The Whole Delivery

For the past several Sundays I have skipped out on my spiritual post. I haven’t gone atheist, but I’ve had nothing to write. I thought with all the weddings that I’m in, my Sunday posts would be easy. I see God as the foundation of my marriage and I even officiated my friend’s wedding last night. God was there. But I still struggled to write. Now, I am not struggling with God. I have been going right along chatting with God, seeing daily miracles, you know, the usual for us God-freaks. The problem that I’m having is with Christianity. I’m not feeling very Christian. On my path to a God-loving liberal, I found God first. The whole Jesus/church thing came years later. It came as a way for my husband and I to share God. I saw it as a future place to share a more concrete God with my children. And having a religion made talking about God easier. By saying I’m Christian (well, I usually add the liberal part so as not to be confused with the haters), I have an instant co...

I believe in God because I have never hit my children. It is my miracle. Was I born with a temper? I don't know. But I was fierce and violent and angry for long time. It is winter in Connecticut and I am in seventh grade. The pond outside our middle school is frozen solid and for P.E., we are playing ice hockey. My best friend since second grade is the goalie. She let’s the puck slide by and I whirl around on my skates and whack her with my hockey stick. It happens before I have a chance to stop it. In tenth grade a good friend of mine makes a joke. I slap him across the face while standing by my locker. I don’t even remember the joke. I am weaving my Jeep Gran Cheroekee SUV in and out of my lane as I tailgate the older couple in front of me. I end up running them off the road. For going to slow. I am in 12th grade. I have no place to be. My emotional outbursts are even more common than my physical reactions. I call boyfriends horrible names. I scream and ...

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. -Mother Teresa I have times, as a friend, a mom, a wife, a person, when I don’t want to show up. I want to pull the covers over my head. I want to tell you to f-off. I don’t care that it’s your birthday. I don’t like your kids. And if you touch me again, I’ll kill you. This particular month I have a night when every inch of my body was yelling: NO! DON’T GO! And I desperately want to agree. Stay home. Stay safe. I want to poll my friends until someone echos my sentiment and I can say: YES! I’M SUCH A GOOD PERSON BY STAYING HOME. (I have to say lies really loud in order to convince my stupid conscience.) But I only ask two people. Two people who tell me the truth. And they say: The right thing to do is to go. Do I hate them for telling me the truth? Sorta. But an amazing thing happens. As the voices in my head begin mounting a protest with signs and snappy ...

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God…” Romans 12:2 Many Christians I know vote based on a single issue, usually abortion. Now I don’t want to get into the pro-choice, anti-abortion debate. I understand that if you see the point of conception as the beginning of life, you can’t be pro-choice. But I believe that the question for a Christian-motivated voter is not as simple as a candidate’s stance on abortion. The question should be: How Christ-like is my candidate? What is Christ’s ministry all about? Christ spoke often about lifting people up, helping them, loving them. ( Luke 10:30-37 ) He admonished materialism. ( Luke 16:13 ) Jesus asks us to not only help those who cannot help themselves but tells parables about helping those who are CHOOSING to do unfit things. We are to LOVE people, first and foremost. How can a political candidate love people? Well, if you are in the anti-ab...