Can we talk about God?

is that an awkward question? sometimes it's really what I want to say to people. Actually, there's a couple people I'd like to say that to right now, but what am I expecting them to answer? "um..ok...what about God?" I just...want to talk about God. He's on my mind, He's in my life and I think that people should talk about Him more. I don't think conversations like that should be out of the ordinary. does that mean I'm at the wrong school? maybe Sarah and I should trade, haha. No, I'd probably go crazy there too :-p 

But really, I don't know what I'm hoping to glean from asking that. I'll probably just make things awkward, as usual. I guess maybe I want to know what God means to them, how He's working in their life. I love hearing people's faith journeys at Evensong because it's always such a wonderful reminder that He is actively working in everyone's lives. 

speaking of Evensong, we had the first annual Alumni Evensong this weekend which was a bit stressful leading up to it, what with the demands of both plugged in, unplugged, the possibility of tons of guitars and drummers and even two pianists but no bass or vocals...all that and no one knowing how many people to expect therefore how much food to prepare or even the time in which to prepare it! MASS CHAOS!!!! haha. but of course it was in His hands and all turned out wonderfully...I knew it would. and how spiritually refreshing to see all those faces that I've grown in faith with over the past 3 years. (yes I miss them already and yes I'm trying not to cry). Anyway, there was a miscommunication over the past few months and as it turned out the alumnus who we thought agreed to speak had in fact agreed to no such thing so the night before we were frantically making phone calls and OF COURSE my wonderful friends pulled through and came up with a fantastic talk that touched the hearts of many. 

I had the great fortune of being part of the brainstorming process for this, and the topic we spent a lot of time discussing was people, Christians and non-Christians having difficulty going to Christian friends for advice- and vice versa- Christians having a hard time giving their friends advice. On one hand the friend might feel judged fessing up to what's been going down in their less-than-perfect life, but on the other, the Christian friend is afraid to come off too strong, i.e. "GOD WILL SMITE YOU FOR YOUR SINS!!! BBAAAHHHH!!!!!!" (ok, that's the extreme, but you get the point). Interesting topic to ponder, no? 

She wound up speaking about how a lot of times she says stuff that sounds positive but she's really thinking in the negative, but she only realized it this winter break. Example: you're visiting a friend after a really rough week and you say "wow I'm glad I'm here" and you're thinking "cause being at home would be awful" something to that effect. do you do that? I try not to, I usually am as honest as I can be. I'd say the exception is when someone has recently hurt me I will fake being ok with everything for a short period until it really is, and during that time my thoughts often deviate from my words.

Also recently I saw Star Wars for the first time, made possible by a new but good friend, and what struck me is the concept of "the force." It can defeat anything and everyone wants to be a Jedi knight so they can use "the force." So...why aren't people really excited about the Force that's real? Why are they all hung up on the made-for-movie version with light sabers and backwards-speaking muppets when the real deal is just a prayer away? Everyone should want to be a child of God. It should be the cool thing to do. That's always something I've wondered about since my adolescence...how do we get adolescents psyched about God? ..beats me, that's why I'm not an ed major :-p

I'm really starting to seriously consider getting that tattoo...

may the Peace and Love of Christ be with you always