Tis' the season to spread the love! (or is it?)

This is when you should be taking that grain of salt by the way.


Well, I've been doing some thinking on the subject of the season and it's tendency toward romantic thought; this is in conjunction with quite a few discussions with someone who I can call a voice of moral conscience. It appears to me that within the church, we all seem to create this shell around ourselves, due to the importance of modesty in the Christian faith. Now, I'm a firm believer in "if you 'ain't sellin' don't advertise" so don't get me wrong. I just think that we, as a community do not express the kind of love we have for eachother well enough. I am well aware of the fact that modesty leans us away from temptation and sin. However, a fear of physical contact is almost ranging on un-needed separation. Christmas is a time when we all seem to realize how much we all mean to eachother. Its opened my eyes to quite a few things. For one, not all physical contact is tempting. I can honestly say that I have received more hugs in the past several days than I have in the past year, and not a single one was tempting to me. (At this point I'm just throwing opinions around like paint to splatter in the walls in some hopefully comprehensive way) Maybe, its not the action of physical contact, maybe its the state of mind of separation itself. Maybe, if you think it is going to be tempting, then the actual act WILL be tempting. But, if you brush it off as an act of appreciation and brotherly/sisterly love, then it can be (in my humble 15 year old opinion) an edifying and encouraging experience.

Well, you've heard my argument, and anyone who reads this should be well informed that I'm a hopeless romantic. I do see that I may be a bit bias, but for a hopeless romantic such as myself, to say that every single display of affection I have received over these Christmas celebrations has not temped me in the slightest should say quite a bit on how I feel on the matter.

(A note to John Behrens: I did really want to provide quotes for such a matter, I even had them on hand in a Word document. However, decency inclined me not to incriminate anyone’s opinion the matter. Rest assured though that I have sufficient proof on the situation for me to form some strong opinions on it.)

Yours, forever in the Christmas spirit,
Wes

"The Post"

The holidays are uppon us and I'm sitting her frantically typing in what free time I have. I wish I could report on al my journeys thus far in the Christmas Season. Sadly, you're going to have to suffer my meger rambelings on the main events in my life. A few days ago, Sunday actually, I attended church and immediately there after my dad and I embarked on a journey into the heart of the steel city with hopes of giving our eardrums a racking at the Trans Siberian Orcestra concert. Now, for those who don't know the TSO, they are a band who plays almost exclusively Christmas music; Their fashion of approach to this cleche genre is very different though. The band consists of three main players, guitar, keyboard and drummer. It doesn't stop there though. The rest of the band is another guitar, a bass, another keyboardist, an electric violinist(who makes his own violins) and a string ensomble of about 12 or 15 various string players. This is not counting their wonderful vocal section. So, these guys get pretty rockin. (samples available at http://www.trans-siberian.com/multimedia/index.shtml -- I reccomend A Mad Russian's Christmas and Wizards In Winter)

Long story short, we didn't get tickets for the early show. But, the 7:30 had some nice seats. So, my dad and I had a couple hours (6 I think) to blow in the burg. We went over to the Heinz Sports Museum, luckily it was open and we spent a whole 4.5 hours there. Monsterous fun. After touring the museum we roamed around the strip looking for an eatery, without much trouble we found the Harp and Fiddle pub. This place was crazy, it screamed Ireland. I'll have to go there with Laedelas some time, she'd love it. Our server even had this heavy irish accent. After consuming half of my Shepperd's pie we had to leave to get to the show, so, I wrapped up the remainder and we bolted off (as much as one can bolt in pittsburgh at any given moment) to the concert. It was phanominal. The lights, the music, the action, I couldn't have expected more. Fog everywhere, fake snow, fire, sparks, EVERYTHING. All the classics and some variations on multiple songs. Something freaky though, I saw two people that I could have sworn were two other people. One from the front, another from the back. really crazy, if not for subtle differences like hair length and minor differences in the face I would never have known the differences. Thats it for my historical recounts, I've got more to ramble about though.

Recently, I could swear I've lost all wit I possess. I've just drifted and drifted from my spiritual life and it shows. I've been amazed at how I've almost totally lost my gift to encourage people as much as I have in the past. I only just realised it a little while ago though. Its so sad that most of the time we need the sense "knocked" into us. We drift so far than come running back. Thankfully I can at least run back, and I have. So, I've been feeling more and more of God's spirit, which has been great.

More to come, after I sort some stuff out.

Feeling slightly insane
-Wes

What do your eyes say about you? by Buzzy2232
Name
Eye Color
Your Personality is	Happy
Your Smile is	Jaw dropping
Your friends are	Important
Your kiss is	Soft
Your life is	Beautiful
Your passion is	Your friends
You are	Amazing
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Yes, I fell to the dark side and did one of these. I was suprised to see that it was right on several counts. but I don't think my smile is jaw dropping or my life is so beautiful.

And yeah, a quiz with random generated answers is not like the shaper of my destiny, but its still pretty cool!