The lie of 'I'

On Sunday hubby and I visited a church that we had never been to before. We aren't going to a church at the moment and both of us have been feeling that it is time that we found a place to worship and call 'home'. This church was amazing; we both felt loved and accepted as soon as we came in the doors (plus they give free proper coffee! I was sold).

Going to a church got me thinking about community. As we sang songs that sometimes were based on how 'I' worship God for what he has done for 'me' I started to get to ruminating.

What if I said there is no such thing as I?

I'm not crazy, bear with me and I will explain.

Though I am a person and I am an individual, I didn't get this way by myself.

I was born into a family. As a child I was completely dependent on my mother and father to survive. As I grew it was my family and friends that shaped my personality. Without them I wouldn't know if I was funny, annoying, loud, quiet etc. We only find out those things by being in contact with others.

As teenagers we like to think that the world revolves around us and that we can do whatever we like because it is MY life. However, very few teenagers I know like to be alone with no one to bounce off and tell them that they are ok and acceptable. They need their peer group to define them just as much as they protest they don't.

As adults we don't live as hermits (well, most of us don't). We find meaning in our relationships with others, our work, our hobbies. We need others to love us, to support us and to be with us when crap hits the fan.

We are defined by our relationships. We wouldn't know how to speak, what to think, how to act or anything without the people around us showing us, telling us and helping us.

We are made to be in community.

Which makes sense when you think that we have been made in the image of a God that is communal. The Trinity may be complex and impossible to explain but what I can say is that God hangs out (albeit with himself) and loves being with others.

So none of this is mind blowing stuff, lots of us have heard it before or know it implicitly.

But what if we apply this logic to church songs?

When I sing a song that says "I" am worshiping God, nothing is further from the truth. Someone else wrote the song, another person is playing it for me, others in my near vicinity are singing the same song and the words on the screen, that someone wrote up there for me, are telling me what to sing.

I am being told what to sing, how to sing, and the context in which I should sing.

This is the greatest act of community that happens in the church! Not even listening to sermons comes close.

So does it not make sense that we sing songs that recognise this amazing act of communal worship and that we celebrate what God is doing even in this simple act?

It is not about what God has done/is doing for me. It is not about what I am doing for God.

It is about the miraculous and beautiful event that occurs when people of all different walks and with different roles come together to piece together a song to worship the Creator of community.

And that is certainly something worth singing about.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

After going to an amazing church last night I decided to post an essay I wrote years ago that had to describe the story of the Bible in 800 words. I went a little different and decided to write a story. Here it is, enjoy (and feel free to share if you like it):

In the beginning was a man and he decided to create the perfect woman whom he would love.  For a time they lived in blissful harmony in the house the man created for them.  But the woman wanted something more and thought that by leaving the man she would experience life in its full, not realising that he had already given it to her.

The man wept as she left and watched with pain as she took other lovers and made a fool out of him.  He would call to her from his window, pledging his undying love to her, and sometimes she would return and ask to be forgiven for her behaviour.  The man was hurt but because of his great love for her, he would forgive her every time and would renew their relationship.

Despite this love she continued to run away time and time again, taking new lovers and looking for fulfilment in her life away from the man.  She found instead only hurt and enslavement by her lovers.  At these times, the man would seek her out and free her from her slavery.  He led her to a new home and taught her how she could be loyal to him.  At times she sat at his feet, sang him love songs and learnt from his wisdom as he spoke words of love to her.

Her loyalty did not last.  She was soon distracted by new lovers at her door and ran to them.  After a time her behaviour became destructive to herself and to their relationship and the man was heartbroken.  He sent his friends to her house to explain to her the hurt she was causing and to beg her to return.  She refused his friends repeatedly and so the man sent messengers to tell her that, because of her behaviour, he would not see her for a time and without his protection she was open to danger.

She ignored many of the messages and continued in her lifestyle until one fateful night when a strong man broke into her house and stole her away.  While living in captivity she realised how much the man had loved her and how great her mistakes had been.  The man knew she had been taken captive and, heartbroken but still in love, he convinced the strong man to release her and send her back home.   After she had returned home she ran around to the man’s door to thank him, but he would not answer to her knocking.  Confused by his behaviour, she decided that if she lived well and proved that she had changed, he would return to her.  So she became very strict with herself, deny many pleasures from her life, but all the time lovers slipped in and out her back door.

One night the man came and slipped through her open door unnoticed.  After a few days she realised he was there but did not recognise him, it had been so long since she had last seen him that she was expecting someone quite different.  He began to wash her feet and heal the wounds that her and her lovers had inflicted on her body and whispered words of love to her that she did not understand.  She did not understand who he was and was confused and angered by his displays of love and so, in a fit of rage, killed him.

Three days later a miracle occurred, the man came back to life!  When she saw him she was shocked and overcome with joy, disbelieving at first but soon understanding that his love was so great that not even death would separate them.  He told her that she was forgiven but that for awhile he must leave for a time and he did not know when he would be able to return.  He told her that he would not be far away and that she would feel him there, and one day he would return, heal her completely and they would be together in perfect unity.  In the mean time, she was to keep hope and to tell others about their great love story so that others may learn from this love. 

For the first days after his departure she was distraught and locked herself in her room and wept.  One day as she crying, she was filled with a feeling of love so strong that she ran out of her house and down the street laughing and dancing and telling everyone she met about the love and forgiveness of a man whom she did not deserve.  She knew she wasn’t perfect and knew that she might get distracted by life, but she vowed to remain faithful, totally devoted to him and no one else until he returned.  He had, and would continue, to forgive her and love her.

She did not know when the day would be when he would walk through her door again but she lived with a hope and was comforted in the knowledge that one day, when she least expected it, her perfect man would return and, with the strength of his love and grace, would remake her into the perfect woman and they would be together for eternity.   

Blessing or Burden?

Today I spent 4 hours on public transport.

Yep, that's right, four hours.

Now I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that you would rather spend four hours being systematically tortured than spend it on a bus or a train sharing your space with other people who you don't know, can sometimes smell a bit funky, and can often be very noisy.

Either that or you are thinking I should get a car.

I almost agree with you. Nearly. But not quite.

You see I enjoy the bus.

You heard me,

  I enjoy it!

No I am not a sucker for punishment, nor am I masochistic, I genuinely love travelling on public transport. I think that it has got a bad rep really for all that it can offer.

For example:

Today I got to see a couple clearly in love holding hands and kissing. I saw a new baby, a toddler and several children who seemed thrilled to be on a bus. I saw an old man crack a joke to the bus at large and saw the smiles he brought to otherwise dour faces. I saw a pregnant wife being helped out of a seat by her husband. I saw a man mumbling to himself and looking like he had slept outside. I saw teenagers off to school and off to shop and off to smoke. I saw bus drivers wave at each other as they drove past. I held a lady up as she stumbled with the movement of the bus.

In short I saw humanity.

And the wonderful, glorious thing about the bus or train is that there is no status, no rich or poor, there are only people taking the bus. All of you are in it together.

And yet, also not.

Because each of us was in our own world. We were listening to music, reading books and staring out the window. Only the children and the one funny man really stepped outside their personal bubble and acknowledge the others on the bus. We were together and yet so alone.

I find travelling on the bus such a poignant reminder of the state of humanity. We are so beautiful yet so isolated from each other.

So instead of rushing to my next task for the day, on the bus I can sit and watch.

Instead of worrying about being late, I can relax because I can't get there any faster.

Instead of stressing about traffic, I contemplate the world and pray because I am not driving!

And instead of passing by people without a moments thought, instead I can take the time to look at them, wonder about their lives, pray for them and their families, and through it all I find my love for others and my love for their Creator deepening in my heart making me want to laugh and cry all at the same time.

Who knew public transport could be so theologically and spiritually rich!

Next time you are headed somewhere, maybe take the bus and be reminded of the people God sent us here to serve and to love.

It's official, I am an idiot

I have been going through a phase recently where I have wanted to be healthy.

I call it a phase because after last night it might seriously have to be reconsidered.

Let me tell you a story about trying to get healthy (this is 100% true!!)

I have been trying different techniques for trying to lose weight. I will be totally honest here and say that though I am really happy with who I am there are times when I look in the mirror after having a shower and think "my god, even I don't have enough love for this!"

Now I am sure everyone has moments like this but what makes it worse is that I compare myself to 17 year old Christine.

The smoker.

The addict.

The bulimic.

Oh yeah, I am that clever. I aspire to be like the messed up 17 year old me just to look good. I blame TV (but that's for another post).

Anyway, I digress.

So the latest thing (apart from exercise and trying to eat ok) has been acai berries and their natural antioxidants and I was doing ok with them.

Until last night.

As I write this I am shaking my head at myself and hear Luke's laughter in my head. He knew it was going to be a disaster. I didn't listen.

I was on the internet and I saw a link to this 'Doctor's' website that told me what I really need to do to help lose weight is do a liver detox. Of course his recipe was avaiable at the low price of I-am-never-gonna-pay-that-much so I went trawling looking for at home detox's I could do that night.

And I found one.

Oh Fool that I am, I heeded no warnings from my dearly beloved. I assured him that I would be fine, that this would be the end of my woes, and life would be happier from here on.

So that night I followed the instructions:

Mix half a cup of olive oil and juice of two lemons, drink and lie still for 20 minutes.

So dutifully I mixed, drank (while nearly gagging, the first sign that something is amiss) and lay down.

God in heaven, I was sent to hell.

My stomach churned, my head ached, bile repeatedly rose in my throat, but I pressed on.

An hour later I was glad that Luke suggested placing a bucket within reach next to the bed. Love of my life was playing Xbox at the time and when I was revisited by my awful drink (and everything I had eaten that day) it was so powerful that Luke thought someone had turned a tap on before he realised what was happening to his poor wife.

My stomach may have been cleansed but my liver was left untouched by any healing powers of oil and lemon. The only good thing that came out of this debacle was the calories I burned as my stomach muscles heaved for a good ten minutes.

So what have I learned from this?

First, listen to Luke when he says that something is going to end badly. He is probably right.

Second, anything that is mostly oil that involves digesting is going to go badly.

Third, do not think that fads on the internet will disclose all that will happen or even be good for you.

And last, I really have to figure out a way of either being happy with the way I look or being happy with the long time it takes to change. What I really MUST do is stop thinking about how I looked in high school; gravity and age and weight have made that body out of my reach forever and I just have to accept it.

I am an idiot, I know :P

Chick Flicks = Girl Porn

In my last blog ("S-E-X") I mentioned how porn was dehumanizing and not honouring to God. I want to unpack that a little.

You would be hard pressed these days to find a teenager who hadn't seen porn at one time or another. I know plenty of guys and girls who admit to having a porn addiction at some point in their lives. It is one of the biggest industries in the world and employs/enslaves millions of men, women and children in the making of films and pictures.

The reason it is so powerful is because sex is one of the most primal instincts that we have. It a strong force and once those instincts have been aroused it is damn near impossible to get them to go back into hiding. Once you have those feelings and images in your head you will never get rid of them and, like a drug, you will want more and more to satisfy the feelings that have been awakened.

Porn is so destructive because it gives a false idea about what sex and humanity is about. It tells us that sex is a commodity, that people can be bought. It shows us that we don't have to care about people, we just have to use them for our gratification. It says that no matter what your darkest fantasies are, you have a right to be accommodated in enjoying them to the expense of someone else.

It also shows us that men are always virile, women are always willing, sex is never awkward or messy or not enjoyable. It tells us that a woman's personality doesn't matter just as long as she is fit looking and willing to do whatever you want. It is the size of the man's penis, not his mind, that matters.

And now I get controversial.

I would argue that chick flicks and romance novels (henceforth known together as romcomnov's) are as destructive and manipulative as porn.

Now before I get lynched by angry woman, let me explain.

Porn distorts the way we view others and can have serious detrimental affects on relationships because of these distortions. Romcomnov's do the same.

In the romcomnov there is usually a bad boy to be tamed, a stuck up woman who needs to loosen up, a man who sweeps a gorgeous woman off her feet, or a plain woman who actually is amazingly beautiful but no one ever noticed before.

All of these plots assume that there is a 'perfect' way of being. That being stuck up and job motivated is bad, but partying and having a good time is good. Bad boys are always actually nice on the inside and just need a woman to change them. Women are suppose to look and dress a certain way to get noticed and get the man. And in the end the perfect man will always turn up with flowers and romance.

This isn't real life. Some people are just assholes, men don't always sweep girls off their feet and really don't like women trying to change them. You don't wake up with make up on, sex isn't always pretty/sweat free/romantic. And no woman looks like they do on the movies.

So how is this like porn?

Porn distorts the way we view humans and romcomnov's do just as much.

Where porn may make you dissatisfied with your sex life or the way your partner looks, romcomnov's can make you dissatisfied with your sex life, how you look, how your partner looks, how your life is, who you are, your friends and everything else.

Women are being trained by the romcomnov to look for a certain type of romance, a man who acts in a certain way, and when that doesn't happen they believe that they must have not found 'the one' and so move on to the next man who needs them to change them.

Porn leaves you wanting something else.

Romcomnov's leave you wanting something else.

Both are as destructive as each other.

Both dehumanize the person.

Both are letting people live their fantasies on screen without anyone thinking of the ramifications.

Now I know there will be many disagreements to this and I would love to hear them. Please, feedback and start the discussion.

S-E-X

Sex! Powerful, wonderful, beautiful sex.

That's right, a blog on sex. Not so original but I think that there have been many issues around this in Christian circles that have been missed or misunderstood.

And I can write about sex now; I'm married!

I have been in church circles for many years. I have worked with youth who were and weren't having pre-marital sex. I have friends who have and have not had sex while going out. I myself was technically a virgin when I was first married and then faced the questions about sex after marriage and all that entails. I have had non-marital sex between my two marriages (when I was questioning everything I believed) and my current husband and I abstained until we were married. I have had a long and interesting 'relationship' with sex and what it means so I think I know a little about the subject.

That's really what I wanna talk about today.

In Christian circles there are two rules about sex:

Before marriage "Don't"

After marriage "Do".

And that's it.

I for one find this lack of anything a little deeper and more substantial a little unnerving and somewhat dangerous. There are a HUGE amount of misinterpretations that can happen around the 'Do' and 'Don't' and so much grey area that it's a wonder we aren't all stumbling around in the shadows!

The number of times I have heard from teenagers 'but that's not sex!' or the from new couples 'it won't ever go that far' shows how little we understand the nature and power of sex.

I grew up in a strict christian home and as a teenager I was pretty sure that if it couldn't get me pregnant then it didn't classify as sex and so I was fine in my eyes and in the eyes of God. But was I?

Before marriage the questions range around where oral sex, heavy petting, passionate kissing, etc all fit in. We  all assume that everyone is on the same page as us when it comes to these topics and yet it is surprising how far ranging the ideas on these are. As you read this you could be thinking "Well of course all of those are ok pre-marriage, everyone knows that" while someone else is simultaneously thinking "absolutely not, everyone knows that true Christians only kiss on their wedding day". The interpretations are endless.

After marriage it actually doesn't get any less confusing. First of all there can being feelings of being 'naughty' on your wedding night because 24hrs ago you weren't allowed to have sex and now you are. There are also the ideas of if your engaged then no one cares if you have sex cause you will get married anyway. And then there are the questions around watching porn with your partner, sex toys, fantasy games etc. Are there rules even in marriage around how we should behave or is it no-holds-barred?

And what happens with divorced or widowed people who have had sex, have had that instinct and desire awakened, and then have to live with or without it for who knows how long?

The Big issue for me around all of these issues is how little we talk about them! When was the last time you heard a talk in church about the should's or should not's around sex toys in the marital bedroom? Or the do's/do not's around heavy petting? Or around the major temptation that faces engaged couples and what they should do about that when they aren't going to avoid each other and could be having sex in less than a month/week/day?

I have my own views on all of this that I have developed after years of searching, questioning and reading my Bible. And this is what I have come up with:

1. Sex and sexual desire is a powerful force that we are meant to have and is a beautiful thing. 
2. It is damn hard to say no unless you have boundaries that are agreed to by both the people in the relationship and are in keeping with your beliefs.
3. It is about treating the other person as fully human. If you go to the next step would you be doing it out of respect for the other person and respect for God? Would it bring out the beauty and humanness of the person or would you feel dirty and guilty afterwards? 
4. This can differ depending on the action and the couple but is something that NEEDS to be discussed at the beginning of the relationship. Don't wait til the heat of the moment or until you have gone too far to try and set those boundaries.
5. If you do go over the lines you set, don't beat yourself up. God set us up to be this way and though there is planning and resistance and strength etc that we need to call on sometimes, especially for engaged couples, we go further than we planned. 
6. If this happens talk about it, pray about it, seek wisdom from people you can talk to and then let it go knowing God has forgiven you. DON'T see it as nothing but guilt and feeling bad about sexual stuff can hurt a relationship and be taken into marriage. 
7. DON'T try and make excuses to be able to do what you want, when you want. That is not honouring God and the other person.
8. This applies to marriage too. It is up to the couple to set their boundaries and should be done in mutual respect and love for each other and God.
9. Porn is not honouring to humans or to God so avoid it at all costs even if people say it is harmless in marriage. 
10. Find an already married couple (whether you are going out/engaged/married yourselves) that you trust and talk to them openly and honestly about the issues you face. Secrecy and lack of accountability is a very good way to fall into the trap of crossing boundaries you set for yourself.
11. SEX IS GOOD!!!! Don't deny that or try and convince yourself otherwise. But be loving and wise.
    

That's my 2 cents from my lifetime of experience.I would love your thoughts on this. Feel free to argue with my points or add to them or to disagree with me completely! Let's get this convo started.

Being a Band Wife

Being a Band Wife is a roller coaster of equal amounts fun and stress. After Luke's amazing gig last night I want to share a few points of what to expect if you ever marry someone who is in a band. Enjoy.

BEING A BAND WIFE:

1. You will go to gigs that you never thought you would ever attend otherwise. This is particularly true in my case where I have had to learn to appreciate the subtle nuances of metal.
   
2. You will feel like the oldest in the room when you watch teenagers throwing themselves at each other when enjoying your hubby's music.
   
3. You WILL learn to head bang, and not complain about the neck strain the next day.
   
4. You will have to rearrange your entire wardrobe into what is and what is not suitable to wear at metal gigs (the same can be said of make up and jewelry).
   
5. You will learn the cycle of when to leave a man alone to write music and when he needs to talk and complain about how it all his writing sucks.
   
6. The other band members will become your family and when you do your food shopping you will instinctively budget in enough to feed them if they all come round at once.
   
7. You will learn the fine art of when you need to encourage and when you need to constructively criticize music or stage performance.
   
8. You will find yourself downloading software to create concepts for t-shirts and album covers even though you have never done it before and are not sure what the band wants in the first place as they can't all agree on what their design should be.
   
9. Eventually you will discover that your future plans no longer rest on the decision making of you and your husband but on a group of people that have no relation to you whatsoever other than play instruments with your husband.
   
10. Without it actually being said you will know that you never ask hubby to choose between his music and you, even if you are CERTAIN he will choose you!
    
11. Life can get either very lonely or very crowded. It will be lonely when a gig is coming up and every other spare second of hubby's day is spent practicing songs. It will get crowded when music is being written on hubby's computer and the band all need to come around to your very small apartment to give their opinions on the new song.
    
12. You will have an instant family! I currently have a husband and several brothers who I know would protect me and defend me from anything (it is good being a band wife).
    
13. You will laugh at being called a groupie because you are sleeping with one of the band members.
     
14. Sometimes life will get stressful, especially when you are trying to decide the next step in life and are so committed to the band that you have to take into account whether or not your decision will impact on it negatively or not. This can be extremely difficult and can take sacrifice and balls to stand your ground. Anyone who is marrying into a band should not take these decisions lightly or think they will not face them.
    
15. You will invest in some heavy duty earplugs as a must of your wardrobe.
    
16. Most of all you will have a lot of laugh's with the boys, value you them all individually and as a group, and they will bring you so much joy.

It's tough but it's worth it!

NEVER TAKE OUR FREEEEEDOOOOM!!!!!

Freedom.

The catch cry of humanity.

It is the same from the slaves to the slavers, from the poor to the rich.

We all long for some kind of freedom.

We cry out in the face of a world that tells us to conform and to age and to die "you will never take our freedom!"

So we buy the latest age defying creams, we take out loans to pay off debt, we move from one relationship to the next trying to avoid being 'tied down', we make alternate lives on line and take drugs to improve our experiences of the world. We even take our own lives to avoid our pain.

We are terrified of losing our freedom.

Yet none of us had any freedom to take in the first place!

We are slaves to sin. We do things that we don't want to do and don't do the things we do want to do. We search for freedom from pain and death and all the while ignore the only person who has ever been able to defeat them.

The only one who can offer us this freedom is Christ. In him is freedom.

Freedom to live and not die, to one day never feel pain again, and freedom to hope.

Yet this one person who can offer us this freedom we run from because we find him 'too restrictive'. We see only the rules and regulations. We see words in the Bible like 'slaves to righteousness' and start panicking that something might be demanded of us. We don't realise that all that is demanded is that we accept this freedom and live out of it.

Is it not ironic that while crying for freedom we prefer our slavery?

That while trying to avoid death we merely embrace it?

That in trying to reach people with the freedom of the gospel we 

have restricted it with rules, standards and acceptance requirements?

So what is freedom?

Does it mean to live however we choose and screw the rest of the world?

What does it mean to bee a slave in Christ and yet free in him?

And how do we share this message with a world that cries out for freedom?

Today is Easter. Today signifies freedom from death and sin. Today I know that even if I don't understand all of it, I am free in Christ and no one will ever take my freedom.

Jesus Wept.

Today is Easter Friday.

People will be retelling the Easter story to each other. They will be explaining to their children how Jesus died and rose again to defeat death and save us from our sin. They will sing of his sacrifice and drink and eat of the Eucharist and will remember.

Lest We Forget.

Today I did none of those things. I don't have a regular church to go to and worship, I have no children to tell the story to, and I live in a place surrounded by Christians so to retell the story to them may strike them as slightly odd.

What I have been thinking about today is grief.

Unstoppable

Insurmountable

Undeniable

Grief affects us all. 

No matter that Jesus has defeated death, we still weep when someone we love passes.

Jesus did over Lazarus.

Despite the fact that God will never fail us, we cry when someone we know does.

Jesus cried over his people in Jerusalem.

No matter that we know God will greet us when we die, we still wail in the face of our own demise.

Jesus cried in the garden before he was arrested and then killed.

Jesus Wept.

So do we all.

I have been thinking about grief a lot recently because I have had my fair share in life. I have had innocence stolen, pain inflicted, lost people I loved, been betrayed, been rejected, been outcast and defeated. I have only recently come to realise how much all of that affected me. 

I didn't take enough time to weep.

The last 6 months I have spent resting, recuperating from a life that all but destroyed me, and it is in this time of quiet reflection that I have come to understand the depth of two small words:

Jesus Wept.

In those words, in his action, I find solace. I find a God who understands what it means to have your heart ripped out, stood on and be left empty and aching. I find a Saviour who felt in the bones of his being the extent of what he had to face and who did it anyway. 

I find a man who knew what it was to be broken, and in that brokenness can look me in the eye and say with all honesty that he understands my pain. This man, who never had to know pain, feels mine.

So today I celebrate the grief of a God who walks with me.

The grief of a Father who gave up his son.

The grief of a Son who felt abandoned by his father.

The grief of a Spirit that was wrenched in the agony of what happened on that cross.

And I weep. 

I weep for all of us who have lost ones we love.

Who have known pain and suffering.

And I weep out of sheer astonishment that my God would do all this so that in our weeping we may have hope.

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the WISEST of them all?

This week some dude from a tiny town in the wop wops won a staggering $26mil. That is mind blowing! Imagine waking up struggling to pay bills in the morning at by night time having more money than you know what to do with. Luke and I began dreaming about what we would do with that kind of mulah, the people we would help, the charities we would donate to, the houses we would buy...

What struck me though was how wise you would have to be to use and manage that kind of money well. I've seen people be ruined by lots of money and you hear all the time of millionaires gone bankrupt. Obviously this isn't an easy road to walk, one requires wisdom.

And that got me thinking about Solomon.

Christine's potted history of King Solomon:


Born of King David and Bethsheba (who was someone else wife first til David nicked her, but that's a story for another time perhaps).
Youngest son and yet became heir, so I am going with young and pampered.
God asks him what he wants, he asks for wisdom.
God likes this answer and gives him wisdom plus wealth plus fame.
Solomon gets rich and famous and wise.
Marries literally hundreds of women and lets them bring their gods along.
All ends in heartbreak.

So Solomon is wise but in the end his....heart....does the thinking for him and he gets into all sorts of trouble. You know what they say, behind every kingdoms downfall is a horny man. Joking, more like women are the cause of many wars.

But how wise is he? I mean really? Anyone who has lived with a houseful of girls knows that it is NOT wise to put a bunch of women together. Think of a hundred of them all wanting your attention! I'm a woman and even I know that that is just asking for trouble.

And then he lets rival religions into the same building. Now I have never been to the middle east but the news tells me that land and rival religions does not mix well in the heat over there. You think a wise man might have known that too.

So when God granted Solomon wisdom was he only talking about judicially or when all the beautiful women turned up did ol' Solly just stop using his brain, for whatever reason?

Personally I have never thought of our friend Sol as wise, more overly rich and bored like some kind of mega rich player type.

Am I wrong? Have I misread this? Thoughts welcome.