Family of God

As christians we often refer to being like a family- but what does that even mean?
What did family mean when the bible was written?
Do don't think many of us (or me) fully understand what this means.


All these efforts and defenses over defending the tradional family model in society- almost seems to me to be stubbornly holding on to an ideal which has no biblical relivance. (not having a go at the ideal of marriage) But the whole couple and kids in one house as a family and thats it really doesn't seem very biblical to me- perhaph that comes from my experiences of family, which is very inclosed with the majority of extended family overseas and not much neighbourly interaction with numerouse wars occuring at different times.

This could just be me dreaming, but I think biblical family is more inclusive and extended, where there is much more interaction between and within communities. While we spend so much time perfecting our little families and homes which we come back to, to escape our 'hard lives' and occationally invite others to enter our 'world'- we're missing out on what family truely means. I think people living in a slum have a greater understanding of family than we ever will. when your forced to live with people, unrelated, annoying, but having to rely and living through and sharing the same situations and looking out for each other whether your blood related or not- thats family.

Any thoughts?

Love as communication

IF 'God is Love'- 1Jn 4:16
Then is love the best way of communicating God to others- like a universal language which transcents our normal and heavily relied apon that when people can't speak or communicate in our ways we find it hard to communicate with them in general.
Remember on a trian in Germany when I was 12 sharing a box (it was an old fashioned styled train) with a Germany lady, having a really good conversation with her through my limited German speaking ablilties and her limited English and a lot of facial expressions and actions and finding other ways to communicate.
But how do you communicate God to people who are deaf, blind, dumb (can't speak) and spastic? Love?
Then that opens the 'what is true Godly love'? and the fact that we all tend to have our own interpretations of words inc. the word love- but maybe thats not a bad thing as I don't know that one simple four letter word can really describe what 'God is love' means. Gods placed me here with my understandings of love and the ablilty to reach out and love these people so thats what I'm going to do.

Search for 'perfection'

Gill and I went to our boxing class last night at the gym. The room was incredably hot and smelt of sweat from the last class and I don't think I've ever sweated that much before in my life- but I was also feeling really fit and doing really well, not to mention getting so much better at some of those bags that drive me nuts- there's one that you've just got to hit so fast that it doesn't have a chance to move at stupid angles! But after about 40 mins I started feeling sick but apart from a few quick breaks and drinks I pushed on. When we were done I asked Gill to get my stuff and I had to go outside- and ended up vomiting in the garden- as much as I'd like to pretend it was because I worked out so hard- think it was more the fact that I'd just eated dinner 30min before boxing, so I really don't reconmend it to anyone. at the risk of being skinny from working out and vomiting I came home and made up for it by eating a bowl of ice-cream in front of the TV.

On camp I ended up having to think about why I go to the gym. One of our studies was on 'the search for perfection' and had all these pics of skinny models in mags etc. As much as girls are pushed towards physical perfection and thats become such a big issue in the media etc. I also think guys feel the pressure too but it's more covered up. So many times at the gym you see these guys in their tank tops spending hours at the weights area- it's such an obsession, (also think there are non-physical measure of 'perfection' that society pressures to the point of obsession but thats another 10 posts).
So why do I go to the gym? initally it was the social aspect of going to the gym with Mich who after spending almost everyday of our lives together through school and church stuff at the end of school we hardly ever got to spend time together except if we went to the gym. Find it a really bonding time :) I now also go with Gill for the same reason. Then dad got us a family membership, so I also go because of a feeling that I should because dads paid for it (by the way- if you want to come with I can get you in cheaper b/c I'm a member- and we can bond at the gym!!). And there's always the fitness element- don't think much of the gym untill Mich got me into it prefering group sports etc. but it's just as good a way to keep fit and I don't mind going by myself so much.
As for aiming for physical perfection- i don't even know what that means or if there is such a thing and I doubt that being obessed at the gym or where ever would ever help me reach it so I don't much care. I just don't want to die prematurely of a hart attack while I continue to eat like a man.

Simpsons turn Muslim

Saw on SBS world news last night that the Simpsons are having a make over to better appeal to a Muslim audience. Apparently to try and attract the younger generation and creat more positive feelings between Islam and America.
Now that almost sounds like properganda to me and the fact that it's aimed towards young people doesn't help- if I was in their situation I think I'd be upset. But when you think of it, the Simpsons generally take the piss out of American/ western culture anyway so I'm not sure how they expect the show to be a positive impact.
In a subject at uni we looked at Terrorism a bit and one theory suggests that terrorists are reacting against humiliation and whats needed is respect on both sides and forgiveness. If this is correct then I don't really see how sending a revised version of the Simpsons is really going to help.

That, and a Homer who doesn't drink beer or eat pork just isn't the Homer we all love. The show is so American that I don't think change a few things is going to help an Islamic culture relate to Homer and the other characters. They might as well leave Homer the way he is and allow another culture to laugh at him and our culture as much as we do.

The End

Today was Gills last day of Vermont Secondary College!!- congrates!

Took her up early for the yr 12 brekky and then back up for her yr 12 concert. Still some many bad acts with the worst often being the funniest! And the teachers act was good as every- seeing all my old teachers in School uniform and the men bending over to reveal boxers hanging out aka the fashion for guys when I was in yr 10-11! very funny stuff and ah Lewy- such a funny little man(this will only mean something to Mich and any other Vermontians). And while I'm on the in house memories- Dwyer and Wisey haven't changed at all those men just don't age- I reckon Dwyer must be 102 now but he still looks just as I remember him.

So I ended up spending half the day up at the school with the yr 12's, doing a pizza run at lunch with a car full.

Gills last week has reminded me about my last days at high school- and I just remember being so excited about leaving that when everyone else around me were balling their eyes out I just didn't get it- it wasn't that I'd hated school or anything, I think I was just ready to leave and move on.
Now next week is my last offical week of being an undergrad at Monash and I enjoyed my time there- the coffee's and muffins at the Den, all us muso's haging out in the court yard, the fact that in the 3 yrs I been there not once have all the ecelators in the Menzies been working!!- that building is falling apart- as the scaffolding around the building proves. Also the fact that despite having PHD's lecturers never know how to work the computer and video equipment.
Have no idea where I'll be next year which is both a exciting and scary thought- but I'm not that scared of change and once again it's time to move on.

God's love and perfection

Found this story in a pamphlet written by Dick Innes and I guess it resonates with me through experiences as work and SCOPE.

'The following story written by Rabbi Paysach Krohnm, is reported to be true......
At a fund-raising dinner of a Jewish-sponsored school that caters to learning-diabled children, the father of one student delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.
After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, 'Where is the perfection in my son? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God's perfection?' the audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish and stilled by the piercing query.
'I believe,' the father answered, 'that when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to the child.'
He then told the following story about his son: 'One agternoon my son and I were walking past a park where some boys Shane knew were playing baseball. "Do you think they will let me play?" my son asked. I knew that he was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But, if he was chosen to play, it would give him a comfortale sense of belonging.
'I approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shane could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his team- mates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning." I was ecstatic as Shane smiled broadly.
'Shane was told to put on a glove and go out to play centre field. In the bottom of the eighth inning, his team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, SHane's team scored again and now with two outs and bases loaded, with the potential of a winning run on base, Shane was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let him bat at this point and give away their chance to win the game?
'Surprisingly, Shane was given the bat. Everyone knew that it was all but inpossible because he didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However, as Shane stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps forward to lob the ball softely so Shane should at least be able to make contact.
The first pitch came in and Shane swung clumsily and missed. One of his team-mates came up to Shane and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shane. As the pitch came in, Shane and his team-mate swung the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily have thrown it to the first baseman. Shane would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.
Instead the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond the reach of the first baseman. Everyone started yelling, "Run to first! Run to first!" Never in his life had he run to first. Shane scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown it to the second baseman who would tag Shane out. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third basman's head.
'Everyone yelled "Run to second! Run to second!" Shane ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shane reached second base, the opposing short-stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third!"
As Shane rounded thrid, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, "Run home, Shane, run home!" Shane ran home, stepped on home plate and all eighteen boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team.
'That day,' said the father with tears now rolling down his face, 'those eighteen boys reached their level of God's perfection.'


-Something so small can mean so much- in choir at high school and near the end of each year we'd go to a nursing home and side old songs with the people living there. Think I was in year 8 and there was a French man that lived there who couldn't speak english, but he really got into the music and us singing etc. When we were leaving I asked a friend who did French at school what goodbye in French was and so I went up to him and said whatever goodbye is in french. At that he had tears in his eyes and kissed me on the cheek, I was in shock, something so meaningless and small to me meant so much to him.
This sunday I finally decided to come to morning church while really not feeling like I could be bothered. So turned up slightly late but when I walked in had little Rebecca running up to me wanting me to pick her up and cuddle her- instantly I felt welcome and at that moment something so small meant so much to me- We search so hard for wisdom and answers in church in all the big issues and problems but I think we (or me at least) find so much of God's love and perfection in the small things that are so often forgotten.

Wayne's World! :)

Wayne asked my opinion about a name for his new blogspot and after he rejected my 'Wayne's World' suggestion, I promised I'd post any creative ideas.
Well really I've had none and it's not like I came up with anything very creative for my own- but wanting Wayne to get started I'll give it a go-

Waynes Life- you me and Linda could make a series!!
Waynes cynical thoughts :)
Thoughts of a realist
Waynamus the Great

and thats all I've got so I'm relying on your comments to help Wayne out!

Market

I'm finally going to check out Waynes stall at the Baysie market on Sat. So if anyone wants to join me or get a lift-happy to do!

The Search

Some people search for God and answers through gaining knowledge and reading the bible.

Yeah, well I don't- dosen't mean I'm not searching. I'm very much a person who has to experience something before truly learning anything (I'm very good at learing and memorizing a whole heap of facts and then forgetting most of them after the test- but that's not what I'm talking about). I really struggle to just read the bible and learn anything- I'm not at all saying I think the bible is irrelevant because I don't. For me I have to think about my own experiences and relate that to the bible and learn from it that way- and then I often find that what the bibles been saying all along only just makes sense to me. Maybe life would be easier if I could search through the bible but for me I need to search through life and come back to the bible to reflect on my own experiences.
On camp esp. in small group my responses and dicussion were all my experiences where as someone else had a bible verse or story for everything- I admire that but I work the other way around. It's probably something I should work on and try to find more of a balence by just reading the bible and taking it for what it is but I also know that I'm more likely to forget that way.

Camp Post

ok, here's the long awaited camp post. Just some of my memories of youth 1 2005, in dot point form and more for myself than anything but thats ok.

-bus trip down was long as always but it's a really good time to meet everyone and this year I managed to meet everyone
-the leaders room has new couches that are comfy enough to sleep on- so much better than the couches last year which I know from experience where not comfy enough to sleep on.
-kids totally did not respect the 'stay out of the leaders room' rule and leaders (well me mainly with Keir always having a go at me) getting over talling them to get out, now all the kids on camp know about the spa in the leaders room ;)
-Roh helping out with the art elective and saving the art elective because art is not one of my strengths.
-my small group was really open from day one, not sure if it was because we were all girls, asking heaps of great questions and helping each other out with discussions and stuff- I learnt heaps to
-Linda and her worn undies all around my bed
-Nicole T is stronger the Jono, Roh and me put together, Hannah is smarter than Jono, Roh and me put together!
-Linda and her used hanky and clothes all over my bed when I came into the cabin wanting to go to sleep
-Mark and I staying up till 2:30am to organise weds amazing race and leaving the other leaders a note and a to do list telling them to have fun running the race and Mark and I would see them on thurs- didn't happen!
-night walk to the waterfall
-Calabs song at the waterfall
-having a great chat to Jono about stuff on the walk back to camp
-Linda and our 'sexy' tranpoline dance
-running up to Roh with a water bomb and bursting it all over both of us
-great small group
-playing the love % game in small group and God and Jono getting 32%
-Linda and Em dancing around the cabin when everyone else had gone to sleep
-Calab should not be allowed near a footy!!
-onions!
-the story game and Lukes and Kellys faces- I have photos!
-Loz falling our of the trolly and smashing her head
-Arnie falling over- the entire video
-Calab the dancing garden knome
-Halls gap is still the bomb diggity and Jesus is the bling bling
-the dance and art electives where great too!!
-lying in bed with Linda and Em sitting on me and chatting about stuff- seriously thought we'd all fall asleep like that
-Em creeping up to me while in bed and scaring me which in turn scared her and we both ended up screaming at each other
-Muck up-ah the fun-then Kelly and me having to do hair inspections to get all the dough out of our hair in the showers
(that last point sounds wronge but is totally inocent-we were dressed, just like my telling Jono he'd tempted me- he'd tempted me to buy an ice cream and that was it!!)
-Linda and the coffee incident- don't ever do that to me again!
-Eloise and me having issues with gaffa tape- Jono to the rescue
-Calab renames Hall gap- Halls gaffa
-fish and chips in newspaper on the floor with jugs of warm/hot water-Keir ya wimp!- drink whats given to you
-mocktails with fake coconut milk
-question time at the camp fire
-Mafia cheats at the camp fire
-Linda and Em eating 3 straight teaspoons of coffee because they wanted to stay up all night (both were in my cabin) next year the coffee will be confiscated!!
-great chat with Emily about stuff
-staying up with my cabin writting warm fuzzies till 2am
-making Linda and Em who were still psycho on coffee move into the spare cabin and 'I don't care if your board it's your own fault for eating coffee'.
-joining the rest of the leaders writting warm fuzzies in the leaders room till 4am when I finally finished.
-seeing all the kids eat lunch on the last day as one big group, no one was at all left out
-kids taking group photos while the leaders finished cleaning up- great to see!!

So many more memories but that would take ages to write
Hopefully I'll get round to posting on what I learnt from small group and Jono

Sports Therapy

Working at the sports centre on sun and some of the cricket guys turned up for a practice so Fitchy makes me clean and dry all the dishes while he has a beer at the bar with them. So I had them all sitting out there laughing at me and calling me 'cute'- Fitchy is so lucky he's moving to England cos' he deserves a good tea towel wipping!!
( and just a quick 'totally off the topic moment'- I really don't appreciate being labled cute- I'm cute because I don't smoke, I'm cute because I've never had a bong, I'm cute because I'm not going out with anyone, I'm cute becuase I don't get drunk every weekend and now I'm cute because I end up cleaning dishes while the boys have a beer- I'm sick of being 'CUTE'!!!)
Anyway, how that I've got that out of my system, while the guys were picking on me and just being annoying (feminists would be turning in their grave at the sight- but at least I was getting paid!) they reminded me of my sports therapy theory (although I doubt I'm the 1st person to think of it). I reckon sports and being part of a sports team can be theraputic in a similar way to music therapy (I'm sick of trying to explain that one -so try googling it or something or ask me when I'm not is such a intolerant mood). The guys at work are great mates with each other because they rely and work together as a team, then have a beer to gether and laugh at mim together and have all their nick names for each other etc.
But it's the same with trying to get the kids to play a team sport together- there's always the kids whose not so good as the others but usually, often with my persausion, the other kids include them and learn to work together as a team- building the other kids confidence and really they usually end up playing better than you first expect.
So thats why I have a Sports therapy theory - something I wouldn't mind developing and researching in the future- but I think I'll stick to music therapy first as I'm currently more talented at music sport- and my music mates are yet to call me 'cute'!

funness

Just a quick post to say- life is so much fun!!

For any fans of Beer out there- went to the new switch grill bar last night and they had heaps of different beers from almost every country in the world! Would take me at least 10yrs to try them all- due to my 2 drinks a night rule (just like my no coffee after 6pm rule- no real reason for but to prove to myself that I can have some self- discipline) and now that I'm still on my P's and don't have Mich as my personal Taxie anymore!! If anything there where too many to chose from and the guys wheren't any help (Mich- I think I've become dependent on you deciding all my dinning and drinks decisions!).

Also had a uni mates 22 B'day thing on thurs night and after dinner we all went back to his and ended up playing the game Mafia till 3am- and we could have kept going! I now understand why the kids on camp were playing it till 1am! Funny how some of the best times are just doing such simple things with people almost to the point of obsession, late at night! Camp leaders retreat this year we ended up playing uno till 4am and it was such a great bonding experience!! -and then the last night of camp we were all up till 4am again writing warm fuzzies.

Also funny to see how diff people behave- Mark and I started organising weds full day amazing race activity the night before- and by 2:30 in the morning Mark was completely falling asleep- whereas I'd gone past the completely tired stage and was in sleep deprived hyper mode. So was making paper planes, making my 'to do lists' and testing out all the activities including bowling with coconuts and drink bottles around the leaders room. Some of my best work happens in these states but I do pay for it later as anyone who saw me on the thurs is well aware of.