Unshaven Legs and Unimaginable Adventures!

It's that time again... well, with a few new features; >It is exam week, and (thankfully) exams are not plaguing me this year... there are just ridiculously long papers that I have neglected to write because I am a procrastinator at heart, in action, and every possible way. > But next up is ADVENTURE time! This summer I won't be trekking off on my own in pursuit of ravenous tornadoes, sky-scraping mountains, teething feral animals or anything similar. I might run into all of the above, but I will be with my best guy friend ever (and my in 16 days husband)! What fun that will be. It's looking like a fiery tabasco sauce, Michigan cold adventure like no other. And maybe throw Washington State in there too - we are hoping to intern at one of the most intriguing organic farms I've come across - Spencer Fruit Organic Farms in Wenatche, Washington. *dreamy sigh* just the thought reminds me of childhood wanderings around Bellingham, WA and Lummi Island where my patchwork quilt, not-too-oversized family celebrated Great Grandma's 80th Birthday. That was the first time I encountered cous-cous and other strangeness. The inn we were staying at brought my Grandma out a sheet cake insulated with white sugar frosting and decorated with flowers - yes, that's right - flowers... on our sweet Birthday cake. Now that I know some flowers (like nasturtiums) are edible and actually quite tasty I laugh at the horrified and pained expressions painted on all of our faces. What was on the cake? In my mind's eye I see some daisy cultivar- who knows if that's accurate though? I was around 12 the first time, now at 22 years old I've changed a lot. Probably look more or less the same- with an extra foot or two added on. But What always changes the most with me is my attitude towards and acceptance of life. Back then I scoffed at people who thought you could eat the flowers on a birthday cake. Now I'm delighted to tell people what flowers they can eat. I was raised in an environment that was, hmmm... would it make sense to say "anti-hippie"? I thought that peace signs were somehow demonic (I didn't know the peace sign actually includes the symbols N & D - standing for Nuclear Disarmament), I thought vegetarians were people who cared more about animals than their fellow humans - and all other sorts of misconceptions plenty of others still hold fast to. Oh, and I also was told I could not be on the swim team unless I would shave my legs - pretty typical - I mean, most 8th grade girls are just dying to have silky, smooth legs, and my mom wanted that for me - in my best interest. But now I don't shave my legs. Ha! I do not shave my legs! What? Some would be shocked and disgusted - trust me, I had plenty of questions and obvious stares last summer working with around 60 cool high schoolers a week. But why should women shave their legs? Men don't. Should they? Most people say: "No! That would just be weird!" Why would it be weird? Because our culture and the media says it would be weird, just like they say a beautiful woman has smooth, soft to the touch legs. Well, I don't have to seduce anyone with my legs. Not only am I almost married to a man who loves me, but I would not want any slimy guy who thinks "his woman" must shave her legs to be touching mine anyways!

Gandhi's Suggestion to Missionaries

I'm wading through gobs of research for my honor's thesis paper, while looking for The Gandhi Reader I instead found "Mahatma Gandhi: An Interpretation" and (out of sheer curiosity) opened to the chapter on Gandhi and the Christian Faith which detailed the following:

E. Stanley Jones - a Methodist missionary to India - once asked Gandhi, "How can we make Christianity naturalized in India, not a foreign thing, identified with a foreign government and a foreign people...?" I love Gandhi's response:

"First, I would suggest that all of you Christians, missionaries and all, must begin to live more like Jesus Christ.

Second, practice your religion without adulterating it or toning it down.

Third, emphasize love and make it your working force, for love is central in Christianity.

Fourth, study the non-Christian religions more sympathetically to find the good that is within them, in order to have a more sympathetic approach to the people."

If only I, and all followers of Jesus, could hear and take these words to heart.
To live like Jesus I must know what he did - who he was while he walked the earth, but also, what he is doing today. It's almost impossible to not tone true Christianity down - maybe that's where all the religiosity and religion comes from. Love? How can we operate out of just love? Maybe I need to ask for God's help with this more! I do try to find the good even in "secular" materials many Christians term "bad". For all truth is God's truth, no matter where it's contained.

The Divine and Dust

Today a friend brought up a quote C.S. Lewis has - I think she was referring to this popular one found in The Weight of Glory;

“A man’s physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation
on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which
repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same
way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall
enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men
will. A man may love a woman and not win her; but it would be very odd if the phenomenon
called “falling in love” occurred in a sexless world.”

It reminded me of a song Brooke Fraser sings with pieces of that quote in it;
"If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy
I can only conclude that I, I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary
Then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared
... ... ...
Cause my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become"

Since I heard it I've really liked it.

Guess thoughts of this sort have been bumbling around in my head for a bit - when looking for the quote I stumbled across an atheist website explaining why what C.S. Lewis had to say was an invalid argument and we don't know food exists because we have hunger but only when we actually find food; likewise they said we don't know God exists because we desire a superior, loving, creator-being but because we find Him. The argument seemed rather sterile and heartless to me; and our hearts are a component to be reasoned with - not just our minds!

I actually went to chapel today, and rather than being mildly annoyed with contemporary Christian worship songs like I usually am there was sang that I kind of appreciate; "Where you go I'll Go" by JesusCulture. Some lyrics that made me think were these;

Jesus only did what he saw you do
He would only say what he heard you speak
He would only move when he felt you lead
Following your heart following your spirit

How could I expect to walk without you
When every move that Jesus made was in surrender
I could not begin to live without you
For you alone are worthy and you are always good

Though the world sees and soon forgets
We will not forget who you are and what you’ve done for us

Jesus has been on my mind - who did He say he was, what did others say he was, did they say the same sorts of things? The words about how Jesus wasn't doing his own thing, but the Father's - not his own will but God's struck me. I speak (usually) when I want to speak, out of pride or arrogantly thinking I can solve someone's problems or whatever other excuses I think of to say anything. I feel my failure to follow God, and especially identifying with the world forgetting God so easily - we say we won't forget God during these spiritual highs but are like the Israelites: seeing, adoring, and promptly forgetting both God and the miracles he's done for us. I thought about how I can try to live without Jesus, but why would I?

I (think I) would still feel that loving people and serving others above myself is a purpose- if not the purpose- for life. I'd like to deny a lot of things about the Christian faith - in a speech I recently gave about war and pacifism - "I wanted to be persuaded by Captain Moon that going to war is right - because it's hard to believe in stuff like pacifism and love and Jesus. When Peter sliced off that soldier's ear Jesus healed the man, and I think that Jesus would piece back that young Japanese schoolgirl who got bombed to shreds." But these are things that are at least hard for me to deny.

Who knows about all their feelings and thoughts and all such abstract things, but I do know that God exists and Jesus is an integral part of His message to humankind. How can I know the message of the Divine if I am only dust with His breath?