Midnight Moments

Spending Christmas back with my family in New York is always an interesting experience after four years of college in Indiana and living the last 3 years in Kentucky.  Saying Merry Christmas is apparently taboo. Even telling sales clerks "Merry Christmas" you're bound to get a dry "Happy Holidays" in response.  And the act of Christmas shopping in general is a bit audacious in lieu of the real purpose of Christmas: to celebrate the birth of Christ.  Sure, historically He most likely wasn't born in December, but December 25th is the traditional day chosen by the Church universal to remember the occasion.  And how do we celebrate it?  By storming down old ladies to get Tickle-Me-Elmo's and training kids from the age of 1 to be materialistic and self centered. Now, this is clearly an overstatement, but I think most of you get the gist of my argument.  Christ has been lost from Christmas.  It's become about marketing and materialism.  And even for tho...

Hypocrisy is always a big reason, or excuse, that people give for why they don't go to church.  Now, I'm not going to try to defend the Christian Church and say that we aren't riddled with hypocrisy because I won't win that arguement.  Reality is unfortunately that Christians don't always practice what they preach.  Another reality is that hypocrisy is not unique to the Church or Christians.  It is unique, however, to humanity.  And that's what this blog is specifically about. So, you won't set foot in the door of a church because of hypocrites.  What about the hypocrites in the workplace?  What about the hypocrites in your family?  What about the hypocrites in public office?  What about the hypocrites in the media and Hollywood?  What is it about the Church that people are so quick to jump on their hypocrisy, but much more willing to ignore the hypocrisy in other arenas to a lesser degree? To those who call themselves Christians, an...

In Luke 2: 21-38, Mary and Joseph take their 8 day old son Jesus to the temple to be circumcised.  Among those at the temple are Simeon and Anna. Simeon and Anna (who was a prophetess) had been waiting their whole lives for the Messiah. Both were near the end of their lives, but God had promised them they would live to see the Messiah.  When they saw the tiny baby Jesus, they both instantly knew who He was and worshiped Him.  The Scriptures tell us, starting with verse 25: "Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God saying: 'Sovereign Lord, as you have promi...

11  My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline,     and do not resent his rebuke,  12  because the LORD disciplines those he loves,     as a father the son he delights in Proverbs 3: 11-12 There's a large, plastic play castle on the smaller of the two playgrounds of the daycare where I work.  One wall of the castle that connects to the wall where a small orange slide comes down has been unattached for some time. The reason being, the kids constantly open this side to make an extra door to run through while chasing and hiding from each other. The thick plastic of the play castle is stable enough that it still stands on the ground, but the children make it a habit to climb up onto the side of the wall and sit on the broken side and rock it back and forth. Images of small three year old tumbling head first into the middle of the castle flood my mind as I watch this, but no matter how many times I warn them to get down or t...

I just spent the weekend in Fishers, IN at the Wesleyan World Headquarters for the 10th Annual Indy Christian Writer's Conference. During the summers I'm much more prone to blogging than I am during the school year. The most obvious reasoning this being time and availability of brain cells. I sometimes forget when I'm not writing that I'm CALLED to writing. I often sit at these Writer's Conferences amidst many published authors and creative thinkers and to be quite honest, I feel like I'm not cut out to be a writer. I grew up writing. My mom is a teacher so I learned to read when I was very young and my first novel of choice was Nancy Drew. I read her, pretended to be her, and wrote mock stories in the Nancy Drew sleuth fashion. This led to writing creative sci-fi stories (of course modeled after Star Wars and Star Trek) and eventually I took a stab at historical fiction. I finished my first novel about a family in the slave south and their escape to freedom w...

I’ve recently come to realized that I’ve lived my life predominantly as a Wesleyan, more so than as a Christian.  I was raised the daughter of a Wesleyan minister, and the grand-daughter of a Wesleyan minister and two Wesleyan missionaries.  I spent every Sunday in a Wesleyan church.  I spent my summers at a Wesleyan camp.  I attended a Wesleyan University.  And I’m now attending a Methodist seminary.  While I believe it’s important to align yourself with a denomination for the doctrinal structure and discipleship, as well as for the close-knit community, I’ve found that I’ve both alienated and prejudiced myself in regards to other Christian denominations.  Rather than seeing myself as a believer among various and equally Christian denominations, I’ve elevated my denomination (which I do hold in high regards for its emphasis on social justice and personal holiness) above all others.  I’ve allowed myself to see only the weaknesses in others denomin...

Have you ever noticed that on commercials for prescription medication, the side effects for a cold medicine are more severe than the actual symptoms of the cold?   Take for example the side-effects of Cymbalta, a common medication to treat the symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety: “Constipation; decreased sexual desire or ability; diarrhea; dizziness; drowsiness; dry mouth; headache; increased sweating; loss of appetite; nausea; sore throat; tiredness; trouble sleeping; vomiting; weakness.” If you’ve ever dealt with either depression or anxiety, a few of the side-effects are equal to or greater than the symptoms one would deal with NOT taking Cymbalta and just facing the normal issues that come with the problem being treated! Have you ever noticed that side-effects of sin are a lot like this as well? Most sinful actions are in response to the void of God in an individual’s life and are therefore nothing more than coping, or medicating the deeper problem.   While ...

Fourth of July weekend I stubbed my toe. Now, this isn't a very uncommon accomplishment for me. I stub my toe at least once a week walking absently into something. But this stub was different. I'm still not sure if I sprained it, jammed it, or what exactly happened; I just know it hurt. Excruciatingly. At first, I just felt that draining rush of blood from my head to my foot. That should've been my first clue it was more than your average stub. I could walk on it fine initially until I took one wrong step and heard (and felt) a loud pop. From that point on I had to walk on the inside of my foot to alleviate the pressure on my toe (the one right next to the pinky toe). After sitting in evening service at my church, my toe had stiffened and swollen and the pain had settled. It was heavy and incredibly painful to try to lift. I was panicked trying to determine how I was going to walk up the stairs, to the main door, and across the parking lot to my car to make it home. I knew ...

I've lived in NY my entire life. Aside from sparklers, NY law has never allowed private parties to use fireworks for any occasion. Therefore, 4th of July and other celebrations that employ the use of firework displays are done in public parks or in downtown Albany under strict regulations and laws. Now living in Kentucky, I can't drive two feet from house without seeing roadside displays of fireworks for sale. Apparently I've been told that this is the first year Kentucky has allowed the really big fireworks for private use. Driving home the other night I saw a few fireworks weakly being set off above a quiant neighborhood off the main road. A few actually exploded into what resembled mini fireworks, but most shot up and quickly diminished into the slowly fading evening. In the process of deciding whether to get together with friends for a do it yourself fireworks show or go see some done by professionals, I thought about what I had witnessed on my drive. Sure, it would be ...

June 24, 2011 New York State became the newest state to pass a Marriage Equality Bill. After the fact, Facebook was inevitably updated with thousands of posts either in celebration of this action or bashing the decision. I chose to avoid controversy by not posting my feelings on the issue. What often happens in these cases is that I express my stance and another individual gives me their counter stance and prepares to argue me down until I see things from their point of view. Here's the thing; your not going to change my mind anymore than I'm going to change yours. We just need to agree to disagree. My opinion on the matter is not an opinion but a viewpoint stemming from a source of morality outside of myself that does not bend and sway with the changing social trends. As I began to process the varying statements posting on Facebook in reference to the Same-Sex Marriage Bill now in full effect in my home state, I found myself reading the same argument over and over. "It...

Anyone who knows me knows that my random thought processing happens not only while I'm attempting to drift off to sleep, but also in the middle of what normal human beings call life. Life for me, however, is most generally lived in the plethora of randomness in my head. Thus the reason for this blog, in general, and specifically, the one which I am writing today. It all started his morning while I was getting ready for my day. My cat was as usual determining to jump from the floor, to the bathroom sink, to the top of the towel shelf on the back of my toilet. Like a good cat owner, I repeatedly pushed or threw her off the sink detering her persistent attempts. As I was preparing to yet again stop my stubbon feline from jumping on top of the tower of towels, she stopped in the middle of her pounce and caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. She preceded, to my amusement, to bat at herself in the mirror with her paw. Clearly she didn't realize it was merely her reflection. S...

If you’ve grown up in church, you may have had a situation similar to mine occur at least once: someone gets up to sing a special. Occasionally afterwards you wonder to yourself who ever told this person they should be singing in public, but you keep the comment to yourself. In the words of Tim Hawkin, a Christian comedian, you want to tell the person who probably is claiming that “God gave me this song” that maybe you should give it back. But in a more positive light, you step into a church service where the individual singing the special is truly blessed by God and obviously put a lot of hard work into developing their gift. And if you’ve been around “church people” enough, there’s usually the one talented special singer who humbly responds to every compliment with “I can’t take any credit. I owe it all to God.” While I’m not downplaying the important of giving credit where credit’s due and being aware that ultimately everything we have is from God (James 1:17), we are individu...

The only reformation Martin Luther initially sought to pursue was the reformation of his own spiritual walk. In engaging the Scriptures, he discovered that human endeavours at righteous living were not sufficient for salvation, but rather it was God's grace that pursued and saved individuals. The Christian life, he discovered, was not one of behavioral modification but rather one of personal freedom to live in the perfect will of God and communion with the holy Trinity. Luther's personal revelations stir him to share this amazing news with the rest of the fellowship of believers which spurred a nationwide reformation of the theology of the church. But before God reveals this Truth to Luther, he was plagued which a need to act holy in order to earn God's forgiveness and salvation. At one point, he felt that exhaustive confession of ALL sins committed would do the trick, but he found on leaving the confession booth that he had forgotten certain sins and this in turn would cre...