Oh what a week this has been! And it doesn't look like it will be slowing down for the next few weeks.

This being my senior year, I've got a lot of really big projects and such to complete. For one class, the whole class is basically a marketing campaign. The class only has eight people and we've been designing and meeting with the client all semester. Our campaign goes into action in a couple of weeks, so we've been really pressed to get everything aligned for that. It's been really crazy. Interesting, but crazy.

In other news, I am so sick of this election! I am hoping that Tuesday will just give us results. I really don't want to this to be a repeat of 2000 when we didn't know the results until January. It's very likely that it will, with all these cries of voter fraud before the election even happens. I wish I didn't care about the outcome, but I can't help it. I know the person I voted for won't win, but I'm hoping that McCain takes it over Obama. As much as I don't like McCain, I can't even begin to imagine the things that will happen under an Obama administration.

There are so many things I want to do besides school, and I just don't have the time to do them. I would really like to be applying for jobs after graduation, but haven't had time for that either. I've been wanting to do more volunteer work and out spreading some love. I also would love to be spending more time with Jenna, but between her schedule and mine, we're lucky to get a few hours a week. Our weeks are filled with class, work, and homework. Our weekends are usually planned out ahead of time. I just hope things settle down soon and we can spend more time together. I suppose we'll survive, we have plenty of time in the future to be together.

Last Wednesday, I got baptized.

This was my second baptism, but my first Biblical one. I was baptized as an infant by my parents as a symbol of their promise to raise me in the Christian faith. It had always been my intention to get baptized as an adult when the decision was mine to make. So while my original intentions were to be baptized when I was 20, the fact that my dad was out of the country pushed that back until last week.

I guess it's really hard to explain the feeling that baptism brings. It was definitely an emotional and a spiritual experience. It's one of those things you don't really know is missing until you have it.

I think that's all I want to say about that for now.

On a completely different subject, I've decided to take up a letter writing project. I'm going to write individual letters to my close friends and family. The purpose of these letters is for me to be completely open with them about our relationship. I'm going to work on really letting everyone know how I feel about them while highlighting the strong parts of our relationship and the parts that need improvement.

I feel that, sometimes, I don't adequately express the way I feel about the people in my life and I'm hoping this will help that. I'm expecting that these letters will be heartfelt and very honest. They're going to be meant to tear down some walls and lay some new foundations.

I'm sure this is going to be an undertaking that will take some time, but I definitely think it's worth it. So if you're one of my close friends or family, expect to receive a letter in the near future. And by letter, this does mean I will be using the postal service.

This is something I have yet to talk about on here. I kind of wanted to give it some time before I brought it up.

A little over 6 months ago, I made a decision to stop eating meat. It was a decision that took a lot of thought, meditation, and prayer. I thought it was going to be a difficult change, but it's proven to be rather easy. I thought that I would take some time to just kind of lay out why I came to this decision. This is just a few of the beliefs behind my decision, not nearly all of them.

First of all, here are some of my beliefs that are not reasons why I stopped eating meat:

1. I don't believe that eating meat is wrong.

I don't think it's a sin to eat meat. Jesus clearly said that what goes into our body is not the problem, it's what comes out of it (Mark 7:15). I don't believe that by eating meat, I'm sinning against God.

2. I don't believe other Christians are wrong for eating meat.

There is nothing in the Bible that clearly prohibits the eating of meat. I understand that not all Christians are going to experience the conviction that I am experiencing.

3. I don't believe an animals life is as valuable or more valuable than a human's.

I think this idea is just ridiculous. I don't feel I need to even explain this one.

Here are the reasons why I stopped eating meat:

1. We eat too much meat.

The world today is much different than the world Jesus lived in. It's much different than the world our great-grandparents lived in. Today, it's normal that a person would have some sort of meat at every meal of the day. That means we have to produce a lot of meat to keep up with the demand. In order to meet this demand, ranchers had to change the way in which they raise and slaughter animals. Before, animals were born, lived on a range where they were free to move around and graze. When they got to the right age or size, they would be slaughtered and butchered by hand. These days, most animals are kept in a cage their whole life, force fed to increase their size more quickly, and then herded into a slaughterhouse where they are slaughtered and butchered by machine. Numerous times in the Bible, God condemns cruelty towards animals.

2. God cares about His creation and so should I.

Jesus makes it very clear that God loves humans above all the other earthly creations, but He also makes it clear that God loves all His creations. In Luke 12:6, Jesus says, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God." This tells us that God even cares about each and every small animal we may just take for granted.

When God created the earth, He gave Adam dominion over the other creatures on the earth (Genesis 1:26, 28). I think that in doing so, God's intent was not for us to be a tyrant over them and abuse them, but to treat them with the same love God does. He also told Adam and Eve that they could eat of any tree in the garden (besides the tree of knowledge), but never did he mention that they should eat the animals. That wasn't allowed by God until after the flood in which almost all fruit bearing plants had died and God allowed Noah to eat certain animals for nourishment.

It's not that I think eating meat is wrong in and of itself, but I believe the way that the meat industry is working these days is wrong. God cares about these creatures and we're just treating them like a commodity. He gave humans the right to be ruler over the animals and we're doing a horrible job.

3. It's healthier.

Because of our overuse of meat, our society is seeing large increases in obesity and other problems caused by an over-intake of meat. If done carefully, a vegetarian diet is much more healthy than that of one including meat. If you eat meat two or three times a day, you're not doing your body a favor. We are told that our bodies are a temple for our soul and the holy spirit, and that we should take care of it (1 Corinthians 6:19)

And now, some common questions I get about my not eating meat:

Are you a crazy animal rights activist? Are you part of PETA?

No. I don't feel the need to go out and paint people red and badger them for eating meat. I don't think that I need to force my belief of not eating meat onto anyone else. I feel that I'm doing my part and what I feel is right. I'll be there to answer questions and give insight, but never to convict someone that what they're doing is wrong. People that believe an animal's life is worth more or as much as a human's life is wrong.

Do you eat fish?

Yes, I still eat fish. I have not found any reason not to eat fish. I don't eat it very often and have thought about eliminating it, but at this time I do not abstain from it.

Don't you miss eating meat?

I thought I would, but I really don't. With all the meat replacement products we have now, it's easy to make the transition. I actually enjoy the culinary aspect of eating vegetarian. There's a lot of awesome recipes and options that make it, in my eyes, more varied and exciting.

Will you ever eat meat again?

At this point, I don't see myself eating meat in the future. I really have no need or desire to. That's not to say I won't one day change my mind, but for now, I'm keeping it out of my diet.

So that's a summary of why I've decided to stop eating meat. As for the title, the reason I say "I'm not a vegetarian" is because I've always felt that there was a negative stigma that comes with vegetarianism. I don't mind if someone calls me a vegetarian, but I like to think that what I eat does not dictate who I am.

I was interested to find that there are actually a lot of Christians making this decision to stop eating meat. If you're a Christian and want more information about how the Bible supports vegetarianism today, you can visit the Christian Vegetarian Association's webpage.

There was a period in my life when I despised going to church. It happened just as I entered high school and I learned what hypocrisy really was. I saw how these kids in youth group with me would act all righteous and Jesus-loving on Sundays at church, and then I would see how they acted when we were at school. I remember one guy that particularly had an influence on my feelings. He and I had gone to church together since we were really little. I ended up attending the same school he did for middle school and high school. I remember he used to just say really stupid and insulting comments to me. I never retaliated, I just couldn't believe that someone that would call Christ their savior would treat anyone, let alone another Christian, this way. Not to mention his parents ran the youth group.

So around that point, I strayed from church. I continued to study the Bible on my own time, read books, and prayed all the time. I decided I didn't need church to be a Christian. I built a sphere of pride around myself. I began to believe I was better than most Christians because I lived what I learned and practiced what I preached. I even got to a point where I thought about no longer considering myself a "Christian," but a follower of Christ because I didn't want to be associated with the hypocrites.

The only problem was that I, too, am a hypocrite. We all are.

Of course we all preach to live the way Christ would have us. Ultimately, that's what all Christians should and do want. But by nature, we cannot attain that. We aren't Christ. So we are all, as a result, hypocrites.

There are, of course, some that are more hypocritical than others. But sin is sin. And we can't focus all our energy on pointing out the hypocrisy of our brothers and sisters until we have faced the hypocrisy of our own.

I allowed my pride to build me up into a pious and judgmental pharisee. I was so blinded by my own pride that I pointed my finger at all the other followers of Christ without pointing it right back at me.

If you're a follower of Christ and you somehow think you are better than the rest of us, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you're not. You are sinful by nature just as we are. You write checks you can't cash and you make accusations of others that you should be making of yourself. And if you're a hypocrite in need of recovery, find a church. You'll be in good company.