Here's to you, Bro!

It just hit me that in less than a week, I am going to be overseas, in Ireland, getting ready for my big brother's wedding. My brother is getting married. Married! My brother, with whom I made tree forts, went tramping through the woods with, played GI Joe's, Lego, video games...haha I remember playing duck hunt with him, and we'd sit real close to the tv and try to shoot the annoying dog. I can remember in one of the houses we lived at, he had the top loft for his room, and one night as the sun was going down, we crawled out the window and out onto the shingle roof. It was such a cool sight to see all the surrounding pastures and the other houses silhouetted against the setting sun.
And I remember listening to him as he learned how to play guitar. He was the one who talked to me about Jesus and about persevering when my life was off track, and he stayed at home after he graduated to look after me even though situations weren't that great.
lol we still play video games together..and Carcasson.

I was blessed with him as a brother. He's not just my brother, he's one of my best friends.

Flyball

I went to a flyball tournament with my mom this weekend. We didn't compete, as our dogs are not ready yet, but we did help out, seeing as our club was hosting the event. It was super fun...there were tons of dogs, all ball-crazy and barking thier heads off, and the masters hollering and getting them wound up and psychotic. It was awesome. There were so many different types of dogs there, and some of them were SO FAST!!!! Others were slow and lumpy and just kinda galumped along....but others flew. They were seriously blurs of fur and leg.
Got to meet lots of different people too. One guy in our club is a Mormon. I would like to have further conversations with him, that's for sure.
The competition ended on a bit of a tragic note. There were about 12 races to go, when we suddenly heard people yelling for a cell phone and a doctor. I heard someone say that someone had collapsed at the top of the bleachers. Everyone that had first aid rushed up there, and after a few moments Mom and another lady ran outside to wait for the ambulance that had been called. Within a couple minutes the ambulance arrived, and came into the arena through which a pathway had been cleared. Nobody really knew what had happened, but we saw the people doing compressions on the person. I thought the worst, but Mom told me that the practice in first aid nowadays is in certain circumstances to do thirty compressions and one breath on the person, even if they have a pulse.
After about a half hour, the ambulance guys loaded up the person. I gathered later that the woman that collapsed had some sort of a health condition--when the ambulance guys were there, she was trying to breathe on her own and couldn't really, and her pulse was sporadic and irregular. So Anna, the coordinator of the flyball club, told us that if anyone of us were into praying then the woman would need our prayers.
Needless to say, we all decided to end the tournament then. Everyone was really good about helping cleanup and stuff. But it was pretty scary, anyways.

Apparently the next tournament is going to be in early June. Mom and I are probably going to be in Ireland then though....Ireland, which is only 20 days away!!

SNaFu

Life is like:

Life is like a chess game. You have to calculate your moves well; you must have foresight. You must know intimately what moves you can do and what you can't, and what effect they will ultimately have. One false move can cost you the game. There is some leeway, but not when it comes to crunch time.

Life is like a dance. You must be aware of your partner and the limits of their ability, and you must be able to anticipate also what they might do. You must be aware of the other dancers on the floor. What you and your partner do can affect others.

Life is like a war. You must hold your position in the strictest confidence, lest you be given away, found out, endangered. You must know who you can trust and who you cannot, and still you must be on your guard. Strategy is everything. Something you do or don't do can come back and cripple you.

Thoughts...

I just finished watching Blood Diamond. For those that haven't seen it, it's a movie about the illegal smuggling and exportation of diamonds in Africa. The people are used like commodities just to get these diamonds. Everyone wants control of the diamond trade--the people are slaughtered mercilessly, the women brutalized, the boys stolen and turned into child soldiers. These diamonds are eventually sold to outside buyers, like Britain, America, and Canada. It's greed...people die, people do terrible things just because of this market.

And I think to myself, people are dying. We have no idea that this stuff even happens. If we do, it's remote, not a part of us. Man, I sit at this computer and I type about something that I only briefly got a glimpse into. I am so blessed to be here, and I don't even know it. I complain about the food I am given. I complain if I don't get my way. I look into the mirror and put on makeup and try to live up to some ridiculous ideal. But you know, when I look at life in war-torn countries or poverty-stricken places or whatever, where things like this happen that I can't even begin to imagine, I think, none of this matters. None of it. My stuff, my social standing, how much money I make, how many times I get to go out for coffee with my friends--it doesn't matter. Stuff doesn't matter. What matters is, am I going to make a difference? What am I doing with my life that actually matters? That will actually make an impact? People matter.

I remember in grade 11 english my teacher asked the class if it was wrong to kill a person. Everyone said yes. Then he asked, what if you were on a plane and a hijacker took over. The only way that you could save the people on board the plane was for you to kill the hijacker--would that still be wrong?

I was stumped. I was young in my faith and so I didn't know what was the answer. There are so many times now that I wish I could have gone back and said, yes, it is still wrong. I wouldn't need to kill the person because I believe in a God who is bigger than any situation. I would show love to the hikacker--because I believe that God could change his heart.

And that is what I think of when I see movies like Blood Diamond, and Hotel Rwanda, and such. People matter. God can change hearts. He can bring hope. I saw the desolation and the despair on the faces of the people, and even though it was a movie, my heart still broke. I can see how it looks like there is nothing left for those people. And materially, maybe there isn't, or isn't much. But God is bigger--God gives hope because there is truly only hope in God. One of the lines in the movie was when the guy had asked himself where was God in all of this, and then he 'realized God had left Africa a long time ago'. But he hasn't, and I know that. God is still working in all of it!

How can I live in this world and not do something? I don't want to cry a bit, blog a little, and get over it. I want to make a difference. I want to use what I learn here. I want to be the hands and feet - help people. People matter--I want to get that in my heart and live by it.

Sharon.

One page to rule them all (tired of using search engines to find people)

I have to say, Facebook sucks. I much prefer myspace and blogspot. I don't know what's the draw--it's so bland. And I'm going to reiterate the statement made a few blogs back: why can't there be just ONE site for profile/blogging/pictures etc?? So annoying.

S.

Why is it called a glove compartment?

Somebody just signed in on msn with the sign-in name "the glove compartment isn't aptly named and everybody knows it." That struck me; my thoughts led me to those sayings and terms for things that have been in use for so long that nobody really knows why they are called that any more.

And that led me to remember Christology today where Mark was talking about the 1st communion. When Jesus broke the bread, which was a normal thing at any supper, he passed around the bread tell ing the disciples to eat it; it was his body. And same with the cup: this wine was his blood, and they were to drink it. How odd is that? The disciples must have been really confused and not know the significance of it. Like, they didn't get it that Jesus was going to die. They didn't get it that He was going to have His body literally broken for them, and His blood literally shed for them. They didn't get it until after He rose from the dead that He did that to take our sins on Him, cleanse us with His blood.

Yet Mark was saying that how many times do we sit in church and say, "Sheesh, we still have communion to go," as we anxiously look at our watches. We gulp it down and get outta there. Or we expect to have it every month or something. If we don't have it for a while, we wonder why not. But it's more about the ritual. How many times do we think of the impact of Christ's body being broken, His blood being spilled, and us celebrating that?

My point that I am getting at is there are things that we do today that we have no clue why we do anymore. The disciples might have been horrified at Jesus' words that meal. For a Jew to eat human flesh or drink blood! Same when Jesus said in the synagogue after He fed the 5,000 that unless they (the Pharisees I believe) eat His flesh and drink His blood they woudn't have eternal life. That's nuts.

If we ritualize or periodically forget the meaning of such an integral and conspicuous part of our Christian life, how much more do we concerning the more subtle aspects of our walk?

Thoughts?


Snaf

Refreshing...

I just went for coffee with a good friend of mine...very refreshing to talk to her, because we talked about ministry and what we'd do after Summit, etc. Usually I don't want to think about that, but with her, I listen to all the stuff she does at her church and how passionate she is about her church and her youth. It makes me think of the potential I have in me and I think that I let myself get a little blind with all the stuff around me. When I talk to her about this stuff I get a yearning to be mentored and to grow. It's like going for a walk and at first, my muscles aren't really warmed up, but then my legs remember what it's like to be active, and I really start to enjoy the walk. And it's like taking a drink from a clean cool stream after the walk, or maybe it's like wanting to take a drink from that stream, because I know it's going to taste so much better and be so fulfilling.
I guess that's a struggle for me; I get consumed with the things around me, and I lose focus on what I'm here for and where God is leading me. I think that's part of why Williams Lake was so revolutionary for me. I caught a glimpse, or maybe totally saw for the first time, the separation of the spiritual world and the physical. What I mean by that is I realized that all the STUFF in our world, like posessions and physical appearance and money and everything like that, doesn't matter. I caught a glimpse of the spiritual effects of my actions and I realized how materialistic I was about everything, not just stuff but about people too; what people wear and what they look like, all the striving against others for better things, social standing, all of that. I realized that it doesn't matter; what matters is being committed to God, living for him in submission and for his glory. I think that's how we can not worry, by knowing that that stuff doesn't matter.
I don't know. But I do know that the talk with my friend was refreshing and I want to be in the type of situation that she's in where she is challenged and poured into and where she challenges and pours into others.

Yeah. Maybe I just need a cure for blindness.
Snafu.