where did we go wrong? (via amandaspoetry)

(via hammereddrunkwithfaith)

you tell me that the church is a building,
with deacons and a preacher,
you tell me that this building is made up of wood and cement and insulation in the walls,
with paint and pictures hanging on the halls
you tell me that the church meets on wednesdays and sundays
and that it takes up communion the first service every month
you tell me that the church is opening up the bible
and memorizing the scriptures and singing a few hymns

but those places have always felt too cold for me,
too worn out,
and my heart has always felt too out of place with the structure
that forgets the broken

the church I have seen is in the hearts of the broken, the abandoned, the ones forgotten in the back of the classrooms
and coat closets,
the church I have seen is the home to the believers and unbelievers alike, and the doors are open on more days than just two,
it’s made of broken limbs and broken hearts,
shattered windows and shattered dreams
it’s made of tears and lost memories
it’s made of every forgotten promise and the weight of the burdens we’ve carried since before we can remember
the church I have seen doesn’t just meet on certain days,
but it meets in our brokenness
in the hospital room of the drug addict that just overdosed
in the car accident of the drunk driver
in the delivery room of the prostitute who doesn’t know whose child she is holding
in the arms of the teenager who has never known his parents
in the broken heart of the woman who just lost her husband to leukemia
and it doesn’t just take communion once
but everyday
by loving
and living like Jesus was actually someone who placed his feet on this earth
instead of just walking out the door after drinking the grape juice and stale cracker,
and hitting their kid

the church is more than just the structure
but chaos that loves in all it does
the church doesn’t abandon
doesn’t hate
doesn’t boast
doesn’t create boundaries
doesn’t forget
and it doesn’t leave behind those we don’t understand

the church should love in all it does

(via love-for-afghanistan)

(Source: ridingsidesaddle, via frigidbones)

A woman is not written in braille, you don’t have to touch her to know her.

If I’m Precious…

If I’m “Precious” (that’s actually my middle name, by the way), what am I doing parading myself around, trying to be a pretty rock or stone on the surface of the ground? 

I reside in the deeper part of the earth, in a secret place, where I grow and my character is shaped and molded. I compare it the Lord forming Adam out of clay, a human being formed in the womb.

A deep, introspective, and thoughtful person by nature, yes, I am. I’m also a transparent person. I’m honest about myself and my life, because life is too short to be anything less than that. I’m abundant in kindness and patience. Loyalty is embedded in me. I will go the mile for you. I will sacrifice for you. When I truly love you, my heart clings to you like nothing else. It wants to beat in time with yours and take abode in your chest. I want to be your friend. I want to feel what you feel. I want to see what you see. Every joy. Every sorrow. Every triumph. Every failure. Every mountain view. Every moment of darkness in the valley. Every high, low, and in-between.

I may not be the most noticeable. I may even look a little dusty when you first set eyes on me… but if anyone is looking for quality jewels, wouldn’t they have to dig a little deeper to find someone like me, a diamond?

Stop settling for pretty rocks and stones. Won’t you dig deeper and search for what’s real? Won’t you look for me?

collegehumor:

The 10 Funniest People Ever Interviewed on the Local News [Click to watch them all]

Can you match the quote to the interview?

• A) “Kapooyow!”
• B) “Smash! Smash! Suh-mash!”
• C) “Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!”
• D) “Reality hits you hard, bro.”
• E) “Hamburger, fries, and drink. I don’t even know where it’s at.”
• F) “Ya’ll need to hide yo kids, hide yo wife and hide yo husband.”
• G) “Why don’t you walk the gunner?”
• H) “[The aliens] could be made of water, I don’t even know”
• I) “Who else seen the Leprechaun? Say Yeah!”
• J) “I knew something was wrong when a pretty little white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!”

• 1) Sweet Brown & the Apartment Fire
• 2) Kai, the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker
• 3) Antoine Dodson: Bed Intruder
• 4) George Lindell, Crash Victim
• 5) Eric Hubbard, Tornado Survivor & Hamburger Eater
• 6) Leprechauns in Alabama [You better not get this one wrong]
• 7) Michelle Clark, Hail Storm Survivor
• 8) Strut That Ass
• 9) Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland Missing Teens Hero
• 10)”[The aliens] could be made of water, I don’t even know”

psych-facts:

More here

pandalot:

You are good at something, stop lying to yourself. You’re good at breaking down comic book plots, cooking ramen perfectly, making your friends happy, knowing the time without looking at a clock, getting the perfect ending at RPG’s, or figuring out the twist ending to movies. Don’t let society tell you your talents are meaningless because they don’t serve an economical purpose. Your talents reflect your interests and passions, and what’s important to you is important.

(Source: pandavalkyrie, via infjconfessions)

(Source: natashakline, via infjconfessions)

wilwheaton:

samaralex:

megsokay:

STOP IT, self-help manatee. I actually just cried because of LAST MONTH.

Thank you, self-help manatee.  I needed that.

This is just beautiful.

I love you, self-help manatee! :)

(via infjconfessions)

tobemadenew:

I once told my Christian friend that I am a feminist and she said “No, silly! You don’t know what that means! You don’t hate men and love abortion!”

People, don’t be dumb.

The definition of feminism:
Noun
The advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic…

This.

lovenerdeen:

lovenerdeen:

The Last Meals Of Innocent Men

An emotional new ad campaign from Amnesty International asks its viewers to stomach a hard truth — images of the last meals of wrongly executed American prisoners.

As part of an initiative to abolish capital punishment completely, the influential human rights group has highlighted the unintended consequences of imposing the death penalty by focusing on a handful of prisoners who were eventually presumed innocent after they were executed. Since 1973, 142 death row inmates have been exonerated of the crimes for which they were sentenced to die, the Death Penalty Information Center reports. Some of those people spent decades in prison before their innocence was proven.

Meal 1: Ruben Cantu (Texas) was charged with capital murder at 17 years old for shooting a man during a robbery. The one witness to this crime admitted later on that he was pressured by police to identify Cantu as the criminal. He told the police twice that Cantu was not the shooter. However, Cantu was still executed in 1993.

Meal 2: Leo Jones (Florida) was charged with the murder of  a police officer in Florida. Although he said that said he was coerced into confession after hours of interrogation. The police officer and the detective involved in his case, were forced out of uniform for ethical violations a few years after his’ conviction.

Jones was executed in 1998.

Meal 3: Claude Howard Jones (Texas) was sentenced to death in 1989 for shooting and killing Texas liquor store owner. However, the recent DNA tests on the strand of hair that was used as the only physical evidence against him was proved not to belong to him.

“Knowing that these DNA results support his innocence means so much to me, my son in the military and the rest of my family. I hope these results will serve as a wake-up call to everyone that serious problems exist in the criminal justice system that must be fixed if our society is to continue using the death penalty,” - Jones’ son, Duane Jones

Jones was executed in 2000.

Meal 4: David Spence (Texas) was charged and sentenced to execution for the murder of three Texas teenagers. There was no physical evidence against him and both the homicide detective and police lieutenant that were on his case did not believe Spence to be the criminal. The prosecution solely relied on the testimony of other prison inmates in their case against Spence,

He was executed in 1997.

Meal 5: Cameron Willingham (Texas) was convicted of murdering his three children in a 1991 house fire . Four national arson experts have concluded that the original investigation in the case was flawed, while an independent investigation into the case concluded that the prosecution centered its argument on arson theories that have since been repudiated by scientific studies.

Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004

I remember how many notes the last meals of the guilty men got because it’s interesting to look at that but apparently hardly anyone cares when the men are actually innocent. End capital punishment.

(via hislivingpoetry)