Hell

vul⋅ner⋅a⋅ble

    [vuhl-ner-uh-buhl] 

–adjective

1.	capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt, as by a weapon: a vulnerable part of the body.

2.	open to moral attack, criticism, temptation, etc.: an argument vulnerable to refutation; He is vulnerable to bribery.

3.

(of a place) open to assault; difficult to defend: a vulnerable bridge. "I learned that being vulnerable doesn't mean being weak." - Anne Hathaway This is the sarahlewie.blogspot.com word of the day.  It is the bane of my miserable existence;  it makes me tired and upset; and it is something that I have to deal with.  Immediately.  Before it eats me alive.  I am scared to death.

Just a Paragraph

So I'm working on my application for seminary (yes...it's true...grad school), and in the midst of the "general biography" section, there was a question.

Describe your salvation experience and your relationship to Jesus Christ.

Then they proceed to give me three lines in which to explain all this. My first thought: how in the wizzle do I put all that into three lines?! You can't write really, really tiny or else the old people who read the applications can't read it. And they don't give you the opportunity to attach another piece of paper (and believe me, in other places, they give PLENTY of opportunities!). This application has to look classy, refined, mature, academic. Which leaves me with one choice: to reveal all that is my spiritual experience (i.e. my whole life) in a paragraph.

What are they thinking?!

At any rate, I attempted it. Trying to verbalize an entire lifetime with the Almighty is like trying to....do...something....really, really...difficult. (Sorry, my metaphorical outlet is on vacay today.)

How would YOU answer that question in a paragraph? What are your stories?


My feeble attempt (and I still may have to write small):

I was baptized at age 6. My mother says it was because I claimed Jesus was my best friend and I was at a Billy Graham crusade, but I honestly cannot remember. I grew up attending church and all church-related functions, assuming that because I did this, God and I were alright. It was not until late into high school that I realized "church Sarah" and "not-church Sarah" were not the same person. It was then that I remember truly surrendering my life to the Lord and knowing He was the Lord of my heart. Since then my relationship with Christ has waxed and waned. There are moments when His presence is palpable; other moments I feel almost like I've never experienced Him. In spite of my feelings, however, He has remained faithful. I am ever-learning more about Him, His nature, His work in the world and He is ever-guiding me to live in the Spirit. Sometimes I listen, but more often than not, I don't. But He, as always, remains by me, shaping me to be a person who desires His heart.

Church on the Web? What?!

The Internet is a funny thing. It's only been around for barely a generation, yet it's become a HUGE part of life. I know that if I don't check my Facebook/blog/Gmail/Xanga on a regular basis, I get a little panicky.

So here we are. Doing an aspect of life in the binary world. Yes, there are real people on the other sides of these screens, but for all practical purposes, the web is an outlet, an extension of a culture - not who we are, but maybe what we want to be.

Which makes it difficult sometimes to live life. I'll be honest, it's MUCH easier for me to tell the internet how I feel about some situation or internal conflict than it is to tell another person. I can edit my thoughts until they come out sounding pretty decent (I think). There's little stammering and I can make whatever point I want without interruption.

But my hope for this blog (and for a community of bloggers) is to live life intentionally. There are blogs I read everyday that shout community, reality, honesty, authenticity and love from every post.

So how to do we, as a web-community, do that here? Not forsaking the community of the people we actually live with, but also having purpose and passion here. How does that work? Can it?

Well, some of the people over at LifeChurch.tv are trying something new. They want to develop authenticity and community in this space that so many of us give so much time to. For the next week, they are hosting church via the Web. Weird? A little. But it's reaching people that may not normally go to "real-life" church.

The message is Jesus Christ and Him resurrected. This is just a new way to do it.

Starting tonight @ 8pm, CST, check out LifeChurch.tv. Engage in the worship, listen to the sermons, chat with people worshipping the same God all over the world.



Is this too much? Cool? What do you think?