Sola Christus

Thank you just isn't enough

This is my thank you to the friends who helped me put my socks on, brought me lattes and flowers, sang to me when I couldn't sleep, measured out my pills, sent encouraging e-mails, helped me to breathe through the minutes of the dark night, brought happy tea times, and talked me through all of my fights with pain. Thank you for standing by me.

On being a beached whale

For the last eight days I have been flat on my back in a bed. The doctors think I have a bulging disc. I am on the mend, but have a long road ahead. In times of incredible pain laughter is important. PhD comics had something today that made me laugh. For all my readers out there who are single, this one is for you:

A follow up to the three year old's query

Thanks to my friend Joffre for posting this article. Here is an excerpt:

"Unfortunately, American evangelicals have another demographic concern: The ratio of devoutly Christian young women to men is far from even. Among evangelical churchgoers, there are about three single women for every two single men. This is the elephant in the corner of almost every congregation—a shortage of young Christian men.

Try counting singles in your congregation next Sunday. Evangelicals make much of avoiding being unequally yoked, but the fact that there are far more spiritually mature young women out there than men makes this bit of advice difficult to follow. No congregational program or men's retreat in the Rocky Mountains will solve this. If she decides to marry, one in three women has no choice but to marry down in terms of Christian maturity. Many of the hopeful ones wait, watching their late 20s and early 30s arrive with no husband. When the persistent longing turns to deep disappointment, some decide that they didn't really want to marry after all."

His answer is that the church should encourage couples to marry younger (than the average 25-27).

I think he has some good points. What do you think?

And the three year old says to me...

"Have you got a baby at home?" Now, I am not sure if that was in response to the pounds I need to shed, or because she can't fathom a world of people without babies at home. Then she asked me "Why? Don't you love somebody?" I suppose somewhere in her little mind the ideas of "adult" and "marriage" and "kid" float together like strands in a double helix. But, really in her own little way she is asking the question that everyone seemed to be asking when I visited the States. "So have you found anyone special?"

So, I found myself thinking of this wonderful article that I posted a while back.  

This paragraph specifically is priceless:

"As an aside, I've often wondered if straight, attractive, single women with an unfulfilled desire for marriage scare people. I told one friend that a weekend spent as the only unmarried bridesmaid in a wedding felt something akin to being plopped down naked with my upper-leg cellulite and stomach rolls on public display. Sure, everyone has some fat they wish would melt away, but mine was impossible to hide. And the sight seemed to cause a quizzical, slightly disturbed shock among otherwise gracious people. Picture crinkled noses, furrowed brows, and awkward silences. Perhaps straight, attractive, single women with an unfulfilled desire for marriage are an awkward reminder that all is not right with the world. And that's a bit of a conversation killer at a wedding."

And this one hits close to home:

"Still, all the analysis and restructuring in the world might not get you what you want, including a satisfying answer to the why question. I mean, you might come to understand what has wrought the four Bostons full of single women. You may grow to understand why it would have been a total disaster for you to end up with Dave or Eddie or whomever. You might even discover that your singleness has nothing to do with your relative greatness or lack thereof. But you still might not know why you are single or why your best friend or younger sister isn't living in the "four Bostons" with you. You might understand that the world is fallen and often unfair, but that's still not the kind of answer that warms you on a lonely Saturday night. And if in your heart of hearts you still yearn to be married or have a family, this hard mystery lives, eats, and sleeps with you."

So, maybe when that little girl is old enough, I can give her that article, for now, you go and read it! And then ask yourself, like I am, How should I live NOW?

Six words are all you get

Podcasts are a wonderful thing. My flat is about a mile and a half outside of town, so in my three mile daily commute, I listen to podcasts. One of them is the Story of the Day from NPR; they had a special podcast last week for Valentine's featuring Six-Word Memoirs. These small clips were started by Ernest Hemingway who wrote a six word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

So here are two of my Valentine memoirs:

Beano Brothers, car talks, lost friends.

Crepes and tulips; love is big.

Here's The Secret Guys!

Ok, if you have read this blog for any length of time you know I am a single Christian woman. You also know that I have written , prayed  and talked about being a single person in America. Today, I found some encouragement. I love my new job, where I often listen to podcasts from Mars Hill Church while I work. They are going through a new series; they asked the members for questions that they wanted answered by the pastor. One of the questions was "What is Christian dating?" The result was the sermon you can view below. Watch it guys! It has the secret to getting that girl of your dreams! (hint: it has something to do with Jesus and employment).

God with us

No, this isn't another Christmas post, but the title is still relevant. I download the sermon podcasts from Mars Hill Church weekly. At the beginning of 2007, Mark Driscoll, the pastor, preached a series on the book of Ruth.

While I have read this book several times, listening to this six week sermon series has been such a blessing. In fact, I am listening to it for the second time.  You can listen to the sermon through their website, download it to your computer, or even watch the video. I am posting the video for the first sermon here. You don't have to watch the whole sermon, but at least watch the reading of the passage. Scroll over the black square and you should see a "play" symbol.

You may wonder why this post is filed in the "living the single life" category rather than "thinking upon the eternal." It is in this category because of the wonderful encouragement I received from it. God's hand can clearly be seen in Ruth's life, but also in mine as well.

Dating to Save?

The cold is much better now. And, being back at work, I was surfing some blogs and came across an entry at The Protestant Pub. It seems that there is a webpage out there called Date to Save. Besides Paul's admonition NOT to do this, I can think of lots of other problems with this idea. One of the things I find especially troubling is that this is targeted toward women only. These women seem to be buying into the world's argument that beauty is everything.

Coffee and Flirting

Ahh. . . sitting here in Port City Java with a cup of coffee and my blog. Spring Break. . . .
This is my 100th post, so I thought I would try to start a discussion on something a little controversial. I have talked with my good friend Amy (in Hawaii) about this a couple of times and we agreed on the subject, but I was wondering what some of you in cyberspace think.
So here is the question, should Christians flirt? I know this may sound a little bit overboard for some of you, but I really wonder if that is what a Christian man or woman should do. Now, of course, I believe that marriage is a relationship for life so interest in other people is completely off limits.
Also, by flirting I am not speaking of wearing makeup or putting on clean clothes. A definition for flirting might be sending toying looks to the opposite sex. Another way to put it might be touching the opposite sex too much (in other words too many hugs, leaning on the shoulder, etc.)
So, post a comment and tell me what you think. Should a single Christian flirt? Why or why not?

"So why aren't you married?"

 Here is a great article with that title. I am not sure if single guys hear this, but I know as a single woman I hear it all the time. Just last week as a matter of fact. Even if you aren't single, you need to read this article. The author is able to articulate so many wonderful truths.