Saturday, January 30

Reflective me and a phone call

My posts have been a bit reflective lately...more serious natured.
And that's okay...with the things that are on my heart, I could probably continue this reflective nature for another couple weeks. I've always been a thinker...by writing down things, it helps me focus and process my thoughts.

But my thoughts are not always weighty. I am an optimistic person and love finding humor in my day to day life. So instead of processing more thoughts over the next week or two, I am going to share more humor...or try to at least.

I had the funniest phone call yesterday that left me chuckling for a few hours...actually, I'm still chuckling. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this guy that I work with before. We have never met but have been phone friends for two years now?!? We get along so well and we make each other laugh.

My job never gets me out of the office except for one day a year. Every February, there is a food show in Seattle that our office goes to and helps with. Last year I totally expected to finally meet R but he never showed. Granted, I don't know what he looks like but I figured someone would introduce us...I'd hear his voice which I know...I'd see his nametag or visa versa, etc...but it didn't happen. I called him up the next day to tease him about not coming only to find out "surprise!" he was there and talked with my co-workers. We laughed and said...see you in February 2010.

In order to not have a repeat this year, I wrote on my calender to call R a couple days before the show to "personally invite him to show up this year." Well, R called me yesterday at work and mentioned that his February was pretty packed with meetings and trips. This prompted me to ask if he'd be at the food show in Seattle on Feb 23rd, to which he sheepishly admitted that he just booked a trip to Chicago during that time. Really?!?

At the end of our phone call, he said, "See you February 23rd."
Yeah, in 2011!

Friday, January 29

Clean Hands and Pure Hearts

When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise--Proverbs 10:19

Today, my friends and I are having coffee with the two missionaries visiting our church. I'm not really sure what we will talk about. The missionaries that come through like to touch base with us candidates, to keep us encouraged, provide direction, and open up their corners of the world to us. And I gladly receive! These times are such a blessing. Last year, I think I was on an encouragement high for a week.

He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity--Proverbs 21:23

And yet, today I am a bit nervous. Since last year, things have happened. Occasionally we are bogged down with discouragement or frustration. I really don't want this time to become a slander/complaining/whining/exhausting conversation between the five of us. I think it is okay and probably good to talk about some elements of frustrations but I don't want it to be the sole focus of our coffee time. Above all, I want to have clean hands and a pure heart at the end of our time together instead of wondering if I should have kept my mouth shut. I hate that feeling. It leaves me feeling yucky and causes even more worry and frustration. Instead, I want wisdom and joy to be breathed between us all. May it be so.



The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just--Psalm 37:30

Wednesday, January 27

Salesmen I Like

I'm not a huge fan of salesmen.
Why? Because I hate saying no and yet I don't want to buy half of what is offered. Which means I'm "forced" to say no and then I feel guilty.

There is one type of salesman that I do like.
Missionaries.

I was talking with a missionary from Indonesia yesterday and after 5-10 minutes, he was trying to recruit me to come to Indonesia. As of yesterday, I have been told that the will of God is for me to go to Russia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Indonesia...oh, and of course, the military. I assured the military that I had not heard from God on this direction but thank you very much. As for the missionaries, I just smile or laugh, consider what life might be like there, and then go home with warm fuzzies.

I guess it's the whole thing of being wanted. It's a nice feeling.
And there are a lot of good things going on around the world that would be fun to be a part of. So even if I haven't heard directly from God yet as to where He wants me to go, I am glad to be the recipient of their recruiting!

I need a wishing well or a sugar daddy

I know what I want to be when I grow up...a missionary.
The problem is that I am growing up and I'm still not being/doing what I want to do.
Another problem is that at this point, I don't know where I want to go or what kind of ministry I want to have.

Monday night, I had the idea that would be brilliant for everyone who wants to be an overseas missionary. It would be great, if we could pick 4 locations (approximately) and go visit those locations to see how we would like the country and people, and to see the types of ministries that we could join or partner with. All that would be needed would be about 1 week per place.

That would totally work for me! I am a visual and somewhat intuitive type of person. I have visited places before and known that I could or should move there. Granted, I've only actually moved to such a place once but clearly the world and types of ministries available is greater than what my mind can conceive. I can hear all the stories, read all the details and dream away. But to go, taste, hear, smell and feel the country would be infinitely better.

So where would I go?
--Bosnia
--Macedonia
--Cambodia
--Either India, Indonesia, Kenya, or some other African country

So why not do it?
Because it requires money and time off work. I have already found out that I'm not "allowed" to take more than two weeks off at a time. Plus I only get two weeks of paid vacation time per year...so if I squeezed in a third week or more, I'd have to take unpaid time off, which might be okay except for the matter of paying for school. and rent. And really, you'd need to allow about 8-9 days for each place because you take one whole day traveling there and back. Although I suppose I'd get a feel of the country in 5 days.

Maybe I should try squeezing in a trip this year...

Tuesday, January 26

Getting around to touring

My dad worked at Boeing for 30 years. Next month, he will have been retired for two years.
He doesn't miss it.

Today, my dad is taking the Boeing tour for the first time!

Understandably, why would tour the place where you work? I never tour my office...granted my office is only about 700 sqft. What is funny about my dad having never toured Boeing is that we've taken guests, my dad had arranged for others to take the tour, and everyone else in our family has been on it.

So why is my dad just getting around to the tour for the first time?

Because our pastor roped him into it...hehehe. Our church has missionaries in town and they were interested in the tour. My pastor has done the tour almost every year with missionaries and doesn't want to go again...I don't blame him. It's interesting but only like once or twice. Without my pastor's intervention, I wouldn't have been surprised if my parents moved to Arizona without my dad ever desiring to go on the tour.

Knowing my dad, I'm sure those missionaries got an "enriched" tour with my dad's explanations...hopefully all three of them enjoyed it.

Monday, January 25

My Friends

God has blessed me with two close friends at my church, a husband and wife who are my age.

Brian, Erin and I are a lot alike both in personality and purpose of life. You see, all three of us want to be missionaries with our denomination. We love our denomination and our hearts ache to serve overseas.

Over the last few years, our denomination has been less encouraging in light of the economy and trying to be good stewards of the available resources. However, for those of us in the process of becoming missionaries, it's a bit frustrating to be finally close to being ready to go and yet, not knowing if there will even be a spot for us in the next few years. Where does leave us? What do we do?

But back to my friends.

I am so thankful that Brian and Erin are a part of my life! I am blessed to have their friendship. And when times are hard or when we are frustrated with the unknowns, I am thankful that we can sympathize and understand each other because we are feeling the same things! I wouldn't want to be in this process (of becoming a missionary) without them. They are my encouragement, my prayer support, and my perspective-keepers...and hopefully I do the same for them.

Friday, January 22

Office Chaos

(I hesitate to post things about work on here because I have put the link to this blog on facebook, on which I'm friends two people in companies that we work with.)

I work in a small office...4 people....that's it! Most of the time we talk louder when we want to talk with the person on the other side of the room...we don't get up, we don't call by phone, we just talk a little louder.

There are two men and two women. The two guys have actual office spaces with doors and four walls. Myself and the other lady are in one large open space. This small office, this open space, and these co-workers of mine make things...ummm...let's just say interesting and chaotic.

1. I love it when I ask a simple question about what something means which then starts a tirade about how a 3rd party isn't doing their job and they are not being paid enough to do the 3rd party person's job. I want to say "Whoa nellie! Don't take your frustrations out on me. Deep breath! Inhale.....exhale...." (Actually the deep breaths might be more beneficial for maintaining my own sanity.)

2. I love it when I repeatedly hear "excuse my French....but so-and-so is an awful b----!" To that I want to say, "I've never taken French so I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure b---- is not a French word!"
OR when I hear, "I'm sorry but so-and-so is a brainless moron." Then I want say to "You don't sound sorry" or "Are you really sorry?"

3. I love it when I repeatedly hear sighs, moans, frustrated laughter and slamming of phones. Having been here for 2.5 years, I believe the desired response is "what's wrong?" but since I know that will induce another tirade...I ignore it...because all too soon I'll be the recipient of it anyways.

It sounds like my job is awful or toxic, doesn't it? My job has many blessings too. (In my church's youth group, there is a joke that for every bad thing you say about someone, you need to list 3 nice things.)  Like even today, my boss ran out to Starbucks just because I said my breakfast (yoghurt and granola) was not hitting the spot at all! So he brought back a latte and breakfast wrap. Plus my job provides for my apartment and school. And if I need to leave early for any reason, I am pretty much free to do so, within reason.

Thursday, January 21

Weary

As a full-time employee, a full-time student, a part-time youth leader and part-time sister/daughter, I have found that in the three years I've been plugging away on my Master's degree, I get weary by the end of the 2nd class.

Each term consists of three classes, one at a time. Each class is 7 weeks long.

So because of this discovery and to keep myself out of debt, I started skipping the one of the 3 classes (which is why I am now in year 3).

Class #2 ends in two weeks and I am weary once again. I want to sleep, read fun books, play in the kitchen and have a break from school and work, which I'll actually get in 2 weeks. I'm going to California the day my class ends for a week in February to see my grandparents.

But I still have two weeks of perseverance that is needed and a 20 page paper that still needs to be written...sigh...I'll get it done...I always do.
I care too much about my GPA!
(That seems very "high schoolish" of me...but academically, I'm doing the best I've ever done!)

Wednesday, January 20

Career Options

Have you seen the movie "Never Been Kissed?" I like that movie for several reasons but none that are worth mentioning in detail.

Anyhow, there is this one scene where Josie (Drew Barrymore) is getting to know Aldys (Leelee Sobieski) and Josie asks her "what do you want to be when you grow up? What are your dream and aspirations?"

Aldys gets excited and proceeds to list about 15 different career options and 4 colleges that she wants to attend. This always amuses me because I can totally identify with Aldys.

For the record, I know I have been called into ministry and missions...I know that like the back of my hand. But there are about a dozen other jobs that I think I'd also really enjoy:

--Chef or Caterer
--Bible Teacher for middle school, high school, or college
--Camp Director/Administrator
--Pilot
--Background Singer
--Coffee Shop Owner
--Case Worker
--Tour Guide
--Pastor's Wife (not exactly a job you can apply for)
--Bank Teller
--Food critic
--An actor on Sesame Street (after all, how cool would it be work with Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird and the others!)

So what are some jobs you think you'd enjoy?

Tuesday, January 19

Purple Mountain Majesties

All I can say is that I wish I had a camera with me this morning.

On my way to work, I take this one highway every day which, at one point, is heading east. On clear days, you can see the entire Cascade mountain range and even Mount Rainer. Always beautiful.

This morning, the sun was rising and the skies were splattered with pink and purple hues, all of which were surrounding Mount Rainer.

I know my words don't effectively create the beauty of that scene and moment. But trust me, it was beautiful. And it was just what I needed to start my day.

**Update--And now the sun is gone...well, not gone, just hiding behind our usual layer of grey clouds. Wow, that sounds gloomy. But hey, even that could have great spiritual implications, right?

Monday, January 18

Challenging Me

I have been known to challenge myself to cut something out of my diet for a month or two, just to see if I could. And I did it every time, relatively easily.

However, when it comes to persevering over larger things, such as general eatting habits or exercise, that is where I tend to cut myself some slack. I set a goal, don't push through the hard moments or make an excuse or two, and then fail.

Since the new year is about resolutions and setting goals, I've decided to set a few "challenges" for myself...just to see if I can do it. I know I'm a little late but oh well! Most of the challenge will be month-long, with the exception of the first:

Jan 18-31: drink 12 cups of water every day (This will be fairly easy for me overall however I am awful on the weekends with water consumption)
February: walk or run at least 4 times a week
March: No eatting out (unless invited by family or friends...at the most 5 times total) and no eatting after 7pm.
April: No sugar...hmm...this will be interesting
May: Walk/Run at least 6 miles every week (okay, I know this isn't huge...but it will be a good step for me...maybe the last two weeks I can increase it to 8/10 miles)
June: No beverages other than coffee or water (sorry, but I'm not cutting coffee out...ain't gonna do it.)

We'll start with this and evaluate my progress along the way.
I can handle this. 30 days...piece of cake, right?

Friday, January 15

Random Sevens

**Ryan at This is Reverb challenged his readers to post 7 random items on their blogs, like he did today. So I decided to follow suit and added to my earlier post from this morning.

1. You know you are getting old when...

My sister went to get a facial yesterday at a beauty school, which didn't end up happening. While she was waiting, True Colors by Cyndi Lauper, started playing over the speakers.

One student walked up to her teacher and asked, "Is this Jessica Simpson?"

My sister called me shortly after because she knew I'd enjoy it!

2. One reason I dislike living in western Washington...

During the rainy season (November-April) there are times I seriously never warm up. The cold and wetness seeps into my bones and even when I'm in a warm building, I will still feel cold for hours. It is on days like this that I wish I lived in the prairies where even though it is even colder there, the air is dry and you warm up within minutes of going inside.

3. I am in need of socks...

I have been in need of more socks for probably about two months. The awful thing is that I continue to throw away pair after pair and still haven't bought replacments. I am probably down to about 4 pairs of every day socks and 4 pairs of "dressy" socks. Time to go shopping...

4. My dear friend...

I got an email today from a dear friend in Holland...one of my best friends...she is going to through a hard time at work and might quit her job. She mentioned that if she quits, she is going to try to come to Washington for a visit and rest. Is it wrong for me to hope that she comes?

5. A weird smell...

When I stepped into my apartment yesterday, I smelled a weird smell, which isn't good considering that I was expecting guests last night. I followed my nose and found some disgusting old potatoes in my pantry. All sprouting and moldy and leaking through the bag. Quite awful...

I immediate bagged up the grossness, grabbed some bleach cleaner, wiped it all up, and left for dinner. I didn't notice the smell once I returned home after dinner...I hope I solved the problem. I hope the guests didn't smell anything.

6. A new recipe...

I love scouring recipes. I found a new recipe that I want to try this weekend (not that I need to try it...). I'll grab a jar of my blueberry or cherry pie filling to go with it.

7. I love Peanuts...



The benefits of being a younger sibling...

Thursday, January 14

A Called Life and Broken Heart

Haiti.

My heart is broken for the people of Haiti.

Everytime a natural disaster happens, my heart longs to go to those areas and help. I'm probably not trained enough...no medical experience/education, not strong enough for manual labor type things such as removing debris...but I could offer blankets, food, water. I could sit and cry with them. I could pray over them and hold their hands. And for all those things, I want to go.

But life has me here.

Not to make this all about me but if I could choose the ideal ministry for me, I would hop from country to country, with each natural disaster. I would want to help in their survival and in the rebuilding of their lives. And then move on when the next disaster hits somewhere else. It would be an incredibly hard emotional job...but it stems from the compassion that God has given me. Does such a job exist for someone like me? For this job, I would be willing to sell all of my possesion and live out a suitcase to be the hands and feet of Christ.

But Christ has me here.

And so, I pray endlessly. And I give. And I trust that joy will come in the morning for the people of Haiti.

Wednesday, January 13

Give Us Clean Hands

Every month at youth group, we address a different set of topics. Starting last week with my lesson on Solitude and Silence, we started a month of Spiritual Discipline lessons. Yesterday's was on prayer. The two leaders who led this also had an interactive night, like my Solitude/Silence lesson. It all turned out very good but I only want to share one part of it.

One way to pray is through the acronym ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication
For the Confession station, we were told to all stand on some plastic, close our eyes, and hold out our hands. The leaders walked around and wiped this gritty goo all over our hands. When they were done we were told to open our eyes and see what they had done. The goo was a combination of corn syrup and dirt...so not only were our hands dirty but sticky as well.

This struck me as the perfect image of what sin is and how it affects me and others around me.

When we sin, it is as if our hands are covered with that sticky messy goo. Everything we touch is then affected by the dirt. My dirtyness affects my relationships with others and with God. I can pretend that the sin is not present in my life but it is obviously there, usually apparent to many. Even if I tried to hide it with gloves or pockets, I may be able to fool a few people but not God. There seems to be a growing thought that whatever I do is only my business and only affects me. To that I say, Not So! My sin affects the entire community around me every.single.time! First of all, when I have sin on my hands, I am not being the person that God created me to be which taints how people see God, through me. Next, all I would have to do is reach out and touch someone and oops! they are now messy too. Sin can be contagious. Lastly, when I have messy hands, people are going to be less likely to give me hugs, shake my hands, etc. Every time I sin, I separate myself others, intentionally or not, and the community is affected.

The more obvious relationship that is affected is my relationship with God. When I try to draw close to God with sin on my hands, the sin will make it hard for me to connect with God. For example, if I walked around with dirt on my hands and wanted to spend time talking with my dad, there might be a few moments of good conversation but more than likely, my dad will be distracted with the messy hands. He'd probably encourage me to take care of my hands first and He'd even volunteer to wash them clean. But if I ignore that and just keep chatting away, then our conversation will be affected and whatever wisdom my dad would want to otherwise share with me would be limited.

Another aspect that stood out to me in this analogy is that there is only one good way to remove sin. I could try to remove the dirty mess from my hands but even if I were able to remove all the specks of dirt, my hands would still be sticky and therefore would continue to be a distraction as well as continuing to attract other dirty things around me. Only when I take the time to wash my hands clean will the Lord graciously allow the dirt and stickiness to fall off my hands. He will make me clean...wash me white as snow.

God has promised that if we simply confess our sins...any wrongdoings in our lives...He will forgive us EVERY TIME! We don't have to prove to be better people. We don't have say four "hail Marys" and five "Lord's prayers." We only have to confess. We can never mess up too many times to make Him stop caring or wanting to clean us off. For that, I am so thankful.

Tuesday, January 12

Masterpiece Theatre

I love Masterpiece Theatre.
Okay, I know that is a pretty inclusive statement but they have done a fab-u-lous job creating new movies of old wonderful books, as well as a few new stories to delight us Victorian-type fans.

In case what I have typed means nothing to you at this point, let me elaborate. Masterpiece Theatre must work in conjunction with BBC...all the movies air on the Public Broadcasting System, which means that there are delightfully no commercials.

Within the last two years, Masterpiece Theatre has created a new movie for almost all of the Jane Austen stories: Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion (**they haven't redone Pride and Prejudice but that really isn't needed after the wonderful 6 hour Colin Firth version...nothing can top that film, in my confident opinion). They have also done Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives & Daughters, North & South, and Cranford. And they have included the Bronte sisters: Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. With the exception of Wuthering Heights, I have seen them all. And all of them have been delightful (especially Persuasion and North & South).

So imagine my surprise when my commrade in Victorian swooning, informed me that Masterpiece Theatre had created a "Return to Cranford." (**Another side note: unlike the other stories I mentioned, Cranford is not a book by itself. The movie Cranford is a compliation of at least two or three of Elizabeth Gaskell's other stories. Return to Cranford is just a continuation story...probably all of which was just made up.) Part 1 of Return to Cranford was this past Sunday and the conclusion will be this upcoming Sunday. THEN, in the two or three Sundays after that, is the newly created Emma! **happy sigh**

My friend said I could come over for the next month and watch these pieces of goodness with her...I told her not to invite me unless she was serious because I might just take her up on it and show up every.single.Sunday. She doesn't seem to worried about that...her husband might tired of me showing up though...

Anyhow, if you haven't watched any of these Masterpiece Theatre movies, let me encourage you to seek them out. You won't be disappointed.

Saturday, January 9

Family Genetics

I know this family that has two kids. One kid, a girl, is short, dark-haired, dark eyes, olive skin. The other kid, a boy, is tall, blond, blue eyes, and lighter skin. Outside of their sense of humor and the shape of their eyes, they don't look like siblings, even though they very much are.

My family doesn't have that issue. All four of us kids look alike...there is no question that all four of us have the same parents. I've been told that I look mostly like my older sister, but nothing like the younger two. I've been told I look like my younger sister and nothing like my brother or older sister. And I've been told that I look like my brother and not like my sisters at all. Basically, we all look alike and share similar features, regardless of  what anyone says, and I don't mind that.

Since I hang out with my younger sister the most, we've received the most comments. For the record, I am 5 years older than my sister. Most comments that we have received over the last three years have been "are you two twins?" to which I always laugh and tell them that I'm older by 5 years. Since I just turned 30, I've decided that the fact that I still look around 25 is now a good thing. But today takes the cake!

I went to visit the Starbucks that my sister works at. While I was working in the corner on some homework, I heard a guy employee ask my sister..."hey Amy, is that your mom or something?" I looked over with a shocked horror expression and asked him how old I looked. I could not believe he seriously asked that. He ended up apologizing about 5 times and I told him that I forgave him but seriously, her mother???? I would have to be at least 40....eek!

Maybe that guy just needs his glasses updated...let's blame it on that, okay?

Friday, January 8

Kicking my feet up!

I have been working hard on homework this week. I mentioned a few weeks ago that part of this class involves weekly group assignments. That has been working out very well BUT I am finding that group projects/papers take wwaaaayyy more time than a normal paper...and we are only talking about 1-2 page papers. There is the emailing back and forth and multiple revisions before we get it just right. Therefore, I have been working non-stop on homework.

The funny thing is that according to my professor, this is a "relaxed" week so that we can start working on our 20 page paper that is due in 4 weeks. Haha...heehee....hum. Hasn't happened.

Monday: I worked on homework from 6:30pm-11pm
Tuesday: I had youth group so I only did homework from 9:30pm-11:00pm
Wednesday: I worked from 5:30-11pm
Thursday: I worked from 4:00-5:00am and then from 5:30pm-8:30pm

Remember folks...this is after working 8am-5pm and squeezing in an hour of homework on my lunch breaks. (No, I'm not asking for a medal or for a sad violin song and yes, I do realise that there are people who are doing the same thing with families or other responsibilities. No, I am not complaining about my homework because I've rather enjoyed some of it...I just in awe of how much I've done this week and how much there is yet to do...)

And so for all my hard work....I'm taking tonight off (unless I get inspired after 10:30pm, in which case, I'll probably take advantage of the inspiration or energy).

I have a friend coming over.
We are going to eat delicious Chicken Curry...so excited for this!
And we are going to watch The Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre, in our pajamas!
And the movie will be 4 hours of non-homework time.

I'm smiling just thinking of it!

Thursday, January 7

God and TV

God graciously woke me up around 3:45am, with homework on my mind. Actually I had been dreaming about homework and so it simply remained on my mind. Since I couldn't fall asleep, I got up and started worked on my homework for an hour. At 5am, I was tired and the Lord compassionately let me fall back to sleep. Now the Lord just needs to tenderly keep me awake the rest of the day!
_________________________

I haven't had TV service at my house for 1.5 weeks. There have been a couple moments when I have missed it but overall, it hasn't been bad. I have fleetingly considered that maybe I should just cancel my service altogether.

The reason it presently isn't working is because I just found out that I too need a digital converter box. All along, back when the big switch happened in June (or something like that), Comcast kept promoting that if you have Comcast service, you are good to go. I guess I was only good to go for six months.

Now I need to mosey on over to my local Comcast store and ask for a digital converter box, "which will only cost you $1/month." Sure...no big deal...but that is $12 more dollars per year than what I was paying or thought I'd have to pay. **sigh** What's a girl to do?

I guess the answer is to buy the converter box...after all Lost starts up in February...I need to see how the show will end!

Wednesday, January 6

Silencing Youth

I just remembered that I wanted to share about how youth group went last night. Like I shared yesterday, I was co-leading the lesson on Silence & Solitude.

Upon their arrival, we confiscated all cell phones and ipods. You would have thought the world might be ending. They seemed nervous to be handing them over. We assured them that they would get their phones back at the end of the night. Some were worried that this was new rule for all future youth groups. I assured them that they had been so such plans...yet.

The next hilarous moment was the moment my co-leader, who introduced the night, told everyone that from that point on, there was to be no talking. Eyes bugged out a bit. Youth looked around nervous, surprised, and even confused...after all isn't having fun always a part of youth group?

Overall, the youth handled the night VERY WELL. I honestly was expecting some whispering...some interaction to be happening. But if any whispering or interaction happened, it wasn't when I was around. They were so quiet.

The six stations also went very well. We gave them 10 minutes at each station. For some of them, 10 minutes were simply not enough. I felt bad for the groups when it was time to switch because it seemed like they had only just got there. We didn't want to interrupt a youth's moment with God and so some youth stayed at a station where they were meeting with God while the rest of the group moved on. It was very cool to watch.

I don't know how quickly another night like this will happen but the youth seemed to enjoy the night and several of them walked away knowing that silence and solitude (with God) can be a very good thing.

I love teaching when God does the inspiring.

Life

Is life half empty...














Or is life half full...













Maybe life seems messy...













Or broken...




Or maybe life is a party...













But whatever the viewpoint
life can be lovely...














...if you look to the Light.

Tuesday, January 5

I may have committed a crime!

Question: is the lake water at a public beach up for grabs? Because if it's not, then I'm a criminal.

Today I am co-leading youth group. The topic is Silence and Solitude.

Next Question: How does one possibly teach silence or solitude to a bunch of teenagers, especially considering that I am horrible at practicing those disciplines?

The Answer: We have decided to do six "sessions"...the youth will visit each of the six sessions to think about or to practice the discipline of silence. We can't really have them practice solitude unless we gave them complete access to the church, which we can't do. The sessions will be great but whether or not the youth will remain silent for an hour, yes, ONE HOUR, is the bigger question.

So anyhow, back to water. I read a great analogy about going to a river and filling up a jar with water. Our lives are normally like when we shake the jar and all the sediment goes flying around. You have to wait until the debris has settled before you can see through the water clearly. Likewise, we need quiet and still our minds and bodies so that we can see more clearly what God has or wants for us. Plus, it is also more likely that once we've piped down that we'll be able to hear God's still small voice. A good lesson to learn.

So I snuck down to the lake's beach (on my way to work), before the blessed sun had even risen (which I'm still not sure if it has risen since it is so grey outside) and filled 12 jars with lake water. I kept looking around expecting the caretaker, police or some random neighbor person to ask me what the heck I was doing. But I made it out. Alive. But cold.

Now, hopefully tonight's lesson will go well after I sacrificed my non-criminal history for the sake of the youth!

Monday, January 4

Facebook 2009

I was perusing Facebook and saw on my cousin's page a little thing called "My Year in Status." I clicked on hers and after seeing how amusing it was, did it myself. So I thought I'd share a summary of 2009 with you all by posting my Status report.