When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

What a quote.  I’ve been thinking about this lately.  Jay and I have been keeping up with season 10 of Big Brother.  I know, it’s not the best show out there but it’s sort of like watching a train wreck.  There’s piles of rubble and ruin everywhere, but you just can’t bring yourself to look away.  More than once on this show I’ve seen opportunities for individual players to “go against the flow” and benefit from it, but they always choose to go with the ideas of the house. Usually to their demise.

Why then is it so hard for us to think on our own, find out all the facts, and then come to our own personal conclusions? I have no idea.  It’s hard for me sometimes too.

Have you ever gone with the crowd because it was the easy way out?

Jay:  You must’ve pulled a muscle, maybe you slept on it funny.

Me:  Yep, must’ve.

Jay:  Maybe you had a dream about clowns.

Me:  Huh?

Jay:  You know, dreaming about clowns made you sleep funny.

(Just had to share that conversation, I laughed so hard - this is my husband!)

See #1 and #2 if you missed them!

The vision?
The vision is JESUS - obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones?  I see an army.
And they are FREE from materialism.  They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.  They wouldn’t even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations.
They need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free, yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.  It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose that they might win the great ‘Well Done’ of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.
They don’t need fame from names.
Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: “COME ON!”
And this is the sound of the underground.  And the army is disciplined.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.  Winners.  Martyrs.
Who can stop them?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them?
And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulfuric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting.  Watching: 24-7-365.
Whatever it takes they will give.  Breaking the rules.
Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide.
Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mold them, Hollywood cannot hold them.
Peer pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.
On the outside?  They hardly care.
They wear clothes like costumes, to communicate and celebrate, but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives.
Swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell.  A throne for an electric chair.
With blood sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in)
Their subconscious sings.
They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centers.
Don’t you hear them coming?  Herald the weirdos!  Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes.
They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.
Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be.
It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know?
Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God.
My tomorrow is His today.
My distant hope is His 3-D.
And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great “AMEN!”
from countless angels, from heroes of the faith, from Christ himself.
And He is the ultimate dreamer, the ultimate winner, Guaranteed.

Is there a particular line that gets you?

Kingsland, GA

So, in order to help unblock my blogger’s brain, I installed this nifty little widget over on the left that will let you suggest topics for me to blog about.  I need the help, really.  Unfortunately, anonymous users can’t suggest, so you’ll have to sign up with the little program called Skribit.  

Thanks to my lovely man for showing me this neat little thing.

Suggest away!

…I know it will get better soon.

“So You Think You Can Dance”, I must admit, is quickly becoming one of my favorite shows here lately.  You probably couldn’t tell by looking at me now, but I used to be quite the dance fanatic. When I was a tiny little kid, around the age of 3, my parents put me in dance classes.  Years later they’d spent WAY more than they ever imagined on my dance classes, competitions, and costumes.  I took classes until I graduated high school.

I can’t explain the feeling - the release - that dancing brought me.  Even if I wasn’t the best, I enjoyed every second of it.  So, now I’m living vicariously through the contestants on this show.  They are incredible dancers, and the choreography is unlike any I’ve ever seen!  Makes me wish I were 16 and dancing again.  Makes me wish for a way to find that release again.

“To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.” ~Agnes De Mille

The first time I ever heard of Water Aid was back in the summer of 2006 when Rob Bell came through on his “Everything Is Spiritual” speaking tour.  All proceeds of this tour went to a civic organization called Water Aid.  At the time, I had no idea who they were or what type of work they did other than the quite obvious “water aid”.  I assumed that they helped those without clean water get clean water, but I had no idea about the way they went about accomplishing this mission.

What I learned was incredible.  Water Aid describes itself as an International charity whose mission is to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.  Water Aid began in the United Kingdom in 1981, with Prince Charles as their President.  Today they are one of the most respected charities that deal solely with water, sanitation and hygiene issues.

One of the most surprising things that I learned about the way Water Aid works is how they involve the community and the technologies that they use to bring clean water.  They aim to use technology that is low cost, easily bought and transported to their community, and easy to maintain and operate.  Communities are also required to be a part of every step in the process that is required to build the water source. This creates a deep sense of ownership for the project and compels the community to care for it and keep it running properly.  All this means is that later on, if there is a problem with the water source, it doesn’t go unfixed.  The community knows where to get the parts, and how to fix it.

Water Aid now works in 17 countries in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific region.  While they help communities build wells and water systems they also place strong emphasis on education about sanitation and hygiene.  On their website they make resources available for free that teach primary and secondary schools about water around the world.  There are several opportunities to get involved as well, from corporate sponsorship to volunteer opportunities.

If you are interested in finding out more about Water Aid, please click through and take 13 minutes to watch the video linked below.  There are also several more informative and inspiring videos on their website.

Intro To Water Aid

Although Water Aid is not a religious ministry, the work that they do is most definitely reaching out to the least of these.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’  Matthew 25:35-40

I chose this design and location for several reasons.  I’ve always been a fan of butterflies and the symbolism they have in reference to 2 Corinthians 5:17.  However, with all the events in our life over the last 8 years, it’s come to mean so much more than this.  To me a butterfly is a life that has changed from one form to another.  Many of you know that we’ve suffered 4 miscarriages in our marriage.  The butterfly is a perfect representation of the life that began in us, and is now in a completely new form in heaven.

Though I thought about a wrist placement, we talked about the back and decided that it would be more appropriate.  Though it’s something in our lives that we will never forget, it is in our past and all we can do from here is move forward.  Having it on the back shows that those experiences are behind us, yet they are a permanent part of our lives.

So, that’s my story, do you have a tat story?