On Ready Feet

Choosing to go on two decently expensive trips in the next 3 months is going to be a challenge. And it didn't really hit me until now how much of a challenge it has evolved into. I will have to raise a total of $5,000 for both missions, not to mention basic expenses of life that will need to be financed on these excursions. To be honest, I am freaking out. These are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to share my life and my faith and live out the great commission. Christ tells us that we need to be reaching out to the nations, spreading His Gospel to the globe and sharing His love with the world. And if the cost to do that is $5,000 then what can possibly hold me back (except my freaking out)? It was revealed to me last night during Greg Boyle's explination of the Christian belief system. Our, that is, my, belief is that I am saved through the free GIFT of grace through the blood of Jesus. I have done absolutely nothing to gain salvation or entrance into the kingdom of Heav...

Watching the latest Glee episode last night broke my heart. Throughout the entire series one of the characters, a star football player, has continuously bullied the brave gay character. We come to find that the bully is a closeted gay, but uses his abuse to cover up what he thinks is a shameful secret. In this particular episode, his secret comes out and all hell breaks loose in the locker rooms and Facebook walls of the school. Those who once were his friends become name-calling enemies, battering him emotionally and physically. He reaches a point where he believes the only option to escape the torture is suicide. Thankfully, he is rescued and given treatment - but still has to face the reality of the condemnation he knows is waiting for him outside the safe walls of the hospital. My heart was wrenched even more after reading about the shockingly true story of Teena Brandon, a young woman dealing with sexual orientation in the early 90's. After moving to a small Nebraskan town she...

I can't stand it. That red gushy stuff that pumps through veins, my stomach and my eyes just can't handle. I remember my very first time passing out during a relatively bloody sequence of a movie. It was Cinderella Man during the slo-mo boxing scene. The lights were flashing, and when the combatants let their fists fly, the blood flowed, too. And everything in my vision went light then dark, I felt sick and then I was out. The second time nearly took me out, too. The scene in Ironman when you can hear the squishy beats of his heart, nearly made me pass out. I could name more, but the list is rather embarrassing. I have sworn off movies known for gore including: The Passion of the Christ, Gladiator, that other one with Russell Crowe, that other one with Mel Gibson, Blackhawk Down, Band of Brothers, and that animated "kids" movie Watership Down. Even animated blood gets to me! It doesn't even matter if the film is silent or in black and white! My imagination goes ...