lovin' the remix.

it's been too long.
i say that like i'm talking to an old friend i've just reunited with after several months, years, what-have-you...(i'm such an old person - who says "what-have-you"?). nevertheless (that's for you ms. king) it's definitely been too long since i last plastered my thoughts for all to read...& by all, i mean the 3 of you who read this. haha, i'm pretty sure that out of the 21 visits i've had to my page, i alone account for 18. oh well, regardless of who may or may not stumble across the page, i write for me; i'm pretty sure there's something therapeutic about blogging. anyway, where was i going with this???

oh yeah. lovin' the remix.
this past summer, on one of our weekend trips to columbia when the staff all carpool off "campus" for a little us-time (you know, sonic &/or starbucks...speaking of therapeutic tools!), i bought my first remix, and by remix i mean the Message//remix. if you're not familiar with it, it's the Bible in modern-day language. i was SO excited to get it that i began reading in the car on the trip back to camp. it was small, red-leather, & only $15! it didn't take but about fifteen miles until i realized it was only the new testament. figures. in all my excitement, somehow i failed to notice HALF the thing was missing. nevertheless, i kept it. i was still excited. throughout the summer i carried it with me - so happy to have one i could put in my bookbag and not worry about messing up. it wasn't long before it began. twice it happened. to put it bluntly, some people don't like the Message. one of the missionaries walked into the office and said, "you know that's not a real Bible, right". i mean, how do you respond to something like that. i smiled and made some polite response insignificant enough to forget. the summer was, well, spiritually-challenging. that's ok though.

i put my Bible, yes Bible aside and just never got into it quite the same again...(and i never could find a small Message with both the new & old testaments). that is, until this semester. i found it stashed away in the console of my car in between the driver & passenger's seats. so i started carrying my little red One with me in my bookbag again. even took it home with me for Spring Break...and even to church. everywhere i took it though, i just hoped that whoever spoke would speak from the new testament. i faired pretty well. chapel speakers spoke from James-my dad from matthew. (useless detail? several friends have pointed out that my stories are exorbitantly long with excessive amounts of unnecessary detail. i turn 30 explanations into 25 minute stories. i guess i'm proving that now.)

today i found One. despite my energies to save every penny i make this semester, i couldn't help but to buy the compact dual-testament Message! (doesn't take much to excite me). anyway, i've been a little down lately & so i turned immediately to 1 Corinthians to read about Love. i hadn't gotten so far as the introduction & first 10 verses when i put the good Book down to write this. the Message is simply amazing. Refreshing. Plain. Simple. Down to earth. but with the same Profound Words. i needed that.

i couldn't help but think to myself, "THIS is the kind of thing it's going to take to reach kids these days". we've GOT to get on their level. i could get on a soapbox about how we're never going to reach this generation for the Lord until we get out heads out of the sand & try new things, but i won't. don't want to make my crazy long stories any longer. i will say this though: things like praise & worship bands & the Remix have grown some pretty passionate young people.

i told my mom about the lady who told me the Message wasn't a Bible. her response: "people used to say the same thing about the New Living translation when i was young & that was the new thing". huh, my grandmommy reads her New Living Bible everyday. i couldn't help but think to myself, "i bet that lady will be reading the Message when she's 75." haha...

i hope & pray no one takes offense to this blog for i, by no means, meant to step on any toes. everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. mine, however, stands as is: i'm lovin' the remix.


oh, & i love praise & worship bands, too.