...cause the face aint home, leave a message on the phone.

A little while ago I was listening to “The Michael Baisden Show” as I was driving home and the topic of the show was centered around why when a “brother” says hello to a “sister” on the street, why most “sisters” seem to not respond graciously. Of course the conversation had mixed responses from both men and women as to whether or not men’s intentions are mostly neutral when saying hello. Maybe us women are just way too defensive and presumptuous based off of mass perception. Maybe all men don’t have additional motive to their kindness and sincerely just want to say hello or engage in a platonic association. So I decided to do my own research over the last few months and through a few minor examples, I shall draw my conclusion.

Case #1: Mr. Clichéd
This one was predictable from the start. Anyone who begins a conversation stating that their intentions are companionable are usually only fooling themselves. Upon my conceding I got entangled in several conversations from several different people from the he said she said i thought you said then he said peanut gallery.

Case #2: Mr. Ridiculous
“Why yes sir, I wouldn’t mind taking a look at your business card. Hmmmmm...a business for personal massages? Sounds interesting. You only massage women? Wow. And you’ll come to my house and give me one? Even Better.”

Case #3: Mr. Prove Me Wrong
Curious to see if this young man’s assertions were unadulterated in nature, I decided to take my curiosities on a few train rides to further my suspicion. Sure enough, he’s just a first-rate well-spoken brotha who knows how to take advantage of good networking.

Case #4: Mr. Class of Never Grew Up
One time my extended association was sadly mistaken for “me playing games”. I had to pull out quickly or else face the pain of being taken back to the good old days of St. Peter’s High School.

Case #5: Mr. Bombastic
“Hey how you doin’? I’ve seen you before. I watched you last week over there from my car.” YIKES BROTHA! While I appreciated the forwardness, I didn’t know whether I should be flattered or frightened.

So, 1 out of 5 researched examples proved to be neutral in motive. I choose the word “neutral” and not “good” because a hello and an extension of friendship in hopes of pursuing a relationship does not necessarily make the intention a bad one. However neutral intentions to me, are those that pursue conversation and/or friendship with the sole intentions of friendship that have potential to possibly extend beyond that, yet clever tactics, spooky prophesy, and pushy sentiments resulting in emotional entanglement are completely eradicated from the equation. This research furthermore, did not include the hello’s on the street that I have to say maybe 1 time out of maybe a dozen was genuinely sincere. So my conclusion is this; Women have every right to be defensive at these gestures because it is clearly reflected through experience and study that 90% of the time these encounters are almost never earnestly neutral.

Of course there are some varying factors such as geography (Southern hospitality, foreign locale etc.)

In the Fellowship of His Sufferings

"that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings…" (Philippians 3:9-11)

I heard a great preacher once correlate this to a great deal of people desiring to know us only when we got the promotion, or when they saw us on t.v, or when they saw us with the new car. Yet it is only those that know us in our sufferings…when the test results came back positive, when we didn't know what else to do but cry, when dad walked out on us…it is only those people that know the depths of us in association. It is only those people who can truly appreciate when we do get promoted because they understand the totality of our experience.

Therefore, the intimacy that I seek to attain from our Lord is not simply within the limitations of His resurrection in how He saved me and how He healed me and delivered me. It is not in what He can do for me next and in the why and how comes. "That I may know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings". What was it that was the driving force behind Him continuing to love unconditionally and pray for His enemies as they betrayed Him and delivered Him unjustly to be killed? What was it that compelled Him to complete and total obedience even unto death? What was it that made Him continue on believing in a God that stood by quietly while Jesus was writhing in agony as sweat as blood soaked Him when He prayed? What was it? Because many have us have suffered a great deal, yet as believers we fail to know the depths of God because we have rejected the acquaintance of HIS sufferings. Consequently when I am faced with tests and trials I seek to apply that which I have learned through His sufferings so that I may get closer to Him because as believers our sufferings do not count as victories until we have activated the motivated response of Christ. So when movies like "The Passion of The Christ" were being viewed, it's response was so intense not for the mere fact that it was violent, but because for 2 hours the world began to get acquainted with the fellowship of this man's sufferings. No longer was it grandma's Jesus or Sunday school's Jesus or the republican's Jesus that we knew of as being the storybook Savior. We knew His sufferings, therefore we knew Him.

50 More Confessions...to make 100

51. sometimes i think i should just resort to becoming a monk
52. troy bright is absolutely the best singer that i've ever heard in my life
53. some of my pet peeves are people...the actual sight of a particular person
54. everytime...i mean EVERYtime i see whathisname, i'm underdressed.
55. and he says, "How you doing Khristi?"
56. and I say "how does it look like i'm doing? Insignificant and Underdressed!"
57. well i don't exactly say that
58. but i think it
59. my nephew can do NO wrong
60. i have this thing about eating a green vegetable with dinner
61. jay manuel is still hot
62. i asked God to deliver me from 11 years of General Hospital
63. tamara braun left the show
64. I'VE BEEN DELIVERED
65. ever heard of archbishop veron ashe?
66. neither have i
67. but he stole my heart at church last Sunday
68. now he's officially one of the most intelligent men i've ever encountered
69. shoutout to andre...my mugga!
70. who when i see tiffany and ask him if i look better than her he shakes his head
71. but it's never really exactly a no
72. but never really exactly a yes either
73. i don't believe in horoscopes
74. my pity parties officially only last one hour now
75. as opposed to one week as they used to do
76. thank you Jesus
77. I'VE BEEN DELIEVERED AGAIN
78. I watch That's So Raven and I laugh really hard
79. although i'm not down with the whole psychic thing
80. is it a bad thing that i've planned my schedule around the sept. 21st premiere of Top Model?
81. i have no prom pictures to show my children
82. and i'm okay with that
83. Way to go Joel and Victoria Osteen!
84. shoutout to my new roommate by the way
85. a birds been stuck in parents' chimny for 3 days
86. it's literally breaking my heart
87. my mom is always right even when she's wrong
88. when my dog brandy died, my mom cried for 3 days
89. now that the bird's stuck in the chimney she's having flashbacks
90. oops, I didn't call ebonee back
91. both Princeton Seminary and Temple were at the Bottom of my list for school choices
92. and i thought i'd only be at Princeton for 2 years
93. but now it looks like 4
94. i have had 4 "prophetic" husbands
95. shoutouts to all of them
96. I'm very happy with my life
97. I have no regrets
98. I plan to change the world
99. one atheist, one skeptic and one postmodernist at a time.
100. there, 100!

Muzzle the Ox

How I do wish I could give a thorough response to the previously posted comment. Nevertheless, thank you for your comments Mr. Lee. I am greatly obliged.

lactose intolerant huh?

have you ever just had one of those days? well that just so happens to be my today.

i decide to wake up this morning and start the week of fasting and committing myself to forgiving those with whom i have had some severed relationships or animosities towards. 1 person per day for all five days in the work week. As I continued through the day in prayer and fasting around 1pm, i began to notice something....today’s friday.

i was up for a good challenge today when i decided to have a non-english speaking lady trim my newly grown in hair. when i looked up from my magazine i stopped her just before she began to get creative. but sadly to say, my newly grown in hair is no longer.

one day. oh one day i’ll meet a man. and he won’t be 3-5 years younger than me. he won’t worship in the buddhist temple down the street from my church. he won’t be an undercover womanizer. he won’t look at me funny when i decide to turn to kenneth copeland on the television set. and least of all, he won’t be gay.

there’s got to be something on this planet that i can eat without me having to immediately grab a can of seltzer to prevent myself of writhing in agony for the next half hour. and if another person tries to tell me that i’m lactose intolerant. it’s like, every food can’t possibly include dairy in it. last night i had chicken and broccoli...i suppose the broccoli was cooked in milk.

and to top it all off, i have just about the worst case of writer’s blog that i can remember having since my earlier college days when iansweredthecall.com first began. i mean, i’m practically knocking on the door to princeton with my first excuse being “i’m sorry. i think i happened to have misplaced my brain.”

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? I HAVE ALOT TO BE HAPPY ABOUT!
NEW SCHOOL.
NEW APARTMENT.
NEW JOB.
PRODUCTION COMPANY TAKING OFF...

i dunno. blame it on aunt flo i guess.

these childish games

i think it only seems realistic that we remain as is.
don’t you?
i mean, cause it’s not that you like me or anything.
cause if you did, then i’d say i like you back.
but if you didn’t, then i’ll agree, cause i don’t like you back either.
i mean, cause i thought about it.
but that was only under the circumstance that you had said that you liked me.
in which case, i would’ve liked you back.
i mean, there was that time that he had come up to me and said that you told him that you were thinkin’ about me.
but i’m not so sure cause after that i didn’t hear anything else and we remained as is.
but i mean, it’s cool.
cause if you don’t like me, i don’t like you either.

i just wanted to know.