Update for Everyone VIII: He who laughs have the last laugh

[100% pro-life no matter what]

A person I sat near in church today was told a couple hours later that he tested positive for covid.  I'm trying to be rational in my mind, but I'm pretty annoyed because the one thing that has worried me about this is a fear of being alone and having to quarantine.  To make things worse, I always assumed that I wouldn't know until several days after contact, lessening the amount of time left on my quarantine, but finding out the same day means I have two full weeks alone.

I will get tested later in the week, allowing for a few days for any potential virus to develop before I get tested.  Honestly, I hope it's positive because that would mean that I wouldn't have to do this again if I later got it or was exposed again.

ETA: I still disagree with how we treat covid and maintain that society should be treating it no different than other illnesses, where you live your life if you feel at all up to it, but that's not the route we've taken, and I have to respect that because I don't want to make others have to quarantine too.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I tested negative for covid following my potential exposure last weekend

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I tested negative again today.

My uni's decided to throw money at their testing program to stay open through the winter, so I've opted into a weekly SARS-CoV-2 saliva-test trial. It's weird, and I now spend more time dribbling into sample cups than I do meeting people face-to-face, but it's kinda reassuring to get a text from the local NHS lab each week, reminding you that you've not got the virus.

If only they'd alter the format so that the preview didn't read as:

MR ******, YOU'VE TESTED

......


NEGATIVE.

That's caught me out several times.

I just got a text saying "your test result is ready.  To view it, go to...".  Even though I would have been asymptomatic if I was positive and am not really worried about covid, my heart was definitely beating rapidly when I opened my portal.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I tested negative for antibodies today.  I was kind of hoping that the reason I didn't get covid last month after being exposed was that I was already immune (I suppose I could theoretically be from earlier in the pandemic through t-cell immunity, but that seems less likely).  Even though I haven't let covid stop me from living my life since May 1st, there's always that tiny voice in the back of my head that cringes if I hear someone cough or that makes me smell something to make sure I still have my sense of smell.  It would have been nice for that voice to have gone away- and also simplified things with going to see older family members before Christmas.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

According to Wikipedia there are 6.8 billion ppl in Tennessee well that seems like too much considering every time I go to Walmart I run into one of the dozen or so ppl I’m always tryna avoid if there was actually that many ppl what would be the odds of that. Checkmate geologists

I think there r uhhh maybe 40,000 ppl in TN max

Well, I can assure you that Tennessee does not have about 90% of the world's population!

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Congratulations to Howie Hawkins, the winner of Indiana, with 99.9% of the vote!! (check the Atlas results)

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I just posted something on my Facebook to the effect of "I voted for Trump and am disappointed in the results of the election, but it's time that we accept the results and focus on the GA Senate runoffs, rather than saying it was rigged", along with a religious message about not idolizing politicians.  I'm really not expecting it to go "well", given the number people that I know who casually talk about the election being stolen, but I felt like I needed to say it.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I was planning to go to a Young Republicans (mostly 20-somethings) meeting tonight, but I'm getting so annoyed with the rhetoric coming out of some corners of the party that I just don't feel like dealing with it, even if there is a diversity of views on the recent events within the organization.  It doesn't help that the speaker they're having tonight is ultra pro-Trump.  I just don't feel like listening to a MAGA speech anymore.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I was planning to go to a Young Republicans (mostly 20-somethings) meeting tonight, but I'm getting so annoyed with the rhetoric coming out of some corners of the party that I just don't feel like dealing with it, even if there is a diversity of views on the recent events within the organization.  It doesn't help that the speaker is ultra pro-Trump.  I just don't feel like listening to a MAGA speech anymore.

I'll show myself the door.

You kid, but, if the party continues down this rabbit hole, it might soon be this:

Fortunately, I do think that there are enough Republicans who are going to push us in a different direction after the 20th.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Two days of the Biden-Harris administration feels like it's pushed what I want to talk about way too the right.  By the end of the Trump administration, I was so over him, and I still think the GOP needs to move on.  But, two days of this administration, and I feel that the political sentiment in my brain has gone from "move past Trump" to "oppose Biden-Harris".

Was really cheering on Governor Lee for this tweet against Kamala:
https://twitter.com/GovBillLee/status/1352691253490675713?s=19

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I'm going to a pro-life rally in a small town in rural Tennessee today, and you would be amazed at how many houses on the outskirts of the town STILL have Trump signs up, almost 3 months after the election.  One even had masking tape over the "Pence" in Trump-Pence and instead said "Trump Flynn 2020".

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Middle Tennessee is getting our first "real" winter storm in 5-6 years tonight into tomorrow.  I just went for a stroll around the parking lot of my apartment complex, and it is sleeting pretty significantly right now.  There's even sleet accumulation.  Tomorrow, it will turn over to snow at some point and will accumulate.  Snow accumulation will depend on how quickly it switches over, but it could be several inches.  If it switches over quickly enough, we could get more snow than the last four winters combined (and those snows were pretty much always dustings).  This kind of reminds me of the Ice Storm of 2015, which coincidentally also fell on Presidents' Day.  Like then, temperatures will struggle to recover above freezing most of the week (probably until Thursday), so it's not going to be a fun week around here.  Hoping that the ice won't knock out my power.  West Tennessee could get hammered with near a foot.  Knoxville and Chattanooga will get nothing but normal, old rain.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I'm leaving the church I have been going to for the last few years.  I'm pretty involved in the church, so I am going to be having a bunch of difficult conversations starting tonight and going through the next few days before I go for the final time this Sunday.

I'm really excited to be a part of my new church, though!  I've been going there for a young adults ministry since last summer and recently visited there on a couple Sunday mornings.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I'm leaving the church I have been going to for the last few years.  I'm pretty involved in the church, so I am going to be having a bunch of difficult conversations starting tonight and going through the next few days before I go for the final time this Sunday.

I'm really excited to be a part of my new church, though!  I've been going there for a young adults ministry since last summer and recently visited there on a couple Sunday mornings.

Just out of curiosity, what's made you want to leave your current congregation?

I think it's more about my new church than my current one, but I'll explain as best as I can.  When I started going to my new church two and a half years ago, I got plugged into an amazing small group of 15-20 people in our 20s.  God used that community to help me grow in ways I could not have expected.  Over time however, the small group began to get less regular, and people began to leave (mostly without friction, but with a couple notable exceptions).  That started pre-covid, but was certainly sped up when covid hit last March.

In August, one of my closest friends from the small group told me that he was starting a Bible study with a friend of his from a different church and asked if I would come.  The church that it was affiliated with has a huge young adults ministry that meets every Friday night at their church, for a church service with social time afterwards.  I started going to that in August.  At first, I very much viewed that as only for the young adults ministry and never considered it my actual church.  But, by October, I was beginning to serve there on Friday nights, either through greeting or helping with tear down.  By the end of the year, I kind of viewed them both as my church, even if I was not yet actively considering leaving the other church.

Come December, I did have a point of frustration with my current church, around how they were handling covid.  While they have never re-closed and never required masks in the main worship center, they did suspend all small groups from officially meeting during our December surge.  That both meant that my regular small group was no longer meeting (after kind of hitting a roll in the fall) and that I could no longer serve in student ministry, where I had helped lead a cohort of students who are now seniors in high school for a couple years.  Finally, my church allowed these to start back in mid-January (albeit, to my frustration, required masks in group meetings).

Around this time, I began to pray about whether I should look to move to the other church.  At the time, I felt like God gave me an answer of "not now" for a few reasons.  The students I have been teaching were about to graduate in May, and I felt I should finish strong.  The student pastor actually approached me to see if I would be interested in doing a something a little bit different for the seniors, since they were struggling in attendance, which I thought was a good idea.  Secondly, I felt that I should not be making a decision as permanent as leaving a church over very temporary covid protocol that frustrated me.  I also was approached about taking on a leadership role in my adult small group around this time.  I felt that, had I left in January, it would have been a selfish decision out of a desire for my own comfort and to be around more friends, rather than a spirit-led one.

A few weeks later, we had a big ice and snow storm.  By the Sunday following the storm, the temperatures had warmed, the sun had come out, and the roads were clear.  However, my church had not cleared the parking lot, so they had to cancel service.  I went to the other church on a Sunday for the first time that day.  I felt really at home at the service.  I started to pray about whether it was time for me to move on, but I still felt like I should probably finish out the school year (even though I'd never again heard mention about doing something different for the seniors) and had just agreed to help in leadership in my small group.

But, over the next week, a few more things happened that I believe were God telling me that it was OK to leave.  First, on Thursday 2/25, a couple announced that they were leaving our small group to go to the engaged/newlyweds group ahead of their wedding.  The guy in that couple was the leader of our group and one of my closer friends in the group.  Most of the other people I'm super close to in the group had either already moved on or are also going to the young adults thing at the other church.  Let me also note that the mask protocol had stopped by this point, which gave me comfort in knowing that any decision I would make would not be rash because of masks.  Then, on Sunday 2/28, not one of the kids I had been teaching showed up to Sunday School (after it had only been 1-2 for weeks).  I kind of just hovered around the room, facilitating discussion at other high school tables.  Finally, the following Thursday (3/4), the only six of us who showed up to small group were the six of us who had to be there because we held leadership positions*.

I felt like all of this was God alleviating my concerns about leaving my church and telling me that it is OK to go to where I am growing more now.  Following those events, I went to my new church on Sunday, talked it through with some close friends, prayed, and fasted to make sure that I was making the decision that God wanted me to make.  I now have peace that I am, even if it is very bittersweet because I will miss some things about that church and will always look back fondly on my time there, particularly on the year 2019.

*Plus, following a different married couple in their 20s who had led our group moving on from this group around the time covid hit, the church put a woman in her mid-60s in the same role.  That created some tension between the guys and girls in the small group because a lot of the girls kind of viewed her as a motherly figure, while a lot of the guys thought she was in the wrong role by being the loudest participant in our weekly Bible study.  At times, I even felt like she acted like we were all kids, even though we're in our mid and late 20s.  Probably 90% of the activity in our Facebook group from recent weeks is her posting things, for instance.  None of this is a knock on her.  I actually do like her, but I just think she's in the wrong role for our group right now.  She and her husband hosted us for a Friendsgiving in November and a cookout last June.  I thought that was a better role for an older couple to pour into us without it feeling like it was their Bible study.

P.S. Truthfully, though, these issues are minor enough that I don't think I would ever have thought to switch churches if I had not started going to the other church for young adults ministry in August.  The biggest thing is that I just feel like God is using that church to help me grow in my walk with Him more than he is using my old church for that at this point.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Getting vaccinated in two hours.  Not everyone who has supported living normal life for the last year is an anti-vaxxer.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

The Harpeth River in downtown Franklin might be three times as wide as it normally is right now and is running just a couple feet below the bridge that heads into the downtown area.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

My left-leaning mom is looking at lake houses in the Carolinas this week.  She just texted me to ask about election data for those areas because she was worried that they are too pro-Trump.  I didn't realize that my mom was BRTD.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

My left-leaning mom is looking at lake houses in the Carolinas this week.  She just texted me to ask about election data for those areas because she was worried that they are too pro-Trump.  I didn't realize that my mom was BRTD.

Funnily enough my parents have said the same thing — they'd love to retire to the mountains, except for all the people. I've steered them toward Waynesville/Lake Junaluska or Sylva/Cullowhee.

My mom and stepdad like Lake Murray in the suburbs of Columbia and Lake Norman outside of Charlotte.  Truthfully, I think they would be fine in somewhere like Lexington, SC.  That doesn't seem like the type of place that would be the rabid ultra-MAGA types that I think my mom is worried about.  I did provide them election results for difficult lakefront commutes that they had asked about, though.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

My left-leaning mom is looking at lake houses in the Carolinas this week.  She just texted me to ask about election data for those areas because she was worried that they are too pro-Trump.  I didn't realize that my mom was BRTD.

Funnily enough my parents have said the same thing — they'd love to retire to the mountains, except for all the people. I've steered them toward Waynesville/Lake Junaluska or Sylva/Cullowhee.

My mom and stepdad like Lake Murray in the suburbs of Columbia and Lake Norman outside of Charlotte.  Truthfully, I think they would be fine in somewhere like Lexington, SC.  That doesn't seem like the type of place that would be the rabid ultra-MAGA types that I think my mom is worried about.  I did provide them election results for difficult lakefront commutes that they had asked about, though.

Lexington County is super pro-republican.

I know that, but I feel like it's more Republican than MAGA, to the extent that's a difference.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Apparently this has nothing to so with saving doses. It's just not necessary from a medical standpoint, according to the RKI.

I have heard something (several months ago - April?) about infection + 1x Pfizer actually being slightly more protective than 2x Pfizer without infection, but I'm not sure what the source was.

I don't know the exact sources, but it's pretty clear that vaccines and natural immunity will both play some role in ending the pandemic.  And, it's only the "zero covid"/perpetual restriction types and most hardcore anti-covid vaccine people who deny that.  But, unfortunately, those two groups have outsized microphones in this whole thing.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I might be the biggest idiot ever.  Last week, I wasn't feeling well, and on the third day of my symptoms, I had some minor symptoms that suggested a covid breakthrough case.  I assumed I had it and decided to just stay home and not get tested.  By day 5, I was feeling totally better, so I decided to order an at-home test kit.  Today (day 7), it came, and I tried to test myself.  Initially, it came back positive.

But, then, I got to thinking, and I realized that I never mixed my sample with the detection liquid.  I rewatched the instruction video, and it turned out that I never actually tested myself.  But, the more strange part to me is why in the world the detection liquid would test positive without ever coming into contact with my sample.

Maybe I'll be able to get a test tomorrow for clarity for myself, but, either way, tomorrow would be day 8, so there might not be that much point to it.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I might be the biggest idiot ever.  Last week, I wasn't feeling well, and on the third day of my symptoms, I had some minor symptoms that suggested a covid breakthrough case.  I assumed I had it and decided to just stay home and not get tested.  By day 5, I was feeling totally better, so I decided to order an at-home test kit.  Today (day 7), it came, and I tried to test myself.  Initially, it came back positive.

But, then, I got to thinking, and I realized that I never mixed my sample with the detection liquid.  I rewatched the instruction video, and it turned out that I never actually tested myself.  But, the more strange part to me is why in the world the detection liquid would test positive without ever coming into contact with my sample.

Maybe I'll be able to get a test tomorrow for clarity for myself, but, either way, tomorrow would be day 8, so there might not be that much point to it.

I decided not to bother to get another test since I'm now on my fifth day since I last had symptoms.  I'm going to ride out today and tomorrow just in case, but it will remain a mystery whether my illness last week was covid or just a cold.

On a side note, are there any antibody tests that can distinguish between vaccination and infection if I wanted to try that in a couple weeks?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

My uncle decided to celebrate TUESday 2/22/22 by getting two tattoos of twos wearing tu-tus (one also has a toupee) at 2:22 from a tattoo parlor called Two Pillars Tattoo...

[100% pro-life no matter what]

It's time for me to take a bit of a break from this forum.  I'm recent weeks, I've felt that the casual mockery of or disdain for evangelical Christian beliefs has grown to very high levels.  Since the leaked ruling in the Dobbs case, the hate and vitriol I've seen here towards pro-life views has grown massively.

I am on the verge of seeing what I've waited and prayed for years about finally happen.  Really, it's the biggest reason I care about politics at all.  But, here, it's getting really tiring to feel like I have to constantly fight multiple battles, lest I ignore a question and be called out for not having an answer to that.

I do want people to understand that most evangelicals are not Joel Osteen.  I feel like a lot of users have this caricature of evangelicals as people like him who seem go be most concerned with money and comfort.  That has never been my experience in evangelical churches.

Right now, I have to go for now.  I've found myself getting progressively angrier and angrier about the viewpoints shared and the way that people respond to mine.  I worry that said anger or frustration is starting to come out in my posts and is causing me not to be a good witness for my faith to the Atlas community.

I don't know whether I'll stop posting for a few days, a few months, or longer.  But, when I do post here, I want to communicate my faith and how it leads me to view major moral issues in a productive way that will glorify God.  In my real life, I'd say that 95%+ of my friends share my faith and are pro-life.  

The likely overturning of Roe v. Wade is a time to celebrate God answering a major, long-term prayer of mine.  It's not the time for me to feel angry on an internet forum and lose my witness to it.  On Tuesday night, I was at a worship night and just felt so free and so grateful to God while worshipping when I can see what He's doing right before my eyes.

God Bless y'all and see you soon!!

P.S. If anyone wants to know about how to follow Jesus, please DM me!  I'll get an email notification, so I will know to check!!

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I've decided to resume posting after a bit of a break, but I really don't want to get into mudslinging.  I want to faithfully represent my faith and how it impacts how I see the world here.  It's going to be hard because this forum is so secular- and at times very hostile to the core beliefs of my faith-, but I need to be better at not feeling the need to respond to every statement about evangelicals and to discern when it is glorifying to God for me to respond.