I've been feeling bombarded on Facebook the past couple of days by the fairly obvious controversy at hand, and was thus going to write a long blog post outlining why I believe what I believe about homosexuality just because the atmosphere seemed to demand me to take a stand, but honestly I'm not that interested in arguing. If you're interested in a polite, respectful dialogue about my beliefs, I'd be happy to chat. But the moral of the story is that I am a Christian, and I believe that homosexuality is wrong.
I don't care about what the politicians decide at this point. I've cast my vote, so it's out of my hands now. I don't care about "winning" or anything like that. Besides, with the end times so near at hand, I am fully prepared for things to get worse before they get better, particularly on the political front. If you want to know where I stand, I don't want homosexual marriages legalized because of my belief that it is wrong. I know that heterosexual marriages in America today don't do much for the "value of marriage" that we conservatives like to talk about a lot, but adding more wrong to something that is broken doesn't fix anything, it just makes it worse. But if homosexual marriages are made legal, I also know that nobody is going to die. Besides, people who don't have salvation through Christ are not--and should not be--held to the same moral standards as Christians, which is fine. I'm no better or worse than anyone. I wish that more people could have a relationship with the Creator of the universe who is the God of my salvation and who I've seen do such great and awesome things, but it's everyone's personal choice.
The part that breaks my heart is seeing so many people who claim to be followers of Christ condoning sin and insisting that people like me are being judgmental, hating bigots. I know that many Christians have, and some still do, approach homosexuality in such a fashion, and that also breaks my heart, but the vast majority of the Christians you and I come in contact with every day do not. I do not judge people because "they sin differently than I do," I simply know that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, myself included. Just because we all sin doesn't mean we can just go for it and keep it up. "May it never be!" as far as Paul was concerned.
A popular argument in favor of homosexuality is that they didn't choose it. To that, I say that I didn't choose my sin, either. I was born with a mental, emotional, and psychological bend towards an eating disorder. I didn't choose to be anorexic, but I was a textbook case for almost a year. The choice came when I understood that what I was doing was wrong and chose to want God more than I wanted control over food. I know that's tough to grasp if you've never had an eating disorder before, but anorexia for me was a friend that I could trust in a time when I didn't have very many, and choosing to want God more was--and still is during tough times--a daily battle for me. It was a part of my identity. A lesbian friend of mine once argued that "God doesn't make junk," but I would add to her statement. Our human, sinful nature makes junk. God redeems junk. I've been on a road that has taught me that. Recognizing that you were born with that kind of sin component hard-wired isn't easy, and choosing to deny that part of yourself is even more difficult, but the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
By definition, the road I've chosen is a difficult and, at times, also a lonely one. The stand that I am taking right now in this blog post is a difficult one, because I know that I have many friends who will not only disagree with me, but will also attack me for it. I know I'm putting myself out there and just asking for more of those comments about how I'm judging, how I'm hating, how I'm being a hypocrite. I've heard them all, and I know that I am most likely about to hear them all again once I post this, but I can take it. I'm on the narrow path.
Besides, I say all of this to my dearly beloved brothers and sisters in Christ.
Christians, I challenge you: Love the sinner, love the sinner with all your heart because your Lord and Savior does. He lived a perfect life and died a brutal, criminal's death to pay for anorexia, homosexuality, idolatry, dishonesty, every sin that you or I or anyone else has ever committed, and then defeated sin, death, and darkness, as we are so timely celebrating this week!
But it's okay to disagree with the sin. Take a stand for Truth, because without it you have nowhere to stand at all.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Adventures in Chicago: a Summary in Pictures
Disclaimer: This blog post contains no material of deep, lasting consequence.
You see, a friend of mine and I took this past weekend to go on an adventure, and I want to tell you all about it! We decided to road trip to Chicago! Before we begin, I do recommend taking a mega bus or something to go to Chicago. I was incredibly blessed that my friend was willing to drive--being a passenger was quite traumatizing enough, thank you! Had I been the one driving, I probably would've needed several therapy sessions upon my return home, where I am suddenly less likely to complain about the Iowegians!
There was also a ginormous hand above the bed, a chalk board on the door (upon which we wrote Philippians 4:13 :) ), and the shower head was on the ceiling so the water fell straight down! This detail didn't turn out to be entirely practical for hair washing purposes, but when I changed my mind on the shower, the bath tub was pretty comfy too!
Our first afternoon/evening in Chicago consisted of deep dish pizza (I will never look at Godfathers the same again!) and the Magnificent Mile, being a mile-long stretch of road full of shopping! Granted, most everything was out of this starving college student's budget, but it was fun anyway!
I also must say, I've never been in buildings that tall! Our hotel room was on the 15th floor! I've never even been in a building that had 15 floors! One of the malls that we went into on the Magnificent Mile had seven levels (and a crazy fast elevator!). This picture is from the top floor, and I really don't think the picture does it justice!
Of course, most of us have seen pictures of city skylines from places like Chicago or New York City, but being there is entirely different! It's like when I first saw the ocean, it was crazy because it was so huge, and I knew that it was so deep, and I knew that the point where all I could see of the ocean ran into all I could see of the sky was only the beginning, that there was Europe and the rest of the world and so many different people and cultures beyond that horizon. My mind was so blown that I took dozens of pictures--and then when I came home, they were just pictures of light blue on top of dark blue, and they totally didn't capture the magic of standing at the edge of land and water, staring at the edge of water and sky, and being so close to the rest of the whole entire world.
The Chicago skyline is kind of the same thing. There are these massive buildings everywhere that loom up above you. If you're standing too close, you can't even see the top. For us, sometimes we couldn't see the top anyway because it was kind of rainy and cloudy, so the buildings just vanished into the clouds. And as we drove by, the closer buildings passed faster than the further buildings and it made it look like the city was doing one of those royal ball dances with lines of people rotating and switching. I think the skyline is what kept me from feeling claustrophobic the whole time we were there. The skyline drew my attention up--that's where all of Chicago's space is! Most of what we did was within walking distance, and we didn't have to drive much to get to a new radius of walking distance, so where as I used to think that Chicago was big, now I know that it isn't so much "big" as it is "tall"!
Oh yeah, and they don't waste space on trivial things like parking lots. Instead, they charge your left arm to use their parking garages: one of which in particular that I wondered several times if I shouldn't be demanding someone to be paying me to be there!
The entrance to the Millennium Park parking garage is between two opposing lanes of traffic. It then takes you down underground, so it feels like you're being eaten alive. Then, you know how usually there are things like lanes, arrows, directions, things like that to guide you into a normal parking garage? Nope, this one (after it ate you) left you in this concrete chamber the size of about half a football field with gates to get your ticket and find parking off to your left. No lanes, options, nothing, just a big concrete space! The first time we parked here, we parked on level 3. We had to go on foot DOWN to level (I kid you not) 2.5 (Seriously, even the button in the elevator had it labeled as 2.5!), and then take the elevator UP to level 7. Aside from the 2.5, makes sense, right? Well the second time (the fact that we parked here twice is evidence of the scarcity of parking in Chicago), we parked on level 1, went up one flight of stairs, and found daylight. Somehow. Not to mention that this vast parking garage was full of disorganized caverns of cars connected by creepy concrete hallways, random doors, and stairs and escalators that we never did figure out where they led to.
But hey, we got PLENTY of laughs out of that parking garage! And we also learned to never trust maps under ground, only the ones above ground tell the truth!
We stayed in the Acme Hotel, which is apparently relatively new to the area, but it was a pretty cool hotel! They brought us breakfast for free (a perk of making reservations online), their coffee was delicious, and the hotel itself had a LOT of personality! Let me show you what I mean:
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| This was in the corner of the mirror in the bathroom! And they glowed! |
Our first afternoon/evening in Chicago consisted of deep dish pizza (I will never look at Godfathers the same again!) and the Magnificent Mile, being a mile-long stretch of road full of shopping! Granted, most everything was out of this starving college student's budget, but it was fun anyway!
I also must say, I've never been in buildings that tall! Our hotel room was on the 15th floor! I've never even been in a building that had 15 floors! One of the malls that we went into on the Magnificent Mile had seven levels (and a crazy fast elevator!). This picture is from the top floor, and I really don't think the picture does it justice!
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| Water Tower Place, from the 7th floor |
The Chicago skyline is kind of the same thing. There are these massive buildings everywhere that loom up above you. If you're standing too close, you can't even see the top. For us, sometimes we couldn't see the top anyway because it was kind of rainy and cloudy, so the buildings just vanished into the clouds. And as we drove by, the closer buildings passed faster than the further buildings and it made it look like the city was doing one of those royal ball dances with lines of people rotating and switching. I think the skyline is what kept me from feeling claustrophobic the whole time we were there. The skyline drew my attention up--that's where all of Chicago's space is! Most of what we did was within walking distance, and we didn't have to drive much to get to a new radius of walking distance, so where as I used to think that Chicago was big, now I know that it isn't so much "big" as it is "tall"!
Oh yeah, and they don't waste space on trivial things like parking lots. Instead, they charge your left arm to use their parking garages: one of which in particular that I wondered several times if I shouldn't be demanding someone to be paying me to be there!
The entrance to the Millennium Park parking garage is between two opposing lanes of traffic. It then takes you down underground, so it feels like you're being eaten alive. Then, you know how usually there are things like lanes, arrows, directions, things like that to guide you into a normal parking garage? Nope, this one (after it ate you) left you in this concrete chamber the size of about half a football field with gates to get your ticket and find parking off to your left. No lanes, options, nothing, just a big concrete space! The first time we parked here, we parked on level 3. We had to go on foot DOWN to level (I kid you not) 2.5 (Seriously, even the button in the elevator had it labeled as 2.5!), and then take the elevator UP to level 7. Aside from the 2.5, makes sense, right? Well the second time (the fact that we parked here twice is evidence of the scarcity of parking in Chicago), we parked on level 1, went up one flight of stairs, and found daylight. Somehow. Not to mention that this vast parking garage was full of disorganized caverns of cars connected by creepy concrete hallways, random doors, and stairs and escalators that we never did figure out where they led to.
But hey, we got PLENTY of laughs out of that parking garage! And we also learned to never trust maps under ground, only the ones above ground tell the truth!
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| One of the creepy hallways in the Millennium Park Parking Garage |
We also went to the Navy Pier. The up-side to the weather during our stay was that there weren't very many people at the Pier, so we didn't have to deal with crowds too much. The down-side was that it was freezing, and thus we didn't spend much time actually on the pier. We ran out, snapped some cool pics, and then ran back inside.
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| Me: I can see the top of the building! My friend: It's too short! |
Inside however was a completely free museum of stained glass! Unfortunately, all of my pictures from this adventure are up-and-down, and I have not yet figured out how to make Blogger rotate them :( Alas, I am not as social-media-savvy as I pretend to be. Just rest assured, the works in there were gorgeous! I doubt the pictures really did them justice anyway.
We also went to the Shedd Aquarium, which involved waiting in line for an hour, about forty five minutes of which was outside in the cold (though they did put up a tent type hallway on the stairs to block the wind, and that helped a lot!), but it was worth it!
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| They had more than just fishies in the Shedd Aquarium, and this guy was cute! |
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| I meant to get a picture of the frog, the creepy dude on the other side of the display was totally an accident! |
Judging from Facebook with my many Iowa City friends and acquaintances who have been to Chicago, going to "the bean" and taking pictures is kind of a must. So we did!
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| This is up underneath the middle of the bean. It was trippy!!! |
And last, but a terribly far cry from least, was the Art Institute, which I shall return to some day so that I can spend an ENTIRE day in there! Kind of like the magic of standing on the ocean or actually looking up at and driving around the tall buildings of Chicago, I was walking around the Art Institute seeing the actual pictures and sculptures of things that I studied while working on my associates degree, and standing there looking at the piece that the artist's hands actually touched was totally different! I also definitely fell in love with Monet this weekend!
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| My dad thinks I'm nuts, but I STILL love Jackson Pollock!!! |
So there you have a very brief rundown of a few highlights of my trip to Chicago! I have now been in a 15 story building, eaten Chicago deep-dish pizza, and been eaten by a parking garage. I have been the most hard-core window shopping of my entire life, and I have seen Monet's "Water Lilies" in person. I have also experienced being in a big city rather than the suburbs of Nebraska and Iowa. I've learned that I like the elbow-room of the Midwest, and I don't think I could ever live in Chicago (beyond the simple fact that I'm a sheltered Blondie who could probably easily take a wrong turn and end up getting kidnapped by the mafia or something!), but I will be going again some day!
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Balancing Act
I'm pretty sure weekends are the key to my life right now.
With working full time, a great deal of one's time, energy, and focus are automatically dedicated to work. However with going to college, one must dedicate a substantial amount of time, energy, and focus to studying and attending class as well. It is for this reason that a promotion opportunity at work has recently passed me by, and though it is a bit of a bummer, I know it's probably a positive thing. After pulling at least one all-nighter for school each week for the past three weeks, I'm not so sure as I could handle more work responsibility on my plate.
At the same time however, I can't go to school full time because I have to work full time. Due to the reality of adults having to pay bills, buy groceries, etc., I can't really cut back on work hours and jump into school as deeply as I'd like. So my weeks are full of a constant tension between work and school, and not being able to invest as fully as I'd like in either endeavor, which is highly irritating.
Meanwhile, I have zero writing time during the week. I have this budding novel that whispers to me almost every single day with its big, puppy-dog eyes, "Please come edit me? I promise I'll behave!" Which any writer knows isn't exactly a trustworthy statement, but the poor thing just sits around all the time! The War of Nostras (tentative title, I know it isn't terribly exciting) has lots of potential, and much of its progress is sitting in my head instead of on its pages, but staying up all night studying for quizzes and writing papers and running back and forth between school and work and using my no-class days to actually sleep, my novel writing just doesn't happen.
So in essence, my life is being pulled in three different directions, and that's without this strange phenomenon of the human species called "sleeping" that's apparently necessary for optimal functioning level as well as simple survival.
Thus, we have "The Weekend," a glorious two days where work does not exist, I get to turn off my alarms, and aside from church on Sunday morning and any plans with friends (Social life? WHAT?! That's right, ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages, I have one of those! Not as substantial as before this semester, but I do have one!), I have time that doesn't need to be fueled by caffeine to be spent. I have spent most of today editing my manuscript and running diagnostics on its pacing issues, and it's gotten me past a particularly difficult chunk of it. I am now a quarter of the way through this editing pass! (Though I fear that with the volume of completely rewritten scenes that it will require additional editing passes before being sent off to a few Beta readers!) Tomorrow, I intend to spend some quality time with some poetry homework, in an attempt to complete my homework for the week and actually sleep like normal people do!
Next weekend, I shall be going on an adventure to Chicago with one of my best friends from back home, for which I am extremely excited! This will be my first time to Chicago as well as my first time to just go on a road trip for mere kicks and giggles, and I think breaking the monotony of what my life has become (and threatens to be for a very long time) will be amazing! And after this magical, exciting trip, it shall be Spring Break. Most of the time, I struggle with breaks, as they mean less social time and more time alone in the apartment slowly losing my mind, but I think this time around it's going to be okay. I also intend on editing every day through Spring Break, and who knows? Maybe I'll be through an editing pass when it's all said and done!
So this is me: balancing my life in three different directions. Sure, it's driving me a little crazy... er than usual... but I can do all things through Christ! ... And Coffee!
With working full time, a great deal of one's time, energy, and focus are automatically dedicated to work. However with going to college, one must dedicate a substantial amount of time, energy, and focus to studying and attending class as well. It is for this reason that a promotion opportunity at work has recently passed me by, and though it is a bit of a bummer, I know it's probably a positive thing. After pulling at least one all-nighter for school each week for the past three weeks, I'm not so sure as I could handle more work responsibility on my plate.
At the same time however, I can't go to school full time because I have to work full time. Due to the reality of adults having to pay bills, buy groceries, etc., I can't really cut back on work hours and jump into school as deeply as I'd like. So my weeks are full of a constant tension between work and school, and not being able to invest as fully as I'd like in either endeavor, which is highly irritating.
Meanwhile, I have zero writing time during the week. I have this budding novel that whispers to me almost every single day with its big, puppy-dog eyes, "Please come edit me? I promise I'll behave!" Which any writer knows isn't exactly a trustworthy statement, but the poor thing just sits around all the time! The War of Nostras (tentative title, I know it isn't terribly exciting) has lots of potential, and much of its progress is sitting in my head instead of on its pages, but staying up all night studying for quizzes and writing papers and running back and forth between school and work and using my no-class days to actually sleep, my novel writing just doesn't happen.
So in essence, my life is being pulled in three different directions, and that's without this strange phenomenon of the human species called "sleeping" that's apparently necessary for optimal functioning level as well as simple survival.
Thus, we have "The Weekend," a glorious two days where work does not exist, I get to turn off my alarms, and aside from church on Sunday morning and any plans with friends (Social life? WHAT?! That's right, ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages, I have one of those! Not as substantial as before this semester, but I do have one!), I have time that doesn't need to be fueled by caffeine to be spent. I have spent most of today editing my manuscript and running diagnostics on its pacing issues, and it's gotten me past a particularly difficult chunk of it. I am now a quarter of the way through this editing pass! (Though I fear that with the volume of completely rewritten scenes that it will require additional editing passes before being sent off to a few Beta readers!) Tomorrow, I intend to spend some quality time with some poetry homework, in an attempt to complete my homework for the week and actually sleep like normal people do!
Next weekend, I shall be going on an adventure to Chicago with one of my best friends from back home, for which I am extremely excited! This will be my first time to Chicago as well as my first time to just go on a road trip for mere kicks and giggles, and I think breaking the monotony of what my life has become (and threatens to be for a very long time) will be amazing! And after this magical, exciting trip, it shall be Spring Break. Most of the time, I struggle with breaks, as they mean less social time and more time alone in the apartment slowly losing my mind, but I think this time around it's going to be okay. I also intend on editing every day through Spring Break, and who knows? Maybe I'll be through an editing pass when it's all said and done!
So this is me: balancing my life in three different directions. Sure, it's driving me a little crazy... er than usual... but I can do all things through Christ! ... And Coffee!
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