Aren't we called to at least care?

A few weeks ago I was having a very casual conversation with a few people about something we heard on the news, and someone involved in said conversation informed us that she never watches the news because it depresses her. I certainly understand this - it is easy to watch coverage of people dying in Iraq, human rights abuses in Burma, children starving in Africa, and yet another school shooting in our backyard and get overwhelmed. There are certainly days where I would rather turn on a Friends re-run or watch a silly movie than learn about another tragic, desperate, or horrifying event that has occurred that day. It is hard to watch these things and not feel helpless and profoundly sad.

But this person took it a step further. "I have enough to worry about and be depressed about here; those things happen so far away."

This blows my mind, mainly because I know this is the attitude of so many Americans, regarding issues both abroad and domestic (and of course, at times, I have fallen into this attitude as well). True - we may not have been to the places in question, and we certainly don't know the people whose lives these events impact. But don't we have a responsibility to know and more importantly to care, about what is going on in places that, at first glance, have no impact on us because they're across an ocean or under a highway? Even if we can't do anything to help the situation or alleviate the pain or feed that child while we sit in our living rooms, shouldn't we at least know that such pain exists?

If for no other reason than to be reminded daily of how incredibly blessed and fortunate we are to have been born to American parents and to have had opportunities, I think that we do need to know. I just as easily could have been born in a country called Sudan or to a poverty-stricken family in New Orleans, in which case I might be one of those children on the television whose plight is too depressing to think about or pray for. Even on a local level, I believe that we should be informed so that we can at least converse with the people around us, if not get involved and be active in our communities (again, not pointing fingers because I have not done this like I should).

I'm not saying that everyone needs to be a news junkie and know every single current event on a daily basis (I definitely don't), or that we should be ashamed of watching things like American Idol (or The Bachelor, or The Hills) to escape from our day, because I of all people am completely guilty of that. I definitely do not read as much as I should or pray as much as I should for the problems humanity faces on such a huge level. I'm also not saying that people who don't pay attention to current events don't care about others, because that is certainly not true...but shouldn't we at least be aware? Maybe it's important because that attitude can so easily sneak its way into our everyday lives to the point where we are not even aware of the problems facing the homeless person down the street.

I believe in my heart that God cares deeply about all people, so why shouldn't we?

Off soapbox. What do you think? Am I rambling unnecessarily?

Not your typical Friday

This Easter is a bit different for me from others in recent memory, mostly because it is the first time I have seriously contemplated Lent in the weeks before the holiday that so often gets overshadowed by family gatherings, big meals, and pastel-colored eggs. While my partial "giving up" of television was not 100% successful, that is not the point. I have thought more about what it means to give up something and replace it with something of meaning, something that challenges me, in the last few weeks than I have in a long time. It amazes me how clear some things become when we just take a minute to free ourselves of the silly things we fill our days with, and yet how hard it still is to filter them out of our lives.

Perhaps the biggest thing that has impressed me over these past few weeks and on this Good Friday is no matter how small the "sacrifice" (I use quotations because giving up some TV time can hardly be called a sacrifice), I realize that I cannot understand the meaning of that word as perfectly as our God can. I was not even capable of keeping this up consistently for 40 days, yet a real sacrifice was made for me whose magnitude I can't even fathom. I heard from someone the other day that sometimes we learn the most from Lent when we fail, because it so eloquently highlights how different we are from our Savior. We can't even come close.

We can't even come close, and that's why it's Good Friday. Good because no matter how much we try and no matter how much we fail, we have been given a gift: the chance to know God and experience a love deep enough that transcends our brokenness.

It's not a typical Friday because the love that allowed Christ to make such a sacrifice was not typical. His kind of Love is something we can't truly understand or ever hope to reciprocate, but it is something we can be grateful for. It is also something that urges us to go beyond ourselves and wonder what this gift requires of us, and what we can do to give atypical love to the people around us. Atypical love - let's remember that today.

Toto, we're not in San Antonio anymore...

Sooo, I think I was officially initiated to Oklahoma last night with the experience of my very first real tornado warning. We've had them in Texas, of course, and I have memories of hiking into a canyon to avoid a tornado at camp when I was little, but aside from that one experience, I don't think we'd ever actually had one. So let me take you through the experience a little bit.

7:00 p.m. as we're leaving church and the sky is turning black/green
Ashley: Wow, it looks like tornado weather.
Scott: Yeah, it does, but it's no big deal, this happens here all the time. Plus, tornadoes NEVER come downtown.
Ashley: okay.

8:00 p.m. at home.
Ashley: Wow, it's windy.
Scott: Yeah. But tornadoes never come downtown.

8:15 p.m.
Ashley [to Alison on phone]: umm, the tornado sirens are going off, BYE!
Weather man: We have reports of strong circulation and high winds moving eastwards directly toward downtown Oklahoma City and Midwest City. If you are downtown, TAKE COVER!
Scott: Maybe we should go downstairs.

Good times. For anyone who's interested, it didn't actually turn into a tornado, or at least not until after the cell made its way past downtown. We hid in the bathroom with Lorine's mom and periodically walked onto the balcony to look at the circulating clouds...I know, I'm a tornado wimp...welcome to Oklahoma!

Everyone just needs a little soul...

My good friend Kathy and I have been reading a book called "Spiritual Friendship" by Mindy Caliguire, and we're hoping to read it with some of the girls in our House Church later. It basically operates on the premise that God wants us to have what the author calls "soul friends," or friends with whom we feel 100% safe, supported, accountable, and honest. She argues that these types of friendships are vital to our lives, because when we are completely open and honest with someone, and when we work to establish friendships with people who only want the best for us, we are brought closer not only to each other, but to God as well. When we have friendships like these, they can open our eyes to new perspectives, hold us accountable when we need it, celebrate with us, cry with us, and pray for us. These "soul friends" know when we are strong and when we're weak, what we are good at and what we struggle with, and above all, they are "for" us no matter what. I love the idea of being "for" each other, regardless of what we are going through, and that by being close to these types of people, our relationship with God is given a whole new dimension as well. I absolutely believe that God works through those around us, and while our relationships with people are obviously not top priority, they can definitely hinder or enhance our spiritual lives.

Soul friends are precious and rare. I think that I have been blessed with a few of these "soul friends" throughout my life (one of whom I ended up marrying, haha), and I think/hope that a few new friendships are being formed right now. In college, it happened pretty naturally - by spending inordinate amounts of time with the same people, it was so much easier to feel completely at home with our friends. In real life, I've found that it takes a lot more effort to get to this level with someone...but that's okay.

This week, the definition of being "for" someone really hit me. Someone who I am extremely close to let me in on something fairly heavy that s/he has been struggling with over the past few years, but because of embarrassment, fear of judgment, and fear of sharing this flaw with someone, s/he hadn't ever told anyone. At first, I was pretty shocked and a little bit hurt that they felt that they couldn't share this with me before, but as this person talked and shared how this struggle had affected them and made them feel alienated from God and from friends, I realized that the only thing I really wanted was for them to know that I wasn't going to bail. I also began to understand that this is what it's like when God is truly present in a friendship, because that conversation probably wouldn't have gone the way it did if He wasn't.

We all need people in our lives to prop us up when we're down and laugh with when life is good, and I'm praying that more of these people walk into my life. So, thank you to my soul friends who are reading this...thank you for being "for" me. I hope that we all can be so lucky to have friends like you.