A little less conversation, A little more action..(Thoughts on Vegas)

Ok, so, during our Girls Weekend in Vegas, my sister, Corinne, may or may not have almost gotten kicked out of TAO Nightclub in her slightly stalker-ish attempt to get the perfect photo of Guns N Roses guitarist SLASH. I personally think she should have handed the camera to me and put all of her massive, beautiful curls in front of her face, bumming a cigarette from someone to hang on her lips for a sec., and done a driveby, SAY ANYTHING style pic by walking up behind him without his knowledge and letting me snap a quick shot..but alas, we missed out on that one. She did get a good shot of him DJing though..

"Lights is blinding, girls need blinders so they can step out of bounds quick,
the side lines is blind with casualties, who sip the lite casually, then gradually become worse, don’t bite the apple Eve, caught up in the in crowd, now you're in-style, and in the winter gets cold en vogue with your skin out, the city of sin is a pity on a whim. Good girls gone bad, the city's filled with them..."
Jay-Z in "Empire State of Mind"

The homage to New York might as well be talking about the quintessential "Sin City" a.k.a. Vegas. In heading there for the first time, I didn't naively expect a different city than what it is known for..gambling, drinking, shows and showing off T&A in every conceivable manner possible (both those visiting & those employed in the city). But hey, who'd of thunk there was a Lingerie Football League or that there would be nearly 'neck-ed' woman in bathtubs as we entered into one of the supposed "in" hot spots to go dancing, TAO?!!

A little sidenote on TAO, their billboards were eyebrow raisers for me-not because they had the usual airbrushed girls without anything on-but because the tag lines on their advertisements were things like "Join us for Worship Wednesdays" or "Come to TAO for a spiritual experience." Mind you, there were Buddhas all over and a very Zen-like decor..but what exactly what are people coming to worship? The lady in a g-string doing back flips while flying through the air or the waitresses who are clearly not keeping Victoria's secret?! ;) Moving on..

But seriously, it is totally dead on that we all worship something, right? Vegas is all about taking what God made for our pleasure-sex, beauty, food, games, entertainment and turning it into a playground of excess where all these gifts meant for 'good' get hijacked & distorted almost to an unrecognizable dimension. These things were made to create a sense of worship in us to their creator, but instead as we all do, we are all too ready to jump in when we know what God has intended and say we know better.

I should say, there totally are the people who can show up to Vegas and enjoy a show, gamble a bit and have fun without taking it all to an Nth degree. No denying that. I just couldn't help but thinking what a gargantuan landmine it is for our oh so visual men. If you are anywhere near 'The Strip,' you are absolutely bombarded with images both in print and in person of women whose aim is to get you to look&lust after them. I think my sister and I could have played a version of the 'Slug Bug' game with girls in dresses so short&tight it looked like they forgot the bottom half of the dress & up top I genuinely thought their girls were going to make an appearance any minute.

A verse I love comes to mind:
"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."
Proverbs 31:30 (NIV)

Now, I confess, I love attention from guys just as much as the next girl. In fact, I think that in high school and college I was addicted, in a way, to having guys tell me I was pretty or boyfriends tell me 'I love you'. Not just in the way all girls want to be noticed, but to a gloriously dysfunctional level where I can truly say I saw kissing or hooking up as the confirmation that I was somehow 'good enough'. When my crusade for fulfillment in that arena left me feeling empty and many times used, I look back and see that as the time I really started to think..God, there has got to be more to life than all this!?!!! So thankful there was! (More details in my testimony also posted on this blog)

Back to Vegas though, we did lots of shopping and eating. Other than running into Slash @ TAO, we saw the COPS show filming several places around town..Corinne got pictures, of course. ;) Watched the beautiful Bellagio fountains dancing to Celine Dion/Andrea Bocelli "Time to Say Goodbye" and stayed in The Palazzo (part of The Venetian) where we could see The Treasure Island hotel show/fireworks from our room's view each night.

We had Frozen Hot Chocolates @ SERENDIPITY. We got some hilarious souvenirs @ GOLD&SILVER PAWN SHOP where they shoot the TV show PAWN STARS, but were bummed to find out that we missed getting our pics taken with Chumlee as he does not come in on weekends. Corinne did score a CHUMLEE IS MY HOMEBOY Tee though and I got a THE FABULOUS CHUMLEE mug.

While we walked down Las Vegas Blvd. for the first time on a cool morning, I had a guy dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow tell me that he would hold me to keep me warm..passed on the offer. Suzanne, my sister's best friend's sister, had an Elvis look alike jump in front of her and scream for no reason whatsoever. Oh, and Corinne and I got pictures with two Filipino Elvis impersonators..which I never would have done if Corinne hadn't made me!

Anywho..last random thoughts lead me to thinking about 3 verses:
1 Corinthians 10:31(ESV)
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

Romans 3:23
"..for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.."

&

Romans 6:1-2
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

Vegas is really only an amplified version of the state of our hearts in our daily lives. If I am going to live my life as though I know better than God and am going to put my focus more on myself/creation/temporary pleasures than him, that is how it is going to roll whatever city I find myself in.

I am feeling challenged to allow myself to feel the pain & awkwardness of real life instead of numbing it with food or acceptance of others. I don't need anyone other than God to be who is going to make me "good enough" (inside or outside). I want to dig into relationships without a huge guard I have put up from when I felt rejected or hurt in years past.

I am not going to wake up with the thought "What do I have to worry/be anxious about today?" I want that to be replaced with gratitude and determination to live the heck out of each day I am given. I want to love people even when it isn't convenient. I want to encourage people not with my opinion, but with the Word of God that has eternal implications past what 'I think' about something. And, I want to live it..all of which cannot be done on my own.

16 "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:16-20 (NIV)