oodlesnifflewoozleschnitzel.

so, i was sitting here at my desk, reading my email, writing in my not-really-a-journal-but-lets-call-it-that-anyway, and wondering who invented legal pads and may i jump backwards in history and say 'oh thank you!' ? and i got a great hankering to go a'posting. so here we go a'posting amang the leaves sae greene. lovely day for a picnic! anyway so i really wanted to, but couldn't think of any particular thing i wanted to say, and so counted on making it up as i went on.

why am i up? well i took a nap this afternoon- NOT a good idea for me. as always, it was supposed to be about 30 minutes to 1 hour - ish, but that turned into 4:30 to 10 pm. aah! thats more sleep than einstein got! and why, you may ask, was i taking a nap? because i went to the rich mountain association in arkansas this weekend and we drove back home after saturday night services, getting home around 3 am. it was a really good meeting...er... association. yeah, i didn't really know what to expect, having never been to an association before, and rather expected something along the lines of the U.N. , with a big table up front and preachers walking around with legal pads, discussing things. needless to say it was nothing like the U.N. of course having never been to the U.N. either, my image of that may be messed up, because all i know of it comes from a few things in the news about it and The Interpreter (which is a good movie, btw).

oh another good movie, mamadah and i went and saw Julie and Julia last weekend and its quite good. i was really happy to see a movie that showed really good marriages. so many movies recently have tried to be all edgy or whatever by showing "the other side of the american dream" or some such NONSENSE and i don't know why more people aren't sick of it. here's the thing- yes, we believe that man is sinful and prone to evil. this does of course affect every aspect of our lives... there is sin in our relationships, in our marriages. but because we know this sin is there, and are fighting against it, there can be nothing good about focusing on the sin and the fallenness, or in wallowing in our sorrow about it. i think sometimes people use their knowledge of depravity as an excuse for depression and half-heartedness. seeing only the sadness and starting to believe that there is no hope for our relationships because of sin - that is what the devil wants. he would love for christians to become downtrodden and depressed. the fact is that we have been saved. it already happened... we're living in a post-resurrection world, can we accept it and live our lives accordingly? God has already seen our sin, Jesus has already saved us. living our lives as though we haven't already been saved will not bring thanks to him for this incredible gift. heres an analogy. lets say you really really needed a washing machine, because you were doing all your laundry by hand. if someone saw that need and gave you a washing machine because they loved you, would you then go on washing your clothes by hand? no! that would be silly, and it wouldn't bring joy to the person who gave you the washer. the best thanks you could give that person would be to use that washer. thats what the giver wanted.

oh be joyful, oh be jubilant
put your sorrows far away
come rejoice and sing together
this holy day!