I hate you

This is fitting for my day. Please listen to my blog ... it says it all.

"I stand by my vote" and all that

First - let me say I will return to the issue of Jimmy Carter and the Southern Baptist church...and the stand many people take on the role and position of women in this world... if you are not aware of the whole thing let me recommend you read this: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/losing-my-religion-for-equality-20090714-dkOv.html?page=-1 (not sure how to make this a link ...sorry ... I will fix it later.)
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But today I want to comment on something I have seen on a number of facebook pages. The category is "I did not vote for Obama and I stand by my vote." People are signing up to identify with this - good people. People I like.

I acknowledge that what you see depends on where you stand. Let me say that I stand aside a bit, being Canadian and not able to vote. So whether I would have voted for or against Obama is moot, really. I did not vote. But I watch what happens. And I listen.

But now that Obama IS the president - what is the wisdom in cheering AGAINST him? Any success he might have brings a job to my son, health care to the man with prostate cancer and more peace in the near east. And other things. It seems unwise, and even wrong, to take a position against someone whose job it is to represent us and create a healthier environment for life. Do we REALLY hope he fails? We fail with him. It does seem we are in this thing together, even if our feathers are a different color.
Indeed, for those who use scriptures to support a 'position', it is noted that God's word to the Israelites living in captivity is to settle down, have families, and pray for peace in the land, because peace for the land was peace for them. In the New Testament we are told to pray for, speak well of and do good to ... our ENEMIES. The sage of Proverbs writes, "A wise woman builds her own home. With her own hands, a fool tears her's down."

I see a lot of people tearing down their own home, in this country. Literally. And metaphorically.

I am sure I am offending someone now. But it seems to me that whether you voted for or against Obama, it is now time to throw our support - prayer - words - ideas ... everything we have, into the work he / and we, must do. There is something counter productive in taking a stand against a leader who is democratically chosen to run the country. That stand was fairly taken during the election, but now is the time to get on board. And surely as Obama is faulty, so too was the last administration.

So my friends, it is incredibly sad to me, an alien in your rich open land, to see you wishing failure on the leader whose success would make your country even more beautiful. Maybe we have lost the view of the forest for the trees.

But then, I am only a Canadian.

Jesus and my girls

Interesting things happen all through life. A while ago an older man approached Curtis, (my son in law) and asked if there were any children in the church he could use as faces for a painting he was doing. Curtis replied that his girls were in the building, so pictures were taken and a release signed, and that was the end of it.

This week the man brought Curtis the original painting of the girls with Jesus. It is quite remarkable. I said to Rachel (deviously), "Send it to me and I'll have it nicely framed!" She retorted, "That's the same thing Curtis' mom said, and I'll tell you what I told her - no."

I laughed. It was a good try and I am their gramma after all.

Jimmy C separates from Southern Baptist over Women's Position

I did not comment on this immediately - I have been pondering it. I will write my thoughts (they are forming) soon, but first, I must blog about my girls ... see you soon... and I am very interested to begin a line of discussion about this happening. Do you think it is significant?


Jimmy Carter

I think this is plagarism

I sat beside my friend Tammy in chapel yesterday morning... and had the following experience with her. I went home and told my husband about it - the best part of my day. When I read Tammy's blog I stole it and reprinted it here. She says it better than I could:
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If you can talk, you can sing
So, today I went to chapel...it was a great service.

At the beginning of the service, we sang two songs. I had a couple come into the pew behind me and sit. They had what seemed like 12 children....I think it might have been 4. Anyhow, we started to sing, In Christ Alone.

The congregation begins to sing...what I heard next was absolutely breathtaking. One of the little boys behind me....he was maybe 3...he begins to sing. He knows the tune, but he only knows maybe 2 words in every verse. But it doesn't stop him from singing....he sings....he belts it out.....saying words that made no sense to me, sprinkled with a correct word here and one there....I had to close my eyes and listen.

There were so many things going through my head. First off, why is that we adults over-think everything....why are we not free to worship, really worship....belting it out with all our hearts as loud as we can with no regard to the person in front of us. Next, I listened to this little guy's mom....he sang just like her....she was belting it out, of course she knew all the words. This little guy has been in church with his mom, watching, listening and now following after her. She is teaching him how to worship. Last I wondered how this little guy's song sounded to God....was the Father closing His eyes, drinking in the pure worship of such a sweet soul. Then I wondered, what does my song sound like to my Father.

If you can talk, you can sing;
If you can walk, you can dance.

HOW TO RECOGNIZE GRACE (with bracketed additions from my life this summer)
It comes in odd packages(like a headache that wakes you in the middle of the night and you get up and see the moon shining)
It sometimes looks like loss (like the passing of my friend Nancy)
or mistakes (like getting stuck in rush hour traffic in Chicago with BS)
It acts like rain (like a pan of BBQ pork from Tammy's kitchen to make a meal easy)
or like a seed (like our son Ben in Indonesia helping his kids love us)
It’s both reliable and unpredictable (like Rachel, my daughter)
It’s not what you were aiming at (a perfect restful summer)
or what you thought you deserved (like presents on Mother's Day)
It supplies what you need (like a hug)
not necessarily what you want (like no problems to deal with)
It grows you up (like learning you are not the most important person in every room)
and lets you be a child (like me and Joy watching fireworks in the rain on BS's jeep)
It reminds you you’re not in control (like seeing Vincent find his world)
and that not being in control is a form of freedom (like me 'n Steve on the front porch at the end of the day.)

Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn McEntyre.

sudden insight

sitting on the porch with Linda ... telling her that her husband's smile on Sunday made me happy. To put it into context, the men's chorus sang on Sunday - some rousing patriotic song. Whatever. But something nice happens in me when twenty or so good men do that.

But how I expressed it to Linda was, "When the men get up and sing, I forgive them!"

Then I laughed.

Then I said, "OH NO! Maybe I'm a groupie! That's why I like the men to sing~!"

ARGH~!That's it. I used to like guys in bands - guys who are musicians, in groups, with guitars and drums. Or violins.

Oh dear. Is that still me? Where are the guys my heart used to follow? It isn't a good image in my mind. I hope they are all insurance agents and not trying to be cool any more.


How bizarre, how bizarre.

so what is it with my brain?

This morning at five fifty six a.m. NPR radio news begins to sound beside my bed. Now this is news, but not 'news' to my brain. In fact, my brain planned this to happen. "We will get up at six," my brain declared to my body last night. So this is the plan.

Therefore when morning noise broke my rest one would think my brain would say, "Okay body, this is a good thing. I direct you to get up." But oh no. My brain recants the plan and begins the negotiation.

"OOOOOOOOH. NO. PLEASE. I will not let you get up. I will not allow it. Hand, go press the snooze button." And the obedient slave does as it is told.

Six O'nine. Brain, "Just be late today. Say you are sick. Say you were on your way to work and you came upon an old man with a broken leg and possible scurvy and you drove him to emergency, much like the morally superior Samaritan." Then, "Okay, well if not that, at least hit the snooze button." And the obedient slave does as it is told.

Six twenty five. Brain, "Get up if you must. But come home at noon and sleep. Sleep all afternoon. Work 'at home.'Put an inflatable woman in the chair at your desk. It is summer. No one will notice."

My body finally wrestled my brain to the mat. The shower was good, and a morning coffee on the porch (shortened today by the wasted time in bed), lovely.

My brain is still at it. "Skip Jazzercise tonight. Take me home to bed."

Clearly my brain has a mind of its own.
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Best comment, from Sarah - in case you don't look at them:
I live this post every morning! The newly awakened brain has an entirely different rationality from the brain at bedtime. Often it can be coaxed out of bed with the promise of a nap that rarely actually happens, because while cunning, my sleepy brain is also quite gullible...HAH!

girlfriends

In light of my last post - which was this morning - I decided to celebrate another experience of life : womanhood. And I know womanhood pretty well. Me'n my buddy Joy watched the Fourth of July fireworks on the hood of Steve's jeep. May I say, we were indeed on a slippery slope and our womanhood became a pile of hilarity in the mud more than once when our quilt became a soaking wet sled. And we lost all decorum and laughed ourselves SILLY ... all for a pretty good fireworks display. All that without liquor. Or men. Well, we did need the man for the jeep - and a lovely man he is.


Clearly life would be desolate without my woman friends. But my men-folk are pretty fabulous too. So here's to men whose only fundamentals are those their women use to sit on the jeep hood, whose leadership in the home means making coffee in the morning when they could sleep in, whose TULIPs are brought home as a promise of spring and who would defend a woman's point of view with a pointy stick. If they had the chance.

not my usual

So this morning I received an email from 'emergent women' - I have some interest in the emergent church, and they mentioned a blog - I have an interest in blogging and being part of the conversation, so I clicked on it.

Bad idea. Very bad idea.

I began reading ... and came upon ideas from the 'new reformers' if you know who they are. A major 'plank' in their theology is the idea of complimentarianism... which means, put simply, men on top. It isn't so much their view - I am all about freedom of views - but their certainty that those with other views are not Biblical, heading toward or in immorality, and on the outside.

Life is only known as it is experienced. My mountain of abuse in these arenas is substantial. It happens, then, that many feelings are triggered in my soul when I read 'christian thinking' that is legalistic, controlling, and patriarchal.

So I went for a walk in the sun to shake off the sick feeling it all gave me. This experience makes me feel displaced and hopeless.

On my fridge I have a quote from the former president of Greenland, a woman. She said, "There is no glass ceiling. There is only a thick layer of men." I would rephrase that, "There is no spiritual ceiling, only a layer of thick men."