beth0329

I got 2...yes, 2! books read over the weekend! I am so impressed with myself. I LOVE the train! That's how I was able to get so much reading done. It's great to not have to drive yourself or be a passenger, with all the added stress of having to keep them awake and all that jazz, instead I can just stretch out and read! Love it. So, here they are in all their glory...

Love is an orientation by Andrew Marin 201 pages
This book was really good! But I hate deciding what to say about the book and how much to tell, but 1 sentence really strikes me as kind of the epitome of the book, "It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge and my job to love." - Billy Graham said this at a rally in support of President Bill Clinton, when a reporter asked Graham why he was there supporting this man after all he did to our country. I had heard that quote before but it really struck me while reading this book. It's simply not our job to judge anyone, that is all God's doing and I certainly don't want to take over His job.

Another thing that I wanted to comment about, especially since in one of my latest blogs my friend commented about the infamous "love the sinner, hate the sin" idea. And Andrew actually has a section in the beginning of the book about that specific saying. Marin says, "Among gays and lesbians, "love the sinner, hate the sin" is the most disdained phrase in the Christian vocabulary. If behavior equals identity, then hating gay sexual behavior is the same thing as hating the gay person...this logic has earned Christians a reputation for being extremely hypocritical and unrightfully judgmental...Clever catch phrases that try to make Christianity accessible to the masses don't translate to all different populations. As soon as we drop the notion of loving the sinner and hating the sin, the pressure is then off of us to drag a GLBT person from their current 'corrupted state' to our 'holy state,' just as the pressure is off of the GLBT person to continually build up their defenses to try to guard against the slogans that hurt them time and again" (46-47). I apologize if I've ever used this slogan as a token, Christian catch phrase.
There was so much stuff in this book that was good but perhaps I'll go into more later. Highly recommend all folks to read it!


Crank by Ellen Hopkins 537 pages

My pastor's daughter passed me this book. Very good. It's written in poetic form so it took a few pages to catch on to the rhythm but I really enjoyed it. Beautifully written and really gave me some insight into what this drug can do, in such a short amount of time. Powerful. She's also written several other books on similar subjects that I hope to read sometime soon.

And now I am nursing a very painful lower back that I believe was caused by a 4 hour long bike ride from Redding to Modesto, plus several other long rides throughout the weekend at Jubilee in Nor Cal. I was able to see my chiropractor this morning, he said, and a I quote, "You look like shit." I seriously did too. I was about to cry I hurt so bad and he's now wanting to see me tomorrow too. So, I hope the pain subsides soon.

Alright, time for me to get off here and into bed so I can keep reading my newest library book, Pretties, the next book after Uglies, the book that I already read.

Blessings y'all!

I just got the okay to share this from another blog. It's from the blog of Andrew Marin, the guy who founded the Marin Foundation in Chicago, the place I want to go visit this summer. He writes a lot of great stuff but for some reason this really affected me. So, here it is for all of you to read.

( Andrew's post on gays in military )

And since we're talking about the Marin Foundation. I just got a call back from Andrew Marin and he is very willing to let me come. I'll be sending him some dates that I would be able to come, around his schedule since I'd really like to spend some time with him. And hopefully he'll be in prayer and talk with his staff about putting me to work while I'm there, whatever that looks like :) It's getting exciting now that I've finally talked to Andrew and it seems like this could really happen. Now we just need to pray about the finances to come in.

Blessings