Monday, March 03, 2008

Some Random Facts About Me

I'm in an odd mood tonight, and am quite convinced of the fact that, if you are to continue reading this blog, and understand me, you must have the following vital (if random) pieces of information.

  • I love popcorn (though I don't eat it nearly as often as I did when I lived with my parents.) I can easily eat a whole bag of the microwave variety by myself. Easily. This is an inherited trait from my mom's side of the family. They eat popcorn like no family I have ever seen. The popcorn bowl at my mom's house is a stainless steel number, that my dad purchased at an auto supply store (I think the actual declared purpose of this particular stainless steel bowl, according to the auto supply store, is as a drainage pan for changing your oil). It's well over a foot in diameter, and there is nothing that makes our family quite so happy as when mom fills the bowl with freshly popped corn (of the non-microwave variety) lightly buttered and salted, and hands out cereal bowls (which can then be refilled from the giant bowl) full of the product of her labors.
  • I am absolutely, first and foremost a bookworm. I own probably 3000 books. When I purchased tenants insurance for my home, I had to make a special stipulation on the contents value of my belongings to include approximately 10,000 dollars worth of books.
  • I own (and am very proud to own) a pin that reads "Reading is sexy." Someone once asked me if that meant that I was sexy because I read, or that a guy who reads is something I consider sexy. My answer? Yes.
  • I am sentimental. Most of the things that lie around my space, and look like trash or trinkets have specific meanings. I am also terrible (generally speaking) at throwing things away. This means that my space can get slightly cluttered at times.
  • I am hopelessly attached to the seasons of the church calendar, though I attend a church that generally pays only a very little bit of attention to the seasons of the calendar, marking instead the most high, holy days like Christmas and Easter.
  • I get ridiculously excited at the prospects of being able to attend a good lecture. There is a possibility that I can go with my dad to attend a series of lectures on the life and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer next week. This is a thrilling concept to me.
  • I would as a general rule much rather use email, or other electronic modes of communication, than pick up a telephone. There are certain people that are exceptions to this general rule.
  • I am the oldest child, the only girl, and the shortest sibling.
  • My baby brother dwarf's the other two of us.
  • I do not generally dye my hair, preferring my natural color to those created in a salon. I do get red low-lights and blond hi-lights put in once a year or so. And I am currently contemplating a short, two-week, wash-out stint as a red-head - something I've done once before. Just as a little change of pace.
  • I do not have a tattoo, but I really want one. I'm just working on finalizing the design with some artist friends.
  • I do have a pierced nose - a tiny diamond-like stud in my right nostril. It took me a year to get permission from my office to have a piercing. I work for Mennonites. They can be a little up-tight about things like tattoos and piercings. I was finally granted permission with the comment that at least it was my nose. The nose was the least offensive of the possible facial piercings.
  • Lately, I have cocooned myself in my own little world. I'm still recovering from and processing my travels. I'm mostly avoiding other human beings.
  • Because I have cocooned myself, my social schedule is the emptiest and most life-giving it's been in ages. I'm kind of enjoying that.
  • I find myself craving far more silence than usual, and slowness.
  • I am looking more often for the deep things, and will avoid the things that don't suffice.
  • I vote in every election, but don't generally have a strong opinion. I voted in a provincial election tonight. Mostly I vote out of duty.
  • I have much stronger opinions about the American election process and candidates than I do about the Canadian process and candidates.
  • I am a dual American and Canadian citizen, but, because I reside permanently in Canada, I vote in Canadian elections rather than American ones.
  • I am working on some writing pieces for the blog that will have a great deal more substance, but really couldn't move forward on them until I gave you all of this random information.

Enjoy!

Love, Powerlessness, and Covenant - Henri Nouwen

Received several great thoughts from Henri Nouwen the last few days, linked together by topic and train of thought, and decided to share them here as well.

Being Free to Love

Jesus came to us to help us overcome our fear of God. As long as we are afraid of God, we cannot love God. Love means intimacy, closeness, mutual vulnerability, and a deep sense of safety. But all of those are impossible as long as there is fear. Fear creates suspicion, distance, defensiveness, and insecurity.

The greatest block in the spiritual life is fear. Prayer, meditation, and education cannot come forth out of fear. God is perfect love, and as John the Evangelist writes, "Perfect love drives out fear" (1 John 4:18). Jesus' central message is that God loves us with an unconditional love and desires our love, free from all fear, in return.

God's powerlessness

Jesus is God-with-us, Emmanuel. The great mystery of God becoming human is God's desire to be loved by us. By becoming a vulnerable child, completely dependent on human care, God wants to take away all distance between the human and the divine.

Who can be afraid of a little child that needs to be fed, to be cared for, to be taught, to be guided? We usually talk about God as the all-powerful, almighty God on whom we depend completely. But God wanted to become the all-powerless, all-vulnerable God who completely depends on us. How can we be afraid of a God who wants to be "God-with-us" and needs us to become "Us-with-God"?

God Covenant

God made a covenant with us. The word covenant means "coming together." God wants to come together with us. In many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, we see that God appears as a God who defends us against our enemies, protects us against dangers, and guides us to freedom. God is God-for-us. When Jesus comes a new dimension of the covenant is revealed. In Jesus, God is born, grows to maturity, lives, suffers, and dies as we do. God is God-with-us. Finally, when Jesus leaves he promises the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, God reveals the full depth of the covenant. God wants to be as close to us as our breath. God wants to breathe in us, so that all we say, think and do is completely inspired by God. God is God-within-us. Thus God's covenant reveals to us to how much God loves us.

God's faithfulness and ours

When God makes a covenant with us, God says: "I will love you with an everlasting love. I will be faithful to you, even when you run away from me, reject me, or betray me." In our society we don't speak much about covenants; we speak about contracts. When we make a contract with a person, we say: "I will fulfill my part as long as you fulfill yours. When you don't live up to your promises, I no longer have to live up to mine." Contracts are often broken because the partners are unwilling or unable to be faithful to their terms.

But God didn't make a contract with us; God made a covenant with us, and God wants our relationships with one another to reflect that covenant. That's why marriage, friendship, life in community are all ways to give visibility to God's faithfulness in our lives together.