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Taken From God’s Rib [Multimedia Post]

Is it so simple? We were enjoying an outdoor wedding and it was like heaven touched down– the weather, the people, music, everything was amazing. So much freedom and fun, especially for the kids. We stayed all night long.

Wedding Selfie!
One of my littles enjoying and digging a hole in the “aisle.”

When a speaker shared about the Adam/Eve story, full heart and humor, I got hit:

If Eve was made for/from Adam so he wouldn’t be lonely, maybe God made all of us for the same reason? [-click to tweet-]

God, lonely? Ridiculous! Blasphemous!

Ok, but here’s a question: did you ever experience a great place, delicious food, or sick beat and not want to share it with someone?

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Dear Church Leaders: The Revelation Came from the Wilderness, not the Pulpit

Crap, another friend shared about getting kicked out of church. Arrgh. It’s painful, but sadly not rare– I have my own stories…

People can have different ideas, or giftings that don’t fit traditional parameters (e.g. gender/marital/parental status, etc.), and misunderstandings can be easy. But should talents or abilities cease the moment someone enters a church? Can we, especially those in church leadership, listen to someone if they aren’t preaching from the pulpit?

God has used a whale, worm, donkey and various plants to communicate throughout the Bible. How much more a fellow human?
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Your Bible Kills Me: Why Christians Shouldn’t Justify Hate Policies, and Tools Against Future B.S.

Get back with that Bible!
When Jeff Sessions uses it to support ripping nursing children from desperate, refuge-seeking parents, and the WH Press Secretary–a parent herself— doubles down, I only have one advice:

If your bible encourages, or justifies you hating someone, please: Chuck. It. It’s better to attempt love without fully understanding the how or what, than head for hell clenching the good book in your fist.
(Mark 9:43)

That “good book” has been used bigly to justify fear, hate, greed, horror and flat-out atrocities for ages. Repeatedly we see it’s possible to know– and maybe even love— God’s Words, but fall flat when it comes to *His Heart.
I know, that was me.

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Busting Religion: Why I Let My Kids Play with Ninjago, Elsa, Anna, Batman…

In February I got an email from my kids’ school to be alert for “trends and hypes.” All parents were encouraged to give extra thought to the cartoon figures we let our children wear or bring to school, via bags and lunch boxes. My kids attend a school that identifies as Christian, so we knew, in addition to extra singing/music, bible stories and praying, there would be attention to avoiding really frightening stories, or stories of witchcraft, zombies, etc. But this email called out Elsa, Anna, and even Superman. Uh, What??

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Did You Make God a Bear? A “Brave” Rebellion from Love’s Heart

Disney’s Brave touched my heart like Frozen, but deeper. In Frozen we glimpse our divine identity and sacrificial love, but Brave touches on the reality of our love-hate relationship with God. (Warning, spoiler alert.)

Fiery and fun-loving Merida wants to live life on her own terms, like the rest of us. But rules and traditions oppress her spirit. Mom does her best to prep Merida for the standard way of a princess, eg arranged marriage and great authority, but the two are losing their minds, and eachother.

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Dirt & Hope Under America’s Rug & The Power of One to Heal (or Hurt)

I started this post in Nov. 2016 before the first #MuslimBan, then #Charlottseville happened, and now #DACA (deporting children and young adults who grew up in, and contribute to America, because they were not born in the U.S.). Even now, the political developments are whirlwind-like.

The call to protect our people | our borders | our way of life | were fierce already before the election, but look at U.S. now…

sweeping-it-under-the-rug - People are Suffering

This election amplified aspects of America (and the world) that have been hidden from mainstream media’s eye. But festering wounds can never be healed with bandaids and as all things eventually come to Light, Love is mobilizing.
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“I Just Wanna See the Light” – San Holo and The Hope of Heaven

If you read #GodSingsBieber  or God Loves Drum & Bass, you know I think it’s possible to hear/meet God in places other than “Christian” songs and circles. Now that my own religious lid has been lifted, I’m free to hear *Him everywhere…

(*I use He/His as pronouns for God, but fully recognize God with male and female ‘identity’ -for lack of a better word- as evidenced through the bible and most blatantly through humanity. If you want to contemplate this, check my Transgender God posts.)

Bumblebee and Samwitwicky
Bumblebee (Transformers) spoke to Sam through a radio– why couldn’t God do the same or more?

On morning my son requested a new San Holo traack, “Light.”  We knew the artist from a passionate track called “Victory,” so I was eager to hear the recommendation. We streamed it on #SoundCloud and the car filled up with that catchy melody and tender lyrics that rang like a longing in my heart– “I just want to see the Light…”

I guess I’m not the only one.

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#GodSingsBieber? Hearing God’s Heart on the Radio

How can music banish a bad mood and transport us to a place where problems, cares, fear, sometimes even pain (and certainly time) don’t exist? For a moment there’s just that beat, or lyric line, or bass, or …plug in your own thing– it’s magic.  I’ll be feeling down but if a song comes on that rocks, something changes–and even babies know the feeling:

Melodies can spark our spirits, balm our hearts, mirror something of our soul, and sometimes floor us. Who needs Ecstasy when some tracks are flat-out orgasmic?

And Music also heals Socially…

Just think: when we rock to the same jam, things like Race, Gender, ‘Status,’ etc., disappear. Love takes shape in a sea of people grooving. Unity, peace, joy, no fear, no shame, No Problem.

Are these Holy Moments?

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Tower of Bible: All that “Law” but Where’s the Love?

How do we have the bible in every language and version (e.g. NIV, NKJV, ESV, NASB, …), study guides, teen/mom/soldier/woman/early reader styles, Comic Bibles…. and still miss the main message?

love-your-neighbor-as-your-self-even-if-they-are-lgbtq-or-refugee-or-muslim-or
Translation: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Jesus) “And if they are a refugee or gay?”… or Muslim or Mexican, or Republican….?  Jesus: “Is there something wrong with your ears?”

I didn’t know I owned so many bibles–granted, I’m a self-proclaimed recovering pharisee so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it wasn’t until a friend visited from a country where being Christian is a crime and her daughter longed for a bible, that I really got thinking.

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If People are like Trees, Here’s to All the Weeping Willows…

The world puts people in boxes: you’re female so you feel like this, you’re Christian so you think like this, you’re American so you act like that…

God likes to mix things up to help break the social/tradition walls we build between people. Just consider the movie Hidden Figures (based on a true story) where we see brilliant, computer-like brains placed in– not just black, but black, female bodies– in 1960s America. LOL, God is such a rebel…

Hidden_Figures_movie still
Still from “Hidden Figures,” based on the untold true story of the women nobody knew behind the NASA mission everyone knew..  “Genius has no race.. Strength has no gender…”

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