I'm doing an elimination diet starting January and my body is already protesting ;) my digestive system is getting progressively less happy. Hopefully I can figure out which foods my body isn't into even though my tongue very much is (and find a gluten free and egg free and soy free substitute for saltine crackers...). This whole week has been spent on and off at grandpa's house. Grandpa has started watching EDM YouTube videos, those 8 minute long ones with clips of people doing stunts with this is stress-inducing beat overlapping it, and he connects his iPad to the TV so the whole family gets to enjoy it.
That clerk job is finally posted and I am scrambling around to take a typing test before the 8th. I get to suffer in this low grade stress until I get it submitted. A friend of mine told me two weeks ago that Decembers suck and I 100% agree with her. I have a feeling you will too.
I think I might get to skip church tomorrow (taking my brother to the airport). I have been able to skip so much more than I thought I would be "allowed" to. That's been nice. Here are the notes from last week! I went to church with my December friend and her parents. I used to go to Vacation Bible School at this church in elementary school. My brother played hockey all through his high school. It was SO STRANGE entering this building again, seeing a surprising number of familiar faces.
There were five mic-ed singers, I could only hear one in a half (both of them men). Is that an evangelical thing? To have people on stage but not actually hear them? It was refreshing to be in a different church. Maybe I should church hop to keep things fresh.
If I took a shot every time the pastor said "stable" I would have died. This has got to be one of the most pervasive myths in Christianity. He blatantly talked about god's rape of Mary, using human reproductive terms. "God reaches down and touches a young woman and gives her the sperma, the seed, of god."
Fuck. The father and two siblings of the man who stalked me 2 years ago walked in late. My adrenaline shot up but he never showed. I really gotta get out of this area.
"Jesus laid down his privileges." Why can ya'll talk about divine privilege but not our cultural privileges? Shit he told a story about a homeless man being beaten by a cop, "was a terrible thing but" and then went on about how every knee will bow (Romans 14:11) whether they want to or not- somehow similar to a cop smacking his night stick to the back of a non violent man's knees?! This is the god they believe in?
This pastor used to teach at the local private Christian high school my boyfriend attended. This world is too small. I gotta get out. Now he's telling us what he told all his high schoolers, "Who are you going to serve: Jesus. To get that one choice wrong, it impacts until eternity... and make a good choice in partners... How it goes with her [wife] is how life goes!" Maybe I'm not married or view marriage very differently but how would a woman in a complementarian and heterosexual marriage have that much influence when the husbands are supposed to be the heads of the households?
He went on a rant about Billy Graham using the Amplified Bible translation. As much as I hate my parent's pastor's sermons, at least he uses strong speech rhetoric and structure. This guy is hard to track. Here's the millennial bashing. Jesus lived with his parents till he was thirty and he was the perfect savior.
If I were to die today, wouldn't I still go to heaven, following the Christian theology? I accepted Jesus at seven and was baptized and served at the church for six years (6th to 12th grade). Can I theologically opt out? What do you know about it, Belle? I already made that "right choice."
Do people really respond to alter calls? Do non-Christians actually go to church? That December friend looked around during the "close your eyes and raise your hand if you accept Jesus" bit and the pastor said "I see that hand" but she didn't see a hand. Whether she missed it or he lied from the pulpit to save face or manipulate others into feeling comfortable raising their hand, who knows.
I don't want to badger you, but I'm going to. I'm a phone call away if you want a distraction or a break or a listening ear <3 Fuck December. Hello 2018.
-Rachel