What I've Learned from Community College

Hello! It's been a while. But I've been busy and now, as I'm sitting here with no stories, or papers, to write and the inability to do anything active (wisdom teeth surgery,) I've decided to write some of my thoughts about last semester.

I am a senior in high school, but last semester I took two classes, Math for Liberal Arts and Psychology, at Arapahoe Community College. Needless to say, I learned a lot. Not only about the math deemed necessary for a Liberal Arts degree, but also about myself and the world. So I'm putting these thoughts on paper, er... the internet, so that I can sort them out and perhaps share my experiences and new found thoughts with the rest of you.

To give you an idea of my background: I've been homeschooled since third grade and any of the co-ops or other programs I've been in have been Christian. So I've always been surrounded by the Christian worldview. BUT I'm knowledgeable about other worldviews, so don't go around thinking that I'm ignorant and sheltered or that I am forced to be a Christian because of my parents. Because I'm not and I would prefer it if you did not look down on me. 

 So the fact that God created the world and everything inside of it has been taught to me since birth. All my History and Science lessons have been based in this truth.

This brings me to the first thing I realized at Community College: Your worldview matters more than you might think. Like I said, Science has always been taught to me with an assumed Creationist perspective. It was foreign to hear Psychology taught with a basis of assumed Evolution. I didn't speak up during class because no one would pay attention to the 16 year old who doesn't know anything yet. However, nearly everything started out with "it evolved this way because...." and I wasn't sure what to do. Before this I never realized how big of a role worldview has on things. My professor started saying theories of why humans evolved to see color and I'm sitting there thinking about how amazing God was to create the brain so we can enjoy beauty. Because it's the foundation of your life and belief system, you had better be sure of your worldview's validity before you do anything else. It's how you filter information and arrange your lifestyle. 

This other thing I realized may seem pretty obvious to a lot of you, but it was new to me for some reason. Non-Christians can actually be nicer than Christians. Like I said, kind of obvious, I know. But here's the thing. I believe that, without realizing it, Christians have painted a picture where every Christian is loving and holy and every non-Christian who has yet to see the love that Jesus provides is selfish, mean, crude, and promiscuous. This is simply not true. There were plenty of people in my Psych class of whom I am sure were not Christians. But they sat around and talked to everyone and tried their best to assist whomever they could because they were decent people.

Obviously, they are still sinners and are still just as basically evil as the rest of the world. But I have met some nasty Christians in my life and would have rather hung out with these non-Christians in a heartbeat.

These two things seem really obvious after I've laid them out like that, and they're both things that Christians say all the time. So I'm not sure why I didn't understand these before, and quite honestly I feel pretty dumb to have not realized these things before now. So I apologize for my naivety and ask that you do not judge me for this, for it's taken me a  lot of courage to admit this.... 

But I was forced to think about this last semester at ACC. I'd like to know your thoughts on worldview and friendly non-Christians. Merry Christmas!

much love,

Amanda

Christian Catastrophe: The Dangers of Labeling

I wrote this for an essay at school. I know I already kind of touched on the subject but whatever:

“Are they a Christian band?”

            “Is this a Christian book?”

            “Is he a Christian author?”

            “I’m surprised I heard a Christian band on a secular radio station.”

            These are all things that all Christians have heard at some point in their lives if they have ever spent time around a church group. On the surface, these comments and questions seem innocent. But it seems Christians have decided to fully accept every movie, every song, and every book that crosses their paths as long as it is classified as Christian. Whether it is a quality piece of art or not, there seems to be an obligation to support it because of the morals that it promotes. This has, by default, created the idea that non-Christian things are, in a sense, evil and should be scrutinized or rejected with no thought other than that it is not Christian. This is a dangerous and counter-productive mindset.

            Most Christians do not think about what makes art good; they only think about the morals that it promotes. The theme it communicates is only a portion of what makes art good. Take the movie God’s Not Dead, for example. Almost every Christian I asked about the movie, including myself, said something like, “It was a really good movie! Its message was great!” Some went into further detail saying something like, “the acting was bad at some parts” and, “the script and story line was terrible.” But all that seems to be forgiven because of its righteous message. Christians accept bad art because of its Christian message.

            A Christian rapper, Propaganda, said, “the presence of good art will unconsciously refine a community while poor art will do it incalculable harm[1].” Notice he did not say “Christian art;” he said “good art.” Good art, with quality, thought, and good morals will refine a community, not bad art with Christian themes.

            Christians are pretentious to assume that their media is the best and most upstanding.

            It is as if nothing can be as wholesome as what we put out. But why does wholesomeness make it worth anyone’s time? And if it is wholesomeness you look for, why do we stop at Christian media? There are quite a few bands, books, and movies that are popular with everyone that supports wholesome morals without claiming to be “Christian.” The band Twenty One Pilots, is a great example of this. Their music is exclusively played on non-Christian radio stations, but their lyrics are all positive and wholesome. Their song “Migraine” is written from the perspective of person fighting his or her inner demons and telling him or herself that life is worth living. Another song of theirs, “Ode To Sleep,” discusses guilt and redemption. Many Christians don’t know about Twenty One Pilots because they only listen to music with the “Christian” label on it.  

            When Christians mindlessly support bad art with good morals, it does no one any favors. If Christians do not demand quality out of their art, how will the rest of the world take Christianity seriously? If the goal of media is to win souls and encourage the culture, how can we expect to do that if the quality is terrible? If “bad art will do incalculable harm” to a community, why do Christians keep making bad art? Christians need to focus on making a good piece of art with a good message rather than a mediocre piece of art with Christian messages.

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[1] Propaganda, Lofty,  Sound Recording, Humble Beast, 2012

A Short Thing about Homosexuality

It's been a while. I've been thinking of some stuff. Here we go.

Something needs to be said about homosexuality. I know so much has already been said, but I feel like someone needs to speak up for the Christians that don't hate the homosexuals. They don't believe homosexuals are going to Hell because of homosexuality. Here's the thing, I, along with the majority of Christians I've talked to about this, believe that everyone, gay or straight, will go to Hell unless they've professed faith in Christ. And that's because of sin. I'm just as nasty of a person as the gay guy down the street. And he's probably a pleasant person to be around. What I'm trying to say is homosexuals aren't worse than anyone else.
I mean yeah, homosexuality is a sin whether they were born that way or not. I don't think there's anyway to look at the Scriptures and decide anything different.( I don't want to talk about that here, though. But I will if you ask me.)
HOWEVER, if you're not a Christian, I am not going to expect you to act like a Christian should. I'm not going to throw my Bible verses at you unless you've expressed to me that you're a Christian. And even then, it'd be rude to just rant about it.

I just feel like someone has to say that some people out there do not support homosexuality but don't despise them nor would they treat them differently.

Love is something that has not been portrayed by the media and that really makes me mad. Now, I don't know how the majority of the homosexuals are because I've only seen what's portrayed by the media. And if it's anything close to the inaccuracy of the portrayal of Christians, then it's pretty bad.

So, if you're gay don't be afraid to tell me. I can't speak for all the Christians out there. But we're not all like you see on the news. :)
Let me know what you think about all this, too.

Much love,
Amanda <3

The Person I Aim to Be

I spent the last four weeks as a SaLT at Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je.
As a SaLT I might be working in the kitchens and assisting a counselor, or solely assisting a counselor. It depends on the week. I expected to learn a lot, but I expected it to come through morning devotions and chapel services. Which, in some cases, it did. However, the majority of what I learned about God and myself came through seeing other people work with me. Before I never really had a goal for who I wanted to be. I mean, I wanted to be more godly, and more pleasant to be around. But both of those things are very broad and simple goals. At camp I met so many people that showed me the kind of person I want to be, but I want to focus on two right now. Their names were David and Matt.

I'll start with David.
The first thing I noticed about David was his ice-blue eyes. The second thing I noticed about him was that he remembered my name. I assumed he had many other things to worry about, so the name of one of his SaLTs was not one of his priorities. In fact, I don't believe I ever introduced myself to him. I don't know. But somehow, he remembered my name. And it actually surprised me so much that when he called me by my name for the first time I didn't answer because I didn't expect my name to be remembered.
Because of this, I came home from camp with this goal: To be the kind of person that remembers names.
I've heard it said that the reason we can't remember other people's names is because we're too preoccupied with telling them our names. That really convicted me, and I think about how I'm so used to people not remembering my names. So when David did remember my name, it impacted me.
I want to be the kind of person that remembers names because it means that I care about the person enough to remember who they are.
Another thing about David is that he actually cared about how you were doing. He wouldn't just ask "How ya doing?" as a passing greeting. When he asked you how you were doing he stopped and looked you in the eye and listened to your reply. He wanted to hear about your problems
I dunno. Just, I saw that he genuinely cared about everyone he came across.
I want to be like that.

The second person who made an impact on me was this other SaLT named Matt. I'm not sure if I can actually convey the greatness that is Matt in this blog post, but I'll try.
Matt was supposed to be in Lodge kitchen. However, all three of the other kitchens needed help at some point during the week. So Matt was running all around camp helping out in all four kitchens all week. So he must have been incredibly tired, right?
But he didn't complain. In fact, I didn't even know that he was in the other two kitchens until all the other SaLTs started giving him shout outs for it.
I know for a fact that, if I were in his position, I would make sure that everyone knew that I was also helping everyone else out and I am so tired but look at how great I am for helping.
Matt showed me true humility, and I want to be like that.

There were so many amazing people at camp, and I learned so much from watching their example. David and Matt stuck out to me the most, but I could list so many other amazing people. Because of David and Matt, I learned that I want to be more humble and more intentional in showing that I care about people.

Much love,
Amanda <3

Stream of Consciousness 11

Lately I've had writer's block. So I 'm writing this in hopes that I can break through it....
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First of all: grace. Look, you aren't perfect. Nobody is perfect. This is a fact of life and everybody should know this. Whether you believe people are basically good or not (spoiler alert: we are not basically good) everyone messes up.
What gives you the right to judge other people then? If somebody messes up, there is absolutely no reason for you to reject them or not love them anymore. And that's that.
Say someone gets pregnant out of wedlock. Why lose respect for her? Why reject her? You've messed up just as much as she has, her consequences are just more obvious than yours.
Really, just don't be a jerk. That's all I'm saying.
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On a happier note, you ever notice how things aren't as bad as they could be when you have something to look forward to? "Well this day sucked, but at least tomorrow I get to...." And then, as Christians we can heaven to look forward to. We have this hope. It's hard to hold onto this hope when life sucks, but you have to because it's the only way you're going to get through it.
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I really miss Summit but I love thinking about the stuff that I learned and applying it to real life. And there's all these books that I got that I get to read....
And I get to go work at Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je soon and I'm also super excited about that. But it's also really nerve wracking because of the impact I have the opportunity to make. I want so badly to make a good one but I'm afraid that I'll mess up and leave a bad one. And that's what terrifies me.....
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So apparently there was this Facebook outage that caused worldwide panic. That, my friend, is sad. We are WAY to dependent on social networking now....
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So you know there was that shooting at Seattle Pacific University? I don't know if you've been following that story but Jon Meis, the guy who was able to subdue the shooter, has been getting a lot of attention for what he did. All these people sent him money for his wedding and honeymoon and he said that he wants anymore money they want to be send to be given to the victims. But what I think is really cool is that he said "When I came face to fact with the attacker, God gave me the eyes to see that he was not a faceless monster, but a very sad and troubled young man" (World Magazine, June 28, 2014. Page 16). What an awesome witness for God!
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I suppose that's all I have to say. Hopefully my writer's block is gone....

Much love,
Amanda Page

The Double Standards of Girl-Kind

So I was going to think of some witty title but then I got too lazy so you get a nice title that specifically explains the subject of my blog post. How boring is that?
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I went to a worldview camp called Summit up in Manitou Springs. That's a whole different post. But at Summit we talked a lot about masculinity and femininity. Also, the girls in my class bought this men's panel. So some of the guy staff members served us lemonade and cream puffs and answered some of our questions and oh my goodness it was adorable. In this men's panel and the masculinity/femininity discussion a few points came up frequently. One of them, the one I want to talk about in this post, is the way that girls disrespect guys.

Here's a picture of the Men's Panel in case you cared.....

Now the thought had crossed my mind a few times the past couple years but I'm ashamed to say I never really considered how I disrespect the guys in my life. When I was forced to think about it I found that guys are very hurt by-wait for it- the same things that girls get hurt by. One thing that constantly came up in the discussion was when girls sit around and talk about how attractive such and such celebrity is. It's like we forget that guy celebs are photoshopped and unrealistic just like girls are. Girls get super bothered when guys sit around and talk about Selena Gomez or something but then we sit around them and swoon over whatever guy in whatever movie we just saw. BUT THEN WE EXPECT GUYS TO RESPECT US. WE DON'T RESPECT THEM. WHY SHOULD THEY RESPECT US? I mean not all girls are bothered by this, so I'm sure not all guys are. But it's still really rude to do and I'm sorry if I've ever done that to you.....

Short post this time but I feel like there's nothing left to be said and anything else would just be excess ramblings.
So here's my concluding question(s) that no one ever answers even though I KNOW that people read this blog and have thoughts:
If you're a guy, is there a way that we as girls disrespect you or something that girls do that belittles you or something like that? Or does this even bother you at all?
If you're a girl, what do you think about this?

Much love,
Amanda <3

Stream of Consciousness 10

It's crazy that I've done ten of these.
Blogging is fun. :)

It's Mother's Day today and my mom is pretty great. Tell your mom how much you appreciate her. :)

Today in church my pastor told a story about a college kid who was there during some tornado and he actually held up  the foundation of a building while his girlfriend could escape, but then the building crushed him and he died.
Whenever I hear stories like that I worry that, if I were faced with the same situation, I would save myself first and leave my loved ones to die.
But I never want to be faced with a situation like that to find out what I'd do.

Yesterday I avoided yet another opportunity to talk to someone about Jesus. I pray one day I will have the courage to ask a complete stranger if she goes to church or not.

So I was at King Soopers the other day buying a book. There was this shifty-looking kid with his hood up at a self-checkout register, so I avoided the one next to him and went to one across from him. Well as I'm checking out he comes up to me and asks if I have two pennies. I didn't, so I told him that. He sighed and I asked him what he needed to buy. He goes "I just need eighteen cents to buy that." He pointed to the Monster energy drink. I pulled a dollar out of my wallet and gave it to him. He just looked really sad that he couldn't buy the thing. He said thanks and went away and I continued to check out.
But get this-   he gave me my $0.98 back.
I was really impressed because I probably wouldn't have given the person their change back if I were him. I mean, they gave me a dollar, I'd use the dollar.
I suppose that makes me selfish.

The end of of the school year is coming up and I have learned quite a bit my junior year of high school. Too much to put in a blog post like this, I'll write one later with my reflections.

One of the things I absolutely hate in when I get judged at church. And I don't mean like "Hey, Amanda. I've noticed such and such sin in your life and I want to help you overcome it."
I mean like "Oh. You saw Noah. I saw God's Not Dead." "You read Harry Potter/The Hunger Games/whatever-"secular"- book-or-movie-you-can-think-of? I choose not to read that kind of stuff." "You don't listen to K-Love?" "YOU DON'T LIKE CHRIS TOMLIN." And then just getting stared at. It happens all the time from so many people but I feel like it would be inappropriate to argue with them at the time it happens. So I am posting this in hopes that they will read it.

First of all, I just don't like Christian contemporary. It doesn't mean I'm a sinner. Nowhere in the Bible does it command I listen to "Christian" music. Now, it says in Phil 4:8 to think of whatever is pure, noble, lovely, etc. etc. But that doesn't limit it to just the Christian genre of entertainment. To me, most of the songs sound the same and the lyrics are generally not creative or meaningful. You can listen to that music all you want, but I won't.
Second, just because something is "secular" doesn't mean I should avoid it. To me, life would be pretty boring if I forwent all things "secular." Also, how can I expect to engage culture if I don't watch/read/educate myself in what the culture engages in. Of course, I must make sure I am being edified by it in some way. Just because it's not "Christian" doesn't mean it's horrible.
And lastly, about Noah. I feel like I need to defend myself. I suppose I probably should have had a bigger issue with it being unbiblical. But I didn't. I went to see it to see if it was at least a decent story. And it wasn't, and I was mad that is was inaccurate AND a crap story.
I didn't want to go see another Christian movie because, quite honestly, I don't care about it that much. And I have no requirement to get excited about one every time one is released.

Well, I got some stuff off my mind in this post...... Sorry for the rant. BUT IT IS TRUE.

I feel like I should put some happy stuff after that angry stuff, so here's some pictures of people smiling. :)

Happy Mother's Day!
-Amanda



PS: A friend of mine wrote a good thing about music choices. Check it out: http://www.daughterofpearlblog.com/music-doesnt-make-you-better-than-me/