It makes me laugh...

I went to church with my parents on Sunday for the first time in several weeks (I had been luck enough to miss the last couple of weeks from being sick and having surgery), and tried not to laugh out loud during the service. The sermon was on the Antichrist. As soon as I saw it on the program I knew that this was going to be good. Of course now I can't remember half the things that were said, but I'll come back to this once the sermon is posted on the church website so I can go back and listen to it again. But at one point the way the pastor was describing the Antichrist made it sound like Christ was the Antichrist...if that makes any sense. lol He was saying that the Antichrist will come out of obscurity and rise to leadership through charisma and not military power. And that people will pledge themselves to him and surrender their power. Hmmm...now didn't Christ come out of nowhere. He was born in a manger in a small town to a carpenter. He wasn't the son of any great leader and he wasn't famous. But somehow people were drawn to him. He didn't use force to get people to follow him. What was that line? Oh yeah, something to the effect of "take up your cross and follow me" or "follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Seriously? And then Christianity becomes the largest religion in the world. I don't know about you, but Christ and the Antichrist sound a lot alike to me.

I guess in the end I'm just glad that I don't believe in Satan or the Antichrist. I will say that I don't deny that Jesus was a real person and did some amazing things for people. Sure he was a healer, but I have trouble with a lot that the Bible claims happened. I mean, have you ever noted the dates in which the books were written. They are decades after Jesus' time and yet many claim to contain direct quotes from him. I don't know about you, but I can't even hardly remember a general summary about what my professors say in class, let alone be able to give direct quotes. But that's just my opinion. Maybe people had better memories back then. But unless they had a tape recording or a written transcript (which I'm fairly certain they didn't), then I have a hard time finding the information credible.

Ok, that's enough of a rant for now. I just found it all a little amusing. I don't see the point of all the doom and gloom talk. Sure the economy is down, but it's not the Great Depression yet. I'm sure they thought it was the end times back then too. But we're all still here, so obviously it wasn't. People need to be a little more optimistic. I think if more people followed a more earth-based belief system, then they wouldn't be brought down by what some people claim may happen now or a thousand years from now. What if all the doom and gloom in the Bible is just a way to give people false hope that someone is going to come along and save them.

Blessings Needed

I could use any blessings, thoughts, prayers, positive energy, well wishes, etc. that you can send my way. I was hospitalized for 5 days and must now undergo surgery to have my gallbladder removed. It should be a simple operation, but it's my first. So I'm a little nervous about it.

Thanks and blessings to all.

Lyra

More Creativity

I created a new image for myself in photoshop today. I blended a picture of myself (or pretty much just my eye) with a picture of a hawk. And then I did a bunch of enhancements and fun stuff. So here it is...I absolutely love it!

Personal Symbol

I've been feeling artistic lately and I've just felt the need to draw something as expression of myself. So I drew my own personal symbol. It is two hands that form a heart with a hawk in the center. Each hand is also an abstract hawk. And of course my name written across the top. It took me a while to get the symmetry of the hands just right. I drew it out on paper first, then I took a picture of it with my digital camera. I uploaded the picture into photoshop and traced over the picture.

So here is the original photograph of my drawing...
And here is the final product...