The Things Crossing My Mind

Happy Friday the 13th to you all!

So, I promise I will explain the pictures in my last post, just not right at this moment. Just let me say that I was looking at them again this morning, sitting at my desk, and I love all of them. They epitomize moments, or emotions, or events of the summer, and that makes them special.

This morning I officially became one of the c-train ladies I used to mock in my head as I commuted to and from school. I wore running shoes with my dress pants and clothes, and carried my high heels in my bag. You see, I have had problems for years with the tendons in my feet developing tendonitis, and they were sore this morning, and I decided I didn't want to have to stand on the train in heels, or make the fifteen minute walk from the train to my office in heels, so I wore runners. You may now all engage in mocking laughter. But, in my defense, they are very cute runners (which I tried to find a picture of on the web, but couldn't, and which didn't in any way match or blend with my outfit!)

I'm trying to develop a bit more disciplined routine of prayer and bible reading. So I'm doing this thing, where, as I crawl into bed to read before I go to sleep, the first thing I read is a chapter of scripture. Then I grab a new journal I bought, a small one, and I write down one or two lines from the passage I just read that caught my attention. Two nights ago it was "the kingdom of God is near." Last night it was, "I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners," and "The sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the sabbath." After that, I write a short prayer, end it with Brennan Manning's prayer "Abba, I belong to you," and put the bible and journal away.

The thing that makes this a discipline is that it is the FIRST thing I do when I crawl into bed. It has priority. I don't pick up the novel that I left in a really tense place, I don't play something on my ipod, I don't flip through a magazine, any of the things I might do to unwind before sleeping, until this is done. It doesn't go by the wayside like my old routine, where I might read a novel, and then suddenly realize the time, and just choose to put off scripture reading until the next day.

And the little journal - it travels with me. If I'm thinking or praying on the c-train - which I often am - I can jot down anything that seems significant as I pray.

Here's to hoping that this works. I really would like to establish a more disciplined routine of spending time daily with God.

I'll Add Words Later

I'm putting up some pictures from my trip, and from a couple other events over the summer. Sometime in the next few days I'll tell you why I picked these. They all have memories, are things I love, or define something about doing a 12 hour roadtrip twice in one week with one of your best friends.

A place of terror

Found the following quote, attributed to Mike Yaconelli on a blog I was surfing at work today. I loved this one. Really, there are few Yaconelli quotes I haven't loved, but I thought this one was timely to a number of things I've been thinking about lately.

"I would like to suggest that the Church become a place of terror again; a place where God continually has to tell us, 'Fear not'; a place where our relationship with God is not a simple belief or a doctrine or theology, it is God's burning presence in our lives. I am suggesting that the tame God of relevance be replaced by the God whose very presence shatters our egos into dust, burns our sin into ashes, and strips us naked to reveal the real person within. The Church needs to become a gloriously dangerous place where nothing is safe in God's presence except us. Nothing--including our plans, our agendas, our priorities, our politics, our money, our security, our comfort, our possessions, our needs."

Moon

I'm sitting at the computer in our basement, adding some music to my ipod (Keith Green, Rich Mullins, Robin Mark, Steve Bell), and I happened to glance up and out the window that is at ground level above my head.

The moon is beautiful tonight, haloed by clouds glowin eery shades of gray and blue and orange.

Something beautiful, a little gift of beauty from God to me, sitting in my basement.

Coming Home

I've been at home a couple of days now. We got home mid-evening on Wednesday, and I was back at work bright and early Thursday morning. In fact, as today is a bit of a slower day, and I've mostly caught up on the piles I discovered on my desk upon arrival yesterday, I'm taking a few minutes to write this post from work.

I'll put up a fuller post, expounding upon my vacation sometime this weekend, hopefully with pictures, which I shall have to obtain from my friend's digital camera. For the moment, let me just say that I'm glad to be sleeping in my own bed again, that last night I started attending what I think will be a fantastically challenging Bible study, that I'm still very addicted to Gray's Anatomy, that I'm excited about the school in Seattle that I'm thinking about doing my master's degree at, and that I'm hungry, and my lunch hour is in ten minutes.

It was a good holiday, time desperately needed to refocus and breathe again, but I'm glad to be home.