A Long-Expected Blog Post

It's been a long while since I posted. My excuses are numerous, though only one excuse is a very good one. I thought that I had posted a couple of times since my last post. It is clear to me now that this is not the case.

My internship is over and school has begun. This summer was difficult in so many ways. It was tough, and I have decided that hospital chaplaincy is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. As an introvert it was especially trying. Chaplaincy is so emotionally draining in nature and with my personality added into the mix, it was exhausting. By the end of the summer I left work every day feeling like I was on people overload. All I wanted to do was sequester myself in my room and escape from people. That being said, I learned so much and grew immensely this summer. As difficult as it was, I know that this was a summer well-spent. Today I am a much more confident person. Someone even mentioned this to me the other day after I read scripture in Bible chapel.

I am now two weeks into the first semester of my senior year. I think it will be a good semester and I am looking forward to most of my classes. I am contemplating finishing up the requirements for the Honors Program (look Mom, I spelled honor with a 'u'). Completing this is a daunting task, but I don't think it's one that I'm incapable of.

The Joel Osteen Experience

This morning I attended a mega-church worship service for the first time. Actually, we headed over to the largest congregation in the United States. Lakewood Church seats almost 17,000 and, this morning, was around 3/4 full. Joel Osteen spoke this morning on Signs of God's Favour. He is a very engaging speaker and enjoyable to listen to. Lakewood is a charismatic church and much of it's teachings conform to the prosperity gospel, though they call their teaching "Word of Faith," which is actually slightly different.

My first impressions made it hard to take the church seriously. There are rock formations with waterfalls on either side of the stage and the stage rises to bring the band to the center. Fog machines enhance the effects of the lighting and the people in the large choir were colour-coordinated. The opening song proclaimed "Thanks be to God, who always causes us to win." These are not words that I feel comfortable singing.

After this morning, I have very mixed feelings. These people, and there are thousands of them, truly believe in what they are saying. I think that many of them have more faith than in God I do, though I would argue that the God they have faith in is not exactly the God of Scripture. Joel Osteen has experienced miracles and witnessed signs that I never have. Is this because he has more faith? Or is it because he is more attentive to God's movement, always looking for it? Or is it simply because he is more gullible?

My automatic reaction to charismatics is skepticism. I think a better response would be a desire to learn more. What is the truth in it? Are there things that I could learn and grow from? Because the answer is probably yes.

Not a great picture, but it gives you some idea of how large this place actually is.

Past Two Weeks in Review

I'm back! And I don't even know where to start, because it's been a while since I've posted. So, just get ready for a small whirlwind of description.

We've had a ton of rain here lately. In the past thirty days, Houston has seen almost 14 inches. We had two different days with six inches of rain in one day. I thought the drainage system in Abilene was bad, but it has nothing on Houston. The roads get absolutely horrible when it rains. It's not very pleasant to drive in. I was probably one of about three people in Houston hoping the hurricane would hit us instead of somewhere else, as I've never gone through a hurricane before. But alas, we just had to put up with half a foot of rain.

I went to my aunt and uncle's for the 4th. I had a lot of fun playing with my cousins and chatting with family. I'm thankful that I have them here and they are willing to open up their home for me. We watched fireworks on TV, which was new for me. The Macy's and Boston Pop's shows were both fairly fantastic. The fireworks music medley was interesting, however - Black Eyed Peas juxtaposed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The finale was set to music from Spirit, which really made everything worth it.

One of my fellow interns made sopapilla cheesecake the other day. She got the recipe from someone else and the proportions may have been a little bit off. In fact, the cream cheese and the sugar proportions were switched. Instead of putting in 2 packages of cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar, she put in 1 package of cream cheese and 2 1/2 cups of sugar! Instead of 1/2 a cup of butter, she put in 1 1/2 cups of butter. I have never had a dessert so sweet or rich in my life.

This past weekend we had some fun adventures, going to Galveston and to the Houston Zoo. I was proud of myself for driving us to Galveston and back. I even did it without looking at directions every five minutes. I wish we could have spent more time out at the beach, but it was also a very hot day. I was also recovering from several days of being sick. On Sunday, Karen and I went to the zoo for her birthday. It was fun, but extremely hot. This, of course, also meant that most of the animals were just laying around trying to get cool.

Very soon I'll post something that's more reflection and less description of activities. Get ready!

Edward Cullen as a Christ Figure?

As any teenage girl in the United States knows, the Twilight Saga: Eclipse came out yesterday. No, I did not wait in line dresses as a vampire at a midnight showing. In fact, chances are I'll wait for the DVD to come out at Redbox before I view it.

Today I was flipping through a magazine* when I came across this advertisement:

I feel I should begin by saying that I have not read this book and therefore any conjectures of mine are independent from this work. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for books about God. I think it's great to look for God amidst popular culture. I support finding themes and representations of Biblical images in all areas of life. I even approve of reading books like Twilight and drawing whatever moral conclusions are possible from it's pages (though I would argue that a book like Twilight is best used for it's entertainment value). All of that being said, I'm not sure I can support the comparison of Edward to Christ.

Okay, so they both will live forever and both love unconditionally - though Edward only loves one person in this way. And I suppose Edward sacrificed himself for Bella, though once again he's only thinking of one single person. In other words, Edward is selfish. This is probably what gets me the most. He's also a blood-thirsty vampire who has to constantly overcome his nature (i.e. his desire to eat people) in order to even associate with humans. I feel like Edward's abandonment of Bella is also very problematic if he is a Christ figure. I will close out this post by pointing out Bellas extremely unhealthy attachment to and dependency on Edward.

*Christian Century, May 4, 2010

Jesus Loves the Little Children

The last night at Camp Star Trails is the the closing ceremony. Everyone gathers around a campfire and sings a little. Each child makes a wish and each cabin creates an object to represent these wishes and to throw into the fire. Of course, many people's wishes were for a brother or sister's cancer to go away or for cancer to disappear from the world. As each object is put into the fire, a candle is lit. These candles are put onto a star, which then floats down the lake. The campfire concludes with a fireworks show and popsicles.

Each girl in my cabin had a stick to represent her wish. The precious six-year-old with me was trying to decide what to wish for.

This little girl turned to me and said, "I wish that God would come down here to be with us."

Such a beautiful wish from such a beautiful child! After we threw our sticks into the fire she turned to me again, asking what the glowing things around the fire were. I explained that they were sparks and that the fire made them.

"Oh," she responded. "So the sparks are our wishes and they're flying up to God." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"Yes. I think that's exactly what they are."

Children's minds are so imaginative, so perceptive and so beautiful.

A Nice Day for a Swim

It's hot and I'm sweaty and tired. A dip in the pool sounds lovely right  about now. Maybe an ice cream as well.

You Know You're Tired When... [Part 2]

You know you're tired when you try to fit yourself into a laundry bag.

This is the second installment of what is apparently becoming a new series. It was late one night - well, in reality it was only 10:20, but it sure felt late - and all of the girls were in bed. Karen and I were just chatting when a thought crossed my mind: I think I can crawl into my laundry bag. I proceeded to it and Karen followed suit. Once I had maneuvered my entire body into the bag, I realized just exactly what I was doing.

We got back today from Camp Star Trails. The week was fantastic, but also completely and utterly exhausting. We go, go, go all day. I had a cabin of nine 6-year-old girls. They were incredibly sweet and an incredible handful. It also meant that after long days full of activities, us counselors had long nights. Most nights we weren't able to sleep through the night because of kids sleepwalking, moaning, crying, falling out of bed, needing to change pull-ups, etc.

Our long actually began as soon as we left Houston, as it took us almost four hours to drive from Houston to the camp. This trip only took us an hour and a half coming back. I wish I could say that traffic slowed us down, but alas, it was missing our exits. Did you catch the plural there? We missed multiple exits. The first time we actually drove an hour past our exit. It was a long drive, though it thankfully included a pit-stop at Sonic.

I will post again soon with some of the highlights of camp.