Happy Fun Girl: What's so GOOD about it?

Happy Fun Girl: What's so GOOD about it?: It's holy week. Holy moly. "Be ye holy, as I am holy." Fail. Not so much. "I never wanna be so ho-ly that you ...

What's so GOOD about it?

It's holy week.
Holy moly.

"Be ye holy, as I am holy."
Fail. Not so much.

"I never wanna be so ho-ly that you don't wanna know me."
That's a line from a song I never finished. I've got stack upon stacks of them.

As much as I love God, I desperately cling to Jesus....and I've never wanted to come across with a holier than thou attitude.

I tend to worry more about how I come across to the holy people.
You know, the "at least I didn't do that!" ones.... :)

I will precede the next story by saying that I love the church I've been attending. They have supported me and strengthened me and kept me lifted up in a new land every week and I am grateful.

A few weeks ago, I attended an informational class about participating in short term mission trips.
India is always strumming my heart strings and the holy spirit was all over me as I was forced to hold back tears during my, "don't blink, don't blink"...self-talk.

But then I received the 20 page informational packet. Wow.
"Excuse me but...is the No Judgement Waiver attached?"
They laughed....though I was dead serious.
"Here, grace is a given," I think they responded.

I'm not sure because I was already wondering just how honest you can be, and still have grace apply regarding certain things.

"Legal and Lifestyle Concerns"
Oh crap.
Have you ever____________?
Yep.
Have you ever____________?
Check. Check.

With all due respect I understand their responsibility to staff a trip with healthy and nurturing relationships.
It also says that answering, "Yes," to any of the questions does not automatically disqualify you from volunteering in ministry.
Whew!

But then the other night as I was sitting in a booth at IHOP, thank you Michelle for keeping my coffee cup full, and I had some time to complete my packet.
Enthusiastically and truthfully, I started checking boxes and rendering my answers until I read the following. I was brought immediately to a screeching halt.

I guess I may not be going to India after all.

Social Networking Sites
Will you rerfrain from posting anything to your personal blog, Facebook, My Space, or any other personal website that could damage the reputation of the church or your ministry?

First of all, does anyone even use My Space anymore?
And secondly, I need a definition of damaging.

Now, admittedly, I have said that Max is like the Mr. Rogers for Jesus.....but I meant it in a good way! He's very calming and fatherly.
That's all.

And there was that comment about the Benny Hinn thing....
Suddenly, I thought of all the creative material I've been stockpiling that I may not be able to use if I check the YES box.
Oh NO!!!

Like how the communion wafers remind me of Chiclets gum. I can't help but smirk every time they pass them.
I'm used to big chunks of real homemade bread!

I remember the first time I saw the overfilled bowl of opaque looking miniature squares.
This? This is the body of Christ?
Really? What...like his little toe?

Last weekend was Palm Sunday and I inadvertantly ended up with several.
My palm wasn't quite filled, but still...I grabbed more than one accidently.

Then my guilty conscience kicked in and convinced me it was probably no accident at all, but a much needed reminder of how I've probably damaged my reputuation and am not in fact a good Christian girl but a weak willed wanna-be who also while I'm confessing commented how "hot" the Jesus was in The Bible series.

Holy Smokes Batman.
Yes, I caved.

One of my very most favortie stories in the bible is the one where Jesus met the woman at the well.
She did not have a great reputation from what I can tell either.
But Jesus confronted and sassed her..and then she RAN back to town to tell everyone to come and meet the man who told her everything she'd ever done!

That's the Jesus I know and love.
The one who can call you out and pour out....love...all in the same breathe.
So, so, mercifully that all you want to to do is tell everyone else, "Please, please come and meet him."

I struggled with having such a great day on this not so good Friday, knowing that it is a day I should probably be in mourning.
I tend to celebrate with extreme joy and gratefulness for the resurrection and the new life that I know is coming.

But all day, throughout the day, my heart and my mind led me back to the disciples.
How totally distraught they must have been to watch as the man that they followed and worshipped and loved...the man they watched perform miracle after miracle..the man they walked with for years, hung on a cross and suffered so, so much.

They had to have been confused. They had to have had an "are you kidding me...this is how this is going down? For real? " kind of moment.
The immense sadness that they must have felt gives me chills from head to toe.
It didn't make sense.
I can feel the shame that Peter must have felt as it all fell apart. No, I won't deny you.
Oh, yes I did. Not once...three times.
Immeasureable guilt and shame.

I can't begin to imagine the overwhelming grief they must have felt.
We're the lucky ones. The ones who have the advantage of knowing it's all going to end up good.
Great even.
We know that come Sunday, He is Risen!!!
But they didn't have the advantage of knowing what was to come.
They just saw death.

I have felt kicked and beat down, used and abused....damaged beyond repair at points in my life.
I have been betrayed and I have betrayed.
And I have been humbled and sorrowed by what he did on the cross for me.
In all of my selfishness and sin, he still gave his life, so that I could live.

He is restoring me to wholeness.
He is my redeemer. My strongtower. My Abba father. My daddy.
My damage control plan.

Please, please....come just as you are.
and meet Him for yourself.
Happy Easter.

Luke 23:32

Happy Fun Girl: Easy Breezy...Beautiful!!

Happy Fun Girl: Easy Breezy...Beautiful!!:      (I love this picture...borrowed from Facebook..not sure who made it) It was one of those mornings you just want to go back to bed...

Easy Breezy...Beautiful!!

 

   (I love this picture...borrowed from Facebook..not sure who made it)

It was one of those mornings you just want to go back to bed.

I sat in the suburban ready to drive the girls 6 blocks to school. Yes, 6 blocks.

The engine was running, I had one obediently sweet daughter in the back seat also ready to go as we waited on the other.

SLAM!!
Goes the screen door, and not in a Taylor Swift pop song good kind of way.

My teenage daughter Chelsea, 14 years old at the time, stood on the back steps in a tan knit mini skirt with white sporty piping down the sides and a spaghetti strapped t-shirt with the Superman logo across the front.

This was going to be a Wonder Woman battling moment. I could tell already.
"You can't wear that."
"Yes I can."
"No, you can't. They don't allow spaghetti straps and your skirt is 4 inches too short to pass the school's skirt test. Perhaps you just couldn't see that because of the extravagently thick black eye liner...which also needs to go."

She rolled her eyes at me.
"Go change."

"I'm not changing."
 POW!
"Well then I'm not driving."
BAM!
Can you see the cartoon bubbles over head?

"Hurry up. We're going to be late."
"No. I'm not changing."
SHAZAM!

Oh dear Lord. Help me now.
I turned off the engine, resolved to be late and let out a heavy sigh.

"Fine!" she yelled before slamming the door as she stormed back inside.

As I sat there, like the wondering woman that I often am...."How do I do this Lord? Every day feels like a battle."

"It is."

"I'm tired and battle worn. Where is the victory?"
At that very moment, a fuzzy tailed, beautiful brown squirrel scurried up the side of the house and I
watched in utter amazement with my mouth hanging wide open.

Inch by inch. Slowly climbing. Flat pressed with his belly up against the brick.
Occasionally, he would look around...and down.
I'd never in my life seen a squirrel scale a wall before, but I imagine it is helpful to look back or down every so often, just to stay encouraged at how far you've come.

Ask Hannah Montana....it's The Climb.
He made it up to the rooftop and just stood there looking and waving at me with his victorious sticky padded squirrel feet like he was saying, "And that's how you do it, lady!"

Later that day, no kidding, I had a total McBible moment and opened randomly to the following verse, "With your help, I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall." Psalm 18:29

BAM!!! POW!
And that's how it's done!!
He is the mighty force that keeps me going. Day in and day out.
I look around for opportunities to see other people in their struggles and it almost always makes my battle seem so much smaller in comparison.

Talk about a series of random and timely events that left me feeling like I could scale a wall myself....or maybe even a Brick House!!

Change is possible. Even when we can't, God can.
Easy, breezy.

Please, Please...Christianese!

What I wouldn't give to learn a foreign language! Spanish in particular.
Living in San Antonio, sometimes I would like to understand what people around me are saying.

I no comprende'.

I was listening to Air1 the other day and Brant Hansen, one of the most hilarious DJ's ever, started a conversation about...well, conversations.

He brought up how difficult it can be for new people in church, or people outside of the church, to understand what we are talking about.

There should so totally be a Rosetta Stone for Christianese!

I will never forget being a brand new believer and walking into John Schneider's, Faithworks Production office years ago.

His secretary and I struck up a conversation about being new to the area and she started to tell me how amazing her church was.

"Have you found a church home?"

"I have. We've been going to a place called, The Turning Point."
"Oh! I've heard of them before. They're charismatic, right?"

I pondered what she said and enthusiastically and completely one hundred percent seriously said, "Well, yeah. They're pretty charming, I guess."

She burst out laughing hysterically.
I do consider myself  to be somewhat of a comedian, (although my daughter will disagree and say her dad is much funnier) I didn't understand at all what she found so funny.

After years into it, we sometimes get so deep in our Christian culture that we forget how to communicate with the rest of the world.

I never knew half the terms they were slinging around when we first started attending regularly.
Phrases like....prayer language.
What the heck is prayer language?

Early on I was told I was annointed.
Initially, I thought that meant I had something on me or I was demon possessed?
Some days, I still wonder.

Recently, God reminded me to remove the word, "douche bag" from my prayer language.

I remember one lady, also new to church who had been told to stand on the word of God.
So she got out her bible and stood on it....literally!

Hanging out becomes "fellowshipping."
And the list goes on and on.

This week, there has been much talk about, "The Bible," the amazing story told on the History channel of all channels!

Hear me sing in a silly high pitched opera voice, "Loooooved it!!"
My 15 year old daughter, initially complained about watching it and then asked me to "pause it" so she could pee.

Pause it!
Glory! Hallelujah!

It got the conversation started in a very non-threatening, I'm not shoving Jesus down your throat kind of way.

And then there are the critics.
The bible scholars who said it was inaccurate in parts and they took too many creative licenses.
Oh brother. Here we go.

Maybe it made millions of people want to open it up and check it out?
Let us be thrilled that the numbers of people who watched it were HUGE!

It made me look some stuff up.
I couldn't remember how many spies were sent into Jericho.
I was thinking, was it 2 or 10?
After reading I realized....2 went into Jericho, 10 into Canaan...and only two of them knew the power of positive thinking!! :) I always loved that story, but kept mixing up the cities.

It's difficult and challenging maneuvering around in foreign territory.

Way back when we were first involved with the Christian Music Connection, someone set an appointment  to come and speak with me before they committed to "fellowshipping" with the Chrisian music community.

He asked me, "And where do you stand on transfiguration?"

Um? Stand Tall?
Are they related to The Transformers?

"Excuse me?" I replied with a very confused look on my face, breaking out slowly in a heated sweat.
"Where do you stand on transfiguration and the Trinity?"

Now, just this morning I was reading 1 Peter 3 which says to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have....

But back then, I was definitely not prepared to answer.

"If I'm going to be associated with an organization, it's important that I understand and agree with your declarations."

"I only have one declaration. I love Jesus. I'm sorry. That's all I've got."

19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

 

I think Paul was saying here...Let's just keep it real people. I could be wrong. I'm not a bible scholar.

 

But I do believe we can do much more for the kingdom by comminicating in a way the world understands. 

 

I'm sure there are a whole bunch of little details we can disagree on, but I'd rather just hang out with some people and talk about the great things God has done and is doing.

 

I want to get together and encourage each other to stay in the race and keep focused on the prize.

 

Like fellowshipping with Jesus Christ in a way that is desireable and leads people to draw closer to him.

 

Like listening to Air1 and cracking up laughing while commuting.

In the San Antonio area, turn up 97.7 if you feel like just 'hanging out' with Brant and the crew!