Modern James 3

My interpretation of a Modern James 3

1.        Remember that when you’re a teacher, God is going to hold you accountable for everything you teach and the life you lead. So don’t go into this leadership position lightly.

2.       Everyone makes mistakes. If you think you don’t, you must be able to control everything about your life.

3.       If you lightly touch a steering wheel, it can change the direction of a whole car. Just a finger can direct 2 tons of machinery.

4.       Think about space shuttles, they are able to circle the globe. But they use the tiniest of instruments to control the spacecraft.

5.       Just like this, the tongue seems so small and insignificant. But it makes a huge difference in everything you do! Remember that a spark can burn an entire building down.

6.       The tongue is a fire and it can ruin your whole life. The words that come out of your mouth are constantly battling the life you want to lead. This type of evil comes from hell and will lead you there as well.

7.       Humans have figured out how to catch every animal.

8.       Except their tongues. Your words will always cause destruction.

9.       Just think, one minute you’ll be praying and praising God and the next minute you’ll be talking badly about someone (someone who God created and loves as much as He loves you).

10.    It’s not right. We use the same mouth to lift each other up and bring each other down.

11.      Can you get clean, fresh bottled water from a dirty, old, elementary school water fountain?

12.     Can you peel open a banana and find oranges? Or peel open an orange and find a banana?! Yeah, that elementary school fountain has been licked all over- no Dasani coming out of that.

13.     Who understands what I’m talking about? Well, prove it with actions that come from gentleness and wisdom.

14.    But if you are bitter and jealous about someone or something then you are being selfish in your heart. Don’t be prideful and try to hide the truth.

15.     When you’re just pretending to be gentle but you’re actually being passive aggressive and manipulative, that’s totally behavior that’s rewarded in the world, not in heaven. This is what demons do; it’s not godly behavior.

16.     When you have jealousy or selfishness, there is chaos and people are nasty to one another (hello: Survivor, The Apprentice, America’s Next Top Model, etc.).

17.     But actual godly behavior is real wisdom and not deceitfulness. Your actions are pure, peaceful, gentle, logical, merciful, sweet, confident, and not hypocritical.

18.     Righteousness comes from peace that is encouraged by real peacemakers.

Diligent Note Taking

Some of you may already know this about me, but I’m not the best note taker. My best strategy for staying awake and looking alert is to just type away whatever comes into my brain. Sometimes, it’s real notes about whatever the teacher is saying.  Keep in mind that I am a future leader of the world (or at least that’s what this school is telling me) and most of my notes look like this:

Welcome to Budget Class!

So, sitting in class and my neighbor just offered me a Starburst. Like a lifeline. I’m just going to let it dissolve in my mouth to make it last as long as possible.

My font is Californian… like me. I like this ampersand… &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&. It’s pretty and swirly and kind of like a duck or boat.

I feel like I’m getting lazier and lazier in life. Like all I ever want to do is just sit at home and play with my hubs. I don’t want to go to work. I don’t want to go to class. I don’t want to go to Bible study… I still enjoy church/Sunday school and life group. But that’s about it for my outside activity. I don’t want to work out. I just want to sit around and read.

(actual blog-gy thought: I simultaneously feel extremely lazy and want to travel EVERYWHERE right now. Anywhere sounds good to me. It’s because I know I have a summer before me of 0 travels while a lot of other people are taking trips to exotic places like the India, Ethiopia, the Bahamas, California, and Ohio. So it’s really jealousy based I suppose. Summer travel envy. I want to take personal trips and business trips and Jesus-y mission trips. I want to do it all. But we’re saving our money, leave time from work, and travels for going to Korea this winter.)

This is crazy. It’s the middle of summer and we are bundled up in sweaters and jackets… even FLEECES.

Omg. I thought I just broke my shoe. But I didn’t. *R-O-L-A-I-D-S… that spells relief*

Alright, it’s gum time. First, I’ll let it just sit in my mouth for a bit. WOW. It’s extremely powerful. It’s getting softer… And now I’m chewing. I couldn’t hold out for too long. It got melty and squishy pretty quickly.

Ugh. I miss my husband. My bed. My cat.

Remembering Cris

I just realized I can spend time drafting blog posts in Word and then paste them into my blog… instead of paying attention in class…

Right now our lives have been pretty uneventful. Something that’s shaken me a little is the death of a friend from college. My friend from Romania, Cris Bratu-Ene, was a really great guy. He was VERY smart, very friendly, very perceptive of people (I interviewed him for my thesis on intercultural conflict). He drowned on June 4^th at the lake with friends. He somehow got separated from the group and drowned. Nobody knows what his last moments were like. He is going to be buried in Romania. My first thoughts were about his parents, how heartbroken they must be to know so little about how their child lived or died. But I know they must be proud of Cris. He led a Bible study and I know this is something his parents supported. His parents are Christians in Romania where it is very hard to be a Christian. Cris told me that if you are a Christian, you could get SPIT ON!

Anyway, secondly I was shocked because he was my age. He turned 22 in February. He touched a lot of lives and helped make SO MANY people feel welcomed to UCA. I know I played a small part in making him feel welcomed because I remember when he came to UCA. I was on Team Global. I don’t think we ever hung out much, but I always remember his first two semesters. Anytime I would see him and ask him how he was doing he would tell me all about his crazy HARD science classes. He spent a little while overwhelmed by studying at first. I think being able to plug in at BCM and Conversation Club really helped him to come out from under the burden of school stress.

I know God is rejoicing that His son came home. And I know Cris is celebrating with his Father. But I know so many people on earth who are crushed by the loss of this 22 year old beam of light. Please pray for Cris’ family and friends.

The following is something he wrote. It’s one of only two posts on his blog:

Don’t bother me with souls to save I have my own agenda. There’s school to do, sports to play, important stuff to attend to. Don’t bother me with my friend at work, he’s got his own religion. I don’t have time to change his mind, he’ll make his own decision. Don’t bother me with that little girl, the girls playing in the street. She’s much to young to understand that the Savior she could meet. Don’t bother me with the sounds I hear, the sounds of people shrieking. Although I wonder who they are, who are these people screaming? Don’t bother me with who they are, I really don’t want the blame! ‘Cause its my friend at work and that little girl who from hell scream out my name. But don’t bother me.