Are we, individually, identified by Christianity or is Christianity identified by us, individlually?
If its the latter, is there really any wonder why people don't take Christ seriously?

OK. This is going to be a bit of a longer post but I have received several requests to the events leading to asking my then girlfriend to become my now fiance. To set the scene a bit of background information is required; before I moved to Texas in the summer of 2004 there was a brief period of time in whence I resided in Michigan. It was there that I, a 14 year old just starting high school, met a beautiful 15 year old girl who happened to attend church with me. She was beautiful and thought I was cute so we dated (a.k.a. holding hands and making out in the church basement). I then had to move at the end of my sophomore year to Texas and leave her behind. Well over the next few years she came to see me and then I also flew to see her. I ended up being her senior prom date (it was a blast). We started to move our separate ways in college, she in Michigan and I in Oklahoma, and we lost contact. Last June I wrote her a letter and we resumed talking, I convinced her to leave Michigan and come to OC with me. We started dating (again?) and then we fell in love and I decided I wanted to marry her. Now that the background is understood we can move forward to the actual asking. Her birthday is August 9th and I wanted to give her a magnificent birthday present. BTW I'm completely broke and she knows that so she is expecting a VERY small birthday from me. So I spoke with a custom jeweler and had a custom engagement ring that I designed made; the gems were 2 aquamarine ( my birthstone) and a pearl all set in silver. Then my mother happened across an incredible deal on a pearl necklace, which I snatched up without hesitation. She was semi depressed because there was "no way" i could see her on her birthday. I told her to expect a package from me and that I would make it up to her for missing her birthday. Friday august 7 I took off work and jumped on a plane headed to Michigan and had a old friend, whom I could trust to keep this quiet, pick me up from the airport and drive me to his house. Upon arriving at his house he gave me the keys to his third car and said "have a good weekend". I was standing on Sarah's doorstep at 11:00 pm and I sent her a text saying " Shawn left your package on your doorstep". She opened the door and in her shock screamed and slammed the door shut, to which I replied by laughing raucously. Her father, who helped in the planning and execution of this scheme, joined in on the laughing as she attempted to comprehend me apparently "apparating" 3000 miles. That night was filled with coupley stuff followed by sleep. The next day was Saturday, she and I spent the day being together, cooking dinner, shopping, riding bikes, etc. That evening her grandmother came over and we had her birthday dinner and gave her the birthday presents. At this time I gave her the pearls and received a similar reaction to that of my arrival. She loved them to say the least. The next day we went to Church and had pizza for lunch. At 4:30 she began getting prepared for her birthday dinner from me. We had 7:00 reservations at The Capital Grille in Troy, about an hour from her house in Howell. I put on my Brand-Spanking-New black pinstripe suit (first public appearance) that I had gotten from the tailors on Thursday and she wore a GORGEOUS black cocktail dress with her hair curled in messy ringlets that cascaded over her shoulders, the pearls I gave her the night before shone at her neck and she was THE image of beauty :D. We got in my borrowed car and drove to the Grille. There she got an incredible sirloin, I got a perfect Filet Mignon, our sides were sauteed waxbeans in olive oil with aged and roasted garlic, and roasted garlic mashed potatoes. The sides were al la carte so we shared. For dessert we enjoyed creme brulee and espresso. The meal was wonderful and the atmosphere subtly romantic. As we were leaving the bottom dropped out of the sky and we were in the middle of Noah's rainstorm. The romantic walk in the park was completely ruined! Driving 35 mph down the highway we crawled back toward Howell.After a little over an hour the rain let up enough for us to drive closer to the highway speed limit. By the time we got to Brighton, where the park is, it was lightly raining. We stopped at a CVS to let her go to the bathroom and for me to buy an umbrella. By the time we got to the park, a whole 2 minutes later, it had stopped raining completely. So much for the umbrella. Sarah was gushing her thanks at her beautiful pearls, my thoughtfulness for coming up to see her, and the nicest restaurant she had ever eaten at. I was happy that she was happy and we were walking down a dimly lit bridge across a quaint pond behind an old mill. The air was clean, crisp, and fresh, she was gorgeous and I thought "now is as good a time as any". I spoke to her, making promises about the future, and finally told her the only thing that I thought was even close to being was she deserved would be to give her myself completely because no other gift was good enough for her. I pulled the ring out and asked her to marry me. She said yes and now we are happily planning a wedding.

got my Flux of Pink Indians shirt and thus begins the 12 straight days of breaking it in :D hahah. I finally got the aperture settings in my camera to stop freaking out, the calzone i had for lunch was unusually good, the guy at the motorcycle dealership was a nifty guy and listened to rad music, and i have a few moments to update my music on my computer... so yeah... good day :D

can one be a active member of the military, police force, or any other occupation where it is necessary, or could be necessary, to take another life and still be fulfilling the command to "love thy neighbor as thyself"?

ok... i finally got a pleonast... happy? :D