Random Church Thoughts

I've been hearing some new names of churches lately.  I don't like any of them.  Why is it that we have to have fancy new names?  Will it make people come?  I won't name them here so as not to offend anyone, but I'm sure you can think of a few yourself.  If I could choose a name for a church, I would simply name it "Church".  Then it would make it easy to answer.  Where do you go to church?  I go to "Church".  But now we have to say silly things like, "I go to Washing Stone." or "I go to River Flowing".  And make sure you have a coffee shop in your church if you really want to be progressive.

OK, our church doesn't have a funny or catchy name.  Maybe we should change it.  But for now it is what it is.  We meet in a hotel conference room.  Sometimes the electricity goes out.  Yesterday the powerpoint worked during practice time but almost at the beginning of the service it stopped working.  The poor song leader had to look out on our blank faces as she sang to us probably wondering why no one was singing along.  I felt sorry for her and could not get in to the worship time.  The pastor had planned to show a video clip and have pictures shown during his message.  We had to use our imaginations.  And the worst part is that people worked on trying to get it all working for almost the whole service, which only caused a distraction.  Finally they brought in a projector and showed the video clip.  I was impressed that the pastor kept his cool and gave the message as best as he could.

So what is church?  Being with people.  Encouraging each other.  Sharing God's word.  And giving space for God to talk.  I think that happened for me yesterday.  Trust and Obey!

Angry City

Last week there was a horrific gang rape in the city.  Actually, every rape or gang rape is horrific, but this one has caught the attention of the city.  So people are protesting and causing problems.  The men themselves who committed the crime would like to be killed.  The poor girl is fighting for her life in the hospital.  And the city is angry.

The girl and a guy friend were not out super late.  I think it was around 9PM.  They boarded a bus which is like a tour bus.  These buses go around the city at night because there are too few city buses.  On the bus were six guys.  They beat the guy friend and took turns raping the girl.  The driver kept driving.  Then they did pure evil which I won't go into.   Finally,  they stripped the pair and through them out of the bus.  The girl has had her lower intestines removed and is fighting infection in her body.  She is 23 years old. 

There are rapes every day in this city.  Many times the women are blamed.  It is said that she shouldn't be out at night or she shouldn't dress a certain way.  But maybe in fact it is the men who shouldn't be out at night.  Or maybe men should not look at women.    The blame is clearly on the wrong person.  It should be completely on the men.

I agree that women should dress responsibly.  But still it doesn't excuse men for having no self-control.  So again it is the man who needs help since he can't seem to control himself.  So men should only look down.  They should maybe even put a covering over their head that helps them to look down and shields their eyes from looking up.  I don't think this needs to be all men, but just those who lack self-control or moral character.

So those are my thoughts on the whole subject.  I am angry along with the others in the city.  But I am reminded of the verse in James that says "Man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God."

Come Lord Jesus, Come!

Christmas Parties

This year I have been invited to a lot of Christmas parties.  Well, not exactly invited, but I have a lot of parties to go to.  And not like I am crashing the parties that I wasn't invited to either.  These are parties like, the school functions, the home that I work at has a party, and church parties.  But I am only going to a few of the parties that I could go to.  The reason being.... okay, i have a list of reasons.

1.  Potlucks - Many of the parties are the kind that you are suppose to bring a delicious dish to share.  I don't cook.  I don't bake.  I don't make delicious dishes.  So I have this dilemma of going if I'm not going to make something.  If it is a big group, then I don't feel bad not bringing something.  But a small gathering would notice that I didn't bring anything.

2.  Crowds - I am socially awkward most of the time, but trying to get better.  I can only take so much on one day.  So if I have two parties on one day I have to choose which one to go to.

3.  Work -  I have a really strong work ethic.  So if the party is during work hours, I don't feel like I can take the time off.

4.  Too much effort - If the party would be too much effort to get to and get home from, I won't go.

5.  Stupid - If I think the party will be stupid, I don't go.

Those are my reasons.  So if you invite me to a party and I don't show up, you can ask yourself, "Was it a potluck?  Was it too crowded?  Or was it stupid?"

Giving

Another area in life where I am not perfect in is in giving.  Giving my offering at church is no problem, but it is giving to others that I have a problem with.  Especially when the person asks.

Steve is a kind person.  He is much kinder than I am.  That is one of the things I love about him. 

We have a friend who borrowed money a few years ago.  He said he would pay us back in 3 days.  He then said he would pay it back in a month.  Six months later he still promised to pay it back.  He doesn't have an education to enable him to get a good job, so he has had to work hard to make money.  Since he never paid us back, I told myself that I wouldn't loan him money again and if he ever asked, I would let him know that it was because he never paid us back that I was not going to help him.

Last week this friend came to us.  We knew he had been trying to find a job for a while.  He is now married and has a child to take care of, so he is pretty desperate.  He has been asking for any work we may have for him.  Steve, my kind husband, ended up taking him shopping for the thing he needed.  I was proud of him.  And now Steve has also put him to work. 

I am studying the book of James right now.  And in the book of James it talks about taking care of people.  I knew that God would be giving me an opportunity to give, but I thought it would be giving food to the street kids on the corner of the streets.  I wasn't thinking it would be to give to the person I said I would never give to.  But it seems God wants to go straight to the heart.  So even though I wasn't me who did the giving, I allowed Steve to give (and get the blessing).  I knew he would give and I didn't try to stop him, so I guess that is my small part in the giving.

From James 2       15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Lacking

I have been found lacking.  Or more accurately, I find myself lacking.  I am lacking in patience.  I guess I have known this for a long time, but even more now that our nephew is staying with us.  He is a wonderful 19 year old who is full of life.  He is very talented in many different ways.  I have tried to learn how to play the drums from him when we had a drum set at the house.  I try to be funny like him.  I try to do tricks like him.  He has taught me many things.  But maybe the hardest lesson I have had to learn is to be patient. 

Out of all the Weightmans I know, my nephew may be the slowest at leaving the house.  It really is a close race though.  His grandfather is pretty slow.  I don't know how many times I have been rushed to leave the house by Steve's dad only to end up sitting in the car waiting for him to finally come out.  And every Sunday morning Steve says, "Let's go!" and I end up standing outside our car for at least two minutes, if not more, waiting for him to come down. 

Now with Tyler in the house I have learned that Steve is not the slowest man on the planet to leave the house.  Take just now for instance.  I told Micah and Tyler that they should get ready since their ride would be here any minute to take them to the movies.  So Micah got his jacket on.  Tyler on the other hand decided that a couple minutes was plenty of time to take a shower.  So the ride was outside waiting for him when he finally got himself out the door 17 minutes later.

I am told that this trait of taking a long time to actually leave is a personality type.  That helps me not to be too annoyed at the DNA in them.  I have learned to just leave them when I can and let them come on their own.  If Steve offers me a ride to the Metro station on days where we are both going somewhere, I usually say "no thank you" and take my own way so I don't get stressed with his leaving style.  But most of the time I end up miffed that the Weightman men can be so slow and I am reminded that I need to work on my patience.

Thank you God for these Wait-men who you use to teach me a much needed skill.