Category: Uncategorized (Page 68 of 81)

Never. Under. Estimate my Jesus.

August 22, 2012 /

I’m taking a little August Sabbatical, so I thought I’d repost one of my favorites from last year.  Eric is continuing to grow and went to his first baseball game this summer.  I tell him every time I see him that he is an amazing young man.  I think he may be starting to believe it…

Every Monday evening from 5:00-6:00 I have what is both the most discouraging and most powerful hour of my week.

Three years ago I started tutoring a 9 year old girl named Erica who moved here from Togo, west Africa with her twin brother Eric, and her older brother Sylvanus.  Erica and Sylvanus have made the transition to a new city, a new culture, a 5th (yes, 5th!) language, and are catching up academically in a new school.  Amazing.  Courageous.  Inspiring.

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“That” Person

August 20, 2012 /

I’m taking a little August sabbatical, so I’m reposting some entries that you’ve seemed to like from awhile back.  If you’re newer to the blog and know others who might be encouraged, I’d love it if you’d pass along the link.  

I’ve thought a lot about this.

If I ever become an actress (Don’t laugh.  It could happen!), and I have a scene where I have to cry on cue, no sweat.  I’ve got this one covered.  Not because I’m particularly weepy (I’m really not at all, you know).  But because all I’ll have to do is think of “that person.”

You know.  “That person”.

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What Fills You Up?

August 17, 2012 /

What fills you with joy or gratitude or spurs you on to higher ideals?  What energizes or encourages you?

Is it particular relationships with people who pour wisdom and hope into you?  Or a particular place or tradition that makes your heart sing?

In what environments does God’s Word come to life for you?

We need weekly rhythms of filling so that we serve out of overflow but I believe we also need seasonal and yearly rhythms of filling too.

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Life Without the Olympics

August 16, 2012 /

What are we going to do now that the Olympics are over?!  Watch Bachelorette reruns?  Complain about political ads?  Wonder what celebrity is heading for rehab?

The great thing about the Olympics is that it raises our eyes and gives us a vision above the mundane, above our lowest selves.  It inspires us with stories of courage and determination and high ideals.

I read this Monday morning in USA Today:

This was the Olympics in which the Queen said hello, and Michael Phelps said goodbye.  This was the Olympics where a man from South Africa ran with no legs and a woman from Poland played table tennis with one arm.  This was the Olympics that reminded us what it does best – nurturingevery dream. – Mike Lopresti

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Gold Cards, Security Lines, and Jesus

August 13, 2012 /

Do you know what your airline status is?

You know…the color that tells everyone how special (or not) you are?

I’m Silver in the eyes of Delta…just about to cross that magic threshold to Gold, but not quite there yet.  And I can’t even see the Promised Land of Platinum from where I sit in coach.

Yes, I’m Silver.  But John?  John is Gold.  All this usually means is that he gets bumped up to 1st class if it’s a 45 minute flight to Dubuque in non-rush-hour.

The other day, however, it meant more.

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Ilegal Bible Reading?

August 10, 2012 /

Here’s the rest of the post from Wednesday.  We’re talking about avoiding Bible Boredom…

When we were little, my cousin Karl had some weird ideas about road signs.  And one of them was that this was the only place deer could cross the road legally.

Somehow he thought deer would understand (maybe because of the picture of themselves that they’d recognize) and line up to cross only where they saw that sign.

Over the years I’ve had some weird ideas about what was “legal” Bible reading…you know…what “counted” on the cosmic scoreboard of spirituality.

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Six ways to Avoid Bible Boredom and One Secret

August 8, 2012 /

This morning I sat down to read my Bible and…wait for it…I just didn’t feel like it.

Now half of you may be thinking, “Well, duh!  I never feel like it!”  And half of you may be gasping, “Well, you probably aren’t a real Christian.  Are you sure you ‘prayed the prayer’?  The RIGHT prayer?”

Jim Rayburn, who established Young Life, was famous for saying “It’s a sin to bore a kid with the gospel.”  But what about the Bible?  The whole Bible?

Remember back in High School when you had to read ___________(insert book title you dreaded, that was thick and long and had words you didn’t understand).

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How to Live a Greener Life When You’re Really Comfy with Brown

August 6, 2012 /

“Does ‘creation’ have anything to do with God whom I call ‘Creator’?  Oh, pish posh.  Surely God isn’t worried about how we handle His creation that He created.  His main concern is making His followers happy and prosperous, yes?…”  Jen Hatmaker

Maybe not.

“I’m beginning to wonder if the unprecedented consumption of the earth’s resources and the cavalier destruction of its natural assets is a spiritual issue as much as environmental.”  J.H.

Ok, so those of you who visit this blog often know that a group of us have been trying this experimental mutiny against excess this summer, using Jen Hatmaker’s mess-up-your-life book, 7...

The whole purpose is to try some changes that we hope will give us a better perspective on a kingdom lifestyle and help us move in that direction.   Even a tiny bit.

If you’ve read any of the posts, you know that we’ve laughed a lot and had great fun doing this together.

But we met last Monday and agreed that it feels like the party’s over.

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Olympic Parents and God

August 3, 2012 /

Watching the Olympics this week I’ve been struck by the parents of the athletes.  Invested, hopeful, prayerful, committed, passionate are just a few of the words that come to mind.

What a contrast to the image of God I think many of us carry around – the distant, more concerned-with-global-chaos or, out-of-touch-with-what-it’s-really-like “Being” who kind of nods or frowns or raises His eyebrows from afar.

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Auto-Incorrect

August 1, 2012 /

Ever had the experience of writing a text and having the auto-correct communicate something you definitely did NOT mean?

Yep, me too.

It can be downright dangerous.

I love the Ellen Degeneres segment titled Clumsy Thumbsy.  Viewers send in their funniest auto-corrected texts and she shares them with the world.  Here are a couple of my favorites…

In our family we have an acronym that the phone just doesn’t understand.

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