"No Matter What": The Letter, part 1 (excerpt)

 

CHAPTER 2 – THE LETTER

             Our standard birthday celebration for my dad was not enough to distract me from the inevitable thoughts that would flood my brain as I tried to go to bed that night.  So there I lay, with my stomach still cooled by the homemade ice cream we had that night and my mind relentlessly haunted by Nicole’s image.  I closed my eyes in a vain effort to sleep, but the only thing I saw was the vision of her, laughing, talking to her friends in the department store. 

            Why didn’t I talk to her?  Would she have talked to me if she had seen me?  Surely she would have at least said, “Hi.”  After all, she was one of the only girls that had shown any interest in talking to me at all before I got my contacts.

            I stared into the darkness and sighed.  Why is she such a roadblock to me?  Roger’s right.  I really should ask Amanda out.  Maybe Amy.  But I still liked Nicole.  A lot.  I had never asked her out, not in five years of knowing her.  Now here I am, sixteen years old, without a single date under my belt just because I can’t get the guts up to ask this one girl out.  Geez, she could say ‘yes’ for all I know.

            I moaned in frustration into my pillow and pulled it over my head.  How could I possibly tell her how I felt now? I can’t just come out and say it.  My feelings have gotten way too out of hand for that.  And of course there was no chance I would call her.

            So there in the dark that night, I made a decision: I had to do something about Nicole Ellis if I was ever going to get on with my life. 

"No Matter What": Summer Detox, part 2 (excerpt)

This is the rest of chapter 1, "Summer Detox"  Read part one here.

*  *  *  *  *  *

    It seemed to me that most guys looked at Nicole like cartoon characters—you know, the ones whose eyes would pop out of their head and tongues would hang to the floor?  But I really couldn’t look at her that way.  I didn’t know her all that well, but my feelings for her had always been strangely warm and caring.  Thinking of her in terms of her body parts, as so many of my friends did, made me feel wrong, even dirty.

    I came to this realization that morning in the shower.  Even during the summer, she would still enter my mind when at that groggy, vulnerable time most mornings.  I congratulated myself on my emotional depth and sophistication as I got out of the shower.  If only she knew I was better than those walking hormones who surround her all the time, I thought.

The Forgotten Nation

I invite you to imagine with me a country with a rich Christian heritage.  Old church buildings dot the landscape, once filled to capacity but now home to a dozen members in one building, a couple dozen in another, perhaps a hundred in the larger churches.  These nearly empty places of worship are signs of the declining influence and impact of the gospel in these communities.  A remnant remains, but these faithful people have aged, grown tired and defeated, seemingly overwhelmed by the cultural changes around them.

You might be imagining a country in "post-Christian" Europe, and though the country I am describing does have a population roughly the same as the United Kingdom or France, it is much closer to home.  Yet this country is usually seen not as a missions priority but as a stepping-stone for a young minister to gain experience for a couple of years before moving on, or a soft landing for a tired old pastor, working his way toward retirement.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the "nation" I am describing is rural America.

Which 'Kingdom Character' Are You?

To get you started on the concepts of this study, I have created a quiz.

Which of the "Kingdom Characters" do you resemble most?

Take the Quiz!

Indiana Straw Man

A "straw man" is defined as "a weak or imaginary argument or opponent that is set up to be easily defeated."

It seems like the best concept to introduce when attempting to address the hysteria surrounding Religious Freedom Restoration Act that was signed into law in Indiana last week.

Now, with Arkansas passing a similar law today, we need to take time to see through the absurdities and look at what this is really all about.

It's easy to get people to hate a law when it is characterized as "a license to discriminate" (particularly against homosexuals), and boy do people hate it.  Companies have already announced they are not coming to Indiana, the NCAA has expressed concern about its continued presence there, a liberal church denomination has decided to change the venue of its upcoming convention to a different state, and now the governor of New York is placing some sort of restriction on travel to Indiana for state employees.  #BoycottIndiana has been trending on Twitter for days, and now it's #Boycott Arkansas.

How could anyone stand for such an odious law? 

The answer is that no one can and no one will, because the law as it is being portrayed is a myth.  It does not exist.  It is a straw man.

In a recent post, I expressed concern that the current political/news climate of our country is turning us into a nation of what the Bible calls fools.  In the Bible, fools are people who make no attempt at understanding but will angrily air their own opinions.  This post is an attempt to help us really understand what is going on here.

Movie Review: Disney's Cinderella (2015)

Today I saw Disney's new live-action Cinderella with my daughter Hope.  It may be that my heart was so full from having some quality daddy-daughter time that it skews my perception a bit, but it was a wonderful experience.  Right now I think it is the best fairy tale movie I have ever seen.

I may do a movie review from time to time just for the sake of sharing my thoughts on the quality of the movie, but this one had such positive themes that I will have to share some of the scriptural stories and principles I found at work in this film.

So read on for my Four Reasons Disney's (New) Cinderella Is Fantastic...

Oprah Wants to Kill White People with Alaskan Wolves (or something like that)

Every day, I check Facebook and Twitter, and on my newsfeed or among the trending topics are the controversies du jour.

One day, President Obama says "Michael and I" in a speech, thus "proving" (to some bloggers, at least) that he is, in fact, homosexual and Michelle is really a man named Michael (not that a very tired man misread a teleprompter at a minor state function.)

Another day, a Christian Mets player uses the outdated term "lifestyle" while trying to answer questions respectfully about how he feels about a homosexual activist visiting spring training, and thus revealing (to those who want to be angry) that he is really a hateful homophobe (not that these reporters already know his beliefs and are trying to entrap him).

This never-ending back-and-forth game we play is turning us into a country of what the Bible calls fools.

Two stories I saw in the last week are prime examples...