When a Eucharist of Humility is Rejected

You need to read this. "When a Eucharist of Humility is Rejected." It took my breath away.

Sad News

I received links to the following two articles this morning

Christian Youth Worker Killed in Crash

Crash Kills Youth Leader

I was heavily involved with Young Life my last year or so of high school. My middle brother, J., has been staff with YL in Calgary, and continues to be a volunteer leader while he attends Bible school.

I vaguely remember meeting Julian, and his wife. I'm sure my brother knows them. YL tends to be a small, tightly knit community.

I do know this - really great YL leaders are hard to find. I had one, and she's quite possibly the reason I'm still a Christian all these years later. She's definitely one of the major reasons I didn't walk away from the church in general, and a relationship with Christ in specific during some of the years just after high school when depression was just starting to set in.

I'm praying for those who are grieving today. For Julian's wife and children. For all the kids whose lives he affected.

Scars on Their Souls

This article caught my attention in the print version of the paper yesterday, and I was pleased to find it online this morning.

Scars on their Souls

Twirling skirts, revisted

Just over a year ago, I wrote this post. "Trees, Twirling Skirts and Mental Health".

It is probably the post that brings the most people (who aren't friends or regular readers) to my blog. At least two or three times a week it pops up as the post that flagged something in a google search.

I bought the twirling skirt I'd been dreaming of on the weekend.

And, yesterday, in a few spots, I twirled.

I'm still waiting for the freedom promised in that original image of twirling to arrive. But yesterday, as a prayer for mercy and freedom, for myself and some dear friends, I stepped into a mountain clearing, peeled off my shoes and socks, and spun barefoot around and around and around.

My roommate and I were talking about the missionary Eric Liddell (made famous in the movie "Chariots of Fire") as we drove to the mountains yesterday. Liddell's sister was quite critical of his passion for running. She felt it was time wasted - not used in ministry. His response? "When I run, I feel God's pleasure."

Yesterday I stood in the sun in a mountain clearing, and later in the setting sun on the bank of my favorite creek, and I spun.

I felt God's pleasure.

Monday Smiles

This is perhaps my new favorite picture of myself. My roommate, L., took it at the end of the day yesterday. That is "my" spot that I'm standing in. The spot in the park where I've gone time and time again over the last year, and particularly over the last several months to meet with Jesus. To pray, to listen, to think, to act things out, to simply be.

Friday was absolutely a terrible day. Saturday and Sunday were deep and beautiful, and better.

I'm mostly managing to smile this morning, sitting here at my desk, but find myself needing reminders of reasons to keep wearing that smile - to continue to be an aficionado of wonder - to live a full, deep, rich life, and find beauty in the simplest of things.

So, this is my Monday morning edition of "Things that are Making Me Smile"

• a cup of passion tea
• pork buns from the Chinese bakery I visited in China town on Saturday
• flip-flop weather
• that we once again (for sure this time) have a place to live
• curly hair
• a long drive through my favorite parts of the mountains yesterday
• Downy "White Lilac and Aloe" scented fabric softener
• a twirling skirt with bells on the hem
• a favorite necklace
• a collection of beautiful photos from the last two days, including a bunch that I feel actually capture "me" on film
• a few deeply special friends
• a Sunday school lesson on the crucifixion, that may or may not have challenged my students, but grabbed my heart in deep ways
• string cheese direct from wisconsin
• that, in spite of everything that's gone on these last months, I can still say "I'm not depressed" and be speaking truth
• Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
• a couple of songs that have been speaking to my heart lately
• two friends who listened and spoke peace to my heart yesterday morning after catching me just after I'd woken out of one of the more disturbing dreams I'd had of late
• kit kat bars
• hershey kisses with almonds
• a tiny blue sticker on an orange, confirming a word God spoke quite some time ago
• butterflies

Need to Breathe

Years ago my family babysat a little boy, who, no matter what season of the year, would sit himself down the second he came into our house, and peel off both his shoes and his socks. He was maybe three years old at the time.

When you asked him why he was taking his socks off, and not just his shoes, he'd answer matter-of-factly, "My feet need to breathe."

I think of him every summer, when flip-flop or barefoot weather finally arrives. I live without socks and shoes for as much of every summer as possible. (My feet need to breathe.)

These are my feet "breathing" after dancing barefoot in a clearing in the mountains yesterday.