WELL, THAT WAS AWKWARD!

Hello, dear blogging audience!  Just had to comment on what happened, or more specificially, what DIDN'T happen, on Saturday, May 21st.   We all heard the hoopla that somebody was predicting that The Rapture would happen on that day. Yes, the day that Jesus comes back for all the believers on earth and takes them away to Heaven.

Harold Camping, the founder of Family Radio, made the prediction. He is an 89 year old engineer/radio personality, and his heart could be in the right place. Not his theoogy, though. (See billboard, above.)

 So convinced was he that his

prediction was right that he spent millions to spread the word.  /In Anchorage, Alaska, alone, he spent

$44,000 to hire two billboard trucks to drive all over town for a month,  proclaiming that Judgment Day would be May 21st.  Anchorage Daily News writer Julia O'Malley named it "The Rapturemobile". She rode shotgun one day with driver Sean Smith, and wrote an entertaining piece about people's reaction around town,  Sean is a Christian but didn't think the Rapture would happen that day. But hey, it's a job. Julia O'Malley figured she probably wouldn't be going up in the Rapture.

Gary Trudeau created a sharp satire in his Doonesbury cartoon strip last week: A Christian guy gives Zonker the keys to his Mercedes.  "I won't need it after Saturday. I'm going to be Raptured," he explains. "Sorry about you." Zonker says, "It's OK! I'll have this sweet ride!" And the Christian guy muses: "I wonder how it handles in lava?" 

Lots of joking happened before Saturday, and lots of mocking after.  Millions of Tweets and Facebook posts referred to the fiasco. And this cavalier, devil-may-care attitude really saddens me.  No, I'm not talking about the non-believers' attitudes, I'm talking about the Christians.

And for the record, I am a born again, Bible-believing Christian, so this critique includes me.

Harold Camping, with his ill-advised campaign, did make it crystal clear that millions of people in our country make a mockery of God. Or they don't believe in Him, As bad as things are, they don't cry out to a creator that they are not even sure exists.

If you ARE a believer, you know  that God wants us to love our fellow humans.  Divinely. Dangerously. Sacrificially if need be. "They will know we are Christians by our love."

If we saw a trainload of people about to derail over a cliff, and only the last switch could stop their journeyand save them, would we try to help them? Or would we smugly say, "Well, I told them so!"

Would we draw funny cartoons with their mouths all little "o"'s, like Mr., Bill, with them going over the cliff? 

I hope not. 

When Christians are perceived as loving and giving, rather than judgemental, more people will be attracted to the Light of Jesus's love. 

When Jesus does come back, far better that he find us with dirty hands, digging water wells or feeding the poor children,  or building a house for the homeless, than arguing theology with somebody who just really needs to know that he is loved and that God is real.

We have five more months to practice this, according to Harold Camping. He now says he got the date wrong: next Rapture prediction is for October 21st.  Sheesh. Well, at least it is opening dialogue. Hey, it even got me blogging again.

"And now, dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming."  --I John 2:28



GREETINGS FROM DEADHORSE DEB!

I am so happy to join the world of bloggers!  I am in awesome company. My cousin, Rod Brooks, who was like a brother to me growing up, has a blog. He is also the CMO of PEMCO Insurance.   My Goddaughter and niece, Tonya Marie Wagner, also has a blog. She manages a coffee shop in Seattle (Victorola)  which employs baristas who are rock stars, literally, and she is quite good.  My nephew Asher Sund, who won the Joyce Carol Oates award for poetry, has been harranguing me for quite some time saying I SHOULD  have a blog. My other nephew, Scott Sund, is in training for the ministry, and  has a blog that I've been enjoying on Facebook about the majesty and wonder of God.

The thing is: I love technology, but in some ways I'm like a kindergardener. Now, I know it's "a good thing" to be in touch with our inner child, right? But can somebody please explain to me the existence of the King Editor who takes over any time one TEXTS on an iPhone, and naughtily replaces our thoughts with his own?
For instance:  My sister and her husband, both wonderful psychologists, went out on Valentine's night this week. Sally texted me a picture of them, out at a restaurant, dressed up and looking like a million bucks. BUT, the caption read, "Having DUB."   Apparently what King Editor thought Sally was TRYING to say when she texted, "Having Fun". 

WAIT.  It gets worse.  My younger Goddaughter, Emma, just turned 21 in December.  She met me at a hotel in Anchorage last month, where I stayed while attending a board meeting.   I texted her that she, her boyfriend, her mom Lisa and I should meet for dinner at 7 p.m.  Emma texted me back,  "Booooooooze!!!!" I texted HER back and said, WHAT? Keep in mind it WAS the first time in our life that we could have ordered a drink in a restaurant together, but, still!  She said,  "I texted  SWEEEEEEEET!!!" So King Editor gave us the opportunity to discuss The Freudian Slip, with much hilarity, over dinner.

King Editor's worst Control Freak Issue, to date:  My cousin Kay in Lake Stevens gave us a gift certificate to a really fun nail place in Lake Stevens, WA.  Last weekend I texted Kay, "Mom and I are going to have
mani/pedi's, on you, want to come?"  But The Editor changed it to: "Mom and I are going to have mani/PENIS,want to come?"  Honestly, let me make my own mistakes, please!