Let us.

I was more tired than usual on Sunday and when today dawned, I knew why.

In a word? Migraine. This girl's head was all pinch-y, giddy and choky so I toddled obediently off to the doctor's and spent the rest of the day resting and avoiding bright light. But it's all good, I finally had time for the Mark Driscoll sermon the BMG's been bugging me to listen to - the rebel's guide to joy . It was interesting; I liked how he dealt with the cultural norms surrounding happiness before turning to deal with what scripture says. Oh and bonus! He ended with a history of the writer of one of my absolute favourite hymn.

It's good to demolish all the crazy ideas the world gives us and replace them with the most counter-cultural of all worldviews - faith in Christ. I'm reading, listening, allowing God to re-draw the paradigms and buttresses of my inner world and mind with those set down by scripture. Rubbishing all the things that no longer belong - so so hard to even identify them sometimes; the lines are not clear to me just yet.

To that end, I find myself increasingly starting to mug up on philosophy and theology - not something I ever thought I'd do, despite the arts student background - but it's important to me - to know what I believe in, to figure out where all these ideas are coming from and why we - denizens of the 21st C, have fastened in our minds all these beliefs and superstitions.

We live in a soup of ideas from the Romantics, the Enlightenment, the Renaissance, the Existentialists, post modernists and with eastern mysticism thrown in just to salt the brew, without knowing or understanding what they are, where they're from and how it has permeated every single aspect of our lives. Every thing is suspect - the movies, the tv shows, music, books (self help and otherwise), education, advertisements - one is forced to question their premises and presuppositions.

***

Article in the NYT (via Yv's blog) about - surprise surprise - the idea that your social network has an impact on how you behave, your health and decisions.

"Over the next year, the sociologist and the political scientist continued to analyze the Framingham data, finding more and more examples of contagious behavior. Smoking, they discovered, also appeared to spread socially — in fact, a friend taking up smoking increased your chance of lighting up by 36 percent, and if you had a three-degrees-removed friend who started smoking, you were 11 percent more likely to do the same. Drinking spread socially, as did happiness and even loneliness. And in each case one’s individual influence stretched out three degrees before it faded out. They termed this the “three degrees of influence” rule about human behavior: We are tied not just to those around us, but to others in a web that stretches farther than we know."

Three degrees, six degrees. Who do you talk to daily? Who are the people who affect the air you breathe? I'm glad for so many in my life right now - people who weren't afraid to tell me the truth, even people in church I don't talk to that often but who spur me on just by the way they live and carry themselves. You affect even people 3 degrees away from you so even if you think you've hardly talked to someone before, don't underestimate the effect you have.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God,

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Heb 24:19-24

Let us. Let us. Let us. That pronoun is repeated three times - the whole paragraph is built on it.

So sleepy from the migraine meds but just wanted to end off and say that this is kinda my love letter to all you people (from church and otherwise) who've encouraged me, scolded me, sent me books, music, sermon recommendations, notes, provoked my mind and most importantly, inspired me just by living the way you do.

MFE, Eilonwy, H & M, Miss Shell, the Dude, AF and family, Ade, Ed, M and Vi, the eios, Messrs I, BY and Y, YM, Mo, D and S from dance, the BMG, Mr F, Miss Su, Ps Thomas and MJ,K the evangelion, A, JM, MG, little Miss E.

We're all running this race together so let's keep going and stay the course together 'cause I can't do this alone and am so thankful for all of you. If I missed anyone out - I love you, I do! But I'm on migraine meds and they've kicked in.

'Night peeps. This girl is going off for her dreamtime now.