Forgetful Four Eyes

When I was in second grade, all I wanted was a pair of glasses. Erica (my oldest sister) had a pair of reading glasses, so I wanted some too. I used to steal hers and wear them around the house, because I thought I looked "cool," I guess. Okay, now flash forward to eighth grade. I used to get terrible headaches almost everyday. I didn't know why, but it was super annoying. I learned how many ibuprofen pills were safe to take within 24 hours by the time I was 12. Until finally it occurred to me; I couldn't see the board, so I was squinting all day, causing these headaches. I told my mom this, and she was a bit skeptical that I was truly having trouble seeing, since 1. I always wanted glasses and 2. I was just noticing this now. She took me to the eye doctor, and at the end of the appointment the doctor said, and I quote, "you are blind." Six years later, I hate my glasses.

Fortunately, I learned about this awesome thing called contacts sometime in high school, so most people don't even know that I have poor vision. Well last week, I discovered a stye. For those of you that have never had a stye, it is like a pimple on your eyelid, that you can't pop, you just have to wait for it to heal. They are painful, they make your eyes watery, and you can't wear contacts. Did I mention that I hate wearing my glasses? Well, I do, mostly because they are in the way, especially while I play tennis. When I wear my contacts, I usually forget that I have poor vision.

I feel like we are often the same way with God; we forget about him. Throughout our daily lives, we aren't completely dependent on him, like he created us to be. I know that is exactly how it is with my contacts. I don't have to constantly think about them, but I know that they are there. We often wake up, read our Bibles, and kind of "check it off the list." When in reality, God is everything, and deserves to be thought about throughout the entire day. I just started re-reading the Francis Chan book Crazy Love, (it's awesome, check it out!) and he described us as extras in a movie. He says, "you would probably scrutinize that one scene where hundreds of people are milling around, just waiting for that two-fifths of a second when you can see the back of your head. Maybe your mom and your closest friend get excited about that two-fifths of a second with you...maybe. But no one else will realize it is you. Even if you tell them, they won't care." That is so accurate. Our lives are but a mere second compared to the universe as a whole. We are so insignificant, and yet we push God right out of the picture and try to steal the spotlight. Who do we think we are? God doesn't forget about us (thank goodness), so we shouldn't ever forget about him. "The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His. It is His movie, His world, His gift." My stye finally healed, and I was able to wear my contacts for the past two days, until tonight. My eye is swollen, once again, and I am forced into wearing my glasses, for the time being. Maybe this is God's way of reminding me about him, or maybe he is just showing me his sense of humor :P

In Him,

Alyssa Trier

Football: Sport? Or Religion?

I’m going to start off this blog with another story about my sister, Emily. When she was little, she was a 100% daddy’s girl. She always wanted to be just like him. For example, my dad loved Brussels sprouts (why? I will never understand). So, Emily also decided that she loved Brussels sprouts. My mom would make them pretty frequently and would thoughtfully place the plate right in front of Emily. We all watched closely as my sister forked some of the nasty green lumps onto her plate. Her voice said “yum,” but her eyes said something else. We all knew that she didn’t actually like them, but my mom continued to serve them, waiting for her to finally give in and stop pretending. I guess I am like my sister in more ways than just looking like her twin.

When I was in 5^th grade, all I wanted was to show my dad that I loved football. Being raised in a home where the toilet paper roll in our basement sang the University of Michigan fight song, you could say my dad was a true fan. I would watch the games with him during the day, and Google the official rules at night, just so I could partake in all of the football “lingo.”  Once I finally understood how the game worked, I, like most other Americans, became obsessed (as you can see from the photo of the Steelers, Giants, and U of M records hanging next to my bed). Fall no longer meant pumpkin patches, pretty colors, and hayrides, now it meant football season. Ok, now fast forward from my middle school years, to about a week ago in my religion class. My religion professor also happens to be the pastor of the church I attend, so he is a super solid guy and I really enjoy the class. Since the class is “Intro to Religion” he has to teach us about all the religions in the most non-biased way he possibly can. To start off, he decided it was important for us to know what actually constitutes a religion, by giving us 9 official characteristics. Here they are:

1.     Belief in a supernatural being

2.     A distinction between sacred and profane objects

3.     Ritual Acts focused on sacred objects

4.     A moral code believed to be sanctioned by the gods

5.     Characteristically religious feelings which tend to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of ritual

6.     Prayer and other forms of communication with gods

7.     A worldview, or a general picture of the world as a whole and the place of the individual therein. This picture contains some specification of an overall purpose or point of the world and an indication of how the individual fits into it.

8.     A more or less total organization of one’s life based on the worldview

9.     A social group bound together by the above

As you can see, all of these characteristics are all very vague, due to the fact that religions are so different, how can you even begin to put them into similar categories? To prove the vastness of the term “religion,” he used the example of football. Is football a religion? Of course not…. or is it? Look back at the 9 characteristics, how many of those can be applied to your dad (or yourself) on game day?

1.     Belief in “supernatural” beings (The quarterback? Troy Polamalu?)

2.     A distinction between sacred and profane objects (Lucky jersey? Lucky underwear?)

3.     Ritual Acts focused on sacred objects (not washing your jersey?)

4.     A moral code (rules of the game?)

5.     Characteristically religious feelings, which tend to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of ritual (self-explanatory…)

6.     Prayer and other forms of communication with gods (ok, so not really “gods,” but I know I “communicate” with the TV screen)

Ok, I think you get the idea…but seriously, think about that for a minute. Maybe this is only applicable to my fellow Pittsburghers, but we live in a culture that wears football jerseys to church on Sunday. Not that it’s a bad thing to have team spirit, (especially since Jesus does in fact cheer for the Steelers…) but think about how much different our culture would be if we showed our passion for God as much as we did our passion for football. I’m not saying that everyone should wear shirts that say cheesy things about Jesus being your homeboy, but think about how often your conversations with others during football season are based on the scores from the weekend. This past weekend, I was unable to watch any football games on Sunday due to the fact that the TV in my dorm room doesn’t have the correct cords at the moment. It was a very difficult day for me, but it got me thinking about how antsy I was all day checking my ESPN app to see the scores (thank you, God, for that app). When I am unable to read my Bible for a day, I should be just as antsy to dive back into it. Why is it that it is so easy for us to forget to dedicate time to God, but so easy to leave time for the big game? Every moment of our lives should be fully dedicated to God. Think about that. Every single moment. At 1 pm on any given Sunday, are you still worshipping your Creator, or are you worshipping football?

In Him,

Alyssa Trier

Whales and Coffee

This is my whale mug. You are probably wondering why I have a mug that says "Whales of the 7 Seas," and to give you an honest answer; I don't know. My sister, Emily, is one of those people that has really good intentions in everything she does, causing everyone to love her, but sometimes her bad luck proves itself, and she has one of those moments where all you can do is laugh. This mug describes one of those moments. I guess to preface this story, you need to know that about 3 years ago I decided to watch Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and ever since, I have had a slight (or not-so-slight) obsession with sharks. Ok now fast forward to about 3 months ago: June, 2012. I was working at a Christian summer camp and I received a package in the mail from my mom, with a few things that I asked her to send me...and this mug. My sister was in the process of moving to San Diego, CA, and she wanted to get me a souvenir, so she bought this mug...then she realized that it had whales on it, instead of sharks. I love this mug.

So right about now, you are probably wondering why I would possibly spend my time writing a blog about this "cute" sister moment, but I'm almost to the point, I promise. But before I get there I need to explain my full train of thought, and hopefully it will somehow make sense to some of you...or maybe not? Well anyways, this morning on the way to church, my friends and I were discussing how we drink our coffee (typical college kid conversation, I know) and one of my friends pointed out that he loved the coffee in Costa Rica, so he drank it black, but here, he had to put sugar in his coffee. After pondering this for quite some time, I came to two conclusions: 1. No two cups of coffee taste the same 2. People are coffee snobs. Unfortunately, I joined the 53% of the world that has to have at least one cup of coffee every morning at the ripe young age of 15; yes, I am a certified coffee-addict, but I drink my coffee black (I don’t partake in any of that ‘2 creams and one sugar’ high maintenance crap, no offense if you do). So, as I sit here staring at my whale mug, which is now empty, I can't help but think of the very intelligent Mike Ditka quote from the movie Kicking and Screaming, "Coffee is the number one drink in the world, even little kids in Mexico drink coffee!" Ok, so maybe it isn't that intelligent, but it still has some truth to it. Coffee is one of the only types of "luxuries" that most of the world gets to enjoy together, and I see it as a very simple concept, Black coffee tastes good, why are people ruining it? In my mind, it is as simple as that. So anyways, back to my 2 points: No two cups of coffee are the same and people are coffee snobs.

When I look at Christians, I realize that these 2 points are very relevant: no two are the same and we are “Christian-snobs.” Each of us is trying to cover up parts of our Christian lives that may not seem so "sweet" to the world. When in reality, Christianity, much like coffee, is actually really simple: God loves us, let's love him back. Boom. It is literally as simple as that. Why do we make it so complicated with all of these different Denominations and arguments about small differences in our faith? For my fellow type A personalities, who are also very detail-oriented, this may be a difficult concept, but we should be less focused on the details of our religion, and be more focused on the fact that all God wants is for us to show him that we love him back (duh, that's why we were created). I understand that this is very hard to do, because well, we can’t just shoot him a text or message him on Facebook to tell him. So, how do we do this? Well, for those of us that have taken the “Five Love Languages” test, (mine are words of affirmation and quality time) we know that everyone likes to be shown that they are loved in different ways. Well, what about God? This summer, I was taught about God’s love language and I will never forget it. It isn’t one of the 5 that Gary Chapman came up with, but God’s love language is: Obedience. All you need to do is obey Him. John 14:15 says, "If you love me, keep my commands." Sounds simple, right? Ha. As a member of the guilty party, I will testify to the fact that this is no simple task, especially as a college student that is constantly surrounded by every option of lifestyle known to man. We are often caught up by the patterns of this world so much, that we forget what Christianity really is. Here is your reminder: We deserve to die, but God did it for us, but since he’s so awesome, he came back to life, so it’s all good. So, I feel like I have rambled on long enough, but I am going to end with a simple, yet wise quote by one of the 8^th grade campers I had in my group this summer that I feel perfectly sums up our reason for loving God: “It is hard to obey God when everyone else tells me that I should do the opposite, but when I remember that I wouldn’t even be alive if Jesus wouldn’t have died on the cross, it makes it much easier to want to love Him back in any way that I can.” It really is as simple as that.

In Him,

Alyssa Trier