Living the Life

This here.  This is a good article:

“Radical,” “missional” Christianity as the new legalism

 Basically, it's saying that you don't have to go out and save the world, but that you can live as a Christian in a normal suburban life.  This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately.  I'm nearing the end of my schooling, I'm about to get married, and hopefully I'll go out and find a job.  We just bought a tiny house in West Allis.  We're so...normal.
Beyond that, I have...a past.  As does everyone, I suppose.  I consider the years between 19 and 22 to have been just a strange detour in my life.  As does everyone, I suppose.  In any event, I'm back on the path of faith and starting to become a grown-up, and I'm wondering how all of "This" fits together. 
When it comes to the church, I think that the world-changers and driven missionaries are important, vital, to the church, but that not everyone can do that.  1 Corinthians 12 talks about different gifts of the spirit, and how we are all united by God's purpose into a single body.  Missionaries and world-changers aren't the end of the story.  I also think it's a bit easier to go out an do extraordinary things for God than it is to live every day for Him. Not, obviously, that the world-changers are lazy.  If someone is called and gifted to be world-changers, then it is commendable for them to do that.  However, if we put pressure on others to also be like that, we are likely to get people who are more worried about how they can dramatically show their faith than they are about actually having or living it.  God created us as individuals, with unique personalities and talents.  The best way to honor and glorify him is by being yourself, by being the best "you" you can be.  Trying to be somebody else only leads to problems.

Is Art Made Artier by More Artiness?

     Going to a Liberal Arts college, one must inevitably tackle the question.  The Question.  What Is Art?
     It's something I've been tumbling around in my mind for a while (as all Liberal Arts students are destined to do.  We do not question our Fate.)  Every time I've encountered The Question, my mouth has tried to respond somehow, although all the help my brain was giving was: "It's a word."  And I think "It's a word?"  Thanks, brain.  What the heck does that mean? "It's a word."  What a stupid response.  Meanwhile, my brain refused to tell me what it was on about. It does that a lot.
    Then, at like midnight (of course) it suddenly occurred to me: Art is a word.

I have the Worst problems

OMG, my life.  It's almost as bad as Julia Roberts' in the beginning of Eat, Pray, Love.

For anyone who doesn't know, I'm working full-time and going to school part-time.  It's sweet, because working full-time at school means I get free tuition to this private college.  I don't particularly love my job (it's not remotely in my field, but I like the people I work with), and I'm getting paid peanuts if you don't factor in the tuition.  If you do factor in the tuition, I make a ton.  Sometimes it bothers me, because no one really pays for the tuition, they lose nothing by offering it to me, so shouldn't I get a raise?  Then I think: "What? So my income only matters if someone else is suffering for it?"  Beyond that, the fact that I have a job at all is quite the blessing in this economy, and I've been there for 5 years now.  I started when I was 19, and they've helped me, nurtured me, and let me make mistakes (sometimes bad ones) and haven't fired me.  It was too much responsibility for me at first, and I was too immature for it.  Sometimes I still am.  So it's not the job I wish I had - I am the worst person ever.

I dropped out of this school a while back because I was struggling with depression and found the atmosphere stifling.  I still hold a lot of that resentment, and I still find the atmosphere stifling.  I think, "How much does picking someone off the ground matter if you're the one that pushed them down in the first place?"  This school is great for a certain type of person, and I'm not really that type of person.  Still, I chose to come here, and I also know that my depression (still unmedicated at the time) had a ton to do with it.  So the problem is really mine.  Not that the school doesn't have it's problems, but I've been given an extraordinary chance to go back.  I'm going to graduate (in 7 years, but still, graduate), and I'm not paying for it.  I made a major mistake that could have messed up my life big time, and I've been given the opportunity to fix it.  That's incredible.  It's huge.  I am the worst person ever.

The Great Loves

     So anyway
     ...
     That's probably the best phrase to start with.  Starting strong, you got this.
     ...
     So anyway, I was reading in a book the other day (The Road Less Traveled, by Dr. Peck - It's a book my dad has read like every year and written in, and now he gave it to me to help me with life or understanding him or something)
     ...
     So.  Anyway.  I was reading in a book the other day and came across a statement that the difference between loving someone and being in love with someone is basically sexual (though, not having been Reading, but just paging through, I'm not sure that's what the book was arguing).  I can see where that comes from, I guess.  One falls in love with one's spouse, then has sex with them; one loves one's friends, but one doesn't tend have sex with them.  But then I thought, "No.  People have sex with people they're not in love with all the time.  They might even have sex with a friend, someone they love, but that doesn't mean they're in love with them."  Basically, it doesn't make sense.

Lake Dreams

So, I don't have internet at home right now (moving out soon, then into my mother-in-law's for a bit, then into our New Tiny House!), which makes posting a bit tough. I've got two topics lined up that I want to cover in a bit, but they'll have to wait. In the meantime, here's a thing I wrote when I was around 19 about childhood and growing up. Nobody ever seems to catch that that's what it's about, so I probably did it wrong, but I like it.

George

Here's a story I wrote for my Creative Writing class. We were supposed to write a story based on something that happened to us. I may have taken a few artistic liberties.

Bam! Right in the Gut

So. There was a discussion on the Facebook a while back about how mental health care is one of the programs to be slashed if we go over the "fiscal cliff." One of my friends (who is very nice, and who always means very well, who loves Jesus and her country, but who sometimes comes across as a screaming lunatic) seemed to think that was a great idea and the healthcare system hasn't done much good anyway, since (as I understand her argument) it failed to keep Adam Lanza from shooting up Sandy Hook Elementary.

Now, I realize it's up top in many people's minds right now, but bringing it up there, when no one had mentioned that tragedy, makes it sound like she's saying that this guy is a great example of mental illness, like he is a representative of that group of people. First of all, there's not much evidence supporting the idea of his even having a mental illness. Asperger's is the word that is getting thrown around, but Asperger's has no connection to violence. It's like saying, "Yeah, he was lactose intolerant, that's why he committed that massacre." (Speaking of Asperger's, here's a great article by the Asperger's guru Tony Attwood about the strengths of Aspies. Reading it made me happy.) Still, there is some hope that this shooting will prompt people to think about giving more support to the mental health professions, as USA Today hopes. With 20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffering from some form of severe mental illness, this is something we need. While I'm not happy about the added stigma being attached to these already-stigmatized disorders, perhaps some good can come out of it.

This business about Lanza aside, here's the dreaded comment followed: "I am simply saying that if parents would teach their kids right from wrong like my parents taught me right from wrong, there would be fewer idiots and massacres in the US alone. Oh, I forgot, there is no such thing as absolute truth anymore. Do whatever the hell you want! It's a 'free' country!" See what I mean about "screaming lunatic?" But let's take a moment to cool down. The Bible tells us to be filled with joy and praise (Philippians 4:4; Romans 15:11), right? God tells us that he will provide for us, that he wants what's best for us, and that no hardships in life are beyond his power. So really, being depressed is a sin, right? People should be able to control their emotions, and their parents should teach them how to do this, right?