U2 are coming!

U2 is my favourite band and for a while, Sam and I were worried that they would tour Australia in December during our mission to Bathurst and we would have to forgo our tickets (I could have missed part of the mission though not sure how my conscience would have held up...Sam definitely couldn't have missed it since he's heading it up this year!)

Thankfully, they're coming out in November, not December. Praise God!

I have so many favourite U2 songs, including Elevation, One, Bad, The End of the World, Bloody Sunday, Vertigo and Desire. I love to listen to them when I go out for walks. There is something about a good U2 song that helps me clear my mind from the busyness of the day and just enjoy the feeling of my feet hitting the ground as I walk.

Their music can also be quite emotional sometimes. I don't cry when I hear love songs, I can't understand opera and I don't find classical music moving at all (unless it's a film score), but I went through a phase where I bawled every time I heard Bloody Sunday.

But my favourite line from a U2 song, because to me it is the most heart wrenching, is from One:

Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I cant be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt.

I like the happy songs too (I like Beautiful Day!), but there's something about a sad song that gets me every time.

Piper on on Ephesians 3:10

"His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms."

This verse has perplexed me in the past, not because I didn't understand it, but because I found the idea it contains hard to articulate. In true Piper style, he nails it!
I thought I'd share it with you. You can read more of it here.

"The reason God created the world and called the church into being is so that he would have a sufficiently diversified yet unified system of mirrors with which to reflect the glory of his many sided wisdom to the universe. If the church is the theater in which the principalities and powers of the universe are to see the glory of God's manifold wisdom, then Jesus Christ is the embodiment of that wisdom and the main character in the drama played out in the theater of the church. The way the church glorifies God is by simply providing an arena in which the work of Jesus Christ can take effect."
What a privilege it is to be part of the church! God has graciously allowed us to be part of his eternal plan to bring glory to his name!

Playboy vs Martha Stewart

Today’s Herald had an article on female modesty, touted as the new sexual revolution. It says:

"A growing number of American women believe they have the answer. Through books, websites and clothing ranges, a new breed of modesty-loving gals is spreading the word: chastity is chic! These women say that not only is premarital and casual sex a bad idea, but that modesty - in sexual behaviour, dress and comportment - is essential for building strong relationships. Although returning to a long-discarded form of femininity might seem retrogressive, many of these women assert the opposite. They are, they say, sexual revolutionaries."

Although I don’t think a few websites on modesty constitutes a “revolution”, I had a few thoughts to share.

Making modesty popular may seem like a step forward for those against the promotion of promiscuity, but it doesn’t actually address the problem that is at the heart of the mistreatment of sex.

Whether it’s vying for attention in a playboy outfit or batting your eyelids to attract a potential husband, women are still caught in the paradigm of basing their self worth on men. Restoring chivalry on university campuses and promoting marriage may be more palatable to our appetites, but it doesn’t actually fix this problem.

What women need to understand is that they don’t need a man to make them valuable, regardless of whether he has sex or marriage on the brain. While I can appreciate efforts towards modesty and positive values that it brings for society, as someone who believes that finding value comes from Christ alone, I reject both the idol of sex and the idol of courtship/marriage.

I also strongly agree with the writer's statement at the end (notice modesty is still centred on finding fulfillment in a man):

"The idea that women are inherently modest also puts an uncomfortable spin on an otherwise reasonable notion. Shalit argues that modesty is "a reflex, arising naturally to help a woman protect her hopes and guide her fulfilment - specifically, this hope for one man". But the insistence that this is the "natural" way for women to be only leads to the conclusion that anything else is unnatural - even dangerous."

What do other people think?

Weekend at Shoalhaven

I've just arrived home from a refreshing weekend away with my church by the Shoalhaven river. It was a wonderful few days, with the following highlights:

*Spending an entire weekend reading, thinking and meditating on the Word of God. If I could, I would have weekends like this more often.

*Meeting people at church. I really enjoyed getting to know people who I've seen around on sundays but have never really had a conversation with. It helped me feel just that little bit more settled into Christians in the Media as my new home.

*Hearing challenging talks on 2 Peter (listen here) and chatting to Dominic about finding the true meaning in the Bible as a post-modern thinker - something I really struggle with.

*Going for a walk by the Shoalhaven river. The weather was just right (sunny yet crisp) and we saw rainforests, glorious fields of grass,a stunning vista by the water and a newly born calf. Ruth and AB's boys came too and I was so surprised by how much energy they had!

*Driving there and back with Sam, Carly and Lairdy, who are great company and lots of fun.

The right way to fly

In the past, keeping up with the Jones meant having a bigger house, nicer car or more prestigious job. These days, it’s all about who has traveled the most widely.

I was born in Sydney, still live in Sydney and the only travelling I’ve ever done are visits to my mum’s hometown in Indonesia as a kid and a one month trip around China after I finished school.

I never thought that going overseas was a big deal until I started looking for jobs last year and everyone wanted to know how much I’d travelled, which was always a short story given the above synopsis.

This didn’t just happen in job interviews, but socially too. Whereas in the past young 20-somethings may have played “one-up” with marriage, renovating homes and getting the right job, today it’s common for people to go out for drinks and compare trips, pouring over the details of their next holiday or their plans to work overseas before settling down.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think that traveling is a great thing. I’m always the first to peer at the photos when friends come back from an overseas trip and I can’t wait until my upcoming honeymoon. Travelling can broaden your horizons and open your eyes to other cultures, but I think it’s wrong to measure how enlightened someone is based on where and how long they’ve been overseas. It all depends on the maturity and mindset of the person who goes. There are constant travelers who are absolute bores, whereas some of the most open and interesting individuals I know have never left Sydney.

In the Bible, travel meant walking from town to town simply to get from A to B. There was no such thing as jumping on a plane for a one month holiday trip overseas. How are we to approach holidays, overseas work and extended trips for leisure from a godly perspective when the concept isn’t in the Bible?

There are some who take a hard line against going overseas and tell others that it’s indulgent and selfish; a reactionary stance against the current tide of materialism and the worship of “experience”. I don’t think this is wise as it engenders guilt in people and fails to realise that everyone’s motives for traveling is different and not necessarily self centered. Plus, you would have to apply it to all sorts of other luxuries in life and tell people to stop buying houses, playing sport, owning nice clothes or taking art classes.

However, there are times when people are too quick to abandon our church, friends and family to go overseas for an experience, or are willing to spend thousands in overseas trips, but won’t match that amount when it comes to providing for those in need or giving to the work of the Gospel. There are even those who go away and never return; losing their faith to taste the pleasures of this life.

What advice should we as Christians give in these situations?

For Christians, is there a right and a wrong way to travel?

Pray for Lebanon

Reading about the war raging between the Israeli Defence Force and Hezbollah makes me feel helpless as a Christian living comfortably in Sydney. I'm sure there are many others like me who are wondering what they can do to help.

Alongside giving aid, we must never underestimate the power of prayer. This list of prayer points from Arab World Ministries website is so important:

1. Pray for the people who have already been affected by the attacks, for Israelis and Lebanese who have been injured or who have lost family members, those who have been displaced because of the violence, those who have lost homes or livelihoods as a result of the bombings.

2. Pray for the safety of those living in vulnerable areas of Lebanon and Israel

3. Wisdom for those in governments, authorities and other groups, that they may seek ways to end these hostilities rather than cause more death and destruction

4. Wisdom for others involved in seeking a resolution to the conflict, such as the UN and the USA

5. The protection of all Christians in these regions; both local and expat

6. The safe and swift evacuation of all foreigners

7. Humanitarian aid - that agencies will be able to get essential supplies into all these areas

The Middle East Area Director has also released a statement with a final paragraph that I thought would also be good to pray:

At this time, we ask you to pray for peace to come to this troubled part of the world. In that, we pray for everlasting peace that comes only from Jesus. The resurgence of violence reminds us that the peace the world brings through force, or diplomatic means, does not endure. It is only in Christ that peace can come. May the sovereignty of God use this crisis to bring many to himself in the region, for his eternal praise and glory.

Maranatha and Amen.

"Victory" over sin?

I've been reading the first chapter of Jerry Bridge's the Pursuit of Holiness. This particular passage struck me:

"Our problem is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centred than God-centred. We are more concerned about our own "victory" over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God...God wants us to walk in obedience - not victory. Obedience is oriented toward self. Obedience is oriented towards God."

This is so true in my own life. So often, I urge myself to defeat sin and conquer it rather than
grieve over my disobedience and aim simply to walk in obedience. It's a small distinction, but such an important one to make.

Strong Bad is Back

See here. Still taking votes for favourite emails...

Coffee Festival

The Aroma coffee festival is on again this Sunday. As someone who used to make a living in this industry, I'm excited to see what's happening in the coffee world again, as well as sampling what's new out there.
Hoping to pace myself with the coffees this time though. Last year I drank too many, too quickly. My hand/eye co-ordination paid the price, along with my sleep that night. Still, what better way to spend my last day of holidays. Soph's coming too.

I used to believe...

I used to believe that my work would be a valuable contribution to society.
Now I realise that there is more than one way of creating meaning in this life.

I used to think that those older than me knew everything and were mostly right.
Now I realise that no one’s perfect, and infallibility is not a prerequisite for respect.

I used to believe that every question in life had a clear cut answer.
Now I realise that an open mind can often be the path to wisdom.

I used to anticipate experiencing life and revelling in the grey.
Now I realise that a discerning mind is needed to make the journey worthwhile.

I used to believe that life was simple and doing the right thing was easy.
Now I realise that the more you experience, the more complicated decisions are.

I used to talk like the Bible was a textbook and I had it all figured out.
Now I realise that humility before the Word of God is the far better way.

I used to act like I was indestructible and held the world in my hands.
Now I realise that when I am weak, then He is strong.

I used to dream about fairytale endings and living a perfectly charming life.
Now I realise that God gives us not what we want, but exactly what we need.

I used to want to travel the world and experience all this world has to offer.
Now I realise that I gained all the richness of this world when Christ came into my heart.

I used to think that being right was the most important thing in the world.
Now I realise that if I have not love, I am a clanging cymbal or a noisy gong.

I used to crave experiences and be governed by my heart.
Now I realise that there are some principles that are worth holding on to.

I used to be quick to tell others when, how and where they went wrong.
Now I realise that it's far easier to tread carefully than eat humble pie.

I used to think that if you weren't evangelical, you were on the wrong side.
Now I realise that God is far bigger than my religion.

I used to strive to be someone important, to make an impact and make my voice heard.
Now I realise that the key to life is to walk humbly with my Lord and let His will determine my ways.

Food

Having spent the past few days with bad migraines which turned out to be sinusitus, I treated myself this morning to a full cream flat white and a blueberry bagel with lots of butter. I never have butter or bagels, so it was fantastic. In fact, I wish I was eating it right now.

Women have such a strange relationship with food. I work with three other girls on my floor and the amount of time we spend discussing what we’re having for lunch, what we’re craving during the day, who has what flavour cup-of-soup, the items we’re buying from the coffee shop, etc, is astonishing. We can talk for ages about lunch before we actually even have it.

Maybe girls develop a strong desire for delicious food because they're so health conscious and tend to deprive themselves of it more often. After all, cake is so much more desirable when you only let yourself eat it once a week.

Or maybe it’s a hormonal thing. You never hear about guys craving chocolate or hot chips (mmm…with chicken salt…)

In any case, for lunch today I’m having pumpkin soup brought from home with two pieces of sourdough bread. I’ve also got a sachet of date and golden syrup oats under my desk, just in case I feel like a snack at 3pm.

Yum.

It wasn't what you said...

“It wasn’t what you said. It was the way you said it.”

I’m the kind of person who often gets caught up in the heat of the moment. When trying to make a point that is close to my heart, my pulse races and the blood start to rise to my face. Passion overtakes self control and my main objective changes from hearing other people out to making my point known at all costs. “Why isn’t this person agreeing with me?” I start to think in exasperation. “Can’t they see that this is the only perfectly reasonable point of view to be had?” I forget that it’s important to watch not just the content, but also the manner of my speech.

Words are a powerful tool and can be used in a variety of ways. They can cut to the heart, offer insight or provide comfort to the soul. However, they must never be used to hurt, humiliate, insult or triumph over others, even if the point that we are making is the right one. Saying “they shouldn’t take it so personally”, “that’s just the way I communicate” or “I didn’t mean to cause offense” isn’t really an excuse. Surely as Christians we are to be extra vigilant against unloving actions? If another person is easily offended, surely our reaction should be to take more, not less, care with our words?

It’s so easy to want to trump over someone in argument, whether it be concerning theology, social issues or simply the best way to keep the house tidy. However, my dad always used to tell me, “don’t win the battles, win the war”. Proving that you’re right doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve won the person’s heart. It’s far more effective to speak lovingly and entice others to what is good, than ram it home for the sake of coming out on top.

Burnt cookies

I was feeling a little low tonight and no one was home except flu-infested Micah, so I taught him how to make choc chip cookies. I think we made them a little too small because some of them are burnt, but we've made so many that there are enough to salvage for a decent batch. It was very therapeutic.

It's nights like these that I terribly miss my friends at my old church. There is a familiarity with people you know well that fits like a warm hug. I miss the little things: driving home with friends on a sunday night after service, chatting with my family about the sermon, knowing who's new and who's not by just a quick scan around the room, having friends who live nearby, being able to talk with people without feeling nervous or shy. I don't regret my decision to move, but sometimes I do regret not doing more during my time at CCC.

The burnt cookies taste okay. I might take a few to work tomorrow.

Bananas.

I miss them.

Love her more and love her less

I love getting non work-related emails.

Today Sam emailed me a poem by John Piper with a header saying, "this is what I want our marriage to be like".

If you now aim your wife to bless,
Then love her more and love her less.
If in the coming years, by some
Strange providence of God, you come
To have the riches of this age,
And, painless, stride across the stage
Beside your wife, be sure in health
To love her, love her more than wealth.

And if your life is woven in
A hundred friendships, and you spin
A festal fabric out of all
Your sweet affections, great and small,
Be sure, no matter how it rends,
To love her, love her more than friends.

And if there comes a point when you
Are tired, and pity whispers, "Do
Yourself a favor. Come, be free;
Embrace the comforts here with me."
Know this! Your wife surpasses these:
So love her, love her, more than ease.

And when your marriage bed is pure,
And there is not the slightest lure
Of lust for any but your wife,
And all is ecstasy in life,
A secret all of this protects:
Go love her, love her, more than sex.

And if your taste becomes refined,
And you are moved by what the mind
Of man can make, and dazzled by
His craft, remember that the "why"
Of all this work is in the heart;
So love her, love her more than art.

And if your own should someday be
The craft that critics all agree
Is worthy of a great esteem,
And sales exceed your wildest dream,
Beware the dangers of a name.
And love her, love her more than fame.

And if, to your surprise, not mine,
God calls you by some strange design
To risk your life for some great cause,
Let neither fear nor love give pause,
And when you face the gate of death,
Then love her, love her more than breath.

Yes, love her, love her, more than life;
O, love the woman called your wife.
Go love her as your earthly best.
Beyond this venture not. But, lest
Your love become a fool's facade,
Be sure to love her less than God.

It is not wise or kind to call
An idol by sweet names, and fall,
As in humility, before
A likeness of your God. Adore
Above your best beloved on earth
The God alone who gives her worth.
And she will know in second place
That your great love is also grace,
And that your high affections now
Are flowing freely from a vow
Beneath these promises, first made
To you by God. Nor will they fade
For being rooted by the stream
Of Heaven's Joy, which you esteem
And cherish more than breath and life,
That you may give it to your wife.

The greatest gift you give your wife
Is loving God above her life.
And thus I bid you now to bless:
Go love her more by loving less.

By John Piper. ©Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 888.346.4700.

Even though I found the whole poem beautiful, it was the last paragraph that spoke powerfully to me. I love Sam heaps; he is my best friend and favourite person in the whole world. However, my first love is God. He is my carer and my provider, the only one who satisfies all my needs and deepest desires.

I hope I can remember that for all my days.

What's happened to Strongbad?

There hasn't been a new email in over a month... This is sad... I hope Strongbad is ok.

My favourite email is Kids Book.

What's yours?

book review (of sorts)

Yesterday, I read What women really want (need) ed. Lesley Ramsey, self described as an anthology of writings from “Australian women who talk about Jesus”. I haven’t read the whole book (only about three quarters of it) but I’m not convinced that it’s effective as an evangelism tool.

Firstly, the structure of the book isn’t very ‘secular friendly’. Unlike books like A Sneaking Suspicion or Case for Christ, it doesn’t build on one narrative or train of thought, but is a collection of chapters on different topics ranging from contentment to love, forgiveness and stability. Although this structure can work if each chapter offers something different, all of the articles in the book ended with the same conclusion: whatever your problem is, the answer is Christ. This isn’t wrong at all, but put yourself in the shoes of a non-believing reader. Would you want to read 10 or so chapters in a row, all with the same conclusion? I think it’s far more effective to sustain one continuous argument or conversation with the reader.

Secondly, and I hope I don’t offend anyone by saying this, but not all of the women who contributed could write. That’s not to say that their content wasn’t valuable, but some of the pieces would have sounded so much better as a talk.

Thirdly, the women were all the same. Perhaps there was a target market that the book was aimed for and I just happened to fall outside of it, but why were all the contributors: a) married (mostly to ministers), b) mothers and c) into home renovations or cooking? Where were all the single contributors? I also found it really limiting that being “culturally savvy” in one article was equated to knowing how to cook a roast or furnish a house. I probably wouldn’t give this book to my non-believing friends, not because I didn’t think the content was valuable, but because it simply wasn’t relevant to their lives (but then again, maybe that’s because I fall outside of the aimed audience for this book). People feel very strongly about women embracing their role as wife, mother and carer of the home, but I wonder if sometimes we make these things an unspoken prerequisite to fully serve God as a woman.

Finding the female voice

A couple of years ago, I was involved in a ministry that published a Christian newsletter once a month. It was a pretty typical publication, filled with prayer points, articles and various news items from our church. The only thing that was slightly unusual about it was that the editorial team had six people - five men plus me.

Even though I was a competent writer and the guys I worked with were gentle and lovely, I struggled hard to contribute worthy pieces to the publication. My articles were all the same: unstructured, illogical, clumsy, just plain flat. I couldn't work out the reason until a friend's sharp comment hit the nail on the head. "Soph, this is really terrible," she said over coffee one day, shaking her head at yet another failed attempt. "For starters, it doesn't even sound like you."

Then it dawned on me. In an effort to mimic the style of articles from The Briefing and other no-nonsense type of works that I had read in the Christian sphere (I hadn't yet discovered the delights of Os Guiness, Phillip Yancey or John Piper), I tried to be everything I'm not - didactic, economical, down the line, methodical and authoritative.

In short, I tried to write like a man. And it failed abysmally.

Although this experience was years ago and I've since come to accept that I'm better at writing about relationships and Britney Spears than the theology of the Trinity, I still think back to my brief stint in the publications commitee and wonder if a larger question was at play. Was it just about my flailing attempts as a writer, or was it more than that? Was I trying to adopt the assumed 'superior' voice of a man instead of harnessing the ways God has gifted me as a woman?

Women communicate differently from men. According to a class I took in female narrative while I was at uni, we are a lot more indirect, circular and empathetic. While men get straight to the point, women weave intricate stories.

Now, I'm not sure how accurate these ideas are as I've read plenty of women writers who are straight to the point, nor do I think that this means women are incapable of being logical in communciation. However, it does raise an interesting issue about our gender. Are there any differences between the way men and women think, and if so, what are they? How do they affect the way we communicate?

I admit that I haven't read too many Christian books written by women (I am about to go to my shelf and post a list of the ones I have read), but I am now on a mission: to find a list of biblically solid, culturally relevant, smart and fun books written by Christian women.

Any recommendations?

Assault on Big Brother

I don’t usually like jumping on the moral bandwagon when it comes to explicit content on TV, but the latest reports on how two men indecently assaulted a female contestant on Big Brother have really disgusted me – and that’s saying a lot from a film graduate who has seen pretty much everything.

Channel 10 was flogging a dead horse when it decided to bring out BB for another year, so I won’t rehash the old debates about tasteless voyeurism. What has really frustrated me about the whole incident is how vocal personalities ranging from media experts to Kyle and Jackie O have defended the show, both after the incident and previously when BB’s explicit content has caused alarm.

Criticism launched at politicians who have called for the show to be banned has claimed that: a) none of the critics have watched the show before casting stones, and b) BB is actually an accurate reflection of society and today’s voters.

While the first comment is fair, it saddens me that people can watch a cheapened view of sex on BB - to the point where a woman is sexually assaulted - and say that it’s just like our society without even batting an eyelid or raising alarm. If this is in fact how young people are behaving and living, shouldn't we be more concerned?

This incident has really shown how damaging raunch culture and third wave feminism can be. When girls are taught that the way to find equality is to flaunt what they’ve got, have sex like a man and hold nothing sacred, then can we be surprised that a girl gets assaulted on national television and no one protects or defends her?