Hope recently had this fun meme on her blog (see her questions and answers here) and invited anyone who was interested to contact her for questions and play along. I decided to jump in on the fun, and she sent me the following five questions. If you'd like to play along, leave me a comment or drop me an email, and I'll come up with five questions for you.
1. How has your relationship with God changed over the course of your blogging?
Well, I started blogging in 2005, and I was in the midst of transitioning from attending the church I grew up in as a pastor's kid, to a church that was somewhat less conservative, and was charismatic in bent. I'd never heard really dreamed that the Holy Spirit could play any more active role in my life than being the voice of my conscience, and was curious and horrified and strangely drawn. Somehow the people I met in that church had something that I didn't, and that I wanted. They knew God, instead of just talking about him.
2005 was also the last year that I suffered from severe depression before being healed, and the 7 years I struggled with depression, and the three and a bit years since the healing have profoundly shaped my life and experience of God.
My relationship with God over the years I've been blogging has changed. There's no question about it, though it's hard to put words around. It has become less about what I know, and more about what I experience and feel and see. And about finding a balance between knowledge and experience that works for me.
1. How has your relationship with God changed over the course of your blogging?
Well, I started blogging in 2005, and I was in the midst of transitioning from attending the church I grew up in as a pastor's kid, to a church that was somewhat less conservative, and was charismatic in bent. I'd never heard really dreamed that the Holy Spirit could play any more active role in my life than being the voice of my conscience, and was curious and horrified and strangely drawn. Somehow the people I met in that church had something that I didn't, and that I wanted. They knew God, instead of just talking about him.
2005 was also the last year that I suffered from severe depression before being healed, and the 7 years I struggled with depression, and the three and a bit years since the healing have profoundly shaped my life and experience of God.
My relationship with God over the years I've been blogging has changed. There's no question about it, though it's hard to put words around. It has become less about what I know, and more about what I experience and feel and see. And about finding a balance between knowledge and experience that works for me.
2. What would your dream job look like?
My dream job would involve some combination of reading, traveling, praying, and writing. If it also included extended periods of time sharing cups of tea with dear friends of the old or new variety, that would be fantastic. If anyone can figure out what job fits that description, and how I can get it, you should definitely let me know. (Though I suspect at least a few of those who read my blog would give me fairly stiff competition for just such a job.)
In the meantime, a job where I'm interacting with and helping people, and have the chance to do things I enjoy and where I can be challenged rather than bored will absolutely suit me.
My dream job would involve some combination of reading, traveling, praying, and writing. If it also included extended periods of time sharing cups of tea with dear friends of the old or new variety, that would be fantastic. If anyone can figure out what job fits that description, and how I can get it, you should definitely let me know. (Though I suspect at least a few of those who read my blog would give me fairly stiff competition for just such a job.)
In the meantime, a job where I'm interacting with and helping people, and have the chance to do things I enjoy and where I can be challenged rather than bored will absolutely suit me.
3. I see you love to drink tea! What is your favourite kind?
Well, see, that depends. I don't like black tea. Which is what most of the world seems to drink. I can tell you the exact number of times (5) and places (England, Malta, Canmore, Newfoundland, and a friend's home) that I've had black tea in the last year.
I love looseleaf teas, and own several varieties, mostly rooibos (or red bush) teas. I have mango rooibos, vanilla rooibos, provence rooibos and several others. I also have a few herbal teas (like lavender honeybush) and one fantastic loose fruit tea (lemon mango).
I've also been known to have the occasional cup of green tea - I have a pomegranate green tea that's pretty fantastic.
However, my most commonly drunk cup of tea is probably Tazo Passion Tea from Starbucks. I start most workdays with a cup of it (I buy the tea bags and make my own instead of buying one every day - way more affordable.) It's also become a sort of unspoken prayer of mine to sip that tea from Starbucks, and I'll often pick up a cup from the shop when I'm needing to spend some time talking with Jesus, or when I'm praying for certain people and things.
4. Your recent post "Crying Out For Restoration" was beautiful. In it you mentioned several objects that held significance for you. If you had to pick just one, what would it be and why?
I thought a lot about how to answer this. I'm definitely a collector, and it would be hard to pick just one item.
To be honest, I think I'd probably keep "Nelly". Nelly is a teddy bear that was given to me at birth, and we've been through a lot together. She gives great hugs, has traveled the country and the world with me, and is a source of many memories and has been greatly loved.
If I was picking something of more spiritual significance, I'd probably choose either a coin that sits on the frame of my mirror which is a memento from a very personal and deep moment of encounter with God, or a little plaque that sits in my window sill, has a tiny shield hanging from it, and reads "The Lord is my shield in whom I take refuge." The plaque was a gift from a very dear friend, and speaks to me of a number of things. The shield on it bears a Maltese cross, and reminds me of many things encountered this last year. The fact that it is a gift from my friend reminds me of the deep love we share, and the many hard and deep and beautiful places we have walked together. And the scripture verse is a reminder of a promise that I believe God spoke to me over my life at one point, a line he said first to Abraham, "Do not be afraid, I am your shield and your very great reward." This is a central promise in my life, and has given birth to an image (still being developed) that I eventually would like to have tattooed on my back. There's something powerful for me in the image of having God's promise to shield and protect me permanently inked on my back.
5. When you think of your parents' generation is there any one thing that comes to mind that you wish you could say to them when it comes to living out their Christianity? Anything that they are holding on to that is unnecessary?
I wish sometimes that I could ask them to make Christianity about more than doing the right things. More than being in church each week, and a small group bible study, and doing some sort of community service and outreach or evangelism. I think all of those things are important, I just think that sometimes Jesus gets lost in them.
I met Jesus first when I was four years old, kneeling on the carpet in my parent's living room, and praying with my mom. I'll be 26 this coming summer, and I'm only just beginning to believe that Jesus actually loves me for who I am, not because I do and say and know the right things about him.
I think there are a thousand and one things my parents and their generation did right. They are very devoted to the concept of gathering together to celebrate God and worship him. My generation is by and large rejecting church. But I also think that there comes a moment when church can be adapted a bit to fit the changes in culture and thought and attention span. That it can become a bit less of an institution and a bit more of the family and body of Christ.
I'm a historian by training (with a specialty in church history), and I have a deep love for the church, and even the idea of the church as an institution that many of my peers seem to lack. In fact, I find myself increasingly drawn to the deep liturgy and ancient tradition of the Catholic church. But I also long for church to be a place where I go to meet with family - however wild and crazy and dysfunctional - people whom Jesus has called and collected. The Psalms talk about God setting the lonely in families, and in a culture that can be so isolating and individualistic, I see a great opportunity for the church to be the body of Christ, to form deep and loving extended families who also love and long to live out a life radically changed by an encounter with a living savior who understands the pain of the human existence, and knows suffering more deeply than any of us ever will.
~~~
Those were fantastic questions, Hope! thanks for sending them my way.
If anyone else wants to play along, let me know!
I wish sometimes that I could ask them to make Christianity about more than doing the right things. More than being in church each week, and a small group bible study, and doing some sort of community service and outreach or evangelism. I think all of those things are important, I just think that sometimes Jesus gets lost in them.
I met Jesus first when I was four years old, kneeling on the carpet in my parent's living room, and praying with my mom. I'll be 26 this coming summer, and I'm only just beginning to believe that Jesus actually loves me for who I am, not because I do and say and know the right things about him.
I think there are a thousand and one things my parents and their generation did right. They are very devoted to the concept of gathering together to celebrate God and worship him. My generation is by and large rejecting church. But I also think that there comes a moment when church can be adapted a bit to fit the changes in culture and thought and attention span. That it can become a bit less of an institution and a bit more of the family and body of Christ.
I'm a historian by training (with a specialty in church history), and I have a deep love for the church, and even the idea of the church as an institution that many of my peers seem to lack. In fact, I find myself increasingly drawn to the deep liturgy and ancient tradition of the Catholic church. But I also long for church to be a place where I go to meet with family - however wild and crazy and dysfunctional - people whom Jesus has called and collected. The Psalms talk about God setting the lonely in families, and in a culture that can be so isolating and individualistic, I see a great opportunity for the church to be the body of Christ, to form deep and loving extended families who also love and long to live out a life radically changed by an encounter with a living savior who understands the pain of the human existence, and knows suffering more deeply than any of us ever will.
~~~
Those were fantastic questions, Hope! thanks for sending them my way.
If anyone else wants to play along, let me know!
