Category: Christianity
Monday Morning!
I took a brief hiatus over the weekend as I was trying to get over a rather nasty cold. I figured that either during or after Lakeshore I was bound to get sick, and sure enough, it happened. But thankfully I got it after Lakeshore, so I just spent the majority of last week catching up on Sherlock and Downton Abbey : ) Don’t worry, there will be posts to come about those. And Doctor Who. Considering I haven’t talked much yet about the Christmas special, it definitely deserves a post of its own! Meanwhile, now that I’m feeling much…
People Help the People
We all want to be happy, right? We want to be smiling and cheerful. We want a life of perpetual laughter and mirth. Sometimes we’re afraid of anything else. And sometimes we close ourselves up, so the only thing we can feel is happiness. We can carefully wrap our hearts up to guard them from anything but joy. We create sanitized worlds of positivity and optimism. We avert our eyes from anything that threatens our fragile sense of happiness. But it is beautiful what happens when we expose our hearts to the real world. When we accept the sorrow within…
Thoughts on Dracula
Preface: This is a short essay I wrote for my Science Fiction/Fantasy MOOC class last semester. It was challenging because of the word limit (320 words) and I would have liked to expand on the ideas much more. But at least it gave me practice in trying to condense my thoughts : ) So this essay is on Dracula, by Bram Stoker. The overarching tension of Dracula is the conflict between the traditional Christian worldview and the forces of evil. It is only through recourse to religion that the protagonists are able to overcome Dracula; science and technological advances were…
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
1 Peter 3:13
This Too Shall Pass
I never really thought about this in years past, but the season seems to be the time for changes, goodbyes, and new phases of life. We bid farewell to friends leaving for college and realize it is time to move forward and chase our dreams. Perhaps grasping that the year is more than halfway over makes us consider all that is yet to be done. Some people make transitions well, moving seamlessly from one stage of life to another. Some of us struggle more. I am very forward-thinking and embrace new ideas. It is the reality of those ideas that challenges…
No Strings Attached
I’ve decided my goal for life is to learn how to freely give. Sometimes I look at myself and see only mean and petty motivations. I see hypocrisy and self-centered manipulation. And this is when I despise myself most, for this is everything I abhor. Because honesty is so important. It is better to be honest and real—no matter what that means—than sickeningly insincere. It is better to be a miser than give with strings attached. When Jesus healed the sick, the blind, the possessed, did He demand they spend the rest of their life serving Him? Did He seek…
Battles in the Silence
The past few months I’ve thought a lot about blogging. I wondered why I am not doing it more. I was perplexed because writing is such a joy—so why avoid it? Why the procrastination? The answer has slowly come to me through gradual epiphanies. Writing is a lot like ripping your soul into a thousand shards and then putting all the pieces back together in a new pattern. My mind has been filled with so many words and thoughts recently that I’m beginning to feel suffocated under the weight. The only way to find myself again is to write it…
Announcing: New Fandom Member
So anyone who knows me in person, or on Facebook for that matter, will know that I’m a huge fan of Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Downton Abbey. In that order. I can drive you crazy with my Doctor Who references. If you ask me about the show, be prepared for a 5 hour monologue on the subject. Well…over the past few weeks I had the opportunity to finally read The Lord of the Rings. I’ve had this on my to-do list for the last few summers. After my little sister read The Hobbit in a ridiculously short time I decided…
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Monday Morning!
I took a brief hiatus over the weekend as I was trying to get over a rather nasty cold. I figured that either during or after Lakeshore I was bound to get sick, and sure enough, it happened. But thankfully I got it after Lakeshore, so I just spent the majority of last week catching up on Sherlock and Downton Abbey : ) Don’t worry, there will be posts to come about those. And Doctor Who. Considering I haven’t talked much yet about the Christmas special, it definitely deserves a post of its own! Meanwhile, now that I’m feeling much…
People Help the People
We all want to be happy, right? We want to be smiling and cheerful. We want a life of perpetual laughter and mirth. Sometimes we’re afraid of anything else. And sometimes we close ourselves up, so the only thing we can feel is happiness. We can carefully wrap our hearts up to guard them from anything but joy. We create sanitized worlds of positivity and optimism. We avert our eyes from anything that threatens our fragile sense of happiness. But it is beautiful what happens when we expose our hearts to the real world. When we accept the sorrow within…
Thoughts on Dracula
Preface: This is a short essay I wrote for my Science Fiction/Fantasy MOOC class last semester. It was challenging because of the word limit (320 words) and I would have liked to expand on the ideas much more. But at least it gave me practice in trying to condense my thoughts : ) So this essay is on Dracula, by Bram Stoker. The overarching tension of Dracula is the conflict between the traditional Christian worldview and the forces of evil. It is only through recourse to religion that the protagonists are able to overcome Dracula; science and technological advances were…
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
1 Peter 3:13
This Too Shall Pass
I never really thought about this in years past, but the season seems to be the time for changes, goodbyes, and new phases of life. We bid farewell to friends leaving for college and realize it is time to move forward and chase our dreams. Perhaps grasping that the year is more than halfway over makes us consider all that is yet to be done. Some people make transitions well, moving seamlessly from one stage of life to another. Some of us struggle more. I am very forward-thinking and embrace new ideas. It is the reality of those ideas that challenges…
No Strings Attached
I’ve decided my goal for life is to learn how to freely give. Sometimes I look at myself and see only mean and petty motivations. I see hypocrisy and self-centered manipulation. And this is when I despise myself most, for this is everything I abhor. Because honesty is so important. It is better to be honest and real—no matter what that means—than sickeningly insincere. It is better to be a miser than give with strings attached. When Jesus healed the sick, the blind, the possessed, did He demand they spend the rest of their life serving Him? Did He seek…
Battles in the Silence
The past few months I’ve thought a lot about blogging. I wondered why I am not doing it more. I was perplexed because writing is such a joy—so why avoid it? Why the procrastination? The answer has slowly come to me through gradual epiphanies. Writing is a lot like ripping your soul into a thousand shards and then putting all the pieces back together in a new pattern. My mind has been filled with so many words and thoughts recently that I’m beginning to feel suffocated under the weight. The only way to find myself again is to write it…
Announcing: New Fandom Member
So anyone who knows me in person, or on Facebook for that matter, will know that I’m a huge fan of Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Downton Abbey. In that order. I can drive you crazy with my Doctor Who references. If you ask me about the show, be prepared for a 5 hour monologue on the subject. Well…over the past few weeks I had the opportunity to finally read The Lord of the Rings. I’ve had this on my to-do list for the last few summers. After my little sister read The Hobbit in a ridiculously short time I decided…