Saturday, December 31, 2011

Ring in the New Year

A ring, as in my wedding ring. I hope to get my wedding ring fixed in the new year. It has one of the prongs broken. I think that is what you call them. One of those things that hold the precious jewel in place. I could get it fixed here, but the lady at the jewelry store told me that it was a bad idea. I should just take it home to America and get it fixed there. I guess sometimes diamonds get replaced or "lost".

One thing that I hope can change in the new year is I hope people will quit dying. Too many people died that I know last year. I am now in the stage of life that I go to more funerals than weddings. Well, that would be the case if I was in America. Actually, I have gone to more weddings, but if I lived in America I would have gone to more funerals. And the deaths all seemed to be a surprise. People weren't sick and then died, they just died. Drop dead. At least they were not painful deaths. But still, for the family it is a huge shock.

Death is so bizarre. One day your loved one is with you and the next they are gone forever. And burial is weird. You put the body in the box and bury it in the dirt. So the body is close by but you will never see it again. Maybe that is why I like cremation better. There is no chance of seeing the person or imagining what they may look like after they are cremated. Death is so final. At least it seems final. We haven't experienced life eternal yet, so we don't really know what to expect. Will our loved ones look the same or will they age or get younger. Life after someone dies seems to move slowly. And then one day you realize that it speeds up. You no longer count the days or weeks or months, it is years.

Well instead of depressing you, I want to remind you of hope. We do have hope. Hope that life will continue. Hope that our loved ones are in a better place. Hope that we will see them again. Without hope, how can you carry on.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Cold Delhi

When people think of India, they don't think of the cold weather. Usually you think about the extreme heat. But surprisingly, it gets cold here in the winter. And it is winter right now. Okay, so today is only 61 degrees, which isn't too cold, but inside our house is colder than it is outside. I am sitting on our new couch with a wool blanket over me. I am wearing two pair of socks, jeans, a t-shirt under a long sleeve shirt, with a jacket on. I have been wearing my stocking cap all day, but decided to tough it out. My head was starting to hurt.

Earlier today, I was at work and noticed that I could feel the coldness from the floor through my shoes. I tried sticking my feet on the room heater to try to warm them up. But I felt a little rude with my feet on the heater, so I put them back in my shoes. I don't know if it is that my shoes are old and have holes in the bottoms and that is why I can feel the cold, or if everyone can feel it. I wonder if people in Alaska can feel the ice under their feet if they are just wearing normal shoes and not snow boots. Whatever the case, it was almost impossible for me to concentrate on the meeting we were having when I was thinking about my feet.

As I get into my cold bed at night and shiver myself to sleep, I think about the people who live on the streets. If I am cold (and I am) when I have a house, a roof, several blankets, a mattress, and layers of dry clothes, then how cold must they be. It doesn't stop me from complaining or shivering, but I am thinking of what I could do to help. I know of an NGO that has put of tents throughout the city for people to at least get some shelter from the cold.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

BOGO

Recently I decided to go shopping for a fancy pillow. You know one of those pillows that are contour for people with neck pain. So I went into a well known store and found them. Kind of expensive if you ask me. But anyway, I was willing to pay the big bucks for no more neck pain. As I was checking out, the cashier said, "You know these are buy one get one free? Would you like your free one?" Of course I would. Anything free is great. So off I went with two contour pillows.

When I got home I immediately put my new contour pillows on the bed. And that is when I realized that I didn't need two. One was enough. So what to do with the other one. I decided to take it back to the store and get my money back. That is when the problems began.

I went back to the same cashier who sold me the pillows and told her that I only needed one pillow and would like my money back. She looked at me strange. She said that they were buy one get one free. Duh. I knew that, but I didn't need two, so just refund my money on this one. She again looked like she had just been given a calculus problem to solve. It seemed simple to me, just refund the money to me. But she tried to tell me that if I only wanted one it was fine, but I wouldn't be getting any money back. Then I realized the problem. I told her that I had kept the free one and put it on my bed already. This pillow was the firs one I had picked out. It was the one I paid for. She insisted that it was the free one I was returning. I know they looked alike, but I was sure I had put the free one on my bed.

Soon a line of people were waiting at the cash register, starting to look impatient. I talked her through how I had the first pillow in the bag and the second pillow was not in a bag, so I know it was the second pillow that I had put on my bad. It was the free pillow. I again stated that I didn't need two pillows and I had just gotten excited about the great deal, but since I am a minimalist, I don't want two.

All this reminds me somehow of Romans 6. I'm sure if I spent longer a it, I could come up with a great sermon analogy, but I will leave that up to you.

P.S. The story is fiction, just in case you really thought I was a moron.

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Cooking Sauce

While we were in Thailand a few weeks ago, I discovered a delicious sauce at the buffet table. It is a brown sauce that you add to your food and it makes it taste so yummy. So when I went to the grocery store to buy the things I like to take back to India (tuna fish, thai iced tea mix, fisho, thai curry), I found the sauce isle and bought me the big bottle of cooking sauce. That is what it is called, cooking sauce.

Cooking sauce is a brown sauce, like soy sauce, only yummier. I add it to rice, to eggs, to vegetables, to soup, to almost any dish. And it makes it taste better. I don't know what it is because it is in Thai, but Maggi makes a similar sauce and they call it brown sauce. So my brown cooking sauce is my new obsession.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Opposites Attract

Steve and I are opposites. I am still amazed at this fact after 16 years of marriage. Take the other day. We were in the Bangkok airport, walking to the taxi area. We had just gotten of the plane and gone through baggage and we were heading to the taxi. We had to go up two floors to the drop-off area, where it is 50 baht cheaper to get a taxi. Steve was talking about this "diamond" that he found on the plane. He thought maybe it was the lady in front of him. But then he lost sight of her. So he was wondering if he should search for her. I had my mind set on going straight to the taxi area. So I was leading the way.

We got to the escalators, where there were two options. One is the stair kind and one is for luggage carts. One was on our left and the other was on our right. I pointed to the stair one and said, "Should we take this one?" But then I changed my mind in a flash and said, "No, we should just take this one." And I headed up the cart one. Steve was already on the stair one, while Micah, our friend, and I went up the cart one. The stair one went up two floors. The cart one went up one and then you had to get on another one. So when we arrived on the next floor up I noticed that Steve was no where to be seen. I didn't know he went on the other one.

So we stood there waiting for him. I thought maybe he had seen the diamond lady and wanted to return her diamond. So he was probably running around down on the floor below us. We waited. I got irritated. I made comments about frustrations. Waiting more. Finally I decided to go look for him. I went down and looked around for Steve. No Steve. So I came up more frustrated and waited a little more before deciding to look on the floor above us. I went up and looked around and didn't see him there either. But then I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a man pushing a cart at me. And sure enough, it was Steve. He had been up there the whole time, looking around for me.

I felt like saying, "What the hell!!!" But I didn't. So I told Steve how I looked around for him down on the bottom floor and looked around for him on the middle floor. He told me how he was looking around for me on the top floor since that is where we were heading. And of course when I went up and looked around up there, he was out side looking at the taxi area.

And what I kicked myself for not remembering is that I should look in the opposite area from where I think to look, because Steve is always in the opposite area.