Why I eat food off the floor

I had the opportunity to hang out with two very smart friends this past Friday night. I am always gaining insight from these two ladies. We talked about the overuse of handsanitizer and antibiotics. At one point my friend Crystal said, "That's why I'm a proponent of eating food I drop on the floor." I thought that her declaration did a great job of capturing the conversation.

We talked about the overuse of antibiotics for animals, which in turn we humans readily consume these animals. This eventually leads to resistant bacteria. This is also true for humans. If you are like me, the first thing the doctor prescribes when you are sick is an antibiotic. Also, although it might take a while to occur, using hand sanitizer frequently can eventually lead to stronger resistant bacteria. All these examples work to selectively breed even more harmful and dangerously strong bacteria. So maybe the next time you drop some food on the floor and are frightened by the aspect of germs, you should think twice about just throwing it in the trash. Perhaps our bodies could use a good dose of healthy bacteria.

Below are some links on the topics discussed in this post:

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/antibiotics_and_food/

http://www.keepantibioticsworking.com/pages/basics/overuse.cfm

http://www.drgreene.com/21_646.html

Religion versus Redemption and the story of Ruth

I have a new favorite speaker. His name is Mark Driscoll and he leads Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA . I just recently finished his series on Ruth. Amazing!! I can't tell you how many times I found myself convicted and just wanting to fall on the floor and repent in front of God. I don't want to give away everything, but seriously it is amazing. You can listen to it yourself if you go to www.marshillchurch.org, click on more video content, and then scroll down to find the series on Ruth.

He ends the whole series showing how religion and redemption oppose each other. I was totally convicted to find how easily I fall into religion. I feel guilty when I don't obey God or when I skip a day reading my bible. I look down on others for their sins, when I myself have just done the very same thing. Mark would say to me that I am the worst type of sinner, I am religious. Religion only leads to self-righteousness and pride or guilt and depression (which is also prideful). Religion replaces the beauty of grace! In fact, it leaves no room at all for grace or redemption. Somehow I think that my religion will make me less offensive to God, but the truth is that I am just being an unrepentant sinner. Religion is focused on what we do or don't do, while Redemption is only focused on what Jesus has done. Martin Luther said that religion is the default mode of the human heart and we have to constantly fight against it.

By now if you're reading my blog, I'm sure you're think, "Wow, this girl is pretty messed up." And the truth is, I am! So keep praying for me, that God would continue to work on a very stubborn and prideful heart like mine! That I would have joy in him alone, that he is my redemption and that I would have no faith in religion.

He doesn't do what He is told

Do you ever tell God what to do? Do ever tell God to tell other people in your life how they should act? Well, I do it all the time. You're probably thinking right now, that's pretty arrogant. And you are certainly right, I am perhaps one of the most arrogant people I know. But if you are honest with yourself, you would have to say that you are also probably just as arrogant, that's the nature of humans.

Often in my life I try to manipulate God to get what I want. I kick and whine when I don't get my way. I command that the almighty should follow my plans, my desires, my ways. This past year, I have had to learn the hard way that no matter how hard I kick and scream, God thankfully does not let me have my way. And instead of humbly capitulating to not only a sovereign, but loving God, I got angry. I, an evil human being, wicked to core, was angry with an almighty , in control, and gracious God to his children.

How often have I been angry, bitter, or even hated God at times? Is it right? No, of course not, but is it honest? Yes. And I am done pretending that I always love God perfectly, because this past year I have definitely acted grudgingly toward God. When the Spirit started to reveal to my heart how evil I am for resenting a good God who has only given me grace, I felt horrible. I doubted God's goodness. A Christian is not supposed to be mad, bitter at God. What would other Christians think of me? How dare she be angry with God? Had God's love for me changed when my love for him fluctuated like Iowa weather? For a while I felt so ashamed, I shouldn't be angry with God. But lets face it I was! And rather than try to save face and pretend that I am a perfectly loving creature, I admit...I AM NOT! !

The truth is God knew all along how I felt towards him. May I always run to Him and be honest because He already knows. And the more blessed truth is that God loved me through it all. Thank the Lord our God, who doesn't do what He is told and who loves me in my darkest times. God may I be a humble worshiper of you!

Fun Facts

So I'm pretty cheesy and love stuff like this. Emily tagged me to complete the following sentences:


I am...still considered a newlywed (supposedly you are a newlywed for 2 years).

I want…a road bike.

I wish…I could speed read.

I hate…Satan's lies.

I miss…college, it's freedom and less responsibility.

I fear…not living passionately enough for God.

I feel…tired right now.

I hear…people chattering and typing at work.

I smell…my chicken, spinach, artichoke calzone.

I crave…lots of fun and goofiness, but also a deep authenticity in friendships.

I search…for good deals on the Internet, especially books (I love to read).

I wonder…why people like Mushrooms, yuck!

I regret…my disobedience to God.

I love…summer time.

I ache…after sitting all day, I hate being stuck at a desk job.

I care…about what I eat.

I always…eat breakfast first after I wake up.

I am not…very humble, but I wish I was.

I believe…I can fly(Just kidding). Ummm really I believe that I pretty much stink.

I dance…like Bill Cosby to jazz music.

I sing...when I am joyful.

I cry…in spurts, usually when God is working on my heart.

I don’t always…listen to my cellphone voicemail, I usually just call people back.

I fight...with the two people I love the most: God and Tommy, man I'm ornery.

I write…in a journal.

I never…mow the lawn, I'm allergic.

I listen…to Mark Driscoll, I like him, he makes me laugh a lot.

I need...a water bottle with me at all times.

I am happy…when I at rest in God's goodness.

Now I'm tagging Angela.

What is courage?

I've been thinking a lot about courage lately. What is courage? How is it displayed? Do I demonstrate courage? While these thoughts and questions of courage have been on my mind lately, I was attracted to a sermon the other day on courage. There were many great points in the sermon, but one quote really captured my interest. The preacher read a very insightful quote from C.S. Lewis, "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." How true! It takes courage to react with patience and gentleness towards those who have been hurtful. Will they still be hurtful, even in the face of patience and love? It takes courage to demonstrate integrity when it would be easier to tell a lie. It takes courage to replace our trust in financial security with a trust in God's provision. Courage is the point when we choose to put into action all the other virtues.

Home

This past January my husband and I moved into our new home in Ankeny, which was quite the process. The inside of our house has really started to look and feel like a home. Since we built in the winter, we were unable to finish everything on the outside of the house. We are just now finishing up. Yesterday, they painted the outside of our house. All day at work I was so excited to drive home and see how wonderful it looked. I had spent many months dreaming and looking for the perfect house colors. I found those colors one afternoon as I was driving through one of my favorite neighborhoods in Des Moines, Sherman Hills.

Sherman Hills is filled with many beautiful homes. It is a few blocks behind my work building, so I frequently like to walk through the neighborhood during my lunch time. Some of the houses in the neighborhood date back to the 1870's. The houses are very colorful and full of character. I love meandering through the streets, while noticing all the fun details and hues of these homes. One of my personal favorites is the Victorian style house in the picture. It was built at the turn of the 20th century. It is a beautiful goldish brown color with a light yellow trim and black accents. I love the way this house looks, so I decided to try and match the paint colors for our new house. And I did find paint colors that matched exactly! Tommy gave the color names to the painter and we were ready to see our new home!

All day yesterday I was anticipating how wonderful our newly painted house would look. On the bus ride home I even tried to get a glimpse of our house from the interstate. I finally caught a little glimpse of our house! Or was it our house -it looked horribly like a bright orange blob! Maybe the sun just made it look funny that far away I told myself. Once at the bus stop I quickly got in my car and drove towards our home. As I was driving up our street, I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a giant orange pumpkin on top of our hill -and it was our house. What an eye sore! I didn't look anything like the beautiful house downtown! And the color was much more orange than the little swatch seemed to portray. The bright orange color of our house was only accentuated by the mute grays and dull cremes surrounding our house. Maybe in Sherman Hills this house would have fit in better with all the other lively colored homes, but in our neighborhood it looked, quite ridiculous! I wanted to cry! I had made a terrible mistake and would not have to live with it. What had I been thinking! Of course these colors would look ridiculous in our conservative neighborhood. I quickly went insides, maybe some of the neighbors still didn't know that this was my house. How embarrassing to live in a pumpkin!

My friend Patti came over later that night and calmed me down a bit. I decided to give the house another look in the morning, after I had a been able to sleep on it. When I got up in the morning, to my dismay, the house still looked as orangish brown as ever. I decided our house just didn't have the right style to pull these colors off. And maybe our house didn't look bad in general, but it really did look horribly out of place in our development. Thankfully we are working with a very generous painter, who is going to work with us on repainting the house for a reasonable price. Earlier today I was expressing my frustration with Tommy about how the house just didn't turn out how I had imagine. I was so disappointed. I had been on the look out for several weeks before I found my perfect house colors (I guess now you could call them not so perfect colors). Since finding them, I was looking forward to seeing how they would only accent our already lovely home. And priding myself on being an artist, I was thoroughly disappointed in myself. I didn't want to admit my largest painting faux pas to date. As I was telling him all this, Tommy, thankfully, reminded me, that our house isn't really our HOME. Amen to that because I messed up big time! I'm sure the home God has prepared for both of us is far more perfect and beautiful than anything I could ever come up with!