sick sick sick

Today, for some reason, I woke up with a headache. This in itself isn't so odd - it's happened to me before. I generally just take some ibuprofen and a big glass of water, and an hour later I'll be fine. NOT TODAY!!!! I went from a dull headache to a very sharp headache to nauseous and dizzy, and it culminated with me slumping over the toilet praying that I would vomit, just so I could feel better!!! I've never been so sick for no apparent reason before.

So I very seriously considered calling in sick to work, but my mom suggested I walk around the block to see if I could walk off the nausea. Then my friend suggested I take a shower (to wash it off...?), so I did both. And I managed to make it through my entire shift with no dizziness, very little nausea, and only the dullest of headaches.

At work, I was standing there wiping trays (seriously, we have at least a hundred trays, and about seventy of them were stacked and needed to be cleaned), and one of my friends had left his Bible sitting on the counter. So I opened it and read Psalm 25. The verse that most stuck out to me was verse 6: "Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to Your love remember me, for You are good, O Lord."

Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways. Or perhaps, my apathetic ways. God, remember not the times when my heart did not long for You and did not desire Your glory. The times when I acted for my own comfort and not Your Name. The times when I couldn't be bothered to sacrifice for You, who sacrificed EVERYTHING for me. Isn't it supposed to be a privilege to suffer for Christ, just as He suffered? And when we do suffer for His sake, will we not reign with Him in glory?

I have also started something new: I am going to pray every week for a different celebrity. This week will be Brad Pitt. I think before I pray for him, I will have to pray for myself, that I can actually pray for him and not just call down fire and brimstone on him!!! I am less and less impressed with him the more I read about him. He used to be a Christian, but he has completely turned his back on it and while he doesn't bash it outright, I feel he thinks it's pretty useless. Brad Pitt has given huge sums of money to help rebuild New Orleans from all the Katrina damage, and now they want him to run for mayor! He's laughed it off, saying that he would never get elected because he's running on the "gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform"...and the troubling thing is, more people would vote for him than one would think. He also has no idea what it is to truly live and to truly love someone. Quote:

"I resent people telling others how to live! It drives me mental! Just the other night, I heard this TV reverend say that Angie and I were setting a bad example because we were living out of wedlock, and people should not be duped by us," Brad recounted. "It made me laugh. What damn right does anyone have to tell someone else how to live if they're not hurting anyone? How many times do you think real love comes to someone in a lifetime? If you're lucky, maybe two or three."

Sorry, Mr. Pitt, you have no idea what "real love" is. Real love is not a five-year marriage that ends when you meet someone else. Real love is NOT waiting to marry the mother of your children until everyone who wants to get married can. Real love isn't even doing good deeds like helping rebuild a city. Real love is a cross on which a naked and bloodied man hangs, covered in the stain of the sins of humanity. It's like it says in ICor 13: "If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrendur my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." All of Brad and Angelina's time and money and all the good things they do for others - because they do a LOT of great things for other people! - mean so little. I wouldn't say it all means nothing, because there is still the image of God in them (that they were created within!), and that is what inspires them to do their good deeds.

Sorry, I just get so frustrated by celebrities who have everything and give so much of what they have...and yet because they do not have the love of Christ, they have nothing, so they can give nothing. So this week's prayer celebrity: Brad Pitt. Join me? Seriously, he needs it. As do we all.