Winters Breath

Age may be just a number yet it represents the years in which life has given you opportunities to grow and mature but the number can also symbolize the time that has been wasted on things so meaningful and incoherent. The battle of my mind rages over my sense of self-worth and not being able to call myself "wife."
I saw my breathe come out my mouth as I rushed back into the house. I dodged heavy water as I slammed the door behind me. The goosebumps slowly faded entering the small room and approaching the fireplace. It's never been this cold in months and this sudden transcendent of rushing rain was unexpected but yet welcomed. There is serenity in this rain fall, typically since the rain reminds me of being cleansed and each rain fall brings a new a clear thought from what God wants me to know.
Lying back down, my mind started to relax and come back together. I whispered a prayer and asked God to mend the wounds my mind slashed open. It's that love of God that has that power to tie up and heal the pain once inflicted upon me by man, one in particular who still haunts my mind and I have to pray fiercely to keep those thoughts in check. I remind myself of the abyss he is lost in now and the conquering warrior I have become from all those years of dark abuse.

The wood cracked again from the fire burning its ridges and I saw the tiny sparks hit the barrier as well as one tiny speck hitting my flesh. The fire dried the rain on my body but it did not dry out the sound of those drops coming down to cover the soundless room I laid in.
At that moment I felt how nice it would be to have that someone embrace my fragile body with a warm touch and gentle kiss upon my neck. I have told my Heavenly Father in many quiet moments that now is my time to be with him, now is that time to end the cycle of one and prepare the chapter for two. Can I really tell Him what to do? Be can I really go on thinking I am being watched over but no one in the flesh to turn to?
My selfish thoughts need to come to an end and stop biting the hand that feeds me, or hurting the one who gave me life. But I just long for Him to understand how much his daughter longs for my soul to join in matrimony. Give me a chance Father to show you that my love and devotion for another is absolute and eternal.
Give me that chance to love, for I still feel I have not fully lived.

Cosplay and Christianity

Cosplay is an art that has been around for years. It’s very popular in Japan and is growing quite rapidly here in the USA. As most people would know, cosplay take place at Comic Con, the world’s largest comic book convention. It’s great fun, I absolutely love going to comic book conventions and dressing up as my favorite characters and just being a NERD! Being a nerd, it’s who I am and I can’t change who I am, God made me special

Now being a cosplayer, my costumes can appear to be sexy because of the characters I chose. Also being a Christian and a cosplayer causes many heads to turn because people cannot accept or grasp me as a Christian and a sexy cosplayer....how can the two mix?

One thing I should mention to you is EVERY character I cosplay, I voice cast them in a podcast called Iceberg Lounges Podcast. This podcast is heard all over the world, we get subscribers from every continent ( except Antarctica...haven't had one from there yet) and one thing that makes our podcast different is we do not do just comics, but we also do Bible readings. We include the Word God in our episodes. What people don’t seem to see is we EVANGELIZE in this podcast.

The one thing I believe people have a hard time with is the fact that Christians are un-relatable. We come off as critical and mean and judgmental and I admit some of us are like that.....but not all of us. Some of us WANT to be relatable but just don’t simply know how to be. Me personally, I try my best to be relatable to people of the world through comic books. I have that common ground with people at comic book conventions, I can sit and talk about comic books, story lines, art, story boards and anything nerdy, it’s a great thing Also I must mention the fact that I am evangelizing as I'm going to the conventions because I constantly refer people to my website (which has All my faith material) and I refer people to my podcast which has my Bible segment readings as well.

Now this way of evangelism may seem unorthodox to other people, you sit back and think:

"How are you relating and impacting people when you look/act just like them, what makes you different?"



Well for one I'm not that different because I was just like them, a lost sinner in the world going nowhere in life so I by no means consider myself better than them. Also I am different not by how I look but how I speak to them. I have had many conversations with people at conventions who were floored when they learned I was Christian because:
1. I wasn't judgmental I was quite kind to them
2. I didn't put them down or make them feel bad for liking comic books; I was easy to talk to.
3. I was dressed sexy but yet had a kind attitude about it, I didn't act conceited.

Those statement floored ME because we're Christian, we're SUPPOSE to be nice, were suppose to be easy to talk to......I'm quite certain Jesus was easy to talk to, heck he talked to prostitutes and tax collectors and told off the Pharisees! Go Jesus *woot woot*
Another misconception is:
 "How can I impact these people if I'm dressing sexy? Why do I have to dress sexy to get their attention?"

Let me tackle this one by first addressing the "sexy" issue. What exactly is considered sexy to you? Because for me, I do agree some of my costumes are quite sexy but I also see no difference between them and a bathing suit, a halter top, a mini skirt or a plunging neckline. These articles of clothing are EVERYDAY wear and my costumes are simply convention costumes, you will not find me wearing Slave Leia to the grocery store that’s for sure. My cosplay is ART, I love to express myself through costuming and design. As for Slave Leia, I love Star Wars and she is not the only Star Wars character I plan to cosplay, I plan to do at least 4 Padme costumes so I will have a range in the Star Wars department. Also Slave Leia, I am covered, even under the skirt YES I wear underwear under there and lots of fashion tape prevent "accidents." Poison Ivy is just a bodysuit; NOTHING is shown what so ever. Ariel is a Disney princess; they wear them sea shells at Disneyland all the time! I'm a mermaid, that’s what mermaids look like. The rest, I'm fully covered

Last I checked is the Lord looks at a person’s heart, not what they're wearing.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance,⁽but the LORD looks on the heart."

I use to use the example of I can walk around all day dressed as a nun and secretly hate God in my heart. What I wear will not usher me to the front of the line in heaven. God will not sit there and say "Oh Emy you wore a Slave Leia cosplay to Comic Con in 2011 and that was a NOT "Christian wear" so you're out of here!" I can even imagine God doing the head-bob thing -_-

Really?

It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship

I have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I read His word (The Bible) I pray to Him as often as I can and I do my best to obey His commandments and show people His love through me. God is love, He is perfect love and I want people to know and see how loving God is and I do that by being a friend to them and allowing them to see what god has done in my life.


Now after saying all this I also want to mention this: the devil KNOWS the podcast and my website is touching people’s lives and it’s my cosplay that is opening doors for this to happen. About two weeks ago, my boss Jack received an email from a listener of the podcast detailing how he was raised Muslim/Communist and came across the show and listened mainly for the comic book segment of the show, that’s all he cared about...at first. But by listening to the show, he converted to Christianity. I also want to mention how my boss Jack got saved. He got saved by Greg Laurie of Harvest church. Jack listened to Greg Laurie ONLY because Greg was a former cartoonist and Jack simply wanted to hear what Greg had to say, the words of a former cartoonists. Boom! That one tiny relatable fact, the Lord got his foot in the door in Jacks life and Jack got saved, thus this podcast show exists today.

There are cosplayers and listeners out there whom I have met who will listen to the show mainly because I am a voice cast member. They will want to hear me in the show simply because they know me, and by that tiny relatable fact that is the Lords way of getting His foot in the door of THEIR lives.....and the devil knows this. SO of course he’s going to send me opposition to stop me from being creative and going to conventions to talk to these people. I do talk about my faith quite often and will talk about my podcast because my focus to these people is not just comics, but by finding a way of getting the Lord to them. Yes my name was changed to JustSimplyEmy but that was changed to be simple, interesting and draw people in to get to know me and discover the person I am.

I serve God and I want others to know Him in the way that I know Him. Cosplaying is my way of doing it. I am relating to the world and showing them that yes Christians can be easy to talk to, we ARE nice and we are relatable. Their conversion may not happen overnight, it may take time but I have full confidence that through my cosplaying I will reach the lost. That is my mission and the Lord knows I can do it, that’s why He sent me to the convention scene. The Lord knows I can reach these people in a way that others cannot. We all evangelize and surprise, this is how I do it Its different, its unusual but since when is God normal? Does He not work in mysterious ways? He is creative and will find ways to bring the gospel to others in a way humans may not thought possible.

So that’s as much as I can think to write about to explain Christianity and cosplay. Still confused? Still offended? Talk to God, He'll listen

Obsession

Love is such a powerful force it shouldn’t be a surprise when it becomes an obsession. But it’s what we do with that obsession that can make our love Cupidity. In our book by the same name, Michael and I wrote about this idea, and because it's so easy to be obsessed by love I thought I'd share some of Cupidity with you here:
Not being able to stop thinking about someone is one thing, but a true obsession, according to Merriam- Webster’s dictionary, is “a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling.” Relational obsessions can come in the form of jealousy, anger, envy, bitterness, or revenge. It might come as a surprise, but letting any of these emotions control you is actually sinful (Romans 8:6-8). Not only are these obsessive tendencies a rejection of God and his Word, but they actually give you the opposite of what they promise. People who act on these emotions have the twisted belief that these actions will return their love and happiness to them. But the truth is that these emotions lead only to destruction and isolation. Love, by definition, isn’t jealous or angry. It isn’t bitter or vengeful (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). So when you start to be fed by those obsessive emotions, love leaves the room. And it’s nobody’s fault but your own.
It’s an ironic situation, but obsession serves to run off the very object it’s trying to keep hold of. Even if you aren’t in a relationship with someone yet but you have found yourself obsessing over them, you are systematically destroying the potential relationship. Instinctually we know that we are not meant to be worshiped. It’s uncomfortable and unbiblical.
If you live with the emotions of jealousy, anger, envy, bitterness, or revenge, you’ve crossed over into obsession. If you can’t stop thinking about someone you aren’t dating or someone who has rejected you, you are obsessing ( I would like to take a step further and add contstantly looking at this persons facebook, myspace or reading their blog is also a sick way of dealing with these emotions as well) The first thing to do is face the fact that these tendencies are not healthy or God honoring. You can’t overlook their negative effects on your life and the life of the other person.The only way out is to switch your obsession from man to God. You’ve got to get back to the one and only God before your relationships (and your spiritual life) self-destruct.

Written by Hayley DiMarco