“Your views on religion.”
If you want the much cooler, more eloquent version, visit For Freedom’s Sake, my other blog reserved only for conversations about Jesus.
Here’s the deal with religion for me. Religion is a set of rules you follow or standards you believe, a group of people attempting to fit into the same set of boxes to set themselves apart in some way from the rest of society. For that, I hate religion. I’m not big into boxes or everyone acting the same way for the sake of camaraderie.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Religion can be good for people. I’m not condemning it so much as saying it’s not for me.
The problem with saying religion isn’t for me is that I’m all in, 100% sold, and forever dedicated to following Jesus. The average person calls me religious. And in their eyes, I am. In my eyes, I’m desperately in love with a man who is perfect and holy and loves me more than anyone else ever could and did, and still does, everything in his power to let me CHOOSE to love him back in order that he can bring me freedom and peace and joy.
It’s so much about passion and so little about religion. I believe it all to be absolute truth and I believe that it’s good news for everyone. I also have no desire to convert or judge or condemn anyone who doesn’t believe, but instead give them the freedom to also choose Jesus, like he wanted them too. Not be forced, like so many people may want them to.
So my views on religion? It sucks. My views on Jesus? He’s perfect.
Down with traditional concepts of religiosity and societal pressures to force yourself into a box! And for that renegade spirit - point for Beth Ann. Amen.
xoxo - beth ann
“Your views on drugs and alcohol.” By the sarcastic remarks running through my head, I can tell that deciding to use a list of 30 blog post ideas was probably not one of my best moments.
Drugs and alcohol are not great when they are used to alter any of the following: emotions, attitude, happiness, circumstance, status, personality, stress level, appearance, effectiveness, or self worth. If you are doing them with for any of these desired outcomes, that’s bad. If you’re finding that you are not striving for any of these things, then arguably, why do those things in the first place?
With that being said, I do enjoy having a glass of wine or two or going out for a beer. I’ve also been known to enjoy a clove cigarette now and then or even more sparingly, smoke the hooka.
In my younger years, sometime after college started, but before I was 21, a roommate of mine introduced me to the above mentioned clove cigarette’s (which are no longer made in the U.S.). Neither of us were exactly healthy at the time, and so to avoid the stresses of our lives we slipped through her window onto the roof and joined each other in an age old bonding routine - drinking and smoking.
In the moment it felt right, but to be honest, it didn’t help at all. It was over the next few months that I really began to develop my lack of desire for drugs and alcohol. Somewhere over the next year after that I really only participated in those activities if I wanted to (which, sadly, was a big change of pace for me) and began to do so in moderation.
And there it is - my views on drugs and alcohol can be summed up in one, extremely typical, overly used word - moderation. And for sounding like my mother, I’ll take the adulthood point as well. I’ve got to work on that youthfulness some…
Cheers! -Beth Ann
Where do I want my life to be in 10 years? No clue. Seriously, I’m at that point where I know that guessing where I’ll be is pointless. In fact, I’m convinced that if I said I would be somewhere or doing something that those things would suddenly be off the table for ever happening…
10 years ago from today I would have been in middle school. At the time my BFF was hanging out with the popular kids (she had an older sister who was friends with the popular kids older siblings and I did not). I had exactly two close friends, both named Samantha. I hated that gym was now mixed with the boys and I loved Faith Hill’s new album. I had recently switched from playing the flute to playing the saxophone and I was officially kicked out of choir because they no longer accepted everyone who tried out. I was probably in the 40% height range for my age but the 80% weight range. I also would use a fine tooth comb on the top of my head to slick back the hair after having put it in a ponytail.
That Beth Ann would have guessed that in 10 years she’d be…. about to graduate pharmacy school, engaged to the cute tall frat guy she started dating her sophomore year of college, planning on moving back home to Illinois, and still hanging out with her 4 closest friends that she knew she’d make in High School.
Funny how that works. So, I’ve quit guessing and wishing where my life will be in the next 3, 5, 10, 20, 80 years… I will say, I hope that I’m still desperately in love with Jesus. I hope that whatever I am doing, no matter where that is in the world, that it’s serving people with real needs. That my energy and efforts are actually making a difference in lives in practical ways. Other than that, I don’t know and I’m okay with that. Because looking back at my tween-self, my track record proves to be pretty boring in comparison to what actually happens anyway.
Relationship status? Really? I’m already regretting choosing this list of blog topics. Bear with me through this one…
Single. Open but not looking. Willing to meet new people. Staying picky. No flings. Hope to be married some day, but definitely not today.
There you go. Me love life (or lack there of) in a nut shell.
The single life is good. I’m finding that with maturity also comes the realization that relationships, of all sorts, are time consuming. I’m also learning from other people’s mistakes without the heartbreak. I like that.
Welp. That was fairly painless and boring enough. Here’s a fun story for you to spice it up.
When I was a sophomore in college I met some new people, including James (name changed to protect identity… or for humiliation reasons). James was from the south and had not experienced cold winter weather so we went on a seemingly very normal walk. He then invited me to watch one of my favorite shows, and naturally, despite the awkwardness of spending time with him, I said yes because I did not have the shows current season on DVD. I’m uncomfortably unaware of context clues sometimes, so the fact that we sat on his bed meant nothing to me. I fell asleep, because I was also getting an average of 4 hours of sleep a night, and woke up nicely tucked into his bed with him laying in it as well. I frantically got up, refused to stay in that bed (I had finally realized things were weird), and left. I felt too disturbed to sleep, so I showered, and then finally fell into a nice 2 hour nap before class in the morning.
James continued to talk to me over text, and I’m generally a nice person, so I responded. We had Thanksgiving break for a few days and when we got back, James wanted to chat with me. I was avoiding him at this point and somehow convinced him to IM me on AIM (yes, I am that lame). He then asked me what times worked best for me to fly out of Iowa to come home with him for Christmas because he was about to book my airplane tickets… This is when I realized that James liked me.
I politely declined and explained we were just friends. He deleted my number, blocked me on AIM, and unfriended me on Facebook. For some reason, I still felt bad. Poor kid, thought that I was interested all that time.
Anyway, the good news was that it was quick and painless. I also learned not to fall asleep in a boys bed. I suppose it was a moment of growing up. One point for adulthood.
