I hope you all made it over here before my former hosting service cut me off. I had 2 days left on my paid time, and I expected that was when it would go kaput. I didn’t even have a chance to catch my blogroll.
I am currently transitioning my url to this site, but it could take up to 72 hours. So I hope you all make it!
I try to stay away from the news, which is why I read hard news online, reserving my newspaper subscription for the 2x a week local “gossip” rag. (Hey, a girl has to find out where all the yard sales are.) Too many things anger me about the national media sources available – bias, overblown stories, the news making news. Oh I could go on and on. So usually, I do a quick headline read here and there and move on with it. Once in a while there are real news issues that are worth my attention for more than that. The Davinci Code book/movie/controversy is not one of those topics.
For the past few months, the Davinci Code has been all the media rage. There was a lawsuit, the book and now the movie premeirs. Christians are protesting and upset. Dan Brown pirated their Jesus and turned him into something he’s not. The Catholic Church has threatened lawsuits. This is bigtime stuff.
Don’t we Christians have anything better to do with our time? You know – feed the poor, preach the gospel, help our bretheran who are in trouble. We don’t need to be “defenders of the faith”. God can handle it. He doesn’t need us. Through the ages, Christians have historically defended their positions against “heresy” and always come up in the end looking rather foolish. Can anyone say “crusades” or “inquisition”? – probably two of the most well known and blunderous Christian acts of heresy control. (I could probably throw the whole emergent church thing in here, too. That would really get the ire of some Christians.)
What can we do that God cannot? There will always be someone out there who knows more about a topic and can run circles around our human arguments. Others will never change their minds no matter how well you lay the groundwork for what Jesus did for us. While Paul tells us in Corinthians that he planted, Apollos water and God gave the increase, he never says that anyone “weeded.” It’s by God’s grace we are saved, and while we are called to preach the gospel, God will still be the only one to give the increase in the harvest.
I actually think of a Veggie Tales Song in relation to this -
God is bigger than the Davinci Code
He’s bigger than Godzilla and the monsters on TV
Oh God is bigger than the boogie man
And he’s watching out for you and me
IMHO, the Davinci Code Controversy is just another Christian boogie man that does more harm than good to the spreading of the gospel (cough, cough – End of the Spear). Who’s to say that it’s not a part of God’s plan? God takes things that man means for harm and turns them into good thing that he uses for his purposes all the time. A lot of times, we just end up getting in the way.
There will always be heresy in the world around us. All we can do as Christians is live our lives as Jesus would and speak the truth in love where there are ears and hearts that are willing to listen.
Note #1: I don’t think it’s wrong for Christians to refute the information conveyed in this fiction story, however, there are a lot of groups wasting time, energy and money on things that God will no doubt handle.
Note#2: I haven’t read the DaVinci Code. There’s no specific reason why I haven’t. It just hasn’t come across my path. In fact, I really didn’t know what it was about until the controversy started kicking up. I’m not too much of a Best Seller reader at this juncture of my life. I don’t plan on reading it or seeing the movie, but you never know when I might be flipping the channels in 5 or 6 years and see it on and maybe watch it for 45 minutes before I get bored and move on to something else.
I think that somehow I forgot to mention this in the midst of all the other things that have been going on. I got the first peek at our little one last week. I had set it up so Gil could come along, but then his work hours got changed, and so it was just me. My neighbor agreed to hang out with Bump for an hour while I went.
There was a little apprehension in the back of my mind. Three years ago I miscarried our first at 11 weeks. We found out when we went in for the ultrasound. There were no other signs until a few days later. It was a heartwrenching time. Going alone to this appointment had a little edge, a little unsureness, a little more time when I needed to trust God.
And he came through. It’s amazing how much has actually developed by 12 weeks. The silhouette pretty much looks like a baby. This one was rocking and rolling, throwing its arms over its head and kicking its feet. I’m thinking that it will get along with Bump just fine. Then after that little glimpse of life, they equipped me with a fistful of pictures and sent me on my way feeling so much like a mommy. (Like chasing around a two year old all day doesn’t make you feel like one!)
They also made an adjustment to my due date, which is now September 10. It was the same thing with Bump. The first ultrasound had him measuring a week earlier than my due date, but the doctors wouldn’t change it (this is a different Dr’s office, by the way), and I still went two weeks earlier than that. I believe BT (Bump Two) could be born the last day of August. We’ll have to wait and see.
The next photos will be taken sometime in May. At that time, we’ll find out if it’s a Bump or a Bumpette.
Note: The ultrasound pictured is not our baby, but around the age of our baby. I would show these photos, but no scanner available.
I’m not much of a cereal person these days. I go in phases. I’m only eating it because I’m hungry and I need something quick. It’s funny to me how our tastes in cereals not only change, but is ultimately effected by what we ate when we were growing up – or what we wanted to eat.
As a kid, I usually ate instant oatmeal and some of the sugary cereals – sugar pops, frosted flakes, coco puffs, fruit loops and especially golden grahams. As an adult, I kept the coco puffs and golden grahams and added a few grainy cereals with nuts at times. I still love to eat oatmeal or cream of wheat. (No grits please.)
When I was in college, the guys were lucky charms eaters. As they filled up the cereal bin in the caf, they wanted to eat it empty in one meal sitting. I never liked lucky charms myself, although I remember we did actually buy some when they added the blue diamonds to the mix. Successful kids marketing I guess.
The big kids love honey comb. Another one we never ate – although there was plenty of good marketing efforts in my youth for it. Gil is a wheaties guy. Never ate that one either. And Bump loves cheerios, but will eat anything on a spoon with milk.
I will be interested to see where we go with cereal as the kids grow up. Since they will have limited exposure to those tempting TV commercials and a mom who prefers not to feed spoonfuls of sugar to her young ones, I think they will grow up loving some things but craving others. Right now our panty has wheaties, total, oatmeal and honey nut cheerios. A year from now what will it have? Five years?
I’m starting this blog long before I let the rest of you in on it. I want it to be full of fun stuff before I start having people look around. I always think it’s more fun to have “archives” when people first discover you so they wonder what they missed. I don’t know if you are missing much, but this is the beginning.
When I started my first version of Stand Up and Walk in November of 2004, I had no idea where blogging would take me. Oh, I did have dreams of grandeur. I thought of being at the top of the ecosystem or maybe picked up by Glenn Reynolds, LeShawn Barber or Hugh Hewitt. But that, as it turned out, was not the reason I was called here. As SUAW evolved, I struggled with my real mission statement – to reflect how faith intersects every part of my life.
Not that I didn’t think that my faith was apparent from many of my posts. I just found that writting inspiring “faith filled” posts was a challenge for me. I didn’t really feel I was that good at it. In case you haven’t noticed, there are lots of folks out there who are great defenders of the faith and can express themselves in the written. Oh how I wanted to be one of them, but just couldn’t fit the mold. The one thing I began to understand as of late is that not only do I not fit the mold, but I don’t agree with their perspectives on many, many things. The “End of the Spear” controversy was the icing on the cake. After seeing a good portion of the Christian blog-o-sphere take a “whack” at Every Tribe Productions in the casting of Chad Allen. You all know the story. I don’t have to get into it. But I found myself deeply disturbed by it all. Those who would defend the gospel pretending to know the mind of God.
As I prayed about my blog, I began to see that I needed to lay down the vanity side of blogging – the big expensive template, ecosystem status, blogrolls and alliances. I needed to return to a simple way of blogging, instead of trying to emulate bloggers I could never be. So this month long sabbatical is about finding my voice, my real voice as a blogger.
But that’s not it. There is more to come.
We come around the corner again to the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. A sad day for women in this country. A sad day for us all. The decision to legalize abortion in this country is like the serpent giving Eve the apple all over again.
While the sexual revolution and the widespread availability of effective birth control methods had already given women the ability to have sex without consequence. Roe v. Wade firmly cemented it. It established our thinking for a generation, a mindset embraced by so many. It says, “I have reproductive rights. I have the freedom of choice. I have the right to the privacy of my body.” It was the serpent whispering the words. And the daughters of Eve like the one that came before them, so many of them have bit into that cursed fruit.
Has it really given anyone freedom? It has destroyed 44 million people in 33 years. A whole culture, a whole country wiped out by selfishness. Only God knows the true impact, of what it means to not have those people in our midst. How many would be leaders? Congressmen? Any future Presidents? How many would be inventors or innovators? Would one of them hold the cure for MS or ALS or cancer? How many of those people would have impacted our lives directly? Been our neighbor, friend, pastor, teacher, boss or co-worker? Who among them might have been the best friend of our son, or the future husband of our daughter? You could go on and on and on.
The real thing that bugs me about the abortion issue, is not just the lies and fear being mongered to convince women to have abortions, but the root of the problem. We want the right to be promiscuous without consequence. When I say, “we”, I mean women. We’ve been lied to, and told this is a good thing. It’s progress, the 21st century. Get with it. We can do whatever we want. It’s fun. And that is the bigger lie.
So today my prayers go out to all the women of this country. Women who are making decisions every day about life. Women who are struggling under the pressures of giving in to what this modern world, this generation’s serpent is whispering in our ears. I pray that we would all stand for truth, righteousness and life on not just this day, but every day.
Lakeshore path sunset Originally uploaded by dcmarch.
Tomorrow, I will find my feet on the soil of my native state for the first time in three years.
I left Wisconsin on February 1, 1996. The temperature hovered near 30 below zero as I packed up my Chevy Corsica and headed East, away from the joy and pain, the love and hate. It was all that I knew, but I knew I wanted more.
There’s something so distinctive about the landscape as you fly over it in a plane. It’s very flat and full of farmland. And there is lots of water. Don’t underestimate this state. I saw more water there than I do in Virginia – and I’m a short car ride from the beach. With more than 15,000 lakes and numerous rivers and streams, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, water is a way of life. Much of it is quiet peaceful lakes, little streams and inlets, nothing like the James River or the roaring tides of the ocean.
As I searched Flikr for a photo to post, I was struck by all of the photos of my homestate. So much familiarity, yet so foreign from my life now. Small town living. Farmland. Forest. Beer. Boats. Large fiberglass animals. Signage. Landscapes. Sunsets. All so emblazened on my heart. It’s been a long time.
Every place has it’s feel, it’s smell, it’s culture. As I finish my packing and get ready for our trip, I’m dumbfounded to be overwhelmed with these memories of all kinds. Friends I used to know, places we had fun. Family. Significant Sal events.
But this trip won’t be about those old things. It’s a new era. It’s Bump’s first trip to Mommy’s hometown. It’s seeing it again through a child’s eyes.
The thing that struck me the most last time I was there was how when you went to a high point in the city and looked out over it all, the trees had grown up so much that the look was not the same. Roof tops were hidden. Buildings were gone. The town continues to grow and change.
So, I make my exit from this place. I take my blogs with me to Wisconsin. I take my light southern accent and my tolerance for heat. I take my son to meet his heritage.
I found this story in a woman’s devotional Bible. It is not only a great testament to Life, but also shows us how being bold in our beliefs can make a difference in this world.
I want to be an educated believer. I don’t want to offer pat “Christian answers” to challenging conversations, thoughts and experiences. I want to use “God’s grid,” to not be too quick with my opinion, but to allow Jesus to sift his truth through me on any given matter. I try to practice this daily in all areas, but one particular area comes to mind.
Realizing I wanted to learn more about the abortion issue in this country. I took a six-week course in the most important aspects of the issue. I have a tender heart for the unborn, and I knew just having an opinion wasn’t enough. So I watched videos, listened to interviews, and read documents and statistics. The more educated I became, the more horrified I became.
Right after I completed the course, I performed a concert in Oregon. I spoke boldly that night, more strongly than ever before, on this particular topic. My spirit grieved within me. But then, as I climbed into bed that evening, I found myself wondering whether I had come off too strongly and offended people. Had I gone ahead of God? I asked the Lord to forgive me if I’d spoken out of turn.
Four years later, I returned to that same city. As I signed autographs and talked to as many people as were willing to wait, I noticed a young woman standing over to the side. After everyone left, she approached me. “Kathy,” she said, “I had to wait to speak with you. You were here four years ago and spoke out for the unborn.” As she spoke, a small child with bouncing blond hair ran to me and wrapped her tiny arms around my neck. “I was going to have an abortion that week,” the woman went on. “I want to thank you for what you said that night. This is my little miracle.” she finished drawing the little girl close to her. Oh, how I want to be about life – because God is about life.”
Taken from My Life Is in Your Hands by Kathy Troccoli. Copyright by Kathy Troccoli. Published by Zondervan Publishing House.
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Can it Be…Bigfoot?
I remember the excitement of the “Bigfoot” phenomena when I was young. I thought that had long died out. But apparently Bigfoot lives in Virginia! Who knew??? There is a story in the Virginia Pilot on one Virginian’s pursuit of this legend.
Posted by Shelly on February 21, 2005 in Current Event Commentary, Uncategorized