God Is Calling YOU.

"I'm Not Like Other Girls"

Katherine rants about why the above statement is problematic. 

This is a really super cool project to make awesome leggings and make the world a better place! Totally worth supporting!

You have not been sprinkled with forgiveness. You have not been splattered with grace. You have not been dusted with kindness. You have been immersed in it. You are a minnow in an ocean of his mercy.

Max Lucado (via littlethingsaboutgod)

Prayer - July 17

I'm a broken record. I spit the same words out at you. Over and over and over. By now they've lost all meaning, even to me. I'm stuck on the same part of the song. I'm singing you the same refrain again and again, but it's getting tired. "I'm sorry for letting myself grow cold. I'm gonna make a commitment to do better." How many times have I been "saved"? How many times have I prayed the prayer of repentance? How many times have I recommitted my life to you? Did I ever really mean it? I'm lukewarm water. Unfit for drinking, unfit for cooking, unfit for anything. I'm stagnant and disgusting. There are dust particles and all sorts of nasty bacteria collecting in this water. No wonder it make you gag. Maybe the worst possible fate I could think of - making Jesus gag. God, I don't want to make you gag. I know that I'm lukewarm because my life has become all about doing everything "right" and being "perfect" and "having it all together". My all-consuming passion is keeping that pathetic insecurity at bay by trying to fit all the roles I think I'm supposed to fit. But you've called me to something so much more. You've called me to break the mold. I know that your plans for me are so much above and beyond anything I could imagine. I know that you can take my life and turn it upside down and inside out and make something crazy amazing with it. So why am I so happy with my average, nice, white-picket-fence existence right now? Here's my life, jesus. Maybe this is the first time I've ever given it to you. Here are my fears and insecurities. Here are my dreams. Here are my plans. Here's my time. Here's my money. Here are my talents. Here are my passions. Here are my skills. Here's my past. Here's my present. Here's my future. Take it all. Love, me.

My pastor on National Coming Out Day.

A PSA for all the white, straight, cisgendered, able-bodied, neurotypical peeps.

You are privileged. 

If you are all of the things listed in that title, then you are VERY privileged. 

If you are not aware of your privilege, it’s because that’s how privilege works. You don’t see the disadvantages other people face because those disadvantages don’t exist for you. You don’t see social inequalities because society was designed for you to move through it with ease. Society was built by people like you for people like you. That’s privilege. 

But also, if you’re not aware of your privilege, or - even worse - if you willfully deny the existence of said privilege, you’re either blind or selfish or some arrogant, ignorant combination of the two. 

FURTHERMORE. When someone tells you that you are privileged, that is not a personal affront?? Nobody is attacking you by telling you that you’re privileged. They’re just stating a fact. E.g. Me saying “you are privileged.” is not an attack. Me saying “you’re either blind or selfish or some arrogant, ignorant combination of the two.” is an attack. You see the difference? Good. I regret nothing. Moving on. 

I understand that being privileged can feel uncomfortable because it’s like daily, societal survivor’s guilt. I understand that you don’t want to talk about how life is easier for you than for your friend/coworker/family member because of the colour of your skin, or your gender identity, or your sexual orientation, or your genetics. Nobody has any control over that. And yeah, I get it. You’re a good person. You would never oppress anybody because of any of those things. 

STOP BEING AN OVERLY SENSITIVE BABY. This. Is. Not. About. You. Suck it up and face the facts: we live in a deeply unjust society, and you’re on the benefitting side of that injustice. Getting offended about it when someone points out your privilege doesn’t help. Denying your privilege doesn’t help. Making up some stupid reverse kind of discrimination doesn’t help. Claiming that you can’t be privileged because your life sucks doesn’t help. Feeling guilty about it doesn’t help. 

Literally the only appropriate response to your own privilege is to acknowledge it, acknowledge that other people are not so privileged, use your privilege to draw attention to the fact that not everyone is privileged, and work to correct social inequalities. That’s it. Do that. Instead of getting blustery and defensive when someone tells you that you’re privileged, just go do that. ffs. 

Excellent point!! I also like the fact that he said it's not a choice! I think that is a huuuuuge step towards becoming more accepting for the church. I wondered about that too...comparing it to a disease is kind of like saying, "God created you and loves you exactly as you are but if you're homosexual, there's something wrong with you." "The Fall" is definitely a difficult concept to talk about because it's so vast and pervasive. I guess you gotta wonder what we fell from, i.e. what we would be like if none of us had a piece of the fall in us. It's great to get your input on this :) 

Also, thanks so much :D it was so fantastic and wonderful, even for the people volunteering behind the scenes. :)

-Katherine

So….this weekend I volunteered with this provincial conference called YC. It’s an annual gathering of about 2000 Christian teenagers from across the island (the island of Newfoundland, population ~500, 000). We flew in bands like Switchfoot, Group 1 Crew, Unhindered and Bluetree, and some awesome…

If words were wounds

and you could see flesh tearing —

would we still speak the same way

or find new ways to destroy ..?

If words were healing

and you could see wounds sealing —

would we still speak the same way

or withhold words to destroy ..?

But this is what it is, every day.

Words rip, words mend —

deeper than flesh, more than metal.

Flesh is fragile,

but a soul, eternal. 

Will we still speak the same way?

  —J.S.

Can religion and science co-exist? religious people bash on scientists, yet scientists never claimed to create, be smarter, wiser or greater then god. They just ask questions and get answers based on observations. Scientists call it proof, religion calls it faith. One is based on logic and proof the other we are expected to be wise enough to believe in. Evolution and Adam & Eve, The big bang and the 7 days of creation. How do you justify them, or do you believe just one theory? why mix the two?

Hold up now, I’m getting some serious misconceptions from you here. Some religious people bash on scientists. And some scientists bash on religious people. Unfortunately, I fear that there will always be bad blood between those who view themselves as being driven by the pursuit of pure, rational knowledge, and those who view themselves as being privy to a transcendent, divine message. Many in each camp see the other as polar opposite, but they’re more similar than they know. If you ask me, and you did (mwahaha), science and religion don’t need to look for a way to peacefully coexist, they already cooperate quite beautifully, if only we would see it. Let’s face it, there are some gaps in the proof for the big bang and there’s even some scientific evidence for the truth of the bible. But neither theory can explain everything. They’re both a few pieces short of the full puzzle. You know why? Cause it’s the same puzzle. Evolution is obviously a perfectly respectful theory. Darwin’s finches is an observable phenomenon and I don’t deny the existence of evolution. I find it a tad hard to swallow though, when the simple phenomenon of evolution is stretched so much as to explain how we got from a collision of matter and antimatter and primordial soup to the complex ecosystems and organisms we have today. I accept that there are myriad things we don’t know and probably never will. I am a science enthusiast and a Christian. Are the two mutually exclusive? Of course not. Do I “mix the two”? Well…no. There’s nothing to mix. God, being supernatural, created all the natural world. Science is the explanation of the natural world. That’s not so hard. Some of my most spiritual moments were…1. Grade 12 Biology, DNA unit. 2. Kennedy Space Center, Orlando FL, 2012. The microscopic and the macroscopic get me so fired up cause I’m just squirming in my seat like a little kid, going “God, you are SO COOL!” The more I learn about this world, the more amazed and inspired I am by the God who (to me) obviously made it. His fingerprints are everywhere, and that’s what science is to me. Although, interestingly, I’m also completely in love with the arts, because that’s God’s fingerprints inside of us. Ta-da! The reconciliation of what seem to be conflicting schools of thought. Only the truly close-minded would think that religion and science are mutually exclusive. :) Peace and love! -KatherineP.S. Einstein said that the more he studied the universe, the more he believed in a higher power.  

Where do you draw the line at what's appropriate sexually before marriage?

I’m pretty conservative, so kissing is my limit. Like, I don’t want hands going ANYWHERE, not even above the belt. :P I try to follow these rules: 1. No clothes are coming off. 2. Don’t touch me anywhere that would be covered by a bikini.

I just do this because the road to sex is a very slippery slope, and I’m worried that once you start down that slope, it’s really hard to stop. And to me, it’s too much of a risk to take, so I’d prefer to stay faaaaaar away from that slope at all, and make absolutely certain that nothing’s gonna happen. I just don’t know how strong my will power is, and I’d really prefer not to find out, haha :P

Thanks for the question! Peace and love! -Katherine