I love C.S. Lewis

I realized the other day that many of my posts are just me retyping parts of my favorite publications... yet they say things so well I could not put them any better! So, at the risk of breaking copyright once again... here are the first two chapters of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (did you know his real name is Clive!?! I wonder if Clive Owen was named after him...he's the only other Clive i know... any ways his full name is hilarious! Clive Staples Lewis haha I'd go by C.S. too but anyways)... amazing stuff... if you like what you hear you'll just have to go out and get it for yourself :o) (see it was more like a plug for the book than a pirating of the book haha)

p.s. I would advice reading this when you have a good amount of time. The transcription of this excerpt from book to Word took up over 5 pages...just a heads up...

Mere Christianity
by C.S. Lewis

1 – The Law of Human Nature

“Every one has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say. They say things like this: ‘How’d you like it if anyone did that same to you?’-‘That’s my seat, I was there first’ – ‘Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you any harm’-‘Why should you shove in first?’-‘Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine’-‘ Come on, you promised.’ People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated, and children as well as grown-ups.
Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man’s behavior does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior, which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies: ‘To hell with your standard.’ Nearly always he tries to make put that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, of that if it does there is some special excuse. He pretends there is some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat first should not keep it, or that things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange, or that something has turned up which lets him off keeping his promise. It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behavior or morality of whatever you like to call it, about which they really agreed. And they have. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals, but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the word. Quarrelling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you and her had some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are, just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer had committed a foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football.
Now this Law or Rule about Right and Wrong used to be call the Law of Nature. Nowadays, when we talk of the ‘laws of nature’ we usually mean things like gravitation, or heredity, or the laws of chemistry. But when the older thinkers called the Low of Right and Wrong ‘ the Law of Nature’, they really meant the Law of Human Nature. The idea was that, just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation, and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law- with this great difference, tat a body could not choose whether it obeyed the law of gravitation or not, but a man could choose either to obey the Law of Human Nature of to disobey it.
We may put this in another way. Each man is at every moment subjected to several different sets of law but there is only one of these which he is free to disobey. As a body, is he subjected to gravitation and cannot disobey it; if you leave him unsupported in mid-air, he has no more choice about falling than a stone has. As an organism, he is subjected to various biological laws which he cannot disobey any more than an animal can. That is, he cannot disobey the laws which he shares with other things; but the law which is particular to his human nature, the law he does not share with animals or vegetables or inorganic things, is the one he can disobey if he chooses.
This law was called the Law of Nature because people thought that every one knew it by nature and did not need to be taught it. They did not mean, of course, that you might not find an odd individual here and there who did not know it, just as you find a few people who are colour-blind or have not ear for a tune. But taking the race as a whole, they thought that the human idea of decent behavior was obvious to every one. And I believe they were right. If they were not, then all the tings we said about the war were nonsense. What was the sense in saying the enemy were in the wrong unless Right is a real thing which the Nazis at bottom knew as well as we did and ought to have practiced? If they had had no notion of what we mean by right, then, though we might still have had to fight them, we could no more have blamed them for that then for the colour of their hair.
I know that some people say the ideas of a Law of Nature or decent behavior known to all men is unsound, because different civilizations and different ages have had quite different moralities.
But this is not ture. There have been differences between their moralities, but these have never amounted to anything like a total difference. If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own. Some of the evidence for this I have put together in the appendix of another book called The Abolition of Man; byt for our present pupose I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five. Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to –whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or every one. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired. Men have different as to whether you should have one wife of four. But they have always agreed that you must not simply have any woman you liked.
But the most remarkable this is this. Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking on to him he will be complaining ‘It’s not fair’ before you can say Jack Robinson. A nation may say treaties don’t matter; but then, next time, they soil their case by saying that the particular treaty they want to break was an unfair one. But if treaties do not matter, and if there is not such things as Right and Wrong- in other words, if there is no Law of Nature- what is the difference between a fair treaty and an unfair one? Have they not let the car out of the bag and shown that, whatever they say, they really know the Law of Nature just like anyone else?
It seems, then we are forced to believe in a real Right and Wrong. People may be sometimes mistaken about them, just as people sometimes get their sums wrong; but they are not a matter of mere taste and opinion any more than the multiplication able. Now if we are agreed about that, I go on to my next point, which is this. None of us are really keeping the Law of Nature. If there are any exceptions among you, I apologies to them. They had much better read some other book, for nothing I am going to say concerns them. And now, turning to the ordinary human being who are left:
I hope you will not misunderstand what I am going to say. I am not preaching, and heaven knows I do not pretend to be better than anyone else. I am only trying to call attention to a fact that this year, or this month, or more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people. There may be all sorts of excuses for us. That time you were so unfair to the children was when you were very tired. That slightly shady business about the money – the one you have almost forgotten- came when you were very hard-up. And what you promised to do for old so-and-so and have never done-well, you never would have promised if you had known how frightfully buy you were going to be. And as for your behavior to your wife (or husband) or sister (or brother) if I knew how irritation they could be, I wound not wonder at it – and who the dickens am I, anyway? I am just the same. That is to say, I do not succeed in keeping the Law of Nature very well, and the moment anyone tells me I am not keeping it, there starts up in my mind a string of excuses as long as your arm. The question at the moment is not whether they are good excuses. The point is that they are one more proof of how deeply, whether we like it or not, we believe in the Law of Nature. If we do not believe in decent behavior, why should we be so anxious to make excuses for not having behaved decently? The truth is, we believe in decency so much – we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so- that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bed behavior that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.
These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human being all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.

2 – Some Objections

If they are the foundation, I had better stop to make that foundation firm before I go on. Some of the letter I have had show that a good many people find it difficult to understand just what this Law of Human Nature, or Moral Law, or Rule of Decent Behavior is.
For example, some people wrote to me saying, ‘Isn’t what you call the Moral Law simply our heard instinct and hasn’t it been developed just like all our other instincts?’ Now I don now deny that we may have a heard instinct; but that is not what I mean by the Moral Law. We all know what it feels like to be prompted by instinct-by mother love, or sexual instince, or the instinct for food. It means that you feel a strong want or desire to act in a certain way. And, or course, we sometimes do feel just that sort of desire to help another person; and no doubt that desire is due to the herd instinct. But feeling a desire to help is quire different from feeling that you ought to help whether you want to or not. Supposing you hear a cry for help from a man in danger. You will probably feel two desires- one a desire to give help (due to your herd instinct), the other a desire to keep out of danger (due to the instinct for self-preservation). But you will find inside you, in addition to these two impulses, a third thing which tells you that you ought to follow the impulse to help, and suppress the impulse to run away. Now this thing that judges between two instincts, that decides which should be encouraged, cannot itself be either of them. You might as well say that the sheet of music which tells you, at a given moment, to play one note on the piano and not another, is itself one of the notes on the key-board. The Moral Law ells us the tune we have to play: our instinct are merely the keys.
Another way of seeing that the Moral Law is not simply one of our instincts is this. If two instincts are in conflict, and there is nothing in a creature’s mind except those tow instincts, obviously the stronger of the two must win. But at those moments when we are most conscious of the Moral Law, it usually seems ot be telling us to side with the weaker of the two impulse. You probably want to be safe much more than you want to help the man ho is drowning; but the Moral law tells you to help him all the same. And surely it often tells us to try to make the right impulse stronger than it naturally is? I mean, we often feel it our duty to stimulate the herd instinct, by waking up our imaginations and arousing our pity and so on, so as the get up enough steam for doing the right thing. But clearly we are not acting from instinct when we set about making an instinct stronger than it is. The thing that says to you, ‘you heard instinct is asleep. Wake it up,’ cannot itself be the herd instinct. The thing that tells you which not on the piano need to be played louder cannot itself be that note.
Here is a third way of seeing it. If the Moral Law was on of our instincts, we ought to be able to point to some one impulse inside us which was always what we call ‘good,’ always in agreement with the rule of right behavior. But you cannot. There is none of our impulses which the Moral Law may not sometimes tell us to suppress, and none which it may not sometimes tell us to encourage. It is a mistake to think that some of our impulses- say mother love or patriotism- are good, and others, like sex or the fighting instinct, are bad. All we mean is that the occasions on which the fighting instinct or the sexual desire need to be restrained are rather more frequent that those for restraining mother love or patriotism. But there are situations in which it is the duty of a married man to encourage his sexual impulse and of a soldier to encourage the fighting instinct. There are also occasions on which a mother’s love for her own children or a man’s love for his own country have to be suppressed or they will lead to unfairness towards other people’ children or countries. Strictly speaking, there are not such things as good and bad impulses. Think again of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the ‘right; notes and the ‘wrong’ ones. Every single not is right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral Law is not any one instinct or set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts.
By the way, the point is of great practical consequence. The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think love of humanity in general is safe, but is it not. If you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials ‘for the sake of humanity’, and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man.
Other people wrote to me saying, ’Isn’t what you call the Moral Law just a social convention, something that is put into us by education?’ I think there is a misunderstanding here. The people who ask that question are usually taking it for granted that if we have learned a thing from parents and teachers, then that thing must be merely a human invention. But, of course, that is not so. We all earned to multiplication table at school. A child who grew up alone on a desert island would not know it. But surely it does not follow that the multiplication table is simply a human convention, something human beings have made up for themselves and might have made different if they had liked? I fully agree that we learn the Rule of Decent Behavior from parents and teachers, and friends and books, as we learn everything else. But some of the things we learn are mere conventions which might have been different- we learn tot keep to the left of the road, but it might just as well have been the rule to keep to the right- and others of them, like mathematics, are real truths. The question is to which class of Law of Human Nature belongs.
There are two reasons for saying it belongs to the same class as mathematics. The first is, as I said in the first chapter, that though there are differences between the moral ideas of one time or country and those of another, the differences are not really very great- not nearly so great as most people imagine- and you can recognize the same law running through them all: whereas mere conventions, like the rule of the road or the kind of cloths people wear, may differ to any extent. The other reason is this. When you think about these differences between the morality of one people and another, do you think that morality of one people is even better or worse than that of another? Have any of the changes been improvements? If not, then of course there could never be any moral progress. Progress means not just changing, but changing for the better. If no set or moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilized morality to savage morality, or Christian morality to Nazi morality. In fact, of course, we all do believe that some of the people who tried to change the moral ideas of their own age were what we would call Reformers or Pioneers- people who understood morality better than their neighbors did. Very well then. The moment you say that one set of marl ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other. but the standard that measure two things is something different form either. You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people’s ideas get nearer to that real Right than others. Or put it this way. If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something- some Real Morality- for them to be true about. The reason why your iea of New York can be truer or less true than mine is that New York is real place, existing quite apart from what either of us thinks. If when each of us said ‘New York’ each means merely ‘ the town I am imagining in my own head,’ how could one of us have truer ideas than the other? there would be no question of truth or falsehood at all. In the same way, if the Rule of Decent Behavior meant simple ‘whatever each nation happens to approve,’ there would be no sense in saying that any one nation had ever been more correct in its approval than any other; no sense in saying that the world could ever grow morally better or morally worse.
I conclude then, that though the difference between people’s ideas of Decent Behavior often make you suspect that there is no real natural Low of Behavior at all, yet the things we are bound to think about these differences really prove just the opposite. But one world before I end. I have met people who exaggerate the differences, because they have not distinguished between differences of morality and differences of belief about facts. For example, one man said to me, ‘three hundred years ago people in England were putting witches to death. Was that what you call the Rule of Human Nature or Right Conduct?’ But surely the reason we do not execute witches is that we do not believe there are such things. If we did- if we really thought that there were people going about who had sold themselves to the devil and received supernatural powers from him in return and were using these powers to kill their neighbors or drive them mad or bring bad weather- surely we would all agree that if anyone deserved the death penalty, then these filthy quislings did? There is no difference of moral principle here; the difference is simply about matter of fact. It may be a great advance in knowledge not to believe in witches; there is no moral advance in not executing them when you do not think they are there. You would not call a man humane for ceasing to set mousetraps if he did so because he believed there were no mice in the house.”

Reflecting...

I feel like I have changed so much this past year in college, yet I also feel as if this was the person I was all along. I guess by that I mean that it is not as if I'm a different person now, but that I have been tried, tested, and refined this past year as God continues to teach me and pull me always back to Him.

Having said that, I truly believe that this past school year, moving to Nashville, has been the hardest experience of my life thus far. Looking back to this time a year ago, I would never have found myself in this place. And the person I am now can hardly picture her former self. As I've reflected on the ups and downs of college, and shared a little bit of it with others, I can just see how God has worked through all of it. Since it has been a while since my last serious post on here, I figured I would just kinda use this blog to recap and reflect on this past year... what I've been through, what I've learned, how I've grown, and what I've discovered within myself that God must still change.

Sorry in advance...this will probibly be long.

I guess I should just start from the beginning of the semester. The experience of leaving the only place I have ever lived to come to a city where the longest anyone had known me was less than 3 years was the start of this humbling experience. I would call myself a pretty independent and confident person for the most part. This year has shown me that this is actually a relative quality. It's pretty easy to be confident and independent when you have grown up around the same people your whole life, and have been super involved and comfortable with those around you. Belmont has such an amazing assortment of people. Everyone is talented and driven. There is not one dull person! Suddenly I was thrown out of my comfort zone. Call it the little fish syndrome if you will, suddenly my confidence was at zero. Who was I compared to these incredible people? In comparison I was untalented, unintelligent, and irrelevant. What did I have to contribute to conversations? I missed having people around who had watched me grown up. People who new my life story and valued it.

I remember the first couple of weeks at school being an identity crisis for me. My independence was basically nonexistent. Unfortunately, most of this got dumped into my relationships. I came to school in a serious relationship that finally unraveled under the pressure. It was heartache that I'd never experienced. Not just because I loved this person, but because I believed in a plan for my life that just was not the Lord's plan.

I have had a very easy and blessed life. I am thankful for that, yet it has allowed me to make a lot of assumptions about my relationship with God. It is one thing to say that you want to follow His plan for your life when that plan is just what your hoping for. In reality, I've found God's plan to be nothing of what I can think up. Well after things feel apart, I still thought that I should be in this relationship. It wasn't until I finally acknowledged my confusion and frustration and just honest anger at God that I saw how wrong I was. One Sunday morning I sat at my desk just weeping to God. I just vented and ranted, accusing Him of so many things. As I sat there my screen saver kept flashing beautiful pictures with some of my favorite Bible verses written on them. Words such as Jeremiah 29:11 (For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope), or Proverbs 19:21 (Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand). Finally I just blurted out "No! I don't want it! I want my plan! I want this person, this future, this path..." And there it was. I wasn't pretending that I was committed to whatever God called me. If I was honest with myself, I saw that I didn't truly believe that God's plan was better.

From that point I learned some of the true costs of following Christ. Sometimes He asks a lot more than "being a good person". Sometimes he asks you to die. To take something that you learn to rely on, to take someone you think you can't live without and let it go. I learned just how badly that can hurt. I learned just how stubborn I can be. How blind. It honestly took days, weeks, maybe even months of despair for my eyes to be opened. Even in the midst of my pain and doubt, I had to preach to myself the promises of God until I could finally trust them again. In the midst of so much guilt, fear, feelings of betrayal and self-conscienceness, I poured through the Psalms telling them to myself day in and out.

Healing began with those words. Knowing that my mood swings and negative emotions were ok to feel. Having an example of the Psalmist's sorrows and cries helped me express my questions and struggles. God also blessed me with amazing girl friends who listened, entertained, and supported me. Even on the day that everything seemed to fall apart, I could see how God had been placing these girls in my life since summer orientation to help me through everything.

He also gave me such great healing and guidance through RUF. From the very first time I went to an event, I felt valued. My need for meaningful friendships was instantly met. When I talked with people it was obvious that they legitimately wanted to listen and know me. I felt instantly valued. Since then, I've had a chance to discover so much of who I am and what God has done. Here is a little bit of what it has taught me about myself:

I am quite a controlling person. I have often heard the phrase "if you want something done right do it yourself" and honestly it is a struggle for me to keep this phrase from running my life. My tendency is to think I can do things myself and spiritually this means that I forget that I really do need God. I've heard Kevin say that students are a lot worse then they think they are, but also that God's grace is a lot bigger then they think it is. This is me in a nut shell. Everything about this year has forced me to stop trying to keep things together on my own and acknowledge the reality of God's sovereignty and power. It helps me acknowledge that I really am broken and IT'S OK. I am a mess who is nothing without Jesus and that's the way it is supposed to be.

I've seen so much of the sin in my life. I feel like I've realized a lot of my selfishness. So many times I think that I have not taken the time to be there for the people around me. Every time I come home I see that I barely talk to people I went to high school with. There are a lot of reasons on both ends of why but I think a lot of it was that I just didn't make the effort to keep in touch. I think a lot of times I just do the convenience friend thing. While I would rather have just a few close friends that are like family, I know that I'm probibly a very hard person to deal with in that way. But it is what I really hope I can be to my friends. Somebody they know is there for them and cares. In reality I know I'm a really long way from that. Yet this realization has not condemned me to wallow, but rather inspired me to better love those around me. What once would have been a chore, is now something I find joy in.

Honestly, any ounce of humility that I have was forced upon me this past year. The things I went through senior year and at Belmont have showed me so many of my flaws. I have been really put in my place. It took a lot of pain to force me to see a lot of those things. I can be so stubborn sometimes that nothing can really get through except something that drastic and straight forward. I have a tendency to take something a just run with it. I am opinionated and arrogant. A lot of times the only method that works for snapping me out of it is just really blunt honesty. Somebody who is not afraid to stand up to me and say "hey! your wrong and I don't mind if you hate me for the day because you need to hear it".

Ok so that all was very scattered probibly. I'll just end by saying that through it all I have seen God's hand. From the place of despair came a confidence, thankfulness, and appreciation for joy that I have never felt before. I can truly say that all of it, the good and bad, was from God and I am thankful for both. The following hymn just for me embodies my freshman year:

I Asked The Lord
1. I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face

2. Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair

3. I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He'd answer my request
And by His love's constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest

4. Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part

5. Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low

6. Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
"Tis in this way" The Lord replied
"I answer prayer for grace and faith"

7. "These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me."


©2004 double v music (ASCAP).
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Because I'm a Nerd...

So I had this Film Experience project due yesterday where we had to create an additional scene for the movie Pan's Labyrinth. I really was not looking forward to this assignment but I think ended up really loving the scene I made! Not because I'm so terrible artistic or creative... just caz idk i combined like tons of epic movie ideas and came up with a scene that in my head is just epic. haha If your don't visualize it is probibly pretty lame... we shall see... so for your listening pleasure... her is my additional scene...

My additional scene for Pan’s Labyrinth is another task for Ophelia to accomplish. When the magic root the fan gives her to place under her mother’s bed appears to have died, the fan tells her of another magical plant that, if eaten, will cause her mother to live eternally. Of coarse by this he means in the Underworld in which Ophelia is the princess. He runs off on a tangent of how the forest was magical and contains many more ancient underwater caves and caverns that you would not expect from the shallow river running through the forest. The fan however, warns her that time is running up for her three tasks and that she must forget that he has slipped about telling her about this magical plant. He knows, as Ophelia does not, that the magical root is not dead. The audience finds this out later when it is thrown into the fire by Ophelia’s stepfather. In an effort to discourage her from going after the plant he tells her that he will offer no help to her in dealing with the creatures that live about the plant.
Ophelia does not follow the fan’s advice. She does not believe that the root is still alive and is desperate to save her mother. Although the fan offered her no help in retrieving the plant, she sets out to the river to find the magical cave he spoke of. The river itself hides the cave. One particular spot in the mud is quicksand that actually transports anyone who falls into its grasp to an underground cave filled with water. Ophelia struggles to free herself from the quicksand but cannot free herself. She takes one last big breath and finds herself being swept along an underground current. She tries to hold her breath as it carries her swiftly along the tunnel. She gets tossed and turned by the current, struggling to keep herself free from the underwater growth on the cave walls that threaten to wrap their limbs around her and drown her in the flooded cave. Just when she cannot seem to hold her breath any longer, the current rushes into a larger room within the cave that is only half filled with water. She is able to break the service and gasps for breath. A dark shadow passes under her bobbing body. It is the frightening water monster that guards this magical plant. The creature try to eat Ophelia, but the luckily the current is faster than it can manage to swim against and carries her temporarily out of its grasp, deeper into the cave. She struggles to swim towards the sides of the cave in hopes of climbing up the walls and out of the creatures grasp. As she desperately climbs out of the water and up the cave wall, the creature is gaining in on its prey. She just makes it out of the water and over to a small ledge in the nick of time.
Some distance away on another ledge is the magical plant that can save her mother. It is however a dangerous and difficult climb from her perch to the plant. One she is determined to make. All the while with the risk of falling back into the jaws of the water monster, she slowly makes her way to the plant. With some nerve-wracking slips and stumbles, she finally makes it to the plant and places it into her pocket. Now the question is: how does she escape this cave? She looks around desperately and spots a seemly closed off pool some distance away that has a lighter, more sparkling water in it. The current her is non-existent with a glassy service. She does not know if this pool is dangerous or the answer to her problem. She however has no other choice. She can either dive into the glassy pool in hopes of swimming down and out of the cave, or back up against the current and at the mercy of the monster the way she came. She dives into the glassy pool and finds herself surrounded by beautiful fairies. They seem to want her to stay with them and play. As she watches them swim and frolic like seals at play underwater, she forgets where she is, until all of a sudden her breath starts to run out. Now she realizes that these fairies are deceitful. They are making her to drown without even realizing it. As she sets off for the light coming from the end of the tunnel, they desperately try to keep her distracted tugging on her dress and swarming around her. She swims frantically as she yearns for air and finally comes up to the service. The fairies have disappeared around her and she is left treading water in a small but deep pool in the forest. She runs, dripping wet, back to the house to feed her mother the plant.
Other than the underwater cavern setting, this scene would have a particular focus on lighting. When the current through the tunnels is sweeping Ophelia, the lighting would be a blue color. The water would be clear, with an unusual saturation of color. Water mostly dilutes colors. Yet the water would appear bluish clear allowing the weeds that try to entangle her to be sharply green and turquoise. When in the main chamber of the cave, the lighting would still be blue toned. The fast moving water and waves would cast shadows and flashes of light upon the walls. The cave walls that Ophelia climbs would also be sharply colored however. With deep browns and greens of wet earth and weeds growing. The still glassy pool would be a lighter color blue than the dark rushing water in which the water monster lives. It’s light would still cast upon the walls, but in a more sparkling magical source of way while the other part of the cave is more of an ominous shadow effect. Other than this underground world, the saturation of the colors and clearness within the water gives the scene more of a fantasy feel since in reality water clouds images and colors.

Copy & Paste from Tenth Avenue North...

I just can't get enough of his blogs! So I am just gonna like paste in on here so that you all should read it... and might add my own thoughts about it later... the parts in bold are just things that I particularly liked... probibly what I'll comment on later...

"Chapter 6 Break Me Down

"Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds."
-Hosea 6:1

Excuse me, what?!!
Who has torn us?
Who has injured us?
The Lord?!!!
Wait a second there Hosea, didn't you mean to say Satan has torn us?
Or maybe bad people?
You sure that's not a typo or something?

Personally, I think one of the most difficult things I've ever had to reconcile in my head
and my heart is this idea that a loving, merciful, compassionate God
would hurt me.
And not on accident either, but purposefully and willfully.
God will apologetically tear me into pieces so that He can heal me.
And you.
Strange huh?

And I suppose it isn't so terribly surprising coming from a prophet who was made
to marry a harlot. If anyone would know something about being hurt by the
Lord it would be him right?
I don't know if you know the story, but
I mean, just put yourself in his place for a second.
There you are. The man. The dude. You're the prophet over all of Israel, and
you've been keeping yourself pure, praying every day for the woman that God will
give to you and then He finally speaks, but its not at all what you were hoping for.

God: "Hosea."
Hosea: "Yeah Lord?"
God: "It's time."
Hosea: "Ahhhh Yeaaahhh! That's what I was hoping you were gonna say.
Time for a wife right Lord?"
God: "Yes Hosea, it's time for a wife."
Hosea: "Ooohh, I can't wait!!! Just tell me though God, is she hot and holy?
Cuz you know, I've been keeping myself pure, and I just know you're gonna
reward me with a wife that's hot and holy. That's all I'm asking for because,
hey, that's what I deserve right?"
God: "Well, not exactly. I don't think she's quite what you had in mind."
Hosea: "Wait, what? .....Oh... I see! She's even hotter and holier than I thought!
Oh yeah Lord, I know how you work!
God: "Well, no."
Hosea: "What you mean, no?"
God: "Hosea, I don't know how to tell you this, well, of course I know how to tell you this,
I'm God, it's just, well....she's a prostitute."
Hosea: "prosti-what?"
God: "Prostitute. Whore. Lady of the Night."
Hosea: No, no, I know what it is, but a PROSTITUTE!!!
God: Yeah, I know that's not what you were planning, but its what I was planning, so you're
gonna marry her.
Hosea: "I'm gonna do what?"
God: "you're gonna marry her, but then of course, she'll cheat on you, and sell herself
so you'll have to go buy her back."
Hosea: "Go what?"
"Yeah, you're going to forgive her and buy her back and when she cheats on you again
and has children with other lovers you're going to love them and take her back again."
Hosea: "Come again?"
God: "you're going to love her kids and take her back."

Long awkward silence

Hosea: "What's her name?"
God: "Gomer."
Hosea: "Oh Come on!!!"

Now I apologize if you're name is Gomer, but you do have to admit,
it's a rather unfortunate name, and an even more unfortunate situation.
But the Bible records that it did happen.
Maybe not exactly like that, but God did tell Hosea to marry an adulterous wife.
And the reason that the Lord supplies in Hosea 3
Is that their marriage was to show us how he loves his people.
He loves his people like an adulterous wife.

And the story is so insanely beautiful when you see it from that angle,
but when you look at it from Hosea's angle it's just plain crazy.
Think about what you'd say if your pastor got up in front of the congregation and
announced that he was about to marry a whore. What would your response be?
Now, I'm not suggesting that every one go out and marry someone from the local
street corner, but I am saying that it is evident that God will do whatever He has to do
to bring you to a place where all you want is Him.

He'll break you, He'll hurt you, He'll ruin your plans, and He'll tear you into pieces,
and He'll do it all out of a perfect holy love.
And look, I know that sounds crazy, but think about it for a moment.
A lot of people want to use God to give them something other than Himself right?
If we're honest, we'll admit that we all do it on some level.
For instance, we don't have sex until we're married, because then God owes us a virgin.
We give 10% of our income to a church, because then God owes us prosperity and wealth.
We pray and pray and pray, and then God owes it to us to answer and give us what we want.
And in all those cases, Jesus is no longer the end, but simply a means to something else.

You've got to see that in Hosea's case, or perhaps in the case
of that one friend of yours who thinks marriage is the goal of their existence.
Don't laugh. It might be you.
But if you think about it, It would actually be unloving of God to go
and make our marriage perfect and make that person fulfill our every hope and dream.
Why?
Because that person will die.
That marriage will end, and if your whole life and existence and joy depends on another
human being, you will inevitably be in for heartache.
Just read the Twilight series (it's true. I've read it, though I'm not proud of it)
and see how the heroine Bella, how her entire life falls apart when her vampire
lover leaves her. Put simply, If our joy rests entirely upon human love or
vampire love, or any other kind of earthly love for that matter,
then one day, our joy will be destroyed.
Is this making sense?

Of course, marriage is just one example.
Money. Security. Fame. Obedience. Sex. Drugs. Worship Music.
If our hope is set in anything but the living person of Christ, then we're just setting ourselves
up for failure. And so God, in his infinite and everlasting love, will do whatever He has to do
to break, bend and conform his people's hearts to Him.
He will no longer be the means to some other end, but the end Himself.
Like a surgeon who has to cut you open, so God must tear us apart to create in us a new heart.
A heart that is obsessed with Him alone.
But unlike a doctor, He doesn't just use a knife. He uses the most bizarre people,
circumstances, and tragedies to change our hearts until they only treasure Him.

He will break us down.
And it will be painful, scary, and altogether beautiful.
Friends, if the Lord is tearing down your world today,
if all the walls on your so carefully constructed plans are caving in on themselves,
then ask Him in faith, God, are you my treasure?
And if you find the answer is no, then ask Him to bring it on.
Break out the scalpel. Tear down the walls. Let loose the storms.
Ask Him to do whatever He has to do, until you can proclaim with the psalmist,
"Whom have in heaven but you,
and earth has nothing I desire besides you."
(Psalm 73)

All this world is fading away anyway right?
Then take heart.
This life is not about succeeding.
It's not about changing the world.
It's not about living with purpose, or leaving a legacy
or making the maximum impact with your life.
It's actually not even about living your life for God.
Did you hear me?
Don't live your life for God.

Live your life because God.

Because He has loved us, redeemed us, and because He is all that our hearts are longing for.
It's no longer about what you do with your life at all, because He is your life.
May He do whatever it takes to open our eyes to see that.
He is the means and He is the end. And everything in between.
It can be terrifying at times, I know, but its worth it.
Believe me, and I guess more importantly believe Him.
It's worth it.

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be
revealed in us."
-Romans 8:18

""Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.

2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.

3 Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
-Hosea 6:1-3
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be
revealed in us."
-Romans 8:18

""Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.

2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.

3 Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
-Hosea 6:1-3

Could you imagine what that would look like?
A bunch of people that no longer live for God but because of God?
I mean, think about how terribly liberating that is!
You don't have to earn a thing.
You don't have to perform for anyone.
You don't even have to go and win souls for God.
You just need to know that you're already accepted,
and live like you actually believe it.

Think about it.
A people that praise Him because of who He is.
Doing things because of what He has done.
A church that loves, and forgives, because He first loved them.

Oh how beautiful that would be.

Like my pastor frequently says,
"Don't show me a church that loves God, show me a church that believes
they're loved, and I'll show you a church that God is using."

But sadly, most of miss this one crucial point.
We go to church and we hear how we need to change the world,
how we need to be better Christians, and how we need to make our lives
count, and have maximum impact and how we need to live with purpose, blah blah blah....
And we buy into it. We live harder. We make promises to ourselves.
We memorize the formulas and purpose in our hearts to do better.
But for what reason?
To be honest, it makes me sad to think about,
how many people have been led astray
by the self-help methods and strategies of man.
How many people still don't believe they're loved because
they just can't seem to live up to the spiritual bar they've erected for themselves!
How rarely do we stop ourselves long enough to ask the most important question?
For what purpose am I living for God?
To be accepted or because I already am?

Friends. This one question will make all the difference.

If it's for God and not because of God, two things happen.
We will either live up to all our trying,
and consequently feel really great about ourselves
and look down on everyone who can't live like us,
or we fall short of our resolutions and instantly begin to sulk about how we'll
never be who God wants us to be!
And so it goes. A vicious cycle of swaggering and sniveling.
We're up when we succeed, and we're down when we fail.
Up. Down. Up. Down. On and on and on we go.
Caught up in the halls of introspection, not realizing that the gospel doesn't
make us better people, it just makes us forget about ourselves!

Kind of like Rocky though, you know?
You ever scene that movie?
Remember when He slurs to Mickey,
"if I just go the distance, then I'll know I'm not a bum!"
For Him, He had to go the distance.
That's what it would take to validate Him. To give him worth!
What is it for you?
What are you trying to prove?
What do you need to accomplish in your life that will finally make you feel like
you're not a bum?

Here's the deal.
Romans 12 warns us that there's a problem with living like that.
It says, "therefore, in view of God's mercy, present your bodies as
a living sacrifice to God."
Did you notice the first phrase?
"Therefore, in view of God's mercy,"
And you know what that's saying?
It's saying, before you start trying to live for God, you need to really understand
what's He done for you. You need to understand that you are a bum!
You are a complete and total failure but BECAUSE of chapters 1-11,
because of all that Christ has done, in view of his mercy,
in response to his audacious sacrificing love,
you need to go and live like you believe it.

In other words, our doing is a response to what He has already done.

Just look at how lopsided Romans is!
Paul takes 11 chapters to talk about what Christ did on the cross,
and only 5 to talk about our response to it.
And still, I'll hear a well-intentioned youth pastor get up and preach on this verse,
telling his kids to go and be a living sacrifice, and live for God, and be
the change, etc, etc, etc, and not once will he even mention the cross
and what Christ has done!!!!
And if you do that, I'm sorry youth pastor man, but you totally miss the point.
And furthermore, you actually make people more wicked!
Yeah, that's right! You become more wicked when you live for God
and not because God. That's what the Bible calls "Pharisees."
You do all the right things but for all the wrong reasons.
And all the while, feeling more and more justified for being your own Saviour.

Because the only way we can possibly live for God
is if we are living because of God.
And what I mean is, that's the only way our motivations are purified.
If we're not living in view of God and in response to Him,
then chances are, we're just living for the praises of man, for the validation of our performance,
and for the pride of obedience.

Ok Mike. What on earth is the pride of obedience?
Here's a simple real-life example.
You're driving through the drive-thru at your local fast food dining establishment.
Wendy's. Starbucks perhaps?
And after a strange, disjointed conversation with the broken voice over the speaker,
you drive up to the window, hoping that they actually got your order right,
and then you're greeted by a not so friendly, refreshment attendant,
who gives you the wrong change, the wrong order and seems completely
annoyed that you would have the audacity to bring that to their attention.
So with a surly look and a snatch of the bag, they yell for a change of order over
their shoulder and then slam their little drive thru window thingy closed,
leaving you in your car with a unnecessary guilty conscience and a
brief moment to assess the situation.
And so at this point you lean over to the person next to you, and say,
"Goodness. Can you believe the attitude with these people? I mean,
I would never act like that. Totally unprofessional."
And at just that moment, the little double glass doors swing open,
and said disgruntled employee emerges from his grease cave,
looking at you with that same disheveled expression,
and then with a monotone mumble says,
"Here's your order. Sorry about that."
To which you cheerily respond, "Oh, no problem. Thank you so much."
And off you go.
All the while, feeling really good about yourself, because you were so nice with your
response, and you didn't even reach out through your window and strangle them to death.

Now, some of you might be thinking, "yeah, what's wrong with that?"
A business is a business right? People need to do their job.
Well, I would agree with you, but that's not the issue.
The issue is the underlying sense of pride under statements like,
"Can you believe the attitude?" or "I would never..."
You see, both of those sentiments carry with them an undercurrent of condescending
self-esteem that looks down on the individual who doesn't obey like they do.
I call it, the pride of obedience. And it comes from older brother types who
expect everyone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and live the way they're
supposed to. It comes from people who are living for God, and not because of Him.

However, if you rewind that tape and play it back
with someone living because God,
I think you'd get a much different response.
First of all, the because God person is not
surprised when a person who's never experienced the love of Christ acts like it.
They wouldn't exclaim, "Can you believe the attitude?" because quite frankly,
yes. They can believe it. If they've never known Christ
then what else should they expect?
And they certainly wouldn't say, "I would never act like that."
Because they know, that without Christ, they would.
Maybe not right to someone's face, but definitely in their heart.
And thirdly, they might actually take time to see the person behind the Wendy's
uniform, and ask, "Man, I wonder if they've ever tasted the love of Christ.
I wonder why they're so disagreeable?"

Pride is a sure fire sign that you're not living because God.
People who live because God, are marked by an overwhelming generosity and
a propensity for mercy. They are so aware of they're need
and what they've been given,
that they gladly treat people better than they deserve.
And isn't that the question for us today. For me?
Do I treat people better than they deserve?
Or have I lost sight of how God treats me?
Remember, our obedience must be fueled and driven
by awed and grateful love or else it doesn't mean a thing.
Do not live your life for God.
Live your life Because God.

"Therefore, in view of God's mercy..."

Hymns and the like...

So today I went to a convo (little like hour seminars required for Belmont students to attend... we need a certain number to graduate... just in case you didn't know) that Kevin (leader of Belmont RUF) put on about why we need hymns.

It was a really great talk. I've always loved hymns growing up in a mostly traditional style serve, but sure thought the music was out of date. When I started attending the contemporary service at the church, the music got better, but the words were not a deep. I absolutely loved when we started singing some of the newly re-arranged hymns in that service such as Amazing Grace- My Chains are Gone.

One reason I like RUF so much is because of their incorporation of hymns in a fresh new way.

When I first came to Belmont I think my attitude was a lot like that of the generation before me, that Kevin described. I have always been weary of tradition, especially within the church. Many just become habit with no thought or reverence behind it. Such is a hindrance to faith and true worship in my opinion. Still, I was very weary of many contemporary evangelical movements. While I don't think that coffee shop style churches or mega-church style churches are wrong, when church stops looking like church it is a problem for me.

This is also something we have talked about in RUF. At lot of churches have watered down their services or converted them into mega-entertainment in an effort to catch people's attention and relate to a secular audience. While they mean well, I agree with those who say that this approach distorts what the Christian life is all about. Worship shouldn't be this purely emotional experience that acts like some kind of pep-rally to keep you fire up for Christ. The fact of the matter is that your just not gonna feel that way all the time. Its incredibly discouraging to think that to be a Christian you should feel that way all the time. People question, tire, struggle. This is all part of the Christian life too. Jesus suffered and even struggled in the garden before his crucifixion. God's answer to evil and pain is to walk with us through the midst of our suffering and through that transform it into good. This needs to be reflected in the way we worship and sometimes that requires silence, or reverence and humility within music.

Instead of trying to make the church fit in more with the culture, we should be attempting to explain would counter culture better. Instead of saying that non CHristians wouldn't understand hymns or corporate prayers or something and therefore won't use them, we should make sharing their history and value a part of the service as well. Christianity is not all about what we feel and know now. There are thousands of Christians throughout the centuries that can help us with our journey. We are "dwarfs on the shoulders of giants". We may be able to see farther than those who came before us, but not without their help.

While there is a lot to be said about meeting people where they are. After all, hymns were once the contemporary music of their day. But that does not mean that the Church forgets it's call to be followers of Christ and seek righteousness to get more people to join. Tradition and innovation can work together to create a genuine representation of the church within a worship service.

While Hymns do an awesome job of exploring what the Christian walk is all about, they are not the only songs that accomplish this. During the convo I had a Tenth Avenue North song stuck in my head. I think that band does a great job of portraying all the aspects of Christian life in their album. Brandon Heath said in an interview that he thought that contemporary Christian music was looked down upon because it was shallow and unrealistic. Singing about how happy you are all the time does not reflect how people actually feel. Sometime people really don't feel like praising God. To then sing a song that says "I could sing of your love forever" or I could praise you forever really isn't helpful. Singing about pain or doubt is not really popular, yet it is so important to what being a Christian is really like. Times is the song by Tenth Avenue North that speaks of this and I just love it.

Times
I know i need you
I need to love you
I love to see you, and its been so long

I long to feel you
I feel this need for you
And I need to hear you
Is that so wrong?

Now you pull me near you
When we're close i fear you
Still I'm afraid to tell you
All that I've done

Are you done forgiving?
Or can you look pass my pretending?
Lord I'm so tired of defending
What I've become
What have i become?

I hear you say "My love is over,
It's underneath, it's inside, it's in between
The times you doubt me, when you can't feel
The times that you've questioned 'is this for real?'
The times you've broken, the times that you mend
The times you hate me and the times that you bend
Well my love is over, its underneath
It's inside, its in between,

These times you're healing
And when your heart breaks
The times that you feel like you've fallen from grace
The times you're hurting
The times that you heal
The times you go hungry and attempted to steal

In times of confusion and chaos and pain
I'm there in your sorrow under the weight of your shame
I'm there through your heartache
I'm there in the storm
My love I will keep you by my power alone
I don't care where you've fallen, where you have been
I'll never forsake you
My love never ends, it never ends

Another great one is Hold mY Heart which starts out:

"How long must I pray, must I pray to You?
How long must I wait, must I wait for You?
How long 'til I see Your face, see You shining through?
I'm on my knees, begging You to notice me.
I'm on my knees, Father will You turn to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart"

There are a number of great worship songs out there that are both contemporary and representative of the Christian walk. I think as long as the focus is upon God and what he has done, incorporated with the scriptures... a song should be pretty good as a tool for understanding Christ as the worship experience.

that probibly made little sense and was all over the place... but hey just thought i would write down my thought...haven't done that for a while...

O Love that Will Not Let Me Go...

So this is my favorite hymn of the moment...

I say at the moment because there is a list of all time favorites which include It is Well,Before the Throne, and other classics...

I actually first heard this sang in church at First Pres and really just loved the music... The worship leader just had the perfect voice to go along with it...

later we sang it at RUF and the words really started to sink in... now I love both the music and words!

O Love that Will Not Let Me Go
Words: George Matheson. Music: Christopher Miner

1. O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
O give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

2. O light that followest all my way,
I yeild my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in they sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

3. O joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

4. O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

25 Random THings...

So I know I promise a thought provoking one... but College have kept me busy and fried my brain... so for the moment we will just do this pointless, passing the time blog.....

1. I have put off doing this because I'm pretty sure my life is not interesting enough to come up with 25 things worth reading....

2. I love being active: rock climbing, weight lifting, volleyball, racket ball, walking, snowboarding, hiking... yet I can be the laziest person in the world too

3. I got scuba certified this past summer but have been diving since a family vacation a couple of years ago (Mexico is really lax about the whole certification thing...which means it is lucky our guide didn't leave us and we didn't all die...)

4. I always wanted to learn how to surf but the west coast of Florida means no real waves... I almost drowned learning during a hurricane off Lido beach once though...

5. My sister and I used to think my family needed a reality show because we are sooo weird... our dinner conversations alone would make one interesting 30 minute show...

6. My two best friends total anywhere from an 8-9 year age difference... one is soon to be 18 and the other is 25

7. I played varsity volleyball all four years of high school as well as travel ball for two... and will automatically love anyone who will play with me here at Belmont...

8. I used to want to be a music supervisor (person who picks the music for films) and am obsessed with how music works in movies...

9. Also along that note... My goal is to own pretty much every movie I ever liked... I'm well on my way...this semester alone I've bought about 40 movies...

10. Again along those lines... I would love to have a media room in my house... like with the walls just lined with shelves that have books, records, cds, movies, magazines... whatever all over them... with a big fire place and an big old cumfy leather couch to read on... and maybe like a music room attached with like every instrument you could ever want to play in there... haha even though I can only play the piano as of now...

11. oh ya... I played classical piano for 14 years... but had so many teachers with different techniques and stuff that I wouldn't call myself good enough to have played for that long... I quit lessons my senior year of high school because all my teacher's student were like going to Julliard and crap like that and I just didn't have the passion to compete at that level anymore... I played mostly because my mom insisted on it (it was the source of lots of fights in high school)... but I love music and love to play for fun...can't sight read to save my life...

12. I went to summer school in second grade so that they wouldn't hold me back a year because I couldn't really read... my sister jokes that I was stupid until 5th grade when all of a sudden some test decided that I was gifted...

13. I feel a calling to go into ministry but have idea what that looks like... maybe sharing in the pastoral ministry of my future husband, or being a missionary...that seems absolutely possible for me.... I'm not really sure all I know is that I want God to be at the center of EVERY single thing I do everyday... I want that to be the total purpose of my occupation as well....

14. My major is general business with a minor in Christian leadership... the only reason I'm not double majoring in both is because I would need a foreign language for a C.L. major... and I CANNOT learn languages....that is a pathetic reason...

15. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan...I listen to them on tape at night to help me fall asleep....(my roommate calls my ipod the Potter pod) and will instantly love anyone who will discuss the books with me...haha

16. I don't easily make friends because I have trouble opening up and trusting people at first but once I do...I consider them a friend for life... I would rather have only a few close like family feeling friends than a lot of people to hang out with....

17. No one has ever been able to guess my correct weight or clothing size...

18. I eat the stickers on fruit because they are edible...

19. I can't spell... I got straight C's in that subject for as long as it goes on your report card....usually things come out phenetically...(haha see can't even spell that... or just like i can't type... I would say spell check underlines about 60-80 % of the things I type....

20. I can't touch my toes...or do a handstand...or a cartwheel

21. I LOVE fast food... at some point in high school I went to a fast food restaurant everyday... for at least 2 months...

22. My first word was purple... and I used correctly in context... my mom was asking my sister what color headband she wanted at the store and I just answer: purple!

23. I give my opinions way to easily which I consider as something I need to work on...

24. I've lost my voice at every sporting even I've ever officially played in... and it takes me about a week to fully gain it back...

25. I'm a total pack rat... I keep every bag I get from stores...save all the boxes that I get packages in...all the containers that shampoo and stuff comes in...cards... movie tickets... magazines... old cloths... jewelry... wrapping paper... well lots...

haha so there we go... I'm sorry to anyone who actually read all of these!