sight illusion

are they twirling left or right?

christianity taught by an athiest

the smell that destroyed my dessert

I made the best ice-cream sundae ever tonight ... ice cream AND yogurt, bananas, gluten-free granola, a granola cookie, sugar-free caramel syrup, and cool-whip on top! Food, especially sweet food, makes me very happy, and I had been looking forward to this sundae all day. I had put a lot of thought into the toppings. I would have taken a picture of my sundae (it was beautiful), but I got so excited after it was finished that I ate it before remembering our assignment. At least I ate most of it. I was specifically trying to satisfy my taste buds when my dog decided to interrupt by providing another sense with overwhelming disgust. Simba, my white fluffy Maltese (yes, I'm one of those) looks harmless. But he has the power to clear a room. And not only did he clear me from the room, he ruined any chance of enjoyment for the rest of that sundae. It is amazing that one extremely positive sense can be destroyed by the negative interference of another sense. Although I knew that my sundae tasted good, after Simba's issue my nose told me not to put anything in my body that was in the same room as the offense. As if odor was contaminating or something.

"What if God had an answering machine?"

This what if inspired me to head on over to the wonderful world of Google. Although this is extremely cheesy (I did NOT write it), I thought it was funny. The end is the best, for sure!

Thank you for calling My Father's House.

Please select one of the following four options:
Press 1 for requests.
Press 2 for thanksgiving.
Press 3 for complaints.
Press 4 for all other inquiries.

If you'd like to speak with Gabriel, press 1.
For Michael, press 2.
For any other angel, press 3."
"If you'd like King David to sing a psalm for you, press 6."
"To find out if your relative is here, enter his/her date of death and listen for the list that follows."
"For reservations at My Father's House, press the letters J-o-h-n followed by the number 3-1-6."
"Answers to nagging questions about the age of the earth and where Noah's ark is, wait until you get here!"
"Our computers show that you have called once today already. Please hang up immediately." "This office is closed for the weekend. Please call again Monday."
End of message.

You only need to ring once and God hears you. Because of Jesus, you never get a busy signal. God takes each call and knows each caller personally.

Emergency Phone Numbers:
When in sorrow, call John 14.
When men fail you, call Psalm 27.
If you want to be fruitful, call John 15.
When you have sinned, call Psalm 51.
When you worry, call Matthew 6:19-34.
When you are in danger, call Psalm 91.
When God seems far away, call Psalm 139.
When your faith needs stirring, call Hebrews 11.
When you are lonely and fearful, call Psalm 23.
When you grow bitter and critical, call 1 Cor. 13.
For Paul's secret to happiness, call Col. 3:12-17.
For idea of Christianity, call 1 Cor. 5:15-19.
When you feel down and out, call Romans 8:31-39.
When you want peace and rest, call Matt. 11:25-30.
When the world seems bigger than God, call Psalm 90.
When you want Christian assurance, call Romans 8:1-30.
When you leave home for labor or travel, call Psalm 121.
When your prayers grow narrow or selfish, call Psalm 67.
For a great invention/opportunity, call Isaiah 55.
When you want courage for a task, call Joshua 1.
How to get along with fellowmen, call Romans 12.
When you think of investments/returns, call Mark 10.
If you are depressed, call Psalm 27.
If your pocketbook is empty, call Psalm 37.
If you're loosing confidence in people, call 1 Cor. 13.
If people seem unkind, call John 15.
If discouraged about your work, call Psalm 126.
If you find the world growing small and yourself great, call Psalm 19.

Emergency numbers may be dialed direct. No operator assistance is necessary.

Chris Gardner

This morning, I had to opportunity to see Chris Gardner, the inspiration for the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. He was a guest speaker at ExactTarget's Connections Conference. Mr. Gardner gave a very inspirational talk and really demonstrated the power of never giving up. For those of you who have seen the movie, I'm sure you will agree that it is an awesome story. It really doesn't do Mr. Gardner justice, though. I was expecting him to talk to the audience about how he went from being homeless to a multi-millionaire. However, he spent the majority of his time talking about his love for his son and the challenges of being a single parent. Mr. Gardner was determined to break the chain of missing fathers in his family. He also gave the audience a glimpse into the real lives of homeless people. I had no idea that over 12% of people that live on the streets have full-time jobs. They go to work every day but still cannot afford a place to live. Stereotypically, these people are judged as lazy or down on their luck. Many of these people are not lazy at all! Life has thrown them a few curve balls, and they have simply ended up in an unfortunate circumstance. Mr. Gardner really made me think about how quickly anyone's life could change. This time next year, I could be homeless. Or the homeless man that lives under the bridge next to my apartment could find an amazing job and be making millions next year. We have no idea the way our lives will go. I can't honestly say that I envy our homeless community, but I often think that I could better serve God if I didn't have all this "stuff" in my apartment to distract. I admire Mr. Gardner for putting more emphasis on his son than his "stuff." I don't think all of our stuff will matter much or be remembered after our lives on earth are over. God could care less about our tangible items, but He cares a lot about our hearts.

Target

I took Beth's Target ad during class yesterday and went to Target. I spent 2 hours and 23 minutes there and bought nothing. I walked each aisle, and observed, and thought. I've never done anything like that before. And, I didn't come back to class. I've never done that before either.

What if I missed class?

Sorry for missing you all on Monday. I had a nagging little cold. If I had avoided getting you all sick, I probably would have grossed you out with my sniffling and coughing. I probably should have gone to the doctor on this one. However, I’m extremely stubborn and only go to the doctor if I’m bleeding at the head … which ironically happened about a month ago, but that is beside the point.


I’ve been looking forward to the “what if” assignment since the first day of class. I admit, I was one of those kids who constantly asked their parents these annoying questions. Maybe that is why my mom suggested the quiet game so often.



What if I was a boy?
What if I am dead and don't know it?
What if I dropped out of college in my last semester?
What if a rode a moose to campus tomorrow?
What if I shaved my head?
What if no one voted in the November election as a protest?
What if I was in a coma for 10 years?
What if my fiance went into a coma?
What if Oprah murdered Sarah Palin?
What if today was the last day that earth existed?

What if I found out someone I love was a spy from another planet?
What if all the art in the world completely disappeared?
What if our skin was translucent?
What if a world war started today?
What if you knew the day you were going to die?
What if people were incapable of lying?
What if cheese was made from pee instead of milk?
What if every flower in the world died?
What if I had a stalker?
What if I became a stalker?

What if Jesus walked the earth today?
What if music was illegal?
What if China blew up?
What if 9/11 was a conspiracy?
What if we could fly?
What if we are all part of a movie like The Truman Show?
What if facebook was deleted?
What if all of the continents were one big land mass?
What if reality is just an illusion?
What if eating animals were illegal?

What if Dr. Phil and Oprah were sleeping together?
What if people covered their butts when they farted just like they cover their mouths when they burp?
What if high school was the highest level of education?
What if we all made the same salary?
What if the U.S hadn't won the Revolutionary War?
What if you could erase one thing from your past?
What if you could ask God one question?
What if we loved each other the way God loves us?
What if I never find a job after graduation?
What if Walmart goes out of business?

What if we walked on our hands instead of our feet?
What if Osama Bin Laden found a cure for cancer?
What if dogs could talk to us?
What if dogs and cats cross-bred?
What if the sun never went down again?
What if IUPUI added more parking lots?
What if Microsoft went bankrupt?
What if I got arrested?
What if no one was homeless?
What if the Colts decided to leave Indianapolis?

Giving a little *time*

She told us to "do something with time," and that was it. Can you get any broader? Although this assignment has caused me to suffer from a few slight headaches and maybe even a little loss of sleep, it has really pushed my thinking. Time means something different to everyone. I have decided to create a mini-documentary of sorts, posing random people with the question of what they would do if they knew this was the last 24 hours of time they had on earth? I know this sort of thing has been done, but I think the more important aspect is the follow up question that I want to ask them. Why aren't you doing these things? What are you waiting for? My sole intention may be a selfish one. Maybe if I can understand the hesitations of others, I will understand my own better. Therefore, I don't have something tangible to present to the class at this point, but I will in the weeks to come. I want to make this meaningful, and I want to present it in a way that makes us all think.

In this mean time, I decided I needed to stop being so organized and stingy with my own time. My time, just like most aspects of my life, is very organized. I can pretty much tell you on any given day what exactly I will be doing at any given time. You should see my calendar. It's actually kind of sick. I am taking 24 credit hours this semester, and I think I have convinced myself that a neat and tidy schedule will keep me from going insane. I am beginning to wonder the schedule in itself is a cause more mild insanity. But that's a different story.

My faith in Christ is constantly convicting me to give back to others. I truly believe that everything I have is from Him and could be taken away from me at any moment. Since I have really earned nor deserve nothing, I feel pushed to share what I have with others. I need to confess; however, that even my giving is scheduled. It is a high priority in my life, and I would rarely chose to do anything else over my set-aside time to help others or further my understanding of my own faith, but this time is pre-determined time none the less. I rarely jump at a spontaneous opportunity to love on others, something that has been eating at me for a while now.

My fiance, Todd has developed a really awesome friendship with a man named Flandera. He lives under the bridge a block away from my apartment. If Todd and I talk about it ahead of time, I will sometimes cook a larger portion of dinner to share with Flandera, and sometimes I even go with Todd to talk to him in the evenings. But only if I've allowed time for it in my schedule. Most evenings, Todd just jumps up out of no where and says he is going to go talk to Flandera. And I usually stay home and work on homework. That is my homework time, not my volunteer time. I want to live like Jesus, but Jesus on a schedule. I highly doubt the son of God kept a little calendar to organize his life. He lived by love. Why is it that I can only spend time with my homeless neighbor when I designate it ahead of time. That's crap, and I'm honestly embarrassed to write about it.

Tonight, my homework will wait. I've got about 3 hours of symbolic logic blocked out that is just going to have fit in somewhere else. I'm going to go with Todd and get to know my neighbor a little better. I'm am almost positive I could learn more from him than I could from this 20 pound text book on symbols that I can't understand. And frankly, he's worth it. He is worth every second.

wimp.

I definitely wimped out with my first assignment. Stupid egg. As one of my fellow student's said, it wasn't about the egg as an object. It was about the idea of the egg. The egg certainly inspired "ideas" for me, but instead of running with those ideas, I took the easy way out when my creative thinking scared me. If I hit a barrier with my ideas this week, I want to find a detour instead of completely turning around.

Day in the life of an EGGS-treme IU fan

Ah, football season has returned. This is by far my favorite time of year to be a sports fan, and I love a good tailgate and crazy crowd of friends and family to watch the game with. Of course I have my favorite teams, but if the food and company is right, I will watch any football game!

I quickly discovered that the egg that has been sharing a roof with me for the last two weeks, is an EGGS-treme football fan. He doesn't just enjoy the sport, he partakes in a somewhat religious loyalty to the Indiana University athletic program. This worked out fine for our co-existence in my small apartment because I am a fan as well. However, when the first IU game day approached this past Saturday, the once quiet and polite young egg completely came out of his shell! I observed the diligent fan throughout the day and these were some of my discoveries.

8:00 am: Rise and shine. Unlike many of his friends who pre-partied the night before, this egg got a good night's sleep. He did not want to feel the least bit "scrambled" on the day of the big game.

8:30 am: Coffee and a full breakfast. He needed his energy.

9:00 am: The egg refilled his coffee and then spent the remainder of the morning hogging my computer, reading up on game-day predictions.

11:00 am: The egg asked me to paint him. At first I laughed because throughout the majority of his visit with me, the egg didn't seem to care in the slightest that he was completely nude. Apparently the rules change on game day, and the egg desired a big, red IU symbol to be painted on his chest.

noon: Let the tailgate begin! Of course, wanting to keep a clear head, the egg remained sober. I did seem him bong a beer with the guys, though. He mostly engaged in conversation with anyone that could stand up long enough to discuss starting line-ups or key football plays with him. As the afternoon progessed, the egg's energy hit an all time high, and he began to get more and more excited for his first opportunity to see IU play this year.

6:00 pm: With one hour and counting until kickoff, the egg headed to the stadium. I felt bad for the guy; most of his friends had passed out hours ago and didn't even notice his exit. He didn't care though. As he trudged across the Bloomington campus, his focus was on IU Memorial Stadium alone.

6:30 pm: I can't really report on the egg anymore at this point. He bought a solo ticket and didn't want to watch the game with anyone, including me! I was a little offended but tried to understand.

11:00 pm: The egg finally returns to me! He was fairly talkative; providing me with several highlights from the game. He then informed our still partying group that he was off to bed and would see us in the morning. And that was that.

I had to lovingly laugh at my little egg yesterday. I mean, come on, its INDIANA football. It's fun to be a fan, but to put in bluntly, we suck. I was impressed with the egg's dedication to the team, and he didn't seem to care one bit that it was Big 10 football and that his team will be lucky to win half their games this season. I doubt IU has many devoted fans like my little roommate, and I have to say, that his loyalty inspired me.

Dipping ... (cont.)

See Friday, August 29 ---


I can appreciate this Chinese proverb and can see why each element is a building block for the end result of "triumph." The word that pops out at me among them all, though, is balance. What a difficult thing to truly achieve! If I were to spend time trying to figure out exactly how to balance my life better, then my life would not be balanced all. I'd be so concerned with figuring out how to balance that I wouldn't be able to actually do the balancing. And is balance really even what it takes to achieve this "trimumph?"

"Bible" Dipping

I found this assignment title very fitting and timed perfectly. I've come to believe that God works that way. Beth, I promise to also "dip" from our book, but I also feel very compelled to "dip" from the sermon this week at College Park Church. It is exactly what we talked about in class, and I can honestly say I have never been more proud to be a member of my church. Our pastor, Mark Vroegop gave specific examples as to why living by religeous rules can do a lot more harm than good. He abosolutely affirmed why I can (and will) succeed in this class and still absolutely hold tightly to my core beliefs. I won't ramble on about why this hit home for me, but I want to share some of the key elements that I found to be very applicable to our class.

- - - - - -

Why Man-Made Rules Don't Work
1. You are complete in Christ
2. It is all about don'ts that never last
3. It is man-made
4. It looks spiritual but really isn't
5. It doesn't alter who you really are

Pastor Mark compared legalism (living by the rules) to alcoholism with this quote:
"Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn’t look like one. Alcohol makes men fail; legalism helps them succeed in the world. Alcoholism makes men depend on the bottle; legalism makes them self-sufficient, depending on no one. Alcoholism destroys moral resolve; legalism gives it strength. Alcoholics don’t feel welcome in church; legalists love to hear their morality extolled in church."

- - - - - -

If anyone is intrigued even in the slightest by this, I dare you to check out the rest of the manuscript from the sermon or listen to the audio version. It really stirred something in me and just might do the same for you.

http://www.yourchurch.com/sermon/why-man-made-rules-dont-work/