Quote of the Day

It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane!

- Philip K. Dick

Happy Wednesday!

Cockroaches, water extraction, and lots and lots of laundry

Even though it's been a dead week here on my blog, life has been as crazy and addicting as always. The first-year-of-marriage adventures continue--first a huge, wiggling cockroach in the bathroom, with much screaming and cowering as my Prince Charming came to my rescue, and then another minor water disaster thanks to the driving rain (resulting in soaked carpet and equally soaked drywall), along with a half-hearted attempt to tackle the never ending pile of laundry.

Daniel's semester is nearing its end, but he has several humongous presentations, projects, and experiments still hanging over his head. Therefore, I am skipping town to see Morgan, Caleb, and the Emmababy so I'll be out of Daniel's hair way for a few days.

So you can put faces with names:

Daniel's the one of the left. (Silly boys + vintage shop in Austin = hilarious pictures)

Me (left) and Morgan (Silly girls + cameras + late nights = oddities to later be posted on the internet)

The man with his burly arm around Morgan is none other than her darling husband, Caleb, who unofficially adopted me as his sister during college.

And finally...

Emmababy! She belongs to Morgan and Caleb.

I can't wait to meet her!

Six Word Saturday (x2)

I love waking up to rain.

Stupid allergies...go away, darn it!!

Prancy Dancing

Some days I just have to wear high heels.

Today happens to be one of those days.

It appears that the wearing of high heels induces spontaneous prancy dancing around the office, in the ladies restroom, and while cleaning up the kitchen at home. I might be a mature, respectable, married twenty-something, and my husband might roll his eyes but seriously--vacuuming in high heels really does = a great workout.

So what if I prancy dance a little along the way?

More serious blogging to come later.

The Truth about Thankfulness

I'll be honest. I don't feel particularly thankful today. Why? Well, because I'm dealing with some stuff right now that's hit me pretty hard, some news that I should be excited about but I'm not, some emotions I should know how to deal with but I don't. That being said, I'm thankful that my feelings don't change the truth, the reality, of Christ and his saving work.

I wrote the other day about joy--making joy a habit. Along with joy, I also see thankfulness as a habit--something to practice, to immerse ourselves in, to exude, if you will.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul writes, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." And again, in Colossians, he writes, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Thankfulness is a command.

So here is what I'm thankful for today:


A recently re-done living room...after the flood, we were left with pretty much nothing in the way of furniture, but less than a week ago, we were blessed with that wonderful futon that has helped my house feel like a home again.

My 40 hour/week job...even if I don't enjoy every minute of it, it provides me with income and helps pay the bills. In the current economy, that's a huge blessing.

My wonderful husband, pictured here with me the weekend after we got engaged (and yes, I had chocolate cake stuffed in my mouth, hence the awkward face), who keeps me sane (AND with whom I've survived eight whole months of marriage!!).

Close friends that remain close friends despite years and distance...love you, girls!

The ability to be silly and enjoy life, even when its hard, and even when I feel like sitting down and crying.

Oh, the ability to laugh at myself. (Above: me at age 10, doing what I do best!)

An Empty Tomb

Luke 24:1-6

1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they had come to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; ...

5b "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?

6 He is not here, but He has risen."

He has risen.

Six Word Saturday

Yikes! In-laws coming! *cleans house frantically*

Good Friday Meditations

Yesterday, I mentioned a book by C.J. Mahaney, entitled Living The Cross Centered Life. The tag line of the book reads, “Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing.” It’s a tiny little book (pint sized and only 156 pages long), but it reminds us that life’s most important truth (the truth of the gospel) can be the easiest to forget, and then Mahaney passionately dissects the heart of the gospel—the importance of the Cross.

While this truth never grows stale, it seems even more timely during this week—the week between Christ’s celebrated entry into Jerusalem and his agonizing death on the cross and subsequent triumph over death. There is so much information crammed into this wonderful little book that I couldn’t even begin to publish a comprehensive summary, so instead I’m posting some of my favorite quotes…excerpts that comfort, convict, and challenge me to continually strive for the cross’s supreme centrality in my life.

“[Paul writes,] ‘Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you….For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins.’…Nothing else—not even things that are biblical and honorable—are of equal or greater importance than this: God sent His Son to the cross to bear His wrath for sinners like you and me.” He then quotes Jerry Bridges, writing, “The gospel is history’s only essential message.”

“In our arrogance, we invest our feelings (or lack thereof) with final authority rather than recognize that our emotions tend to be unstable, unreliable, often governed by pride, and riddled with lies—lies that “feel” like the truth (30)… [Martin] Lloyd Jones reminds us that ‘what we have in the Bible is Truth; it is not an emotional stimulus…and it is as we apprehend and submit ourselves to the truth that the feelings follow’ (35)…We can learn to focus outward (and upward!), regardless of how we feel, because the gospel and its events remain completely unaffected by whatever is agitating our emotions. The gospel is objective fact” (40).

Mahaney quotes John Stott when he writes, “[In Christ’s death on the cross,] Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice” (70). The entire act was divinely initiated; we neither deserved nor did anything. He continues on page 71, “Only someone both fully divine and fully human could effectively mediate between God and men, and Jesus is exactly that.”

“Behold Him…behold His suffering…and recognize His love” (82).

“Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace” (88).

“We make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us…A cross centered life is made up of cross centered days” (132).

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Take time today to meditate on Christ's supreme expression of love...his death on the cross.

I walked into my office this morning...

and found this little guy waiting for me!

I love my co-workers! And I also love 1/2 days at work, especially on Fridays!

One more picture, just for fun. :P

The Habit of Joy

Life at times can seem pretty devoid of joy. I trudge from day to day, dreading the early morning alarm, the piles of laundry to be conquered, and the grocery store runs during rush hour. I (and I would venture to guess that we all) just get so darn busy! I rush from one thing to another, acting like if I slow down, the world might just stop spinning. I often long for joy, for peace, for contentment, but all the things I long for are just beyond my reach. If I can’t find joy in life, if I feel like joy is missing, it is almost always because I have a misplaced sense of where my joy ultimately rests. Real joy comes from God, from the truth of his Word.

One thing I’ve started doing is preaching the gospel to myself daily. By meditating on the Word on the God, saturating my life with truth, the result has been a pronounced, infection, and consistent joy because the gospel is the source and the object of my (and our, in the Christian experience) joy. (Thank you, C.J. Mahaney, author of Living the Cross-Centered Life.)

I speak the truth of the gospel out loud to myself as I drive. I write it out here online and in my journals. I create artwork for my home that will remind me of truth. I preach to myself that since joy is dependent upon God, I never have a reason to not be joyful.

I’m not there. I have not arrived at the consistently joyful life. But one thing I have noticed is that there is a direct correlation between the time I spend in fellowship with God and the contentment and joy that I find in my day-to-day journey.

When I preach the gospel to myself, I am more likely to find joy in the little things.

In college I found joy in watching the sunrise after a hectic all-nighter or spending an afternoon reading T.S. Eliot on a park bench with a friend. It was spending time alone on my front porch, listening to the wind. It was singing songs of praise to God during Prayer & Praise from my perch up in the balcony of the small chapel on campus.

Now it’s the quiet moments spent at home with my husband, earnest talks before we drift off to sleep, holding his hand, sitting on the back porch watching the birds peck at seeds on the ground, the familiar morning routine, a beautiful sunset. It’s when I open up my Bible, even when I don’t feel like it, so that I can feed my spirit.

It’s exulting in the monotony—the things that happen over and over again—the little things that bring joy back into the forefront of our minds, the repetitive little miracles that should continue to leave us breathless.

I'm trying to nurture the habit of joy.

Disclaimer: There is so much more that can be said on the topic of joy. I can’t begin to scratch the surface. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on the subject. Care to start a conversation?

Exulting In Monotony

While I'm working on a "real" blog post, I thought I'd post an excerpt from one of my favorite books, one that I've read over and over. Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton, is one of those books that I keep coming back to because it is so complex, so dense, so rich with spirtual insights and ponderings. The book, as a whole, is a chronicle of Chesterton's journey toward orthodox Christianity--a record of all his steps along the way.

In Chapter 4, The Ethics of Elfland, Chesterton's central premise is that we, as humans, should approach life in a way that makes even the "ordinary" seem awe-inspiring. He equates all of this back to the fairy tales told to children in the nursery, suggesting that we view the world throught the lens of magic and fantasy, as a child might see it.

A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abundant vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again," and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony (65). ... The repetition of nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore...In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic; now I thought perhaps it involved a magician...if there is a purpose, there is a person; if there is a story, there is a storyteller (66).

On an unrelated note...

Daniel and I barely dodged a bullet this weekend.

We got home from our kayaking trip Saturday absolutely exhausted, with our friend D. Cheney in tow. Kayaking was fantastic. The weather couldn't have been better, and the group of friends we went with were amazing.

But the trip is not the bullet we dodged. Oh no, it gets better.

Last night, as we were getting ready for bed, we felt a wet spot in our (brand new) carpet.

My first thought, was "Oh noooooo! Not again!!!"

Yes, folks, we discovered (during the next few agonizing minutes) that our water heater was leaking. Daniel instantly got on the phone with our apartment management lady, and then called the plumber she recommended.

One late-night trip to Walmart later, we hooked up our newly-purchased garden hose to the water heater and drained the rest of the water safely out the back door. We finally collapsed into bed around 1:00 a.m., and then this morning people came to soak up what water remained and to replace our water heater.

They said we were very fortunate to have caught it so soon. Get this: they said it was about to BLOW. Another flood would have been soooooo NOT COOL.

Thank you, Jesus.

Growing Up

I was reading Titus 2 this morning--a common passage, a passage I've read dozens of times growing up in church--when I realized something that made me sit a little straighter in my seat, and begin to examine the way I approach my life. The passage, shown below, talks about the duties of the older and younger within the body.

1 But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.
2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good,
4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,
5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
...
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purity for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

It's funny the first time you realize you are now officially a grown-up. I'm not sure when the realization first hit me, but I'm finding that I notice it the most about 6:00 each morning when my alarm goes off, reminding me that, once again, I have to get up and go to work to earn money to pay the bills.

Now, I'm 22, married to the love of my life, and looking expectantly toward tomorrow, toward December (when Daniel graduates), toward whatever lies after that. Now, I'm growing up. But I'm also stuck in the middle.

Middle of what, you might ask. Well, you see, I'm still the "young woman," looking to my mother and other older Christian women for guidance. I've been a Christian for 16 years, but I've only been married 8 months! I need all the help (marital and spiritual) that I can get! My mom (and mom-in-law), my aunts, my grandmothers, not to mention lots of older friends, have been amazing--guiding me, providing me with everything from household tips and recipes to encouragement and boundless support in prayer.

But now I'm also the "older woman," charged with guiding and instructing the "younger women." Weird. Sometimes I feel so old, even at 22. I've been out of school for almost 2 full years now, I'm married, and I work full-time, bringing home a regular paycheck. But sometimes, a lot of the time, when I think about being a grown-up, I feel so incredibly inadequate. And now I realize that I'm supposed to be reverent in my behavior, not a malicious gossip, teaching what is good, that I may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored?? Ooh, I can feel the pressure building!

Seriously, though, I am realizing more and more how the way I behave, the way I relate to Daniel, the words I speak and the things I do, affect those around me. The way I live reflects my priorities; are my priorities in line with Scripture? Am I really putting God first? Do I really value Daniel above everything else (minus God, of course)? There are women all around me (either physically younger, or younger in the faith) that need ME to be the example that will guide them to righteousness. Am I guiding them in the right direction? Do I live reverently? Do I, in submission to Daniel, lift him up? Sometimes the answer is yes; sometimes the answer is a definite NO. But I long for that--I long to live a life that glorifies my God by guiding others to Him through my words and my actions.

Returning to my theme for this year--freedom--I am pursuing freedom from the lies that tell me living this life is impossible. The lies tell me that tell me I can't possibly influence other women, that tell me my failures cripple and incapacitate me, are silenced by the resounding truth of the Bible.

I'm stuck in the middle, it's true, but it's honestly a great place to be. I have older women guiding and correcting me, enabling me to reach out to the younger women in my life and be the "older woman" for them. This is how we actively "be" the body of the Christ.

A Funk

To say I've been in a blogging funk is to put it mildly. Moreover, I've been in a life-funk for the past week or two. Daniel's been pulling super late hours. It's "that time of the semester," when all the professors assign last-minute projects and reports, and students bend over backwards to get everything turned in on time. Last week, I barely saw my husband because of his crazy work/homework/project load, and this week hasn't been much better. I don't think we've been in bed before midnight all week.

While he works (and works and works and works), I'm still working my 40 hours/week, 8-5 job. And on top of that, my allergies have turned into what I can only assume is a head-cold. I can't be outside for more than five or ten minutes without turning into an itchy, congested mess. I come home from work tired and frustrated, and so to de-stress (in lieu of talking to/hanging out with my dear hubby), I've been watching TV. Lots and lots of TV. I know this isn't healthy, but it's about all I can do right now.

Like I said, I'm in a funk. Not a particularly blog-worthy funk.

In spite of all of my visual vegging, I've made a couple of my handmade cards, I've started planning a vacation (which may exist only in my head...we'll see; more on that later), and I've cooked more this week than I have in a good long while. Monday was a lemon broccoli chicken concotion (that turned out surprisingly well), Tuesday was grilled chicken quesadillas, and Wednesday was chicken caesar wraps. (Chicken was on sale at the grocery store; can you tell?)

If it weren't for having to wash the dishes, I would actually love cooking. As it is, I like it, but it's not quite as relaxing as I would prefer. *grin*

I can't wait for this semester to be over, my head-cold to be gone, and life back to "normal," whatever normal is. I miss having a routine. I miss my husband. I miss having close friends nearby to cheer me up. (I also miss having furniture, but that's another story.)

This funk won't last forever. I've been around the block enough times to know that. But I'm ready for this life season--and this allergy season--to be over. Maybe then my head will be clear enough to think straight. *grin*