Are You God? No? Then Calm Down.

I’m just going to come right out and say it: Stop speaking on God’s behalf. God is big. God is different depending on the religion. To speak as if one person or a group of people know EXACTLY what God wants is ludicrous. Each person of faith has a different lens they view their faith and their God with. They interpret holy texts and sermons through that lens. 

According to recent statistics, there are roughly 41,000 Christian denominations (differing mainly on doctrine, see flow chart), five major Jewish movements (differing mainly on practices and rituals), four major sects of Islam (although most Muslims are Sunni), four Hindu denominations (differing mainly on how to achieve self-realization), three major branches of Buddhism, and many other smaller religions or non-religious variants.

So, first of all, clearly Christians have more divisive problems than the other major religions of the world. I can’t really even wrap my head around 41,000 different groups and sects of Christianity, but it doesn’t really surprise me. Christians bicker like they have to prove something. But what are they trying to prove and to who? God? Their peers? Themselves? In the end, does it matter if they have all the answers and win every argument?

Personally, I was once one of those Christians. There was a time when I would see a differing viewpoint on some social media and I would have to state my perspective. At the time, I really thought I was right and “correcting” them was what God wanted me to do. I realize now that I was just being arrogant. It’s not my place to tell people what to believe or how to believe it. We all have different journeys and different views and now I see how beautiful that is. I believe that God is big enough to show himself to people in so many more ways than we can imagine.

As for the other religions, there’s really not as much differing between them. With three to five major sects in each group, I don’t see much need for conflict or bickering between them. Not to say that there isn’t, but just that it’s not as prominent. I think all of us can think of a Baptist and a Pentecostal battling it out on a Facebook post, whereas it’s not so common to think of a Reform Jew and an Orthodox Jew battling it out over social media.

Since my experience is with Christianity, I want to go back to focusing on that. Why do so many Christians claim authority over what God says and what The Bible means? If there are 41,000 different variations of Christian doctrine, how can one group have it right? More than that, there have been 450 different translations or versions of the same Bible throughout history! I think Christians have an ego problem.

“I’m right and my church is wrong, so let’s create a new group with a new Bible and we’ll be right and God will love us.”

That’s basically what every founder of a new denomination or new Bible translation has said. They disagreed with the previous way of doing things, so they stood up and changed it. That’s what Martin Luther did. A lot of people praise him for what he did, but that seemed to have started a snowball that turned into an avalanche.

So, what do we do? Well, I don’t claim to know everything, but I’ve got some ideas:

Love People

Stop trying to convince people of what you perceive to be wrong. Just love people. Sacrifice your time to help those less fortunate. Share your home and invite people over for dinner. Send a letter to that certain someone who might need a pick-me-up. Smile at a stranger. Give a hug to someone who you really disapprove of their life choices and don’t even mention your disapproval. God is big enough to handle sin, so stop acting like you have to play God with people you see sinning in your eyes.

 Be Humble

You are not the best thing since sliced bread. There’s millions of people on planet earth and we are all special. Be proud of your faith, but don’t forget to consider other people and their faith. You are one small person and you don’t know everything. Along those same lines…

Be Open

Don’t shut out people who believe differently than you do. Open your heart to their differences. Hear their point of view. Whether it’s two people of the same faith group with differences, or two totally different religions. Like I said, you don’t know everything. Be open to what you may be wrong about. Be open to change.

I think there is a movement of people of faith taking strides to love people, and to be humble, and to be open. I believe that the early Christians were this way. I believe other faiths can be this way. I even believe people of no faith can be this way. There’s no reason to bicker about theological differences, when most of the time we all have the same goals at our core.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I was able to get into the spirit of Christmas just enough to spend it with my family. There was the candlelight service with my dad and his wife, where my dad sang a special song on Christmas Eve. Then we had a nice dinner and movie marathon at my mom’s house with my uncle, my mom, my husband, and my father-in-law on Christmas Day. I really enjoyed the last two days, but I’m happy to be getting back to normal now! Enjoy some of the photos from my festivities, and feel free to share your own holiday memories!

Christmas tree at my dad’s house

My dad singing his special song at the Christmas Eve service.

Christmas tree at my mom’s house.

My family at my mom’s house. From top left: my uncle James, my father-in-law Stanley, my mom Joyce, me holding Carley the pug, and my husband Stan

NOT in the Holiday Spirit

Christmas is coming.

You may read that and think, “Oh, how exciting! I can’t wait!” I am reading it like is an impending winter storm and I need to take cover.

I’m not usually such a Scrooge about the holidays, but this year has been a weird one, and I’m not much in the celebratory spirit. In fact, I can’t think of a holiday my husband and I really celebrated all year. We had a nice get-together for the New Year with my father-in-law. Other than that, we really didn’t celebrate any holidays. I can’t remember what we did for Easter. We did see fireworks for the 4th of July, but left early to go home. We didn’t do much for birthdays, nor did we celebrate our second wedding anniversary. I think we ordered pizza.

On Halloween, we hid in the house with the lights off until trick-or-treat times were over. Thanksgiving we spent at my grandma’s house, but my mom got sick and we left early anyway. This Christmas, we’ll be with my mom and it’ll be special, but we didn’t even decorate our house. We looked at our box of Christmas decorations and pulled out a Santa door hanger to put out, but that was it. We had no desire to put up our tree or any other decorations.

And now it’s almost the end of a very strange year.

But that makes me hopeful for 2014. My husband and I know we were huge buzz kills all year in 2013, and things are turning around for 2014. I’ve got my blogs and I’m passionate about writing again. My husband is working on an EP and his passion for music is bigger than ever.

I think 2013 was like a brick wall for us. We struggled on so many levels and didn’t know what to do next. The start of a new year is like our unofficial new chapter of our lives. I’m excited for what’s next.

More Love Letters

I’ve known about the More Love Letters project for quite some time now, but for whatever reason I never wrote a letter. I was either too busy, or too embarrassed, or I didn’t know what to say, or some other excuse. This holiday season they are doing an event called 12 Days of Love Letter Writing and I decided this was my time to jump in.

For starters, if you have never heard of More Love Letters, here’s a snippet from their About section:

The world doesn’t need another website. It doesn’t need another app or a network.

What it needs is really basic. Simple. Bare-boned. And often forgotten in the race to get followers, likes & status.

LOVE. Pure, old-fashioned, never goes out of style Love. Ridiculous, oozing, cannot pack this thang into 140-characters kind of love. Fearless, bold, unstoppable love.

And that’s where we come in… We’re going to tell you that we leave love letters all over the world for others to be blessed by. We’re going to ask you to write letters for Love Letter Bundles for people you’ll probably never meet.  We’re going to invite you to nominate someone you know for a Love Letter Bundle. You are going to think we are a bit crazy. A tad loopy… But let’s be honest,  you’ve been looking for a website that leaks love all this time.

I really like this idea, and I have for a long time. I’m all about sharing love with anyone and everyone, and this is just another way to do it. 

My Day 3 Letter!

So they are into Day 3 of their 12 Days of Love Letter Writing and so far I’ve kept up! My goal is to really do this every day for the 12 days, and then keep it up with their monthly letter requests. I may even write notes and leave them in random places for strangers.

It’s a beautiful thing to be able to share love and joy with the world! I would encourage any of you to check out their website and maybe write a letter of your own. There are always people who just need a little encouragement, and it doesn’t hurt to try to share some of your own experiences to encourage them. 

Good day to you all! Spread some joy today! 

Keeping Christ in Christmas

Of course, it’s that time of year where the “war” on Christmas erupts and people start fighting over what greeting is politically correct. Do we say “Happy Holidays” to encompass all faiths and celebrators? Do we say “Merry Christmas” because it’s the Christian thing to do? It never made much of a difference to me, honestly. I work with people everyday, and I’ll go back and forth during this time of year between “Have a good holiday!” or “Have a good Christmas!” depending on my mood. I don’t really understand why saying one or the other gets people all riled up.

But one thing I know for sure is this: for Christians who want to “keep Christ in Christmas” start acting like Christ at Christmastime. This is the best way to keep Christ in Christmas no matter what holiday greeting one desires to wish upon others. Seriously. Start giving to homeless shelters. Go work at a homeless shelter. Be extra generous to those who really need it. Forgive that family member who doesn’t really deserve it. Love unconditionally even if someone is unworthy. Just start acting like Jesus!

To be so concerned about the words that are spoken rather than the actions that are taken is missing the point of the teachings of Jesus and the spirit of Christmas. So, stop being mad at people who say “Happy Holidays” and get out there and love people!!!

Happy Holidays! 😉

My Faith

Faith is something that is important to me. But even that is a strange sentence because it’s like saying breathing is important to me. My faith is just who I am, entwined into my being. Culturally, we all like labels, and the best label to fit what I believe is Unfundamentalist Christian. I’ll get into that later.

I grew up in what folks call Evangelical Christianity. I could tell from early on that in my household this belief was a bit one-sided. My dad always drug me to church on Sunday, prayed before every meal, read the Bible everyday, prayed all the time, and was the epitome of what one thinks a Christian man would be. My mom on the other hand didn’t go to church with us most of the time, when my dad wasn’t around we didn’t always pray before eating, and I didn’t see her in front of her Bible every night before bed. That’s not to say my mom didn’t also believe in God or have faith. She just expressed it differently. I value both of my parents and each of their expressions of faith growing up. After all, they contributed GREATLY to the person I am today.

In 2009, I was introduced to a different type of Christianity that focused on the grace and forgiveness of God. There was a belief that we were no longer sinners when we believed in Jesus, and that the gift of eternal life is open to anyone who accepts it. It was pretty similar to what I grew up with, just much more “free” so to speak. Rules were taboo and people were encouraged to embrace healing, signs and wonders. I took hold of it very quickly and became very vocal about it. For about two years I was diving head first against types of Christians like Westboro Baptist Church and making enemies along the way. You’d think with a message of love and grace I would have been more peaceful, wouldn’t you? But alas, I was so set on “correcting” all these Christians that I felt were wrong, and I forgot the point of what I was believing. Ironically, the main group I was following, Revival or Riots, also recanted their methods and took down their website.

Now, I’m at a completely different place. I still have the foundations of Christianity that I grew up with, but my way of looking at the Bible and Jesus is a lot different.

For starters, I don’t think the Bible as we read it in English today is inerrant (Not to mention that historically Christians didn’t believe in biblical inerrancy until like 400 years ago…but that’s another story!). I do however value the Bible. I value what I read in context of surrounding passages as well as history and culture. It opens up interpretation to a different level when I read it this way. Plus, it seems as though too many people worship the Bible. It’s just a book, people!

Secondly, I am a huge supporter of same-sex marriage, LGBT people, and justice for them in the church and under the law. I’m not going to go into every last argument that may be made, but here’s the fact of what I believe: There’s nothing wrong with being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). LGBT people are valued human beings, no different from straight people or people who’s gender identity agrees with their sex. There should be no distinction under the law to discriminate against people of a different sexual orientation or gender identity. This is what I believe BECAUSE OF my faith in God, not in spite of it. I will be posting a more detailed blog on this part of my beliefs in the near future.

Now there are other things that don’t usually ruffle as many feathers that I think differently about such as tithing, hell, the Church body vs the church building, evangelism, rules, and pastoral authority. Then again, those things may ruffle someone’s feathers, but I don’t feel the need to go into detail of each one of them. Ask me if you are interested.

As I said earlier, I consider myself an Unfundamentalist Christian for those who need labels. John Shore came up with the title as well as tenants of belief. You can find them here. That is the most concise list of beliefs and I agree with them wholeheartedly.

But still the bottom line is this: I believe in LOVE. I believe in loving others unconditionally as God loves us. Dogmas will differ from person to person, and I don’t mind discussing my particular set of beliefs, but LOVE is the ultimate motivator of my life and my beliefs.

So, there you have it. A general overview of where I came from and where I am as it applies to my faith. Feel free to ask questions, but know that this is who I am. Don’t come at me thinking you can “change” me. I appreciate discussion and differences though, so please contribute if you want to!

What is Fear?

What is fear and why does it have such a hold on our lives? I have a huge list of things I’m afraid of. I’m afraid of bugs. I’m afraid of heights. I’m afraid of what others think of me. I’m afraid of rejection. I’m afraid to be vulnerable. I let these fears lead my life too much. How do I or others overcome something like this? Is it will power? Flooding? I do not have it all figured out.

I’m part of a book club and we are reading the Divergent series, with the latest book that came out in October, Allegiant. In the books, characters are placed in different factions that represent different values. One is Dauntless, where the people value bravery. In Dauntless, people are thrown into situations and have to be brave or die. I would die. There’s no way I could just use will power to overcome the fears that I have, no matter how big or small.

Flooding would also cause too much stress and I would have the opposite effect of its goal. I would curl up and give up. I’m not a brave person. My husband is brave for me and encourages me to be brave, but I’m not.

This is not a blog where I answer the question I originally posed and fill the world with articulate advice to save ourselves from fear. No, I really don’t know what to do. These fears are a part of who I am, but that doesn’t mean I like it.

So. What do I do?

Our Visit to a Multicultural Church Service

This morning my husband and I visited a local church that my family invited us to. They were musical guests as part of a multicultural service where a few other churches came together. Gibson Heights Second Presbyterian Church was a beautiful church tucked away down a side street mixed with suburban houses. The day was lovely, too, as you can see from the pretty blue sky. It was a perfect fall day.

The service was very nice. My family sang many of the songs. My dad, my uncle Al, my grandma, and my dad’s wife Barb were there representing my family with music. Pastor Bob Offerdahl, the pastor of the former Coitsville Presbyterian Church where my grandparents were members before it closed down, also graced the congregation with music sung in the language of the Dakota Indian. It was truly multicultural and it was moving.

The highlight of the service was Reverend Sidney Byrd, a 94 year old Native American man who came to speak. He expressed every Christian’s need to share the faith and not just go through the motions. He talked about his choice to become a Christian and how he never regrets it for a day. He was an adorable old man and very passionate about his Christian faith.

I couldn’t get a good photo of him while he was speaking because of where I was sitting, but I did manage to snap one as he was taking his seat after he spoke.

Reverend Byrd apparently came up with lyrics to a sweet song to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In” that we all sang. It was such a neat experience to sing in the tongue of the Dakota Indian. Here’s a portion of the song, on the left in Dakota and then in English on the right.

Wakantanka Iyuskin Po!                 Great Spirit God, Rejoice in Him!

Wakantanka Iyuskin Po!                 Great Spirit God, Rejoice in Him!

Lehantu Kin Imakikcu Kte              From This Time Forth He Will Redeem Me

Wakantanka Iyuskin Po!                 Great Spirit God, Rejoice in Him!

We also sang the Presbyterian Doxology and “Jesus Loves Me” in the Dakota language.

After the service and the music, there was food provided. Boy was it good food too! I also found myself taking photos of the sanctuary and other parts of the church. I loved the stained glass and the ceiling of the sanctuary. Check out some of the photos and enjoy the beauty yourself!

 

The Thirteen-Year-Old Author In Me

In my last blog post, I mentioned briefly some old short stories I had written when I was about 13 years old. Well, I pulled them out of hiding yesterday and read through them. Here’s some things I noticed:

• I ignored the rules of dramatic structure completely.
• I had no character development.
• I named all my characters after people from Degrassi: The Next Generation.
• I was obsessed with bad things happening to innocent people.
• The entire story was solved with two sentences of conclusion at the end.
• My themes were so depressing!

 

In each story, I basically named the main characters, then delved into the climax with no warning. And just as fast, the story was over, usually with a happy ending. The main characters were all female, and something bad happened to them. In one story, a girl had an eating disorder. In three of them, the main female unexpectedly gets pregnant. In two of those, the girl gets raped. And in another, a boy (okay I guess I did have a boy character) is getting bullied and brings a gun to school, killing four students and himself.

But of course, in all the stories except one that I left unfinished, the entire problem is solved in about two sentences. There was no way of getting to know the characters, and there was no build up to the climax. My husband would say that’s the way I tell all my stories, though. I jump straight to the important parts with no leading up to it. 

I did find it funny that I named all my characters after people from Degrassi, which was my all time favorite show at the time. In fact, if my memory serves me right, I’m pretty sure I stole a lot of my plots from the show! I was not as creative as I thought apparently. In one story, I even mention a popular jock from my middle school as a famous quarterback for the Cleveland Browns! 

I’m glad I pulled out those old stories. I had some ambition, but no direction. I don’t know that I’ll get into writing fiction again, but if I ever do, I know what NOT to do! Thanks 13-year-old me for that! 

Writer? Author? Blogger? What!?

I love writing. This is not some new realization I have come to recently. When I was in middle school, I wrote fictional short stories but most of them were quite dreary (I’ll have to pull them out of hiding now that I’m thinking about them). When I was a senior in high school, I enrolled in a Journalism course. I went the first day but changed my schedule to take a Finance course so that I could be with my friends during lunch. I didn’t end up getting to be with my friends at lunch, but I couldn’t change my class schedule again and now I’m a manager of a Credit Union. Basically my hissy fit to be with my friends changed the direction of my life and career choices. I often wonder where I’d be if I stayed in that Journalism class.

But here I am today: 24, married, no kids, a lovely pug, and still enjoying writing. Now I’m taking it in the direction of blogging to see how I fit here. I was never good at coming up with plots so being an author never really fit for me. I dabbled in poetry, but I didn’t really like that much either. I fell in love with Myspace’s little blog section back when Myspace was cool, and also loved Facebook’s Notes before they let statuses be as long as we want. So this seems like it makes sense for me. It’s an easy outlet to write what I want, how I want.

Do people respect blogging? Can it be a career? I guess it’s the modern version of Op-Eds from newspapers, but I don’t even know if people cared about those. It’s a new era, and people want different things. Don’t worry, Mom, I’m not throwing away my good job to become a freelance writer. But it is something I truly enjoy and want to explore.

Any bloggers out there? Authors? Poets? Journalists? I’d love to hear your thoughts about writing in this modern world and any advice you might have for me just figuring this all out.