Some Thoughts on Forgiveness:

"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."
-Romans 12:2

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
-Galatians 5:22-23

"He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if
he would ever reach heaven; for everyone has need to be forgiven."
-George Herbert




I just read an interesting little tidbit on forgiveness by one of the writers at xxxchurch.com.

It is so...strange to think that forgiveness is more important for the offend rather than the offender. I am carrying a lot of pain in my soul, a lot of pain, a lot of bitterness that slowly eats at my soul...it consists of everything from the failings of family to the bitterness that comes from having Christians and churches fail me.

How much of it is deliberate?
Honestly, how many people intend to strike chords within my heart to where I loose my perspective on life and forget not just who I am but why I was born in the first place?

Over the past few days I have had a LOT of conversation about Christianity, church, the fake Jesus (who is Caucasian, blue eyes and blond hair) history, sexuality, children, vampires, paganism, 'alternate' lifestyles, cats, family, zombies and really only God knows what else.

In hindsight the two things that matter the most to me in this world were overlooked, that being the real Jesus and grace.

I honestly have never one who takes many opportunities to "put in a good word for God" but I really do not think misplaced evangelism would be the right thing to do when it comes to the ones wearied by experience. Talking to people who have been seriously burned by the church, Christians and the whole religious establishment...is so disheartening and like having a mirror held up in front of me.

I've given several blanket apologies for the utter lunacy that the Christian church has been for the past couple of thousand of years. I'm a little old fashion in that I believe in a literal Satan because that is the only one I can think of that could twist something as beautiful as God coming in human form to show love to His people and that sacrifice and grace...and make it about religion and politics.

How many millions of people have been murdered in the name of Jesus, of whom Paul preached? How many tens of millions have been mindlessly abused, persecuted and lost their place in the world because of self righteous idiots who took a small nugget of truth and took it to the logical extreme?

I know so little about life, there are few things I have any confidence in but Jesus is the only solid bedrock I have in life. It's more than just words on a page, incredible stories or about finding inner peace; it is this absurdly impossible, this strange experience of falling in Love and feeling my heart of stone being turned back into flesh.

I have seen a lot of cynicism and jaded hearts because of people...the whole problem Pascal mentioned of people having that "God shaped hole in their heart" gets cut even bigger because people love themselves more than they do God, much less other people.

The curious thing I have seen first hand is that the bigger the hurt, the bigger the pain...the more horrible things become...the greater grace may be found. I hate people who say that God can take the worst of pains and make it beautiful...because it is true and because of how insecure I am. I am too insecure to trust that the One whom I love can take my pain, my bitterness and turn it into something wonderful...there is a strange paradox of how I preach 'faith, hope and love' and the second I get hurt is the second I start giving up on God, people...and myself.

Choosing to forgive someone for the pain, the evil they have done to you isn't the same as approving of their actions. Choosing to stick your neck out and say "I forgive you because Jesus loves me, loves you and has forgiven me so I am forgiving you." Isn't the same as of approving of the offender's actions.

But it is choosing to let the pain change you, push you beyond the complacency that comes with bitterness and pain.

It is choosing to turn stagnate water into wine and letting joy back inside the empty house.

I want to put the past into the past and leave it there, I feel the weariness weighing on me for past debts and hurts that I am so sick of carrying. The burden of the past is too much to bear and I have carried it because I forget who I am and why it is I am alive.

I want to move on in life, move past the aches of the past and let the tears be dried so I can see the beauty in life again. I'm so sick of loosing myself to the base emotions and forgetting what it means to be alive.

Grace, pure and beautiful grace. Grace enough to wipe away the stains and enough to ease the pain. Grace enough to feel, grace enough to love and grace enough to begin to believe again.

Having a check list for life is missing the point, showing up and willing to give people hugs and tell them that they loved...now that is much closer to living life. Berating people for their shortcomings and making them feel judged by God is helping no one...it is just holding up a mirror to show the emptiness in that person whose judges.

How bitter, how egotistical and how narcissistic does a person have to be to take on the mantle of judge, of whom Jesus is the only One rightful, Holy and just in doing?

Grace, forgiveness, Love...such powerful words meant for being shared between Jesus and all of us. Real relationships, real love comes when we lay down our arms and choose to be a family together. People are broken and in need of love...we can't fix anyone but we can show them a flicker of the Divine Love when we choose to let go of the problems we can't fix and instead choose to live life.



"And we love to wear a badge, a uniform
And we love to fly a flag.
But I won't let others live in Hell
As we divide against each other
And we fight amongst ourselves.
Too set in our ways to try to rearrange
Too right to be wrong, in this rebel song.

Let the bells ring out
Let the bells wring out
Is there nothing left?
Is there, is there nothing left,
Is honesty what you want?

A generation without name
Ripped and torn.
Nothing to lose, nothing to gain
Nothing at all.
And if you can't help yourself
Well, take a look around you
When others need your time
You say it's time to go.
It's your time.

Angry words won't stop the fight
Two wrongs won't make it right.
A new heart is what I need
Oh God, make it bleed.
Is there nothing left?"
-U2, "Like a Song..."

Quote of the Day:

“Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'”
-Charles M. Schulz

Pain in My Head, Pain in the Soul

I feel like every effort I make with..trying to understand or make things better with...family things...I make worse.

I can't win...so I will not continue to play that kind of game.

I just...all I know to do is pray and hope, hope and pray...I am sick of pain and hurting...I just want to do the right thing and honestly...half the time I do not know...and most of the time I know nothing at all.

Can there ever be peace in the human heart?
Or will everything I do simply cause more pain?
More ache? More destruction?

Quote of the Day:

“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”
-Blaise Pascal

"It's good to be alive..."

In so many ways it's so nice to just...feel free and that the constant worry and fear is dissipating.

Last night was troublesome because my brother in law may have had a heart attack...and me being several states away and not really being able to help comfort my near hysterical sister did not...help things.

I'm so disappointed with the whole concept of...family.

Being here is redefining it in ways I'm not sure I realized.
Why is the Christian majority so ignorant and think morality exists only within our fractured and screwed up bubble?

I'm staying with people who do not share my faith...my love of Jesus and I know so many people who would be disturbed by that...who would oppose me and say it's wrong. That is such crap...I have been shown more kindness and love by those who oppose Christ than the charlatans posing as wolves in sheep clothing.

Do you have any idea how outright disturbing that is to me?

Where is this love of Christ?
It's not my faith in Jesus that is wavering...it's just my ability to even trust that other followers are sincere...it's so easy to live in a bubble and judge the world...but this isn't my goal.

I want to love Christ and have that love overflow so perpetually that is overwhelms...that is catches my breath in every way it does...and that maybe it will for others.



It has something...I find amazing and touching and moving in ways I haven't seen and felt in a while...


"These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here...they are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus."
-Acts 17:6-7


I miss that...fire to want to turn the world upside down with Love...the biggest accusations against the early church and the ones I want to be lambasted for. I want to be called a bastard, an atheist for defying the religious and daring to love EVERYONE, those who judge and hate me...as well as the "Least of these" those who would NEVER dare to believe that Jesus loves them for them...

I may be dangerous, I may be on the line of heresy...but unless Jesus loves everyone than I am starting to feel He may love no one. It's not my place to judge or say who is worthy, who is going to Hell and who is deserving...for none of us would have dared to chosen or dared to believe we could be loved...by the Lover.

I refuse to let bigotry or religious/pious double speak be my focus...I want it to be pure love, love that cuts deep and goes beyond words...and is merely my faith being poetry in motion.

I'm going to be visiting with some friends of theirs who live what I can most politely say as being "alternative" lifestyles...and you know what? Jesus would be there, Jesus will be there.


"We have to prove that our love is real, over and over again.
But let them think what they want cause I know It'll never end.
Cause I know when it began.
And my heart still pumps twice as fast whenever You walk by.
Cause I still love you.

So I think I'll stay, caught up in silent prayer,
cause I believe in silence.
Our hearts speak the same words.
So why don't we just walk along the shoreline with our silent song?
Cause I believe in silence.
Our hearts speak the same words, the same words."
-Blindside, "Silence"

"What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way"

Awake...?

Mostly replied to emails I got...if I missed you email me again please.
So...so...tired and sore.

Have been napping since I got in.

I do not recall much of last night.

There was some Taco Bell and tea.

They took me to a LARP that was a vampire theme.
It was actually enjoyable and I saw some incredibly nice people who were awesome actors. Don't know if I would ever do something like this because of my lack of acting skills...much more confident in the table top and online RPG RP'ing.

Coming back it was raining on the snow so I slipped and landed perfectly on my back. Still hurting bad.

Need sleep...but more than that rest.




I wish I had a church I could go to...that felt like home.
Some place I'm longing for but have never really...ever seen.

I escaped and came here to...leave it behind...all the thoughts and fears and doubts...but somehow they followed me up I-65. Somehow I am still imperfect even though I keep breaking my back on my self perfected ways...

My heart and mind are still...

Home...*sigh*

"And I know it aches, how your heart it breaks
You can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Home, hard to know what it is if you've never had one.
Home, I can't say where it is but I know I'm going home,
that's where the hurt is.

And I know it aches and your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind"

So Sleepy

I made it to Chicago.
We all took turns napping in the car and driving.
So sleepy.
Took the rental car back.
Came back to their apartment.
Brain is frazzled.
I think I'm baby sitting for half an hour but the cats are doing a better job watching than I.
I feel less stress and it is nice.

There is snow!

I have emails I must reply to soon.

I have such wonderful friends that are too nice.
I have the feeling it'll be a challenging week...in ways I don't quite understand.

Profound thoughts must wait.
Jesus...help me sort it out over some sleep...I need a bit of grace to understand...

Quote of the Day:

"The road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with weary feet, Until it joins some larger way, Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say."
-Frodo Baggins

Quote of the Day:

"Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrased and eventually grateful as you are to be there."
-Anne Lamott

I'm...

Feelings of futility and regret.

Oh well.

Not like...

...or that...to be said...

Because, we all know it will...

...please?

Never mind, what will be will be and everything else...well it's not like you were all that concerned with such trivial matters anyway...

Jesus...when things roll...they tend to just be huge...huh?

Breaking Point

I cannot handle the insanity in this house any longer.
I have tolerated and lived with it for too long.
I do not know what normal is...I just know normal doesn't involve living around guns and being afraid of someone or something dying because people can't deal with and get their personal crap together.

I want to wash my hands of this mess and remove myself a hundred thousand miles away.

It rips my heart apart because every time, every damn time I think I am getting to where it feels things are better...that maybe we can be a family...this crap has to happen and I have to be terrified.

I don't know how...some...can live like this, I cannot.
I refuse to.
If I do not remove myself I will die one way or the other.
I can't function under this extreme stress.

I just am so tired of crying.
I'm so tired of being so mad.
I'm sick of this, I'm sick to death of feeling more alone by the second.

Happiness is a fleeting lie that will never remain.
Human touch is a bigger lie, making promises of comfort that are more temporal and dissipate in seconds.

I can't believe in the lies of family, of friends and love...

It feels like the biggest lie is from Jesus about how all this...is supposed to be something bigger.

My faith is so weak and dying.

It flows, it tosses and turns with my emotions revealing how shallow and fragile I am.

I'm supposed to pretend I am made of stone, that nothing can shake me...but I cannot hold things up by myself...how to hold things up and keep doing this...keep maintaining anything worthwhile.

I'm...falling out.

"Hurt" - Nine Inch Nails

Quote of the Day:

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction."
- Blaise Pascal

Small Geeky Mantra

Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.
Chaos, yet harmony.
Death, yet the Force.

Have I ever mentioned how much I fucking hate this place?

Doctor appointment tomorrow at 10:30...yay...

Quote of the Day:

“The self-assured believer is a greater sinner in the eyes of God than the troubled disbeliever”
-Soren Kierkegaard

Quote of the Day:

"Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon."
— Donald Miller

"Something keeps me awake, something outside is stirring
Through the dark and over the grass
The rabbits and snakes are concurring
They sing in the soil and bones rattle loud
They cry out as this they do see
Someone in those walls is suffering proud
For you are worth every ache within me

I don’t hear music, don’t hear anything
I see dirt, I see cement
What a troubled world it is when you’re outside arms length
It pulls out it’s teeth in dry irreverence

Come and find me on this floor
I am only a half, truth be told
Take away all the distance and say:
"my beloved, I’m here, and now you are whole"
If I turn and see your eyes in the dark I will know the blue in an instant
Never have they gone so far
Never has your face been distant
My life I will give you like a verse and a ring
I will be your only one
And what you ask of me will be yours until all is said and done

Your heart is a song that I hear Jesus sing
It comes over oceans to me
And the notes spell out messages in vibrant streams
And what’s written you show only me"

Quote of the Day:

“When we see the face of God we shall know that we have always known it. He has been a party to, has made, sustained and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love.”
-C.S. Lewis

Funny Funny

After a long day with one or two very nice pick me ups...this video made me laugh...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va8Sh4Agr58&feature=rec-HM-r2

I'm such a foolish idiot.

Quote of the Day:

“All mortals tend to turn into the things they are pretending to be.”
-C.S. Lewis