Archive for May, 2015
Unity.
Christianity.
Redeemed people.
Varied beliefs.
Clashing personalities.
Passion and emotion.
Pride and humility.
Showing love.
Standing strong.
Interpreting Scripture.
Living it out.
Sometimes, going through this life can be hard. As Christians, God calls us to unity, but so many things get in the way. Listed above are things that are incorporated in our battle for unity, whether they’re the reasons we want to do what’s right or the reasons we sometimes get it wrong. We are the Body of Christ, but sometimes it feels like we’re just a mess of hypocrites who prefer to talk rather than listen. Sometimes we feel like our little corner of the Church is more about worrying about the person next to us than dealing with ourselves. Or sometimes our corner of Church is fine, but the Church “out there” (on the media and in the articles and floating through cyberspace) just needs to be more like Christ, or even just like my version of Christ.
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Anyone know the feeling? Well, it’s not because the Church isn’t being the Church. Every single person who has God’s Spirit inside of them is a new creation, with a purpose and a place and He’s working good in them. And altogether, we are an amazing spiritual body!
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Then what’s the problem? Heck, I don’t know! I don’t have the answers. But I can speculate. And I think it comes down to this:
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We’re all just humans. And we’re all just different.
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We go through transition times, in our culture and our communities and our world, and things change. We have people coming into our churches who are starting to question things that have been taught for years. We have people searching books and blogs and different denominations to find new revelations. We are all people who are trying to fit the entire universe into our own, little, narrow perspective that we’ve collected these past however-many-years we’ve been on earth. And it’s hard, and it’s challenging, and it grows us, but sometimes we get it wrong.
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Sometimes the things we believe, or even the person that we are, is very different from who we were or who we will be. My 17 year old self is not the same as my 25 year old self; and then another 5 years will change that; and then another 5, and another 10, and so on until we look back and see the many times God has been planting and shifting our lives to broaden our perspective so that it captures more of His. But God’s a whole stinkin’ eternity old, and I think we’ll need a little more time than 70-100 years to figure Him out.
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So where am I going with this?
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Sometimes we can get discouraged when we think about our relationships with other Christians. Miscommunications, betrayals, strong emotions, arguments, words said, words restrained, speaking too much, giving too little… it is so easy to see only the broken parts of ourselves! Shouldn’t Christians be more loving and forgiving then the rest of the world is? Seeing only the struggles can make it easy to be disheartened.
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BUT- No matter how much hurt or pain has passed between other Christians and myself…
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No matter how many times I fail to listen or love….
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No matter how many disagreements or heated words or frustrations of being misunderstood I have experienced…
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I KNOW that in Heaven, this will all be gone!
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Bitterness will be a thing of the past. Hurt will disappear. Anger and frustration and clashing personalities will seem like a fading dream compared to the beauty and glory of Heaven and Jesus’ presence. No matter what our differences are, we still share the same bond of Jesus.
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I anxiously await the day when I can heartily shake the hand of every Christian I’ve ever known, look them in the eye and truly see them through the eyes of Christ. When we can rejoice in who we have become and take delight in each other’s varied yet completed reflections of God. When we can be a perfect Body, in our perfect bodies, and just worship Jesus together in true unity.
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Everything will be made clear. All the seeds we’ve planted will be seen and sown. Our perspective will finally open up to encompass God’s mighty understanding, and everything we’ve ever wondered about will be at our fingertips to discover.
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I can’t wait to enjoy that beautiful freedom and adventure with everybody in the Body of Christ. We can take all of eternity to explore, create, laugh and enjoy LIFE together! Seriously, it’s beyond my comprehension!
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Through prayer, Scripture, and listening to the Holy Spirit, God can lead us to reach more of that in our lives here on earth. But even when it feels like we’ll never make it, we can all smile in anticipation for the day when these differences, that seem so mountainous now, will fade away into the background as God truly shows us His glory in ways that we can never imagine today. Come quickly, Lord!
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Hannah had a great discussion with Wax Woody Allen in this picture.
(Well I’m reviewing these all at once because I forgot to review them as I watched. I usually have to wait a few days, at least, in order to see how a movie settles with me, but writing them all together may mean that they get kind of combined in my head. But I’ll do my best.)
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Hannah loves Woody Allen, my mom hates him because he’s too dark, Dad doesn’t like his comedic timing as an actor but enjoys his stories, and I think Elizabeth likes him fairly well, so I was interested to see where I would come out on the subject. The only one I’d see before was Midnight in Paris, which I liked and is the only one my Mom likes. So, here are my 5 Woody Allen movies that my sister, Hannah, gave me in April.
Annie Hall
This was a good story, and probably one of the top of the week. I thought both Allen and Diane Keaton did a great job, and I enjoyed the format of the story; the way that Woody Allen’s character kept talking to the people around him and you could see into his head.
My older sister loves this movie, and so I think I was expecting to be a little more emotionally moved by it than I was. It might’ve been that for her, this was one of the first movies where she’d seen a good representation of a realistic relationship ending, but ending well. This didn’t feel like the only movie I’ve seen that’s done that (though I can’t think of any other examples) so I think it just didn’t connect with me as strongly as it did for her. But I thought it was very well done, it entertained me along the way, and I cared about the characters. It was a solid one.
The Purple Rose of Cairo
I had no clue what this one was about, and as soon as the major thing happened that made this movie what it was, I was like, “What? It’s THIS kind of movie?” The story gripped me quickly, and I very much wanted everybody to do well. The main guy was so charming! It was a great story that blended fantasy and reality beautifully, with moments of whimsy alongside the mundane. I was warned ahead of time that it ended sadly, so I was prepared for that and ok with how they did it by the time the ending came. It was definitely sad, but not necessarily hopeless. This one definitely entertained me and drew me in.
Take the Money and Run
The second one starring Woody Allen (see how nice my pattern was? He starred in every other movie) started off setting the tone right away, with its documentarial narration filled with zany silliness and morbid humor. It had me giggling all along the way, even for the jokes that didn’t make sense (him being a rabbi as a drug side effect made me laugh out loud even though it was nonsensical), and the movie kept its tone throughout the whole thing. It was surreal and making fun of itself, and while there clearly wasn’t a lot of depth to it, it was definitely a fun one to watch.
Bullets Over Broadway
“Yay John Cusack!” I’m pretty sure that’s what I said when I saw that he was in it. Anyway, this one was the most NORMAL feeling movie of the month; the one with the least amount of weird reality dimensions playing throughout. I liked this one pretty well, too, though I remember having some negative emotions towards it after finishing it; I can’t remember what they were now. The movie took an unexpected turn through the middle, which amused me, and I think when it climaxed that it resolved itself quickly but efficiently by the end. I remember being a bit worried that it wouldn’t end well, but overall I was satisfied. (Though I found it quite annoying when the lady kept going “don’t speak” and clamping her hand over his mouth constantly.)
Mighty Aphrodite
This one was a mix for me, because it had some very sweet moments, but it also had many more explicit innuendos (not surprising, considering the story) which I never enjoy, and the weird-reality-dimension-narration in this one was… odd. Maybe if I understood anything about whatever mythology they were talking about and how it connected to the story, it would make more sense and feel less out of place. So I just ignored it and assumed I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to get it. But despite those aspects, I did think it was a sweet movie and it had characters I rooted strongly for. (Also, Little Red Riding Hood from the recorded stageplay of Into the Woods with Bernadette Peters was in it, and I was very excited when I recognized her.)
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PUTTING THEM IN ORDER
5. Mighty Aphrodite (sweet story but had several things I disliked)
4. Bullets Over Broadway (solid story and characters but I had conflicting emotions; maybe that would change on a rewatch)
3. Take the Money and Run (a solid silly one that was great fun)
2. Annie Hall (a very good story that I expected to like more than I did)
1. The Purple Rose of Cairo (the one that I was most connected to emotionally)
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That was almost the exact reverse order of how I watched them! 🙂 Overall, I think Woody Allen has some great concepts and executions of stories, and while I’m a sucker for happy endings and his aren’t always happy, I love how he throws surreal atmosphere throughout the movies; it keeps them interesting, and I think he does a good job of the ending matching the tone of the story.
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Next time… Elizabeth’s pick of 5 Best Picture Winners!
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I have had my new, short hairstyle for… several months now (July or August but I’m too lazy to go and check exactly; my internet is too slow) and this cut has been the first time I have ever had hair higher than my shoulders.
Oh YEAH?
So…. here’s a short little blog about the pros and cons I have discovered about my short hair! (We’ll pretend that this is my second blog for April. It’s the 31st, everybody! 😛 )
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PRO
It’s easy to wear short hair under a hood in the wintertime! With my long hair I have to ponytail it and try to stuff it all inside, but with short hair… no hassle! 😀 
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PRO
Low maintenance! I don’t have to brush my hair, just wet it and comb through it with my hands!
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CON
High maintenance! I don’t have to brush my hair, but I have to wet it and blow dry it in order for it not to be either too flat or too “Morning Hair” (which is, by the way, much crazier with short hair then long)
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CON
There’s really only one style for my short hair, so it pretty much looks the same from day to day without a lot I can do to make it look particularly interesting
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PRO
Then again, for somebody who is bad at making decisions, sometimes it’s nice to only have to scrunch up my hair with my hands and walk out the door without having to worry about which way to style it
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CON
I can’t do this with it:
Though whether that is an actual pro or a con is debateable
PRO
But with short hair, I can look slightly more like Nick Fury! (emphasis on “slightly”)
PRO
Whether I’m exercising, playing sports or driving down the road with my windows down, it is SO NICE to not have hair blowing in my face or wisps flying out of my ponytail! (This might be my favorite pro about it.)
Gotta keep your hair out of your face while you’re Dancing to the Rhythm of the Waves! (above) Or when you’re at a real dance class. (below) 
CON
I have to get my hair cut FAR more regularly than when I had long hair. I could probably go once or twice a year for a haircut with long hair (since it took me a long time before I started caring) but I have to go every 8-12 weeks with this cut (which is a lot for me)
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PRO
And on a final Megillish OCD note, my cut helps create balance in my family! My Mom has no hair, so my Dad makes up for it by having a beard. My older brother has really long hair, so now I make up for that by having short hair!
What do YOU like about your hair?
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