Horoscopes and When Denominations Get Together

Thought 15: I can't help but notice (mostly due to the status updates filling my news feed) that many people are in an uproar over horoscopes changing. Horoscopes were something many people would not have given a thought about the day before it changed but now that it has changed it feels like we have had some part of our identity stolen from us and told that we are now like this.

Now astrology is not like astronomy in one very important aspect: Astronomy is science; astrology is not. I was reading the horoscopes a couple weeks ago at work and they said "surprise" or "surprising" 12 times within the 12 signs. So really my summary on this is this: who cares what sign you are when your horoscope is made up in the paper and just try not to use the pick-up line "hey what's your sign?" cause it could just lead to confusion.

Thought 16: So I went to the week of prayer on Monday at the Bridge with our young adults group and everyone had an interesting experience. First off you could pick out the Mennonites in the crowd. One guy on the bottom floor burst out into a loud prayer and I saw another guy look back at him like "what the heck is going on?" at which I started to laugh. Now my girlfriend grew up Pentecostal so she was able to fill me in on somethings afterwards. Apparently when they get into groups to pray they are used to everyone just praying all at once out loud. Us Mennonites pray one person at a time. So our Mennonite young adults group mostly sat up on the balcony as we got there a little late and joined into a group with four other ladies from another church. We start to pray and one of our young adults goes to start the prayer but the other ladies are praying out loud at the same time so what does he do? He starts to pray louder until the ladies give up and we go one at a time. We forced mennoniteness on them. There was also a lady speaking in tongues which I have never heard before so that was pretty intense.

Now after the prayer we all went for coffee and a few people told me that they felt like they had to do things they usually don't to feel like they fit in. We don't have to do these things to fit in. A relationship with God is very personal and very communal at the same time. Everyone connects with God in different ways. Some through praying out loud with many, some with praying quietly by themselves. Some through any worship; me personally is through worship when many different members from different churches are together. Everyone has their own way of feeling close to God. None of them are the wrong way.