What's the deal with Christmas carols?

My mom officially broke out the Christmas music today, even though I told her it was too early. I was listening to some random Starbucks Christmas cd that was playing in the kitchen while I made an apple pie, trying really hard to pretend the happy, repetitive songs weren't actually Christmas songs. Yeah, that didn't work so well.
So I gave up trying to ignore it and then I started thinking about the songs I was hearing. Like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Which is possibly the worst Christmas song ever.
'Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose, and if you ever saw it, you would even say it glowed. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games. Then one foggy Christmas Eve Santa came to say, "Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?" Then all the reindeer loved him, as they shouted out with glee, "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history!"'
And we wonder why our society only likes the cool, popular people. If it's okay for reindeer, it must be okay for us too!! Never mind going against the flow and being individualistic; it's all about being in the 'in' crowd. Which you aren't if you're weird. Unless you do something really awesome like guide Santa's sleigh through the fog.
And then there's the whole 'you better watch out, you better not cry' song that seems to me to be a ploy to threaten kids into submission ('he sees you when you're slepping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if youv'e been bad or good so be good for goodness sake')because Santa is stalking them. Okay, yea-- no wait, back up. Santa is a stalker?!? And this is the person every little kid believes in at one point or another? And he brings them presents and toys and candy...hang on. Isn't that a little bit like taking candy from a stranger? Which is what parents generally tell kids NOT to do? And he's purported to come down the chimney. Umm...breaking and entering much? I think Santa needs to be arrested. He's creeping me out.
And whoever decided to call him Santa anyway? That means saint in Spanish. So...shouldn't Santa be some sort of Hispanic then? And shouldn't he be saintly and non-stalkerish?
Then you have songs about magical snowmen and partridges and hippopotamuses and front teeth. These would appear to be newer songs competing against the old songs...like the ones that present the beginning of the gospel message. Hmm...I wonder why all these materialistic, ridiculous, catchy songs are being entirely overplayed while songs like 'What Child Is This?' and 'O Holy Night' are passed over. And yet at the same time so many secular artists have recorded traditional carols. Did they ever stop to think about the lyrics? Did they ever wonder why that particular baby's birth was so special? Did they consider why the song would be so enduring if it was absolutely meaningless?
All that nonsense is to say that pretty much, it seems to me that our culture absorbs the frivolous and the absurd as it appears in Christmas songs and pays attention to the materialistic messages in them, but completely ignores the deeper meaning of so many long-standing Christmas carols that declare the news of our Savior's birth. And small wonder. Not only do they not want to hear it, but notice this Christmas season: after listening to the music that will be played absolutely EVERYWHERE starting tomorrow, what gets stuck in your head more easily or frequently: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, or I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (or any in that particular category: Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, all those songs about Santa, all those songs about mistletoe, all those songs about having a merry Christmas in terms of lots of stuff and self-indulgence, etc....)? I know which ones are going to be stuck on replay in my head. And they're not the ones I'd choose.

- Posted from my iPod :)

Comic Relief

I'm not sure how big the picture will show up, but I figured maybe I could get away with a less than serious post once every now and then, especially since I just posted a serious entry. Its been a very long, stressful week and I'm pretty much over being serious at the moment. I was researching the Revolutionary War on Thursday and this came up under 'images of the Revolutionary War' in my google search.




"it's like the Revolutionary War, but awesome"

What made it funnier was that my dad walked by and looked at the picture and said, "That looks like something Ben Davis would do."

Ok sure.

- Posted from my iPod :)

There is no I in team

It's one of the most exhilarating feelings in the world, in my humble opinion, to accomplish something as a team. It's one thing to succeed in something on your own ( and that's a good feeling in its own right) but entirely another to achieve something that's greater than anything you could ever do, much less do well, alone. I have been privileged to experience this feeling in several different ways with different groups of people in the not-too-distant past. After not playing a team sport for five years, I honestly did forget some of the advantages and joys of being part of a team. But last year my school started a volleyball team, and it has been amazing to practice and play with a group of girls all working toward a single objective: to glorify God through sports. The first year we never really won, but this year we were 12 to 4 in the regular season and in the championship tournament we beat our toughest opponent when we most needed to and went on to play in the championship game. It was an amazingly unforgettable experience.
I've also been able to participate in the youth band twice this year, and that's been fun as well as memorable. For me there's really no self-glorification in being on a stage singing or playing - not to make me sound really humble or anything because I'm so not. But to be helping to lead people in worship of our God who is so much more powerful, awesome, glorious, and deserving of our praise than we could ever begin to imagine...that in itself is a humbling experience. Some friends of mine and I started a chapel band for school this year. We sang 'Open the Eyes of My Heart' in three different languages, and I had chills running up and down my spine. It sounded almost erethreal and it was absolutely incredible. It served as a vivid reminder that God uses not just our talents but also our weaknesses for His glory. No single person in our group was the most amazing singer, but together, we lifted up a joyous noise unto the Lord.
All this is to say that these are some of my experiences with the body of Christ in action. We are truly a motley crew, some more talented or capable than others, but together, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can achieve great things for His kingdom and His glorification here on earth. And it is both humbling and inspiring and there is quite possibly no better feeling in the world than knowing that you, in all your weakness and sin and shortcomings, are a very small but necessary, unique part of the body of believers in a very big God. In my very humble opinion.
(And to close, I'd just like to note that while there is no I in team, there is an EAM [my initials :P])


- Posted from my iPod :)

This is a Test...

So I tried repeatedly to post from my iPod using Blogger in Safari. For whatever reason, it wouldn't let me select and type in the main body portion (where I'm typing now). I could enter a title and save it to drafts but that was all. I'm happy to say that I solved my problem and invisible_gurl is now mobile :) Just in case you were interested. Don't worry, a post actually worth reading (well, that's debatable, I suppose) is in the works.


- Posted from my iPod :)

Excuses Excuses

Probably no one has questioned my extended hiatus from posting, but I'm going to offer an explanation anyway. Say it's for posterity. Whose, I don't have any clue. But anyway...
I have not blogged because at the present time I feel in no way qualified to tell anybody anything. Or even submit my views on a given topic. Or suggest an alternative opinion on a matter to someone.
Why this is, I'm not entirely sure. I know that God has been working on my heart and showing me just how very wicked it is, and how much I need His help in every aspect of my life, so that probably has some bearing on my current state of mind. Also, I'd heard from multiple people that junior year is the most difficult, trying year of high school, but until I started this year I didn't really have a grasp on just how challenging they meant. Now I comprehend. So that might have an effect on it too - not only am I learning spiritually that I am nothing but inherent evil, I am learning intellectually that everything I know amounts to pretty much nothing.
And, given the discovered magnitude of effort and brainpower this year will take, I've been extremely busy. Not to mention that I'm playing volleyball again on top of working at stables and all the other activities that occupy my time in a given week.
So there are my reasons. I hope to blog sometime soon, bur I'm going to see about maybe posting differently - more open-ended questions and less me airing my unspoken opinions on my own private website.
Blame the PSAT for all the semi-large words I used. Or maybe it's Pride and Prejudice. Or the ridiculous amount of early American literature we've had to read (for American Literature class). I don't know. I'm done now.

Our Backwards Culture

My brother has taken to saying "sick" when he thinks something is cool. This really bothers me, but until recently I couldn't really put my finger on why. "Sick" to me means unhealthy or mentally ill, but there was more to my aversion to the word in that context. And now I know why.
It seemed rather backwards to describe something cool as sick. If you heard or saw something you thought was awesome, would you say, "Wow, that's totally nauseating" or "I can't believe how mentally deranged that is"? I know I wouldn't. What it took me a while to realize is that calling something "sick" is just an indication of how backwards our entire culture is.
Think about it. I posted a while ago on how people don't care about movies or tv shows unless they're crude, edgy, violent, intense or full of sexual humor (not to mention just plain sex). Happy endings and intact marriages are thought of as cliche and predicable. It's considered cool to drink and smoke and do whatever illegal street drugs you can get your hands on. Parties, swearing, and flouting laws, rules, and authorities are in-vogue activities. Graphic and gory video games are appealing to not just older audiences, but to kids as young as 5 years old (maybe not a widespread fact, but I heard straight from my younger brother's mouth that the five year old brother of a kid on his baseball team plays Call of Duty 4). Rebellion is accepted as a normal teenage behavior because parents are overbearing and don't know anything about us, much less what's good for us, and it seems like no one rises above expectations anymore. Marriage is now a burden that just falls apart anyway, and of course there's nothing wrong with extramarital sex or sex with no marriage. Kids are raised to believe that there is no God, and that evolution is fact. This belief makes abortion (syn: murder) acceptable and depreciates life because they learn that we're all just animals anyway.
And at least one thing that all of this has in common is this: it's ALL AGAINST GOD'S NATURE. There are countless verses I could reference that support this claim, and I'll list a few. For starters, Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Very few if any of the things written above could be considered pure, lovely, or admirable, even by a vast stretch of imagination. Matthew 15:4: "For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'" Ephesians 6:1: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Notice this verse doesn't say "Obey your parents, except when you know better than they do" or "Obey your parents until you're a teenager; then it's okay to be rebellious and unsubmissive." Granted, we're not always children, but we are always sons and daughters. There is never a point in time when our parents are not our elders, and even when they're not bringing us up under their rooves anymore, they are still our authorities. Hebrews 13:17 says "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you." Proverbs 23:20-22: "Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old." Exodus 20:13 could not possibly be clearer: "You shall not murder." Hosea 4:1-3 describes Israel in a condition similar to that of our country - or even our world - today: "'There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.'"
So what can we do? Be lights. Abstain from ungodly behavior. As one Rebelutionary said, taking God's name in vain is more than just using it as an exclamation. It's doing or saying anything that goes against His nature! Of course, we all fail at times. But we should keep in mind the words of 1 Corinthians 10:31: "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

What the World Needs

"People aren't confused by the Gospel. They're confused by us. Jesus is the only way to God, but we are not the only way to Jesus. This world doesn't need my tie, my hoodie, my denomination or my translation of the Bible. They just need Jesus. We can be passionate about we believe, but we can't strap ourselves to the Gospel, 'cuz we're slowing it down. Jesus is going to save the world, but maybe, the best thing we can do, is just get out of the way." - Casting Crowns, What the World Needs

I love Casting Crowns. Their songs are powerful and they speak truth to my soul. Even this one, which tells of the world's need for a loving Father, a rescuing Savior, and a leading Spirit, is no exception. But then come this interlude, spoken in sections by teenagers. And my spirit rebels against what they say.
It's true that the world doesn't need our possessions, denominations, or interpretations. But if we just stop witnessing and decide not to obey our commands to be salt and light, how else will the world find Jesus? Yes, God is all-powerful. He could very easily save the world without any help from us. But I don't think that's His plan. Because what, then, would be the reason behind the Great Commission?
How can we be slowing the Gospel down if we are fulfilling the purpose we have been chosen for? If every single Christian on the planet suddenly stopped evangelizing, if missionaries stopped going out, if we stopped trying to invite people to church, what would happen? If we got out of the way, would the Gospel reach more people on its own, without any human interference? Are we in the way at all?
Most of these questions are rhetorical. I don't know that anyone could answer them, because we don't know what would happen if we forsook our calling. And I pray we never find out.
God calls people to be witnesses, evangelists, missionaries. Who are we to decide that it would be better if we didn't do what God has ordained for us to do? Who are we serving then? It's not the lost people of this world, to be sure.
I will be the first to admit that I'm not a very passionate evangelist. I'm slightly terrified by the thought of approaching a stranger, or even a neighbor, and sharing my faith. But the idea of ceased evangelism appalls me.
I'm more or less fixed in my viewpoints and opinions, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.