Be A Good Samaritan

Election years seem to bring out the worst in people and this year seems to especially so. The hate that people are spewing really is sad and discouraging. A local story that really highlighted this attitude made national attention yesterday.

It's the story of the tow truck driver and the disabled woman. If you haven't heard it, basically a woman got in an accident in Asheville on her way back to SC. A tow truck driver was called to tow her car, but decided not to because she had a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker.

Image: funny-pictures.picphotos.net

The tow truck driver says that the Lord told him to strand this woman on the side of a very busy highway - all he knew about her was that she was in the need of help and was a Bernie supporter. From everything I've read, he's very impressed with himself for being such a good "Christian".

In fact, he's basically the opposite of a good Christian, good person and whatnot. And I don't really consider this a political issues, it's a common human decency issue. In fact, what Jesus taught in the parable of the Good Samaritan was just the opposite.

You can read the whole passage here, but the end is what really speaks to me especially with this story.

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
 Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Even if you are of another religion or don't believe in a higher power at all, it's a good thing for society in general to follow Wheaton's Law, which is simply put - Don't be a dick. In the case of this story, the tow truck driver backpedaled a little when he found out that the woman was disabled. He said that if he had realized that, he would have waited with her until another tow truck driver came.

My thought is, what good would that have done? She was still stranded on the side of the road, stuck in her car. And no matter who it was, healthy, ill, male, female, white, person of color, gay, straight, etc. People are people and they deserve to be treated with even a hint of human decency.

Hate is an easy path to go down. It's easy to hate people who are different or whose choices you don't understand. Love can be a harder path because there are going to be people you just clash with for whatever reason. If someone is making choices that you don't agree with, the decent thing to do is to let them be unless they are harming themselves or others. Even doing that little bit and trying to be kind to your fellow humans, and the world would be a better place.

Lent and Soda

Image: www.gianteagle.com

I'm Lutheran and for us, it's not required we give something up for Lent. Over the years, I've sometimes given things up but most of the time I don't. But this year, I originally decided to give up soda. Right before Ash Wednesday (which is the start of Lent), I decided to also give up fast food because I was eating far too much of it.

It's been a big pain in the butt - which I suppose is the point. It's not worth giving something up if you don't suffer a little bit without it.

The fast food part isn't a huge deal. I miss it but not like how I miss soda. Oh soda, I wish I could drink you up!

Especially this week, I've been really wanting Vernor's badly. I caught a bug and I've been very nauseous all week. This also gave me a pretty bad migraine because my body hates me. I've been mostly drinking water and V8 Strawberry Lemonade (which I water down because it's too sweet on it's own).

But I can't have water when I'm sick to my stomach, and the lemonade isn't great either. But I will be strong! I will not drink soda or eat fast food until Easter! And even after that, I'm hoping to eat / drink much less of both.

Jesus suffered and died to wash away my sins. Least I can do is give up on a few conveniences for those 40 days.

Internet Outrage and Winter Holidays

Ah, 'tis the season for outage on the internet. While there is always some sort of outage over something, the winter holiday season seems to bring out the worst out of people.

If you've been online at all this week, you have probably seen the drama over the new Starbucks holiday cups. The silly things are red with the Starbucks logo, but for some so-called Christians it is a reason to get up in arms.

I'm going to say this right now - There is No War on Christmas!!!

As as Christian, I roll my eyes every year at the whole War on Christmas bs that gets floated around the internet and other places. I live in the USA and Christians are not oppressed here. In fact, some so-call Christians are the ones wanting to do the oppressing.

There is nothing offense in saying 'Happy Holidays," to someone. I consider the Holiday Season to start with Halloween and end with New Years. There are so many winter holidays in November and December, that it's actually kind of rude to assume that everyone is celebrating the same way.

I personally know people who celebrate religious Christmas, secular Christmas (called Giftmas by some people, which I think is a great name for it), the Winter Solstice and Hanukkah. If I know what holiday they celebrate, I try to wish them well for what every holiday is theirs. But when you see someone at the store that you may not know, like someone who holds the door open for you or a cashier, Happy Holidays is the clear choice because it includes just about everyone.

Right now, it's too early for Christmas drama anyway. It's not even the middle of November yet! Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, a holiday of vast importance that seems to get lost in the shuffle as Christmas tries to take over everything. Plus Thanksgiving is in there too.

Before you get all outraged over something stupid like plain red Starbucks cups, try and think about others. All people aren't the same, they have different viewpoints. Not everyone is a Christian, but if you are a Christian, you may want to try and be more like Jesus rather than trolling on the internet.

For me, I wish everyone Happy Holidays. Tomorrow I'll be thinking about the brave men and women who have served our country in the military. On Thanksgiving, I'll be giving thanks for everything wonderful in my life. After that, I'll get to Christmas and celebrate in my own way and wish people well in their own celebrations.

Faith in the Face of Chronic Pain

Seemingly, some of my fellow Christians seem have have lost their way in recent years. It makes my heart sad to see people who should be espousing the love that Jesus shows to all of us, instead trying to use Jesus and the Bible as a way to keep on hating.

A common theme in quite a few Christian groups I've been in over the years is that if you are good person and follow God's law, good things will happen. It's the "God as a Genie" theory which doesn't really work. Jesus and his disciplines had really awful things happen to them, up to and including death. As did a lot of other Christians over the years.

As a white Christian in America, I've never experienced harassment over my religion. Growing up, just about everyone I knew was some brand of Christian. It was the norm and what you did on Sunday morning. It was easy to follow Jesus back then.

When I went to college, I was still highly active in my campus ministry. As a freshman, I would get up Sunday mornings and go to the Lutheran chapel while my roommates were sleeping off their partying from the night before. I was an oddity but I was walking with Jesus so that was ok.

I did a lot of growing up the last few years of college. I was engaged to a guy who had rejected God completely and that caused a lot of issues in our relationship and was one of the reasons we broke up. Also watching my mom have cancer and then die from it.

After my mom died, I watched my dad really struggle with his faith. He was really, really angry at God, which was totally understandable. For whatever reason, my faith never faltered. As I got signs that my mom was up in Heaven, my faith in God and Jesus strengthened.

A year after my mom passed away, I got very sick. It started out as a really bad ear infection that was misdiagnosed for a month. Once that was cleared up, I was left with a constant headache. A headache I still have to this day.

I've talked about my chronic pain journey over the years, but I haven't really talked much about my faith as I've dealt with that. My faith in God hasn't changed at all, though my faith in myself has suffered some blows.

I see other people who have wonderful careers that they love, or who are able to keep up with lots of kids. Some days, I have issues getting out of bed, making it through work, keeping up with Emily. While I know some people probably just think I'm lazy, I'm trying to work my way though a normal life while having the weight of chronic pain around my neck.

I'm not sure what my purpose in life in or why I'm meant to be on this Earth. But as a Christian, I try to use my faith to boost myself up. Life isn't always a picnic and horrible things can and will happen. Even though I'm in pain every day, I'm actually not that unhappy. I have my low times and yes, I've had suicidal thoughts. But I'm suppose to be here. Maybe my words will help someone else or I'm just here to raise Miss Emily.

I don't really know what the future faces for me, but I will try to do my best no matter what gets thrown at me. And yes, I may be wrong about my faith, but I'd rather live as a true Christian, as someone who follows Jesus than as to not have any faith at all.

Holy Week Services

Easter 2011

Holy Week is a big deal in the Lutheran church. We do extra services throughout the week to mark the different parts of Jesus' Passion at my church.

On Thursday we had a Maundy Thursday service that had a worship meal. Emily and I went and we sat for supper with Emily's best friend from school and her family. The meal was really good and it was nice to have some fellowship time. We did communion with the bread before dinner and the wine after, just like Jesus did on that day all those years ago.

The service was nice, but it was really hard for Emily and her friend to stay completely silent since they are five (at least Emily is). By the end, Emily's friend's mom offered to take the girls out. They are generally quiet in church but when they are together they tend to get a little loud.

Todd had yesterday off from work, and let me go to church by myself for Good Friday service. There were a few kids there, but mostly adults because it's another 'be completely silent' kind of service. Good Friday is always a really intense service for me - to think that Jesus went through that pain and agony of dying on the cross to save us from sin can be really overwhelming.

I admit that I got very teary-eyed from the beginning. I felt the presence of God very strongly through the service so it was very powerful for me. But I think that Emily would have been either completely overwhelmed or just really bored.

Our church has done an Easter Vigil service on Easter Saturday before but not this year. So we just have Easter Sunday service tomorrow. It is will be a lovely finish to Holy Week.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Emily's Christmas program

Christmas Eve has always been a magical night to me. When I was a kid, the anticipation was high for Santa to arrive. As I got older, I found the magic in the Christmas Eve church service, especially the years I was in various choirs.

Since Emily was born, we always go to the child friendly service at church. Last year she was a little sad that she didn’t get to sing during the service. This year, she does get to sing since she’s part of the Sunday School choir. She and I are both excited for the service tonight.

Tomorrow will be fun with the presents, family and food, but for tonight we get to bask in the magic of this special night. Even though I know Jesus wasn’t born on this night all those years ago but somehow God always seems closer as we sing carols and learn about our Savior’s birth.

I hope all of you who celebrate have a very Merry Christmas and to everyone else Happy Holidays (or happy Tuesday)!