Hell? Yes!

Today I found a book in the Lindell's house that I couldn't resist. It's by Robert Jeffries, and it's called Hell? Yes! Just take a look at the chapter titles.

Wimp-Free Christianity
Seven Outrageous Truths You Can Believe and Why
1. Every Other Religion Is Wrong
2. God Is Ultimately Responsible for Suffering
3. God Sends Good People to Hell
4. Homosexuality is a Perversion
5. Husbands Are to Be the Leaders of Their Families
6. Evolution is a Myth
7. America is a Christian Nation

I'm about to start reading it, and I'll post the best quotes.

Today Pheany (my boss), Becca (my co-director), Brandon (East Peoria's director), and I moved all of the camp stuff from Pekin to our camps. If I wasn't excited enough before, this morning did it. It's so exciting to see all the stuff there, just waiting for all the kids. We start training on Tuesday, and after CPR training yesterday and this mornings work, I'm pumped to get to know all the other directors. It's nice knowing that everyone is new and none of us are working to catch up to experienced directors.

Right now I'm sitting at Eli's (shocker, I know) listening to Dvorak's New World Symphony. I never get tired of this music. It's getting me excited for Music History 3 in the fall. I'm glad I'm in a major where I really look forward to classes.

Here's a really cool video of two super-hick guys playing Bad Romance on guitar. It's worth watching just for the surprise when they start.

devour.com/video/four-handed-bad-romance

Someday I'll learn how to embed videos and stuff, but let's be real, this is never gonna be one of those unique blogs with all kinds of features.

This is what happens when all I do all day is read and think

Once again, I'm sitting in Eli's, reading my tenth or eleventh book of the summer. I'm going to miss this once camp starts.


I just started a book called The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose. The subtitle is A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University. Obviously, I had to demand that the library ship it in from wherever they could find it so I could read it immediately. It's the one-hundred percent true account of a student at Brown who attended Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University for a semester. He tried his best to blend in and get the full Christian college experience, but he was not looking to ridicule or laugh at the Christians.


I was drawn to this book because Liberty isn't that different from OC. Sure, they're a little more strict, with rules against R-rated movies and kissing, but essentially we have the same idea. The biggest surprise of my college life has been the unanticipated feeling that I am an outsider. Somehow I identify with Kevin Roose, even though he was an atheist with no knowledge of Christian culture and I am a dyed-in-the-wool, evangelical Christian nearly from birth.


Until my freshman year, I thought there were just two groups of kids: Christians and non-Christians. Right now, I'm not really talking about religion or spirituality, but more culture. There are high-schoolers and college students who acted like Christians, and ones who acted like normal kids. I had no problem with the fact that I was not part of the "normal" group. That idea, naive as it was, wasn't disturbed until I came to OC. In my blissful ignorance, I thought that Christian university meant Christian university, regardless of denomination.


Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am not in a tiny minority and that on essentials, I am in the majority at OC. On most of the things I consider important, I fit in perfectly with our severely denominational school. I didn't know there were any Christians who honestly believed that it was a sin to play piano as an act of worship. It's one of my favorite things to do, and I was excited to go to a school where worship would be a big thing. I don't like discussing the issue anymore, because in my mind it is a matter of preference, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss worshipping with my friends as fully and emotionally as I do when I'm home.


The instruments aren't the only thing that separate me from the majority. I've had people tell me tattoos were wrong, that God hated smoking, and piercings on men were a symbol of slavery to the devil. I came to OC instead of a state school so that I could finally be around like minded people, there wouldn't be as much temptation, and I could be part of the majority. I quickly learned that there are very few truly like minded people, the temptations are still there, and I am not accepted by the majority.


This is not to say that I dislike my time at OC; I complain about it, but if I didn't love it, I would leave. And I have so many friends who encourage me, accept me, and enrich me. But I can't be completely comfortable somewhere the administration is figuring out how to handle the issue of the growing number of Christians who aren't CoC or where the handbook says it's against the rules to be gay. I've accepted that these things won't change, and for the sake of the people who want these things, I don't really want to change them. I'm also not leaving, and I'm not going to pretend to be a perfect little CoC-er when that is so far away from who I actually am.






Well, this post got really long. I didn't mean for it to. If you're still reading, I'm surprised and I thank you.

I will follow you into the dark

This is a beautiful version of one of my favorite songs ever. That's it. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVZn_UXR14Y

Love Wins

I just finished Love Wins by Rob Bell. Pretty soon I'll write a review or something, but right now I just want to say that if you haven't read it, you should. I heard a lot in the controversy and arguments, and a lot of people put words in Bell's mouth, but he doesn't say what you think he will. Even if you don't agree with what he believes, I've never read a book that had as much hope, joy, and intensity as this book. Even if you think he's wrong, you have to admire his faith and zeal.

The Prophet

Today I'm re-reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Gibran was a Lebanese poet who lived mostly in America. His writing is somewhere between poetry and prose, and sounds biblical. The Prophet is the fictional musings of a middle eastern prophet leaving his people. This is one of my favorite sections, where the prophet is responding to a priestess who asks him to speak to them about prayer. 

I cannot teach you how to pray in words.

God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.

And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.

But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,

And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,

“Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.

It is thy desire in us that desireth.

It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.

We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of theyself thou givest us all.”  

Humility

The site directors at COCUSA are all reading a book called Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney. I don't want to know what this says about my lack of humility, but when I got the book, I thought, great, another little feel-good Christian self-help book full of obvious observations. Well, this book is not that at all. I'm only halfway through it, and it's messing up my head.


Read this quote from John Stott-
"Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size."


Humility is one of those things that I rarely think about, and that in and of itself is pretty prideful. I spend so much more time focused on myself than I do on Christ. It's not even just being proud, it's the selfishness of focusing on myself no matter what my opinion is. 


Humility is also one of those things that I can't just get overnight. If I want to really change, it's going to take a lot of effort, and honestly, I don't want to do it. But if I'm going to call myself a follower of Christ, I have to. And when I say I have to, I mean that I have to let God do it, because it is so out of my control. 

Kurt Vonnegut

This post is coming from one of my favorite places on earth, Eli's coffee. Imagine Starbucks, but in an old house, with cheaper coffee, better food, and better music. It's also the center of town. I don't think I've ever come here without seeing someone I know.

Now it's book review time.
I just finished Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a collection of his unpublished short stories, and I enjoyed it almost more than his novels. These stories come from his pre-novelist days, when he was writing for magazines who wanted short, surprising, compelling stories.

The stories are very Bradbury-esque; they're mostly science fiction, but very character driven. They are also more conventional than his novels, which make the surprise endings even more surprising. If you're already a Vonnegut fan, this book is a nice, easy break from his typical novel. If you're not yet a Vonnegut fan, these stories would be a perfect introduction to him.

Each story is accompanied by one of his drawings, which are as startling, unconventional, and beautiful as his writing.

What will inevitably be the highlight of my summer

Yesterday I made what will surely be one of the best decisions I have ever made-- to buy a ticket to Dave Matthews Band Caravan. This might not sound very exciting, but take a look at this lineup

Dave Matthews Band
O.A.R.
Ray Lamontagne
Amos Lee
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Bobby Long
Kid Cudi
Ben Folds
The Flaming Lips
and my old lady country crush
Emmylou Harris

PLUS
twenty-two other bands that I don't know but I'm sure I will love.

You're probably asking, "How in the world can you afford this?"
My answer is, "I can't."

I planned on starting a blog when I came to college. Then I said I'd start one last summer, then last fall. Now I'm actually doing it. My attention span is pretty short, so don't expect any long, wandering posts. 

This post is coming from the public library in my hometown of Morton, Illinois, which is the pumpkin capitol of the world, thank you very much. I only lived here three years, but it will always be my home. 

Three weeks from yesterday I start my 5th summer at Camp of Champions USA. I'll be the Morton site director, and I'm very excited and a little scared. That's probably all I'll blog about this summer, because it's pretty much all I'll be doing. 

I read a ton of blogs, so you'd think I'd know what I'm doing, but I don't. I guess I'll figure it out as I go.