Playing With Fire

We recently watched an episode of House (one of my favorite shows) called "Open and Shut." This episode depicted a sad picture of marriage and I was tempted to turn it off without finishing it (I didn't). The patient was a woman in an "open marriage" where she and her husband had an agreement that they could sleep with other people because they both realized that "to expect ONE person to satisfy your needs for the rest of your life is unreasonable."

Immediately when she said this, red flags shot up and the claxon of alarm bells in my head resounded. Their mindset in their marriage was about "me" and "my needs." A marriage where the focus is on how I'm going to get my needs met, will result in disappointment. People are not perfect, no matter who you marry, and if you're looking to this one person to satisfy all your needs, they will let you down. The only One who can satisfy all our needs is God, who was clearly absent there. Perhaps, she simply meant all her sexual needs, but the point still stands if they had a healthy mindset of marriage, they wouldn't think of looking for satisfaction beyond their spouse. God created marriage and sex in such a way that it IS fulfilling (and intended) with one person. But that may not be the case when we take Him out of it and make sex all about our own gratification.

The other focus of the episode was on Dr. Chris Taub and HIS marriage. Those who don't watch the show should know that Taub has already had an affair once and there is a significant amount of distrust from his wife, Rachel. This patient got him to thinking about the possibility of "opening" up his marriage, which initially infuriated his wife. Taub admits to Rachel that there is a nurse at the hospital that is attracted to him that he frequently flirts with, which he sees as harmless because of his insistence that "nothing's happened." I would add a big "YET" to the end of that statement.

Ultimately, Rachel says she is not okay with an open marriage and Taub tells her all he wants is her. Yet, fast forward to the end of the show, setting: hospital parking lot. Homewrecker Nurse is overburdened with boxes and struggling to get them into her car. Taub is watching from his car. (Me: "DON'T YOU EVEN WALK OVER THERE!") Taub, being the chivalrous gent he's clearly shown himself to be, goes to her and helps her load the boxes into her trunk. Next thing you know, they're kissing passionately and he's getting into her car to go have an intimate rendezvous.

Here you have a man who has shown his area of weakness with a history of infidelity who is purposely subjecting himself to temptation. He has a woman at work that he is attracted to, and that is attracted to him, and he "harmlessly" flirts with her? How long will the flirting go on before it becomes something else? How many times can he put himself in situations with the potential of causing him to stumble before he falls flat on his face? I thought House's team was supposed to be smart!

Proverbs 6:27 also speaks to this - "Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?" (NIV)

A Practical Way to Fight Child Rape for Profit

The love that God calls us to takes time, money, involvement. It takes thought and effort. This kind of love is sincere.... REAL. Real beyond pretense.

Romans 12:9-13 says that "Love must be SINCERE." We must "hate what is evil; cling to what is good." We are called to "be devoted to one another in brotherly love," and to "honor one another above yourselves." In addition, we are to do this by "never be lacking in zeal, but spiritual fervor serving the Lord," and to always be "joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer." The last verse of this passage says that we are to "share with God's people who are in need," and to very simply, "Practice hospitality."

I know of a practical way that you can show sincere love. It is a way that you can join with others in the fight against evil, be devoted to a good cause showing brotherly/sisterly love, and to share with God's people who are in need!!

And guess what, it's completely easy and fun!

Our church is hosting comedian Carlos Oscar to come out for a night of good fun clean comedy. Scott and I saw him last year, and if you go, I can guarantee you some good laughs! We laughed until our sides hurt. This guy is AWESOME. You don't want to miss this.

And here's the best part. Your ticket cost goes directly to help benefit rescued girls who have been kidnapped and raped for profit in PHOENIX, ARIZONA.

Yes, this sort of thing happens in Phoenix. There are have been AT LEAST 50 identified child prostitutes in Phoenix who are abused, raped, and sold to numerous men daily so their "owner" can make money off of them. The average age of a child prostitute IN PHOENIX is 13. These girls are sold to between 100-1,500 men a year. Disgusting.

Anyway, your ticket sale money will go directly to Branded (an organization completely dedicated to helping to stop child rape for profit) and to the Streetlight safe house project. Currently, there is no place in Arizona for girls under 18 to escape to to get away from the sexual exploitation of their abductors. Streetlight is a faith-based shelter opening this summer that will care for and help rescue teens from this horrible sex trade. Many girls that are currently picked up police are sent to jail as there is nowhere else to put them. Streetlight is now going to be another option for them; a safe place to recover and re-enter society when they are ready to live a healthy normal life.

Come help support this cause. This has got to be the EASIEST way ever to support a cause.

There are 3 performances: May 7th at 7pm, and May 8th at 5 and 8pm.


Tickets are $15 per person.

You can purchase tickets here.

Promotional Video:



A funny clip of Carlos Oscar:



Leave me a comment with any questions. Hope you can make it!

Spiritual Sticking Points

Spiritual "sticking points." These are things that cause people to get hung up in their path to a relationship with God, whether already on it or just starting. In the parable of the seed and the soils, Jesus speaks of four different kinds of people classified by how they react to an experience with the Word of God. It is found in Matthew 13:3-9...

And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, ⁶but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹He who has ears, let him hear."

The third person is the one that interests me most. Here is a person who heard the word, was influenced by it, maybe even started to consider it as possibly Truth, but for one reason or another, let it go. The thorns of everyday concerns, worries, or whatever got in the way of what he knew could be true. Jesus explains further in verse 22: "As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful."

This concept of "thorns" is repeated elsewhere in Scripture. The Apostle Paul writes about what he calls a "thorn in [his] flesh" in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 - "⁷So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

It is important to note that based on these two passages, both unbelievers and believers will experience these thorns that interfere (or try to) with a relationship with God. Trials and distractions may come prior to someone coming into a relationship with God, or they may come after, or more likely, both. Some will work past them, but some won't. So while both Jesus and Paul recognize that there can be thorns in the life of a believer, there is still a stark contrast to the third person in the parable and Paul himself. Jesus says the third person lets the thorns get in the way and that person falls away and rejects the Gospel. On the other hand, you have Paul who, still plagued with a thorn, did not let it hinder him and held fast to the Truth. Anybody who takes even a cursory look at the life of Paul would know that he is one of the greatest spiritual leaders in Church history.

There must then be something we can learn from Paul. Interestingly enough, Paul didn't ignore it and he didn't just accept it and move on. It's written that multiple times he prayed and begged God to take away the thorn. It's something that plagued him daily, but through the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, he withstood it and overcame it.

God has been reminding me lately about trials and the concept of endurance. I learned about this in a class I took in college on the epistle of James. James 1:2-4 says, ^"2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, ³knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

The Greek word for "endurance" is transliterated hupomone, which comes from the preposition hupo (under) and mone (remain/stay). The word endurance literally means, "stay under pressure." It's an image of standing under a great crushing weight and rather than trying to squeeze our way out from under it, we stay right there and just hold it as long as we can. This is so counter-instinctive; My knee jerk reaction is instead to try to get out of the situation. But James says we will be lacking unless we stay under pressure, and that can only come through trials.

Too often, we simply seek the fastest way OUT of a sticky situation. But maybe sometimes God will ask us to be stronger than that and to endure it so that we can grow. And like Paul, we can still be fruitful, even if the thorns grow up around us.

Ramblings

Life is so good right now.  We are just seriously loving life and having so much fun.  Sometimes I feel weird about writing stuff like that because I am sensitive to the fact that others may be going through hell and I never want to come across as annoying.  I wish I wasn't as sensitive to what everyone around me was thinking and feeling!  That being said, I never just write randomly about how thankful I am to be where I'm at today, so... yeah.  I've just realized over the past few months (this might seem obvious but shhhh it's just coming to me now) that this is the only time in our life that Scott and I are this free to do practically whatever we want whenever we want.  We've been married for 2.5 years, and are just really loving spending a lot of quality time togther.  Over the last couple of years, we have been so blessed to travel to so many new places and do so many fun things together.

Over this time frame, we did our honeymoon Caribbean cruise leaving from Fort Lauderdale visiting Jamaica, Bahamas, Cozumel, Cayman Islands, Fort Lauderdale.  Then, we did an Alaskan cruise leaving from Seattle (amazing city!!) with my family last summer visiting Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau, and a dip into Canada to see Prince Rupert.  Among other Canada adventures, my boss was awesome enough to take us to Toronto for the American Psychological Association's convention and we were able to sneak away to see Niagara Falls and the CN Tower!  Not to mention in just 1 short month we will be flying to London stopping in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria along the way to our ultimate destinations of Venice, Florence, and Rome.  I'll be flying two months later to be in my friend Emily's wedding in Portland, and then in September we'll be off to Tennessee for my step-sister's wedding-(all places I've never been!).  Seriously, WHAT?

 I'm almost done with this rant, but point being God has been so faithful in blessing us with so many fun adventures.  As a future oriented person (blessing and a curse) I am always thinking about what's coming "next" instead of just being thankful for where I am today and it is a daily battle to just look around me and just love where I'm at RIGHT NOW not getting caught up in the daily grind.  So that's what I'm doing.  I'm looking around me at this moment as I sit below my bay window in my room with Samson trying to cuddle with me and just being so thankful for today.

Ever since I graduated ASU in 2007, I've been trying to figure out if I'm supposed to grad school, what I want in life, and what I want to be "when I grow up."  I'm realizing that all of that doesn't matter, because I am exactly where God wants me to be right now.  He does not judge my success by worldly standards.  He simply asks that I listen to Him and follow where He leads me.  He asks that I serve Him, that I be a good friend, wife, daughter, and sister.  He asks that I spend time in relationship with Him, that I love and see people the way He does, and that I give Him my life daily.  That's who I am and why I was created.  There are a few things that I am sure of in life.  I am sure that I am in love with Jesus and want to serve him with everything that I am and have, that Scott is my best friend and life partner forever, and that I want to be a mom some day.  From an eternal perspective, what I "do" on a day to day basis if it isn't with Him in mind or for Him, it doesn't even matter because it's not about me, it's about Christ.

Galations 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Wow.  Weird that I started this blog with nothing to say and then I just typed all of that.  HA.  Sometimes I think I have nothing to write but then the childhood talker who always got her name on the chalkboard for talking too much in class comes out of me.  Cool.  

Have a blessed day, friends!  Don't forget to keep your head up and just enjoy today no matter where you're at or what you're doing.:)