The colors in the stars, they dance

The colors you choose
The reds, greens, and blues
They are reflected in your voice
You know I had no choice
I listened to your words, your cries
And saw the same reflected in my eyes
My colors, purple, blue, and black
From who we are, there's no going back
The blue runs through it all
Reflected in summer and fall
When the world wants to, starts to, cry
The rain is reflected in the blue of your eyes
It's the dark I am drawn to, again and again
The color reflected in the cry of the rain
The colors of fire, of water, of blood
And the brown in the blue, the color of mud
To let go again, fall into this flood

If I said you were dead, would you kill me?

Instead of teaching us how to defend the Gospel, teach us how to live it.

Growing up, I never liked going to church. I basically only went because my parents made me. I mean, why would you want to waste three hours of your day going to a large but unexciting building, sitting in a class where you learn nothing except how to goof off, go upstairs, sing three generally boring songs, and then sit for half an hour on hard benches and listen to someone talk about something completely uninteresting, if not seemingly irrelevant, to your life, and then wait for your mother to finally finish talking to all the other ladies so you can go home, change, and watch TV? Welcome to my old view of church. I usually read a book through it.
Recently, I have learned that church can actually be good. It can feel alive. And you can get stuff out of it to encourage and support your daily walk with Christ. Not to mention that Christian community is really really important.
But I have one complaint. Why did I have to leave the country to learn this? One church service from last year stands out in my mind. It happened at my parents' church in Saskatchewan, the same church I grew up in. Maybe I'm jaded, I don't know. But the person who was preaching that day preached on creation. How creation was right and evolution was wrong. He had examples and everything. Proofs. Details. Complicated intricacies of the animal world, proving that we are created beings. And my problem is this: I don't care. People have decided their stance on creation versus evolution a long time ago. I didn't come to church to hear another argument about it, when you're saying the exact same thing everyone has already said. Again. I came to learn about how to live my faith in the world. I want advice on how to love people who are hard to love. I want to know how to live my faith in the workplace. I want to know how to not be distracted by boys. I want community that encourages me, where I feel that after these few hours with other Christians, I can go out into my extremely secular culture and live for another week or few days confidently, strongly, differently. I want to learn how to share my faith with strangers who confront me in the street. I want to know what following Jesus is. And I'm sorry, but I didn't come to hear how the mosquito proves that we are created. I don't give a damn. Teach me how to live so radically different from the world that they will notice, and then teach me how to love those who are persecuting me. That is what I want to know. And then shove me out the door so I go do it.
So my final question is this. How do you bring to life a dying church? Because I can't get over the fact that I feel like the church I grew up in is dying. It's not growing. It's cold. And at the risk of being called an upstart young girl who went to Bible school and now thinks she knows everything, I think something drastic has to change.

Dangerous

So I don't really know what to write... I'm pretty bad at this updating thing. Sometimes I just prefer to live my life, and not tell people about it. Though I know I ought to. That, and I'm lazy sometimes. Maybe more of that. So what do you want to know about my life? Lately it's been eventful in small ways, such that they matter to me and probably not to you, the reader. What are some of these things? I like drinking London Fogs. I have become a follower of three different television shows via the internet this month. I am being challenged to live differently than the world. What will that look like? I have no idea. But I fully expect things to be different. Unexpected. Risky. Dangerous. If we call ourselves Christians, we ought to look different than the world. I'm starting to think that if we don't, we also don't have the right to call ourselves Christians. Because if you can't tell that someone is a Christian by the way they act, they're not doing a very good job of being Christ to the world. And this means that some things have to change in my life. I read a book. It changed my views on some stuff. It is called "Radical" by David Platt. And it made me think. And I think that some things are going to change. Because I want to be different. I want you to see Christ in me. And to live so that you want what I have. Because it is the one thing that is worth giving up everything else for. And it's not easy and it's not safe and it's scary. But it's worth it. If it doesn't change your life, it's not Christianity.

And on a different note, here we are at Teotihuacan:

Reasons why today is exceptional

1) We have started watching a new television show that looks really good. But there are only three episodes out so far. We watched the first one.
2) It is raining for the first time this year. And hard. And we danced in the street in the rain.
3) Lady Gaga has now played four songs in a row that I know...
4) We went to the tianguis this morning.
5) We stayed up really late laughing really hard last night.