There is a wonderful woman at church who I get to spend a lot of time with every Sunday. I think there is a lot of people who could learn a lot from her if they spent the time to get to know her.

Our pastor is doing a sermon series on 2 Corinthians. Today we looked at 1:3-7.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

As with most sermons there were essentially three main points:
1) Comfort doesn't come from chocolate, new shoes, alcohol etc., but God.
2) Life is not always going to be all cotton candy and rainbows, especially if you follow Christ.
3) There is a purpose in suffering, to comfort others.

The pastor talked about how we often expect life to be easy and we try to avoid any difficulties. When difficulties arise we blame God and get angry that we have to endure such things. For many, that is the only time God is acknowledged.

This woman is one of the few who I would classify as having the right to be angry with God. She is disabled, she has difficulty talking and because of this can be very cut off from people and people often just nod and smile when she talks. She is in a wheel chair, suffers from a great deal of pain and has had to have many surgeries.

As we were walking out of the sanctuary she says to me,

"Why do people get mad at God? Why do they get angry at him, he's not mean, he's the God of comfort and peace."

I didn't know what to say, I knew the answer though, because we are selfish and self-serving. We are all just a bunch of jerks.

I LOVE GETTING PICTURES TAKEN

So a couple of weeks ago I had to get grad pictures done. I didn't really want any. I am not a big fan of the forced smile and awkward poses, but my parents wanted them so I went. Here is a sample of the "best" ones.

I made some general observations about myself and my photogenicity. First of all, I didn't realize my nose was that big. Oh well. My left eye also does this squinty thing when the flash goes off, so I have to concentrate really hard to keep both eyes equally open. This reduces my ability to look natural. I also had a shine problem, witch she did not


This one took the longest and made me the most annoyed. I was told to look of into the distance and contemplate the journey that I had been on up until this point.

Lady, if you knew me, you would know that my journey is not one to contemplate, but to laugh at. I can't do this without a big smile on my face. I can't look pensive, when I am am thinking it looks more painful then intellectual/intelligent.



In this one she wanted me to smile with my lips closed. I can't do it, my teeth are to big.

This one took several takes, and this was the best of them.

I don't know exactly what this looks like, but definitely not natural, maybe constipated?





This one actually isn't a bad picture. I look alright.

It was, however, pretty funny trying to get into this pose. She was very careful about the position of my hand and had to make several adjustments because she didn't want my hand to take over the picture.

i.e. you have bear paws for hands.





My friend had a lovely description of this one...

"It looks like you are listening to someone talk and smell something stinky but are trying to smile and ignore it."






Don't worry though, there were some that were alright.

23 FOR 5 DAYS

So I have been 23 for 5 days now and if these last few days are any indication of what the next year of my life will bring I could be in trouble (my fault though).

I was making a casserole the other night. I was lazy so I made the sauce in the microwave. It exploded all over the nuke box. While I was tending the cheesy mess, the smoke detector went off. While I frantically waved a towel to appease the deafening beep the pasta was boiling over on the stove. Supper was a complete disaster so I decided to reheat some leftover macaroni. While it was warming in the microwave I put some lotion on my hands. I retrieved the bowl of macaroni, which slipped from my grip due to the hand cream, and onto the floor.

Later that evening I decided to do some laundry. I have a funny washing machine, it is a combo washer dryer, so things aren't the same as on the separate models. I began to remove what I believed to be the lint trap filter thing. It was not what I thought it was. It was some sort of water trapping device and my removing it caused a small flood in my laundry room.

I broke a nail, which would normally not be a problem because I don't like my nails long. But I was hoping to have a nice set of claws for my grad picture since your hands are involved in many of the poses. I can't stand having my nails different lengths so I might just cut them all off.

I am sure that a child will be seriously injured if not killed because of my excellent child care skills. At work the kids wanted to push me on the tire swing. As I was spinning I kicked a girl right in the chops. I also spun another boys so fast on the tire swing that I made him sick. Explain that to the dad who asks why his son is lying in the grass and can't walk in a straight line. Oops! I also pushed the tire swing so high that a boy nearly hit his head on the top bar. There is one kid, an older one, in grade 5 I think, who I no longer have the patience for. To be completely honest, had he been the one whom I had injured/endangered, I wouldn't have felt the least bit bad about it. I definitely don't think that I should be a mother anytime soon.

Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out that
I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life, something heavenly

~from some song I heard

A LITTLE MORE UNREFINED HONESTY (NO SWEARING THIS TIME)

So the experiment continues. I fear that this post may not be as warmly received, this definitely has the potential to offend. I don't mean to attack any individual, but more so the general culture. I fully know that I fall under the same criticisms, and I am working on getting the log out of my own eye, but in the spirit of the new, completely honest (and temporarily PMS-ing) me, I am writing this. Feel free to attack me back if you so wish. Here we go...

I am so friggin' sick of christians.

I am sick of people who take no responsibility for their own spiritual growth, who expect to be spoon fed their religion. Guess what!?! We are not just following a religion, we are in a relationship and that takes work. You wouldn't expect to hear about your spouses life, problems, character from somebody else so why do it with God? Does anybody want to talk about God? Or even think about theological questions?

And what the heck is with nobody caring about missions work, evangelism or justice? Seriously look outside your white picket fence. Their is a crap load of work to be done! Our world is seriously messed up.

What about this ultra nice culture we live in. Being Canadian is partly responsible for this one, but come on. Do you think that being nice is God's command? Love is his command, but that is not always nice. There is no accountability, nobody who loves enough to rebuke a brother or a sister. Lets all smile and shake hands, maybe hug, and act like everything is all good. Grrrr.

The church is filled with a bunch of parasites (understand that I use the word as a symbiotic relationship term). Walk into a building expect to be "filled" or taught but do nothing for the institution or the people in there. Do you think that walking by a handicapped person and saying "hi" has fullfilled your Christian duty. Not a chance, that is pity not love. Or how about expecting your kids to receive their spiritual training at Sunday school, with no other family influences? Just leaving garbage lying around, jeepers! Pick up after yourself, I doubt that the janitor wants to pick up your coffee cups and food wrappers. You don't need to give anyone the opportunity to serve you.

And I am super sick of all these cute little catch phrases that get thrown out there. "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven." Are you flippin' kidding me? Jesus did not die so that you can keep on sinning, don't treat the matter so flippantly. Sin is not just some "oopsie daisies," it is serious. And, "It's not a religion, it is a relationship." Shut up. It is a religion, relationship is the focus, but it is still a religion.

And stop treating everything like it is an attack from Satan. To be completely honest, I think Satan has bigger problems. Their are people out their who are up to their neck in following Jesus that are far more threatening to Satan. You got a cold? Well you are just infected by thousands or Corona virions that you probably received walking through air which someone just recently coughed into. Ran out of gas? When was the last time you filled up genius?

Here is a shocker: Jesus does not actually want you to be rich and healthy. That's not in the book. Don't be so surprised that you aren't making six figures, with a 5 bedroom house, 1.6 kids. I don't he wishes harm for us, but this health and wealth gospel is way off base.

I better go to bed before I have an aneurysm.