twloha:

This stunning video features time lapse photography of the night sky as seen in different parts of nature. It’s amazing to realize how the passing of time can change what we see.

signonpdx:

Oscar at Burnside and 39th

bluepueblo:

Snowy Night, London, England

photo via ribbons

(Source: mylizalife, via fuckyeahchoiseunghyun)

Are you in the right church?

unkaglen:

sighsofrelief asked: How do you know if the church you’re in, is the one that God wants you in?

Unka Glen answered: Every church has it’s problems of course, and it’s unreasonable to ask that there be no weaknesses in your church, but let’s took at some purely minimal positive expectations…

• Does your church fulfill the old maxim about it being “a place where you can serve, and also be served”? That is to say, do they encourage you to find your calling and help equip, train, and encourage you in that calling? If they can’t directly do this, do they bring in outside ministries (missions, parachurch organizations, etc.) to help? Does your church see your calling and your ministry as part of the life of the church? Do they pray for you, keep up to date with you, and do they hold you accountable? 
• Are your gifts and talents valued within the church? Does your church know what it is that you bring to the table, and do they celebrate that? Do they seek your insight on issues that relate to your gifts? 
• Looking at the people that you reach out to—would they feel loved, valued, and welcome in your church? Even if it wouldn’t be the right fit for them, would the people you reach out to be fed, encouraged, and uplifted in your church? Does your church passionately care about the people Jesus called “the least of these”? 
• Does your pastor have credibility with you? Do you respect him? Was he truly a part of you finding you calling? Or if you found your calling before you came to this church, does your current pastor value and celebrate your work for the Kingdom? Does your pastor have a good reputation with non-believers (1Tim 3:7)?
• Are you spiritually fed in your church in such a way that it equips you to better fulfill your calling? Are you beginning to understand scripture in a way that better helps you explain it to others? Do you feel energized, enabled, and empowered by the teaching of the church, to go out and serve the Lord with passion and zeal?

Few churches could get exceedingly high marks on all these points (though I assure you, there are some who do). They key thing to consider is: would my church and my pastor be considered at least passable in all of these key areas, and fairly excellent in a few areas that may be critical to your specific needs? 

Negative issues: Now that we know what good things you should be seeing in your church, let’s look at the negative things that we should not be seeing in your church and your relationships there.

• Does your church or your pastor feel intimidated by what you do for the Lord? Does the very presence of your ministry efforts within the church set up a standard that others are uncomfortable with? Does your church feel the need to control or limit a reasonable amount of awareness of your ministry to the rest of the congregation? 
• Do you find yourself feeling as though you need to heal the church, and hold the church accountable, and help the church to get on the right path… when in fact the church is meant to doing all those things for you? Do you feel responsible for correcting the church when, in fact, this is the pastor’s responsibility? Are you trying to help this pastor in a way that was not asked for, and may not be welcome?
• Are you in this church for the sake of human obligation or personal history? Do you feel like you “owe” the church something, and you’re staying out of this sense of human loyalty, as opposed to a greater sense of loyalty to the Lord? 
• Do you feel like you would have some sort of “loss of status” if you left this church to attend another one? Are you staying because you’re concerned about what sort of “message” it would send if you left? Are you protecting the reputation of the church by “spinning the truth” in a way that would leave others vulnerable to suffering within the church?
• Has your church or your pastor stopped you from doing ministry, or impeded your ministry progress in any way?  Has your pastor limited, or allowed others to limit, your work for reasons of logistics, politics, policies, or other concerns of lesser importance than the greater concern of moving the Kingdom forward?

While you want to see a reasonable “up to par” level of effectiveness on all those positive points, if you’re putting up with ANY of these negative issues, you’re in an unhealthy church situation. And it’s time to pray about moving on.

.

solamentalist:

Venice in winter

(Source: gloomfunk, via ache)

rubthatnub:

By Andrey Lili

I debated whether or not to share this story.

unwinona:

And then I debated whether or not to put it on Tumblr…but I decided it was important.  Because in my own way, I can (unfortunately) point out exactly what is wrong with men when they don’t realize how hard it is to be a woman.  How we do not have equal opportunities and freedoms in everyday life.  How most men, even good caring men, have no clue what we go through on a daily basis just trying to live our lives.

So here goes.

I often ride the Metro when I commute from North Hollywood to Long Beach in order to save money.  I bring a book, pointedly wear a ring on my ring finger to imply I’m married (I’m not) and keep to myself.  

Without fail, I am aggressively approached by men on at least half of these commutes.  The most common approach is to walk up to where I am sitting with body language that practically screams LEAVE ME ALONE and sit down next to me or as close to me as possible, when the train is not crowded and there are many empty rows.  Sometimes an overly friendly arm is draped over the railing behind me, or they attempt to lean in close to talk to me as if we are old friends.  Without fail, the man or boy in question will lean to close and ask me

What are you reading?

Is that a good book?

What’s that book about?

This serves the double purpose of getting my attention and trapping me in a conversation.  If I stop reading the book I enjoy to talk to you, random stranger, you hit on me or just stay way too close to me.  If I tell you to leave me alone, you get mad at me.  Because I somehow, as a woman, owe you conversation.

Tonight when I boarded the train in Long Beach at 10:30pm, it started up right away.  I was not on the train more than three minutes before three boys who looked eighteen sat in the row behind me and leaned over the seats into my personal space, close enough to breathe on me.  The one with his arm draped over onto the back of my seat asked me—surprise— “what are you reading?”  I went through my usual routine.  I told them loudly and firmly that I wanted to be left alone to read my book.  They got angry.  I was told “Why are you going to be like that?  I just wanted to talk!”  His friends start laughing at me and they don’t move, telling me come on! and why are you gonna be like that? until I tell them to leave me the fuck alone, stand up, and move to the front of the car near the three other people on the train, a couple and a business man in a suit.  They spend the next two stops shouting at me from the back of the car, alternating between trying to sound flirtatious and making fun of me, shouting “I bet she’s reading Stephanie Meyer!  I bet she’s reading Twilight or some shit!  You reading Twilight or some shit?”

They exit the train at the next stop, and I’m relieved.  The train is going out of service at the next station, so we all exit to board a new train to Los Angeles.  As we board, the business man steps aside to let me go through the door first and asks me if those guys were bothering me.  I say yes, that it happens all the time, and he tells he’ll beat them up for me if they come back.  He is a nice person who talks to me like I’m a human being instead of a walking pair of tits, and I make a mental note:  This is how a real man talks to a woman on a train.

The business man and the couple exit our new Blue Line train an exit or so later, and I think my night is ending on a good note.  A seemingly normal man enters the train with his bicycle.  At this point I am three rows from the front of the car, another man was sitting near the back of the car, and the rest of the car is empty.  Bicycle Man walks halfway down the row, and settles into the seat directly opposite me.  Perfect, I think.  Twice in one night.

It’s not the first time I’ve been bothered multiple times.  As such, I’m still amped from the teenagers on the first train.  So when this man leans across the aisle into my personal space and asks me, yes, what are you reading, I assertively but calmly tell him to please leave me alone, I am reading.  The man stands up, moving to the front and muttering angrily over his shoulder that it isn’t his fault I’m pretty.

Yes.  Exactly that.  I am the bad person in this situation because somehow this is all my fault.  I started this by being attractive.  I am making a mental note to bitch about this to my friends later.  I go so far as to write it down so I know I’m remembering it properly.  

It is at this exact moment I realize Bicycle Man is not taking it well.  The seemingly annoying but normal man a moment before is now talking to himself, becoming agitated.  In my years of being bothered by total strangers, I have learned how to hold a book and seem to be reading while taking in everything around me.  He is glaring at me, and says out loud in an angry baby talk voice “PLEASELEAVEMEALONEI’MREADING.  PLEASE LEAVE ME ALOOOONE.”

Then he’s up out of his seat and things go from bad to worse.  He begins pacing back and forth in front of his bike, alternating between screaming something about his mother being dead and calling me a slut, a hoe, a bitch.  I am frozen in place.  There is one other person in the car, and I’m not sure if trying to change seats will draw more attention to me or less. I trust my instincts and show no fear, doing my best to appear to be calmly reading my book, never once looking up to acknowledge the abuse he’s hurling at me.  There are four stops left until we reach the main downtown station where there are lights and security officers.  Those four stops are virtually abandoned, and I have no guarantee that leaving to wait for another train won’t motivate him to leave the train as well, leaving us potentially alone at a metro station platform just outside of Compton.  I’m frozen in place, trying to plan what I’m going to do if he decides to take all this rage directly to me.  I’m ready to kick him, scream, make enough noise that he panics and flees.  

At this point he’s punching the walls and doors of the train, screaming at me.  He stares me full in the face and screams

SUCK MY DICK, BITCH

YOU BITCH

YOU STUPID BITCH

YOU GODDAMN HO

IF I HAD A GUN I’D SHOOT YOU

I WOULD FUCKING KILL YOU BITCH

This went on for two stops.  No one came to see what was happening.  The man in the last row was as frozen as I was.  I’m not angry he didn’t come to my defense.  He was smaller, older, and frailer-looking than I was.  Again, I was worried if I got up, I would be turning my back on him to walk down the aisle.  In the state he was in, I had no guarantee it wouldn’t get physical, and I had more physical strength with my back to the window and feet in kicking position where I was.  If he had chosen to assault me, I would only be making it easier for him by standing up and putting myself directly in his path.  On and on, over and over, he screamed at me, screamed at his dead mother, screamed at me again.

The moment we reached the downtown station, I was out the door and down the stairs.  I still had to catch a connecting train to North Hollywood, and made sure there was no sign of Bicycle Man before I entered the car.  That’s when I finally starting shaking, and almost threw up.  By the time I exited the Red Line and reached my car I could barely breathe and my heart was pounding out of my chest.  Even now, in my own home, my hands are still shaking and for some reason the stress has made my back muscles feel cold and numb.  From all the tension, I can only assume.  I can’t eat anything, I still feel like I’m going to vomit, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t cried so much, so hard I still have the headache.

So when people (men) want to talk about “legitimate” forms of assault, tell girls they should be nice to strangers and give men the benefit of a doubt, tell them to consider it a compliment, tell them to ignore the bad behavior of men, I want them to be forced to feel, for even one minute, what it feels like to have so much verbal hatred and physical intimidation thrown at them for nothing more than being female and not wanting to share.  

I just wanted to read my book.

It’s not my fault I’m pretty.

(via wickedclothes)

(Source: bitterfly)

politics-war:

Culture clash between two brothers on modern vs. tradition

A monk and a punk

kristin_ess: Best thing to do when it rains in NY? Grab a window seat and pretend like you’re Annie.

(Source: forgivedreamers, via ache)

(Source: gairo)

fuckyeahstreetlights:

(by Neu7rinos)

kingsleyyy:

HOW TO TELL YOUR MOM YOU’RE PREGNANT [ASK KINGSLEY #8]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib-I7A_07LQ

(Source: carleywins)