Science Experiment or Sacred Text?

It's 12:30am, and I'm sitting at my dinning room table listening to a Stephen King novel and drinking coffee.  I've been sick for about a week, and I have slept so much that I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight.  I'm just not tired.  I am, however, kind of upset.  

When I have nights like this, where sleep is all but possible, I usually grab my Bible, journal, and favorite pen and read and write until I feel my heart settle back into it's normal place and rhythm.  Tonight I did the same only to feel like I had been slapped in the face.  

When I grabbed my Bible out of my backpack where it lives, I saw that it was majorly water damaged.  Pages were stuck together and there even seemed to be mold growing on the edges.  Not jut dark spots, but actual, fuzzy, mold... What the hell did I do?!

A while back, while at work, I had gotten stuck in a torrential downpour at the Adventure Therapy camp we take our residents to.  It was a super cool day, though incredibly stressful.  We had hiked along a creek for over 2 miles, only to have the skies open up and dump rain on us.  We were drenched to the bone, and still had to hike back to our van to go back to the unit.  On our way back, one of our kids began to have an asthma attack.  She couldn't seem to catch her breath, and the rescue inhaler she used wasn't helping as much as we had hoped.  She was till having difficulty catching her breath, but was beginning to calm down when we all piled back into our van and started to head back to the unit.  About 10 minutes into our drive, one of the other girls told my coworker and I that the girl who had been having issues breathing wasn't waking up.  My coworker climbed into the back seat to check her, meanwhile I called 911.  To make a long story short, the girl was taken by squad to the hospital and given breathing treatments, but was, in the end, fine.  

After the chaos of that day, I never took my stuff out of my bag to dry.  This lead to my Bible now being more of a science project than a sacred text.

But, here is the thing; if this had happened a year ago, my Bible would never have stayed in my bag untouched this long.  It never would have had chance to grow anything.  A rolling stone gathers no moss, and a used Bible grows no mold.  So what does that say about my faith?

Is my faith moldy like my book it's based in?  Or is it just different than back in the days where my ministry was easier to see?  I'm leaning toward the later.  I mean, no, based on the cliche american christianity, my faith looks pretty shitty.  I don't go to church (I work Sundays), I rarely read my Bible (I just don't want to), I almost never listen to worship music, and I'm not really a part of your standard Christian fellowship.

I am, however, daily growing in the fruits of the spirit.  I couldn't have stayed at my job as long as I have if I wasn't experiencing God's Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.  I spend my days being threatened and cursed at by the kids I bend over backwards to love well.  And yet, I find myself still honestly wanting the best for them.  On my own, I'm an asshole... the only explanation for me keeping my cool over the last year and a half is Jesus.  

Like I talked about in my last post, I find God to be an artist.  Maybe I'm not listening to Contemporary Christian station on the radio much, but I am still worshiping him.  I've been painting and drawing more recently.  I will often get an image in my head and feel like there is something deeper there for me to learn from.  I have loved drawing a lion head recently, and every time I think about how God has turned my from a lamb, into a lion; taking me from being a bit of a doormat who anyone can walk on, to someone who stands up for herself when it's appropriate.  

I also think about how lions are pride driven, they do everything for their family.  They hunt together, sleep together, raise cubs together.  Right now, I'm in a period in my life where I am searching for my pride.  I'm building into new relationships at work, and still loving my boyfriend with everything I've got.  I've been spending time with family and friends, both new and old.  As time goes on, my tribe/pride/fellowship/whatever you wanna call it grows.

While my Bible may be moldy my faith is not.  Just like a rolling stone gathers no moss, it also has the imperfections knocked off it by the other rocks rolling down the same hill.  The Bible explains it saying "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17)  Bumping against the people in my life, the rough edges of my soul are honed and softened. 

If I had to chose between a moldy Bible or a moldy faith, I will always pick a moldy Bible.  I can always buy a new one.

Pinterest Night

Tonight was a good night.  Andrea came home for Thanksgiving break, and for the last week we have been planning a pinterest/movie night.  I wanted to make ornaments for my cousins this year, and thought that tonight would be the perfect night for that.  Turns out I was right.  So, with Elf in the DVD player and Andrea reciting every other line I set up my craft stuff.  

These are my (mostly) finished ornaments.

To make them I combined two different pinterest ornaments.  First I started with the Crayon Drip Ornament (found here).  To make them, you take a clear glass ornament and take the top part off.  Then you drop a couple chunks of crayons into them and use your hairdryer on high to heat up the crayon.  As the way melts turn the ornament to spread the color out.  Warning:  The ornaments get really hot so be sure you are moving them around a lot so you don’t burn yourself, and just use common sense.

After that part was done I felt like the ornaments didn’t look finished.  I really wanted to make them sparkly, so I followed the directions I pinned for the No-Mess Glitter Ornaments (found here).  Basically you take floor wax and coat the inside of the bulb, making sure you pour out the excess floor wax.  Then you put glitter in and shake until it is well coated.  The floor wax makes the glitter stay and since the glitter is inside the ornament there is pretty much no mess.  It’s a win-win.

While we watched the genius that is Elf, we also ate some Peppermint White Chocolate popcorn.  (Inspired by this)  The first two bags of popcorn I made were and epic fail.  The first was burnt and the second didn’t pop all the way.  I made Andrea make the next bag, and it turned out just right.  While the popcorn was in the microwave I unwrapped a handful of the peppermint kisses and tossed them in the popcorn when it was out and I put it in a bowl.  I mixed it all together while the popcorn was still hot.  We were all a little unsure about the popcorn before we tried it, but it was actually a lot better than we anticipated.  I was a fan.