Blog in the Round: My Purpose in Life

So this week my blog topic is to discuss what I think my purpose in life is. Of course, the typical Sunday School answer would be to say that my purpose in life is "To live out God's will...to love others as I love myself...to serve those in need" and so on and so forth. Although this is true, I think the real question is "What is God's will for my life". My answer to this is that honestly I have no clue. So I'm probably not going to write this blog in the way ya'll want to hear it, and it may be kinda long and boring. Instead, I think I'll just be honest with myself and others and write about some things that have been on my mind for a while now.

I have no clue what I'm doing. I have no idea where I'm going. I really don't know what the plan is, and that bothers me. In my 15 years and 11 months of life, I have yet to find one thing that I really enjoy. Something that I am passionate about. For a while I have told myself that that is ok because I am young. It's ok because I still have two years of highschool left, and then (possibly) a few years of college. And while in a way I still hold on to that mindset, I sit back and realize that I am living through the years of my life that molds the shape of my entire future. And then I look around at other people who know exactly who they are and what they want to do. Their gifts and talents shine though so brightly. So I look at myself, and I just have no idea. I don't know what it is that I should be doing, because I don't even know what I want to do. So I just keep waiting, hoping that God will show me what path I need to take. And I keep praying that he will give me the wisdom to take that path. Yet, I still have no idea. Don't get my wrong, I'm not saying I've lost my faith in God. I still whole-heartily believe that he has a plan for me, I just get discouraged because I don't know what that plan is. I realize that this is part of life and everyone goes through it, but I feel like I'm missing out on something. As if, maybe, it's right before my eyes and I'm just blinded my own selfish thoughts and desires. But that, too, I don't see because I'm not quite sure what my own desires are.

I try to be the kind of person who is always happy even when there isn't really anything to be happy about. I'm happy just simply because there is nothing to be sad about. After a while, though, that gets kinda old. I'm a middle-of-the-road, mediocre girl; but that, too, gets old. I'm tired of settling for mediocrity. I'm tired of apathy because there just really isn't anything to care about. I need something exciting. I need something to live for. I need something that I know in my heart I am supposed to do. This was a lot of our discussion Wednesday night. We talked about how everyone has different gifts and abilities and we are supposed to go out and do that and that only. If we try to do what someone else is supposed do, then it just doesn't work. Well, I'd love to do what I need to do. But first I have to figure out what that is.

My brother, Ryan, is going to attend Samford University this fall. Last week he had orientation and I guess that got the wheels in his head turning because the next day he writes a blog about college. It was one of my favorite blogs he has written in a while because it actually made perfect sense to me(and rarely his blogs do). He was talking about how people put too much pressure on teenagers approaching college age to know what they want to do. I'm pretty sure I'm doing this to myself. I think sometimes I forget that next month I will only be turning 16. I forget that this year I will only be in my junior year of high school. I guess I'm just tired of giving the answer "I don't know" every time someone asks me what my future plans are. I really just want something that I am good at and something I have a passion for. Andy made what I thought was a very good point when he said that you shouldn't go to college to find a job, you should go to college to further your passion.

I've been spending all this time searching myself through and through, trying to figure out what is really in my heart and just follow that, and it got me thinking about things a little bit differently. Maybe, as of now, I am barren. And maybe this whole time that I've been looking for something within myself, there really just isn't much to find. So I'm thinking there is a possibility that instead of finding myself, I should begin creating myself. Creating myself to be the kind of person that God wants me to be. A person who is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, gentle, and self-controlling. And that may be the key to open up the next door. A door that has my own passion inside and takes me down the path of the rest of my life. And There I go with the Sunday School answer, but I suppose that's really all I have to start with.

Again, this is just life and life isn't always easy. Life is full of decisions. Sometimes you make the right ones, and sometimes you don't. Life is full of both encouragements and let downs. So all I can really do is go out into this brutal world realizing that the sun doesn't always set in happiness, but tomorrow there is always a sunrise. Giving hope and a promise of a better day ahead.

So maybe the answer to the question "What is my purpose in life?" is right around the corner; but as of now my answer will continue to be that I really just don't know. As of now God is really the only thing I can hold on to, but for some reason I want more. I feel like that is wrong though. Is it wrong? Is it wrong that I want something more than just knowing He is there? I guess I what I really want is to see Him played out in my life. But I will continue to wait; because, somewhere, I know it's there. And waiting is what a majority of life is comprised of.

~*Elizabeth

BITR: Who Would I Marry?

I mean the guy(James Marsden), not the girl. Oh and of course this is set to Lifehouse music.

A Defense For Twilight and Harry Potter

If you know me well, then you probably know that my two favorite book series right now are Twilight and Harry Potter.(although twilight does beat h.p.) These two book series are very controversial among Christians because of their content. Harry Potter is all about witches, wizards, and of course magic, while because Twilight is also a love story it has been described as "Harry Potter with sex appeal". If a Christian thinks is wrong to read these books I can see where they are coming from, BUT I, of course, disagree. Let me tell you why.

I will start off by saying that the Twilight series changed my whole perspective on reading. Before reading the books, reading was pretty much only something I did because I had to. It wasn't that I absolutely hated reading, I just didn't really enjoy it. Once I started reading them, I couldn't put them down. I read all three of them in about 2 weeks and they are between 500 and 600 pages each. After this, all I wanted to do was read so that's when I picked up Harry Potter. After just a few weeks, I'm on the fourth out of seven books. Then I started actually enjoying the stuff I was reading in school. The last book we read was To Kill a Mockingbird and it is now one of my favorite classics. So my point is that before these books reading was boring, now I even enjoy required reading for school.

Since Harry Potter is better known, I will start with that. Legalistic Christians would argue that Harry Potter is bad because it teaches that magic is real and it can overpower anything. Well, maybe it does, but so what? Its called fiction, meaning that it isn't real. I read the books, but it hasn't changed me to think that there is no God and our world is really just full of magic. So as long as you don't let yourself fall into that stupid way of thinking, then you'll be fine. Also, it contains good literature. If you pay attention to the details, then you could find a lot of symbolism. The scar on Harry's face is major, because it symbolizes Voldemort's presence. Book three, which is so far my favorite, has a lot to do with animals and the different animals symbolize the different characters of whom they represent. Also, there are a lot of things in Harry Potter that can represent the Christian worldview. I could go on about this forever, but I'm not going to bore you. I did, however, find a website about this that I thought was interesting. Here is the link if you want to check it out: http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/editorials/edit-amandah01.shtml

Now, on to Twilight. This is a three book series(soon to be four) full of action, romance, and suspense. There are two major things in this book that many people find to be bad. The first is the fact that it is a book about vampires and werewolves, hence the magic. I guess people think that any kind of fantasy thing with magic that isn't real is inherently bad. Of course, I tend to disagree. I think that sometimes reality gets a little boring, and our minds and souls need something to focus on every once in a while to bring us back up to speed. This probably doesn't make any sense, but just bare with me. I don't think there is anything wrong with getting emotionally involved in fantasy stories, as long as you know it's not real in the end. Again, I think there is a lot of symbolism in these books too. Even Christian symbolism. In the story, the Cullens are a family of vampires. They are not what you think of as the typical vampire though, they stand out for something different. The don't feed on humans, which in the story is kinda a big thing. The Cullen family in the vampire world is kinda like Christians in our world. They are fighting against their own nature to stand out for something different. Something they believe in, which is morality, and not killing humans. It is the same for us. We are fighting against the world, which tries so hard to pull us in. But we resist and do our best to fight the temptation. This is hard for the Cullens, because it really is their nature to live off the blood of humans. But to the best of their ability, they don't.

Another major argument in Twilight is that the romance is a little too graphic. I can defiantly see where this argument is coming from, but the thing to remember is that it is done the morally right way. Edward has this whole thing about saving Bella's morality, therefore, they will not have sex before marriage. So, although it is talked about a lot, I think it's talked about in a good way. It doesn't encourage anything bad, in fact, it looks down on it. Morality is a key thing in Twilight. And I don't mean throwing your morality down the drain, I mean preserving it. Living life out the right way.


So if you think that Harry Potter and Twilight are evil because of their magic, then what about all the fairy tales we watched when we were little. Almost every one had magic, and they also had witches and all that kind of stuff. What about the Little Mermaid? Mermaids aren't real, magic isn't real, witches aren't real. But when I was a little kid, I remember to a certain extent actually believing in this stuff. Oh, and then there is the love. The love was pretty screwed up if you ask me. Cinderella met Prince Charming at a ball one night and suddenly they were madly in love. Umm....that doesn't seem like the real idea of love. If you are a Twilight/Harry Potter hater, then I challenge you to look at it from a different light. You get out what you put in. So if you go in thinking that these books are bad and they go strictly against Christian beliefs, that's what you will get out. But if you go in thinking that there might actually be something more to these books, then that is what you will get out.

~*Elizabeth

We Wear the Mask

This was written by Paul Laurence Dunbar(whoever that is) and I really like it because I think we all kinda wear a mask.

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtelties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Chrsit, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Blog in the Round: The Basement

So here I am writing a blog on yet another controversial topic. Most likely, it will end then same and some people will agree with what I say while others disagree whole-heartily. But that's ok, not everybody has the same views. When Davis first gave me the topic, I really wished that he hadn't. I kinda wanted something dumb like Wal-mart or Jeff Roberts, but no, I got The Basement. I thought of a couple of different routes I could take on it. Andy suggested that I use this blog as a time to bash Matt Pitt. I thought about it, but I really don't know Matt Pitt so I decided that wouldn't be the best way to go. I thought about writing about my actual basement, but I decided that was pretty dumb and it sounded like something Jeff would do.( I love you Jeff Roberts) Then I really just thought I would do something very out of the ordinary for this topic and actually states my opinions on The Basement. So here goes nothing.

I would like to start out by saying that I have never actually been to The Basement. So maybe your thinking that I am not entitled to have an opinion if I've never actually been, but I think that The Basement is one of those things you hear about so much you know pretty much what its like without going. Of course, I've never experienced it first hand; but I still think I can somewhat form my own opinion on the issue. I haven't not been to the basement because I think its full of a bunch wanna be Christian heathens. I haven't not been to the basement because I myself am I heathen. And I haven't not been to the basement because I don't have a life and I never leave my house. Actually, I think the reason I haven't been is because everyone loves it so much, because I get tired of being "basement witnessed", and actually just the response I get when I say I haven't been. To me, being basement witnessed is kinda like chain letters and forwarded messages. Sometimes I run across one that I actually like and I plan on sending it to a few people. That is, until I read 47,000 times how you have to send it to 16 people within an hour. I hate that. Maybe I'm just being some kind of rebel or something, but it's almost like I don't want to do it just because it says to do it. Oh and then is the part where it tells you that you are being cursed if you don't send it on. That makes me wanna delete the message and then go shoot the person who sent it to me. This also reminds me of basement witnessing. It's almost like these kids are brainwashed to think that your some horribly sinful person if you don't go. But let me tell you something. I do in fact attend church regularly, and just because I don't go to the basement and "get crunk for Jesus" every Tuesday night, doesn't mean that I am any less of a Christian than you.

Moving on to the next issue. Even if you haven't been to the basement, I'm sure you know that they use rock and rap music as a lot of their worship. Do I think this is necessarily wrong? No. But one thing that does bother me is how they take secular rap songs that are full of terrible lyrics that pretty much slap every Christian moral right in the face, and make it a song to supposedly glorify God. God tells us to be in the world, but not of it. In my opinion, this is trying to make all of Christianity a thing of the world which is not something it should be. Singing songs like "Jesus is my rock star" and "meet me at the basement, its going down" do not really sound glorifying to God at all. In fact, it sounds pretty degrading to me. Most rock stars are just a bunch of drug addicts who sing about immoral filth. I mean, I'm not one of those people who thinks that any music besides Christian music is bad; but I don't really think that kind of music belongs in church. I think that people in this world are supposed bring God/The Bible into their lives, but it seems to me like the basement is doing it backwards. They are bringing the world into Christianity. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not fall into the ways of the world". We do that enough ourselves, and when church events bring us more into that I think it's just making it worse. I know that all of this is really just a way to bring outsiders to Christ, and I think that's great; but I also don't think that are really getting what Christianity is all about this way.

Although I said I was not going to use this blog to bash Matt Pitt, I do think it is necessary to talk about him. Like I said, I do not know Matt and I do not know what is in his heart. I do not know this from experience, but I have heard that he is notorious for not quoting the Bible correctly. Like with anybody who preaches to you, I think that you should listen to what they have to say but not necessarily believe everything they say until you really get the chance to think about it and back it up with scripture. We are all humans and are prone to mistakes, and by accepting every word that comes out of a preachers mouth you are bound at some point to hear something that is not fully the truth. This is a problem I see in a lot of people who go to the basement. It's almost like they seem to look at it as "Matt's infallible word" instead of God's. I've heard people talk about how Matt Pitt changed their life, and I don't really think that is right. Matt Pitt didn't change your life, God did. Maybe God worked through Matt Pitt to make a difference in your life, but Matt Pitt did not change your life. So if your going to the basement because its about Matt, then I think you need to change your motives.

I think that whether you go to the basement or not you should still have a home church that you attend. I have heard that Matt does a good job of making that a major point and that is something I can respect in him. I've heard all the way from "Matt is one of the greatest and most Godly men I know. I look up to and respect him a lot." to "Matt is a stuck up arrogant jerk who really doesn't know anything about the Bible." I am not going to side one way or the other because I've never talked to the guy, heck I've never even heard him preach. Because of this, I don't think I am in the right position to judge his character either way.

To a certain extent, I think the basement has almost lost its dignity. It's lost its fire that it used to have. Now, its really just a place to hang out. They call it "club Jesus". I once heard someone describe the basement as just like a club but it's with Christians. Well, think about what goes on at a club and should church events be anything like that? I think not. My friend told me that she was talking to someone who went to the Basement for the first time and when she asked if he liked it he said "Oh yeah, I thought it was great! That is, until I went to the bathroom and some guy tried to sell me drugs". I find this sad. As Christians, we are supposed to be out in the world fighting against these kinds of things, but instead these things are coming into our churches and are fighting against us. Again, we must not fall into the ways of the world.

Now that I've said all of this, and I've probably offended some people I would like to say that I think The Basement ministry is doing great things. I find it amazing how thousands of people across the nation are coming to Birmingham, Alabama for this one church event. I find it amazing how more and more people are coming to Christ through this ministry. And I find it amazing how Christians no matter what denomination are coming together as one. I think that Christian fellowship is a great thing and I think there should be more of it. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching". So although I've stated my disagreements with the basement, I think the ministry has a lot of great things going for it and I hope that it can continue to bring more people to Christ.

So who knows. Maybe one of these Tuesday nights I'll make it up there. Maybe one night I'll feel like staying up until 1:00 to watch it on tv. But until then this is my opinion so take it or leave it.

~*Elizabeth

BITR: I Were Gonna Die Tomorrow

If were walking down the street one day and I heard God's voice say to me "Elizabeth, you are going to die tomorrow" I would want to give my life something worth living for. I would want to be known as more than just 'that girl' or 'whatshername'. I would want to be known as "Elizabeth Hampton! She's the girl who 'risked her life' doing ____". But before doing something extraordinary, I would first fix the little things. I would work out all broken relationships and tell all of my family and friends how much I love them. Also, I would right my will which would be something like this:

• First I would ask that my funeral would be a festive celebration of my life. There will be dancing and the guests will be served taco bell and hot pockets in which Andy will say a very heart-felt and touching prayer over. My dear brother Ryan will write a song in my memory and Danielle and Matt will sing it together while Timothy plays the violin.



• My little sister Laura will receive my iPod and cellular device(because you know its worth so much money and everything)



• My older brother Ryan will receive my bed and my 13 inch TV(because of course they are very expensive too. haha)



• My mom and dad will get all of that sentimental stuff and they can sell whatever they don't want.



• Danielle gets my car and laptop that I don't have. She will also take my place on the cruise and July and she will inherit my bazooka.



• Matt gets my blogspot and he has to write my blogs every week and make them sound like me.



• Andy gets my Bible, because I think he needs one.

Now I would take a trip to the bank and empty every penny out of my account. With that money I am buying a one way ticket to Nagashima Spaland Mie, Japan. Your probably thinking, why Japan? Well let me tell you. Nagashima Spaland Mie, Japan is the home of the world's longest roller coaster. I like roller coasters. I think they are fun. And I think that riding the largest roller coaster right before I die would be pretty much awesome.

Now comes the part where I do something eventful. Japan is a nation of only 0.8% Christianity. 95% of the people there practice Shinto and Buddhism. Pretty much, they hate Christians and you will be killed for speaking of it. For being a country with such desperate need for missionaries, very few are able to spread the word there because they have a severe threat of getting killed. If my life is the most I can lose(besides my soul, which is already safe) and I'm already going to die, then what do I have to risk? Absolutely nothing. So in those few hours I have left I will share what I know and hope that possibly in the slightest chance it may save someone Else's life. This is how I will most likely be killed. Maybe I'll be beheaded, maybe shot, or maybe burned but what does it matter if I'm gonna die anyway.