Fun Friday

" . . . sometimes it requires a certain bravery to stand up and say no, there are other ways than this."
I came across this quote while randomly linking through dozens of web pages in an attempt to pass the time until 5 pm. It was on a page promoting "The Slow Movement", which apparently got started in Italy in the 1980's and promotes sloooow living, as opposed to, well, how Americans do things.
This quote sums up a lot of what my mind has been on for the past few years. I am learning how to question the things I do just because American society or Orange county culture says I should. (Don't worry Aaron, I'm not going to stop shaving my armpits.) I would like to try to live a carefully decided life, not one that I receive by dictation and quietly copy.
Aaron and some others have been inspirational to me in this difficult journey of trying to live the ol' well-examined life. I have allowed the question of "why do we do things that way" to pass through my lips more often in the past few years, and that has been freeing. The conversations I've had with Aaron and some friends of mine have covered much ground - church, ministry, gender roles, friendship, marriage, religious holidays, art, etc.
Through this process, I've realized the fear I sometimes have of doing things against the norm and speaking up when I disagree with a more popular or powerful majority. This fear has sometimes hurt my ability to really be myself. Just another downfall of that stinkin' sanguine personality, I suppose. This is an area I want to continue to grow in - it's an adventure.

a difficult issue.

I went on a retreat with the high school students from my church a few weekends back. We got into a large group discussion about gender roles, the role of men and women in the church, and so on. It was intense. Emotions and words flowed and exploded. It was great preparation for posting in Biola's Campus Issues folder.
In all seriousness though, I was happy that we opened that can of angry worms - I suppose there is a point in student ministry when talking about how Jesus loves us and counting our goldfish crackers just isn't going to cut it anymore. And I think that the best place to hammer out opinions is in community, although it can get gruesome and sometimes sadly entertaining.
In case you didn't know, I love my husband. Story: He got to speak to the high school group a few weeks ago on the subject of marriage, and he shared his opinion that the commands to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5:22-33 are very similar, if not exact. Not only that, he pointed out that the infamous marriage passage is prefaced by this command: "Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ" (Eph. 5:21; NASB). In other words: wives, husbands, and in fact all Christians must submit to each other. Submission is not the duty of wives alone. (During this message, he also brought on stage a massive pillow from the couch where he proposed to me, and declared it "the best pillow in the world". Major point-scoring there.)