no one has it all figured out

There are Christians who:

Believe the Holy Bible does not contain the Apocrypha. Do not believe in the Trinity. Believe Mary stayed a virgin. Believe woman today should wear skirts and have long hair. Believe tattoos and piercings are sinful or even open the door to demonic curse. Believe once saved, always saved. Are democrats. Believe we should confess our sins to a Priest. Believe the Holy Bible does contain the Apocrypha. Believe that people who are gay are going to hell. Believe that people who are gay aren't automatically going to hell, but are living in sin that is greater than most other sins. Believe that it is not a sin to be gay. Believe you can lose your salvation. Are pro-life. Believe everything is predestined by God. Believe the KJV is the only real Bible translation. Are racist. Do not believe woman should be pastors. Have a woman pastor. Voted for Obama. Believe you must be baptized to be saved. Believe drinking alcohol is sinful. Believe being a glutton is sinful (oh wait, no, that's no one really).

I could go on, but hopefully you get my point. There are people who identify as believers in Jesus Christ who believe differently than you. And before you say it, I know. They are misguided. You've studied, you've prayed, God has spoken to you. You know the Truth. Guess what? They are saying the same thing right now, too.  Everyone thinks they are right. That's why they believe it- because they think it's true. There are very smart, studied people on each end of the spectrum. 

So where does that leave us? I honestly don't know. And that's what I'm learning. That I don't know A LOT. That doesn't mean I stop trying to learn. That doesn't mean I stop caring. It means I do the best I can. I read the Word and study and come to the best conclusion that I can. I decide for myself what I believe. But when someone believes differently, in grace and humility I listen. I mean, really listen to what they have to say. If I still disagree, that's okay.

I know you've studied. I know you are passionate about what you believe. I know you want to advocate what you believe to be the Truth. And maybe you are right about a lot of it. But, here's the thing. You are probably wrong about something. Can you honestly say that you think are are right about everything?? If so, I would love to have a chat with you because that is quite an accomplishment!! And I've never met anyone that was always, 100% of the time right. So I would love to meet you. However, if not, think about it. You are wrong about something. One of those beliefs that you hold so tightly and advocate so firmly, you are probably wrong about one of them. At least one of them. If that does not cause us to step back in humility and grace, then I'm at a loss. I no longer know what to say to you. And it probably wouldn't matter.

No one has it all figured it. An honest admission of that can only lead to humility.


And posting the lyrics to this song again, This Side of Heaven by Chris August.

Everyone’s got their own opinions
There’s nothing they don't know about
But in the end nobody's winning
'Cause nobody's got it figured out

[Chorus:]
Oh the things we think we know
But honestly we really don’t
This side of heaven
Save the worry, stop the hate
It doesn't matter anyway
This side of heaven

You can make your own decision
You can write it on a sign
But when it feels like something’s missing
Listen up and I'll tell you why

[Chorus]

I remember how He showed me
Love is first above all
And that judgment should come slowly
'Cause we all have our faults

scrap wood

I found a piece of wood laying by a trash can... picked it up and turned it into this! It had a couple nails and screws in it, I look those out and cleaned it up. I used a bar of soap to help fill the holes. I had seen that on Pinterest... it worked pretty well, but I had a hard time covering the soap with the acrylic paint I used. I watered down some brown paint and started with a layer of that to darken the wood. I also added a tiny bit of water to the teal and lightly painted that on... purposefully leaving spots where you could see the brown through it. I free-handed the letters on with pencil and filled with paint. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! Now I just need to get some picture hangers and get it put up! 

The quote is the name of a movie, "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You"... I fell in love with it. I'm not convinced it's a fact yet, but I'm hopeful. 

canvas, book pages and mod podge

I like the way both of these turned out, though they aren't very smooth. I didn't put mod podge on the canvas first, I put the pages down first so I could arrange them the way I wanted. then I simply painted the mod podge on top. that causes the wrinkles though, so in the future, I think I'll put mod podge on the canvas first, then just be careful about how I lay the pages out. 

for the first one, I took Bible pages all with verses about love. I highlighted those verses with a watered down yellow paint. I also watered down the teal paint a bit as the background, the. just free handed "love deeply" on. I want to work on my lettering!

used the same method of mod podging book pages onto canvas. I had some wooden words I had picked up at a craft store, laid them on the canvas and sprayed painted over. peeled off the words, and voila. I also painted the sides of the canvas to give it a little more color and splattered on a bit of yellow. 

from mission work to crafting

In the past, the main purpose of this blog was to share my adventures in mission work while I lived in Haiti. It wasn't always about Haiti. Sometimes I posted random thoughts and musings. However, now I'm no longer living in Haiti, just back to regular ol' life in Southern Indiana. But I have a new hobby. I've started crafting. While I've always loved to draw, I've never thought of myself as artsy. And I'm still not really. But I love trying. Sometimes I spend hours on something and it's a flop. And sometimes, I'm proud of the end results. I'm going to start sharing my attempts at being crafting here on the blog!

To start with, here are two random, simple beginning works.

I started with a piece of cloth from an old shirt. Painted on the squares and sewed around them. My sewing machine was snagging a bit, so it didn't turn out perfectly. Printed out the quote on regular computer paper and sewed it on as well!

I special greeting card that I wanted to hang on to, so I decided to make something with it. I cut off the back of the card, and glued the front to a couple different pieces of collaged scrapebook paper. Then I loosely glued it to the brown piece just to hold it in place and stitched it on. I really like the effect that gave it! Hot glued on the buttons to give it a little extra texture. Framed it without glass.