Faith
Those words were spoken in a prayer by my son’s friend, Daniel, before we headed downtown to Atlanta last night. We were a ragtag group at best, several moms, a couple of dads and small group leaders, and a gangly group of seventh grade boys with a penchant for youtube and cracking themselves up. Our caravan wound it’s way through 5:30 traffic into the heart of the city on a unusually mild January evening.
2012 movie poster
Ah , a new year is upon us once again. I am ringing it in as I recover from the flu. Who needs streamers and horns when you can have fevers and headaches instead? I feel like I celebrated in reverse and got the hangover first, but I don’t drink. Oh irony, how I love thee.
Being that it is 2012 tomorrow, I was thinking about the end of the world coming. You know, like in the crapstastic movie of the same name from last year? I laughed when I saw the website offered a link to create your own end of the world playlist. Who wouldn’t want a sound track to kick the bucket to? How thoughtful.
Sundays are my reset button. After a crazed week of work and life, I look forward to some time to re-connect spiritually, hear a great message and point my internal compass back to true north. I attend a big church (which honestly freaked me out for about the first month due to the sheer size), and the service starts with a few songs by an amazing band, accompanied by the congregation singing along. There are so many people, it doesn’t really matter if you aren’t a great singer, because usually your voice just blends in and ends up sounding great. It’s kind of like a holy version of auto-tune.
This is my 272 post over the past year which roughly equates to about nine months. In this literary gestation, I have enjoyed reading your thoughts, linking to your fabulous blogs and becoming disciplined in the writing process. While that last one sounds like “work”, it really isn’t. It has helped me clarify what I love in my life, which topics connected with people and what generated the most comments(which often surprised me).
Anne Rice is the well-known author of The Vampire Chronicles series as well as her more recent books such as Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Anne Rice once again became a hot topic of conversation not because of a book, but following her public and passionate renunciation of her Christianity on facebook. Here is what she had to say:
“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.
I love catching up with friends over the summer. I met up with a few of them at a Mexican restaurant the other night and we ended up sitting at the rooftop bar, enjoying a rare breeze on a hot July night. My friend Amber was sharing a story about her niece’s best friend and how they hosted a bridal shower for her at Amber’s home. There were the requisite naughtily shaped cake and cookies, trashy lingerie for the bride and an interesting guest. She went on to explain the evening’s entertainment.
A commercial came on the other afternoon talking about “magic something or other”. “There is no such thing as magic” I harrumphed to myself. That thought stopped me cold. When did I stop believing in magic? I grew up in the shadow of the Magic Kingdom and Cinderella’s castle, romping through Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, happily dropping my disbelief at the gate for the day. It is why I love the book The Polar Express and the Harry Potter series too, I think. In the battles of good vs. evil and right vs. wrong, belief in the unbelievable gives hope a fighting chance.
I read “Searching for God Knows What“* shortly after it came out originally in 2004. I had finished “Blue Like Jazz” on the recommendation of a friend and was hungry for more of Don Miller’s quirky insights that seemed to piece together the jumbled messages of Christianity for me in a comprehensible way. While I enjoyed reading his perspective, I was reading through the filter of my newly formed ideas of what it meant to be a Christian. The expanded edition of “Searching for God Knows What” allowed me to grasp his ideas and precepts a little more deeply than in my first reading. However, my take away was the same: God is who He says He is. The gospel is based on relationship not performance. To live an effective life as a Christian, we cannot hang around exclusively with other Christians; it’s too insular. That being said, it is not just a book for people who follow Christ. It also offers a jumping off point to real discussion about faith or the lack thereof.
Eileen’s story begins on Monday- Nov 17, 2008.
Eileen is a young, vibrant, healthy wife, mother, daughter and friend. After her normal Monday workout, Eileen noticed slight discomfort in her right thigh. On that Tuesday morning, she and Jason noticed a small bump on her right thigh and the pain was becoming intense. They went to the ER and doctors believed it was a strained muscle, gave her a prescription and was sent home. By Wednesday 11-19, the pain was increasing and her right leg began to swell, they went back to the hospital and more tests were initiated. She was admitted for test and spent the night with high doses of pain medication, her leg continued to swell. By Thursday afternoon, her condition was getting worse, and she was flown to the Emory main campus in Atlanta. The diagnosis is necrotizing faciitis.
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