Five things about change

Another interesting five questions I got off of someone's blog...to give you some insight into this head of mine, for any of you who actually care more about reading this blog than working at your desk... (lol)

1) Share, if you wish, the biggest change you experienced this past year.

The biggest change this year has been in my prayer life. It's gone to a new level. One of my mentors, Dr. Wayne Lee, says that all of us lead better in crisis. I have had some personal crisis this year as I mentioned yesterday in my blog. I prayed before, but I pray differently now. It is not just more prayer, but a differently quality or level of urgency. Also, I now view things completely different after reading the book Secrets of the Secret Place by Bob Sorge. This book has impacted my life so much. (A book assigned to me by Dr. Lee) I've subsequently taken the group I'm life coaching through it. I want them to experience it. It's powerful. Through this I have learned that when you miss your secret place time with God, He's not mad at you, He's sad for you. Wow, what a change of perspective. God desperately wants me to have my prayer life more intense for my sake, not His. He's always going to be God whether I pray or not. But when I pray, it changes me.

2) Talk about a time you changed your mind about something, important or not.

Capital punishment. I've changed my mind on it much to my good friend, Bernie's chagrin. Bernie and Lisa, (our good friends/board members/fellow church members) and Larry and I get together for dinner and I throw a hot controversial topic into the mix among the four of us and we hash it out together. I call them my "hot potato topics." We have included others in on these topics from time to time during dinner parties -- the Garlands, the Mackleys and a few others. But everytime we have dinner with the Currie's "hot potato topics" are a main staple no matter what. We enjoy them so and are always able to remain friends after we discuss them! (A main key to having healthy 'hot potato' discussion.)

Well, it's like this, I have always been totally in agreement with capital punishment for the first 39 years of my life. All of a sudden last year I changed my mind. (Bernie is still 100% for it, by the way.) So, why the change? Well it's like this. I hate crime. I abhor hearing about people being raped, abused or murdered. I have no patience for pedophiles. No patience for people who take away our precious children. I know no punishment really brings enough justice, but America is too civilized. I feel so much for the victim's families. Sometimes I even watch Court TV and get emotional over it and cry. Nancy Grace is one of my heroes because she fights for the victims.

I agreed with capital punishment when it was by hanging and the electric chair. Now the only place they do that is Texas (as the country song says, "Don't mess with Texas!") and everywhere else, it's lethal injection. Now, if lethal injection takes too long and puts these murderers in pain, the families of the criminal can even sue for hurting the poor dear! You have to have a nice, calm not-too-discomforting injection. I really don't see the point in that.

When Sadaam Hussein was captured, I didn't want him kept or tried in America. Thank God he was extradited! Why? We're too nice. I knew he would be watching cable TV and probably getting a few bachelor's degrees in prison, maybe even a master's, while some nice law abiding kids in America couldn't afford to go to college. He'd be laying on a bed in prison watching TV and eating Doritos, waiting for them to come to his cell to take him to the weight room to work those Doritos off or play hoops. No thank you. Then if they gave him the death penalty it would have been by a quiet injection.

Capital punishment? No. We're too nice now. Our people in America complain about torture with terrorists that we take as prisoners of war. We can't be mean to these people, after all they are only running planes into our buildings, bombing in our malls and airports, and killing innocent men, women and children. We can't torture these poor souls to get them to cooperate with us and spare our country of further pain!!!

Capital punishment? NO. I've changed my mind on it but not for the reason you think. I still believe "an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth." There is nothing wrong with capital punishment because the Bible simply condemns the taking of innocent life. However, we're just too nice in America now, even to terrorists, amazingly. According to Rosie O'Donnell, they aren't scary people...these terrorists, in her words are just "mothers and fathers" like us and shouldn't even be called a nasty word like "terrorist." Well Rosie, the last time I checked, my mother and father weren't ramming planes into the World Trade Center and if they were, sorry but even I would believe somebody would need to knock their block off for it, relative or not. In fact, I'll take it a step further - if either of my parents decided to blow people up and kill a bunch of our people, I'd step up first in line to say "punish them", not try to find the next Johnnie Cochran.

We in the USA have become too lawsuit happy to do capital punishment appropriately. Why should someone who rapes and kills people, chops them up into little pieces and buries them in a back yard get a nice calm "not too discomforting" injection? It is better to let someone live on death row because prison is far worse a punishment for killing our innocent American people. Let them live everyday in fear of "Bubba" down the hall. Let them live in fear of taking a shower, of eating, of coming out of their cell. Let them lay awake afraid to go to sleep for fear of what someone will do. It's a small price to pay for the innocent person they senselessly abused and the life they took. The person who killed little Jessica Lunsford or Jon Benet or Mollie Klass or Laci Peterson or Nicole Simpson should not get the courtesy of a calm peaceful life or death. Yes, I've changed my mind on capital punishment unless we want to send everybody to Texas for trial and sentencing. Sorry Bernie. Wow, that was a heck of a rant. Sorry, I got a little carried away there, but then again, this is MY blog. :-)

3) Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote a controversial book called "Why Christianity Must Change or Die." Setting aside his ideas--what kind of changes would you like to see in the Church?

Churches need to be healthy or they need to be boldly confronted by an intervention, and if necessary by someone outside such as a consultant or denominational overseer. I believe unhealthy churches hurt people and need to be dealt with. Things are way too political and too many leaders/pastors have the fear of man rather than fear of God. We worry a lot more about what carnal Christians think than we do about people going to hell in need of a Savior. Too many churches are controlled for political reasons by individuals who wound others deeply and hurt God's church and they need to be stopped. Pastors need to be serious as a heart attack about calling the church to loving behavior. It's the only way the world will know we are Christians. The last place we should see abuse is in the church! The term "abusive church" should be an oxymoron. It should not even exist. Unfortunately I know they do because I used to pastor one.

People should not be able to get away with hurtful behavior no matter how talented they are or how much they tithe. It doesn't matter how much "work" a person does for the church, how talented they are, how much they give of their money - if they are harming people or trying to control the pastor or leadership they need to be stopped or asked to leave. The book of Titus tells us this - warn a divisive person once, warn them again, after that have nothing to do with them. I will never, never, never be part of an unhealthy church again. If my church becomes unhealthy and absolutely will not respond to an intervention should one be needed, I would resign and write full time or work at Starbucks if I had to but one thing is clear, I would never pastor an abusive church again nor have my children in one.

A church needs to be healing, not hurting. Changing lives for the better, not harming them. If a church is not doing that maybe they need to shut down and let the people go somewhere where they will be nurtured in a place where they can flourish.

4) Have you changed your hairstyle/hair color in the last five years? If so, how many times?

There is a running joke at our church that our children's pastor started. He says, "you know you're a newcomer to Northside if you've only ever seen one shade of Pastor Deanna's hair." I color my hair every four weeks, so that should tell you something. My hairdresser, Ada does a great job. I trust her completely. I like to be a lot lighter, sometimes she brings me a little darker to have more depth, but there's a change every few weeks. About every three months we do a highlight and really lighten it up. Color is one thing Ada really excels in. But more than that, she's a phenomenal friend. I don't know what I, or my hair, ever did without her.

5) What WERE they thinking with that New Coke thing?

Some whippershapper who knew absolutely nothing about the power of a classic tried to mess with it. That decision, in my opinion, had to stem from a comment in a marketing meeting from a relative newcomer to the table who thought he/she was going to make their mark and be the next wonder boy or girl of the company by their wonderfully creative stratetgic suggestion. (Not!) To add another product would have been fine but completely doing away with a timeless classic was obviously a complete marketing disaster. I am not sure who suggested this but I have a hard time believing anybody with any longevity with the company would have spearheaded this change. Okay, I know this was meant as a funny question but actually I find it a seriously interesting talking point.