Rhythms

Morning office routine
The click of the key in the lock
Quick pull of the blinds
Buzz of the computer
Beep of appointments
Chair wheels sliding back
Drawers sliding out

Clicking of heels on sidewalk
Always pressing the crosswalk three times
Side glances to the cars passing by

Depending on the day,
Quick meal before dashing upstairs with arms full
To pull open the laptop and sign on
To gmail and docs and facebook at once

Rhythms
Normal, weekly, expected, mundane
But you will miss the pleasantness
Of those five-minute car rides late on Wednesday night

A Feel-Good Vacation

I am shocked right now. Groupon is selling a volunteering vacation! I think part of me wishes that voluntourism just really didn't exist, that we would all see our selfish motives for flying overseas. But this brings it to a whole new level. A volunteering vacation--life changing, rewarding, exotic...

After taking a behind-the-scenes tour of the facilities and having conversations with development workers, you'll help serve a meal to hundreds of malnourished kids.

Finally, you’ll take a day trip to Hope Ministries' poultry farm, where you’ll witness the program's work to achieve financial independence with the help of thousands of cheeping chicks. In between excursions, there will be plenty of time to fly kites or swap stories with the program's kids.

Oh yes. Fly all the way to Zambia to serve food, look at chickens, fly kites, and talk with kids.

This deserves a longer post, and there are fifty other questions and topics it brings up. I am not the expert to write it. I consider my conversation on this topic relatively amateur, but there other great pieces out their on the cautions to take on short-term volunteer/mission trips, and if you're ready for it, the dangerous and negative impacts as well. But for now this Groupon Getaway deal will have to sti in my brain under the file of, "Horribly Wrong."

Thoughts from small group

My disappointment that two friends didn't make it to the last small group (though I wasn't entirely surprised) was redeemed by sitting next to Andrew and Jason tonight. Curious, I asked Andrew if he had a faith background, which opened up the conversation that nope, he didn't. Went to church a couple times, has never read the Bible. And the last small group he went to was really confusing and he didn't know what was going on.

As we partnered off and talked throughout small group, I realized that this small group looks really different when you're looking in from the outside, when you have no idea what people are saying. Such as, holy smokes, our small group is filled with all sorts of Christianese lingo that's so natural for most of our students, so awkward if you've never been exposed.

______________________

I started this a week ago with full intention of fleshing out my thoughts on things that would be helpful for newcomers to small group (For example, my friend had no idea that Jesus is both God and God's son)...and never finished. Until next time, I guess.

Growing up

My dear friends,

At 23 years of age, I have applied and been approved for my first credit card.

For some reason I feel like it's a huge deal.

The creepier part is that there is a huge database of information, so using some of my basic info, a site I have never registered on can ask me security questions like county I live in or a previous street residence without me. And they know my loans and the fact that I don't have any other credit cards. Such is the mystical world of credit reports I suppose.

The logistical part of me wonders how I will factor this in on my budget excel spreadsheet. But we'll cross that bridge in another week or so.

Happy Monday!

My body's just a shelter for my soul

And I know, I know
That the world is temporary
And these shelters that I dwell in aren't my home
And I know, I know
That this truth is hard to carry
My body's just a shelter for my soul
I will go on
(Shelters, Village on Yarn)

New-found respect for my friend Nic and his band, Village on Yarn. Thank you for reminding me that this world is temporary, that there is a life beyond this that we are living for. After all, Paul presses on to something greater. I pray that I remember that the shelters--whether room, apartment, or body--I dwell in are not my home. That my soul would long for something deeper, that there is a life with my savior at the fullest and at completion, as opposed to what we have here. This world is not my home.

Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live

This year, Easter is arriving with Mark 2 still fresh on my mind. The last supper, denials, trial, beatings, crucifixion. What a Friday it must have been. What a dark Saturday with hope seemingly gone forever. And what joyous celebration when death is conquered.

But tomorrow may I meditate on the death that comes before life.

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

In staff-lingo, some questions I ponder: In what ways have I died? Where am I unwilling to die, yet the thing I am holding onto is preventing from deeper life? What life have I gained by losing?

This passage was the tipping point for me as laid down on a rooftop in Kolkata the summer of 2010. Brokenness and despair in ways I have never seen, yet glimpses of redemption. Yes, glimpses of redemption, pockets of hope--those were my phrases for the summer. The overwhelming goodness and healing never swept in and still hasn't. And yet light persists. Hope persists. And Jesus is present--He dwelled among us. Lived, died, and lives now. So that we too may die to what is life-less and live for abundant life.

Even as I write this I struggle to find words, for one can be alive yet not live, but how does one describe dying to a life that isn't alive? Fortunately Jesus promises both.

Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

 Luke 9:21-24