R.I.P: The late, great, planet, Pluto

What do you think of when you hear the name Pluto?

Perhaps you think of the Disney dog...







Perhaps you think of the Greek god of the underworld...






or perhaps you think about the planet. The ninth planet in our solar system, farthest from the sun.




Last week, it was announced that Pluto was no longer a planet. It was demoted...ouch! The universe, as we know it, has been forever changed. This decision truly has a wide spread impact. Think of all the text books that will need to be re-written, all the solar system posters that will need to be re-done, all the funny acronyms that people use to remember the planets will have to be re-written. Our lives will never be the same! So, maybe that was a little over-dramatic. Needless to say, it will take some getting used to. As my friend Nate said, "we need to embrace change."

God is not a magic 8 ball!

My lifegroup has been reading the book “Blue Like Jazz”. It’s been a really interesting book and an enjoyable read. This week we discussed the chapter on worship. Don, the author, said something that really jumped out at me. He said, “I think we have two choices in the face of such big beauty: terror or awe. And this is precisely why we attempt to chart God, because we want to be able to predict him, to dissect him, to carry him around in our dog and pony show. We are too proud to feel awe and too fearful to feel terror. We reduce him to math so we don’t fear him, yet the Bible tells us fear is the appropriate response, that it is the beginning of wisdom.” What really struck me, was the part about reducing God to math so that we can predict him as opposed to fear him. I thought about all the times that I have turned God into a math problem, for example…
1. Read the Bible + Prayer = good things will happen to me and I will get what I want
2. Pray + Read the Bible + Don’t mess up = God is happy with me
3. Read my Bible + Don’t mess up + spend all my time at church = I am a better Christian then you.
While, I think all of those things (reading the Bible, prayer, service, etc), are wonderful things and things that we can do to honor God, I don’t think we can boil it down to an equation because God does not work in the confines of our human parameters. In lifegroup we talked about how often, when making a decision, we have felt that God kind of “wrote the answer in the sky”. We all answered, “one time that I can really remember.” Hmm…interesting. I know that all of those women have prayed, read their Bible, and sought the Lord more than just once. I read in a book once that we ask God to tell us when, where, how, and why, and then we will trust him. I think this is true. We want answers. We want God to tell us what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and where to do it. Can we call that trust?? Doesn’t that just reduce God to a magic eight ball. “God should I move to Wisconsin and take a new job”…shake, shake, shake… “all signs point to yes.” God is not that simple! Not to mention that I don’t really think we could call what we have with him a relationship. Can you have a relationship with a magic 8 ball?? The other danger to reducing God to an equation is that we get totally thrown when the equation doesn’t hold up. What happens when we pray, read our Bible, and seek God and something doesn’t turn out right?! We are shaken…”what did I do wrong?!” Well, maybe nothing, I mean maybe you did, but maybe you didn’t. Maybe God is just bigger and more mysterious than that. But seriously, if God really were like a magic 8 ball or a math formula, how fun would life be? Life would not be fun at all! Life, would actually not be worth living. Why learn, grow, change, and take chances if all you had to do was shake a little black ball to know the next step. I could go on, but I feel this is quite long enough. Perhaps Don’s words will strike something in you as well!

Holly Chocolate

My love of chocolate is no secret. Chocolate, like wonderwall, touches my soul! I was checking out what news stories were on my homepage today and I came across this story about a chocolate shop in California that found a piece of chocolate shaped like the virgin Mary. Wow! I love chocolate and would even say that it possesses special healing abilities, but I don't know that I would put chocolate on the same level as the mother of Jesus. Here is the picture of the chocolate Mary... judge for yourself! I am also including the link to the article... it's entertaining.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060818/ap_on_fe_st/chocolate_virgin_mary

"Afterall, you're my wonderwall"

I LOVE music...perhaps too much. One of my all-time favorite songs in "Wonderwall" by Oasis. To be honest, I am not entirely sure what the song is really about or what a wonderwall is, but I do know that this song touches my soul! In California, they have an idie radio station and every friday afternoon they have a half-hour show of what they call "mash-ups". A mash-up is when 2 or more songs are combined together, or mashed up! One of these mash-ups is a combination of Green Day (Boulevard of Broken Dreams) and Oasis (Wonderwall). It is AWESOME! You must check it out! In the words of my friend Rachel, "It changed my life". Ok, so it didn't really change my life, but it is really darn cool. Speaking of Wonderwall, you have to check out the Ryan Adams cover of Wonderwall, it is fantastic! Happy listening my friends!

www.partyben123.com/PartyBen-BoulevardofBrokenSongs.mp3

http://hype.non-standard.net/track/8089
(when you get here, click on "Listen")

"California Love"

I was able to spend last week in lovely southern California with my friend Megan! It was awesome for three primary reasons. 1: I wasn't at work, 2: I got to spend quality time with Megan, 3: I was in southern California. Megan and I had some great adventures...like when I got to airport in San Diego and told Megan to look for a black suitcase when, in fact, my suite case in navy blue, and Megan accidentally running a red light, and me driving her husband's new Lexus up the 5 in L.A traffic to Santa Monica. Yes, there were good times had by all!! Here are some fun pictures to chronicle my trip!

Megan and I stayed at this little inn in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla (that is pronounced La "hoya" for those of us who don't speak the Spanish). This is what we saw when we stepped out of our door...beautiful!


This is in Cabrillo which is where the first Europeans saw the Pacific ocean! This is the lighthouse they lived in. Sometimes, when the tide would rise, this little hill that the lighthouse was on would become an island and they would be separated from the main land. The rooms in the lighthouse were small, but it would have been worth it for the great view.


This is the great view!

On Tuesday we went to the San Diego Zoo. We saw a ton of cute animals, but this is by far my favorite picture. I call him "chill out panda". He is currently my wall paper on my computer because he reminds me that sometimes you just need to chill out!



This is Mission San Juan Capistrano. There are 24 Spanish missions along the coast of California. This one was founded in 1776. It was beautiful!


These are my feet in the ocean... it was cold!

These are just some of the fun things that Meagn and I did on our tour of southern California! But, now it's back to work...no rest for the wicked right?!

why I love vanity plates: Part II

I was driving home yesterday and this is what I saw

IBHPPY RU

I can only interpret this as "I be happy, are you?" or "I be hippy, are you". Ahh...the things that people think are good ideas.

Rest and Relaxation

So, this past Saturday, my friend Kathy and I went up to her family's house in port-clinton. It's right on the water and it's so calm and peaceful. We were both feeling like we just needed to get out of Columbus for a little bit, so it was a pretty spontaneous trip. I will now document the weekend with pictures and captions...enjoy!



This is where Kathy and I spent most of our time... well, we actually spent most of our time floating on the water, but when we needed a break (or a nap) we sat under the umbrella!




This is Betty, she lives next door. She is very friendly and hung out with Kathy and I when we would hang out on the beach.



So, after a long, stressful day of floating and napping, we needed sustenance. We stopped at a little market on the way up and got food to make dinner with (no frozen pizza for these girls)!

That was Saturday, but really these pictures encompass Sunday as well. It was so nice and relaxing. I definitely slept better Saturday night then I have in a while (for many reasons). It was a great way to get time with my great friend and to get away from Columbus.