Gravity of Motion

Monday, February 28, 2011

The Christian Label

I am a Christian. I am a Bible believing, God-loving woman.

I have a family members that are getting divorced.
I have friends that have had an abortion.
I have family members and friends that are gay.
I have family members that do not talk to each other (and haven't for years).
I have friends that do not go to church and do not believe in God.
I have friends that have a bi-racial marriage.
I have friends that have had DUIs.
I have friends and family members that are teetotalers.
I have friends and family members that do not understand why I like pinot noir (my current favorite).
I have friends and family members that may be doing drugs.
I have friends and family members that don't know what I have drugs I have tried.
I have friends and family that strongly oppose our military's involvement overseas.
I have friends and family that cuss. I cuss sometimes.
I have friends that are overly religious to the point of getting on my nerves.
I have friends that are pointedly liberal to the point of accepting anything and everything no matter how unreasonable it may seem.

I am a Christian.
I am a Bible believing, God loving women, who struggles with many worldly issues (both from my past and present).
I am a Christian.
I do not agree with every choice made by those that do not embrace my faith.
I believe in God. It may not seem reasonable or logical. Still, I chose my faith.
I am a Christian.
That label does not mean I am naive, intolerant or unloving.

On Living

I've decided to write more and perform less. A blog can be a performance of sorts. Anyway, I won't go into the performance part but let me just say, I'm going to write more. I may bore you. I doubt I will enlighten you. I hope I make you think. Maybe, at times, I will make you laugh. It's hard to say. I'm tired of thinking that I don't have anything to blog. I don't want to blog any more. I just want to write.

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Two things have riveted my world over the weekend.

First, some friends in my hometown (friends of friends, really) lost their teenage daughter in car wreck on Thursday night. Their other teenage daughter was driving the car and is in the hospital. The driver of the second vehicle (who was not at fault) is expected to be okay. This situation weighs heavy on my heart. It's hard to imagine losing your child- in a moment. She died at the scene. It is heart breaking to imagine the loss and the struggle to console the recovering child that was at the wheel. I'm shaken by the tragedy. For some reason, it's reminded me that tragedies happen daily. More than that, I'm just powerfully reminded that we don't know the day that we will pass. We don't know the day that our loved ones will pass. We need to love freely. I am not sure if each day is a gift (sometimes it doesn't seem like it) but we don't know how many days we have. We should live to the fullest. We should love to the fullest, too.

The second thing weighing on my consciousness is my bubble. I live in a culture bubble. (I believe you do, too.) My surroundings -my town, my kids' education, the TV shows we watch, the local fashion (or lack thereof), my beliefs of what's necessary for success- wrap around me like a cocoon. Yesterday, I saw several presentations that challenged me. Some friends had a Chinese exchange student live with them for a while. There were remarkable differences in his upbringing and the way they are raising their kids in rural Oregon. I also heard a lady talk about a medical mission trip she is going to in Guatemala. I heard stories from a couple that lived in Cambodia for 6 years. The differences in my living situation and the people in those countries is startling. It reminds me that I have much, much more than I will ever need. I am certain that the God I believe in loves those people just as much as me- and it has nothing to do with what we own or how we live. Even so, these glimpses of other countries make me desire simplification.

I want a full life with less, doing more for those I love.