Update

Quick update with photos for everyone.

We are officially in the home stretch for the school year, now that spring break is over the countdown to the end begins. Personally, I cant wait.

Nothing extremely exciting going on at the homefront except a little bit of travel. Over last weekend we took a mini-vacation with our friends Kayla and Santi to California.
Liz and Kayla had been planning this as a suprise for us guys since just after Christmas, and if you know Liz, that is quite a feat for her to keep it under wraps for that long. I was kept in the dark about everything except the date until just days before we left.

The main purpose of the trip was to catch a soccer game in LA, the LA Galaxy against San Jose.
This was the home opener for the Galaxy and a real treat for me to see players like David Beckham and Landon Donovan in action. We ended up with great seats to catch the action.

Here is a wide view of the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. Home of the Galaxy


Liz and Kayla enjoying the game


David Beckham taking a corner kick


A free kick later in the half


The final score, Beckham and Landon Donovan scored in the 1st half right in front of our seats it was pretty awesome.



The rest of the time there was for some R&R, and just exploring. We visited where LA all started as well as Chinatown and also spent time exploring old town Pasadena, where we stayed.



All in all, a very nice time. We did this as a bit of an early anniversary get away and realized that it was our first non family visiting vacation since our honeymoon....
Note to self, do more travel with just the two of us..

Poor Neglected Blog :(

So I realized today how badly I have neglected our little blog here. I suppose I could make some excuses about how crazy things got, what with the holidays and all that but I guess there really isnt much of an explaination, so heres the latest from the Barz clan in Arizona.

Christmas was a blast at home, even though it felt like we did nothing but run everywhere. We got to spend time with both families (Doby's and Barz's) see friends in a couple different parts of the state. We even got to see snow, which was a great improvement over last years 55 deg. and raining Christmas debacle. We did a day trip to go skiing with my family and Liz and I tried snowboarding for the first time (BIG mistake, especially since we had to spend the whole next day on a plane).

After returning, we spent the New Year relaxing/recouperating from our vacation and mentally preparing ourselves for school kids who had been away from the discipline of school for two weeks.

We celebrated Liz's birthday 1/19 she turned the big 25!! We had a fun little get together with some friends after church for pizza and cake.

Exciting things have been happening at our church, we moved our Saturday night service that we attend from the main sanctuary to the youth building (the Bridge). The space has a real atmosphere that connects much better to the goals for the community than did the sanctuary but there is still a long way to go in terms of reshaping the culture of the service and the hearts of the people that attend.
With the move to a new building allowed for some great opportunities for me (eric) to lead part of our community. Along with one other worship leader, I am responsible for handling all of the worship for our community gatherings, that means that I am leading nearly every other week at the Bridge. This has been an awesome chance for me to grow and mature in my ability to lead others in worship and to take responsibility for the direction of the community for this season of change. Also, since the Bridge is a very new facility it has some very new (and very nice) sound equipment. This is great considering that our sound in the sanctuary has been a constant point of frustration for the worship team. The downside is that nobody really knows how to use any of the equipment, which is where I get tapped to lead the tech team for Saturday nights as well. Looking forward I see this being a great chance to teach and expand the knowledge of others in the community but for the time being it means that if I am not on stage leading, I am in the booth running sound and teaching.
God bless my lovely wife for her patience for this season of training volunteers for sound, as I have yet to actually sit and worship with her at a Saturday night service since the change in venue. (love you honey)

January also brought Liz's dad, Paul, to visit us so that he could run the PF Chang's Rock & Roll Marathon. Paul got to spend a few days hanging out with Liz and I and then ran the 1/2 marathon over the weekend. I think that he got the Arizona bug, being able to enjoy running outside in January, and the rumor is that he hasnt stopped talking about coming back since he landed back in Michigan.

One of the other major changes since our last update, is that we moved!! We decided to make a change in apartments so that we could be closer to our church community. As it was before, we were driving at least 90 miles a week to and from Joy which put a serious damper on our spirtits having to fight traffic to go to church. So at the beginning of February we packed up and moved to a new place that is MUCH closer to church and only 2-3 minutes more to work each day. So if you need our new address contact us and we will get it to you.

One last thing to update is some fun photography things. My first paying client (a co-worker) finished choosing her images and received her prints to rave reviews. She is expecting that some family will be looking for additional prints. Also, she returned from her destination wedding in Mexico with digital files from the resort photographer and has asked me to do some retouching and editing work on them to improve the quality. Also, Gareth Robinson, our worship pastor and friend of ours, just finished recording the bulk of his third album last month. On Monday, we went out got some great images for his CD packaging. Hopefully the record label likes them as much as I do. Part of the shoot was done in Sedona which is amazing nearly year round but we made a bit of a family day out of it and Liz came along as well as Gareth's wife Lizzy and their three awesome kids. It was quite a fun adventure and I will post some images here soon.

The Countdow is On

As nice as it is not to have problems like snow and ice storms here in Arizona, I am officially excited about being in Michigan soon. My short visit in November for hunting season was the prefect primer for my excitement about coming home for Christmas. I can say with confidence that I am ready to see some snow and from what I understand there has been plenty to go around compared to last year. Couple the prospects of a white Christmas with my being fed up with work, it makes for a level of excitement that borders on obsession...

The countdown to travel day is on and it sits at 7 days. . . . come quickly!!

Update

Well with just over 8 weeks gone in the school year, I figure it is about time to do an update. I had one of these started about 6 weeks ago but never got around to finishing it so if you are seeing this it means I actually followed through (yeah for me!!).


Since our last update, we have been doing a whole lot of the same and have settled in to a pretty good routine and toss in some spice here and there. Generally, we are diong the work, home, sleep, wake, work.... routine but the exciting bits are the best part.. I have been continuing to meet with a group of developing worship leaders at the church and attending practices on Thursday nights which has been such a blast getting to know such a talented group of people. Liz continues to meet her need for animal indulgence at the Arizona Humane Society at least 3x a month where she has moved up from dog walker to adoptions (quite a promotion). Together we continue to get to know our new church family and get to do fun stuff like cook out, have parties, and generally find any excuse to be with our new friends. Also, thanks to a new season in the life of our worship minstry I am getting the chance to lead worship for the Saturday night community and co-lead Sunday mornings along with our awesome worship leader/pastor Gareth (shameless flattery, but he may read this). This has been a neat experience and I feel privilaged to be a part of what is going on at Joy during this time.


The next few weeks should be pretty exciting. This Saturday, Liz's aunt will be traveling from Michigan to stay with us for a few days. We will be hitting the Grand Canyon and Sedona as well as all of the local attractions while she is here. Also, while in Sedona we will be meeting up with Kevin & BethAnn Shoemaker, our pastor and his wife from Lansing. They are visiting for a conference in Flagstaff and will be meeting us on their drive up north from the Phoenix airport.

This coming weekend also kicks off Liz's fall break so she will be out of school for 2 weeks. October 15 begins Eric's lowly 1 week off but we already have another trip to Sedona planned with the Ozorios so it should be a great start to a relaxing week.

For those who want to know (you know who you are) Roxy is doing well, she is on a plan to get some of her summer weight off... Opposite process of Michigan winters.. the dog doesnt like walking in the heat so she put on some pounds over the summer instead of an inactive winter.

Michigan Recap

So to resume where the rest of the vacation recap left off.. We spent a great week or so with my parents in Mt. Pleasant and got to hang out with my sisters and parents which always proves interesting.. One of the fun things we did was I made my sister and her friend do a fake portrait session with me.. Here is one of my faves from that. My little sister Leah. looking totally rockstar...





Also during our stay there we took a couple of trips.. First to Michigan State along with Leah, and Liz's sister Jenny who will be following in the proud footsteps of their siblings (us) at the greatest university in the state.. We walked all over campus and showed them around and stopped at the ever famous MSU Dairy Store where they make their own ice cream from the dairy research done on campus.. Our second trip was with the whole Barz family and we went to Grand Haven/Grand Rapids..

We did one day at PJ Hofmaster park between Grand Haven and Petoskey (photo of the gals on the beach) and then the following morning we went to Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville and heard an awesome message in a new series called "God is Green." To check out what its all about see Dr. Matthew Sleeth's book called "Serve God, Save the Planet."

Liz and I were fortunate enough to celebrate the 4th of July with fireworks twice once at a phenomenal show in Bay City with friend Noah and Sarah and the second time in Lansing with the Doby family. Here is Liz w/ her family checking out the sweet fireworks in Lansing.



After a couple more days with the Dobys we headed back to Lansing for the weekend to stay with our friends Vicki and Deej. They have been some of the closest people to us from our days at Michigan State and it is always a joy to hang out with them. One of my highlights from the weekend was getting to go fishing on Saturday and catch a bunch of bass particularly with Deej because he is such a knowledgeable fisherman and was the person who got me interested in bass fishing. Also, Roxy had some new friends to play with during the time with Vicki and Deej.. They have two black labs Cooper and Chief who by the end of three days were fast friends.





Our last leg of vacation took us to Kokomo, IN where we were attending the wedding of one of Liz's college roommates Kim. They had a beautiful ceremony and a rockin' reception afterwards and we had a blast seeing all of Liz's friends from college there after a year of everyone being spread across the globe.


One of the pictures from the wedding...









And now back to regular life... School starts again in less than 2 weeks...

We're Back!!

So we have officially returned to the AZ, got in last night and are starting to get used to living out of our own home again..

Updates from the rest of our vacation will follow soon but wanted to make sure those waiting with rapt excitement knew we were back in town. Give us a call if anyone wants to hang out.

Michigan Update

Some people know about my ever growing photography hobby (addiction) and so my lovely wife let me upgrade my camera to a semi-pro level DSLR (for the non gadget folks, thats pretty nice). So I have been documenting our life since about a week ago today when my new toy arried so here are some pictures from our time here so far.

Liz w/ Roxy doing a fake portrait session for me.

At the Ann Arbor Summer Festival for an outdoor movie.

And right by Liz's parents house was the Michigan Challenge Hot Air Balloon Event which we went to a bunch of times to see cool things like this:

We also got to go to the Detroit Zoo and see tons of cool exhibits but the most well known and unique is the polar bear exhibit and we got to see him up close.


We capped off the week with Liz's sister, Jenny's graduation open house. Here is Jenny (far left) with some of her friends celebrating.


This week we are hanging out with my family and maybe making a few trips to visit friends as well.. Stay tuned. And as always check out more photos on Flickr using the link to the right.

Photos Coming Soon

So I have my new camera finally but I havent taken the opportunity to get any photos uploaded to the blog as I have been loading them to my laptop.. I go to MP tomorrow where I can connect wi-fi from the laptop to my parents network.. Stay tuned.

Home at Last

So after two excruciating days stuck in the car, we have finally arrived to Michigan. Pictures and more updates to follow. Thanks for all those who prayed for safe travel.. It was long but we are glad to be home.

Almost Time

Wow... time sure is flying by. Only 3 more days until we hit the road and start our trek back to Michigan. It has most certanly been an interesting year here in the desert but a very good one.

For now, Liz is watching the minutes tick by on the clock until she can say she is officially done with her school year. I finished up last Friday and spent my week off making preparations for the trip which primarily boiled down to getting the car in tip-top shape... along with making sure the house was cleaned up for Liz when she came home from work.

Looking forward to visiting everyone when we get back but will also be missing our friends her while we are away.. Look for more updates as we go along..

Update

Wow --- Nearly a month since the last real update.. I wish I could say that I have been super busy and haven't had the time to do any writing but that just wouldn't be the truth. Part of the delay relates to my ability to connect to blogger at work. For a few weeks now my way around the pesky Internet filters had been foiled but alas today it is restored!!

Since the last update we have had some exciting things going on.

Liz attended a weekend women's retreat with a bunch of other women from our church and had a great time connecting with some of the other women from church. They had one of the woman leaders from church speak and she had some great teaching and insight that really challenged and encouraged Liz in her walk with the Lord. Even though she was apprehensive about attending some prodding from Eric and other women at church convinced her to go and she was so glad that she went in the end.

Our little doggy Roxy got spayed and had an uneventful recovery from her surgery but was spoiled rotten in the process. Because we had to make sure she wouldn't lick or pull her stitches, she got to sleep on the bed with us instead of her kennel and I slept very lightly so that I would notice any movements that she made in the night. It most certainly must be akin to what new parents sleep like for their first child.. Oh the things to look forward to.

At around the same time, my sister, Katie visited us from Michigan and got to spend a beautiful 9-10 days with us in the sun and worked on her tan. She became Roxy's new best friend and assisted us in spoiling her rotten during her recovery. We had a great time with Katie and found out that she is the greatest house guest ever. We felt bad leaving her at home all day while we still had to work but she made the most of it playing with Roxy, going to the pool, and walking to the nearby shopping centers. She also found time to almost always do our dishes and pick up our house while we worked.. How great is that. We also did a bunch of hiking all around the valley and went to Sedona for a day. We capped off her visit with dinner at one of our new favorite restaurants in Phoenix the Elephant Bar. You can see pictures from Katie's visit at our Flickr page.

Eric got the chance to start playing with the worship team at church a few times the last month and was asked to lead worship a couple of times for a small Wednesday night gathering of about 60-70 people. It has been a real joy to be able to return to being a part of a worship team particularly with some of the phenomenal musicians that are a part of the team at CCOJ.

Eric's mild obsession with photography continues, the results of his photographic exploits can as always be found on the Barz family Flickr page. Liz continues to be a good sport and let Eric use her as a (sometimes) willing model for his experimentation with lighting and camera settings.

We have officially started the countdown to our return home and we are only about 3 1/2 weeks from making the 2000 mi. drive back to Michigan. We are looking forward to it and can't wait to see everyone again. We also get to be home for both of our sisters graduation open houses which we weren't sure would happen but thankfully schedules worked out great.

We also celebrated our 2nd Anniversary during Katie's visit which was part of the occasion for going to the Elephant Bar. We continue to be so blessed in our married life by great family, friends and community. Thanks to all who continue to be a part of our still new life together as we figure out how to live life together and grow in to a more mature family.

American Church :(

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Quick Link

Really messed up stuff happening in the world of late, thoughts and prayers go out to the folks at VA Tech.

Lately I have been keeping tags on a blog called Internet Monk. Some of the stuff I have a hard time swallowing but some things posted just hit it out of the park. His post today on Christ's Righteousness just floored me. Great stuff.

Update

So I know it has been a while since a real post so wanted to do a quick update. Liz and I both have been on spring break this past week and Liz gets another whole week off upcoming. It has been a very busy couple of weeks.. In the last post we had just had the first day of the visit with my mom and her friend. She stayed for another 4 days and lived the spa lifestyle for a couple of days before returning to Michigan. She was super excited to be in the warm and sun for a few days and then returned just in time for a snowstorm!!

Happening at the same time as my mom's visit, Liz' friend Andrea came to visit from Michigan to have a mini vacation and a job search as well. We did a bunch of hiking, lots of hanging out and got some prospective leads for her to pursue a job as well.. Productive week overall but tiring.. As always photos from our exploits can be found here

Andrea left Tuesday of our spring break week so Liz and I spent the last few days relaxing and taking some time to do amazingly fun things like check on renewing our lease and cleaning our house...
Thursday nights have become a great night of the week for me, since starting to join Gareth and others for the worship team huddle and this week, participating in the rehearsal for the weekend which was a blast. Everyone is so talented and it really makes me realize how much more I can grow both as a musician and a leader in that respect..

Last night, we had some friends from church over, the Pfeiffers and the Newborgs. We grilled out at the pool and had dessert and coffee at our place.. It was a great time but I forgot to get the camera out :(

Sleeping in this morning which was glorious, followed by some tennis and shopping for some summer clothes capped off with church tonight..

Whew!!! Long post, hope you made it through..

Confession

So I have a confession to make, I have become mildly obsessed with photography. Thanks in no small part to the online photo sharing site flickr.com. I found a friend that had linked his flickr account to his blog and started exploring. If you have any interest in art and photography, check out flickr. Even the folks that consider themselves amateur photographers are phenomenal. So I have been looking all over lately for interesting things to shoot and post to flickr. I think Liz is getting a bit sick of me having the camera out and pointed all over. She doesn't like the anxiety that she may become my next unknowing subject. Needless to say, it may be a good thing that the camera has shown some signs of running out of batteries and I am feeling a bit lazy about finding new ones.. Maybe Liz will have some peace for a night or two. All of this to say, that even with my rambling confession I am still going to link this post to our photo page and ask for feedback from all of you... You can follow this link HERE or you can follow the "our pictures on flickr" link at the right.

Crazy People in Michigan

So this article is the leading story on CNN.com at the moment... Just another reminder that the crazies are all around us.. Not to often that they actually come out of the woodwork in Northern Michigan, usually they just stay in their wooded cabins.

Update

So this post is for those who would rather hear about life here in Arizona than my theological ramblings/struggles/questions. Just an update on everyday life. In the last few weeks we haven't been doing anything super exciting just doing the usual life stuff. Liz and I are both enjoying work to varying degrees at varying times, definitely Liz is liking her job more consistently than I but my job has its good and bad moments. We celebrated Valentine's Day in very low key fashion. Liz got flowers at school and then we went straight to dinner (which was her gift to me) at Black Angus Steakhouse. Dinner was very nice and it was good to have the reservations as the restaurant was packed. After dinner we went home and exchanged cards, curled up on the couch with Roxy, and watched American Idol as Liz went through the masses of gifts and cards from her students.

Liz is still volunteering at the Humane Society almost every Sunday and loves getting to play with the dogs there and help people find new pets. She has taken on a new role of finding pets for friends when she goes in on Sundays and has been recruited by a friend of a friend to locate a puppy for them.

I am still playing soccer for at least 2 more weeks, the last couple of games have been pretty rough without a number of players being available due to other commitments, two weeks ago we only had enough players to make a team and one of the players was injured. Last week we had 2 subs but I ended up playing the whole game except 10 min. at the start of the 2nd half, I was gassed at the end but had enough left to have a goal and an assist in the last 7 minutes of the game. Soccer has been fun but the weather will be warming up quickly so outdoor may not be available much longer.

We are both still in the process of getting involved in our church further, we are participating in a major event on Saturday called Serve Day. A number of churches across the valley are teaming up to go into the community to do acts of service. Liz and I are working on a Habitat for Humanity home which should be fun. After soccer season ends, I am looking at becoming involved with the worship ministry and have started meeting with Gareth (worship pastor) and getting involved there. We are also still active in our small group and trying to continue the community building in the Saturday night service that we attend and hope to see more growth in that area.

Weather is starting to really get nice, evenings are still a bit chilly (40's) but daytime temps have been mid 70's for the last week or so and are starting to flirt with 80's more often. We have had a string of rain storms the last week or so, including Monday when we were planning to go hiking :(

I have been marveling over a friend's photography collection and was looking forward to shooting some great stuff while hiking but had to settle for a snapshot on the way to a soccer game but still a pretty neat photo.

Hoping to start shooting some more cool stuff as weather and my understanding of my new camera improve... Keep your eyes peeled.

The Evolution of Hell

So for no apparent reason as I was eating lunch today I started thinking about the concept of Hell. Particularly as I have learned about it since the time I was a child. My view of Hell that I remember and I am sure resonates with many others evolved in the following way.

Young child stage: If you are a bad person (i.e. don't listen to parents) you go to hell.
Hell at this stage was a place for naughty children. It was obvious that you didn't want to end up there because you would be on fire forever..
Late childhood/Early Adolescence: If you do more good than bad you can avoid Hell.
This understanding of hell was more of a cost/benefit analysis than anything else. I weighed the good I felt I was doing and the guilt I felt about negative actions to decide about behavior.
Early Christian Mindset: During my early days as a Christian (and sometimes still) I thought about hell as a place for "those people" and I thought about it A LOT, it seemed like much of what I heard in church was about knowing Jesus for the sake of avoiding Hell. I felt like because I had accepted Jesus I was OK, even if I screwed up on occasion. Those going to hell were the people who didn't think like I did and I needed to spend a bunch of time telling them about Hell so they would accept Jesus.

Currently, I worry less about hell in terms of eternity and who will or wont be there based on my presumptions, because the problem with presumptions is that we presume to know much more than we really do. One of the things that I find a lot of (Christian) people struggle with(including myself at times) is the "Who is in, who is out" mindset towards eternity. Many want Hell to be a justification for their perceived sacrifice and piety, basically saying, since I believed the right things and was "good" and you weren't I need to know that someday there will be payment for you and your bad actions. In reality, this whole mindset reeks of bitterness and personal revenge, both of which Jesus cautions against.

As opposed to the previous views on Hell I think about this, one of the most common definitions of Hell is being separated from God. That says a lot if you really think about it. There are many ways that people are separated from God here and now, not only in the context of eternity. Broken relationships, families, lives all exist here and now and that causes many people to be separated from God. War torn countries, poverty, discrimination all currently existing conditions that seem pretty Hell-like to me. If we are really so concerned about Hell, let us work to bring little bits of heaven in as many places here and now as possible and let our Heavenly Father sort out eternity.

Random Dialogue

So here is the story, a while back a friend of mine sent me the post that will follow from his friend on Facebook and I felt compelled to respond... So the following is the post of the female friend of a friend on Christianity. It is quite long as is my response so be prepared. I would appreciate comments if you feel led.

ok this is very forward, if you are offended, i wont say i dont care. i care. im sorry if you're offended. a few years ago, i made a conscious decision to lose faith in my personal practice of the christian religion. i lost most faith throughout the majority of my church-going years, but in the end, i decided to just completely toss whatever was left, because i felt there was very.. very.. very little chance that someone could how can i say, bring me back? um lets see, i had been going to church since i was .. 6, i went all the way til.. 17 ish? i was never baptized, although that is irrelevant, i was an active part of the youth group, i active in praise band, and i was on my way to become a youth group teacher. funny, right. im trying to just write about this calmly without going off on a rampage, cuz theres a lot of frustration and overall irritation i get from discussing this topic. i might be being a little too personal, but whatever, im an open book.long story short, i saw so much
hypocrisy, judgment, and contradiction, that it just completely turned me off. ALL 11 years of going to church. im a logical, sensible, reasonable, rational, but mainly logical person, and i pride myself in that, but wow even after 11 years of active experience, i have not felt that moved. in fact, it looks.. cult-ish. i said someone may be offended, but im just splashing down some honest opinion.so someone tell
me.. how do christians justify their actions of sin? sure, you can repent. but while you're judging non-christians that are doing the same thing you did last weekend? yes, i understand and fully practice judging people, like any human being does, but come on. isnt it easier to judge people when they dont share the same views? and the reason im so erplexed by that is, what about 'love thy neighbor, love thy enemy?' i mean they're really.. really.. really simple concepts. i know its not that easy, we're people, but i just find it REALLY difficult to find christians who at least ATTEMPT to practice those important and vital aspects of the religion. so even if you can admit that, shouldnt someone be apologizing for making those mistakes? maybe if christians were more humble about their errs and wrongdoings, i wouldnt be so irritated. but i only see christians who are hypocrites in what they say, practice, or judge, while somehow holding their head up high. i am NOT saying that christians are bad for going out and getting wasted, ok? dont get it wrong, everybody is human, everybody makes mistakes. i take that into account 100%. but being arrogant in hinking that you are actually better than people who lead extremely similar lives as yourselves.. and also, extremely different ones, is
really what the worst part bout it is. is the act of doing the latter, an actual mistake as well? why are there so many justifications for human behavior, but it
only seems to apply to a certain group of people? i already realize you can tell me all sorts of things about how god loves everyone, etc etc.. then why dont christians at least put an effort out to try? if jesus taught not to judge, not to hate, why dont you TRY. it sounds so extremely elementary, i know. but the christian religion is so contradicting and flawed in so many aspects, and i cant HELP but to notice those things only because it is shoved in my face everyday from television, radio, news/media, conflicts around the world, personal relationships, people, friends.. ok, lets be cliche for a second. WHY is it so damn wrong.. for someone to be gay? tell me. since some of you christians know all, come on, seriously, tell me. if gay is a sin, and sins dont carry levels of extremity, whats the difference in leading a gluttonous lifestyle versus being gay? they're both lifestyles. i mean at least the fat guy chose to eat, come on. what if u're a christian slut? you are consciously practicing this sin called lust, maybe on a weekly, daily basis, but what about the gays, people?! if you're a christian slut, although you are judged and hated on, im going to assume you hold a little more status in the christian community than a fag.oh, the contradictions. the funny thing is, i would actually start to understand, if a christian decided to admit the faults and apologize for being too proud in the
public media, instead of actually trying to defend it with some proverbial nonsense that just puts the whole conversation into a neverending cycle of more contradiction. people make mistakes, that is widely accepted, and yes, i think through time christians are really practicing this religion in the WRONG way. if
theres a god who wrote all these things, who had all these visions, who knew what was to happen, i honestly dont believe this is the way he would have seen it out
for his followers. that is just.. my opinion. i dont think im wrong, but im not denying that i couldnt be. so you can justify that by saying, this is a time of difficulty, of testing. can you seriously say that things are perfect and right in the christian community? and if you realize its not, and its definitely not, and you choose to justify it with 'things happen for a reason,' why dont you try to change that? if you know somethings not right, why not try to make it right. what about god knows everything?' everything happens for a reason, etc etc.. ok thats a little out of my rational boundaries. its so easy to point to everything happens for a
reason, it justifies pretty much every action you take. what.. a.. copout. heres here i get a little less considerate. if you're expected to take responsibilities for your own actions, um, do it. to me, it feels like.. if you claim everything happens for a reason, you cant deny that when you say it, it eases your mind a little bit, takes the pressure off your shoulders knowing that someone else holds the fate to your life, and that you really dont have full control, therefore, ITS NOT REALLY YOUR FAULT. even if you take responsibility for your own actions, claiming that the event happened for a reason, takes part of that responsibility, OFF. it does. thats the logic, sorry. im not saying i only believe in logical things, id someday love to be a bit more spiritual, and i definitely believe there are things we cannot understand. but simple concepts that we've learned through the history of life,
are just there and absolutely obvious.anyway, im getting tired, i have TONS more
on the plate, but this is probably way more than enough. anyone, please enlighten me. give me some answers that i can understand. you can try to convert me for all i care, but all i ask for is to make some sense.

Ok that was a bit long I know... Here is my response..

To start, this may seem odd that someone that you don’t know is responding to one of your notes. My apologies up front about that, I saw it linked through another profile and was interested to see what you had to say. First off, let me put myself out there a bit and let you know where I am coming from. I grew up in the Catholic church and had a bit of a crisis of faith myself at 17-18 and left the church for a while. Eventually I returned to a mainline protestant church and have been in several since then. So I would consider myself pretty entrenched in the culture of church and Christianity.
That aside, I have to agree with much of what you say in you note. One of the issues that really caused me to leave the church and still struggle with is the double faced approach that many people in church take to life. On Sunday they go and have their time with God in a church but it only goes as far as the doors of the church building. The rest of the week they don’t let the message of Jesus penetrate their lives. There is definitely a crisis of identity within the church where people want to be associated with it for any number of reasons but don’t want to take Jesus seriously. I think that this is one of your main causes for concern/irritation. One distinction that I think is important to make is that there are a lot of people who claim the name “Christian” but don’t exactly live up to the expectations that the name asks for. This is not to say that people who call themselves Christians have to (or even could be) perfect. I will be the first to say that even as I grow in my faith I feel like less of a good person because my knowledge of the character of Jesus makes me realize how impossible it is to measure up. I think the real testament to whether or not someone is doing the “Christian thing” to their best ability is do I love people more than I did yesterday, and do I love God more than I did yesterday. If those two things are true than there would be a lot less of what you have seen and are disgusted by in the church.
To briefly touch on your discussion of gays in the church, I’ll give it a go. I think that again you hit the nail on the head. Personally, I feel like there is little distinction in the eyes of God between being gay and being the gay basher. If you really look at the overlying themes of both the old and new testament in both cases the main theme is LOVE. In the OT, God demonstrates his love for the people he has chosen as His own by continually being faithful to them even when they reject Him for other gods. In the NT, Jesus whole ministry and life was an act of love. He summed up all his teachings in “love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor (read as everyone) as yourself.” And his sacrifice on the cross was the ultimate act of love. I think where people are confused is that they mistake the conservative political agenda for the message of the gospel. Politicians have co-opted Jesus in to the gay-bashing, abortion hating, tax lowering, poor neglecting mascot of their agenda. The Jesus you see in the gospels loved everyone including the poor, the tax-collecters, the prostitutes and even the people who sent him to death. He taught his followers to take care of the poor and fight for the oppressed.
The reason I wanted to take the time to write this all out was that I am just starting on this journey of discovery about what it looks like to take Jesus’ words seriously and it looks a lot different that what you will find in any political campaign and in most churches.

Ok sorry for all the length here but I would appreciate any comments.. I tried to be as gracious and considerate in my reply and make a concise response to the major points of contention.. Thanks

Roxy

Wanted to put some more photos of our newest family member... She is the new favorite photography subject.