Dinner

I made dinner the other night. I know this might not sound interesting but I was very excited about it for a couple reasons. One reason being I had gotten home from work and typically after work cooking is the last thing I want to do. Another reason was I was excited about what I was going to make. Having a plan before going to work I think is the key to me feeling better motivated to cook once I get home. So I threw together the following meal...

Asparagus

Rice

Salmon

I loved this meal! It was very yummy and healthy! And nothing beats the feeling of sitting down to a meal knowing it is going to be good.

Love Wins

Be warned...I'm getting on my soap box entitled "pet peeves with the 'Christian Community' ".
Rob Bell has been stirring up the Christan Community. And as usual the Community has responded in the typical way. We don't want to be seen as close-minded Christians (well at least some of us do) yet the Christian book stores in my town won't sell his book. Are we that afraid that the Christian Community can't think for themselves? Do we have to be censored by the Christians Book Store?

We allow fear to motivate us and I get tired of it...don't you? I hate seeing fear and feeling myself wanting to respond out of it. That is crap! Can we not appreciate that someone is raising questions...valid or not...and it gives us the chance to dig into the book and discover what God can stir in our hearts? You don't have to agree with him just because you read his book.

Yet the Christan Community is reacting and I am sad to see it. I am reading the book (which is also something not everyone in the debate will even bother doing) and finding great words of truth...truth that sadly some will miss because of their fear. Can we please start accepting challenges knowing that God can handle it. It isn't our job to teach Rob Bell a lesson by not selling his book...if he is wrong God is the one who will correct him.

This is a quote I was sent recently by a friend, "Truth fears no Questions." So what truth do you believe? Do you believe in a truth that can handle these big issues? Or do you believe in a truth that you have to protect? This is my soap box...which I will now step down from. I just desire so deeply that people will stop choosing what others say over taking the time to discover their oppinions for themselves.

p.s. I recognize that some people will read the book and still not agree and I love that. Just don't lash judgment out on things you haven't taken the time to investigate for yourself.

Celebration of Death

Streets filling with crowds cheering U. S. A....excitement and celebration over a planned hit, over murder. It has been ten years that we have been hunting Osama Bin Laden and yesterday they killed him and took his body. Yet people here are glad and I find it haunting and sad.  Does killing him really feel like victory? He has been training men to be terrorists and by killing him none of that changes. And do we really want to be a country that celebrates us murdering people?

We seem to be a Reactive country...you come here and hurt us we will hunt you down and hurt you. Isn't that what our involvement with WWII was about? That has been our stance since 9-11...find and kill. How will this be weighted against us as a nation. The President said last night "God bless America" and I had to think... Why? Why bless a nation who chooses vengeance and murder? Why bless a country that uses hurt as justification to kill? Why bless a nation that is so busy caring about ourselves we do nothing to stop terrorist except through violence? Would the same people cheering last night ever be willing to serve a year giving a good education to the poor and illiterate communities where the Taliban recruits from? Would they be willing to give money to help empower the people there to not have to choose to eat or to fight? Would they do everything they could be provide a good education instead of the slanted one the terrorists give?

Why can't we be proactive? If we really wanted to get back at the Taliban for coming and causing terror here why not rush into those countries and love them? Why not cut down on the places they can intimadate? Why not run into their towns and show compassion and grace? Love and mercy doesn't cost lives...it can transform souls. Because it is less about what we feel like we deserve and more about how we can keep other young lives from having to choose being a terrorist to survive. The government can't do it...but small grass root organizations can and are working towards these things.

Yet in we ran with guns...killing. How does that make us any better then them? How does that make up for the loss of the precious lives we lost ten years ago? It doesn't...it makes it all feel hollow. Revenge never feels as good as we think it will. Why do we deserve to be vindicated and not the people who have to daily live under the Taliban's rule? We believe in freedom...but just for us.