Being Lucy, A Cruise to No-where, Who Dat?!, and A Beautiful Slave

New Orleans is definitely an interesting place to live. Two of our very dear friends were married on Halloween and had the reception later that night at Mardi Gras World. For those of you unfamiliar with New Orleans, we love to leave monuments for anything our city might be known for. In this case, we have a warehouse which used to house Mardi Gras floats still under construction. Now it houses old floats and a museum dedicated to the history of New Orleans Mardi Gras rituals. Of course, with it being Halloween, it was also a costume/masquerade party. Thomas and I went as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo - it was awesome. Thomas's blue eyes are the only things that give him away as not fully Latino. Other than that, he totally pulled it off. I, of course, was a fabulous Lucy. : ) (For those of you that know me, you know how fantastic it was for me to pretend to be the star of I Love Lucy.) In these few weeks after the party, we have been quite busy.

For one thing, we were getting ready for our cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. Unfortunately, we did not know of Hurricane Ida brewing in the Gulf. By the time it neared the coast, New Orleans closed its port. Carnival, being the awesome company it is, offered a total refund for anyone wanting to cancel or 50% refund for a shortened cruise to the Gulf without a stop in Mexico. Hubby and I chose the latter and had a fabulous "cruise to no-where" - the actual quote from the company: ). Probably the coolest thing about going on this cruise were the awesome Saints games that flanked the trip. 'Who Dat Nation' rejoice!!! We are 9 and 0!!! The best we've ever done was 7 and 0 - and that was in this millineaum. In other words, we've never played better. Who Dat indeed???!!?!!??!??!?!!??!!

Now, on to business. I watched the movie Taken for the first time tonight. The ending is awesome, of course, with the father recovering his daughter before she is tortured to the extreme, before she drops off the face of the earth. In reality, very few of these young women are ever rescued or ever get the chance to escape. The movie revealed the actual situations many women, girls, and even young boys face. They are drugged and beaten into submission. As I speak out about this disgusting evil, we need never forget one thing. God loves. God sees. God knows. God controls. Those who are "enemies of God" do not understand this. Even we, His children, sometimes do not understand or grasp why our beautiful, gracious, and loving God allows evil to linger.

The fact is, God is working out everything to His glory and the good of those who call Him Father. Brothers and sisters in Christ, please do not turn your head away and think it is impossible to see an end to this because it is not. We can end it. We can at least put a dent in it. Please, do not forget these victims. Please do not stop praying for their captors. Pray like you have never prayed before.

As I write this I am listening to a song I just discovered by a group called Take No Glory. The song is called A Beautiful Slave. The song begins hard, edgy, forlorn, melancholy, abrasive. It ends in a glorious, beautiful, soft, strong and praise-worthy chorus of Jesus Loves the Little Children and He's got the Whole World in His Hands. These "musicianaries" offer their music free-of-charge on their website www.takenoglory.com.

God hears their cries, and they will not go unanswered. God will have retribution. He will pass out judgement. The world will be redeemed, to the praise of God the Father, Jesus the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Belgium Tragedy

My heart was broken tonight as I saw on the Yahoo! home page an article about a terrible tragedy about 20 miles outside of Brussels. A young man went into a day care and brutally attacked more than ten people, mostly children. Three died, and the others were taken to the hospital. If you would like to read the whole article go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090124/ap_on_re_eu/eu_belgium_stabbings

Many people who suffer through something like this will often ask, "If there is a kind and loving God, why would He allow such a terrible thing?" This is a difficult question, but in as few words as my husband and I can find, we as Christians will answer it to the best of our ability. It is a hard truth, but one that can lead to great comfort.

God is all gracious and all loving. God created the world to be paradise, but the free voluntary choice of man-kind to rebel against Him caused a chain of events in which suffering is inevitable. It affects the natural world and our relationships with others, strangers and family alike. The worst cases of human depravity, such as a man killing babies, is an example of our fallen nature. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. That Savior came, died, and raised Himself from the dead in order to free us from sin's enslavement and curse. His name is Jesus, and living in a fallen world without Him is the worst tragedy of all.

God bless the parents and loved ones of the slain in Belgium; our prayers are with them tonight.

Below is an excerpt from the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry about evil and suffering. To see the entire page please go to http://www.carm.org/questions/suffering.htm.

"Suffering is the result of human sin. The world is not the way that God created it and because of that, all are vulnerable to the affects of sin in the world. Why does one person suffer and another does not? Why do catastrophes happen to some and no others? It is because sin is in the world. But there will come a day when the Lord will return and cleanse this world of all sin and all suffering.

'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away' (Rev. 21:4)."

If you would like to know more about this or about Christianity, you are welcome to comment, and I will respond post haste.