it's hard out here for a bitch

i stumbled across a quote the other day which said something like

"feminism ends when you meet 'the one', communism ends with an annual income of 25k and atheism ends when the airplane is about to crash."

for me this does not only sound condescending towards other's people's views but also quite uninformed.

i am not an atheist myself but i have quite a few friends who are atheists and their unbelief is not a matter of circumstances but they doubt the existence of god for evidence related reasons. 

and yes, there are people who wear che guevara t-shirts and anarchy stickers when they are 16 and later in their lives vote for the conservative party, but i would not call them communists.

well. and feminism is not about hating men. it is not about being single, or a lesbian. 

feminism is about empowering women, it is fighting for respect and about reclaiming the right to make one's own decisions, to define your identity yourself and to stand against objectification. 

and i don't think a girl met "the one", if he makes her questioning her self-worth and stop wanting others to respect her.

i leave you with this song, where lily allen puts it so perfectly: 

there's a glass ceiling to break, there's money to make,

and now it's time to speed it up 'cause i can't move at this pace

we've never had it so good, we're out of the woods,

and if you can't detect the sarcasm, you've misunderstood.

grateful

what a great weekend. not productive in any way, but so much fun was had!
i feel incredibly privileged to be part of a church family that knows how to throw good parties, that loves one another, challenges and encourages each other.
god is good.

my life with jesus

lately i have been thinking about testimonies - people's stories how they've come to know jesus. last week i had the pleasure to hear how god broke into the life of a friend of mine and changed him radically. 

i find it really exciting to listen to these stories, hearing how god is moving - today, in the lives of individual people.

well, and so i decided to share a bit about my life and my relationship with jesus. 

i am one of those lucky people who never had to deal with big issues like drugs, abuse or destructive relationships. i grew up in a loving family where i experienced god's love and forgiveness and i made the decision to accept his gift of forgiveness and to love him back at a very young age. since then there have been some ups and downs in my life and also in my relationship to jesus - but looking back i can confidently say that he has always been faithful.

people who know me, know of my love for books and that one of my favourite authors is j.d. salinger.  as a teenager i could identify very well with the protagonists in his stories - i found the prospect of a average, phoney middle-class life devastating. 

think about it: we go to school so we can go to university so we can have good jobs so we can earn loads of money to buy shiny things and then we die - and that's it. 

i wanted more. 

but looking around, i realised that at the age of 16 most people think like that and then still end up leading boring, (in my eyes) miserable lives. 

i thought about this a lot and made me depressed. i couldn't see why i should go to school or to study or do anything for that matter. i lost interest in all activities i used to enjoy and spending time with people drained all my energy out.

this was at a time where i also had to deal with quite a lot of other issues, that simply were to big for me and i started to feel more and more lost. 

i remember a day were i sat on my bed, feeling completely broken and incapable of going on. and as i sat there i suddenly heard god speaking to me. not like a dolby surround thunder from heaven but a gentle, clear voice in my head saying: out of brokenness i am writing history. and for the first time in months i felt hope. 

i had known that the bible promises us a life that is more, that we can have meaning for our lives and that god's love is unconditional and not dependent on me being a 'good christian'. but suddenly this became very real to me. in the moment, where i was so low, so weak god did not reject me but he turned towards me.

since then a lot has changed.

there a still days where i am sad or unhappy about things but i have never again experienced the same desperation and resignation that was so present in my life back then. 

i know that my life has a eternal destination, a goal that is worth living for. and i find it incredibly exciting.

last week a walked down the street that leads to my house and i just felt overwhelmed with joy. 

joy that is beyond circumstances, beyond worries, beyond fear. 

and i laughed, thinking how far i have come - from being broken and depressed to skipping down the street with my groceries. and it is not because of my 'inner strength' or my determination, it is because of god's grace and his supernatural joy and peace that surpasses all understanding.

** if you want to know more about this jesus who has transformed my life please don't hesitate do get in touch! **

some words and some music

"i actually attack the concept of happiness. i don't mind people being happy - but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous notion and has led to a contemprary disease in western society, which is fear of sadness.
it's a really odd thing that we're now seeing people saying 'write down three things that made you happy today before you go to sleep', and so on. we're kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position - it's rubbish.
wholeness is what we ought to be strieving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are.
happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don't teach us much. everyone says we grow throught pain and then as soon as they experiecne pain they say 'quick! move on! cheer up!"
i'd like just for a year to have a moratorium on he word 'happiness' and to replace it with the word 'wholeness'. ask yourself 'is this contributing to my wholeness?' and if you're having a bad day, it is." -hugh mackay

i am not quite sure if i have posted this quote before, but whenever i'm having a bad day, i remind myself of this and it helps me to see a situation from a different perspective.

but also, when all else fails, there is always this song:

 

happy wholesome weekend, friends.