Courage

Proudly Unpopular–Part 2

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In my last post I began talking about popular ideas, and I still had more to say, so I thought I’d make it a two-parter.

I established already my problem with what’s popular nowadays in my post Popular Stupidity. There’s plenty more to say about that. But something else has been on my mind lately.

As you all know, I’m a Christian. And sometimes I get a little preachy on this blog, because I am passionate about what I believe. Some of you may forgive me for it, some of you may not. This is not an apology. Anyway, if you’ll permit me to go off on a personal tangent, I’d like to talk about some of the misconceptions about Christianity that I notice people have.

Just to be fair, I will admit here that I had misconceptions about things Muslims believe that were altered when I read more about them. So, any faith can be misrepresented.

My main concern about western Christianity is that it’s gotten lost in the mumbo jumbo of pluralism.

Pluralism: A theory that there is more than one basic substance or principle.

I was watching a YouTube video that other day, talking about belief among other things, and I was unpleasantly shocked when I read in the comment section below people talking about the beliefs expressed in the video (and the material it was discussing) being “Obviously Christian.” This is why I was shocked. The views in question were that the Universe wants us to do the right thing, that Life knows what it’s doing, that  there is no right and wrong answer, etc.

All stuff I’ve heard before, but, it’s not Christian.

I fully expect my beliefs to be misrepresented by people who don’t hold them, and I’m not going to throw a hissy fit ever time they are. The problem this time was that people were calling something that was nowhere near Christianity “obviously Christian.”

I’ve probably already turned you off by starting a religious rant, you might say “just get over it.” And, hey, I will. But this isn’t about me.

You see, just because someone expresses a belief in a higher power on the air, does not make them a Christian. Even remotely. But the even bigger problem I have with it is that people actually think Universalism is compatible with Christianity.

Universalism: The doctrine that emphasizes the universal fatherhood of God, and the final salvation of all souls.

Universalism bears a slight resemblance to Christianity, in that it has a deity that directs us, and wants to see us all saved. Saved in what way I don’t know. I don’t know very much about the specifics of the belief, if it can be specific.

Let me say this clearly, Christianity does not teach that God is the Universe, or that all souls will be saved.

A clear contradiction of Universalism. Don’t get mad at me yet, I haven’t said which is better, only that there’s a difference.

A big difference. For one thing, if God actually was the universe, we, as part of the universe, would be a part of God, just by being born. Christianity teaches that we are not a part of God until we receive his son as our savior and our reborn. And then it is spiritual, not physical, as being part of the universe is.

For another, if all souls are saved, there is not need to be good, or to do right, or to seek truth, you are simply born into it.

I can see why this would be a very appealing substitute for Christianity. People may still hate it, but a lot fewer will, because it’s very inclusive, and a lot of different religions can identify with it.

Now to finally get to the unpopular part of this post. If you’re still reading by now, you must truly be interested, so thank you.

My Faith is not meant to be popular. If anyone who reads my blog hates it, that doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t even surprise me, because in our Bible, we are told “Don’t be surprised if the world hates you.” The world is anyone who is not a Christian, by the way. I’m sure people don’t like that Christianity is exclusive. Either you are one or you aren’t, if you aren’t; you’re lumped into the category of being in the “world.” I don’t judge you if you dislike that, it’s not a pleasant feeling.

But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. What’s bad is when Christians ourselves lose sight of what it means to be not of the world but still in it. I don’t hate non-Christians, I don’t feel threatened by them.

Here’s the  thing, Hollywood and every other place movies and shows come from, I don’t care whether my faith is on the air or not. I care about the people watching. Millions of people, everyday, who won’t go to church because they can hear what it’s like from TV, and they know it’s not for them. Do you know why I’m angry? Because when people don’t know what they actually hate, and hate it anyway, that leads to the worst kind of prejudice. The kind that hurts the person who holds it more than the objects of it, often enough.

Hate me for what I actually stand for, if you like, but not for what I don’t. The real Christian Faith, it’s unpopular. That’s why it’s not depicted correctly. People know their ratings will go down. But the shows aren’t what bug me, they’re just shows, what bug me are the ideas they spread that aren’t accurate. That goes for any idea, not just ones about religion.

Call me old fashioned, but I still believe accuracy is a huge factor in measuring the quality of something.

There’s still more to say about unpopularity, but I’ll stop for now. Thanks for reading, until next time–Natasha.

A day in the life

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I spent yesterday at Disneyland.

Wahoo! Right?

Well, not so much. I didn’t exactly have a bad time, but I didn’t have a great time either. The reason I’m bringing it up is that I’m adding it to my list. I have an imaginary list of things I’ve done this year that were new and also scary or just hard. here’s a few:

  1. I went to another country.
  2.  I taught in Sunday School more than as just a one-time thing.
  3. I wrote a challenging saga about something I like, but found difficult to get onto paper.
  4.  I went to Disneyland with an almost total stranger.

Here’s how it went down. My aunt has a foreign exchange student living with her, and she wanted him to get the chance to see Disneyland. She thought I might like to go. And after some hesitation I agreed. It wasn’t a smooth ride, because then she wasn’t sure we’d actually do it, finally it was settled that we would. And yesterday she dropped us off there. Where I live it’s been almost unusually cold this month and it was freezing at Disneyland. (Were any of my readers there I wonder?) the place was packed. I’ve been four times before I think, and I don’t remember it ever being so packed, but I never went on a holiday. The line to get in and get tickets was over an hour’s wait of standing around. Then we finally got in, and started walking around. But we went on one ride total, and the lines were so long on the others that we both didn’t feel up to it. We were exhausted by then. We ended up leaving at around 5:00pm, though we were supposed to stay later than that. On top of this, I lost one of the two things I bought. And it was the thing I got for myself.

So, a total bust right?

But that’s not to say I totally regret it. I maybe did not have a good day, but that wasn’t the only point for me. I wanted to challenge myself.

I’m the type of girl who’s terrified of being around a guy, alone, for any length of time–let alone all day. Of course there were crowds, but that only makes you feel a little safer. But I did not spend the day feeling afraid. I felt bored, tired, sad, but not afraid. If you’ve read some of my previous posts about my life, you’ll know that’s a big thing for me.

I used to ruin every fun event I went to by being  a nervous wreck the entire time. I am by nature an introvert, but I used to have it on steroids. Until I was at home and safe, I wouldn’t relax. I literally felt ill every time I was in an unfamiliar situation. People knew I was shy, but they probably never guessed exactly how much agony I was in. Talk about painful.

But that’s a thing of the past. I almost can’t remember it anymore.  As bad as yesterday was, compared to how my life used to be, it was great. I went from hiding from new things to embracing them. As much as I could.

I still get nervous, but it doesn’t rule me anymore. That’s a day in my life, doing things I once was afraid to do, and doing them because I want to or need to. I don’t always look at it that way of course, but sometimes I just have to stop and look back to where I was and be glad I’m not there anymore.

You must have those moments too, I’d love to hear about them, until next time–Natasha

Sample: Gandhi and government.

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I don’t know if any of you have ever wondered what kind of schoolwork I do, but this is a sample of the kind of essays I write for the class I’m taking on Leadership. This week’s topic was a speech by Gandhi given when he was being tried for his actions of inciting civil disobedience.

“But I hold it a virtue to be disaffected towards a government which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system…I consider it to be a sin to have affection for the system. And it has been a precious privilege for me to be able to write what I have in the various articles tendered against me.”–Gandhi

Why would Gandhi make a plea of being guilty? Because he considered it a sin to obey the law of the land in this instance. He adhered to this basic idea: If a government ever tells you to do something it would be wrong fro you to do as a citizen, then it is wrong, therefore you should not obey it.

I’ve read this idea in books and it makes sense to me because it’s not hard to see that the government functions like a person, in a sense. Civilization starts with one man making an agreement or partnership with another person. Hence the idea of citizen government: The kind of government run by citizens, that must be held to the same standard as an individual.  As a citizen you should not steal from; invade the privacy of; kill; maim; or in any way injure your neighbor. You should act with justice and mercy in doling out punishment to your children, your employees, or anyone under you; and never punish them for something they did not do, or more than fits the crime. So if the government condones or commands the doing of any of these things, it is in the wrong, and good people should not follow it.

Yet this does not draw the line clear enough. People have different ideas about what is right and wrong, our own country is pretty divided over it. I believe there is only one Right System of Values, though the living out of it may vary, and clearly, if two sides have completely different values, someone has missed the mark.

How can we know who is right? This is where the need for religion comes in. Yes, I mean it is a need. Gandhi himself believed religion is a part of politics, unquestionably. He believed that anyone who does not think this does not understand what religion is. I think what he meant was that religion shapes your world view. Your world view will certainly shape your political views. Your world view is not what you profess but what you truly live by; and the problem with modern politics is that we listen only to what people profess and do not examine what they’ve actually done. Gandhi’s whole life was an example of his world view and that was why people listened to him; and why he was so unashamed to state that he was guilty of the crimes they accused him of. Because, by his religion, they were not really crimes.

When we have a religion to go by, knowing what way to direct our politics becomes simpler. We have a right practice and a wrong practice, (any religion that does not have these is not worth believing in, it requires no effort.) It is best when the majority can agree about the right thing, but when the majority is in the wrong and hurting the minority, or vice versa, it is the duty of the other to stand up for themselves and change things. (As Thomas Jefferson so eloquently put in the Declaration of Independence.) Whether they use violence or nonviolence to do this depends on the people and on the situation, the important thing is for them to know that they have the ability and the right to do it.

Hakuna Matata

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I was thinking today about how much I used to worry about things. I worried constantly. about the weirdest stuff.

Here’s a list of some of the things:

Worrying about getting sick, even diseases that it would be very unlikely for me to get.

Worrying about a natural disaster occurring, even ones that don’t happen where I live.

Worrying about getting poisoned.

Worrying about ending up in the hospital.

Worrying about whether I was crazy or not.

Worrying about someone breaking into my house.

Worrying about villains from movies that aren’t actually real.

Worrying about criminals that are real.

I think that’s plenty, but there were more. As you can see some of my worries were irrational, and I knew they were. But one thing I’ve found out is that your mind doesn’t know the difference between a real threat and an imagined one. (At least the immature mind doesn’t. And your emotions never do.) But you know what? I’ll bet you’ve had some of those worries. Most of us do, or we have other irrational fears. If you don’t you’re very fortunate. My worrying was the result of my soul being enslaved to fear. To the point where if I wasn’t afraid of something, I was a little uncomfortable, because it was abnormal.

That was years ago, and it has taken me a long time to get free of fear. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can simply choose not to be afraid, if fear runs deep in you; the choice method only works if you are not a normally fearful person and your fear is on the surface. When fear is rooted in your personality, it has to be pulled out. That’s not to say it’s always painful. Often the answer is just to experience love. That wipes out a lot of fear. I know for a fact that until you’ve felt love, really felt it, you can not even begin to stand up to fear on your own. You might have a few victories, but you won’t really change your nature. Fear is not always something you can walk out of, sometimes you have to be pulled out of it.

Take Elsa from Frozen, she really wants to be free of fear, but eve though she sings an amazing song, and changes her image, and leaves behind her old life, the minute she has a reason, she becomes ensnared in her fear again. In fact she sings about it, with Anna:

Anna: For the first time in forever…

Elsa: Oh, I’m such a fool, I can’t be free!

Anna: You don’t have to be afraid.

Elsa: No escape from the storm inside of me!…I can’t control the curse….there’s so much fear…

Anna:…we can change this winter weather, and  everything will be all right.

Elsa: I can’t!!!

See? She can’t. There are probably other examples. If you’ve ever been so frustrated with someone who keeps backing down from challenges, even though they know they shouldn’t, they are probably afraid. If you have that problem, then you’re afraid of something. It’s okay, we’ve all been afraid.

But it’s not okay to live in fear. I think everyone would agree with me on this except people on TV. Have you noticed how popular it is to give in to fear on Television? It’s considered funny. People pass it off that way because they aren’t willing to try to be great. So they make mediocrity humorous. This is not to be cruel to people in the entertainment industry, most of them do it because it’s what is expected of them.

I was miserable as a fearful person. But I did not wake up one day and decide I would be brave. In fact, when I came to the breaking point, bravery was far from my mind. When I became a Christian, I had no thought of being brave. To be honest, I mostly felt sorry for myself, because its not like it was my fault I was cowardly. But there was just a little tiny part of me that finally said “Something is more important than fear.” At the time that something was not going to hell.( It’s a long story.) Since then I’ve decided other things are worth more than safety. But even one thing is enough to get you started. God does the rest.

The choice part comes in when you get scared again and have to keep making progress. It’s never your own power, it is only letting yourself be led.

This may sound nuts to anyone who does not believe in God. But I don’t believe there is another cure for chronic fear and worry syndrome. I will say that people have helped me as well, but you always have to be willing to open up to them enough so that they can help you. Worry is like any other addictive substance, it’s hard to kick, but once you do, you don’t want to go back. Here’s to being worry free!

Natasha

A stand?

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Whew! Election day is finally past. I’m not against elections, but all of them cannot have been as intense as this one was. I’m not unhappy with the results, but  I won’t go into that, I’m fairly certain everyone who reads my blog can guess my political positions. Anyway, what’s concerning me more is what to do now. Even when the person you wanted is elected, it’s not like some magic spell is going to suddenly give you a chance to do something with it.

I keep seeing and hearing about protests.

I remember when I was a few years younger, I might react like that.

It’s easy to react, and maybe the protesters honestly think they can help something by raising their voice.

I think that poses the more interesting question here. It would be easy to just shake my head at their antics, but what if they have a point? Isn’t it a free country?

This is where it gets more complicated. I like to say that freedom is not freedom without responsibility. A phrase I came up with to sum up my belief that unless you guard yourself, you’ll soon become enslaved to something, even if you don’t realize it. Like the words “I know I need to stop, but…” It’s denial. I support freedom in any area of life, but only if it’s used responsibly.

It’s a question I have to deal with a lot as I transition from minor to adult. What is just sass and disrespect, and what is a legitimate issue that I need to be more in control of if I’m going to learn. I don’t believe there’s an easy answer, because every situation is different when it comes to this. But I have some guidelines.

  1. If I am just raising my voice in anger, and fear, then it is not a stand; it is a plea. It may be a legitimate plea. I think people should be willing to listen to pleas, there may be a real neglect or abuse happening and it needs to be rectified. But, a plea does not deserve to be treated like a principle. A plea is, usually, simply what you, the plea-er, want. It’s not bad to get what you want on occasion, if it’s a good thing , but if you act like what you want is a law of life for the people around you, then they will laugh at you. And rightly so, because not a single one of us deserves that kind of preference
  2. Have I checked my facts? If what you are taking a stand on is something your really know nothing about, beyond what people have told you, the chances are you’ve been misinformed. The people I respect the most have sometimes given me faulty information, not intentionally , but because they were given false information, and so the story goes on. Even the best sources can have an incomplete picture so it’s good to go to more than one. I just had such an experience this past week.
  3. Am I considering the good of all? In  the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, one of them is “Think win–win.” It means you need to think about what’s best for everyone, yourself included, so that no one gets shortchanged. If we don’t practice this habit, someone is always oppressed, or just plain exhausted. Find things you can agree on with the other party.

If all these fail it may be the time to realize that not everything is worth making a fuss over. Some millennials are never told this, and some, like me, are told it but still have to really struggle to get it ingrained. It took me a long time to develop  thicker skin, I hope it takes other people less time. I am a sensitive person, but I’ve learned that I can’t use that as an excuse to get down every time someone does something I don’t like. And the miracle is, once you stop letting it get you down, often you stop noticing it period.

Since I’m running long, I’ll stop this here. If you have anything to add be sure and comment. I know I need this if nothing else. So maybe some meditation would behoove us all. Catch you later–Natasha.

SAMSUNG CSC

Bridge the gap.

Keep calm–it’s almost election time!!

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First, ahhhhhh!

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s talk.

I know putting anything political in a post is seen as begging for attention by a lot of people. But believe me, I’m more scared of people reading it than ignoring it. However I’ve been fortunate to receive no hate comments so far and that may continue if I’m lucky.

I have my pick of candidates but I won’t be voting, (I can’t,) so I basically am joining every other underage concerned teen in rolling my eyes half the time, and praying for the adults to make the right choice the other half. I think we ought to get some credit for keeping our sanity this time of year. Okay, that was kind of a joke.

Actually it’s alarming how few of us seem really invested in our country. How many voters vote based off their own research and study of the way this country is meant to run? Don’t most of them just watch the news and figure it out based on that? (Imagine me banging my head on the wall.) But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, I think most voters do want the best for the country, but half of us are clearly confused about what that is, I won’t say which half.

Of course the pressure is on, the rest of the world is watching us closely. Even though it’s a popular theme in song lyrics to welcome the attention of the whole world, has anyone ever seriously thought about how terrifying that is? Then we have the fatalists telling us it’s all over, and we (the younger generation) are doomed to pick up the pieces. And the slightly too cheerful folks who think that times have never been better. (Really?) And then there are those who fall in the middle. I think honestly we’re all tired of hearing about change and never seeing it, and hearing about problems but never about them getting any better. I doubt that statistics are a reliable source anyway, problems get better one person at a time, one day at a time, one choice at a time.

The election is a formality, the problems are already there, and until the nation changes, the politics won’t. The real issue you won’t hear about on the news is that people are out of touch with America’s roots. We don’t know what we don’t know. We might all know something about the rights we were given. (Given by who? The government? Or God?) But do we know how those rights are preserved? Or how we decided who deserved them?

I don’t fear the election as much as I fear overall ignorance of the truth. I’ve always thought that a powerful leader is only powerful as long as other people follow them, when people stop following them there’s nothing much they can do anymore.

We need strong-hearted, large-souled, men and women of courage and character. That’s our fix.

So no, I won’t be endorsing a particular candidate, because it’s more important that we stop being selfish, and start thinking about what is best for everyone. That’s how we survive and overcome a crisis, every time. ( And faith is a huge part of that for many.)

This post was suggested by one of my siblings, and I’d been intending to write it anyway, so I hope it was enjoyed. Until next time–Natasha.