Flight of The Gypsy Bird

Can I just be real with y'all for a bit?  Really?  Ok, thanks. I've wanted to talk about this for a long time, now, but I needed to make sure my heart was healed before I tackled trying to verbalize what happened to me and what it did to me....Because bleeding hearts can be dangerous weapons. I thank Papa God for the community of believers He led our family to after all had happened, for it was there that He told me that my heart was broken and that I had had my identity stripped from me and that I needed to be reminded of who I was.  Facing my pain and insecurities that came as a result of mistaken identity, false accusations, and underlying agendas was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, outside of facing sexual abuse from my childhood. Realizing and understanding fully that you have been manipulated for one's own purposes by people you love and trust is devastating...IF you aren't surrounded by those who love you for who you are (not what yo...

So...yeah. Captivity.  As believers...especially in a charismatic body...its a word that embodies negative things, right? I mean, when you think of 'captivity' you think of the Children of Israel in Egypt...or atleast I do...You think of addictions, chains, bondages, prison, slavery, etc.....See? Negative.  If you read my last blog, you know that Papa kinda rocked my world by just flat out atom-bombing a paradigm that most ppl who claim "charismatic" have.   Welp. He did it again. Read on.                  Wednesday night, before service (I play guitar for our youth service), I was walking the room and interceding (that would be ' praying'  for the non-church-i-fied) for the ppl who would come to the gathering that night...  Following is the dialogue that would wreck my sleep that night and every other night this week, so far...seeing as its 3:18am on Saturday morning.... ME-  ...

So I had a moment.  I recently attended a school of healing ministry and during a moment when I probably should've been paying closer attention, I was off in my little happy place just...soaking... in the tangible Presence.  In a ballroom filled with almost 1000 perfectly good, relatively comfy chairs, I had found myself a nice, secluded, little corner and had parked my hind parts unceremoniously on the floor.  If I could've disappeared completely, I would have.  Bridget (my fellow sojourner in this particular education in the areas of effective flakiness), later laughed and said that she looked over during worship and noticed that she couldn't see me anymore...and then I just appeared from behind the heavy wall curtain that the hotel staff had pushed back into my corner.  Haha. Yep.  I love people...like I LOVEEEEE people.... But I don't like people.  Don't like crowds. Don't like to socialize.  Makes me n...

So...with our youth purity conference coming up, I've really been thinking a lot about "purity" as a topic.  Thinking a lot about how I can possibly come at this in a way that hasn't been dragged thru the proverbial gauntlet of religious ka-ka SO many times that it's absolutely wretched to this generation...and everyone else...so much so that teens avoid anything labeled "purity" and churches are afraid to touch it with a ten foot pole. I mean, this generation needs the message of sexual purity...for their LIVES sakes, these days...but you almost have to TRICK them with a gimmick or a NON purity related theme to get them to even THINK about coming to a seminar or conference talking about it... Then it dawned on me. What do we normally cram down their throats at theses well-meaning conferences? Granted, I've been at a couple really awesome ones (Pure Freedom[girls], Who Moved The Goal Post[guys]). Not talking about those, so cool your jets. I...

Ok..so I admit it. I adore Gordon Ramsey. Every show he has made,  I will locate every season and, like the food channel groupie that I am, will watch as many episodes as I can squeeze into a 24 hour period...Usually when the kids are in bed or gone because his sailor mouth is no where NEAR as refined as his palate. O_o LAWD! Abba actually told me it was perfectly FINE to be so addicted to these shows... I'm lying. No, He didn't. So ANYWHO, in September, the hubster had a myelogram (http://www.webmd.com/back-pain/myelogram-16147) on a Thursday and had a pretty rough time...thus the first half of this bloggage being written while sitting in the waiting room at the hospital.. Once we got him home FINALLY...(It was a ROUGH trip from Macon to home...literally vomiting every 5 miles) He was in our bedroom and I was sitting in the living room with the littles trying to keep the noise level down for his sake...when all of a sudden I hear this man, hootin...