180 Movie

There's a video that's going around called the "180 Movie." It's pro-life, made by a Jewish man who likens the Holocaust to the abortion epidemic that is happening today. For the record, I recommend watching this movie. If you're not pro-life, it makes a very good argument; if you are pro-life, you'll probably find it encouraging by the end. (The beginning is kind of sad because of how uneducated people are.)

I "like"d the Movie's page on Facebook and now I get a lot of things from it. Some I enjoy; sometimes it's just kind of annoying. It's taking a good thing and shoving it in your face so much that it gets wearisome. Like a good song that you really love until you hear it all day every day for a week. And then you can't stand it. But that's a rabbit trail.

These posts that I see are often statements about how people value Stuff above People. I completely agree with this take on the world; stuff is extremely important to people and other people are often seen as only a way to increase one's Stuff. In today's post, it compared a rolex watch to a baby. How many people would stop someone from smashing an expensive watch, but have no qualms if they hear someone is going to have an abortion?

The meaning is well-taken, but my brain didn't want to leave it at just that. How many people would rather have the watch than see it smashed? Or in the parallel, how many people would want the baby rather than know it's going to be killed? What if the baby were being aborted for medical reasons (a deformity, a mental illness, a disease, etc. etc.)?

Being pro-life shouldn't just be anit-pro-choice. It should mean, if I have the opportunity to save a life (without sinning), I take it. I should WANT to take it, not just feel that it's my duty as a Christian. Honestly, I don't feel that way right now. There's a difference in my head between accepting MY children no matter what issues they have and accepting someone ELSE'S child no matter what issues they have. I don't really have a choice when it's my kid. I don't HAVE to adopt a drug baby. If we chose to adopt, we could choose a nice, healthy baby. A baby that we think is cute or one that has the same coloring as us or whatever parameters we want.

But I shouldn't feel that way. If I can SAVE a life, it shouldn't matter what the condition of the body of that life is in. It should not matter if it's an old person who won't remember that I saved them, or a baby with such extreme mental health problems that they'll never have the capacity to form a real sentence.

Obviously, this is pretty much hypothetical right now. Maybe one day, if we ever have enough money to adopt, it won't be. But I think it's good to have such things stirring around in my head. One day it may all be very much real, and being who I am, it'll go better if I have an idea of what I believe and why BEFORE any of it happens.

In closing, let me quickly add that I stated some things very dogmatically. I believe them which is why I said them strongly, but I am very open to discussion and/or debate. I think today is the first time I've ever thought about this - at least in this way.

Happy Monday. :)

Getting old. . . .

I know I'm not getting OLD old, but I've been feeling kind of old because I've been forgetting things lately. That's not like me. But then again, maybe it's not like me because I'm not used to being quite "so busy." (I'm not actually busy as in things are taking up all my time; I'm busy in that the things that take up my time are all different things - makes it harder to keep track of stuff.)

So in the spirit of being forgetful, I'm going to blog about something that I'm pretty sure I've blogged about before, something that's been on my mind a lot recently.

My topic is things that I always wanted/always expected. And my thoughts about WHY I wanted those things or expected those things.

Something I expected (though not something I wanted) was that I would not live around my family when I grew up. I didn't know where I would live, I hoped for certain kinds of places, but in all my thinking about what life would be like as a grownup, I never expected to live around my family.

I wanted to marry a preacher - a pastor, a missionary, an evangelist, it didn't matter. I went through them all at different stages, but the overarching theme was I wanted to marry a preacher.

This one I didn't just expect, I was relatively certain of, even though it began later in life (I think I was pretty convinced by the time I was fourteen): I had to meet the guy I was going to marry online. People liked me better online; I could get to know people online; I had an easier time communicating, etc. etc.. There were lots of reasons.

On the flip side: I could never picture myself dating, and in actuality, I've been on very few dates. "Dating" for us was talking on the phone for more than three hours on Saturday night. I knew I would get engaged, because I knew I would get married; but not being able to see myself dating helped my conclusion that I would marry someone I met online. It also made being Zack's girlfriend somehow more novel to me than being his fiance. Haha.

I expected to be poor. Not super poor, but as fun as it is to think about having money. . . . I wouldn't know what to do with it. Or, at least, I can't think of worth-while things to do with it. Haha. I could spend lots of money on STUFF - but what good is stuff?

Anyway, the WHY of all of this. Believing, as I do, in the God Who is involved in every aspect of the goings on in the world, I know that He orchestrated it. He gave it to me to expect things that He had long before determined were going to happen. Part of the reason, I think, is because I don't do well with unexpected things (I think I've learned to be more flexible, but it still gets rough sometimes). So He decided to let me know YEARS prior to events the basic way that things would happen.

Maybe He knew that if I hadn't been somewhat mentally preparing to leave my family for as long as I can remember, I wouldn't have been able to when Zack came along. The really interesting part is that God used my fears - my fear of being alone - to help me get used to the idea of not having my family around, so that when it came time for me to leave. . . I was sad and it was hard. But moving across the country was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than losing them for the rest of my life. I can visit them in Michigan this way; I get to see them on Skype every week.

Anyway. It's been on my mind. God is. . . . Heh. I couldn't think of a word that would fit what I wanted to say, so. . . God is that He is. And anyone who knows Him partially understands the depths of what that conveys.

"Deliciously Sinful"

Please note the quotes. ;)

First, let me say that this is not to reprimand anyone who has used this phrase or something similar to it. It's just something that was brought to my attention and it got me thinking (again) about how free we are with our words and how we all say things without thinking about what we're really communicating.

So what's wrong with this phrase? It's probably really easy to see once you think about it. Saying something like "that was deliciously sinful" or "this triple-chocolate truffle cake MUST be wicked" makes it sound like all things that are pleasing to the senses are wrong. Something that tastes so amazing CAN'T be morally right to enjoy. (Sarcasm. . . .)

This is obviously silly. We know that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights - not just spiritually good things, but physically good things. But somewhere in our hearts, we sometimes still feel guilty (or feel like we should feel guilty) for enjoying the good things that God has given us - and yes, that includes a triple-chocolate truffle cake (if such a thing exists; sounds yummy, doesn't it?).

I don't want to beat a dead horse, so in conclusion: Enjoy the delicious things that you have, and the fun games and the beautiful days, and make it even better by giving the credit to the right Person - the One Who made all those good things for us.

I Think There Was Caffeine in That. . . .

So I was thinking about starting a new blog that was not about my life, but was a realistic story about SOMEONE's life from their perspective. I wrote one post and then I nixed the idea. I'm just not good at coming up with interesting things about real life and things nowadays. I prefer something more fantastical. But the idea is still lingering. Maybe something more Sci-fi though. . . . If I do, I'll probably let all of my (four? three?) readers know.

I miss other people's blogs. Mike used to blog. Mom only did it once. :/ Dave used to write about his life. That could get long-winded, but I felt informed. Of course, he calls me now, so that's all good. :) Zack was blogging for a little while, but he hasn't done that in well over a year. (I know because the last post was like three-five months before we got married [I think] and we've almost been married for a year.)

Speaking of which, we've been married for almost a year! =D That's pretty cool. It's also weird. Sometimes I wonder when the "newlywed" feeling is going to go away. Or if it only goes away if things get hard. Or when you start having kids. Or what exactly. I don't know. I know that sometimes I feel like an old married couple, and sometimes I feel like it's been a few months.

I think part of that is that the passing of time is all mixed up for me right now due to the lack of seasons in CaliLand. There are only two. . . . How am I ever supposed to feel like it's been a year when we've only had two seasons? Or maybe, I'll just know that time is passing because "Summer is here again already!?" ;) Hehe. I always have great ambitions to get tan and then it gets hot and I spend all my time inside and out of the sun as much as possible.

On the up side, we don't have a water bill at our apartment so I can cool off in the shower as much as I want. I'm also already trying to come up with cute/nice ways to keep my hair up all summer so I don't end up chopping it off again. I would like to grow it out for the cooler months, but my hair doesn't grow fast enough for that to work unless I can make it through at least one summer. We'll see if I can make it this year. I'm betting I won't. Hahaha.

Also, I like losing weight. It makes me happy. I feel better and it makes me want to move so that it doesn't come back. I lost some weight over the holidays (weird, right? Not really, I had the flu) and I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO want it not to come back. So I think I'm going to start working out again - something I should have already been doing. There's a treadmill in the common room of the apartment complex. I should really start making use of it. I don't need a jogging buddy if I'm on the treadmill.

Anyway. Lots of random things this time.

2012

There's been a lot of talk about this year. The end of the Mayan calendar, there was an end-of-the-world movie named "2012," and then there's just all the talk about the collapse of the US and all the emphasis being put on this year's election.

I get some of it. I mean, it's fun to think about the future and it's fun to think about the way things might go and try to predict things and make contingency plans. I enjoy doing that. I even enjoy doing it for things that are ridiculous. But I don't really think that things are that imminent or that bad. I'm not going to say they definitely aren't. I just don't think that things are going to go anywhere close to the way people have talked about them going.

So first up: The End Of the World vs. The Collapse of the USA
With the eschatological beliefs that I have, the end of the world can't happen this year. The end of the US? Eh, maybe. So what's the proper take to all of this? Let's say that the US does go down the drain, that there are (as I've heard some people say there could be) droves of vagabonds pillaging and thieving because now there's no societal system to hold them accountable. What do I do?

I do the same thing I should have been doing my whole life; I do the same thing that Christians are always supposed to do. I go to God. If I were a poor person on the street today with nothing, no food, no home - what would I do? I would pray. I would try to find work to earn something for myself. I would ask people for help. Why does the fact that the nation might go poof change anything that we would do? Why does the idea of the nation dissolving make people think that the place God has them now will suddenly NOT be the place He'll want them afterward?

There's absolutely no reason to think that way. Because I think that if I go home, there's a better chance of surviving because there's open land to farm in MI? Since when does "better chance of surviving" factor into it? There's a guaranteed "chance" of survival if you are where God wants you to be - as long as God wants you to be alive.

Next: The Elections and Their Place in this
I will vote for the guy I think is best for the country. I think Ron Paul is the only one who has a chance. But I have a hard time thinking that any ONE guy can get an entire NATION of people out of debt. And if the nation fails, oh well. America is NOT my home - and that's not unpatriotic. That's Christianity. I will seek the best for her, but if she dies, that's not a huge loss in my book. America doesn't have a soul.

Last, I'm not trying to downplay anybody's concerns or scold people for being concerned. But there comes a point where it just doesn't matter. It doesn't do any good to think about moving or think about spending money on food for later when you're hardly paying the bills now. God isn't going to just hang you out to dry. If the US goes back to the stone-age, God is going to be just as much with the Christians who were prepared and waiting for it to happen as He is with the ones who never gave it two thoughts.

So just do what you think is right, and don't worry about the rest. I read a thing the other day that made the argument that the Devil is most pleased when Christians are focused on the Future, instead of the Present.