Radical Is as Radical Does

In my small corner of the world my friends and I are reading Radical by David Platt.  We sit at Sunday's table with Orange bound books and our myriad of Bible translations.... reading and re-reading passages of scripture, making confession as we go.   As we probe deeper, we nervously exchange glances with each other... the wind in our sails exhaled, we are all waiting for one of us to say it ... to let us all off the hook.. "it doesn't really mean what he says it means".  But no one does.  One sister fidgets in her seat, while a brother grimaces,  looking down at his fingers smoothing the pages of his well worn Bible.  I glance at the clock and reach for my paper cup of free-trade coffee gone cold.  Luke-warm bitterness that should've been hot.  Huh.  I'm reminded of someone.  I make my confession.  I really didn't know I had lived so many years on the wrong side of a paradigm shift.

"So you cannot be my disciple without giving up everything you own"    - Jesus I've read that before.  I've read it and went on to chase my material dreams.  I've loved Jesus most of my life... really loved Him.  Somehow I thought sacrifice was washing dishes, folding laundry and schooling little minds.  I was sacrificing b/c after all, I couldn't just go out to lunch or coffee on a whim, like some of my friends could.  Somehow, I confused the freedom to manage my own time, and spend hours each day with my family, and sit on my overstuffed couch, and walk my dog through my upper-middle-class neighborhood, and worship in community within a mile of my house, and drink free-trade coffee out of paper cups as sacrifice. I am reminded of the anti-drug commercial... the one with the egg.... "this is your brain", and then the fried egg.... "this is your brain on drugs".  And I think my brain is fried.  Really.  I picture a plate of scrambled eggs.... "this is your brain on stuff". How is it possible to have read Jesus' words as many times as I have and still be so clueless?  Some might read that question and think,... "well, she must not really know Jesus", as they ponder my words from their own La-Z-Boy recliner. And then..... maybe someone else will read those words... someone who 'gets it' like I haven't.... and say, "I'm going to pray for her and her friends". I do love Jesus and I do not know what I'm going to do about it.  But I know there is no condemnation in Christ.... I don't know what being faithful will look like tomorrow.... only what it is right now. If your curiosity is piqued... please go google some people like David Platt, Francis Chan, Katie Davis, Ken Wystma.... a few names out of many who are learning that radical is as radical does. But make sure you're really interested.... maybe ready is more like it.  It's a dangerous thing to hear the truth and shrug your shoulders and decide to do nothing.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it'd be better to be ignorant. And if you are reading this and you are further along in your following-Jesus- journey than I am.... will you pray for me and my friends?   We really need it. And now counting from my abundance of blessings..... the sight of my children's heads bobbing as they run off to basketball practice every morning I wake to a day to be spent with them the kiss I get from my love each morning finally learning the purpose of fitness water listening to the heart of my Persian friend him sharing so openly understanding him better Wednesday mornings with Patti His grace in my failure His mercy a new friend on Sunday providentially finding us?

Thinking on Beauty

and pondering what it really means.  I'd love to hear your thoughts... will you join me at

Imagination Nexus?

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Monday Morning Quarterback

Today, I'm the Monday Morning Quarterback... calling the plays from the weekend as they should have been,  not necessarily as they were.  It's easy to see in hindsight what you would have done differently.  It's another thing altogether to live each moment to Him, and with no regret.  

How is it we can make such mountains out of molehills, and yet the places most in need of our consideration lay fallow?  

Fallow ground waiting for seeds of life.  It takes intentionality and discipline to grow a garden of fruit.  Conversely, a patch of weeds needs little more than looking the other way.  

And so yesterday I sang a song about Jesus taking the wheel.  

Pastor preached about addictions and bitter roots....

of which I thought I had none....

but maybe...

there are some.

Yet, even before he preached it

I knew He would preach to me.

Even before I sang it, 

I knew the song was for me.

"Jesus, take the wheel

take it from my hands

cause I can't do this on my own

I'm letting go

so give me one more chance

save me from this road I'm on"

And isn't this the anthem for us all?

What a day it is, when we wake up and realize that the sermon is for us, and that Jesus, in His Word.... He is speaking to us, 

not someone else.

He speaks to me about my need.

Why would He concern me with someone else's?

So, Jesus take the wheel.

Not from her or him or them....

from me.

And I'm thankful for:

sickness that doesn't last, but gives way to

health

simplicity

scripture

prayers being heard

story times

minds learning

healing

friends to wrestle with the hard truths of scripture 

how scripture is so powerful to shape us, and even our hopes for the future

how the Hold Spirit meets our every need, not in a far-off-in-the-clouds way, but

indwelling us, bringing us the salve, the instruction, the wisdom to the very core of where we need it and in every moment of our need.

how that is amazing

With small voice

These last weeks have brought with them a hurricane of thought and conviction... even some worry and dread.  Oh, we are fine.  Physically we have more than we can use or need.  But burden's transport travels in more than one direction.
So with small and quiet voice today, because I'm tired, here is some of the "much" that we have to be thankful for:

my sweet mother's birthday

a chance to celebrate His good work

a new friend taking me under her wing

how nice it is to be under someone's wing

how He is always there, even in the midst of confusion

growing children

hope for today

hope for tomorrow

that, yes, His grace is sufficient.

It's late... but not too late to celebrate!

What a wonderful world!  Truly.  We are so very blessed by the amazing creation all around us.  Even in the deadness of winter, His heart sings to us.... even in the silent stillness of cold night falling in early hours.

I have been reflecting on 2011:  The Year of Practice for me.  Ann Voskamp writes of do-overs.  Yes, I suppose I could use a do-over... if that's the way it worked.  But she and I both know, that isn't how it's intended to be.  Perfection isn't expected on this side of things.... at least not as it relates to the high ideals of communion, thanksgiving, intentionality, and yes... even practice.  We can perfect our execution of a math equation, we don't perfect our soul.  That is squarely His territory.  So I will continue to "practice" as I set out in 2011 to practice such things as kindness and thoughtfulness and prayerfulness.  But as themes go, it's time to move on.

Here, in 2012, my family and I are going to give some intentional thought and consideration to what and how we create.  We do so much of this without even really thinking about it.  I wonder what will happen if we slow down and pay some better attention to detail.  What might it be like to dream up a vision of something and teach our head and hands how to make it reality?  I'll confess that, in part, this idea was born out of my own struggle with and journey toward finding and celebrating true beauty.  I see and hear SO many conflicting messages about beauty.  I have heard countless victims (mostly female) of our current youth culture bemoan the fact that they are "less than", "not enough", "too fat, too light, too dark, too short, too tall, too freckled, too wrinkled, too pimpled, too stringy, too frumpy...."  just too much of all the wrong things and so they are just simply... not enough.

How this saddens me.  And I've been there.... I've lived in that place of "not enough".  I know whereof I speak, so I can't be fooled.  Everyone gets their wake-up call in a different time and place.  For me, it has come with having children and wanting more for them than I used to accept for myself.  What I now know about my value in Christ... I want them to know now.   Self-loathing is the stuff of fools.  It's the easy trap of our enemy and we foolishly take the bait.  There is no upside to it.  It is.... an....utter... waste of time.  The learning doesn't come in the loathing.  It comes in the waking up.
 The devil is no teacher, my friends.

So why a Year to Create?  Because it is about how we reflect our Creator, the Beautiful One.  What will happen when we are more about what we produce, than what we consume?  More about what we give than what we take?

My hypothesis is that there is life and living and fruitfulness in this.  I invite you to come over to our family's new blog:  Imagination Nexus.  Just click the button below and take some time to see, will you join us this year?


l"/>


And now, counting with Ann and the Gratitude Community:

Shopping dates with my love

Lights, lights, lights!

My daddy singing at the table

holding his hand in church

his prayers and exhortations

My mom cooking with me

the way we laugh together

her reading to us from this book.

Being together.

The house at night

calls from sisters

birthday fun

middle-eastern food

Persian friends

a friend who loves at all times

a taste of liberation

This message of not one resolution, but 10,000 instead

and how that fits... just right.

Counting Gifts

Like most folks, we've been busy this time of year.  Fun busy.  And though I am tempted to go on about this day, I will pause long enough to reflect here on a few of the many gifts from the passing of these days.

Our boy and girl the night of their Christmas concert at Our Lady of the Lake

how grown and handsome looking he was

seeing him do well at something I didn't even think he would try

her focus and her joy and her sparkle

My love coming up with a Stay-cation list for us

his planning and driving and doing and smiling

the Christmas wonderland at the Grotto's Festival of Lights

the gospel gently spoken through speakers along

paths lit with luminaries

hundreds of thousands of twinkling lights

nativity

candles representing lifted prayers

the aromas of barnyard animals and churros y chocolate

the decorum and reverence of a Catholic chapel

evangelical indeed

My love calling this Christmas his favorite

our littles stating, 'but Christmas isn't here yet"

he and I saying, "ah, but it's advent"

Christmas is here

the joy in giving

the anticipation of this advent week

I won't reinvent the wheel...

and neither will you.

I gave thanks for this fact last week.  A brother asked for the back-story, and you know I'm happy to oblige, so...

I read a lot and contemplate even more.  I read the stuff of thinkers, contemplators like me.  People like us  think we're going to stumble upon some great secret of the universe, secrets we are, of course, morally bound to share with the commonality.
These so enlightened have written the books that teach all things from 'new math' to how to listen to music or look at art.  They teach there's a right way to feed a baby, organize a closet, eat food (or not eat it), love your familiy and be nice to strangers.  If you read them, and really get them, you'll be happier, smarter and more generous.
Yeah, everyone's after a formula for perfection, and just as many are happy to sell one.

I always read with an open mind but, not being one to fall for snake oil, I never worried about being unduly influenced.  I figure it's likely someone has unlocked some truth in a way I haven't.  But lately, I've been unlocking another kind of truth... at least as it pertains to all that is really true,  it's all been said before.  All this stuff I read.  It's not dejavu, it's not that I'm smart, it's that Someone Else already figured it out and wrote it down, or passed it along some other way.  We've all been beaten to the punch, we thinkers.

Turns out if you want to be good at math, you have to do math.  Wanna be a great piano player?  Practice makes perfect, yes it does, and lots of it.  It's easier to keep stuff in order if you have less stuff to keep in order.  If you eat too much, you'll get fat... especially stuff like Twinkies.  God didn't make Twinkies.  Babies need to eat and it's good to hold them.  We don't need a lot of stuff to be happy.  We should give more than we do.
 What's worth doing is hard to do, and it only gets done by doing it.

And then there's this:
"whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement"
"whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery"
"let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and your 'No', 'No'.  For whatever is more than these is from the evil one."
"if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also."
"give to him who asks you , and from him who wants to borrow form you do not turn away."
"love your enemies"
"do good to those that hate you"
"when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing"
"when you pray go into your room, and when you shut your door, pray to your Father... in secret"
"if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you"
"when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face"
"where your treasure is there your heart will be"
"no one can serve two masters"
"do not worry about your life"
"do not worry about tomorrow"
"judge not"
"narrow is the gate"
"difficult is the way"
"every good tree bears good fruit"

The words in red.  There's more where that came from, I just gave a sampling.  If I read the red...

What more is there, really?

Someone invented the wheel.  It's perfectly round with perfect spokes.  It's.... perfection.  It cannot be improved upon.  We can talk about that wheel, sure, but it's not in need of any re-design.  It's fine to use new words to talk about that wheel, so long as the new words are, in fact, describing the wheel.  A wheel is a wheel.  It gets reproduced yes, but not reinvented.  As long as it's made from the original design and model, it'll roll.
So that's the story.  Radical?  Yes.  New?
Not a chance.

and still counting in the thousands...

free, simple devotional thoughts and prayers

kids learning the discipline of devotion

the only tangible connection I have to my aunt

remembering when she made it and gave it to me
wondering if I can do like she did

potential

an old habit, new to him

flickering white gold

best seat in the house

oh, how it does... 

love does

school on Sunday, but not Sunday School

learning together

reinventing?  no, but inspiring, yes!

Thank You Lord for this and so, so much more.  Thank You, O Magnificent One, Creator of all, our great and wonderful Inventor!