I Want Your Input!

My blog seems to finally be getting some readership! I still feel like I'm just rambling on about nothing that anyone would want to read about, but blogger lets me see statistics of how many people view it each day. Either you really are an actual person who reads my blog, or blogger is trying to make me feel better about myself.

Because I want this blog to be less me rambling about anything on my mind and more me writing things that you enjoy, I want to get your opinions. I want to write things that you want to read!

In order to do that, I need to hear from you, so I've created a poll (on the right column, next to this post). What type of blog post do you enjoy the most? What type of post would you like to see more of? Such as:

• Bible stories told from my point of view. (Examples: "A Nabal Fable," "Lunchables") 
• My thoughts and applications of Scripture ("Sparkle or Osteoporosis," "Mark 2:1-2") 
• Stories about my life ("Breaking Things in Unconventional Ways") 
• Updates on my book writing ("Super Duper," "Chapter 1, Chapter 1, and...Another Chapter 1") 
• Pro-life resources, books, website, ect. (all October Baby posts, "Be My Vote," "Unashamed Narrow-Mindedness") 
• News, pro-life and otherwise ("Kony 2012," "Where Are the Feminists Now"
• Other (such as this one, this one, and this one) 

I'd also love to know how you read my blog. Do you see posts on facebook? Do you follow me on blogger? Do you get them through email by subscribing? What time of day do you read blogs? There's no poll for these questions, but I'd love to hear what you have to say in the comments.

Help me make this the best blog it can be!

This was a totally self serving post that requires reader participation. Yikes. I hope I don't ever do this again.

Breaking Things in Unconventional Ways

There are those people in your life who are always are getting hurt, or the ones who are super good at everything, or the ones who make a mean grilled cheese sandwich. I, however, am none of those people. I'm instead finding my own way: the kid who breaks things in unconventional ways.

It all started a few years ago when I was making something on the stove. I don't remember what, but whatever it was it boiled over and got the inside of the gas burner wet. It proceeded to make this obnoxious ticking noise for the rest of the day, so my very wise parents advised me to leave the burner on low until the moisture dried out.

Not ten minutes later, I smelled something odd and looked over to see much larger flames than that gas stove is capable of. After a split second of panic followed by another split second of confusion, I ran over to see what was going on. An odd shaped plastic thing was sitting directly on top of the burner in flames. I, being the brilliant young woman that I am, turned off the burner and somehow got the plastic thing to stop being on fire. Upon further inspection, I discovered the now pretty well melted plastic piece was the button you press to open the microwave. Evidently the heat from the burner being left on had melted the button on the microwave, which was mounted over the stove, enough for it to fall out and catch on fire.

Essentially, I melted the microwave.

To this day we've never fixed that button. We just use those thermometer covers to shove into the hole the button used to attach onto in order to open the microwave. It's still amusing when people come over and try to use our microwave but don't know about the cup full of thermometer covers on our counter. And it's embarrassing when I'm using someone else's microwave and I catch myself searching their countertops for thermometers.

The melting the microwave incident was a few years ago. The saga of Becca Breaking Things In Unconventional ways continued a few nights ago.

I was unloading the dishwasher, like my mother had told me, with a friend of mine. I was turning to put something in a cabinet and accidentally knocked over the jar of olive oil sitting next to stove. We were already making a ton of noise (but trying really hard not to), so when I didn't break I thought it was nothing. I stood the jar back up and continued putting things away. However, we both noticed a weird crackling noise coming from the stove. I looked closer at the stove and noticed a long crack in the glass. It was spreading. It was growing. It was cracking. And there was absolutely nothing we could do.

Well, I did say, "JONATHAN LOOK AT THAT!" followed by a quick and slightly panicked, "WHAT DO WE DO?!" and confused looks and astonishment and that sick feeling in your stomach after you break something expensive of your mothers.

Looks like the olive oil won this time.

We took everything off the stove because it was already beginning to sag and would probably cave in soon. Then came the heroic moment I'm most proud of: I remembered to unplug the stove! After the house fire incident of 2011 in which I alone saved the day by calling 911 (well, firemen also helped save the day), I knew that something bad might happen if the stove broke and there was electricity still running through that thing. Then I woke up my parents and they slightly freaked out. Being awakened by the panicked voice of your daughter saying, "Mom! Dad! You're needed downstairs! I knocked over the olive oil and it hit the stove and it broke! The olive oil is fine, the stove broke!" I'm sure is pretty stressful. They came down and my dad remembered to unplug the gas too (come on, I did my best) and they looked at how cool the cracks were then they went to bed. Then Jonathan and I finished the dishes and he left and I went to bed.

Then after sleeping for a little while I heard it start raining really hard, so I got out of bed to close my window. In the half asleep trek across my floor I stepped on a needle and it bent and I couldn't get it out of my foot so I had to wake my mom up again in a pain-stricken panic. It was traumatic. I was curled up in the fetal position on my bed whimpering and holding my bloody foot while my mom was standing in my door holding the needle she just pulled from my foot looking confused, because, after all, she had just woken up from a deep sleep for the second time in an hour. After a few seconds of this, I yelled, "Just throw it away!" She did, then walked back down the hall. Halfway there she decided she needed to mother me, so she came back and patted me on the head and mumbled something along the lines of, "it'll be okay" and left me to care for my wounds alone.

I never did close my window.

This habit can get pricey really fast, so I hope I stop breaking things. Or at least I hope my parents will still love me and continue to tell themselves, "at least it's funny."

Lunchable

A couple thousand years ago when the Roman Empire was pretty big and Jesus was in the middle of preaching and doing miracles, something really incredible happened to a lunchable, twelve homeless guys, a little boy, and five thousand people.

The coolest lunchable-eating kid I could find
on Google Images. Look at that hair!

Jesus wanted to get away from people for a little bit, so he hopped in a boat. Generally boats are a pretty sure-fire way to get away from someone who's bugging you. I mean, I've never tried it, but you're completely surrounded by water and you have their boat, what could go wrong? Well, something went wrong for Jesus. 5,000 people ended up finding Him. If you don't know anything about Jesus, you need to know He has a heart of gold. Instead of being annoyed with His 5,000 fans/semi-stalkers, He had compassion on them and spent the day preaching and healing them. (By the time the healing went down they were back on land, thankfully. That would be tricky business.) In the evening the disciples decided it was time for the crowd to go away and get their own dinner. Instead, Jesus said, "They need not go away; give them something to eat." The disciples knew there were a ton of people there and they themselves were broke and homeless, they certainly couldn't feed 5,000 hungry people. So they turned to their best option for the crisis at hand: the little kid and his lunchable. They brought him to Jesus. 

The boy had five barley loaves and two fish. First off, that's probably not enough food for two people, much less 5,000! Secondly, barley loaves sound kind of gross, and thirdly, I'm picturing the fish raw and having sat in the sun all day. I certainly hope I am wrong, because that would smell terrible and be so gross. All that aside, a couple of pieces of bread and some nasty smelly fish isn't enough for 5,000 people, plus 12 disciples, plus Jesus! But the disciples, always being helpful, brought the boy to Jesus anyways. He told them to make everybody sit down and watch the Master. (Literally, Jesus is the Master. He's God.) 

That's right: lembas bread. 

"Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who had been seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted" (11). Get this-- Jesus made a little boy's lunchable (which I'm still convinced sounds nasty) feed a few thousand people. It's like He made barley bread into lembas bread. All the people had to do was sit down and wait for Jesus to provide. All the disciples had to do was have faith that God can make the ridiculous happen. All the boy had to do...well, he didn't have much choice. I guess the disciples kind of stole his lunch. 

We hear all the time about how we need to be like the little boy, and give God the little that we have and let Him use it. I realized this week that this story is so much more than that. I am the disciples, going on wild goose chases because God says so without knowing or understanding His will behind it all. ("Write a book for teenagers about abortion while in high school? I have no credentials. No one would want to read it. Abortion is so controversial, my voice will be lost in the noise. It wont go anywhere." Nobody would have been fed if the disciples had listened to thoughts like these. Just do the little God tells you to, having faith that it'll fit into His master plan, which is incredible.) I am the five loaves and two fish--kinda gross, really smelly, but God will break me and make me into something He can use. Who am I to hold back anything? I can be a smelly lunchable or a feast enough for 5,000. I am also the 5,000, just sitting back and waiting to receive God's gift without ever considering the price that was paid for it or the power it required. 

"And when they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, 'Gather up leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.' So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten" (12-13). When God provides, He doesn't provide just enough. He provides an incredible abundance.

Bonus round: when searching for a picture of lembas bread, I found a recipe. I love the internet and the nerdy people who inhabit it. And while finding the lunchable kid I discovered that pocket espresso exists. I'd say this was a successful blog post. 

October Baby: Gianna Jessen

Meanwhile, while everyone else in the world is talking about the Hunger Games and March Madness...

Here's another episode of Why You Should Go See October Baby! When director Jon Erwin heard Gianna Jessen speak, he was stunned by the fact that some children survive abortion. As he thought about it he began writing script, a script that eventually turned into what is now October Baby.

Because I just can't get enough of Gianna:

If you haven't heard of Gianna Jessen, youtube some of her speeches--specifically the one in Australia. Her story is so beautiful and stunning, she really lives out what it means to talk about abortion with truth and respect.

Her song played in the first video, Ocean Floor, is available on iTunes, and the film October Baby is in theaters now.

It's important to go see October Baby as soon as possible, preferably this weekend, because if they don't do well the first weekend they wont stay in theaters long. So go! Go twice! Go seven times! You'll probably see me there.

You can see more preview videos and buy tickets here. 

October Baby: Shari Rigby

March 23, October Baby comes to theaters! This is me trying to more thoroughly convince you to go see it. It's definitely worth the time and money. I love this clip; Ms Rigby is beautiful and so vulnerable, and God is using her to reach so many people in her situation!

Speaking the truth about abortion while being respectful to those effected by it is a major challenge, but October Baby does it perfectly. It's definitely a must-see.

Grammar Matters, People

When people type like THIS and like this it makes me feel as though I am being PUNCHED REPEATEDLY in ThE fAcE!

Seriously.

October Baby: March 23!

The hardest part about pro-life work is treating it correctly. On one hand, abortion violently kills an innocent child. Meanwhile, the people in abortion clinics as employees and as scared girls who feel they have no other option are real people who really exist, not baby killing monsters. At the same time, countless women suffer silently from the pain of a past abortion or abortions. When educating people about abortion, what should our attitude be? Do we treat abortion like a genocide, like the holocaust? Do we speak about it sensitively and avoid talking about the baby all together as not to hurt a woman who has had an abortion? There are so many examples of people and organizations and articles (probably some of my own) veering too far on one side or the other.

On March 23 a movie called October Baby is coming to theaters. When I first heard of the movie a few months ago I was incredibly skeptical. I tend to be wary of Christian movies, music, and art in general. While it's certainly not always true, there is a lot of poor Christian art out there. However, when I had to privilege of seeing a prescreening of October Baby a few weeks ago all of those thoughts vanished. October Baby is a beautiful piece of art that tells a beautiful and heart wrenching story of very real characters. It's a stunning and quality movie with a strong Christian message. It's a movie about abortion, but it's doesn't feel like a movie about abortion. It's a story about people effected by abortion. It shows the abounding forgiveness and love of God after abortion, but it shows the pain it takes to get there. This film shows that abortion is murder, but it does so in the most stunning way I have ever seen.

On March 23 it comes to theaters, and I strongly recommend seeing it. See it twice! See it seven times! If it doesn't do well the first weekend it will leave theaters quickly, but this movie deserves being in theaters for a while. People need to see it.

I get so discouraged watching movies and TV shows that tear you down. While they're entertaining, they portray life so negatively. This movie, however, is absolutely beautiful while it shows that life has value and is worth living. It's honestly the only movie I can think of that has this message, a message the world is aching to hear!

A Nabal Fable

Abigail and...Nabal?

I have been reading through the Old Testament, slowly but surely, and I recently got to 1 Samuel 25. The chapter starts off with Samuel dying, which begs the question, why is this book and the following book named after him? Then it goes into a story about a guy named Nabal and his hot wife Abigail. 1 Samuel says Nabal is very rich, so much so that he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. (Dang, Nabal! Share the wealth, man!). "Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved" (verse 3). So while Abigail was sitting there being attractive and smart and discerning and wise and godly and all that, Nabal was probably burping at the table and kicking his three thousand pet sheep or something.

They grabbed their swords!

David (you know, the little shepherd boy who killed the giant named Goliath with his slingshot then later became king of Israel, also known as "a man after God's own heart") heard about Nabal and decided to go see him. He sent his men to go talk to him and instructed them to be super nice. He told them to say to Nabal, "Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David" (6-8). See? They're super nice. Well, Nabal is the prime example of somebody who doesn't follow world news (that's for you, PEP teachers). He didn't even know who David was and was being super annoying. David's men went back and told him everything that Nabal said, and "David said to his men, 'Every man strap on his sword!' And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage" (13). Four hundred men plus King David grabbed their swords and went to see Nabal. 

Abigail's sneaking looked like this, plus donkeys.

Then one of Nabal's servants went and told Hottie Wife Abigail about how Nabal was so rude to the men who were really nice to his servants, who also happened to be the servants of the king. Abigail wasn't stupid (she was "discerning and beautiful," to be exact) and stepped in to save the day! She prepared huge gift baskets (well, donkeys loaded with stuff) to give to David & Co. 1 Samuel reads, "Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys" (18). She snuck out with her donkeys and some more servants without Nabal knowing. 


Abigail found David and fell down at his feet and begged his forgiveness for her husband. She said to David, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent" (24-25). She owns up that her husband is a bummer, but begs for his life anyway. She is very respectful to David, and David is kind in return. 

This is... probly not what eating like a king looks like.

When Abigail returned home she found that her husband had been feasting like a king while she had been saving is life from the actual king. Nabal was pretty shwasted, so she waiting until the morning to tell him what happened. When she did, "his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died" (37-38). When David heard of Nabal's death, he took Abigail to be his wife. She got to be the wife of the king!

I found this story ridiculous, but in the best kind of way. It happened to actual people some 4,000-odd years ago, but we still get a peek into their lives. We can learn a lot from the folly of Nabal compared to the character of Abigail. Nabal was disrespectful and rude to the king and his servants, repaid the good they did to him with evil, then went off and feasted and drank while his life was on the line. Abigail, however, did not complain about having a husband like Nabal. Rather, she was honest about his character but was willing to take the responsibility for his actions to allow him to live. She was also very beautiful and made a mean fig cake, apparently.

It's so easy to become like Nabal. I treat people who deserve my respect like they're beneath me. I ignore my problems and leave them for other people to take care of. I spend my time enjoying myself instead being responsible. How much more I'd rather be like Abigail: she respected not only the king but also her bummer of a husband, she went out of her way to take care of his problems when she didn't have to and even though he wouldn't appreciate it, she didn't complain. She was godly, respectful, discerning, beautiful, and pretty darn classy.

Kony 2012

Along with the rest of the internet world, a few days ago I watched the Kony 2012 video by Invisible Children on youtube. It's spreading really quickly--when I watched it the day after it came out it already had 7 million views. Today (Friday) it has over 56 million. For some reason I didn't get the same adrenalin rush and excitement from watching it that everybody else seemed to get. Instead it made me really uncomfortable and I couldn't figure out why. I thought about it more today and here's what I came up with.

The video by Invisible Children is brilliantly done. After studying rhetoric last year when we learned about different kinds of appeals, the classical structure for a discourse, different types of conclusions that bring different reactions, ect. The Kony 2012 video was definitely made by somebody who knew what they were doing. It seems to follow the structure of a classical discourse (first an introduction, then giving the background and all the facts, followed by the main argument, then refuting all of the common arguments against your position, and finally a conclusion that ties it all together). They use emotional appeals that get a reaction out of you (the pictures of the children in Africa holding guns, the heartbreaking story from Jacob, and even his adorable son). The conclusion is designed to call the audience to action. The video does all of this so well! It's effective and convincing and brilliantly made. 

However. 

There's still something unsettling about it. It almost feels like propaganda. There is a correct time and place for propaganda, but we still need to be aware of it. The video made the situation in Uganda seem like the worst thing in the world, and if we could fix this problem then the world would be perfect. I have a friend whose family has adopted boys from Africa who come from similar situations as Jacob's and is a lot more informed about it than I am. She pointed out that Kony is not the only man like that. There are people just as evil as him doing similar things, and by giving such emphasis to Kony we risk forgetting about them, even letting them off the hook. If we get rid of Kony, then do we have to then go after all of those other evil people?

That opens a whole new door, a dangerous door. Should America really be the police men of the world? It makes us responsible for far more than we need to be responsible for, it gives the government way too much power, it sounds too imperialist, and it leads right into the one world government idea. Is it the government's job to step in and fight people like Kony who have nothing to do with them? I completely agree with Invisible Children in that what Kony is doing to these children is horrendous and needs to be stopped. No human being should be treated that way, and especially not children. I get angry thinking about that. But I'm still undecided if it's the government's job to fix all of the world's problems. Is the government playing God when they try to punish the wicked? While what is happening in Africa is heartbreaking and should make us incredibly angry, I don't think our government (or any government) can solve all of these problems and fight all of the bad guys. 

There's another side of me that is uncomfortable about the Kony video. It's becoming very popular and even politically correct to support the Kony 2012 movement. Yet at the same time it's still politically incorrect and considered downright offensive to stand for the children in our own country who have no rights, no voice, are "invisible." There may be a part of me that's jealous that that movement got to be the cool one this week and the pro-life movement still isnt' cool, but there is some merit to this. How can we stand for 30,000 children on the other side of the world by posting a video on facebook, but then call it offensive when somebody stands for the 5 million killed by abortion in our own country? It's wrong not to stand for child soldiers in Africa yet alright to allow women to choose whether or not to kill their children. It's politically correct and culturally acceptable to give a voice to the 30,000 Invisible Children in Africa but politically incorrect and culturally unacceptable to stand for the 5 million invisible children in our own land. (For a really good article about this, go here. It's definitely worth the read.) 

And one last thing. That chart they show at the end of the video when he's talking about how it used to be the influential people with the money who made the decisions for our country, but now for the first time ever the people have a voice. That freaked me out a lot. Don't Americans already have a voice? We've always had the right to vote, have representatives, call Senators, ect, because our founding fathers wanted the people to have a say in the government. Are we just now realizing we have a voice and deciding to use it? In history class right now we're studying the rise of Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler. Maybe it's an overreaction, but the idea of all of us uniting and having one voice and standing up to the government freaks me out more than a little. 

Those are my thoughts. They're not perfect, they're not flawless. But there they are. I'm not against Invisible Children or the campaign to stop Kony, but I think it's important to think this stuff through before jumping on the bandwagon. I can't decide if I'm on this bandwagon or not. Endangering and victimizing children makes me more angry than anything else in the world. However, I'm still uneasy. These are my initial thoughts, not my conclusions. I'm still glad God is in control over all of this. 

What Writing Really Looks Like (or "Patheticness Embodied")

I was first introduced to the topic of abortion January of 2009 when I wrote a research paper on Margaret Sanger. In August of the same year I decided to write a book and began researching, then a few months later I actually began outlining. Ever since, "the book" has been weighing on my mind, causing me to carrying around notebooks for keeping ideas and lists of things to do and outlines, and making me spend all of my breaks from school writing in my room. When I talk to people about my writing, I would love for them to imagine me sitting in Starbucks, drinking a latte, wearing thick-rimmed glasses and with a thoughtful expression on my face. While I do go to Starbucks to write sometimes, I generally don't order lattes and I never look that cool. Most of the time when I write I'm at home, in my bedroom, alone, and looking pathetic. I wish the whole ordeal would look something like this:

Hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com 

Occasionally this is fairly accurate, but generally if I'm awake at 3:17 AM it's because I'm doing homework, and I can guarantee I never have that facial expression at that time or while doing homework. What's more, my posture while writing is far poorer than this picture depicts. Over the past year I've developed the habit of writing while sitting on my floor, ever since the pad on my desk chair fell off making it incredible uncomfortable. And when I say "sitting on my floor," I really mean curled up in a pathetic little ball of sweat pants and hoodie, under an electric blanket which is tangled with my computer cord, drinking my 3rd of 4th cup of coffee for the day, and forcing myself to remain still due to the caffeine and list of other things I'd rather be doing. There's usually a space heater, mismatching socks, a crooked braid in my hair, and two or three white boards with outlines and lists of facts involved. This has become a regular event for me, and it generally lasts 20 minutes-4 hours a day, depending on how much I don't want to be doing homework. Then once I begin homework, it, too, quickly spirals from me sitting in my armchair doing homework to slumped over in the same puddle of patheticness on my floor.

The only hope for me not becoming a hunch back by the time I'm 25 is either finishing this book in the next three days or fixing my desk chair. It's not looking too good.

Well there you have it. A mental image of me writing. I just wanted to clear that up for you in case you were picturing it all wrong.