to become a woman of prayer

Last night I couldn't sleep. It wasn't that I didn't give it a shot; I tried and failed.

I have this book, A Young Woman's Call to Prayer, that I bought in the summertime. And lately--as in, since then--I've been feeling that I should respond.

There was this one girl in KCCC that everyone knew. Her name started with 'n' and she played tennis, but she was known for being a prayer warrior. She prayed all the time--out loud and exuberantly. I thought, I want to be like that. My mom has a friend whom she praises as a prayer warriors. And it's so doable. It doesn't take a lot of money, or skills. But it's so effective.

And so I bought the book. This is embarassing, but when I read Step 1, I was actually surprised. "Pray right now," it said. And, it had to be for at least five minutes. So I prayed, and last night I picked up at Step 2: "What Keeps Me from Praying?".

There was the requisite Top Ten Reasons list, and the one that I'm most guilty of is probably #4, Distance. Whenever you feel too distant to pray, that's when you need it the most.

So I prayed for quite a while last night (ok just for the five minutes) and it was still awesome. Why is it that i just have to put in five minutes, but God fills me with joy spilling even to now?

"Make a prayer notebook," it tells me. Now, I already have a journal for journaling prayers, but i don't for prayer requests. And this journal you see here I've been holding onto for a year and a half. It was too beautiful for any of my conjectured reasons, but i think last night it found its destiny.

sufjan stevens

sufjan stevens makes beautiful music. each song is so well crafted.

he doesn't even own a guitar, saying that playing in the different churches, halls, and villages gives each song a distinctive sound.

but why in most of his songs does he include the phrase "the great I AM" even when the song is seemingly secular?

who's to blame for 9/11

There are only three parties to blame for just about everything. Aside from the biblical three (mammon, the devil, and the world), in modern America you can be sure that the blame belongs to either bureaucracy, media, or liberalism.

In The War at Home, Dinesh D'Souza blames the last two.

Believing Americans infidelic, terrorist Muslims constantly threaten the U.S., because we're infidels who abort babies, marry homosexuals, and completely disregard religion.

D'Souza argues that they are completely justified in believing these things; we have been telling them to believe this about us ever since the sixties.

An overwhelming majority of Americans, namely citizens of the sensible 48 states, do not conduct themselves in a way Muslims would typify as "infidels".

Movies are not really America. Dinesh says that real Americans have families, aren't gay, and believe in God, which is true. But it's Hollywood-land that's angering Muslims, who assume that it is Everywhere, USA.

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, but suicide bombers don't know that.