Many of you have asked how the couch weekend went and let me tell you it was FABULOUS. I did manage to start a new project with which I'm quite obsessed. I've gone through all my magazines (Cooking Light, Mississippi Magazine and Southern Living) and clipped out all the recipes I like. Now I'm working to create a book of all the recipes! I know, I'm neurotic, but I feel it's much more effective than flipping through stacks of magazines every time I feel like cooking something new!
Anyway, I've also been harassed (Anna) about making a new post and I must say that with things being much slower it makes it hard to think of what to post! So here goes...I'm sure it's not what you were looking for but it's been weighing heavy on my heart.
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately (gasp) about something called The Truth Project. It's a DVD series that we've been doing in my Bible study and it compares the truth that is God-oriented to the lies that are society based. The most recent "episode" questioned: Who is man? It cited several theorists (many of whom I studied in graduate school) who believed in man's inherent goodness and emphasized our cultures tendency to "follow your inner being" and focus on self-actualization. It went on to question: if man is inherently good then from where does evil come? Some purport that evil and sick people come from an evil and sick society. Society focuses on man's need to save himself and create his own happiness. The truth is that man is fallen, sick, sinful, and in need of redemption.
One source of lies in the series, David Noebel, talks of an assumption that mental health and happiness come from self-actualization and getting in touch with your "good" self. Did someone say mental health?? Let me remind you that I work at a mental health center...enter my confliction. Day in, day out I counsel people about taking action to "save themselves" and encourage them to create a better future for themselves. I tell them that they are in charge of making things different, better. We talk about self-actualization. They work to "follow their inner being" and create their own happiness. You know, I would like to believe that people are inherently good. I would like to believe that they can make their own happiness. Eight hours out of a day I operate out of that school of thought. And then, WHAM. This comes along and gets me thinking. Am I spending my time believing in and encouraging others to believe in the lies and deceptions of this world??? Yikes. How is it possible for me to believe in God's truth but operate out of societies' lies?
So far, I have been able to ask myself these questions but I've been unable to come up with an answer. What I know is that I am human. Whew. This allows me to be conflicted but it also allows me the ability to discern between these truths and lies. For clarification, I am not conflicted about my Christian faith. Just conflicted about the possiblity that I can become so desensitized to societies' lies without even recognizing it! And fearful that (because I am human and prone to fall prey to these lies) I have been spreading these untruths along to others.
I am not writing this because I need some type of reassurance from others or confirmation of my right- or wrong-doing. I am simply writing it in an attempt to flesh out my thoughts (and to get people off my back about my lack of posting). It's a bit cathartic. It has become apparent to me that there are many incongruences in our lives and this just happenes to be one of mine. On live the confliction!!!
Matt, me, Katy Rose, Ben at the Raconteurs concert
This is my couch. We have not been friends in quite some time. In fact, we may have broken up. This weekend we shall reunite. And I am pumped. Matt and I haven't been home for a weekend in nine weeks. NINE weeks people!! I need some serious couch time. Our DVR is OOC. Now, those who know me know that I just cannot sit still. Something about all that nothingness and lack of planning is daunting to me. So, to counter that I have begun a long to-do list to occupy my time. So I ask you this, is the grass always greener? When I'm so, so busy all I want is some down time. Some nothingness. But, when I'm granted this longed after nothingness I feel the need to fill it. Am I afraid of nothingness? Boredom sets in, my thoughts run amuck and I simply must find something to do. I guess at least it's my something to do and not someone elses something to do. I'm not going here, driving there for someone else. At least this weekends to-do list is all about me. And my couch. And for that I can't wait!!
Mark, Craig, Matt, Wes
Dawn, Lindsay, me, Page, Colleen
