Celibacy in the Suburbs...

{thanks, Blogger, for losing my post on the one day I happen to update my blog in over a month, and for making BF go looking for it for me, the tech-genius he is.  And by "thank you" I mean "Grrrr."}

Trying to find blog direction these days is difficult. With that being said, I've been meaning to use this post title for a very long time. It's been waiting patiently in the recesses of my mind, and today I'm finally employing it:


According to the world, hereafter personified as "World," I've done things wrong-- all wrong. World must look at me with a cocked eyebrow and say, "Ooooookayyyyy??"

Let's start with my choice of education and career:

World suggests you get into the very best institution you can for the purpose of doing as well as you can so you will make as much money as you can. Ivy League is preferred; state institutions are acceptable. Even some high-profile private Christian universities are sometimes nothing to sneeze at.... Hey World, how do you feel about a tuition-paid Bible Institute that's not accredited? That's what I thought. Even my high school guidance counselor advised against it. I went to a Christian high school.

With a high college GPA, World might believe that I should have pursued a career that would rake in the Benjamins, that would fill my sweaty little palms with cold, hard, cash. Legal, medical, business, design-- all are acceptable career paths. Let me ask you, World, do you think I should get a degree in elementary education and become a teacher at a tiny Christian school, making half of what a public school teacher makes? Yikes, World, you don't have to yell.

Or take my location. I grew up just outside a hub. Not just a U.S. hub, but a world hub-- Chicago. World would say that the networking, culture, and high life are all at my feet in that city. But what would you say, World, if I told you I wanted to move to a coastal town in central Florida? Listen, I know we differ in opinions, but you don't have to be rude about it.

Now let's get down to the nitty gritty, as my friend Nacho Libre likes to say.

While World nods its head in silent agreement with Sex in the City, I am living celibacy in the suburbs. World says to date as many men as possible to determine if one of them is "the One." Break a few hearts-- it's empowering! Get your heart broken once or twice-- it gives you wise life experience! Date for fun-- see what you can get out of it! Hey World, you need to know that I have turned down a couple people for dates. Not because the sight of them made me nauseated, or because they lived in their parents' basement as hermits, or because of body odor, but because I knew they weren't marriage material. That's right, I said marriage. I was friends with guys instead, and knew before I even started dating that I could potentially marry that man. There is wisdom in not getting my heart broken, and not breaking the hearts of others, and dating is not about what I can get out of it, but what I can do to love him and honor Him.

World, I know you think I should sleep with my boyfriend because it's just "the thing to do," and "everyone does it," and "it's fun," and "what if he's bad in bed?" Guess what, World-- I'm waiting until I'm married to do that. Pick your jaw up off the floor-- that's unbecoming. While you revel in titilating stories of conquest and walks of shame, I have chosen abstinence. Not because I delight in depriving myself or making life difficult, though difficult it may be, but because God told me that's how it should be, and because of His faithfulness, I trust and obey that. Plus, World, bonus: I'm disease and pregnancy free, so take that with your outbreak of herpes!

And World, when the time comes for me to get married and start a family, you would say that I need to find a fulfilling career away from my family, or I'll "lose myself." Well let me tell you, being a wife and mother will be my dream job. And while I won't be a prisoner in my home, I will revel in my marriage and motherhood because that is fulfilling.

Please don't mistake this post as a self-righteous soap box. It's just a reminder that as a believer, I need to not be conformed to the world but transformed, and that World's view of life is not God's view of life and therefore not my view of life.

So while World might sit around a diner table with its girlfriends and talk about things that might make my grandmother's eyes cross, I think I'll opt for sitting around a Panera table with my girlfriends and talking about things that makes my God smile.

Reaching the (Supposedly Reached) Unreached...

There is a people group that are being ignored by the Christian masses. This group is not located in a distant jungle, atop a mountain, the remote tundra, or the epic desert. The group to which I am referring is the civilized western Europeans.

Despite the rich and legendary Christian threads woven into their tapestry, these countries have effectively eliminated God from their lives, leaving less than 1% of born-again believers among most European countries. That means that most African and Middle-Eastern countries have a higher percentage of Christians than the European countries which have taken their religious freedom for granted for centuries.

The Irish (despite their St. Patrick, who brought Christianity to the Celtic pagans) have a cover of Catholic religiosity and Protestant violence, but the brokennes, alchoholism, and emptiness hangs over the country as thick as the fog that hangs over the fields.

The German (despite being the birthplace of the Reformation) have all but abandoned their heritage of Christianity in favor of Post-Modernism.

The French, the Italian, the Greek... all of these countries are united in more than their currency system. They have abandoned the faith they once had, and because they are not a third-world country, because they speak a recorded language, and because they have the freedom to believe in Christianity if they choose, they are ignored.

I would even go so far as to say that some Christians turn their nose up to those who would be missionaries in Europe, as if they "can't take the heat," or are looking for a posh assignment in missionary-dom. That kind of attitude is ridiculously uncalled for and ungodly. As if those in Europe didn't need the gospel as much as someone in the Congo. I believe the great commission told believers to go into ALL the world, not just the remote corners. The missionary to Europe faces different challenges than his brother in the Amazon, but they are challenges just the same. Hearts are hard, probably harder than most. Europeans are well-off, and believe they have all they need-- why come to Christ? They argue with intellectual stubbornness that an aboriginal tribe wouldn't possess.

This is a frustration of mine, this is a passion of mine. This is something I want to see change.