Resolutions

On a more positive note, what are your resolutions for next year? According to the Goals Guy, these are the most common New Year's resolutions.

Top 10 Most Common New Year Resolutions

1. Lose weight

2. Stop smoking

3. Stick to a budget

4. Save or earn more money

5. Find a better job

6. Become more organized

7. Exercise more

8. Be more patient at work/with others

9. Eat better

10. Become a better person

It seems like number 10 is kind of all-encompassing. But whatever. So are any of these on your list? What do you hope for in the new year?

Things I am not proud of in Christianity and Christian history

I believe that Christianity is a worthwhile endeavor, and that its calling to discipleship and connection with God are worth answering. Unfortunately, after 2000 years or so, we have a lot to be sorry for as well. I guess the end of a year is as good a time as any to repent. Here is an incomplete list of my own:

1. The Crusades
2. The Spanish Inquisition
3. The persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages
4. The anti-Semitism that undergirded the Holocaust
5. Complicity in slavery and racism
6. Complicity in the genocide of Native Americans, and the destruction of native culture.
7. Complicity in violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people
8. Complicity in violence against women
9. Complicity in unjust wars
10. Complicity in colonialism
11. Complicity in the destruction of the environment

I think that's all I can handle right now. Here is my prayer:

Loving God, it is staggering to consider the evils that have been done in your name--in the name of Jesus, who came gently and quietly as a poor carpenter to show us a new way. Please forgive us for these many, great sins. But more than that, help us to learn from them, and to turn from them to your path of justice, peace, and love. Amen.

While I'm pulling from the NY Times:

An Op-Ed piece on how feelings are sometimes best left un-deconstructed.

Just in time for New Year's Resolutions.

Christianity Between the Covers

A book review by the editor of Newsweek in the New York Times that discusses three books on Christianity. So far, the introduction has been very interesting. Some intriguing quotes:

[I]t is unsettling to recall that Christianity is a confounding, often paradoxical faith. A father who sacrifices his son? A king who dies a criminal's death? A God whose weakness is his strength?

Christianity is difficult, both in practice and in theory. Following in the Judaic tradition of valuing human reason, Christians treasure the mind as a gift of God, and the faithful are called to use his gifts to the fullest; to fail to do so is a sin. Every believer, says the author of the First Epistle of St. Peter, should "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." The admonition is a good one, for it encourages the faithful to ask questions, and in asking questions, one enters the debate about God and man that began with the ancient pagans.

In my view, allowing for the existence of a transcendent order seems sounder than flatly denying the possibility altogether. "Reason itself is a matter of faith," G. K. Chesterton wrote. "It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all." Light can neither enter into nor emanate from a closed mind, and intellectual humility - acknowledging what we do not, and cannot, know - is often the beginning of wisdom.

For D

A little piece in Slate on Wicca that I thought might be of interest.

On an entirely unrelated note, Tuesday our cat has started her own website, where she is enjoying considerable creative freedom. Enjoy.

Study Hall
(Taken from Heather's blog--some high school-related facts about yours truly)

1) Where did you graduate from and what year?
Eden Prairie High School, Eden Prairie, MN 1995

2) Did you have school pride?
Yep--I was in the band, went to the football games, had the sweatshirt. I never did buy a letterman's jacket. But I still have my class ring around here somewhere.

3) Was your Prom a night to remember?
My boyfriend had mono, so we took him home directly after waiting in line for 45 minutes for the picture. The afterparty on Lake Minnetonka was fun. I remember my friend Jeff driving like a maniac (as usual) on the way there. And watching my ex (male) hit on a cute guy from Hastings.

4) What was your favorite song you danced to the night of Prom?
Yeah, didn't dance at prom at all.

5) Do you own all 4 yearbooks?
No.

6) Do you remember the First CD you ever bought?
Guns and Roses--Use Your Illusion II

7)What was your favorite Movie in High School?
I guess Wayne's World. We watched The Cutting Edge a lot in my circle of Friends. I did think DB Sweeney was cute though.

8.)What was your number one choice of College in HS?
Dartmouth.

9) What radio station(s) did you jam out to in highschool?
101.3 - KDWB, 99.5 WLOL, and I think for a while 104.1 had some good alternative music.

10) Were you involved in any organizations or clubs?
Yes. I can't remember them all off the top of my head. The big ones: Colorguard, National Honor Society, Drama Club (mostly as a lackey). Also took piano lessons.

11)What were your favorite classes in High School?
Spanish, Government, English, History, Biology.

12) Who was your big crush in Highschool?
Aaron

13) Would you say you've changed a lot since high school?
I look about the same, which is sometimes a disadvantage... I think I've changed quite a bit, but on the other hand, my high school friends still seem to have me pegged when we get together for a visit...

14) What do you miss the most about it?
I really enjoyed colorguard--the commitment to an expressive discipline, and the physical nature of it. I also miss the space my parents created for me for my studies and personal growth.

15) Your worst memory of HS?
I fell asleep in class all the time. One time I fell asleep in the middle of a test, and then woke up to finish it.

16) Did you have a car?
1992 Ford Taurus with a moon roof, power locks and power windows. Loved it.

17) What were your school colors?
Red and Black

18) Who were your favorite teachers?
Mrs. Kuefler, Mr. Cwadzinski, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Teigen, my junior year biology teacher whose name I've forgotten--I feel bad about that. But she was awesome. The teacher who taught me Hamlet.

19) Did you own a cell phone in highschool?
Sorry. A little old for that.

20) Did you leave campus for lunch?
No. Not allowed. Anyway, I loved chimichanga days on Fridays anyway.

21) If so, where was your favorite place to go eat?
We did eat outside on the front lawn sometimes.

22) Were you always late to class?
Only the first one in the morning. And to Cwad's class, no.

23) Did you ever have to stay for Saturday School?
No. The worst thing was in 9th grade when I was sick for a week and to make up gym class I was supposed to either work out in the weight room or run around the commons 11 times per day. I ended up not doing either out of embarrassment.

24) Did you ever Ditch?
No. I felt guilty missing class in college, people.

25) When it comes time for the reunion will you be there?
I didn't go to my 10-year this year. It's just a little too far to go to MN from MD for a $50 party with people I haven't seen since graduation. I wish I could've, though, because I was curious to see how people had changed.

Christmas as Paradox

Christmas is just a few days away, and I think I'd decided that Christmas is, in its heart a paradox. A baby is born to us, a child given to us, who is poor and helpless and at the same time unimaginably powerful. From "We Three Kings:"

Glorious now, behold him arise,
King and God and sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Worship him, God most high.

The paradox, too, lies in the time of year chosen for Christmas. It's a story about hope, and about beginnings, but we retell it at the darkest time of the year:

Star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

Christmas is paradoxically a time of both generosity and greed. It's a time when a limitless God becomes a limited human. When the distant and untouchable becomes human and specific. When we celebrate with joy, but remember that the world is not as it should be. When we sing for peace, but remember war.

Finally, a verse from one of my new favorite Christmas hymns:

Who would think that what was needed to redeem and save the earth
Might not be a plan or army, proud in purpose, proved in worth?
Who would think despite derision, that a child would lead the way?
God surprises earth with heaven, come to earth on Christmas day.

May the many blessings of Christmas be yours.

Amy

Heaven Receives High Approval Ratings

Thanks to Heather for a link to a fascinating ABC opinion poll on what Americans believe about heaven.

"Elbow Room No Problem in Heaven"

Interesting to see how few of the people who believe in heaven don't think they'll make it in.

Christmas and Debt

Brenda brought up a good point about Christmas as an excuse to rack up credit card debt. And I think what Christmas throws into stark relief here is that a lot of people don't save their income ahead of time to be ready to buy what they can afford. Instead they spend what they don't have, planning to pay for it in the future.

In the Bible there are several warnings against charging interest to fellow Isrealites, and particularly in the Old Testament one of the marks of a righteous person seems to be that he or she refrains from charging interest or making a profit on selling food to the poor.

I think what I'm trying to get at is a way for regular people to approach debt reasonably. Is Christmas a good reason to go into debt? Or should we plan for unexpected and expected expenses so that we aren't relying on the dubious generosity of the credit card company? And on the other side, how can we step off the merry-go-round and find ways to plan ahead instead of paying behind? Save up for Christmas instead of paying the credit card bills for 3 months, or six months?

I think the Christian response to acquisitiveness is, first and foremost, gratitude for what we already have from God. Sure, there's usually a little guilt and some Protestant work ethic thrown in there (at least for me), but the basic idea I propose is: if we trust God to care for us in the future, and appreciate the ways God already cares for us now, we won't need to fill our lives with things or buy love with gifts.

Or maybe another way of putting it is: God accepts us as we are, and our personal worth has nothing to do with what we own, what we look like, or how much power we have. God's love is what is of most worth, but it can't be bought because it is already ours.

Universal Health Care Insurance - Possible?

A NY Times Op-Ed on how we could (economically speaking) have health insurance for everybody. Having just gone through my company's open enrollment, with all our adjustments and costs because of rising costs, I'd love to see something that's a little less haphazard and piecemeal. And that doesn't leave so many millions out of the loop.

But it seems that while the money is there, the political will is probably not.

The Christmas/Church Debate Continues

To date, in my highly scientific survey, 4 people will be attending Christmas eve services, but not Christmas morning services, 2 will be in church on Christmas morning, and one is not planning to go to church at all for Christmas.

This means twice as many people will be following the megachurch "No Church on Christmas Day" plan than the go-to-church-on-Christmas plan. In other words, no services on Christmas might be a good idea after all.

Disagree with the outcome so far? Go and vote below!

Chronicles of Narnia Article

Interesting take in Slate on the intersection of Christianity and fantasy in the Chronicles of Narnia.

I think the writer is right on the money--I remember reading the books and loving them, but not with any sense of the underlying Christian allegory. Someone had to point it out to me. But I loved the idea of going into another world, having grown-up responsibilities, that kind of thing. Someone had to point out the allegory to me.

And of course there's a certain irony in all the folks who love this series, but vilify Harry Potter, considering both have the same basic structure -- a hidden, magical world.

Stay in school, kids.

Okay, Now I'm Interested

I think it's time for a non-scientific poll to see if the megachurches have a point. Who among you, readers, will be at church on Christmas morning, rather than gathered 'round the Christmas tree in your pajamas?

Here is the link to the Poll I've made about it.

I tried to get it to embed in this post, but it kept coming out funky. Oh well.

No Church on Christmas?

Heather forwarded me this interesting little nugget:

"Churches Closed on Christmas"

Apparently several of the country's megachurches have cancelled Sunday services for Christmas day, since it's not a day they expect a big crowd of non-churchgoers. They're probably right--a lot of people will probably be staying home Christmas morning, even though it's a Sunday. Another piece of the puzzle about what kind of meaning Christmas really holds.

In this case the megachurches are saying: family traditions will come first.

Okay, two days later

I guess this sermon was kind of a long one--it took me a while to type it up. But go check it out -- "Jesus is Coming - Look Busy! (Practical Tips for Surviving the Holidays)." I'm hoping it will be a help for those frazzled by the season.

Blessings,

Amy

All I want for Christmas

While most of the year I'm pretty good about keeping unnecessary spending to a minimum, Christmas tends to be a time of great temptation. When Heather suggested we try a present-free Christmas, I felt a certain tightening in my stomach. After all, part of giving presents is about taking part in the polite niceties of society. And who doesn't like getting presents?

I haven't resolved the dilemma yet, but it was interesting to read this op-ed piece in the New York Times. It starts out describing a conservative effort to re-introduce "Christmas" as the vocabulary of choice. No Holiday trees, in other words.

But further down it's reassuring to learn that Christmas didn't always look like this--that in fact the Puritans & Pilgrims hated it, and maybe it's a good idea for some of the commercialism to be separated from the religion underlying it. Some food for thought.

Not planning to rent the entire Left Behind Series?

In this article, Slate gives an inside peek, to save you some time.

Favorite quotes:

The movies star Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains as a member of a resistance movement known as the Tribulation Force. In a nice touch, Cameron's wife, Chelsea Noble, has been cast as the Whore of Babylon.

The United Nations can't even take a leadership role in getting rid of its parking tickets, but in the "Left Behind" universe, the U.N. wants nothing more than to disarm the world's armies, eliminate famine, and bring about a global peace. This, confusingly, makes them the bad guys.

Enjoy!

New Sermon up Soon

Hey everyone -- the worship service on Saturday went great! I will be posting the sermon very soon, but I did so much guitar-playing between Saturday and a church service last night that it kind of hurts to type with my left hand. Any suggestions, fellow-guitarists? :-)

Reminder - Come hear me preach tomorrow at 5:30!

As you can see from the post below, I read way more than is probably healthy. Now what could a big reader have to say about the impending holiday chaos? Come and find out!

3200 Dillon Street, Baltimore, MD 21224
5:30pm Saturday December 3rd.

Blessin's

Amy

A New Meme

From Tara's blog. Bold those you've read. Italicize those you haven't finished. Underline those you own.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corellis Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerers Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnights Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. Georges Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick OBrian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlottes Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophies World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews