Relevant theology from the man outside the Family Dollar

Here's how the conversation went:

Older Man walking by my car in the parking lot: "Hey girl, why did you make it snow today?"

Me: (somewhat surprised) "Oh, you can't blame me for that. Plus, it's not a bad thing. There's always a winter before every spring."

Man: "Yeah, I was teasing you. I love the weather, I love the snow, I love rain, I love tornadoes, I love hurricanes. Why? I'll tell you why -cuz God makes snow, and hurricanes, and tornadoes. If He sent a wild tornado through here, I'd love it. Do you know that God causes hurricanes?

Me: (wondering if this conversation is heading towards a theological standpoint of God causing hurricanes to topple houses and destroy lives...so i decide to play it safe) "Well, I know God is in control."

Man: "Yes, that's right He is. (At this point, he walks towards me and stands about 8 inches from me for the rest of the conversation.) "Now, I don't know where you stand with the Lord, but I'm gonna tell you that He saved my wretched soul. Now, I was just a wretch. A plain wretch. Why people say, 'how could you be a wretch, a good man like you?' But they don't know that I sin every day. That's what I tell people, I sin every day. You know what will get you sent to Hell?

Me: (I'm feeling like I'm in for a sermon, so I decide to beat him to the punch) "Yourself, your own decisions."

Man: "Nope."

Me: "Sin."

Man: "Nope."

Me: "Yourself" (trying again to prove my point...and I'm also mentally guessing where he goes to church. I think it's the fundamental church at the top of the hill.)

Man: "It's the devil. He'll do everything He can to tempt you with something small....and you know how he tempts us - by whispering in our ear. And then we do it. And God says we've got to be forgiven. Even if we haven't done anything wrong that day. Now how can we be forgiven if we haven't done anything wrong?

Me: "Our sin nature."

Man: "Why do we need to be forgiven if we haven't done anything wrong?"

Me: "Sin"

Man: "Why do we need to be forgiven?"

Me: "Our hearts"

Man: "Nope. Your head. That's where the devil works...(and 15 minutes later, he's finishing up his conversation. I'm warming my hands in my pocket and eating a piece of candy I bought earlier...) and you know what I told that preacher? He ain't a preacher. Boy, he looked at me and started in on me, but I said 'the Word of God says Jesus lives in us and that Jesus is the preacher. He might preach for a living, but he's not the Preacher."

Me: "Yes."

Man: (as he's walking away) "You know you better believe everything I said, cuz it's the Word of God. That's how you know it's the truth."

Me: (smile)

AT adventures

I love the Appalachian Trail. I don't know if I'll through-hike it, but I love every mile that I've been on so far. This weekend, I trekked 20 miles near Pearisburg, Virginia. Here's my weekend in pictures...


I awoke on the second day to this amazing view...

The previous night, I ended up hiking late into the day. I was rewarded with this awe-inspiring sunset...

There are no words...

painting

Today was beautiful outside. 70 degrees. Sunny. Slightly breezy. Perfect, really.

I decided to paint the outside of my house today. I've been wanting to for a long time. A while back I tried to powerwash it clean and I ended up powerwashing some of the paint off. So...it needed a new paint job.

I think I'm in over my head.

I didn't even get a whole side finished. With the first coat.

At least now I know what I'll be doing every day after work in September...and October. (Today was extra slow cuz I had to wash the house off and try out sprayers and then I decided to paint with the ole brush and roller).

But, I do have to say - I love projects. Especially the ones involving hard work and manual labor. I love the satisfaction that awaits me when I ultimately finish this insanely big task. :)

Chocolate Slavery

So I realized yesterday that I can be quite the Christian consumer. And by that, I mean that I hear lots of songs and sermons that tell me truth, but then i often still go and do whatever it is I really want to do...in spite of the truth that I just listened to. I want to stop doing that. I want to hear and follow through with action.

There's this song 'Kingdom of Noise' from singer/songwriters juddandmaggie (check out http://www.noisetrade.com/ for a free download of their entire album - it's really good) that talks about how we are constantly bombarded with messages and talk and noise in our culture. We hear, but we don't really hear. And people speak, but they don't really say anything.

And then I heard this sermon by Steve Chalk (my friend melissa blogged about it too, check out her blog http://www.mhayward.blogspot.com/ for a much better description) that talked about the slave trade going on right now. More people have been sold into the flesh trade currently than the total people captured during the transatlantic slave trade. Wow.

And he also said that right now in the Ivory Coast, people of all ages are being bought, captured, and forced into slavery. They work in the fields, harvesting cocoa beans. For my chocolate bars. For my favorite cookies. For my sweet treat at the end of a long day. 43% of the world's chocolate comes from the Ivory Coast. And while we don't know exactly how much of that comes from slave-based farms, you can bet that most of the chocoate on our grocery shelves has at least a bit of slave labor in them.

And then I went into Walmart (after just hearing that sermon) and I bought a chocolate bar and didn't even think twice about it. Man, you talk about hearing, but hearing not - that's me. I got home and realized what I did. So I taped the chocolate bar to my fridge and wrote the word 'flesh' on it. One website I looked at interviewed a young person in slavery in the Ivory Coast. He said, "When you eat chocolate, you eat my flesh." I want to see that bar and be painfully reminded of my responsibility to end modern-day slavery. I want it to remind me that my actions matter. Life is at stake. And I can do something.

Google chocolate and slavery to find out for yourself. And take action.

my other family

I feel like I have lots of family, when it comes right down to it. Both my sisters and my brother married wonderful people, and along with those fantastic brother and sister-in-laws comes some amazing families. This weekend, I spent the holiday visiting my brother-in-law's family. They have a reunion in Kentucky every Labor Day weekend, and I love joining his family for the celebration. His family makes me feel at home here in the mountains.

This year was the 100 year celebration of his family reunion, and lots of stories were shared about God's faithfulness throughout the years. It wasn't even my family, and my eyes got watery. There's just something to be said for generations of lives being changed because of the faith of one or two people.

I held my 2-month old nephew in my arms throughout one of the services (they have church services all weekend long too - it's half reunion, half revival, really) and was reminded of just how good God is. He's been so good to my family. When I look at my own heritage, I can see the examples of faith in action in my grandparents, my parents, my sisters and brother. They live out his love.

I remember when my sister gave me a journal for my birthday when I was a young teenager. In it she wrote, "Merilee, if I could give you one gift, it would be time spent with God. -Kari" I have always felt that my family's deepest desire for me was that I would know and serve God. And for that I am thankful. So thankful.

The rest of the story

So earlier I told you about the black dog who came to visit me and oso.

Something happened to him.

It wasn't my fault, I promise.

But there has been this horrible smell coming from the railroad tracks the past few days.

The short story is that little black dog left my yard at the end of last week when my friend Ryan scared him away with a bb gun. I promise that the bb gun did not hurt the dog. It just chased him out of my yard (earlier I tried to scare him away with pepper spray. i did not succeed. he stayed and I had to leave my yard because of the pepper i kept breathing in).

Anyway, i thought little black dog found a new home somewhere else. Apparently, he was crossing the train tracks one day when a train got him.

I couldn't leave him there. So last night (when the smell wasn't so bad and we couldn't see the carnage as clearly), Ryan and I buried him under the pine tree. Next to the cat i buried (again, not my fault. my friend's little black cat died when a truck hit him).

I take back all of my frustration about little black dog. he was a nice dog. kind. affable. forgiving even. i am sad.

black dog

Oso, enjoying the dirt

i already have one dog. but lately there's this new dog in town...who has taken up residence in my yard. i really dislike him. he's not really too bad, but i just don't want another dog (sometimes i don't want the dog i already have.) and he won't leave either. oso loves him. except when he tries to eat oso's food. and then there's an all-out brawl for the food bucket, which oso always wins. the bigger dog always wins, you know.

the other day i was running after him in the street, trying to scare him away. yelling, stomping my feet, and all of that. where did he run to? back under my fence and into my yard. where he's safe, apparently. it's like he knows i can't really get rid of him. i think he even laughed at me when i slipped on the wet pavement and fell down in my attempt to run him off.

i'm calling the dog pound on monday if things don't change. a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.