Yikes! It's too cold to take a shower today. But I must, otherwise when I show up for the newsletter meeting tonight I might get kicked out. Last night I was cold! I have this idea that I'm not going to turn any heat on at night; also I have plenty of blankets but not all are clean yet. So I made due with only a few. I was trying to see how much willpower I have. I was reading a story about St. Charles Lwanga and the Ugandan martyrs before bed. These kids had courage! Their king was intent on killing anyone who prayed, so they all said, "You'll kill us all!" And happily trugged off to various tortures and executions. 22 of them! There were about 30 Anglicans too I should add, who underwent similar treatment. Anyway, I got to thinking about martyrdom and how if I can't even go through one chilly night in GA, I'd never make it with St. Charles and his brothers. I take religion for granted sometimes too much. More recently though I've tried to understand, by reading history, that at any moment the Church might have to go underground again in this country--even now there are multiple countries where you can't practice your religion in public. And the US is already partly there. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if it suddenly became a crime in this country to attend church. But then the hypothetical question becomes, if that happened, where would I stand? Would I be one of the very many who would balk at church in fear or would I be one of the few and brave ones to go anyway and get thrown in and out of prison? Truthfully, I'd be in the former group as of right now. But the trick is to somehow grow to where I'd fit into the latter. What about you all?
One funny thing: Last week, the "bad" week, the day all my irritations began, I awoke to my neighbors playing REALLY LOUDLY the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Haha!