The elephant in the room...

I probably shouldn't touch this one with a 10 foot pole...but I want to. It's something that my gut tells me need to be talked about, to be dealt with...to change. So today, as I'm sure we all know, the supreme court made a huge decision. The supreme court threw out DOMA and prop 8, effectively lifting any bans on same sex marriages. And this doesn't affect me in any way so I heard the news and went on about my business until I saw the following post pop up on my news feed:

"Leviticus 20:13 "If a man also lies with a man, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them" That's what my bible says and that is what I believe, that's my opinion like it or lump it... I do not believe that gay marriage should be allowed"

And let me just tell you that I had so much trouble not commenting on that status! My brain went crazy with all the things I wanted to say and I managed to scroll on...but now I feel like they need to be said.

Once upon a time, some people felt like the Church of England was oppressing them and making them practice things they didn't necessarily believe in, so they decided to leave. Hopefully you know the rest of the story about them founding this amazing country where we have religious FREEDOM. And while those founders were indeed Christians...they didn't want to force it on anyone because they knew what that felt like (I mean, I assume that's why...I wasn't there). So somewhere along the line, someone decided that our government and the church needed to be 2 separate entities to prevent the country from oppressing anyone of a different faith.

Do you understand how cool this is?!? For a long time, I didn't think the separation of church and state was a good thing...but now I know differently. Just take a minute to think about what it would be like if the church and state weren't separate and some extremist group of a made up religion came into power. What if they suddenly started making laws for everyone based solely on what their holy book and their god said? I wouldn't like it and I'm willing to wager that you wouldn't either.

So with that knowledge, why are we trying so hard to govern our country by the Bible?!? Yes, I believe what the Bible says and that we should follow it. But I do not believe it is our place to force other people to do so. If we wanna govern this country by the Bible, we best get busy passing laws to ban all sins...let's get some tighter divorce laws up in here, better find a way to ban anger and jealousy, too. While we're at it, let's try to ban drunkenness again...it worked so well last time. Don't forget about gluttony, sloth, and envy. The list goes on, kids. Man, how are we ever going to stop all of those sinners out there from doing these things...Oh, but when we include all of those things we're all bound to have fingers pointing right back at us because we're all sinners. So, let's not try to stop them, I mean, those sins aren't as bad...right? (Ugh *eye roll*) 

Can we also address the nonsense people like to spew about marriage equality "destroying the sanctity of marriage" because, really? Last time I checked, the laws put in place by the United States government had absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the laws set up by God...so how exactly is the sanctity of marriage being destroyed by a gay couple who simply wants to the same legal rights as a straight couple? A marriage that puts God in the center and that works to glorify Him shouldn't be affected by the marriage of anyone else...and if it is, I think that couple probably needs to refocus their marriage a bit and look within rather than at what everyone else is doing. 

I always feel really awkward when my Christian friends bring this up and are very much like that facebook post I saw tonight. Because while I hold the same view of marriage as they do, I'm rather opposed to forcing that view on other people. I wouldn't ever want anyone forcing their views on me and deciding things for me based on their beliefs. So let's embrace the freedom that our forefathers risked their lives for and fought so hard for. Let's show people love and not spew hate, even if it's unintentional.

Chosen- Maranatha 2013

Sometimes you decide to sponsor jr high church camp...and you're the only female sponsor with 11 girls. Did I mention they're in junior high?

And also sometimes, God uses that time to remind you about such very important things as kindness, gentleness, love, patience and the like.

Because when a kid has been on your nerves all week and they keep at you, you have to practice kindness, patience, and love to keep yourself from snapping at them.

Or when a girl is crying over something silly, but she sees as super important and world ending, gentleness and love are the things that will help her through not telling her to cut it out because there's really nothing to be upset about...even though that might be what you're thinking.

Now that it's all said and done, there's a part of me that's sad it already ended and we have to wait a year to go back!

As much as I'm sure all these kids learned, I'm sure I learned infinitely more this week...

I learned some practical things like:

•  How to work as a team of family leaders with people I didn't know and how to connect with these kids who I was around for such a short time.
  
• Take more bandaids to camp...kids hurt themselves...a lot
• Junior high girls do not share my OCD tendencies...so try not to freak out over the messy dorm
• Spend as much time hanging with the kids as possible, even if you can barely keep your eyes open or they want you to do archery with them when you already have huge bruises from archery with a different kid 
  
  
  
• Sadly some kids would rather spend their money on 10 candy bars than give it to missions...that's ok, they're still learning and they have to learn on their own.

I also had the absolute pleasure of listening to some of the most amazing sermons and devotions that I have ever heard! We had two speakers from OCC who both blew my mind with what they had to say...the first showed us pictures of leprosy and explained the disease to us while comparing sin to spiritual leprosy. So true and such a great way to put it and one that I certainly won't forget any time soon. The other speaker from OCC, who was my favorite from the week, recited the Tell Tale Heart....may sound crazy but it was a PHENOMENAL lesson. He said that our old self is like the old man in the story and that we all have an old man to kill. But that once we kill that old self we're left with the dilemma of where to "hide the body". He said that most of us, like in Poe's story, try to hide our old sinful self and act like it never existed...but then it starts to haunt us just like the heart beat in Tell Tale Heart...and then we can't handle it anymore so we shine the light on that old self and we finally tell someone about it. And man do I understand that! Satan has so much power over us when we live in constant fear of someone finding out who we once were. But when we let someone in, when we confess our junk, that power is gone! We realize that there is no longer anything to fear because we  aren't our old selves anymore and we have the power to keep ourselves from going back and when we confess we also have other people to keep us accountable to the way we should be living and help us make sure that old self stays dead where it belongs. 

Also, Rapha House (www.freedomforgirls.org)  was our mission for the week and I basically love Rapha House so I was extremely happy to have them there and support them. I also loved seeing our kids wanting to learn more about Rapha because they too had hearts that were broken by the stories we heard. I couldn't help but remember the first time I heard about Rapha and learned about the girls there...my heart was broken for them, I wanted to help so much...all I wanted to do was jump on a plane to Cambodia right then and there. A huge part of my heart still aches to go to Cambodia and wrap my arms around these girls and let them know how loved and worthy and beautiful they are. 

I am so thankful to have Maranatha Bible Camp as a part of my life for so long now! I have so many memories there and God has done and continues to do so many big things in that amazing place! 

Pray for the camp staff as they keep pouring out love to different kids all summer, they are truly a wonderful group of kingdom workers.

Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today

Today I spent 12 hours in a field. Not just randomly, mind you. I spent 12 hours in a field for the wedding of two of my oldest and dearest friends. And it was lovely! After much hard work on their parts to prepare plus so many friends and family doing so many different things to make this day special for them, I can easily say that this was the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to!
A little background info to tell you how much I love this couple...
So my 4 year old self went to a babysitter everyday and sometimes a girl named Clarey Collins would come to my babysitter. I did not like her. When this Clarey character was around, my friends wanted to play with her instead of me...it was not cool. But then we went to different elementary schools so I never really crossed paths with her again until jr. high when we became friends because of a mutual friend...the three of us did everything together all the time. But then our third amigo decided to start running with a new crowd, which pretty much sucked. I think it's safe to say it was really hard for both of us to watch our friend walk away like she did and into what she did...but Clarey really helped me through that time and our friendship grew. Then at our last CIY conference together I remember walking together one night and Clarey saying to me something along the lines of, "Matt's talking to his dad right now about marrying me one day..." and even though we were still just kids really and they hadn't been dating all the long, my reaction was pure excitement because I just knew that it was right...these two were meant to be.
As for Matty, I met him in first grade. I remember that I his birthday was the first time I went to a boy's birthday party. He was the only person I knew when I started going to KITES so we always spent our KITES days hanging out. A few of my favorite memories from high school include the year we both wrote papers about how we needed a high school gifted program then got to speak at a school board meeting and then got to be a part of that program the next year when it was started and also our history class together where we'd always finish our work early and spend the rest of the class period playing cards with our group of friends.

As much as I claim to not believe in relationships....Clarey and Matty's love makes me a bit less jaded. It's so pure, so real, so lovely. One day they will be that little old couple who still holds hands that everyone says is so cute. I am so honored to call these two my friends and even more so to have gotten to stand up with them on their special day. It is a day I will never forget and I'm so happy to have been even a small part of it.

Hard to love

So many things that I want to discuss today...hmmm, I think I'll go with the one that seems to keep slapping me in the face over and over and continue to leave me puzzled...
I think this issue really came to light for me at CCH Spring Retreat...one of the speakers brought up those people in our lives who are really hard to love. You know those people, right? The annoying ones, the mean ones, the ones you just want to avoid. The lesson was basically about how those people might annoy the ever loving crap out of us, but it is our call to love them anyway. I mean, if we could potentially impact the trajectory of a life and someone's eternity can't we just deal with the annoyance?
Easier said than done, right?
For me, this topic shot one person to the forefront of my brain right away...then the thoughts of them and if I was really loving them like I should kept nagging at me relentlessly. On the one hand, I desperately want to look them in the eye and say, "Hey, I care about you way too much to watch you live this way. God has way bigger things for you if you'd just hand it over to Him, follow His plan, and trust Him." But on the other hand, you know they'll be on the defensive and tune you out if you just straight up said that to them.
So how do you go about such a situation? Just love them, right?
But what if you feel like they're constantly talking down about your life? What if you feel like they're laughing at the life choices you make, even when you know they're right? What if they're always bringing you down? What happens when you don't even feel comfortable around this person anymore and can't relate to them?
This is a thing in my life right now...and I honestly don't know how to approach it. For me, it's someone I feel that I no longer relate to at all...but I also feel an enormous weight of responsibility...I mean, with eternity literally on the line, can I just walk away? No. Do I want to sometimes? Absolutely.
It's tiring. Many times, it's so tiring that I just avoid the situation all together...but I know that's not the right approach either. I recently brought this whole thing to someone whose advice I very much trust and was told basically to be there for the friend that needed me but to always make sure I was being the influence and not the one being influenced. She told me to go out of my way to be the influence...but I'm not really sure what that looks like...One might think, well spend time with this person so they know you care enough to sacrifice other things in your life for them. But is that a good idea when I always walk away from our time together feel defeated and negative about everything? I can only be relentlessly positive against total negativity for so long before I just want to give up.
I just don't really know. What I do know is that this topic came up again at 8.01 tonight. What I do know is that I'm about 110% sure that God's trying to get my attention here. Maybe He's been trying to get yours, too...is there someone in your life who you could be influencing for the better? Someone who needs you to show them the unconditional love that God shows you? I know it's hard...I'm right there too, but God will always give you the words to say and the strength to get through even the most tiring and defeating of situations if you just trust Him.