationships to break apart.

When I questioned the audience a bit further, asking them about character and relational issues, they were in the dark. They continued to give me broad religious answers and descriptions of people that had little to do with what the Bible actually says about relationships.

People in trouble don't say broad religious issues are the problem. They say:

He doesn't listen to me.
She is so “perfect” that she can't understand my struggles.
He seems so distant that I feel alone.
She always tries to control me.
He makes promises but really doesn't follow through.
He is condemning and judgmental.
She is always angry at me for something I did or didn't do.
I tend to be my worst self with him or her.
I cannot trust him....

When we listen to God address his problem relationships, the list is much more like the second than the first. He says that, among other things, his people are "far away" (Is 29:13), "unfaithful" (Josh 22:16), "proud and perfectionistic" (Deut 8:14, Ps 36:2), "unloving" (1 John 4:20), and “judgmental” (Rom 2:1).

God does not use religious terms and language when he discusses people. He talks about how people treat him and others, and whether or not they get things done as they said they would. In short, he looks at someone's character. He is looking at their makeup as a person and the way that that character interacts with him and the world…

Of course, no one sets out to find a mate with bad character. But it still happens. Are we valuing the right things? I have more than one friend who dated the guy or girl with all the right assets, and it actually was not at all what they were looking for.

Maybe this shouldn’t have been such a revelation to me, but it has made me reconsider just what my husband might look like. None of the things on my list is bad, but they really say very little about how this guy would treat me and take care of me on a daily basis. What exactly does it mean to be a “good Christian?” Or even a “spiritual leader?” Couldn’t it look a little different in just about every person? I’m sure I could find someone who really gets along with my friends and family who I have no interest in dating, and I can have a fantastic time with guys who I know I should never end up with.

When asked “What qualities do you look for in a potential date or mate?” what should our answer really look like?

Attention, Ladies

Have you heard of the Christian Working Woman? I listened to this radio program most mornings on my way to work in Iowa, but haven't found a good station and time to listen to it in Ohio. But you can subscribe to it by email. I highly recommend these devotions. They are so practical that the last two weeks, my friend and I have wondered whether she has been listening to our conversations.

Haikus are easy

So, my little sister got hitched this weekend, and there was much celebration! On the long trip down to College Station, Mom wrote the following haiku:

Sincere wedding wishes
Camille and Will pledge their love
Honeymoon awaits

This inspired a maelstrom of syllable-counting and haiku-composing, recorded here for posterity.

October 20
The death of her single life
Good luck, Will Griffin
(Betsy and Ellen)

New brother-in-law
We have a crazy fam'ly
You will fit right in.
(Betsy)

Camille and Will wed
Mom stops all her hollering
New spouse takes over.
(Mom)


And a couple post-wedding haiku:

I have made it home
The wedding was lots of fun
And I hate Mondays.
(Betsy)

Who will Dad root for?
Red Sox, Rox in World Series
Baseball gods mock him.
(Mom)

An honest question

When I was in high school, I came across a quote that went something like, "To see God in everything makes life the greatest joy there is." I do believe that God is present all over the place, so I believe this statement until I read something like this article. The author is describing her trip to the mattress store to buy a queen-sized bed.

From the article:

"Scott the Mattress Salesman asked how much I wanted to spend, then showed me two sleeping beauties in my price range. The good news was that he wasn't really Scott the Mattress Salesman, but Scott the Regional Manager Posing as Mattress Salesman. He explained that they'd fired the store's manager just the day before and he was covering until the new guy could start. And because he couldn't earn any commission, he knocked the 100 bucks the salesman would have pocketed off the already reduced price. "You came in on the right day," he said. I smiled and exchanged a knowing glance with Ingrid. We'd been trying to schedule this shopping excursion for a couple weeks. Obviously God had helped us pick the right day."

To me, this elaborate story is just a clever ruse to make the buyer of said mattress feel like she had saved $100 on a mattress, when Scott the Mattress Salesman really could have sold the mattress for $200 lower. But what do I know?

That is not the honest question. The honest question is, have I become too cynical?

Fast Food: Not your Momma's Home Cookin'

If you need another reason not to eat fast food, I'm your gal. I don't know how many people have already seen this, (I'm usually a little behind the curve on these things), but it's too great not to pass on.

Ads vs. Reality

Vote for the grossest!! I think the grossest ones are the two that most look like they're decomposing, but I'll let you figure out which ones those are.

Because I Said So

I'm finishing up the book Letters from a Skeptic by Gregory and Edward Boyd. I just came to this passage written as a response to a question regarding how we can be forgiven (holy) and sinful at the same time:

"So, how can we be holy and sinful at the same time? I'll explain it with this analogy. When God created the world in the beginning, He said, 'Let there be light' and there was light. He said, 'Let there be dry ground,' and there was dry ground. And so on. God's Word, we see, is 'ontologically productive.' It creates being.

"Now our salvation is no less the result of God's word than is our creation. God says, 'All the sin of Ed Boyd's past is gone,' and all your sin is gone! And God says, 'Ed Boyd is perfectly holy before Me,'' and you are perfectly holy before Him."

The simplicity of this, especially after reading the other chapters, which tackle such complicated issues, is striking to me. Spiritual milk, to be sure, but isn't it tasty?

A Music Recommendation

I'm going to skip the whole "I haven't blogged in a while because..." If you look to the right, you'll notice it now says "Ohio" under my name. That's right, I now live in another midwestern state with a name made up mostly of vowels. The similarities between Iowa and Ohio do not end there! There is lots of farmland here, too, which is what is keeping me employed! I just got all moved into my new place today, and all but one room is cleared of boxes!

There's a CD, Carried Away by Andrew Peterson, that I think everyone should hear. I think I got it the summer after my freshman year in college, which is almost seven years ago, (!), so this might be old news to some. I listen to this CD about once a year...I rediscovered it today while unpacking. Every time I hear it, I wonder why I don't I listen to more Andrew Peterson? The music is nice to have on in the background, but I'm always drawn in by the stories he tells with his lyrics. Has anyone else listened to him? I'm wondering if his other CDs are as terrific as this one.

Also, my sister is on YouTube with her Youth Encounter team! (There are two videos out there.) Thanks to the Slefanizer for telling me about it.

A Farewell to Apartment

Goodbye, heated garage
Goodbye, nearly unlimited kitchen cabinet space
Goodbye, beautiful trees and privacy.

Goodbye, kitchen floor that never looked clean
Goodbye, carpet with mystery stains
Goodbye, plastic shell-shaped bathroom sink with faux brown and tan marble
Goodbye, ancient oven
Goodbye, noisy refrigerator
Goodbye, teeny dishwasher
Goodbye, saving quarters for expensive loads of laundry
Goodbye, chain smoker on the balcony below me
Goodbye, fake butcher block cabinets
Goodbye, pomegranate juice stains on the wall
Goodbye, lingering campfire smell
Goodbye, oh-so-unhelpful apartment management
Goodbye, half-mile walk to mailbox
Goodbye, white paint on all the baseboards.

Goodbye, apartment. I'll always remember my first.

"This shirt is dry clean only...

...which means it is dirty."

This, one of my favorite Mitch Hedberg quotes, has been running through my head all night, but my version needs to say "hand wash" in place of dry clean.

Since I'm moving in a few weeks, I've decided I need to start "getting things done." For starters, I tackled the hand wash pile at the bottom of my bathroom closet. 14 tops!! FOURTEEN! Sweaters were in there that I forgot I had!! This makes me wonder if I'm getting my money's worth out of clothes marked "Hand wash only."

In the "this is what Betsy is really thinking about tonight" category, why does a guy you dated pretty seriously, and who eventually ended up never calling you again, then ignored you for an entire day at a football game, get to act all nice when you talk to him out of the blue? It is unfair and thoroughly infuriating!

Since this post is about nothing anyway, another Mitch Hedberg quote: "This product that was on TV was available for four easy payments of $19.95. I would like a product that was available for three easy payments and one complicated payment. We can't tell you which payment it is, but one of these payments is going to be hard. "

I JUST BOUGHT A CONDO...

...in exotic Cedar Rapids!!!

The most amazing thing, besides the fact that I will be a homeowner on Dec 15, is that I went through the whole process in less than four days. On Thursday night, my friends were telling me I should buy something and I said, "I can't, there's no way," and by Monday night, I've found a place I'd like to buy, been approved for a loan, made an offer, made a counter-counter-offer, and had it accepted. It's pretty unbelievable.

Now all I have to do is move. Anyone is welcome to help - free pizza, cookies, and refreshments for all!! December 16th!

Executive Summary of this Post: DO NOT SEE BORAT.

Indignant is the only way I can describe how I feel tonight.

I am seriously considering never seeing another rated-R movie again. Of my movies, I have three that are rated-R: Legends of the Fall, (which depressed me so much the last time I watched it I may never see it again), Good Will Hunting (which is a terrific movie outside of the gratuitous use of the F-word), and When Harry Met Sally, (which honestly, might be rated PG if it were made today).

To be sure, in light of the movie I saw tonight, all of these movies look like Disney Classics by comparison. A group of seven of us went to see Borat, and the smartest two of us left midway through the movie. Unfortunately, I was not one of the smart two. I spent the drive home wondering if I had missed something in all the reviews I had seen or the people who were talking about it or the commercials I'd seen. Check this page out. I doubt that Citizen Kane enjoyed such rave reviews from critics.

Have we reduced ourselves to such asinine levels that this is "one of the funniest movies ever made?" Is it acceptable that racism, homophobia, sexism, and plain crudeness can be excused under the guise of an ignorant outsider? Further, if you read some of the reviews, they insinuate that a person who doesn't find the jokes funny is really just a closed-minded bigot herself.

Puh-lease. I enjoy laughing at myself as much as the next gal. The fact that I am less than entertained by crass, tasteless humor does not make me closed-minded.

Stef blogged on the issue of moral depravity in movies a couple weeks ago, and I read it without really thinking about it. But I revisited it tonight, and there is an article that she links to that talks about drug addicts often overdosing because they have to take larger and larger doses to get a high. It seems plausible that this is the reason that When Harry Met Sally, which was made in 1989, looks today like a mild PG-13 movie.

With insincere apologies to Mom and Ellen, my evening has been improved by the pleasure of watching Texas lose to K-State as I type. And smirking at the commentators channeling Russ Hodges every time Texas does anything that remotely resembles the actions of a ranked football team.

Oh yeah, when I started researching the candidates I would be voting for on Tuesday, I realized that the Braley/Whalen race that I mentioned in the previous post wasn't even my district. I didn't know whether to be mad that I was subjected to so many low-blow commercials, or to be happy that I wouldn't have to vote for either of the finger-pointing candidates who "approved this message."

Ok, maybe my next post will be happy. I will start thinking positive.....NOW.

On Voting

*Betsy steps up on soapbox.*

Ahem...Ok, so the midterm elections (do I have that right?) are coming up on November 7th, exactly two weeks from today. This year, I'm frustrated by the elections and here's why.

Since Government class my junior year in high school, and probably before then, I have heard that it is not only my right, but my responsibility, to vote. I agree with this. I do think it's important to be involved in our democratic government, and I know that a lot of woman participated in the suffrage movement so that I could vote.

The reason I'm leaning towards not voting is that I am a completely uneducated voter. I'm sure part of the reason is that I don't pay much attention to local news. But it seems like there are two things that politicians running for office are spending money on. The first thing is nice bright signs with their names on them, and possibly what they are running for.

The second thing is completely worthless political ads on TV. For the past month or two, I've been doing everything I can to tune these ads out. Then I realized that I'm not fulfilling my civic duty, so I've started paying attention. So, I know a bunch of names of Iowa politicians now: Nussle, Culver, (who are both running for governor), Hogg, Braley, and Whalen (I don't know what they're running for).

Here's what I've learned so far. Nussle practically worships Bush, (which is bad, of course), and Hogg pronounces his name "hoe-g." Braley is an evil trial lawyer who is single-handedly driving up my medical expenses, so I should vote for Whalen. Whalen believes in Social Security privitization and he's clearly wrong WRONG WRONG so I should vote for Braley. And I can't remember anything about Culver except that his last name is the same as a fast food chain in town that serves really good ice cream...mmm, ice cream.

Is this supposed to help me make an informed decision? Is anyone else frustrated with this?

*Betsy steps down.*

Book Review

I just finished reading a book that was a surprisingly good read. The book is Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner. I checked this book out expecting to skim through some parts, and ended up reading it from cover to cover. It was remarkably honest, and a bit like reading someone's diary, or even her blog.

The author was an Orthodox Jew before she became Christian. The book is organized by church seasons (Advent, Pentecost, etc), and she parallels most of these seasons with the Jewish traditions taking place at the same time. She also talks about her current struggles. While I don't necessarily agree with everything she says, it was very refreshing reading. Honestly, I'm struggling to remember another book that would be filed in the Christian or Religious section of Barnes and Noble that I have been able to relate to quite as well. Also, she partly credits becoming a Christian to the book At Home in Mitford, which has long been one of my favorite series to read. (She says she's "always felt faintly embarrassed about the role Jan Karon's Mitford novels played in my conversion." I, however, am not embarrassed - these books are always fun to read.)

If I started listing the insights she related that struck me, this would be a long post. The one that's freshest on my mind is this: She quotes a character from an old British novel as asking a Christian, "What I want to know is do you believe in it the way you believe in Australia?" An interesting thought, to be sure, but Winner points out that the Christian life is about a promise to believe even when we have trouble wrapping our heads around this huge thing called Christianity.

Thy Strong Word

I have a love-dislike relationship with contemporary praise and worship music...No need to get into it now except to say that the new stuff has really deepened my appreciation for hymns.

Today in church we sang "Thy Strong Word." This hymn is written in a minor key, has six long verses filled with King James language, and is basically a good example of what some people hate about hymns. But the words are poetic and rich. Read them a couple times. The fifth verse especially never fails to convict me, and notice the description of the Trinity at the end.

Thy strong Word did cleave the darkness;
At thy speaking it was done.
For created light we thank Thee
While thine ordered seasons run
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise to thee who light dost send!
Alleluia without end!

Lo, on those who dwelt in darkness,
Dark as night and deep as death,
Broke the light of thy salvation,
Breathed thine own life-giving breath.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise to thee who light dost send!
Alleluia without end!

Thy strong Word bespeaks us righteous;
Bright with thine own holiness,
Glorious now, we press toward glory,
And our lives our hopes confess.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise to thee who light dost send!
Alleluia without end!

From the cross thy wisdom shining
Breaketh forth in conqu'ring might;
From the cross forever beameth
All thy bright redeeming light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise to Thee who light dost send!
Alleluia without end!

Give us lips to sing thy glory,
Tongues thy mercy to proclaim,
Throats to shout the hope that fills us,
Mouths to speak thy holy name.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
May the light which thou dost send,
Fill our songs with alleluias,
Alleluias without end!

God the Father, light-creator,
To Thee laud and honor be.
To Thee, Light from Light begotten,
Praise be sung eternally.
Holy Spirit, light-revealer,
Glory, glory be to Thee.
Mortals, angels, now and ever
Praise the Holy Trinity!

Little Suggestions for a Happy Life

The monthly "Windsor on the River Apartments" newsletter arrived yesterday, with this helpful little blurb on the front cover:

Little Suggestions For A Happy Life
*Go on a hayride
*Evaluate yourself by your own standards, not by someone else's.
*Lie on your back and look at the stars.

How quaint. I would offer, however, as a response:

Betsy's Suggestions for Happy Residents:
*Don't wait a month to fix the washer that you're already charging me $1.25/load to use.
*Don't tell me you can't waive the late fee when I've (stupidly) forgotten to pay the rent because I'm white (yes, this actually happened).
*Don't try to charge me $10 a month more in rent when I re-sign my lease just because you think you should be able to, then complain about me calling to tell you I'm not paying any more rent because I don't think I should have to.
*Find a way to stop the chain smoker living below me from smelling up my apartment when I have my balcony door open.
*Do something about the occasional shootings in the complex. (This makes it sound like I live in the ghetto...I really don't.)

*Sigh* Maybe someday I will be a proud, penniless homeowner.

Randomness

Things on my mind tonight:

Baseball playoffs are in full swing. My pick, Twins over Mets. Twins made sure I got that wrong. So much for knowing anything about baseball. The Tigers just got their second win over the Yankees. You cannot believe how happy this makes me.

I got to see my sister last night, and again this afternoon. I got lost in three different states last night trying to find her in Dubuque, and I ran a red light and almost killed someone. But I found her. She is spending a year on/with Youth Encounter. Please take some time to read her team's website. She is traveling the States and putting on programs for the next three months, and then heads to Peru and Bolivia to do the same there. I know that God is doing and will do amazing things through them.

I am home alone on a Friday night. The playoffs are on, I haven't been home much lately, last night was a late night and, most of all, I needed to do laundry. Here's the thing...turns out I'm out of laundry detergent. Not to worry, I found some Woolite. But I used my last dryer sheet a couple weeks ago. I can go without, (what do dryer sheets do in the first place, anyway?). But the real limiting factor was that I only had enough quarters to do three loads. Nothing like planning ahead.

I have an overdue library book. I read something about this book, and put it on hold weeks and weeks ago at the library, finally got it and didn't finish it in the 10-day check-out window. Now I owe $2 on it and I'm not that enthralled with the book. But I feel committed to read it in the same way that I feel committed to a staying on a customer service phone call after I've been on hold for 45 minutes.

I recently purchased two cds from Sandra McCracken and aside from a couple necessary country music fixes, that's all I've been listening to. Both cds have beautiful final tracks, songs that I've listened to over and over and over. Last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy (yes, I'm hooked) touched on a theme that Sandra McCracken so eloquently sums up: "And I'd rather have the mystery, and the madness and the rains, because hell's the only place we can be free of all love's pain."

Last weekend was easily the most fun I have had in a very long time. I went to Shelbyville, MO for a Shrimpboil. There were 1700 people in attendance. 1100 pounds of shrimp, 500 pounds of catfish, 750 pounds of crablegs, and 3 whole hogs, and that was just the main courses! I went with 7 other people who I've met through ADM, people who make me glad I moved up here just because I got to meet them.

So Stef and I were talking about being single a while back, and both agreed to blog about it. She beat me to it by about a month. I've had a draft for a while, entitled On Being Single, Too. For On Being Single One, click here.

It's been hard for me to blog about being single because my opinion of being single changes so often, sometimes by the hour.

Sometimes, most times even, I'm so glad to be single, for now. I like being on my own, I like going places on the weekends, and I like hanging out with people who I probably wouldn't hang out with if any of us were married. In short, I'm having fun. On the other hand, I do really want to be married at some point in the not-so-distant future, and I get impatient. Sometimes I don't want to wait another second for My Guy to show up. Other times, I'm more than willing to wait to become the girl that he needs, even as he does the same for me.

I've heard a theory kicked around that unsettles me. It goes something like this: "You're not ready to be married unless you can get comfortable with the idea of being single your whole life." If this is true, (and I don't think it is), I will never be ready for marriage. I've met a lady here who didn't get married until she was in her mid-50s. She is a terrific woman, smart, pretty, funny, successful. Outwardly, there is NO reason she shouldn't have been married earlier. More than once, I have thought, "I want to just pull this lady aside and get the whole story." The thought of being single that long does not sit well with me at all. I struggle with this, because what it comes down to is trust. I can either trust that it is God's will for me to be married and have a family someday, or I can trust that I can serve him by being single, and that will be enough.

If there is one thing I am sick of hearing, it is that I "need to trust God's timing." I don't mean to nullify that point. I know it's true and I know it's biblical that God times things perfectly. I've just heard it so often that it doesn't mean much to me. Or, why is it this person's "time" to get married, but not mine? Or, when the time actually comes, will it be worth the wait? But recently I ran across a quote that shed a new light on God's timing, and more than that, why waiting on God's timing is so important.

"Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give because He would give the best, and man will not take it." George MacDonald

Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

It's late, I should have been in bed at least an hour ago because I am really going to go to the gym tomorrow morning (REALLY!).

But I was just doing my usual evening routine - reading in bed until I fall asleep. Thing is, there's a boy 'round these parts who hurt me not too long ago, more than I've let on, even to myself. I ran into him today. And even though I try not to let it bother me that things are the way they are, it does.

So I'm reading, but really thinking about something else, and my heart feels twisted. I start praying, and realize I should put down the book I'm reading (jury's still out on whether it has been worth my time or not, but it's certainly interesting...), and read the Bible.

Psalm 37 immediately jumps into my mind. My sister's confirmation verse is Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart." I haven't read it in a while. I open up to Psalm 37. Verse one reads thusly:

"Do not fret because of evil men."

You just can't make that stuff up. I don't mean to make light of God's word, and I know that, in context, it's not telling me to not worry about guys (I won't say jerks) I've dated who aren't the one for me.

But it was nice to laugh.

Football fans learn theology

Ok, I never posted again last week, but I was successful in not using the gym once last week. Tuesday I had to do laundry, Wednesday I had a surprise work function in the evening, Thursday I got free tickets to the Iowa State/Toledo football game, and Friday I had to clean the apartment and get ready for my friend Betsy's visit to Iowa!! Sunday we drove to Madison, WI, and spent some time there. Basically, for every day I didn't go to the gym this week, I probably consumed an extra 2,000 delicious calories. I have eaten at a Chipotle, Noodles and Co, and Jimmy John's in the last three days! Not to mention the Taste of Madison festival where I had my first ever falafel! This means that I haven't been in Cedar Rapids lately, the crappy food capital of the nation. And that my stomach is very happy!

I saw something that really disturbed me on Thursday night. I was at the Iowa State football game, which was worlds different from A&M football. To begin with, I almost needed a jacket on the last day of August!! As I approached the north end (where there was no sign of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band), I saw a gigantic sign that said, "Turn to Jesus! You are headed for hell! Rev 20:15." I didn't think much of it, until we were actually waiting to go into the game. Picture the mob scene around the gates of a stadium. Smack dab in the middle of the mob was a girl holding this huge banner above her head, and I noticed a guy a few yards down from her, also with a similar sign. The girl was screaming at the top of her lungs, "YOU ARE ALL HYPOCRITES! YOU ARE SCREAMING YOUR LUNGS OUT OVER A FOOTBALL GAME!" The guy was yelling, "YOU ALL ARE PATHETIC! YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME AT THIS ATHLETIC EVENT TO FILL YOUR MEANINGLESS, PATHETIC LIVES!" At which point people from the crowd were saying "Go back to Iowa City, Hawkeye fan!" or "Ok, guys, let's all convert now!" and other things that, quite frankly, were sadly humorous.

I would love to know what these people think they are accomplishing. Do I think anyone became a Christian as a result of their insults? In a word, NO. I'm not absolutely writing off the possibility, I guess, but call me a skeptic. Maybe there is one person who will, years down the road, say, "I'll never forget it, I was at a football game in 2006, and this girl was basically insulting me and telling me I was going to hell, and I saw the light." I just don't think it's likely. I'm not gonna lie, it left a bad taste in my mouth for "Christians."

Mainly, I wanted to march up to them, Miller Lite in hand, and tell them that it's possible to believe that my life is in the book of life, that I do have a Savior, and I can even (gasp!) enjoy a football game! I have yet to figure out how those things are mutually exclusive.

As Christians, it is certainly our job to warn. But that is only part of our job. And by excluding the other parts of our job, mainly the grace that comes through faith, are we not failing?

My last question, would it have done more good for them to have stayed home on Thursday?

If it came down to it...

The average month has 30.42 days in it, which means I make approximately 26.42 excuses daily for not using my gym membership. (Ok, it's not quite that bad...every month anyway...) In any case, this week I am going to chronicle the excuses as I make them up. Then you can decide whether or not they are valid.

Yesterday (Sunday) I did not go to the gym, but I did take about an hour-long bike ride on my new bike! (Ain't she purdy??) It wasn't necessarily rigorous exercise, but it's definitely better than just sitting on the couch, right? (Which is exactly what I did the other 61.5 hours of this weekend.) Note that I did not use the "day of rest" excuse. That will be reserved for another Sunday.

Tonight, I had really good intentions, but I'm instead going to watch co-workers play volleyball. I like volleyball, I like beer, and I haven't hung out with my co-workers in, well, 41 minutes.

Also on my mind: this article. Read it first before going on, pay attention to the part about Islam, and answer this question: What would you do in their situation?

Go on, read it!

Really!!

I gotta be honest with you, the thought of being in this situation terrifies me. It's really easy for me to sit here and say, "I would never denounce my faith," but how do I know? I've also never been held at gunpoint, and I have no idea what my reaction would be. This morning, I found myself thinking, well, it doesn't matter, they would be empty words anyway. I quickly realized how unimportant that is. Would I be so scared for my life that I would lose any trust I have in God?

I think about Peter denying Jesus, and how we say we would never do the same thing. Well, Peter said that too! I find myself more sympathetic to Peter than I used to be...he was fearing for his life. He didn't know what would happen. He didn't understand all the things that Jesus had said during his ministry the way that we understand them today. I can't say I wouldn't have reacted the same way. I'm thankful that God is bigger than my doubts.

Anyway, just something to think about. Please leave comments.