The Great Debate

The City is a social networking site for Mars Hill Church, comparable to Facebook or Myspace but without all the silly apps and advertising. Recently, pastor of the Bellevue campus (where Jonathan and I attend) was interviewed by the Seattle P.I. (article) . Upon reading the comments by others who read the article, I felt a rainbow of emotions coursing through me: anger, disbelief, sadness, indignation, pity... the list goes on. So many hateful comments by ignorant people who think they know everything about Mars Hill, based on what they read and hear from others.

I prayed for grace and the ability to love those who slandered Pastor Jesse and the church, took a deep breath, and began to type out my own comment. Now, I am a highly emotional person. I realize one of my faults is responding very emotionally, which usually leads to remorse. This time around, God surely gave me the sense and wisdom to respond lovingly and gently, using logic and Biblical references to explain where the haters are mistaken. (You can read my comments on page 4; my username is "redvox.")

I've been able to engage in a level-headed, intelligent debate with a few other commentators. I am so thrilled at the chance to be bold and defend Christ in a way that I hope will respect others and prove to them that not all Christians are judgmental, hateful, hypocritical lunatics. Unfortunately, that is the widespread stereotype.

Please pray for me, that I may continue this discussion and be a glimpse of hope for those who have discarded the idea of Jesus and what he represents. Pray that I may have wisdom and discernment, and divine words.

There's blog about the article (read it here) that I've also engaged in. Feel free to join in, but please be respectful even to those who hate Christians and all we represent.

CREEEEEEEPY

Last night was a little warm in our bedroom so we had one of our bedroom windows open. Tigerlily loves to sit on windowsills, especially when the window is open. She knows when our bedroom window is open and paws at the blinds to try and get inside them. It makes a lot of noise, so we'll open them halfway to give her access and keep her quiet. We are on the first floor, level with the street. The complex is built into a slope so our bedroom windows are level with the ground in the back of the building. (Our living room is in the front.) We feel safe having the blinds up a little bit because there is only a mossy path running behind our bedroom and virtually no access. There is never anyone back there, and the complex behind us is pretty well blocked by trees.

Back to last night. Jonathan was sleeping and I was awake reading with my lamp on. Tigerlily started growling and hissing, then did the weird breathing thing cats do when they're trying to be intimidating. She does that whenever another cat is outside, so I didn't pay attention to her. A little bit later I turned off my lamp and laid down to sleep. Then I heard a crackling sound outside. Probably just the cat going away. But that sounds awfully loud to be a cat... Animals don't break twigs that loudly, do they?? I froze in fear and tried to look outside but it was so dark I couldn't see a thing. I shivered a little as I heard the footsteps move from the ground to the left of the window, across the mossy path and down to the right. They grew more and more distant until I couldn't hear anything anymore.

I am positive that there wasn't a cat or dog or any other animal outside our window. It was a person. With my lamp on, someone could see in but I couldn't see out. I have no idea how long they could have been there, looking in our window. That's probably what the cat was freaking out about too. Also, this isn't the first time we've had our window open and the blinds up at night. How many other times has this happened?? Who is the person hanging around outside our bedroom, peeking in at us?? I am totally freaked out. I was wearing a tank top and shorts last night, nothing slutty, but still, that is really creepy.

Whirlwind

Whew... It's been a crazy busy week. About 5 or 6 weeks ago, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. It hadn't ruptured, but it would require treatment to stop it from rupturing. After several consultations, she had a procedure done last Wednesday. They threaded a catheter through an artery in her leg up to her brain and inserted about ten platinum coils into the area where the aneurysm is. Blood clots will form in between the coils and in time the blood cell lining will grow over the ends of the coils to block the artery entirely. The amazing thing is that the brain can totally adapt to an artery being cut off. Isn't it crazy how God made our bodies to function after something like that??

After the coils were put in she had a really rough few days. She wasn't able to sit up on her bed until Saturday mid-morning and got out of bed to walk a few hours after that. Miraculously, she made huge progress between Saturday evening and Sunday morning, when Jonathan and his dad discovered that she had improved so much overnight that she could be released from the hospital and come back home. It's been such a relief - both for her and for us - to have her out of the hospital and recovering at our apartment. (They live in Dundee, OR.) So many prayers have been answered, and although her recovery has been tough, there have been no complications with the coils, which was the most dangerous part of the whole thing.

I had to leave everyone here with Mom and go down to Portland for a wedding I was in on Saturday. It was a huge challenge to leave; I wanted to be at the hospital with everyone and spend time with Mom. I left Seattle early Friday afternoon and returned Saturday evening. God definitely challenges us sometimes and we must push ourselves to fulfill our obligations. I certainly felt weak at times and felt like God was overwhelming me, but of course He will never do that. Call it another lesson learned.