Uff!

A horse show at an estancia -- more pictures to come of this lovely day I had when Bill and Annie were hosting some friends and invited me along.

When is anger righteous versus self-righteous? When do you say something and when do you walk away?

I've been getting attachments of PowerPoint shows in e-mails for a few years now, and now that I live in a Spanish-speaking country I get them in two languages! Some make a few good points or say something sweet, but there is a disturbing trend: for years both the secular ones and some "Christian" ones have written at the end a chain mail-type message which states that I will receive luck if I forward it to a certain number of people. I just opened one up and happened to disagree with most of it. Then it ended with a message I've seen before, both in Spanish and English, which means that someone thought it was worthwhile to translate. It's all the more menacing and sinister because this time "luck" is not behind it but an all-powerful God:

It's curious that when you re-send this you won't send it to many people on your contact list because you're not sure what their beliefs are or what they will think of you if you send it. It's curious that we worry more about what others think of us than what God thinks of us. Re-send this posting if you think it's worth it. If not, get rid of it..."nobody" will know you did it.

This message reminds me of a guest preacher who spoke at church a few weeks ago. I disagreed with the majority of his sermon. But then, as he was closing, it got a lot worse. He started saying that he was sure that some of us were preparing to vilify him at home. We could go ahead and do so, but we would be rejecting God because this was God's message.

I love Jesus, but I've never been a fan of the Christian sub-culture although I recognize that I'm connected to it and a part of it in some ways. Thankfully, it's becoming increasingly more common to hear the two differentiated. But how does this work when you're a missionary? I'm used to trying to fit into other cultures and sub-cultures, I've tried to do it everywhere I've moved. But unlike many other missionary "jobs" I'm not just working with unchurched folks but I work with lots of churches too. So here's the real question: if I deal with the above and eat lard and have patience with machismo, do I get to wear my nose-ring? :-) After all, I'm in a city of 12 million right now, and it's not uncommon.....