Worry Not

I sympathize with the disciples more on some days than others. Today, I think I’m catching a pretty good glimpse into what the disciples might have felt when Jesus told them not to worry.

Don’t worry? Really? The waves are swamping the ship. You may not worry, son of a carpenter, but I’ve been fishing all my life and I’ve seen what happens to ships–and the people on them–in water like this.

There are days when hearing “Don’t worry” feels less like sitting in the park with your hippie brethren (Hey, man, no worries. God’s got this under control! The sky is blue, the grass is green, the birds are singing, and there’s still plenty to drink) and more like being shoved into a room full of spiders as the shover says, “Don’t worry–they’re not poisonous.”

It’s not like bad things never happened to the people who traveled with Jesus, the ones He told to stop worrying. I can’t imagine Peter, for one, had it easy not worrying when he was crucified. So clearly “don’t worry” doesn’t mean “don’t worry–only good things are coming your way.”

I know that sometimes God calms the storm, and that’s the way we all really prefer things to happen. But sometimes He just calms the storm inside us. At the moment, I’d be happy with either.

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day seems largely to be that annual event that will stretch a relationship to its limits and, sometimes, break them. Girls set unreal expectations on guys, or guys assume that girls will place such high hopes on the day and resent it. In new relationships, inevitably one member of the relationship will either overshoot and scare the other person away, or undershoot and make the other person feel unloved and underappreciated.

That being said, I had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. I felt the baby move for the first time, used my pedicure/manicure gift certificate, and successfully made a new recipe. I took a walk with my dear husband and remembered to make it to my Pilates class.

In short, it was a good day, but mostly like any other day. The only real concession I made to it being a special day was buying a couple slices of key lime pie for Steve.

Hope yours went just as well and that you aren’t nursing a broken heart after giving your girlfriend a gym membership for Valentine’s Day.

Confessions

I recently started reading Confessions of a Caffeinated Christian by John Fischer. It’s been sitting on my shelf for a long time but, for whatever reason, it was overlooked until a few nights ago.

I’m now very sad it took so long for me to get started! This is a wonderful book, a little in the tradition of Blue Like Jazz. The first chapter describes the author as that annoying holier-than-thou person we’ve all either known and/or have been and ends with the revelation that shapes the rest of the book–that God wanted each and every one us that is here today to live.

Each chapter is a self-contained short story. It’s been wonderful to read it by myself, and it will be even more wonderful to find a friend to discuss it with. It’s chock-full of mini sermons, but they’re “make you think” type sermons rather than “think for you” sermons. The author has the wonderful talent of making his point well, and then stopping rather than browbeating you with it.

I still have a couple chapters to go, but I feel confident in giving this book two enthusiastic thumbs-up. If you’re looking for something to read over your morning coffee, on your bus ride, or even snuggled up in your favorite armchair at home, this one is perfect for you.

The Meaning of Prejudice

My husband and I were listening to a program on NPR the other day (yes, we are that nerdy) about a proposal that would allow businesses to check the credit scores of potential employees. They argue that a credit scores allows an employer to gain valuable insight into the character of their potential employees.

Personally, I know plenty of people whose credit scores have been ruined based on circumstances mostly outside of their control, and refusing them employment based on that would be a Catch-22–after all, how could they improve their credit score without employment?

However, other opponents argue that such a policy would be racist, since minorities would tend to have lower credit scores.

Let’s review the meaning of racial discrimination, shall we? The policy would only be racist if a white person and a hispanic person had the same qualifications and the same credit score and the employer chose the white candidate simply because he was white. So, while I think there are plenty of valid reasons to argue against this policy, I, for one, am getting a little tired of people playing the racist and sexist cards for silly reasons.

What do you think?