The basic idea is there is a girl and the hair behind her head turns into the tree trunk while some leaves start forming from the front as well. Behind her is a tree and the sky and ground and 5 little scenes.

1- the girl laying (lying?) on her back looking at stars with a flashlight in her hand

2- A small house

3- The girl on the ground crying (with a tissue box)

4- What appears to be a gypsy grandma with a purse is actually a thief taking the girls bag

5- the girl picking flowers.

after picture 3 i gave up all hope of artistic expression.

I touched it with my heart.

It gave me strength.

The same thing

lives in you.

But you just didn’t know.

So welcome it-

with open arms.

Because now you know.

pow.

Chernobyl_Fukushima_FactSheet

At first glance the article seems crazy….what? The law is for me? Basically the article talks about the book, ‘The Year of Living Biblically’ by A.J. Jacobs. The idea of the law does indeed to most of us seem, ‘baffling’ (to use Jacob’s term) though we should understand that looking at it through the scope of a total immersion of life will make us have a ‘Deeper sense that God might want to be involved in our (sic) daily routines (pg. 5)’. There is no doubt that having to check with God first before doing anything would force us to contemplate and digest what God really wants us to be about.

The few problems I have with the article are this:

They didn’t really follow the law. What I mean by that is, just as the writer says, words like ‘sacrifice, atonement, unclean, holy, curse, and blood,’ are central to the work of Jesus (pg. 4), the idea of them to the OT law is crucial. Following just the Sundry Laws (as the KJV put it) without sacrificing animals misses the entire point of it. On page 6 someone substituted confession for sacrifices, while that is quite nice and works for today, it’s not the same.

((By the way, I’m really not clawing at anyone’s attempts to become more God focused. If you perceive this that way then you can tune me out.))

Lastly is this little tidbit

So when God gives the Law, God is totally redefining the Israelites’ self-identity. By establishing a covenant with Israel, he is offering to extend his protection and care. Suddenly the Israelites were no longer the human garbage of Egypt; they were chosen and privileged! God wanted them! Israel never understood the Law as a means of salvation-hoops to jump through to earn God’s favor. God had already saved Israel in the Exodus, before the Law was even handed down. Rather, after experiencing God’s incredible redemption from slavery, the Israelites understood the Law as another act of grace. It signified God’s desire for an ongoing relationship.

The idea that Israel was literally saved is huge. That’s why God had them set up piles of rocks (even the kind they would never see again). He wanted them to remember that HE saved THEM from Egypt. It had NOTHING to do with what the Israelites DID but it was HIS sovereign choice. Maybe I’m missing the point but it seems to me that the Law was salvation (spiritually) for the Jews. Being a Jew didn’t get you saved, adhering to the law led to salvation. (Yeah, being a Jew was step one but step two is probably just as important.) I think that the writer of the piece is missing the fact that if you didn’t keep the law you were either:

1) Stoned to death

2) Thrown out of the camp

3) Not going to be with God forever. (however that looked to them, I’m really not sure I completely understand that).

4) You had to sacrifice something.

So yes, the law is helpful for us because we get way too busy and squeeze God out of our life but the point of the law was that it (because it was given by God) was the primary means of salvation and without keeping the sacrifices it just turns into, well…not eating seagulls and not shaving your beard.

p.s. I would love to know what the women of the church did when they got their period. :O

**though I read the article I have not read the book and haven’t read the original 30-Day Leviticus Challenge article.

Then the Whalers moved to Carolina (oddly enough only a few hours from my house). That just sort of made me say, ‘huh?’ Then places like Atlanta got hockey teams. Then Brett Hull stood in the crease and the goal was still allowed. Then there was the lockout. Then there was ‘fantasy draft’ all star games.

Here is what I have against you hockey-

1. You are a tough guy. It sort of bothers me that in a world where your star guy (that Sidney guy) can be out with a concussion for what seems like 2 years yet you still condone encourage two men beating the crap out of each other. Break your face? Waita be a tough guy. If you want to cut down on needless injuries-stop encouraging the fist-a-cuffs. I know that’s that a popular view….and that old school hockey was built on that. We don’t live in an old school world. We live in a Todd Bertuzzi kind of world.

2. Be more international. Figure out a way for there to be less teams based in America.

3. Shorten the season.

4. Don’t ever let the Tampa Lightning have jerseys like what they have now. http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=551150 And while we’re at it, force Pittsburgh to go to the blue jerseys forever and make Vancouver wear this… http://vancouverisawesome.com/tag/canucks-third-jerseys/  (the link here must be broken..my apologies)

Really it all comes back to the fighting thing. Figured I would make this worth your read.

I’ll be real honest with you all. I never know what you are expecting out of camp, but I can confidently say that we are trying to bring you something different, fun, and memorable.

watch me as I fly.

The knobs turned, the buttons pressed

The autopilot still the same.

Fracture the old model,

start anew.

Rip out the wires-the guts

of that machine

before it swallows me.

With goliath hands,

with selfish fangs.

Grab the controls,

feel how they respond to me.

Realize that they play a game,

they let me take over-

until the controls know what’s better for me.

Hold still,

grasping,

believing,

as the very machine reaches out-

and rips off my pilots wings.

I don’t do a lot of personal blogging. Mainly I try to stick to the other means that I have been given to make any comments. Seems more official and quiet a bit more relevant to any conversation. This time, as to not cause any professional confusion, I’ll just make the comments here.

I heard this on the news the other day, pregnant fashion . Normally, any attempt to make pregnancy look “hot” makes me irate. But for now, let’s keep on this topic.

Is Forever 21 causing girls to want to get pregnant? Is Forever 21 glorifying teenage pregnancy?

Forever 21

To me, the answer to both of these is no. Having cool clothes hardly causes anyone to think, “I want to get pregnant.” What does cause girls to want babies is a maternal instinct that is built into all women and the urge of modern society (of which we are all a part) to rush maturity in girls and boys.

What Forever 21 is doing is marketing to their clients. If they see a random girl, aged 16 who gets pregnant as a “consumer” then why would they not want those same girls to continue to shop at their store, even if it is just for a 9-month amount of time. My guess is that parents only say things like this (taken from the article):

“I love Forever 21. It’s a great store,” she (Sylvia Pallares) said, “but you don’t need them seeing (the cute maternity clothes) and thinking of the possibilities.”

…because they aren’t really understanding what teen culture is about. Now, if Forever 21 starts having girls from MTV teen pregnancy show endorsing the clothing, then that is perhaps another issue. As I see it now, F21 is merely trying to make the biggest bang for their buck. They realize that every dollar that leaves their store and goes to another (be it Wal*Mart, Target, Modern Maternity, etc) will most likely be followed by more dollars leaving. The store is doing their research and is hitting markets where it will be profitable for them.

I guess I just doubt that a lot of girls want to trade their miniskirts for elastic wastebanded jeans…maybe it’s just me being an insensitive jerkface, but that’s my impression.

Do we want to stop teenage pregnancy?

Yes, I think as a culture we all want to see the numbers cut down. We realize that teen pregnancies cause many issues down the road. The way to stop it is not to attack F21 but to attack the issue head on. F21 isn’t saying, “go have sex and buy our clothes!” there isn’t an Iphone app that they are releasing that allows pregnant teens to hunt for coupons in the store. The buck comes down to parents and teachers who have the responsibility of educating teens that sex leads to babies! We can have a discussion about whether teens should be having sex or not (I teach abstinence), but I think we can all agree that horrible parenting and anti-responsibility attitude (and i would say amoral attitude) causes more teen pregnancies than fashion does any day.

Teen pregnancies hurts girls, psychologically and mentally. Teen pregnancies hurts boys in the same way too. So let’s calm down. If you want to call Forever 21′s maternity wear a sign of the times so be it, but hold up before you call it a leading factor in defining the times.