Friday Five Love the One You're With

From Kathrynzj and RevGalBlogPals

And so I ask you to please name five things you like about where you are living now... and as your bonus - 1 thing you don't like.


Interesting. Yesterday I wrote a post which I was saving to post next week about how much I hate the "bloom where you are planted" bromide that gets tossed around so much. The grass is not always greener on the other side, but if where you are is causing you to brown, curl up and die, then it's time to think about moving on. God made us for life, not death. The kingdom is among you.

So, five things I like about where I am living now:
1. Friends (who curiously enough seem to dislike Memphis almost as much as I do).
2. The beautiful springs full of blooming things.
3. Tsunami, my favorite restaurant.
4. The cost of living.
5. My beautiful house.

The bonus is something I dislike. The list will be way longer
1. Southern conservative Christians.
2. The weather. five months at least of unbearably hot and humid weather.
3. No Trader Joe's
4. The absurb liquor laws which prohibit wine sales in anything but liquor stores.
5. The provincialness of the town
6. The difficulty of making change
7. Did I mention the heat?

Watch this space for news on Wednesday morning.

The Fourth and The Church

I am unduly proud that Rev. Witherspoon, a Presbyterian (and a Scot), was the only pastor to sign the Declaration of Independence. I am unduly proud of the fact that an alleged collateral ancestor was a signer. I am proud to be an American. I know that I am blessed and graced to have been born in this country where freedom is so important. I know that I have been blessed to have been born in a place where gender does not limit (much) who I am and what I do. Almost always at some point in a trip abroad, I look around and know how fortunate I am to be a citizen of the US.

I do not believe that the Fourth of July is a Christian holy day. I do not believe American flags belong in churches. I do not believe patriotic music on the Fourth belongs in church. I believe as Christians our first allegiance is to God as revealed in Christ. I believe that to celebrate the Fourth of July in church is to confuse patriotism with Christianity.