Spending the winter with Yinka and Sarah is a blast. What fun it is to live with good friends. Ones who will let you put your turkey foot on the mantle...Oh, Luis and his proud turkey foot, it makes him dance in the snow. Burritos make him dance too!
God sees me as I really am. He knows the deepest parts of me. He sees behind my masks. He is helping me take those masks off. I want to share what He sees with His Body. I want to love like He loves. And be loved in the deepest parts of me. That I would see Him as He is and be laid bare before Him and learn to be free in that love.
Nice folks at The Table gave us some pumpkin bisque soup. YIP!
Talking dreams with a good friend...it's good to do.
Playing organ on street-also good thing to do.
Looking into the sun isn't the best thing to do.
Today I missed some work. Luis and I haven't been able to spend much time. We took a day together. It's nice to know that our top priorities aren't solely to make money. It's okay to take a day off to spend some much needed time with the one you love. Invite the One you love and it will be even better. ahh. i like it.
-In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.- It's so interesting that we read some words, and through these words we know the One who is the Word. Jesus is the Word. So even if I didn't have a Bible available Jesus would be available. WORD! But how sweet it is that I do have a Bible available...btw this is Callie's Book and she READS.
Jake praying and Lui playing.
In an earlier post I stated I have been thinking about church. So many thoughts. So many questions, not many concrete answers. #1. We are the Church.- Ok, so in my identity I AM THE CHURCH. #2. The Church is Christ's body.-Ok, so if I am the church, then I am Christ's body. #3. It's not just me who makes the body.- It's all Christ's disciples. If all of us ARE THE CHURCH, how have we made our identity into a Sunday morning service/event...and how do we heal the damage that has been done by "going" to Church (the building) that has overshadowed the reality of "being" the Church (the body/our identity)? Not many answers, just asking.
Since tracking my unusual usual throughout the week, I've started noticing things that I might otherwise overlook. One of these things this week was this upside down STOP sign. It looked so strange to me. Made me think about things in my life that might be out of place I might not notice unless I looked a bit closer. Concluded that thing right now is the career path I am on. I'm not sure if it even is a path.
I hope it is. I hope it leads to somewhere nice. I'm sure it will have some bumps, some dark places, some great views and even new discoveries. Does it need to be flipped right-side up for me to have understanding of what it means? Like this STOP sign, I still knew to stop, even though I thought it said DOTS. What is something in your life that usually appears right-side up, but upon closer inspection you see it is up-side down?
All my entries are here thanks to Friday, my hand held Olympus, a small sip of Luis' coffee and a little bit of Florence and the Machine playing in the background-brilliant.
Seeing a lot of road time lately. Been doing training for YMCA Instructing. Now I am certified in Cycling and Cardio classes. Whew. Met some cool people from those 24 hours of training classes.
I went to Gal's Ekklesia (that's what it's currently coined) and stayed until 3 AM, then had my 8 hours of training in cycling and on Sunday 9 hours of cardio...Man, I am sore today. Went to sleep at 7 pm and got up at 8:30am today. Felt like I wanted to sleep longer! HA.
Been dialoging about church and what it really means...interesting stuff has been coming up. Will share more when the world doesn't look so blurry.
Do you ever have a day when you feel like this?Even though you "know" God loves you, but anger and displacement overwhelms you, and "knowing" that isn't enough? How has he come through for you? But before that happens you think it feels really good to say the "f" word? Just wondering about the process you go through...
Besides that, God showed His love through a good coffee with a love heart and a muffin with chocolate.
Even though it's dark, a small light can show beauty that's around... Unrelated news.... Guess this TREE was too heavy for the dumpster. What's up with that?
The YMCA has some pretty incredible goals. One of them is-
Environmental Stewardship: To appreciate the beauty, diversity and interdependence of all forms of life and all resources that God has provided in this world, and to develop an ethical basis for guiding the relationships of mankind with the rest of God's natural community.
What does it mean to develop an ethical basis with God's natural community? As I leave the Y I see a huge truck that will tear up the earth and develop more for mankind, which is good right? Then it got me thinking about the fumes that come off the road when the asphalt when it is being poured, the fumes from the car in front of me, the radiation from my phone and even that of my computer as I type, the waves from the microwave when I cooked my dinneys of beans in rice in the plastic bowl that no doubt was made in a large factory... whew. What is God's opinion on all of that? Was that his original intent for mankind w/ his natural community? You know the whole clogged sink issue?
The matinence guy came by today (who,btw was big burly and smokey smelling, but surprisingly friendly) and dumped plumber grade green gunk down the sink. It was so strong that we had to close the door with the fan on while we waited for it to work, and hours later the fumes still waft through the house. (Poor Luis was sleeping off his long 4 day night shift stint and I left the window open so he wasn't poisoned.) As if opening the window would divert us inhaling the fumes, yet it is going straight into the atmosphere!
So I thought it was weird how this issue was on my mind/dialogue w. God, then I get to work at Anna has this...(guys, you might be a little sicked out, but it's true statistics) There are 85 million women of menstruating age in North America. Conservative estimates are that the average woman disposes of between 10,000 and 15,000 tampons, pads and applicators in her lifetime. That's about 250 to 300 pounds of waste per woman. well, this was in effort to save the environment for women to use Diva Cups...http://www.divacup.com/ Seriously, really great btw... But if that's how much waste a menstruating woman produces, it just made me think about the amount of other types of waste we are producing with other things that happen more than once month... So...what does all this mean? How do we do it God?
There is the lovely tree across the street that has, punch-you-in-the-face red leaves and it tends to take my breath away daily. Each morning as I get in my car I think about what a dashing picture it would make. Notice I said each. For literally 3 weeks I have been thinking that. Today I was getting in my car, the thought crossed again followed by the Holy Spirit... "you know, those leaves aren't going to stay there forever..." I knew it was finally time, or it would be too late.
That little dialogue from the HS hit me, yep. those leaves aren't going to stay there forever.
This life is fleeting. Each season changes, as time passes, leaves slowly fall. We age. We change. We mature.
It hit home again today when I met someone who is in stage 4 of rectal cancer... wow.
Time is fleeting.
...he was a really "healthy" person...
Just like a tree, we bloom. We take leaf.
We transform, provide the earth with beauty...then just as we began, we return to dust.
Our bathroom sink is plugged. Ugh. It smells like farts in our house because of it. I have no clue why a clogged sink would smell farty. Nonetheless, I have resorted to washing my face in the kitchen sink, which is currently occupied with dishes I feel no desire to clean...That's not the point. The point is, I used a washcloth and I was stabbed with a shooting sharpness. Yes, this little burr made friends with my face. Thank you plugged sink. Thank you farty smell. Thank you burr.....
Thank you Jesus for running water. Finding things to be thankful is way better than complaining...
Just because something is there, it doesn't mean you have to partake... This happened last night when I thought it would be a good idea to have some of Sarah's Espresso... Still buzzing this morning. Nothing wrong with a little caffeine. In fact I think it helped Sarah concentrate on her health care study, study. And Luis sure knuckled down too...On the other hand there was me. I was sweating profusely and I thought that the ideas would burst forth from my head. Revelation; 6:30 is still a little too late for me to even have a few sips! Anyone one else ever get the 2 day caffeine buzz? I am praying sustain me today Jesus!
What was I doing last year at this time of year? I hope that my relationships have flourished. I hope that my heart for God's issues has grown. I hope that I am closer to my husband and better friends with God. What were you doing this time last year? What are your hopes?
Well...I felt like some days are just ordinary days. All those days seem to slip into the memories of the past. Shouldn't a journal be enough to satiate my daily happenings? I feel that often turns into a bit of diary. Plus I like to take photos, so I thought I might take photos of the ordinary days. Then I can look back and see what things I thought were lovely, funny, ponder-some, yummy, sad, cathartic, melancholic, and beautiful. Hopefully I can challenge myself to see the Beauty and Love that are chasing me and know the One who Is.
