The Church Waves the White Flag

January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Just a few days left and we’ll be pulling out of our street with a packed U-Haul. Nearly twenty years in this city and lots of memories. Our lives together as husband and wife, as well as in parenthood, began here. It hasn’t always been a bed of roses. Our start began quite rocky, in fact there was a time when we were quickly spiraling downhill into a dark abyss of utter hell. There are some neighborhoods in this town that have always carried a bitterness due to flashbacks to some of those torturous years. In the midst of all we began to discover what Church is.

I’m not talking about the individual churches that schedule times of worship, but the overall Church. In the New testament we see references to the Church at Ephesus, the Church in Pergamum, the Church in Smyrna, and more. Here in this town, we got to know the Church in Chico.

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We have been blessed to get to know fellow brothers and sisters in Christ throughout our town. Several congregations gather for worship on various days and it has been truly enjoyable to get to know so many here. You see, for us, Church isn’t about just one congregation. Church is everyone. My friend Joy puts it so beautifully when she said, “the expansive worldwide beautiful people-ness that is Church.“

Many people have been hurt in the churches. The Church is a dysfunctional community of broken people trying to learn how to walk by faith and be healed. Sometimes we have to depart from abusive situations, but we’re still the Family of God, in Christ. As with any family, siblings will squabble. But we’re still family.

We’re not always going to agree how each congregation runs their programs, ministries, or outreach charities. But we’re still family.

Do we so easily forget that there is a greater enemy of The Church? Why are we so quick to take each other down when we can be lifting one another up? We’re in this battle together my friends. There is no need for competition between who fills the most seats in a pew, who can spit the farthest while preaching, or even which congregation has the most money. It matters not which congregation wears the fanciest clothes, drives the fastest cars, or which group sends the most graduates off to seminary.

We’re a Community within a community. We’re a Family that is called to extend love to one another and to the hurting citizens of the city. Some congregations assist the addicts to recovery, some assist broken families to reconcile, some feed the poor, and others house the single moms and their children. We aren’t enemies of one another. We’re on the same Team.

Oh yes, we may jest about each other’s quirks and get angry at abuse within some fellowships…but we’re a Family.

We’re not always going to agree on everything. Our personal experiences with God and with each other plays a huge role in how we view the scriptures, but can we get back to the simplicity of the Gospel?

Love one another.

Love your enemies.

We talk about repentance, but can we repent of being unloving?

Every family has it’s bad days, difficult months, and very trying years. Families have drama, as do congregations. Sometimes we’re too harsh. People go over the line and church discipline can become abuse as decisions within congregations become a muddy mess of blurry lines between boundaries and grace.

Can we err on the side of mercy and work together to create healthy, yet flexible boundaries that allows grace to breathe?

God forbid that we box up grace and suffocate her to death.

Grace is that refreshing water to quench the thirst for the parched.

Have we so limited grace that the Community is emaciated and anorexic?

What does this look like to the rest of the city as they look to us to see if we have something worth drinking?

Ecclesiastes 3 1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Maybe it’s time to drink. Anyone may come, everyone is welcome. Put down your swords and drink with us. Dip your bandages into the cool refreshing water of life and wrap your bleeding wounds. May The Church wave the white flag with one another and declare, Peace.

Ephesians 5: 20 ”giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ”

Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Farewell my dear Church in Chico…. We’ll see you again..someday. But we’re not leaving The Church…just moving on, to a different city with a new Community that is awaiting our arrival.

There is a broader view..do not forget. The Church is global and we can connect, communicate, support, and love one another through the Internet. Our blogs, Facebook pages, and even Twitterville contains The Church. We are so much more connected than we imagine.

Bless you,

Sisterlisa

Filed Under: Faith

Lord’s Prayer Recitation to be Required in Public School

January 13, 2012 By 3 Comments

We started out the month of November with the hopes that we would be moving before Thanksgiving. We rushed everything into boxes, taped them up, then everything with that home fell through. We pulled out due to some issues with the property managers and now we have sat, waiting to move to the next home. All our homeschool work has been packed and very difficult to get to. I miss homeschooling. Gina was able to find one binder of her work, the geography project we had been working on. She was so excited to find it and begged for me to print some things off the Internet for her to work on.

We’re getting VERY excited to move and we’re about 7 days away from escrow closing. I am in such a frenzy and so anxious to get moved, unpacked, and back to our schedule. Homeschooling is an option for us and I fully support any family’s freedom to home educate. Every homeschooler has a different reason to homeschool just as each family who uses private schools or public schools have their own reasons too.

So while I’m a homeschooler, I still have a passion for the freedoms of the public school’s system. Anyone with a passion to support the Constitution should be concerned with upholding the freedoms within the schools. We can’t allow anyone to prohibit their freedom, otherwise it gives them an inch to begin their mile high bondage back to more government and religious control over the people.

In the state of Indiana, they are trying to pass a Bill that reads:

“School prayer. Allows the governing body of a school corporation or the equivalent authority of a charter school to provide for the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of each school day.”

Now, a first look at this you might say.. “well it just allows the opportunity to recite a prayer.” However, within the Bill itself we see the more specific wording that violates our Constitution (emphasis in red is mine).

Sec. 4.6. (a) In order that each student recognize the importance of spiritual development in establishing character and becoming a good citizen, the governing body of a school corporation or the equivalent authority of a charter school may require the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of each school day. The prayer may be recited by a teacher, a student, or the class of students.

    (b) If the governing body or equivalent authority requires the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer under subsection (a), the governing body or equivalent authority shall determine the version of the Lord’s Prayer that will be recited in the school corporation or charter school.
(c) A student is exempt from participation in the prayer if:
(1) the student chooses not to participate; or
(2) the student’s parent chooses to have the student not participate.”

So not only is this wording placing a REQUIREMENT, but it also places a requirement on which VERSION is to be recited. Which means a student whose family does not condone the use of a version other than KJV will be REQUIRED to use whatever version the “authority” of the class determines. The wording goes on to indicate that this recitation WILL BE recited. Which means a teacher might be forced to lead in this religious practice against their will and against their own belief.

A child may opt out, however… this poses an incredible amount of pressure on a child to have to stand up for him/herself for not participating. Religious discrimination in the schools is bad enough as it is. What I mean by that is that children of other faiths and even atheists are already having to put up with religious snobbery from other kids as it is. Now don’t get angry with me, but rather listen closer. Because there ARE ungracious Christians in the public schools who are misbehaving with religion as their motivation.  If the state of Indiana passes this Bill and it becomes a LAW, then it opens the floodgates for ALL religions to seek EQUAL time in the schools to have their creeds recited publicly. This means that it is VERY possible then, for a teacher or other official to be REQUIRED to recite a Muslim creed or a Pagan chant in school.

Do we REALLY want to give ALL religions equal REQUIREMENTS, access, and time in the schools or should we do the right thing and stop religion from being able to start their wars among the children?

Why can’t we just allow the kids to go to school for their academics and leave the religious instruction to the parents and churches where it belongs?

Is enforcing Christianity into the public schools just a lazy move by parents who want someone else to guide their child religiously? It seems to me that if Christian parents are THAT concerned with their child having their religious practices among their school days that they can just opt out of the schools and teach them at home.

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My Hope for 2012

December 31, 2011 By 2 Comments

I am enjoying this holiday… as I sit here still in my pj’s at 11:45 am. I have spent way too much time on Facebook jumping into various theological banter and it’s been a bit like playing double-dutch jump rope with friends. I keep seeing lots of friends posting about their 2011 and their goals for 2012 and as enjoyable as some of them are I push back the pressure to do the same. However, there have been a few things that caught my attention.

My friend, Dominique, said this;

-What I’d like to leave behind in 2011, is accepting abusive behaviour from people – seriously folks, I’m DONE with it. Be nice or go away.
-What I appreciated most in 2011 was the love and support of friends during difficult times. You people know who you are ♥ .
-What I’m hoping for in 2012 is being involved in mutually supportive relationships with those I love and care for.

Boy oh boy, didn’t she hit the nail on the head? It’s one thing to have friends who have bad days and get jumpy in the way they interact with us, but the people who are habitually abusive…yes, I shall exercise my freedom and avoid such folks. I have been wounded so often and so deeply in 2011 that I must halt my interaction with habitually hurtful people. I just can’t take it anymore and I need time to get balanced in some sanity during 2012.

I love that Dominique said that she is hoping to be involved in *mutually* supportive relationships with those she loves and cares for. For 20 years we ministered to folks who had no one to love them and while most of those situations became productive opportunities to develop friendships, some of them weren’t. Some of them stomped on us so much that it wore us down and in our effort to be humble, forgiving, and gracious we ended up being trampled upon. It’s not conducive to our own growth to continue to be trampled on so much that we have no strength left to minister to others. When ‘ministry’ wears you down so much that you aren’t fit for even ministering to your own spouse or children then it’s time to step back. For me, 2012 will be my time to step back.

In November I wrote a letter to my past and tossed it into a ceremonial fire that symbolized the death of that past and my saying, “Goodbye”, yet every now and then some things tend to trigger PTSD of that past in me. Trauma is difficult to shake entirely. I am learning to say to myself, “I don’t have to engage in this conversation.” I don’t owe anyone an explanation for what I believe, but if they would like to know so they can ‘understand’ me then I would be glad to explain. I am in no position to have to submit to the theological beliefs of others nor do I have any obligation to see things their way.  While I do have a desire to understand others, I don’t have to agree with them.

I reserve the right to protect myself from PTSD triggers by deleting comments or blocking people on Facebook and Twitter. Although, I rarely delete a comment and I have nothing to hide about my beliefs, but some folks are just so darned vicious in how they speak to people and the condemnation I see online is atrocious. I understand that some people believe they need to condemn people before telling them about their version of Jesus, but I don’t believe in presenting my dearest Beloved that way.

Now about those mutually supportive relationships…if the ONLY time someone even speaks to me is to cram their theological view down my throat and condemn me and all my friends to hell for not believing in X, Y, Z  then they aren’t in that group of mutually supportive relationships. I reserve the right to choose who sees my Facebook page and if I disconnect with them it’s not that I don’t care about them, but my FB page is like my living room and my desire is to have “Mutually supportive relationships”. It doesn’t mean I only have friends that believe the same theological points as I do. It means surrounding myself with people who love me no matter what I believe.

And trust me, even respectful disagreeing friends can challenge each other in doctrine and spiritual practices without being abusive.

I have been enjoying the diversity of spiritual paths that my loved ones are on whether they believe in honoring Mary, read the ‘forbidden’ gospels, or follow a pagan path, their experiences are fascinating and their love for their fellow ‘man’ is inspiring. They challenge me to be a more understanding person, they inspire me to be more compassionate, and they enrich my life with a full embodied flavor. In the midst of such diversity and freedom of beliefs these friends are supportive to me as a person, even when we disagree on theology. These are the loved ones I want to spend my time with.

They give me the benefit of the doubt when something doesn’t seem clear to them. They do not pre-judge me and attack with accusation. They seek to understand me and love me in spite of any mistakes I make. At the end of an intense discussion about religion and politics, we can still sit back to enjoy coffee and laugh about the funny things kids say. We can banter back and forth about sports or what the best move is and we can remain friends because love is the key ingredient.

That is the kind of 2012 I hope to have. A year filled with grace. *Cheers*

 All my love,

Sisterlisa

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The Simple Kind of Christmas

December 26, 2011 By 1 Comment

In previous years, I would become so stressed out during December with all the hustle of Christmas and I longed for a simple kind of Christmas..only to keep getting caught up in the whirl wind of various traditions and trying to keep up with everyone else around us. This year it seemed the Spirit of Christmas had halted all that hustling for us. The initial home we were looking at getting ended up being a transaction from Hades and we needed to pull out. Word to the wise… research property management companies before getting involved with them. it’s all hindsight for us now, but we are thankful we got out when we did. Nevertheless, we had to go back and do more house hunting. So instead of racing to the stores to buy gifts and wrapping paper, we headed to the airport to spend the holidays with TSA and delayed flights. Instead of enjoying home baked treats, we enjoyed peanuts and chips with a small plastic cup of diet soda. Rather than watching the traditional holiday flicks with the kids, we were watching reruns of Seinfeld on the airplane.

We arrived in So Cal to meet up with my husband’s folks and drove directly to view some open houses and meet with Realtors, sign more papers, yadda yadda yadda. There was no time to buy toys when we were focusing on buying a home. We knew that this Christmas would be small since we were pouring all of our resources into a relocation for the entire family and our children have been super appreciative and thankful even though it meant a very limited pile of gifts under the tree this year.

Amazingly enough, we got a lot accomplished in the 4 days before Christmas and flew home with the hope that this would be the one home we get. If you’ve ever bought a home you will know it takes a while for all the pieces to fall into place and here we are the day after Christmas and still waiting on the final word. We spent Christmas in the living room with our children unwrapping hand made gifts that the children made for us while we were gone. Monica made the ladies some jewelry and Jessica created imaginative hunts with clues and cool little gifts made from the most unusual things. Not only were we surrounding the tree as a family, but surrounding us on all sides was the contents of our home packed in cardboard boxes waiting to be loaded into a moving truck.

We decided that we would have a belated Christmas meal with my husband’s parents once we get moved so we settled on a precooked ham log with canned yams and boxed potatoes for dinner last night. We didn’t send out cards, we didn’t call anyone, we didn’t attend any Christmas parties or gift exchanges…we actually got that simple kind of Christmas I had longed for in previous years and it was quite relaxing. This smaller Christmas was needed for all of us.

On Christmas Eve, I surprised myself with a tradition we had stopped a couple of years ago…the traditional Candle light service with a local congregation. We had made friends with a small congregation over the last year. Monica accompanied me while the rest of the family hung out at home. It was a very last minute decision. I don’t mean to knock this little church, as they were very kind and open to us that evening, but I do not miss sitting in wooden pews and no matter how much padding goes onto those things, they are incredibly uncomfortable. But the sanctuary was beautifully decorated and the staff gave a beautiful presentation of the Christmas story and we sang some traditional Christmas hymns. I was encouraged to hear the pastor place the utmost importance on the love of God. Too many times in the past I had heard condemnation from various churches with barely a hint of speaking of God’s love, yet this pastor made God’s love paramount in his Christmas presentation. And as usual, no matter what is said in a message that was carefully and prayerfully planned, it was the lyrics to a song that spoke to me most. For some reason it’s always been the songs that move me the most in a church service. This is not meant to minimize the preparation that went into the evening, rather it’s to reveal the importance of us listening to the Spirit of Christmas over all.

As I sang one of the songs it was the words ‘peace and calm’ that hit me. The Spirit was hushing my anxious heart that has been so burdened about this move and for that moment he met me in that pew and calmed me. The tears flowed. It was nice to visit with the pastor and other folks that night. We thanked them for the service and headed home. I made home made hot cocoa topped with whipped cream then went out for our annual tour of lights drive to enjoy the brightly lit homes in our neighborhood. We sang together and “oooed and awed” at the colorful displays then came back home to settle in for the night. If it wasn’t for Jessica, we wouldn’t even have our tree up. She set up the tree and hung the stockings while we were gone house hunting. She set out the cookies she baked for Santa and we all headed to bed.

Even though the annual War over Christmas raged in the media and in cyberspace, we settled into the true meaning of Christmas for ourselves which is, family. Regardless of whether people celebrate Christ as the pillar of their Christmas or not, the tradition of Christmas brings family together and we certainly felt the calling in our hearts to gather in tightly with each other within our own home and that was what we needed most.

We continue to wait for the call about the home in So Cal and look forward to a new year in 2012 as a family in a new community. And with that, I am excited about a new direction for my blog and I ask your patience with me as I look for a new layout and decor. I’m pouring all of my energy into the move.

Bless you all as you head into the new year.

Sisterlisa

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So I Was Hacked

December 12, 2011 By 3 Comments

It took me over a month to figure out what was going on with my blog. I noticed it was running really slow and I started dumping plug ins one at a time. I ran anti-virus and spam plug ins and used Google’s Web Master tools to try and find out what the problem was. Some browsers never noticed a thing, while Google Chrome was indicating Malware on my blog. Each time I tried scanning my site, the Google Web Master tool claimed my blog was clean, but Chrome said it wasn’t.

Long story short, I called my host’s toll free number and spoke to a representative who found the problem. The guy sent me the link to where the problem was. A website from Japan had hacked my blog and set up their entire business site on my server. They had inserted their site in this extension of my WordPress: wp-includes/js/swfupload/php/slim/. They had also added an entire new WordPress to my files that were very deep in my file.

The rep told me the vulnerability may have been through one of my older blogs which I no longer use. It hadn’t been updated with the newer version of WordPress and the hacker had found a way in. Needless to say, I decided to dump that whole blog entirely and I changed all my passwords.

So all of this on top of being in the middle of moving has really put a damper on my blogging and I haven’t even had a chance to update my decor. Christmas is coming so quickly and we aren’t done moving so I may have to skip the idea of a Christmas design for my blog this year. *bummer*

No matter how crummy things seem to be going, there’s always others who are in more need of prayer than I. A friend of mine is suffering tremendously this holiday season. Her little guy wiggled his way out of his daddy’s arms and fell, breaking his leg. The hospital called CPS and her baby boy and daughter were both taken from their home. The police investigated and declared it a false allegation of child abuse and closed the case..no charges were filed. However, CPS has not returned the children to their parents. Please join me in prayer that these precious babes can be returned and like their support page? I have known Tiffiny since she was in junior high school. She and her husband need our prayers and we pray the children can be home for Christmas and that CPS will stop this silly nonsense. There are plenty of drug infested abusive homes they can be intervening in instead of bothering with this family.

So while we all celebrate this festive month, lets be thankful for the little things in life and light a candle of prayer for those who are suffering.

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The Freedom We Have in Christmas

November 28, 2011 By 2 Comments

I am a bit delayed in getting my holiday theme up. I had hoped to be able to do all the designing over the Thanksgiving weekend, but I wasn’t able to get it done. So please bear with me as you continue to see my Autumn decor. It’s that time of year again when people battle over the whole Christmas vs. Holiday issue again. Can I just say it’s getting quite exhausting? Lets just be practical about it shall we?

Christmas music by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

The world has various winter holidays and all kinds of religions celebrate their holidays in the same month, December. In a country like America, we are going to see a huge melting pot of these holidays around our towns and in advertisements as companies aim to get our money and compete with each other over the almighty dollar. Forget that the value of the dollar is decreasing, they still want it. So anyway, they don’t want to offend anyone and disrupt their paychecks. And who can blame them in this economy? We all would like to have the finances to have a nice holiday with our families. So they are trying to be polite to everyone of all beliefs by simply saying, Happy Holidays. It’s no big deal!

There are plenty of companies that sell nativity scenes, window clings with crosses on them, tree ornaments with baby Jesus on them, and so much more. They are not going to abolish Christ in Christmas. No matter how much some people do not choose Jesus as the reason for their season, the Christian tradition will go on so long as the families continue to hold fast to their heritage.

I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty about the history of Christmas, there are plenty of sites out there that you can read.

But lets just stop and think about the Spirit of Christmas for a moment. If there is any time at all for Christians to be peaceful and joyous, it should be Christmas. No one is going to tell you that you can’t celebrate Christ in Christmas. Your faith is YOURS and how you celebrate is your freedom. But lets also not forget that the U.S. Constitution protects all people to have freedom in whatever religion they choose…and Jesus never commanded that you harm people or their businesses for not celebrating this holiday the same way you do. In fact, Jesus never commanded that we celebrate his birth. The historical tradition of Jesus is to celebrate his resurrection.

I think it’s incredibly courteous for companies to offer a generic holiday greeting and decor for their stores in light of how many religions are having celebrations during this time. I would much rather see that, than for them to be judgmental in excluding others while only including one.

Even the apostle Paul said not to judge people for the way they observe their holy days and also not to judge people who don’t.

I happen to have relatives and loved ones of all sorts of religious backgrounds. I have this extreme honor of being able to commune with these loved ones even though we celebrate differently. I love that we are all unique this way. I have Christian friends who don’t celebrate Christmas at all, who believe the tree in the living room is an abomination and I’m ok with that. That is their own personal conviction. I will not force them to give up their free will just to make me more confortable. I also have Christians friends who might as well have Santa’s workshop in their homes, their homes look like National Lampoon’s Christmas, and wear bells on their tennies all month long. Who am I to rip their freedom out from under them and tell them to stop celebrating Christmas the way they choose to?

Then I have some lovely Pagan friends who don’t celebrate the traditional Christmas, but rather their winter solictice in much different ways. Their ancestors were forced by threat to give up their religion and heritage. They were forced to convert against their wishes, against their freedom, and against their free will. This should never have happened!

Jesus never said to threaten people with their lives if they don’t choose him. In fact, Jesus said to depart in peace and wipe the dust from your shoes if they don’t recieve you. So anyone who tries to force Pagans, Jews, or Africans to celebrate Christ in their December celebrations are in direct violation of what Jesus tells them to do.

In addition to this, Jesus was not so tolerant of religious people using manipulation to get people to do things for their own pesonal gain and I am pretty sure Jesus would not want people to be manipulated into celebrating his birth in December if they don’t want to. So when Christians further their propaganda to manipulate stores into adding Christ Christmas music to the speakers during shopping hours, or “Merry Christmas” in their slogans, then they are, again, in violation of what Jesus teaches us to do. Manipulation is sorcery and part of the dark arts. Christians are NOT to have anything to do with the dark arts. All things in Christ are to be done with the utmost integrity, honor, and love.

It’s fabulous that people want to celebrate their faith in their winter holidays and I think it’s high time that we just live peacefully among each other and stop trying to insist on our own way. Love does not insist on its own way. If you celebrate Christmas with Christ, then do so…but please do not launch a war against others who don’t. That  is not the spirit of Christ. And when Christians insist on doing so, we create such a monstrous mess that is not going to attract people to us or the Jesus we claim to follow.

If you’re a Christian and you see our brethren and sisters launching such wars, remind them of grace. Stand up for the freedom we all have and put your feet down with abusive religious zealots who continue to make it all that much harder for us to be a light of grace and mercy in the world. If you wish to correct anyone, correct them..those who are hurting folks at Christmas time. Please ask them to stop. It’s just not the way of Christ to be so mean to people.

If you work in an environment where the managment asks you not to say “Merry Christmas” to their customers, then respect them. Please do not go against Jesus when he spoke through the writer of Hebrews and said to obey them that have the rule over you. He never said that we are to go against our ‘masters’ just to say “Merry Christmas”. Do not attempt to say that using the term, “Merry Christmas” is evangelism and push your “right” to free speech and freedom of religion over the wishes of your employer. That is not the way of Christ.

If your child goes to a public school, please do not coerce your children into pressing the school officials by ‘exercising’ the use of “Merry Christmas” in the school. Don’t you remember that Peter said that people can be won without the word, by the manner in which we live? It’s ok if the schools don’t use the term, Christmas, in their decor or holiday celebrations.

Isn’t the whole point of celebrating Christmas, as Christians, to spread joy and glad tidings? Are we not to be peaceful among one another during this time of year (and all year long)? So let your light shine among mankind in the way you love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. If you want freedom to have a nativity in your front yard, then be peaceful about a pagan having a wreath on their front door. If you want freedom in your business to say Merry Christmas, then allow the other businesses to have freedom to say Happy Holidays. We will reap what we sow and if we sow threats of not shopping at some stores over something as trivial as this, then don’t be surprised when people boycott your business too. It’s sad that so many innocent children would suffer with no holiday ham or turkey because their parents businesses suffered financial loss due to some overzealous Christians who launched an outright war against them for saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas!

Have we, as Christians, become so petty and selfish? Are we reverting back to the old ways of manipluating people into a false conversion under cyber bullying to hurt their financial stability? Come on my dear brothers and sisters…that is not the way of Christ.

 And before I go for today, may I remind you that there are plenty of Christmas photos at Pix-O-Sphere  that you can use in your blogging this month? And if you have other holiday images to share from various December celebrations, please feel free to upload and share. It’s free to join.

Are you afraid you’ll have trouble with communicating about your faith or holiday celebrations with friends and family on facebook? Sadly this time of year continues to have hostile words over this controversial issue. But you can customize your Facebook settings to give yourself some more privacy without having to unfriend people.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, Happy Hannakuh, Have a Great Kwanzaa, and a Blessed Yule!

Luke 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

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Today’s Samaritans

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Adding this post to my collection of “Life in the Paradox” posts.

Each year we have opened our home to friends for Thanksgiving and this year I didn’t think we would be able to. Our home is filled with packed boxes and things are just totally out of place. Our best dishes are all packed, all the serving plates, and even the special utensils are all in boxes. We picked up some cute extra large Thanksgiving paper plates and planned to get a small precooked meal from the market.

I have a lovely pagan friend who has been incredibly supportive. Every box in this house has been given to me by her, she has ‘walked’ with me through some painful discussions about our past cult life. She mentioned that she and her husband would be having a quiet Thanksgiving alone and I excitedly invited her over. “If you don’t mind paper plates for the holiday?” I am thrilled that she accepted the invitation.

Yesterday, as my husband was putting our roof on…the inspections lady just so happen to be driving by…”you have a permit for that?”

ugh!

I don’t want this to turn into an anti-government rant, but why the heck do we need to pay the government for their permission to fix our own home?

Needless to say, she halted us immediately. The whole thing needs to be removed…inspected, and start all over. All that money..down the drain. It’s all trashed now and the rains are coming.

Hubby needs to drive 2 hours to get the permit. Well, there goes my plans to have that precooked meal.

Sigh*

And of course, the offices are closed for the holiday and we have to wait until next week.

I felt very discouraged. I wanted to break down and cry.

We have been doing everything we can just to be able to get this house ready to sell, our fridge is becoming more bare by the day, and we even stopped some of our luxuries like Netflix and my Melaleuca membership. We’re doing all we can to save up to move.

Now I have friends coming for Thanksgiving and no meal to provide.

The phone rings and as much as I hate to answer the phone when I’m in the middle of a meltdown, I answer…”Can you pick up the donations for the ministry today?”

As if I really want to face the store clerk with tears in my eyes? Sigh** Reluctantly, I agreed to do the pick up. I bite back the emotional meltdown and go in to pick up the ‘day old’ food being donated to the ministry.

I loaded the van up with the boxes and drove to the drop off. “If there’s anything in there you’d like to grab, go ahead.”

Choking back the gulp that was coming forth, I peeked into the boxes…

potatoes

cranberries

onions

bread

mandarin oranges

My daughter was with me and she giggled out, “mom, we can make our own stuffing with this bread and onions…we have celery and raisins already at home. We can make our own cranberry relish…and mashed potatoes.”

She was so positive that we could make it work. But what about the turkey?

She’s been saving some money to move out on her own at some point after the move and she says, “I could buy the turkey this year.”

This 19 year old compassionate women isn’t a little girl anymore. I didn’t want her to give up her money so I decided to go look in all stash spots to see if I had anything to contribute. I thought I had saved a few dollars last week and upon looking in that stash I unfolded what I thought were 4 one dollar bills…in the center was a $20 and a $10.

Biting back more tears we rushed to Safeway to get a turkey…only to be devastated by the price tag…$60. Seriously? a $60 turkey?

Forget it!

There’s one more store to check…and off we went.

Walking through the next store with anxiety and thoughts on settling for the red meat I had in my freezer….we approached the poultry section of the store…fresh turkeys… $20! Score!

We were both giddy with laughter and gratitude.

We would have Thanksgiving after all.

But do you know what we are more excited about than turkey? To be able to have pagan friends joining us to give thanks for friendship and for the Divine intervention we all have in our lives.

Prayer at the table this year will be diverse, but it’s the love and grace we have in our friendship that will shine in our hearts.

Some might insist that I use this day as an opportunity to shine Jesus to my pagan friends…but what those folks don’t understand is that my pagan friends have shone Christ to me this year.

This paradoxical Kingdom life brought Christ’s love to me through pagans. Sometimes it’s not a professing Christian that touches the hearts of others…sometimes it’s the Christ reaching out to a Christ follower…from a pagan.

This summer brought my family the gift of friendship in the pagan community. Love revealed itself to us with hugs during tear filled moments of pain brought on by the Christian cult we left. Hospitality embraced us in the donation of boxes to help us move. Grace was given to us in so many ways and in such unconventional ways…and through our new found friendships our own faith in Christ was supported and not rejected.

These pagan friends showed us how to be better Christians.

We were weary, ‘beaten’, left to ‘die’ on our own and they were the Good Samaritans in our story.

Love your neighbor as yourselves.

You might entertain angels, unaware.

And so with gratitude I make additions to my list..

Grace..it comes in a variety of ways.

Christ..he reveals himself through angels, a donkey, in dark valleys, and even through pagans.

Love…true love that is…it’s unconditional.

Coffee..it’ll be our ‘communion’ drink this Thanksgiving.

Birch trees…I’ll tell you about this one later…it’s a symbol of New Beginnings…and we believe we have that now.

Happy Thanksgiving my dears and I leave you with this thought provoking concept…

Maybe Jesus is still in the ministry of revealing who our ‘neighbor’ really is…through the Samaritans of today.

I believe he does.

candle by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

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On Being Transparent

November 22, 2011 By 4 Comments

The cry goes out in the blogosphere, ‘be authentic’. Readers want transparency and originality and I understand that. I would much rather read a blog that has authentic heart and a realistic personality, but then we hesitate on being authentic ourselves. I think many of us secretly battle with insecurity and fear rejection if people knew who we really are. We get tired of hearing the same ol’ Christianeze cliches and pat answers to life’s challenges and we eagerly grab at water hoping to bottle it up and hook ourselves up to get an iv drip of grace. Can we get a life of grace in the midst of reality while wrestling with fears of not being accepted and loved?

After leaving a cult my mind began to unwind and at times it seemed to unravel far too quickly and I thought I would lose my mind. Each morning I woke up with racing thoughts and anxiety plagued my soul as I faced each day with uncertainty. The years of hearing nightmarish tales of what happens to people when they leave ‘their church’ were horrendous. You see, I became accustomed to making the church life my anchor instead of Jesus. The empty promises of ‘do this and everything will be ok’ had come to a screeching halt and each day was met with wondering when the ‘lightning’ would crash down upon us. Then seeing how people within the church were still suffering from adultery, pedophilia, abusive marriages, and teenage pregnancy it dawned on me that the ‘church’ was not safe. Or perhaps it was just that life isn’t safe.

Life, whether in church or not, has no promises to bliss. Life takes us on twists and turns all the time no matter where we gather, fellowship, or worship, but the key to facing this unpredictable life is to discover how grace fits into the grand scheme of things.

My husband had finally arrived at home after interviewing for almost 3 weeks at a distance of over 500 miles away. I am so glad he’s home. We enjoyed Saturday evening and we were determined to sleep in a bit on Sunday and enjoy being together. What is it about the desire to sleep in and you end up waking up before the sunrise? I opened my eyes and lay there listening to my mind and I was at rest. I thought I might cry. I don’t know when the early morning anxiety and racing thoughts had ceased, but this was the morning that I noticed it. I sighed a deep breath of relief.

The last few years have been painful and relieving at the same time. It’s difficult to compose into words and yet journaling our departure has been therapeutic for me. The hard part is when my thoughts, questions, and biblical interrogation of cult teachings made my loved ones uncomfortable. Friends fled quickly and at times I felt more lost and alone than before I encountered Jesus. There’s nothing like having everything you hold as sacred and special ripped out from under you then to see your loved ones leave you to squander in the mess alone.

Do we really want to encourage people to be authentic, genuine, realistic, and transparent? If we do, then we had better be ready to support them as loved and accepted in the process. Being transparent can be a filthy mess and if we can’t figure out how to give a relevant Jesus to a hurting believer then we have missed the mark on being  Christians.

Now we’re preparing to move to a new community and get a fresh start. Perhaps the past has finally died and the rebirth process is beginning again. Going through labor pains in life isn’t easy and it’s quite painful. To be birthed out of an enclosed and comfortable environment and into a new world can be frightening. Maybe this is why new born babies are born screaming and desiring to snuggle close to their mommas. We’ll be looking for community, a place to be encouraged and a place to serve others. I hope to be able to share more with you very soon. For now we’re totally going on faith…afterall..isn’t that what being a Christian involves?

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Don’t Let Advertising Think for You

November 17, 2011 By 3 Comments

I had a rough week and headed to bed early every night this week. This is totally out of character for me, as I am normally a night owl. So I turned on the TV to watch some comedies to lighten the serious mood I’ve had all week and was scratching my head at almost every commercial I saw. I normally TiVo my favorite shows (which are only a few) and fast forward through commercials. But this week I got to bed early enough to watch them before they taped. Maybe since I haven’t really watched commercials in so long, that might be the reason why I really listened to the messages they were giving.

This one in particular raised a red flag for me. McDonald’s wants you to think that ordering from their dollar menu makes you a smart person, however the method in which they get this message across is not through intelligent advertising. This scene shows a couple having breakfast and the wife says that another man says Sundays are for football. She is clearly annoyed with the statement and asks her husband for his thoughts. The shocked look on his face shows that he is caught by surprise, his imagination of being kicked out of the house reveals his fears of consequences should he happen to agree that Sundays are for football, and the narrator voice tells him to give the smart answer…and he says the guy is a jerk.

The man is relieved since he gave the answer that would keep him out of the dog house, but it gives viewers the impression that lying is good for a relationship rather than honest dialogue. It stereotypes women as being intolerant bullies, and gives the appearance that men are afraid to be honest….over watching football on Sundays?

Why do they try to appeal to this stereotype? Why not just advertise that you have a dollar menu and how that helps a couple save money so they can spend time together with their saved dollars?

Don’t let advertisers convince you that relationships actually operate this way. And for goodness sake ladies, let your voices be heard that not all women are intolerant bullies who would kick their husbands out over an opinion about something as trivial as watching football on Sundays.

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Expressing Gratitude in the Dark Valley

November 15, 2011 By 1 Comment

Scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I see a friend announce that she’ll be using paper plates for Thanksgiving this year…for the first time ever. I sat quietly for  moment pondering our Thanksgiving this year and I glanced over at the stack of boxes in my living room. My gorgeous white square plates are wrapped in newspaper and packed. We won’t be having a nicely set table this year and I took a moment to deeply ponder what I am thankful for this year.

My 16 year old daughter, Moni, is sitting on the couch painting her nails, Gina who is 12 years old is snuggling our puppy, and Timmy is watching a tutorial video on his computer. Jessica, who is 19 years old, is sitting across the room from me playing her guitar and singing. I’m thankful to have family.

FallLeaves by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

My husband and I are going on 20 years of marriage and moving to a new city, anticipating the newness of a large city lifestyle and saying goodbye to this smaller town. We are thankful for the trials we have had in life and Chico, California has been a place where we learned a lot about life, community, and trust. We experienced destruction and redemption. We’ve said goodbye to loved ones at the funeral parlors…loved ones who weren’t able to find their peace in life and chose to find it in death. We’ve said goodbye to neighbors, church communities, and abusive relationships.

This town has been a mix of laughter, community, and tragedy. It’s no one’s fault necessarily, it’s just a part of this life.

I am thankful for the years we did have that were peaceful. I am thankful for those who were supportive during our tough times. They were divinely appointed for those times in our lives and now we press on to a new life where new friends await us.

Being thankful for the trials in life is probably the most difficult sort of thankfulness to express. To be able to look at those past trials as learning experiences and as adventurous paths where we found mercy and grace.

To look at the darkness with a romantic heart knowing that is the place where we found our Savior, experienced his gracious embrace, and where we birthed our own redemption story.

Communicating that story may be viewed as glorious to some while hated by others and trying to find the most appropriate words to tell a story such as ours, can be arduous. I don’t intend to be hurtful, but blogging through the brokenness is not going to be appealing, but I pray that the telling of my story can be engaging. My prayer is to find ways to tell our story in such a way that I can express the hope I have found in Christ and the faith I have placed in Him to guide us to a fresh beginning. My heart longs to close the pain of the past and see it transformed into a respectful passion to help others who are facing what we have already been through.

The heartbreaking past that we have is what gave way for this new birth and coming to understand the dark valley we have walked through gives us a perspective we did not have before.

Yet here I am trying to compose my words around my journey of gratitude so I can view those menacing memories as stepping stones and not terrors that haunt me every day.

Here is where I find what I am thankful for…experience. God has given us the experience needed for the future that awaits us. Oh, to be grateful for those dark valleys, the abusive years, the mental turmoil, and the spiritual terrorizing.

To find understanding for those who may not even realize what they’ve done. To forgive them when they deny any ‘wrong’ doing. To find courage and strength to walk away and trust that God has a purpose for it all and trust that he will issue proper justice (not revenge) in his due time….not my own.

May life launch us forth with passion and zeal to make a difference for others who have suffered. To help them find healing and to empower them to move forward in life in a loving community.

It is in my heart’s desire to become involved with helping in an anti-bullying organization. I want to take some communications classes and further my own counseling studies to focus on giving victims a voice so they can help turn their past into a stepping stone for others too.

Thankful for dark valleys that produced patience and experience.

Thankful for experience that gave us hope.

Thankful for faith and the Author of that faith that carried us through.

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