What If We Valued All Human Life?

Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Across the nation church services today have been dedicated to celebrating human life as starting at conception and outlining the evils of abortion. that is not what this blog is dedicated to. Don't get me wrong, I hate the very idea of abortion. I've worked at a pro-life pregnancy center. I firmly believe that abortion shouldn't be the option that it is today. I agree whole-heartedly with Sanctity of Human Life Sunday and if you want me to talk about it, I can go for hours on how I feel about abortion. But that isn't what I want to focus on today. I want to focus on the fact that despite the fact that millions of Christians are proclaiming the value of life loud and proud when it comes to the topic of abortion, those same Christians are the people constantly degrading those around them who live a different lifestyle or have a different belief system, or look different than they do.

It breaks my heart that so many of the people I know who are Christians - not just church-goers, but actual Christians - are the same ones who will see a homosexual couple in a store and make comments about it being "gross" or "nasty" instead of showing love. I will see these people react to mixed-race couples with disgust without even taking the time to talk to either person in the couple. I see these Christians balk at the idea of even holding a conservation with someone who is of a different religion unless they are on a mission trip hours from "home." How can we call ourselves "little Christs" (which is what "christians" means) when we don't show love to those we deem unworthy of our love and compassion? We will sit and talk for hours with those that we are similar to, listening to every struggle and situation with compassion and curiosity. Why don't we do this with those who are markedly different from us?

I used to hate the term "homophobic" because I always said that just because someone doesn't agree with someone doesn't make them afraid of them. Unfortunately, it is hard for me to justify not using that term when referring to most Christians. I constantly witness Christians act like they are terrified with someone else will wear off on them with their struggles or situations. guess what: you are not going to catch homosexuality any more than you can catch a skin color or a chemical imbalance such as depression. You simply can't. So, please, quit acting like you will.

Someone being gay or practicing any act that you don't agree with isn't a reason for you to shun them or act disgusted by them. If anything, these are reasons to go out of your way to show them the love of Jesus. Trust me, you aren't going to make a positive impact on someone by condemning them or being so disgusted by them that you don't even want to sit on the same pew as them.

After all, who are we to judge fellow sinners? That's right, fellow sinners. It isn't the Christian's place to judge. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned. Not some, not everyone else, not just those who don't agree with you, but everyone. How can we judge others when we are just as guilty? Our duty is to show God's love and compassion. We can't fully celebrate the value of all human life until we show that we see all of human life as valuable. My prayer on this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is for more than the end of abortion. My prayers include:
1) the end of abortion in the U.S. and the world.
2) the end of Christians judging others while complaining about our own persecution.
3) for Christians to show the love they profess even when it isn't easy.


I'm attaching a link to a wonderfully written article that includes a very well-spoken speech by Diane Bass, the Southern Baptist mother of gay celebrity Lance Bass. Read it. It is thought provoking and sparked this blog.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lance-bass/the-first-thing-my-mom-di_b_4556471.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment&ir=Entertainment



And as a bonus, here's an awesome video for one of my favorite TobyMac songs:

Until next time!
-Ashlee

14 Plans for 2014 (pretend I actually posted this on New Year's Eve)

Well, 2013 is coming to a close and it’s time to start thinking about what we want to change in our lives for 2014. I normally make the same resolution year after year and end up stopping working on them a month or two into the new year. Then it’s wait ten months, make the resolutions again, and start the process all over again. This year, I’m going to try something a little different.

One of my best friends from high school (and the bride that I will be a MOH for this year) told me last week that she set 14 resolutions for herself for 2014. 14 for ’14. When she first told me this, my reaction was “holy cow that’s a lot of resolutions.” Then I thought about it. She might be on to something. My sister started a tradition of setting goals for each year at her birthday so this year it is “19 things before turning 20.” I like this concept even better. Not necessarily resolutions, but more of a combination list goals, bucket list items, etc. So thus begins a new tradition: 14 Plans for 2014.

My 14 Plans for 2014:

1. Read through the Bible COMPLETELY. I have started this the past two years and end up not finishing. I actually end up stopping before the end of April so this is hopefully lucky number 3.

2. Graduate undergrad with a Bachelors degree in Christian Counseling.

3. Blog at least once a week. Maybe putting a specific number on the goal will help me actually follow through with it since just putting “blog more” doesn’t seem to actually work.

4. Journal. I got a beautiful leather journal with the serenity prayer from my internship this year and I plan on putting it to use in 2014.

5. Take a road trip. Short or long. Road trips with friends are always a good idea.

6. No Sodas. Drink more water. Be less dependent on caffeine to stay awake at weird hours.

7. Take time for myself. I tend to go, go, go instead of taking time to smell the roses and I end up getting agitated or exhausted or both. In 2014, I am going to take time to enjoy life. Read more. Go to the movies occasionally. Just enjoy life.

8. Get organized, Stay organized.

9. Go somewhere I’ve never been. I am a travel geek but it amazes me how little I actually go somewhere completely new. This year, it’s happening.

10. Read 100 books. I tried this one last year as well. I want to at least get closer this year.

11. Start Christmas shopping before Black Friday. This year it was ridiculous trying to get everything bought and wrapped. Maybe if I buy throughout the year and wrap as I buy it will be easier and much less stressful.

12. Follow politics. It’s an election year, and as much as politics annoy me on facebook, I am eligible to vote, therefore I should at least know who to vote for without asking dad.

13. Procrastinate less. Considering I woke up on New Year’s Eve and my first thought was that I needed to finish writing my 14 Plans, I really need to work a lot on my procrastination.

14. Save $5 bills. I had a customer during the holidays say that she saved every $5 bill she got throughout the year and used it for Christmas shopping. She dropped about $200 on clothes for her family and still had a lot left over. This year, I’m going to give it a shot. Another way to not break the bank buying gifts. 

To Us or FOR Us?

Say what you want about her politically, but I love the way that Sarah Palin talks about her youngest son. Trig was born in 2008, months before she accepted the Republican party's Vice-Presidential nomination. Having a young child at this point could be seen as an inconvenience even in the best of circumstances, but with Trig the case is even more unique. You see, Trig was born with Down Syndrome. Many parents would question "why me?", and while I am sure that the Palins had these same questions at some point after the prenatal diagnosis of Trig's Down Syndrome, you will never catch any of them referring to Trig as anything less than a blessing. In fact, in Sarah Palin's book "America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag" comments on Trig as not happening to her family, but rather for her family.

How often do we question the hardships we face as happening to us? As Laura Story's song Blessings proposes, what if God's blessings come in the hardships? I believe that this is the case. In the book of John, Jesus meets a man born blind. When Jesus asks whether the man's affliction was caused by his sin or his parents, Jesus says the answer is neither. The man's affliction wasn't a result of human consequence, but rather was simply part of God's eternal and mysterious plan. I won't try to even pretend that I understand how God's plan works, but I think it is important to remember that God always has a plan, and sometimes that plan includes using your faith despite your affliction to bring glory to Him.

Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee

Lessons from Judah

                One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 was to read through the bible completely in a year. Luckily I have several bible reading plans in the back of my HCSB Study Bible that keeps me on task with my goal. Even though I am reading through 4 books of the bible at any given time during this year, I am amazed at how much Genesis has fascinated me. Maybe it’s because we are working our way through Genesis in my Sunday school class as well… Any way it goes, I am constantly amazed at how plans were laid out in Genesis for things that wouldn’t occur until the Gospels.

                The topic that has really caught my eye this week is Judah, one of Jacob (or Israel)’s sons. Judah was the founder of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and as we learn in Matthew, Jesus’ forefather. With a biological connection to the Savior, it only makes sense to look at Judah’s life.

                Judah wasn’t the firstborn (that title went to Reuben). He wasn’t the father of a line of priests (that would be Levi). He wasn’t the son of Jacob’s favorite wife like Joseph and Benjamin. He didn’t even hold an obviously special place in his father’s heart. Rather, Judah, I believe, proved his worth during the seven-year famine.

                Don’t get me wrong, Judah was by no means perfect. In the limited knowledge we have of  Judah, we see him as someone who plundered Shecham’s land after Simon and Levi killed all of the males, a guy who willingly slept with a woman who he thought was a prostitute but turned out to be his daughter-in-law, and a jealous young man who sold his brother into slavery.

                It is after these occurrences that we see a different side of Judah. Once again, God proves that no one is unusable with Judah. When his family is out of food, the brother’s head to Egypt and buy food from Joseph. When Joseph decides that the only way they will get more food from Egypt is to bring their younger brother to Egypt and until then Simeon will be kept as a prisoner, it is Judah that sacrifices himself in response. Reuben volunteered his own children if Benjamin did not return from Egypt. Judah volunteered himself.  When Benjamin is caught with Joseph’s silver cup, it is Judah that pleas for Benjamin, and it is this pleading that results in Joseph finally revealing his identity.

                This sacrificial mindset is a foreshadowing of what his descendent will be born with the sole purpose of doing. Unlike Judah, however, Jesus didn’t go through all the bad to get to the good. He was born with the sacrificial mindset that it took Judah years and years to obtain. I could go on and on about the sacrificing of Christ, but that’s not what this post is about. This blog is about encouraging people, so here’s my encouragement for the day:

                Don’t be discouraged by what you have done in your past. All of us have things that we are not proud of, and even things that we might feel are unforgiveable. You are not alone and you are not unforgivable. God uses all people. Judah had many skeletons in his tent but that didn’t stop God from using him. Judah sold his brother, slept with a prostitute/his own daughter-in-law, and was a plunderer. Even with all of that baggage, Judah went on to provide the line that Jesus was born to. Judah was the tie between Abraham and Isaac and Jesus. Don’t give up on yourself because God won’t. 

Your Fellow Water Walker, 

-Ashlee

Psalm 69

I know I haven’t posted in a while but I have really been struggling trying to decide what to post. Here lately I have been noticing how there seems to be a longer than usual list of prayer requests going around. From car wrecks to suicides to sickness, people are really hurting.

                There is a middle-school-aged boy at my church that has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and in the little over a week since we learned about this, it has rocked our church and community. I live in a rural area where even without Facebook, gossip would still spread like wildfire. This means that any time there is a sickness that comes all of a sudden people know, people care, and people pray. I am so thankful for that.

                However, no matter how close a community is or how many people offer comfort; it ALWAYS pales in comparison to the comfort that God can offer. I started this blog as a way to offer encouragement to those who happened to read it, but a lot of times I am forced to realize that posting a passage of scripture would be better than thousands upon thousands of words that I could write. So here it goes. Below you will find the words to Psalm 69. There is a lot of pain in this psalm, and it may even be hard to read because of that pain. I encourage you to keep reading though. The hope isn’t in the pain. The hope is in the comfort for the pain.

If you are suffering in any way, I urge you to run to the Great Comforter. He is the only one who can really offer the comfort that so many need.

Psalm 69
A Plea for Rescue

    For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.” Davidic.

 ¹ Save me, God,
for the water has risen to my neck.
² I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing;
I have come into deep waters,
and a flood sweeps over me.
³ I am weary from my crying;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.
⁴ Those who hate me without cause
are more numerous than the hairs of my head;
my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me,
are powerful.
Though I did not steal, I must repay.

 ⁵ God, You know my foolishness,
and my guilty acts are not hidden from You.
⁶ Do not let those who put their hope in You
be disgraced because of me,
Lord GOD of Hosts;
do not let those who seek You
be humiliated because of me,
God of Israel.
⁷ For I have endured insults because of You,
and shame has covered my face.
⁸ I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother’s sons
⁹ because zeal for Your house has consumed me,
and the insults of those who insult You
have fallen on me.
¹⁰ I mourned and fasted,
but it brought me insults.
¹¹ I wore sackcloth as my clothing,
and I was a joke to them.
¹² Those who sit at the city gate talk about me,
and drunkards make up songs about me.

 ¹³ But as for me, LORD,
my prayer to You is for a time of favor.
In Your abundant, faithful love, God,
answer me with Your sure salvation.
¹⁴ Rescue me from the miry mud; don’t let me sink.
Let me be rescued from those who hate me
and from the deep waters.
¹⁵ Don’t let the floodwaters sweep over me
or the deep swallow me up;
don’t let the Pit close its mouth over me.
¹⁶ Answer me, LORD,
for Your faithful love is good;
in keeping with Your great compassion,
turn to me.
¹⁷ Don’t hide Your face from Your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me quickly!
¹⁸ Draw near to me and redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies.

 ¹⁹ You know the insults I endure—
my shame and disgrace.
You are aware of all my adversaries.
²⁰ Insults have broken my heart,
and I am in despair.
I waited for sympathy,
but there was none;
for comforters, but found no one.
²¹ Instead, they gave me gall for my food,
and for my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink.

 ²² Let their table set before them be a snare,
and let it be a trap for their allies.
²³ Let their eyes grow too dim to see,
and let their loins continually shake.
²⁴ Pour out Your rage on them,
and let Your burning anger overtake them.
²⁵ Make their fortification desolate;
may no one live in their tents.
²⁶ For they persecute the one You struck
and talk about the pain of those You wounded.
²⁷ Add guilt to their guilt;
do not let them share in Your righteousness.
²⁸ Let them be erased from the book of life
and not be recorded with the righteous.

 ²⁹ But as for me—poor and in pain—
let Your salvation protect me, God.
³⁰ I will praise God’s name with song
and exalt Him with thanksgiving.
³¹ That will please Yahweh more than an ox,
more than a bull with horns and hooves.
³² The humble will see it and rejoice.
You who seek God, take heart!
³³ For the LORD listens to the needy
and does not despise
His own who are prisoners.

 ³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise Him,
the seas and everything that moves in them,
³⁵ for God will save Zion
and build up the cities of Judah.
They will live there and possess it.
³⁶ The descendants of His servants will inherit it,
and those who love His name will live in it.

Wait for Me

I know that I haven’t written in way too long, but here’s a little update on my life and a little encouragement for yours: 

Most of you know that this is my first semester at a new college, which just so happens to be Christian college. This has been a whole new experience for me. I’ve grown up as a preacher’s daughter so I’ve pretty much grown up in and around church but these past couple of months have brought me to a brand new level of my walk with God. There is something about submerging yourself in studying the Bible and the effect it has on your life. 

Before I started at BCF, I was really struggling with the fact that I’m single with really no prospects. Talking to other Christian girls, I knew I wasn’t alone in this and I even knew that God should be enough. I even wrote a blog on it a few months ago. That doesn’t change the fact that there was a real struggle in my heart over it. Knowing that you have a personal struggle and accepting that truth doesn’t make the struggle go away. In fact, sometimes it makes it worse because you know that you are struggling with something when God should be the answer for you. It is something that I have spent many nights praying for the lonely feeling to go away. Much to my dismay, it didn’t. I knew that love is patient, I knew that God is enough, but that knowledge doesn’t make it any easier to be the 3^rd wheel. 

In the past couple of months, I have really been thrown into a constant state of studying God’s word and reading books written by amazingly gifted people. You know what I discovered? When I throw myself into really immersing myself in Him, I don’t have time to worry about not having a guy. Yes, there are still those Single Awareness Moments, but now I don’t dwell on them. Moments that once would have left me feeling depressed, now I smile about out of joy for the other people. I know that God has someone great in store for me, and if I trust in Him and His plan instead of my own, It will be greatly worth the wait. 

Your Fellow Water Walker,

-Ashlee

p.s. Here’s the song that was running through my head the whole time I was writing this blog: Rebecca St. James’ “Wait for Me” 

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To the Ends of the Earth

Today I will be getting on a plane and flying to Lima, Peru. By Sunday afternoon I will be in a little mountain town on my first international mission trip. This is only my second mission trip ever so it's kinda crazy to think that I'm going to another country. This blog post will be really short since I'm at by brother's house surrounded by little kids, but I wanted to come on here and post asking that whoever is reading this will be in constant prayer for our mission team. The seven of us that will be going will greatly appreciate it. Especially as we go through those switchback roads through the mountains.

I'll post longer when I get back about the trip and will hopefully get some pics up.

Much love and many prayers,
Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee