...and then my friend's Christian mother posted a picture on facebook that said, "I don't have time to hate people who hate me, I'm too busy loving people who love me."

And I realized that one of the main problems with modern Christianity is that we think it's good enough to "not return evil for evil," but most of the time we leave off the uncomfortable part that says, "return evil with good." Pretty sure Jesus pointed out that problem to the Pharisees a long, LONG time before I noticed.

If God was cool with only loving people who loved him, he'd probably have stopped saving people somewhere around Elijah. No Jesus for you, you come back one year. Or never.

I would love it if my American friends would remember that Christianity is not about being moral or being conservative or any of that crap that most people associate with Christianity. That's what you need to get into a frilly Ladies' Society type deal. Those things are boring. Christianity is not about lace and flowers. Christianity is about splinters and broken chains, prisoners freed and hungry fed. Jesus came "to turn the hearts of fathers to their children... to shine on those living in darkness and in the fear of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." (Luke 1:17,79)

Christianity is not some soft, friendly buzzword, and it's not some scary-ass fundamentalist crap. It is radical love in a world gone crazy with hatred and war.

It's one thing to add someone you don't know on facebook. It's another thing to send a message to someone you don't know on facebook commanding them to add you.

Both things are creepy. Don't do them.

When IMing with a someone who lives in another country, don't launch into talking about who got eliminated in the latest episode of your favorite reality tv show. And don't act like they're retarded for not watching said reality tv show.

1. Reality shows are, for the most part, drivel.

2. Reality shows are not necessarily aired worldwide, nor are the legal sites streaming their episodes available worldwide.

3. What are you, twelve?! Who cares about the "hicks" on "The Amazing Race"?! And how is it supposed to reflect well on you that you hate them simply because they're from Oklahoma?!

If you're going to be weirded out by my semi-monthly comments on your facebook activity, then take me off of your friends list. It's not like I'm stalking you and posting on every single thing you do. If sporadic, friendly interaction is too much for you, then clearly, we are not friends.

Do not propose marriage via facebook chat.

Addendum: do not propose marriage via facebook chat to a girl you've only talked to five or six times.

Addendum to addendum: do not propose marriage via facebook chat to a girl you've only talked to five or six times in halted, awkward conversations because you don't even speak the same language.

If you repeatedly speak to someone on an instant messenger and receive nothing more than one word answers at any given time, they probably don't want to talk to you and are too polite to say so.

Probably.

It is inappropriate to hit on your facebook friend when she is in the middle of a national catastrophe.

Mom shared this verse with me over Skype:

God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in time of trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Psalm 46:1-3

This is a horrifying situation, and sometimes it doesn't feel like God is present at all. But I am starting to see that God is present in the small blessings, like a father and daughter reuniting after all this, or a woman safely giving birth while a tsunami ravages the valley below. God is present in the small blessings. He is present.

Pray for us.

Well... I'm socially awkward.

I got up this morning and kind of chilled for a while. I watched the final part of the Red Riding trilogy, which along with Pulp Fiction is one of the most sordid, horrifying things I have ever watched. I wanted to watch it because Andrew Garfield is in it. I kind of regret the decision to start watching it, but the story was interesting enough that I got sucked into it and had to finish. But they went for realism with the violence, and sometimes it was made more horrifying by the fact that the grislier stuff was left to the imagination. There was a LOT of torture, though. Especially in the first part. I've gotten to this point where sheer cruelty like that just sickens me, and it completely horrifies me that people actually DO this stuff. Why the hell would anyone treat another human being like that? Lord Jesus, come soon.

I'm not even getting into the sexual content. Anyway, don't recommend.

So after I labored through that, I went to Utsunomiya. At the train station, I saw Ida-san, so we sat next to each other on the train and talked.

Then I went to visit my friend Hisato at a book store, and... well, things went downhill. I tried to invite him for coffee sometime all casual-like but I blushed for some unknown reason like I was actually asking him out on a date (which was totally not my intention at all! Gaaah!) and things just got awkward from there. I think I probably freaked him out a little. Anyway, I'm really embarrassed and I'm not going back there for a while. It... it was just so awkward.

I did find some good books though, and to be honest, that bookstore had the best English section I've found yet. I bought a book on Kanji that actually included radicals! I'm pretty happy about that.

So, I just went back through and read my LJ from the very beginning. It was an interesting exercise, and has convinced me of one thing: I haven't been this happy with my life since I was 16.