shame and guilt and glory

My previous post was the most random thing ever.  Sorry guys. o_O

I did just order The Weight of Glory on Amazon Marketplace.  We'll see what it's really like when it gets here.

All joking and Spongebob madness aside, "glory" is something I ponder about...

I think of glorified bodies...

the glorified body picture again.  Ok, so maybe I don't take glory that seriously... well, considering the context of the week this picture was taken...

I think about 1 Corinthians 11, what it means for men to be the glory of God and women to be the glory of man... how thems fightin' words for so many feminists, yet after studying what the Bible says about femininity and masculinity, I'm okay with it.  I'm still an image bearer of God and His glory as His creation and as a daughter of His Kingdom; glory of man is an added bonus!  "A ministry of beauty." :) And men need to hear more often that they're the glory of God.

My favorite fictional example of a woman being the glory of a man: Sandra from "Big Fish"

I also often think of glory as the opposite of shame.  Then many things come up when I think of shame.

Shame is a nasty little thing we can live under instead of Jesus' freedom.  It is often said that America has "guilt culture," where our operations and daily life revolve around administering and avoiding guilt.  Our law systems are built around guilt or innocence.  When someone "becomes a Christian" in America they often speak about how they were "guilty of sin" and Jesus cleared them from it.  This is all good.  But the other culture that exists in most of the world is "shame culture" which is a lot like guilt culture, except it adds into it a sense of community and relationships, where you fear adding shame to yourself because it removes you from a group, or adds dishonor to your group.  Daily activities and decisions are done to avoid shame.  Most of the non-Western world is shame culture, and most under this culture who either "become Christians" or just say they are "a follower of Jesus" rejoice in how Jesus clears their shame and is the answer for how to know God for their whole community.  Jesus died to free people from both shame and guilt, to make us right with the most important Relationship in our lives.  His death on the cross makes good relationships with others possible, too.

I don't know if it's because I hang out with so many Asians now or what, but I feel I associate more with shame than guilt in my life now.  Not exactly something to be applauded, because that's still not where God wants me.  But perhaps that's why I do love and identify with the stories of Jesus restoring people out of their shame and into glory.  The end of the Five Aspects of Woman study highlights the sinful woman in Luke 7 and the woman at the well in John 4, as well as David's songs of repentance and forgiveness in Psalm 32, 38, and 51.  And another story I've commented on before that I relate to a lot is the thief crucified next to Jesus.  All of these are stories of glory found from God's forgiveness and ultimately Jesus' sacrifice. I suppose all of them can be read as coming out of guilt too.  I guess that's the cool thing.  Jesus saves from guilt and shame, so we can live in freedom and love.  Wow.

Then Philippians 2:1-11 blows my mind.  talk about shame turning to GLORY!  And that's what God did for us!

Jesus the Messiah paid the ultimate sacrifice for me so that I don't have to live under shame or guilt, for it is taken away.  I can live in the freedom of forgiveness, and worship Him, as the Luke 7 woman did wiping His feet with her hair, or the John 4 woman who rejoiced and told her whole village of her redemption from "everything she did," or the thief who is still and will forevermore will be praising God for the life he received at the end of his sinful life.  And then He receives ultimate glory for taking that ultimate beating, through us being His bride that will live with Him in His kingdom forever!

So those are my real thoughts about glory ^_^

GLORY!

:D

So I just read this quote by C.S. Lewis from The Weight of Glory!

"Glory suggests two ideas to me, of which one seems wicked and the other ridiculous.  Either glory means to me fame, or it means luminosity.  As for the first, since to be famous means to be better known than other people, the desire for fame appears to me as a competitive passion and therefore of hell rather than heaven.  As for the second, who wishes to become a kind of living electric light bulb?"

haha!  for some reason I laughed a long time about this.

Now the book is called The Weight of Glory so I assume the rest of it is actually about the glory of God, etc. but I like how with this quote alone, glory is either this:

or this (about 40 seconds in, sped up to be legal)

oh, glory!...

...

In seriousness, my Bible study this past semester spent time focusing on the stories where Jesus turned the shame of some of the women he met into glory! Sweet!

:D

How do you respond to news?

I've gotten out of the habit of reading the news.

So when I did hear from a World Vision newsletter that the civil war in Sri Lanka had intensified greatly and moved north, I was surprised. I sponsor a girl in northern Sri Lanka.

And I got worried when I then read all the news about the war, how it had ended but how so many people were displaced or killed.

I started believing the worst and panicked. I thought maybe my girl was hurt or dead. I prayed a lot, but don't applaud me, because I was unhealthily anxious. My family got a little taste of this.

Well praise be to God, I heard today that her area was apparently unaffected by the war! She is safe!

But during my panic, and reading the news, I also began to realize...there were articles about new tragedies in Pakistan and North Korea and Bangladesh... I thought I followed these countries but apparently not. It took my girl for me to even notice. And Sri Lanka...many have died or are in camps with little access to aid, but now that my girl is okay, I'm okay? No - all of these events should break my heart!

Admittedly it does seem silly to ask why we can have more compassion on people or groups of people that we care about more. I really love my girl so of course I'd be concerned about her over others.

But God cares about all of these people! Equally! He loves them all!

Wouldn't that be cool if I could say I was totally broken over everyone suffering the conflict in Pakistan, or the AIDS crisis, or even my grandma's anxiety over some of her relationships. But I'm not.

Jesus is. That's why He came to die.

My love for people is so small and self-centered in comparison.

Praise the Lord, for He is a sovereign God who truly loves and cares for all the suffering people in the world. May we never think we love people more than He does, and may His love for all people and the mercy He has had on us motivate us to respond like He did.

Mark 1:14-15 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Please pray for your family and friends and people on the news and everyone.

Senior Slideshow!!!

What an amazing four years it has been!!!

Thanks Katie for making the video!

after today!

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite movies!!!



(tomorrow is my last day of hard classes! woohoo!!)

Just saw Slumdog Millionaire

I loved it! Go see it!

Now a lot of people would tell me to just enjoy a movie, don't look much into it. Well those people need to just accept that that's really hard for me to do. Actually, it's impossible! I really am sorry!

So, I DID enjoy this movie, very much.

But while watching it I had an assignment, to be able to report back to Jon H. if it's "good" or not. Well, ok, yes, the simple answer to that is "GOOD!" And driving back from the theater I was thinking of how I could tell him it was really good. And then I thought:

"What makes this movie really good is that God can use it." Yay! It's a kind of moving movie that can make people respond and do something about injustice! Maybe even do crazy things like go to India and help orphaned children!

But then on arriving back home, I had a disturbing thought.

What if people don't respond?

What if from the millions of people who see this movie, everyone feels so good about themselves that they just keep going on with everything they've always done. It was just a movie. Bad things like that don't really happen, right? Even if it did, God's in control and poor kids in India can go on Who Wants to be a Millionaire so I don't have to do anything about all those disturbing images I saw, right?

I think of a part in Hotel Rwanda where one character talks about how all the people in America would hear about the crisis, then they'd say that's awful, then continue on with their lives. That was just as disturbing as seeing the rest of the movie.

Well, is Christy going to India to help orphaned children? No...but...

Here's the thing. I really do not want to toot my own horn or lift myself up. I wish I could say I always do what I'm told, but I don't. But, I just do honestly feel burdened, and I do want to call people to listen to what God could be calling them to do...

I am not going to India, but I am going to Turkey. I'm pretty sure Turkey is nothing like the slums of India, especially Ankara, where I'll be teaching English at a really awesome International University. In fact, I hear Ankara is the most modern city in Turkey (it is the capital...), and that I will probably feel like I'm in Western Europe often. And teaching English is not the same as feeding or caring for orphaned children...

But if I'm supposed to go to Turkey, I'm going. Is it my first choice? Is it what I think could be most enjoyable for me? Is it what I think can secure things I really want? No. In fact I have great fear because although I believe going to Turkey is going to be AMAZING and full of blessings, the answer to those questions is "no." Really, the most attractive thing about going to Turkey is "God's calling." Or Allah's, given the context. To go with Slumdog Millionaire, you could call it "destiny," I guess.

If God called me to go to India and help orphaned children, would I do it?

I don't know. I hope so.

If God called you, would you?

Have you ever thought about it? Has he? Could he? Would you listen?

To be fair, I actually have a lot of good friends who have made hard decisions and have or are leaving comfort to do what they know they should do. That's pretty cool. And although many have been, not all of those decisions have been decisions to go to some strange country to do some great quest for love and justice. Some of them have just gone away from familiarity or comfort, or taken a risk to their security by giving money or doing a job that may honor God more but doesn't give as big rewards in this life. And I know others who want to do these things, but health keeps them here. I support that. And you are not who I'm talking to here.

But in general, Americans really do love their comfort and security a little too much. They say the big stuff is for someone else, but I couldn't leave my family and friends (or bring them with me [do not forget that that's an option!]). They may say they have too good of a "ministry" here, or that they believe that if God wants them to be happy, he'd never tell them to do something too risky, too out-of-line of what they'd planned for their life.

Have they ever thought about if God would have something different? Because yes, God does want his people to be happy, but too many people are missing out!!

Who's to say you wouldn't find more fulfillment and happiness doing something you've never planned of doing, over your secure comfortable job? You could be missing out!

And what about those unhappy people you could be meeting/helping? The kids in SM were actors. But there's real kids like that everywhere! And real conflicts, real suffering! What if it was your family being caught in a war, or your son hungry, or your daughter sold to prostitution? Wouldn't you care? Wouldn't you want to do something, or have someone come help you? They are missing out!

All people are made in the image of God. And he loves every one of them.

If we love God, how should we respond to this?

Pray that people would respond!! And do something yourself!

sorry if it was harsh. I learned in psychology class that when you sacrifice for something, it's natural to want to demand others to do the same, or get upset when others don't do the same. but there's no humility in that, and I don't want to be that way. I'm sorry.