Rest for the weary!

I go to Longboat Key tomorrow.
For a week.
So that maybe I won't need another emotional unloading day like today for a while.
I get my ears pierced when I get back.

Right ear:


Left ear:

From AOL - America needs help.

America remains a nation of believers, but a new survey finds most Americans don't feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise.

The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.

Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.

In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.

"The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep," said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion.

"There's a growing pluralistic impulse toward tolerance and that is having theological consequences," he said.

Earlier data from the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released in February, highlighted how often Americans switch religious affiliation. The newly released material looks at religious belief and practice as well as the impact of religion on society, including how faith shapes political views.

The report argues that while relatively few people — 14 percent — cite religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking, religion still plays a powerful indirect role.

The study confirmed some well-known political dynamics, including stark divisions over abortion and gay marriage, with the more religiously committed taking conservative views on the issues.

But it also showed support across religious lines for greater governmental aid for the poor, even if it means more debt and stricter environmental laws and regulations.

By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life after death and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God.

But deeper investigation found that more than one in four Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and Orthodox Christians expressed some doubts about God's existence, as did six in ten Jews.

Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent "absolutely certain" of it.

"Look, this shows the limits of a survey approach to religion," said Peter Berger, a theology and sociology professor at Boston University. "What do people really mean when they say that many religions lead to eternal life? It might mean they don't believe their particular truth at all. Others might be saying, 'We believe a truth but respect other people, and they are not necessarily going to hell.'"

Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, said that more research is planned to answer those kinds of questions, but that earlier, smaller surveys found similar results.

Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).

By similar margins, people in those faith groups believe in multiple interpretations of their own traditions' teachings. Yet 44 percent of the religiously affiliated also said their religion should preserve its traditional beliefs and practices.

"What most people are saying is, 'Hey, we don't have a hammer-lock on God or salvation, and God's bigger than us and we should respect that and respect other people,'" said the Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

"Some people are like butterflies that go from flower to flower, going from religion to religion — and frankly they don't get that deep into any of them," he said.

Beliefs about eternal life vary greatly, even within a religious tradition.

Some Christians hold strongly to Jesus' words as described in John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Others emphasize the wideness of God's grace.

The Catholic church teaches that the "one church of Christ ... subsists in the Catholic Church" alone and that Protestant churches, while defective, can be "instruments of salvation."

Roger Oldham, a vice president with the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, bristled at using the word "tolerance" in the analysis.

"If by tolerance we mean we're willing to engage or embrace a multitude of ways to salvation, that's no longer evangelical belief," he said. "The word 'evangelical' has been stretched so broadly, it's almost an elastic term."

Others welcomed the findings.

"It shows increased religious security. People are comfortable with other traditions even if they're different," said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance. "It indicates a level of humility about religion that would be of great benefit to everyone."

More than most groups, Catholics break with their church, and not just on issues like abortion and homosexuality. Only six in 10 Catholics described God as "a person with whom people can have a relationship" — which the church teaches — while three in 10 described God as an "impersonal force."

"The statistics show, more than anything else, that many who describe themselves as Catholics do not know or understand the teachings of their church," said Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput. "Being Catholic means believing what the Catholic church teaches. It is a communion of faith, not simply of ancestry and family tradition. It also means that the church ought to work harder at evangelizing its own members."

I hate strides.

"There's something about waking up early to run while most people are asleep that makes you feel completely superior to the rest of the world."
-Malee Bringardner

I ran 4 miles tempo this morning at a 7:15 pace. I'm beginning to regain hope in myself. It makes my 5k around 22:15, which is not good, but I could be doing a lot worse. 22:15 was my average for last season that it took me 3 months to get out of. So I guess to be back at that time after 6 months of not running is not something I can complain about. I'll be under 21 when the season starts.

Wow.

Ben's parents offered me 390 dollars today so that I could go to Teen Camp in July.

It was overwhelming.
I didn't know what to say.
I cried.

And I can't go because of a Jamaica meeting.
But still.
390 dollars.

He didn't ask for anything back, he just said that their family is blessed with wealth so that they can do things like that for people in tight spots.

This is how the conversation went, just so you really understand.

Cindy Morris: So Sarah, I hear you aren't going to Teen Camp...
Me: Nope, I just paid 500 dollars for a mission trip so I'm a little strapped for money.
Tom: What? Why didn't you ask Pam and I for the money?!

And that is when I laughed. He did not laugh back. He was waiting for an answer.

Do you know what generosity is?

Because I don't think I did before today.

Strange how hard it rains now

My senior pictures are supposed to go on her wall, but the picture wall is gone because the house is being sold because she is dead and grandpa doesn't want 5000 square feet of echoing footsteps.

I want someone to pull my hair out of my face when I cry about it. The last time someone did that was Jeremy at the last Telos that Abby was at.

I haven't gotten a chance yet to be not okay.
I just want to be sad and no one will let me feel things.
So I'm crying in front of a computer screen while everyone else is asleep to try and get the sad out.

This is a hideously unsubtle plea for comfort, if anyone would like to oblige.

Joshua 24:15

I don't know if I'm more sad or disgusted.

I have a friend. This is his about me on myspace.
"Shall we begin? My name is _____ but everyone that is close to me calls me _____ and there is a reason for that but you will have to get to know me to understand why they call me _____ =) I’m 19 years old but I act like a little kid at times hehe! I'm a Christian. I always put people head of me and that will never change. My goal in life is to become more like Jesus each day. I enjoy writing, reading, watching the sky, dancing in the rain, surfing, and swimming!!! I'm an all out swimmer if you can't tell! Always remember you are never alone even though it seems like it at times but we do have a God who watch overs us and will be here for us if we ask. AIM=__________ For love is strong as death passion fierce as the grave; its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."

He's a nice kid. He loves Jesus.

He posted a bulletin a few minutes ago entitled "Sex or Pass."
Here's what it was.

"There is at least one person on your myspace list that wants to fuck the hell out of you.


So lets play the Sex or Pass game?

The rules are simple... if you want to fuck the person who posts this, send them a message saying 'yep, I'd screw you'

SCARED? lol this is funny
YOU HAVE TO RE-POST THIS!! and see who replies.


There is at least one person on your myspace list that wants to do u so!!!
repost this as 'Sex or Pass'
Don't be a wimp and not re-post it"

I don't understand.
Honestly, I don't.
And it makes me sad to be bunched under the same "Christian" label as people who do things like this.
And it makes me even sadder to know that things that disgusting are hidden in my own heart.

We really are a sad bunch, aren't we? Even those of us who "live into our faith" will never be able to stand up to the world and all of its pitfalls. And that's why grace has become such a blessing to all who have chosen to accept it: we wouldn't have a chance at redeeming ourselves were it not for grace. I guarantee that if I were to live to be 100 years old, each attempt at living a sinless day would be a miserably failed endeavor.

But I want to challenge you to try anyway.

Jesus did not call us to be sinless. But He did call us to try.

Joshua 24:15
"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

Let's try this again.

In an attempt to wean myself away from facebook and myspace, I'm going to try to move my blogging venue elsewhere. Like, here.

The college search continues. Northwestern and UConn sent me things today, along with Rollins and Warner Southern. I'm still planning on community college in Chicago, so we'll see where we go from there. AmeriCorps has openings in the housing/community development departments in downtown, so that works out nicely.

It's strange how much changes in a half year. If you had asked me in December what I was planning on doing for college, I would have told you either Valencia or Jacksonville in order to be close to my family and friends. MAYBE Atlanta. And now I can't seem to find a college far enough away to accommodate my desire for space between myself and the people currently in my life. Not that I don't love my friends and family dearly, and no offense to any of you... I just need a clean slate and some new faces. Chicago has Dana and the Eastman family, so I won't be completely alone. Connecticut would be too overwhelming. Suffield is a city made up primarily of members of the Sikes family whom I have never met before. It's a little intimidating. I don't think I want to jump into any more Sikes culture just right now.

In other news...



John left for Louisiana this morning. I'm going to be in Jamaica or Michigan when he comes back, and by the time I'm home, he's going to be in Gainesville. It was a sad goodbye after church yesterday morning, and there were several interruptions that kind of ruined it. But hey, it happens. And I wrote him an Until-Later-Letter anyway, so at least church wasn't my only opportunity for the solid goodbye I wanted to give him.

Speaking of Jamaica. Less than 2 months. :)

Anywho. I suppose that's a good start. We'll see how long I can keep this going.

Love.
Sarah