" At one point in my life I'd kill Chirst for 10 bucks, cause He was messing with my status as God."

Easter is a strange time of year. The reverence for what Christ has done for us and the joy of his resurrection. How do we handle it? I was challenged by the words of one of my more recent favorite writers. Check out the Hollywood Pastor.

"its yours baby..."

my parents never cease to amaze me.

so. get this.

friday. mom calls. "hunny, why don't you meet me at the marina and help me unpack for the weekend and then your father and i want to take you out for dinner...." So I'm like, strange, you're pretty capable, but I love you (and the promised free meal is an excellent inncentive), so,..."I'll see you at 4:00. "So mom swings by the Loft to pick me up.

***TIME OUT***
Important detail #1.
If you don't know, I don't have a car, haven't had a car for almost 6 months now. "Sticky-stick", the manual transmission, 5 speed, 1991 Mazda 626 finally passed on this winter. (May sticky-stick rest in peace).

Important detail #2.
I sold my explorer. My parents were going to take the money, buy a new trany for Sticky-stick, and ship her back to the coast for me. That was supposed to happen......about 2 months ago.

Important detail #3.
I have 2 jobs. This is good. I have a bike. This is good. Except the occasional inconvenience of riding my bike in the rain and or thunder storm, hailstorm, lightening storm, tornado, or hurricanes that have taken to afflicting the greater west michigan area. And Oh, Yeah, did I mention its a mountain bike? Not exactly the most user friendly bike during the 7-mile-each-way-ride-to-work.

(alright, continue...)

So mom and I go to the marina. I grab the cart, load up the bags, and trek out onto the dock. I take the bags, place them on the boat, put the cooler on the dock. Make an Ice run to the ship's store. Ice is $2.00 this year. What a joke! $2.00 for frozen water! Mom says she wants to buy an ice maker and put it in the gazebo, but maybe the marina wouldn't be too crazy about that...

So we get unpacked. Mom talks to dad. He says he's still an hour or so out. I'm hungry. Mom is hungry. We grumble about being hungry. We get done grumbling about our bellies, and grab some chairs and my laptop. We sit on the end of the concrete docks, on the corner where everyone beaches their inflatables. We check the weather, I show mom some of my drawings, we talk about our weeks, about the weather. We get back around to grumbling about our stomachs again. I say I'm going to the boat to nap or read or something. Mom says, "Grab the keys off the boat, and get my camera out of the van. Go take some pictures of the clouds." I'm mutter, "fine," under my breath and march off to the boat. I grab the camera, slow down the shutter speed, and try to take some shots of the waves. Mom wants pictures of the clouds, and pictures of the white caps on Lake Mac. I'm a little annoyed. She's grown up on the lake, it's not like she's never seen whitecaps on the lake. But I enjoy photography, so I keeping snapping shots. I come back, she calls dad, "Where are you? We're getting hungry!" He's 10 minutes out.

All of a sudden a red station wagon pulls up. I'm pretty sure dad is in it. "Is that dad?" I ask mom. "no, that's not your father." she answers. I'm thinking, no that's definitely dad, what the heck is going on?! He gets out. "Dad, where's your truck?! What happened?" He has a stern face on. I'm seriously worried now. "What's going on?" He says, "My truck is fine, they took it, they put me in something economical." I say, "What?!" He mutters something about being "new at the company" and "needing to prove himself". I'm almost in tears now. Dad has been working weekends and overtime for the past 5 months. He's drained and tired every time I see him. Then he says, "It's yours."

"WHAT?"

"Its yours baby. Its yours."

"The CAR?"

"Yeah sweety. Your mother and Chris scraped some money together and got it."


"Oh my gosh."


(so point of this story)

I am pretty blessed. I have a beautiful family who pulls together when we need it most. We aren't always a pretty picture. We don't always speak in soft tones. But we are a family. What a picture of sacrifice. I saw Jesus when my parents were standing there in front of that little red car. What a beautiful thing!


So I am the owner of a 1996 Red Ford Escort Station Wagon.

Name suggestions are welcome.

friend.

sometimes its enough to just be a friend.

i greatly enjoy being a friend. but not just any friend. i enjoy being a friend who has a servant's heart. now, this isn't to say that i like to be used by my friends, that's not what i'm getting at here. but i truly enjoy caring and doing what i can to make my friends happy. its something that just makes me feel good.

like...
driving around holland.
and making pancakes at 2am.
and loving on them.

its not something we think about often, you know. Jesus as a friend. we think of him as Lord, Prince, and Savior. and its not that he isn't all of these things, because he is fully. but he was also a friend. a friend to his disciples, to poor, to the unloved.

i'm not sure that i truly understand what friendship is. honestly. i fall pretty short. but man, to love my friends and serve them like Jesus did??!? i want to kneel down. i want to wash your sore, tired feet my friend. come here. let me show you love.

"Speak- say the words that no one else will ever say
Love- love like the world we know is over in a day

I'm gonna show you a love in every language
I'm gonna speak with the words that need no form
I'm gonna give you what you never had before"
-Jars of Clay (Show you Love)

enough is enough.

seriously. i am so fed up with the state of this region, this country, and this world.

Rwanda the 1994 genocides: 800,000 murdered

Uganda in The past 20 years: 150,000 murdered and counting...

Sudan the Darfur Massacres & genocide (last count in 2006): at least 500,000 murdered and counting...

Europe (the Holocaust): 11 million people murdered

Why do we stand for these things?!? We have, and continue to sit back and watch theses events unfold. See, it's not that we ignore them, but that we are apathetic towards them. We say, "My God, how horrific!", then we continue with our day, our class, our dinner, we change the channel. We know these atrocities occur, and we continue to ignore them!

I do not not understand how we, as Christians, ...for goodness sakes, as fellow human beings, can see these things and not act immediatly! How do our hearts not burst at the injustice!?! How do we justify these events in our minds, in our hearts, in our souls?!?

What is Faith without action? If this apathy and ignorance is what "Christianity" has become, then I want no part in it. You may call me a follower of Christ, and I will chase passionatly after him, and I surrender my life to his will, but I will not partake in this apathy any longer. I am done with it. I am done with our ridiculous excuses for ignorance. I am done. I will not stand for this any longer. I will not tolerate my own, or anyone elses excuses for living a life half committed to my creator. I will not be a participant in this stagnant faith.

My faith will be real. My faith will be honest. My faith will be hard. It will not come easily. My faith may cost me comforts, social acceptance, a safe home, and even my life.

But I WILL have a REAL faith.

I will not be ignorant.

I will not be apathetic.

I will not allow you to make following Jesus a fad or a comforting dream.

Following Jesus is not comfortable. It is not easy. It is not about this life. It has a price. The price of your entire life.

NOTHING LESS.

enough is enough.

take a stand.

enough is enough.