Back in the Swing of Things.

After about a month and a half of withdrawal, I finally got to go swing dancing tonight. (Ok, so last Saturday some friends and I got together to review some moves but that's not the same.) All I can say is, wow...I am so rusty. I actually was in pain at one point, certain muscles I forgot I had reintroduced themselves. I wouldn't have it any other way, though. My love of swing may not go back far (only to September) but it has definitely become a passion. I love to dance, I love to learn, I love to have fun with my friends and swing lets me do all three.

Life lesson learned from swing #12: You can learn a lot by being willing to try something new. I learn at least five new moves every dance and can't seem to get enough. As of now I've got basic East Coast, Lindy and Charleston under my belt, some Shag, and I started to pick up Shim-Sham. Man what a high.

I think it's interesting how much you learn about people just by dancing with them, especially from the girl's perspective. Life lesson learned from swing #8: Don't get Saucy with just anybody, you'll regret it. For those of you non-swinging types...Saucy is a kick in Charleston in which the girl is essentially kicking from a dip position; not something you want to do with a guy you don't trust to support you. I've learned a couple of particularly tricky moves (one being Saucy and another a basket swing in Lindy) that I've learned with certain partners and, as of yet, haven't found anybody else I've felt comfortable enough with to do those moves. A girl learns very quickly which guys she can and cannot trust, and often the guys you can trust on the dance floor are those that you can trust off. For my part, I can usually tell within the first three or four measures if the guy I'm dancing with is going to be able to carry his part or not. There are some guys I like dancing with because they are confident in their lead, a couple of guys I've danced with enough that I don't have to think about what I'm doing anymore; I can just let go and let them lead without worrying about them spinning me into a wall. Then there are some guys who just don't get the whole leading thing...You continually guess whether they are leading a spin or just being sloppy. Ergh. For those guys, life lesson learned from swing #7:If you move confidently you can get away with just about anything.

Surprisingly tonight there was a shortage of men, many a lady was in need of a partner. Luckily I knew a good number of the guys that were there, and had danced with them before, so I didn't end up on the wall too often. Still, it is quite the reverse of when I first started going to the dances.

So to recap, I am so excited to be swinging again.

While I'm on the topic of great guys, I want to say how incredibly blessed I am to know the group of gentlemen that I do. It means a lot to me to know and be able to spend time with my Christian brothers. I have a brother who is seven years older than me and was a real jerk while I was growing up. The only time he noticed me was to pick on me or have me entertain him when none of his friends happened to be around. Being an Army brat, he and my dad were the two guys I've spent the most time with in my life. This explains why I am so close to my dad; he is a strong man after Christ, a great leader for our family, and a bigger kid than I am. I can only hope to marry a man half as good as my father. (Yep, I'm his angel-baby. My future husband has some shoes to fill, let me tell you.)

Anyway, back to Christian brothers. In high school, I could count on one hand the number of guys I knew who even claimed to be Christian, let alone acted the part. So, I can't really express how much it means to me to be around men who truly follow after Christ. Example: Last semester, when hurricane Isabel came through, a group of Navigators was at the football game, some of the guys had painted up so they were shirtless and freezing. Tanya and I bought them cocoa and they were genuinely grateful. Point? These guys made us "Thank You" notes. Up until this point, I had never known a guy in my peer group that would write a thank you of his own free will, let alone quote Romans 16:1-2 in it and promise to be there if ever we needed something in return.

I still have that Thank You; I'm staring at it as it hangs above my desk even as I type this. To me, it's a reminder that chivalry is alive and thriving; that there are actual men in this world, not just skirt-chasing-hormone-sacks and machismo addicts; and that I am blessed to know men who know and live by 1 Timothy 5:1-2. I could go on commending these men of God and how important time with them is to me, how I feel completely at ease around them, how I know they would never let anybody mess with me...Like I said, I could go on for pages. I don't think I have enough words. If any of them happen to be reading this: thank you! Your deeds mean more than you will ever know.

Absolute Nonsense

I may not be very blog-savvy but I know enough to understand that posting things like one's own poems tends not to be appreciated much, especially when they are lengthy (as in 2 pages as mine tend to be). So I've decided to honor popular demand for the time being. The following, however, is a favorite away message of mine that has come here to retire. I would have just deleted it entirely but a couple of my friends particularly enjoyed it while in use so here it will remain. (Meanwhile, that Yeti game? 588.8, hear me roar!)

I'm starting a self-help group (I know) for the coordinationally challenged. We will be meeting to discuss some of the difficulties of everyday life, things that graceful people take for granted. Session topics to be as follows:
The Dynamics of Doors: ll vs. sh.
Getting Up Again: Learning to keep one foot in front of the other.
When Things Get Screwy: The truth behind lefty-loosey, righty-tighty.
Button, Button, Who's Got the Button: A crash course in clasps, chains, zippers and other such fascinating fastening devices.
We also will have classes for advanced learners such as:
The Bell Tolls for Thee: A detailed dialogue in dialing independence.
Let's Lace: Investigating the aspects of straight vs. crisscrossed shoe-lacing. Which will include a special hot topic debate: All Tied Up: Over vs. Under.

And, yes, I think I'm pretty darn cute.

And in no particular order...

drum roll please

I've finally managed to get some links up. It's a short list, I know, but what begins small will someday grow. No particular order...maybe somewhat alphabetical...although to be truly alphabetical Butterworth should come first so...yeah, I'll stop rambling now.
I'm not quite sure why it's taken me so long, but things are coming together. I think I'm afraid of the code. Maybe not the code itself but that, with my luck, I'll manage to type in the one thing that will cause my computer to explode. I'm not terribly technologically literate; of course, I never claimed I was.

Today's wisdom:

"Do not let fear cause discontent, but through overcoming that fear, find contentment."
-Becky (sort of)

No Return Postage Required.

This month my bible study has been going through Galatians. We've talked about living for God rather than man, not letting things distract us from the gospel, and being set free from the law. One of the things we discussed tonight was the way people often try to "tack on" requirements for faith. The Galatians had fallen into what was not the pure gospel of grace through faith alone, which got me wondering why.
I suppose a basic answer is that Satan will use any method possible to keep us from connecting with Christ. What better way than to make people think they are headed down the right road already? Or, better yet, why not convince people that faith comes with certain stipulations? That way, when we can't meet the expectations we think we are supposed to live up to, discouragement will eat away at us, we'll think we aren't good enough for God and turn away on our own.
But isn't that the point of Christianity? That we are not, and never can be, good enough or pious enough to earn God's favor? Isn't that the whole reason Christ had to die in the first place, to save us because we could not save ourselves? So why then is it so easy for us (and I admit to having had my own struggles with legalism) to fall into following a doctrine of salvation by works? I mean, why do we insist on working for something that is free? Maybe it's my own lazy nature at war with the idea of doing more work than we have to, but still...
I think maybe we just can't quite get our heads around who God is, we can't understand how anyone could love so indiscriminately. Our problem is that we forger how much bigger God is. We have been so stained by the actions of man that we have a hard time realizing how different the actions of God are. No man could love so much. We aren't comfortable with such awesomeness, we like control too much to completely let go to something we don't fully understand, our faith is small. We find comfort in thinking we have something to add to the equation. We like concrete 1+1=2. But grace + works is no longer the pure grace of God.
Maybe there is something to the whole childlike faith thing after all (go figure!). If you give a child a present for no reason, they don't question, they don't try to argue. If you do the same with an adult, they want to know why, they want to know if there is something they can give you in return, they try to make things up to you, they feel indebted to you. Our world relies on reciprocity. But the things of this world are far different than the things of God. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) That's it. Free. Whether we like it or not, there is nothing we can do to earn it. Now why can't we get that through our thick skulls?
Grace alone delivers us from slavery to law, slavery to sin. We have been slaves for so long, we don't know how to adjust to freedom. Instead of embracing freedom, we look for a new master. We try to make God into one, adding tasks that we must complete to find His favor. God makes it clear that while He wants to be Lord, he doesn't want to be master and there is a difference. The way I see it, serving God as Lord means willingly turning our lives over to His will, being a "living and holy sacrifice" (Romans 12:1) whereas slavery doesn't include choice but rather hoops to jump through.
Again, God is more than we could ever understand. Christ calls us friends rather than slaves (John 15:14-15). If that isn't close enough a connection, God completely blows me away with Hosea 2:16:
"And it will come about in that day," declares the Lord,
"That you will call Me Ishi [my husband] and will no longer call Me Baali [my master]."
It doesn't get much more intimate than that.

Cannot find server...

I had every intention of actually putting up a real post tonight. After three attempts, I've given up. I have started three different posts but can't seem to get going on any of the ideas. This may take some time...especially seeing as how I prefer to handwrite everything before I type it up (I think better with pen in hand). Promises, promises, I know but they're coming. Not as if there is any rush demand or anything...

Today's wisdom:

"Beware of grape with wooden mallet."
-Larry's fortune cookie
From The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown

Yes, I am hooked on Veggietales and darn proud of it.

I wanna be a rock'n'roll preacher...

Chuck Girard rocks.
I wonder sometimes if I was born in the wrong decade...