Love People. I Dare You

Some of you keep up with me by Facebook and some of you keep up here, not a lot of you are in both places.

I don't want you to miss this one though.

Single Dad Laughing is a good blog.  He writes a lot of truth.  I don't love or agree with it all, but who agrees with everything, right?

You may have read and remember this post.  It's worth going back and read it again.

Dan has written another pretty amazing post.

You shouldn't miss it.

It made me think again about one of my life experiences.  Years ago I read the Bible cover to cover.  My take away was this Christian thing might not be as complicated as we make it out to be.  To me, the Bible said, "love God first, then love people."  It was that simple.

I believe still that it is that simple.

We forget.  Under the labels, people are just people.

Love people.

Now, go read.

Anything Other than Straight

Love Goes Viral

Sometimes good things happen on the Internet.  Sometimes very good things.


Something very good is happening over at Single Dad Laughing.

Take a look at these two posts.  They are well worth every second you spend reading them.


This: http://www.danoah.com/2011/11/im-christian-unless-youre-gay.html

and this: http://www.danoah.com/2011/11/powerful-responses-to-im-christian-unless-youre-gay-blog.html

Love is not judgement, but grace.

I for one would rather stand in front of God at my judgment and plead my case for having loved too many without bounds.

Be Kind

Abuse is abuse. Period.

Abuse is all up in the news again these days.  There are a pack of nasty adults doing the unthinkable to kids.

As Christians we talk a lot about how sin is sin.  No sin is greater than the other.  There is no sliding scale, even though we like to see it that way.  It's our human nature it seems, to be bent on justification.  We are forever saying to ourselves, well, sure, I did xyz wrong, but it's not as bad as him because he did abc.

An abuser is a bully and a bully is an abuser.  It's all about power, no matter the "issue".

Maybe it's about race.  Maybe it's about your social status.  Maybe it's about your religion.  Maybe it's about your politics.  Maybe it's about your disease.  Maybe it's because you are challenged or handicapped in some way.  Maybe it's about your lover.

Abuse happens to adults and kids.  Sometimes it's physical, sometimes it's not.  Neglect counts.  Words count.  With holding love or support counts.  Abuse can look like a lot of different things, but you know it when you feel it.

We cannot discount each others experiences.  I cannot say to someone, well, your momma didn't beat you with an electric cord so you were never abused by the years of her saying you were stupid.  I can't say to a person, oh well, you weren't raped in the locker room, so enduring years of being called names wasn't abuse.  So what if your family didn't furniture or food because the money went to drugs or alcohol, that's not abuse because no one hit you and your body bears no physical scar.

Yes, they are different, but they are the same.

I don't want any of my kids to be bullied for any reason.  Not because they're short or fat or wear glasses or want a same sex partner or want to practice a non-mainstream religion.  I don't want them bullied because their eyes are slanted or their skin is brown or they are deaf.  I don't want them abused because they are Autistic or walk with a limp or have birth parents in jail.

Just as each one of us is made of a million and one unique distinctions, that leaves us a million and one "reasons" to judge and bully.

Be kind to each other.

God, Gays, Little Kids & My Heart

I'd love to tell you the back story to all this, but thanks to foster care having rules much like the confidentiality in medicine (and with good valid reasons) I can't.

Suffice it to say, The Mr. and I have been having some interesting conversations these days.

I'll give you the briefest of outlines, let you fill in your own blanks and hope you get to thinking about life and what you believe you know and what you believe you believe.

• The Mr. and I, Bible believing Christians
• Personally, I think a sin is a sin, nothing has more weight than anything else in God's eyes. He's told us what to do and what not to do and we each have our sins that we're guilty of and we will each work it out with Him.
• I don't want to be the sort of person who goes around telling other sinners how and where they're wrong or how they ought to get it together. Ought is an ugly word.
• I don't know that I've ever been at the point of condemning homosexuals. They are people who want to be in loving relationships too, just like us. I am not going to tell a person they cannot have their hope for a life long love.
• I want the "solution" for Little One and his sibs to be the one that really is in the best interest of the child.
• Sometimes the solution that is the best isn't the one I'd like or choose. But that alone doesn't make it wrong.
• Sometimes the best solution is not a family that looks like mine, but instead one that keeps all the extended family ties and one that keeps a sib group together.
• Now, even though it seems to go "against" the "right" I find I'm cheering for the "wrong".
• I know what the Bible says. I've read it front to back personally, just so I could really know what it says, but I also know about a living God and a personal relationship with Him. I know that I am not judge and I know that I am charged with the goal of loving everyone, my enemy, my neighbor, the sinner and the righteous.
• I want these two men to have as long and successful, healthy, happy, loving relationship as possible. I want them to be supported by their friends, family and community, especially as they raise these 3 little people that I've come to love dearly over the last 2 years.
• So I wonder, all you smart, perhaps smug, uber-Christians, what is the answer?
• I know I can't go condemning "them", in fact, I find myself praying for them and their family.
• I'm guessing it's a lot easier to be Christian when life is crisp and clean and black and white.
• Wait, I know it was. When I led my life with all the Christian lingo and going through all the motions of doing the right things, it was easy. I was quick to see who and what was right and wrong. Now that life is so complicated and muddy, I can't seem to see the right and wrong line in the sand.
• What I do see is what God whispers in my heart. Trust in me and I will make the path. Do not worry. Do not be afraid. Let those without sin throw the first stone. Pride before the fall. See how I loved you? Now love others as I have shown you. Love your enemy. Love your neighbor.
• I have no answers and often I can't see any farther down my path but the next step.

Now, I admit, this is one of my least readable posts to you all, but on the other hand, there is a lot to process and it's pretty hard to make it clear and have it not be a 1000 page book. Besides, it's a little brain buster, a little Friday afternoon get your mind working and your opinions flowing.

What's your take on all this? I'd really love to know. So go ahead, fill up the comment boxes, let's get a little conversation happening here!