Laura Crosby

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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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The Bad Anniversary When we Gave Up and What it Has to do With You

July 30, 2012 /

This is a story about me.  But it’s also about you.  Whether you’re married or single.

Today is our 29th wedding anniversary.  And 28 years ago today was a bad day.

Our one year anniversary.

We were with family and friends at a cabin, high on a pine-filled shore overlooking a pristine lake in northern Wisconsin.

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Out of Control and Canceling my Day

July 27, 2012 /

The other day I wanted to throw something.  Or have a pity party that would involve eating lots of Patticake (from YUM!) with Cookie Dough ice cream.

And I couldn’t figure out why!

Until the late afternoon when it hit me.  I was cranky because I felt out of control.

Can you relate?  Maybe just a little bit?

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How to Write a Better Marriage Story than TomKat

July 25, 2012 /

Dear Max and Emily,

What a picture of joy!  It was a hot Minnesota summer afternoon and there was laughter and dancing and prayers and great hopes for your future together.  You were surrounded by people who love you.

So…right.

You did a lot of hard work to get to this place.  You did the pre-marital counseling thing and the financial seminar thing, and you really tried to honor God in every way as you walked towards marriage.

And now you’re here.  You’re married.

But the news these days is filled with stories of TomKat and John Edwards and Kim Kardashian, and Arnold Swarzenager.  And a thousand  million more examples of infidelity and “irreconcilable differences” and custody battles.  Disheartening, eh?

Why do you think you’ll be different than Kim and Arnold and whoever?  What will give you an edge so you won’t be another bad statistic in a few years.  Or 15?

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No Phone, Part 2

July 24, 2012 /
For the Summer of 7 Media Week we tried to fast from the thing we’re most attached to.  For me it was my phone.

Well, it’s over.  We’ve been off the grid to one degree or another and have discovered we’re not “all that”.

We don’t need to be accessible to everyone all the time and surprisingly the world is still spinning and no one we were responsible for died!   

The biggest loss for me was my iphone and every app that goes with it (read here).  Apparently I’m not alone in my attachment.  Look at the stats I read this week:

  • There are 7 billion people on Earth. 5.1 billion own a cell phone. 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Mobile Marketing Association Asia, 2011)
  • It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message. (CTIA.org, 2011)
  • 1% of all smart phone users have their phone within arm’s reach 24/7 – (Morgan Stanley, 2012)
  • It takes 26 hours for the average person to report a lost wallet. It takes 68 minutes for them to report a lost phone. (Unisys, 2012)

The benefits and drawbacks to technology and media were both intensified this week, but the biggest lesson for me is that I’m Media ADD –  totally undisciplined in this area. I need BOUNDARIES like Lindsay Lohan needs a better rehab program.

Confession:  I may be more responsive to my phone than I am to God.

There are no magic beans in this experiment.  In each area it’s going to take some conscious decisions about new habits and boundaries if we are going to move the dial even a millimeter.  Sooo… Help me out…

Do you have boundaries regarding media?  What are they?

For example, do you only check email or Facebook or Twitter at certain times of the day?  Put your phone away?  Or only use your phone for “necessary” stuff like calls and map quest?  Go without internet on the weekends?  Guard times of silence in your car or other places?

What do your “Real” Prayers Sound Like?

July 23, 2012 /

Some people dread praying aloud like a cat dreads a bath.

You say you can relate?  When it comes time for closing prayer you hyper-ventilate?  Suddenly decide you need to go to the bathroom?  Get a case of laryngitis?

Me?  Like it or not, I’ve been doing it for a long time.  Occupational hazard.

So I’ve gotten at least fairly ok at the “lifting ups” and the “if it’s your wills” and words like “grace and mercy”.

My out loud prayers are kind of like business letters all proper and punctuated, politically correct and polite.

But my real prayers?  They sound more like David’s prayers of desperation than Mary’s Magnificat.

My “real” prayers sound like:

“Helpmehelpmehelpme!  Oh, look!  There’s a bird!”

Or like a letter from a kid at camp home to his parents:

My “camp letter” to God might sound more like…

Dear Mom and Dad, (or God)

I have to write this to get chicken dinner tonight. (or, I have to pray so I can say I prayed cuz I’m a Christian and it’s kind of expected)

It’s really hot here and I’m out of underwear, and send snacks. (or, It’s about me, and it’s about Me, and it’s about ME!)

love,

Laura (or, Amen)

But here’s what I’m thinking.  As a parent, any communication from my kids is golden.  I don’t care what they say, I just want them talking to me.

And as a parent, I know they’re kids.  They’re not going to talk like me or think like me, or always remember their manners.

Yeah, I want them to know me, to trust me, to obey me, to ask my opinion, but they’re kids, and if they’re talking to me that’s a start!

What do your “real” prayers sound like?

“And NO Phone!”

July 19, 2012 /

So this week is Media week for our little Summer of 7 band of intrepid women.  We’re trying an experimental mutiny against excess in order to get a better perspective on kingdom living.  You can read about our adventures here, and here.

As we planned our media strategy Monday night, Theresa bemoaned missing out on the details of the “TomKat” break-up,  and Cathy has been temporarily disowned by her family in favor of t.v.  Heather anticipated withdrawal symptoms as a Pinterholic.

Our biggest fear though, was that we’d feel cut off from community.  We envisioned showing up at each other’s houses, peering through the window like orphans in a Dicken’s novel, pathetically saying “Please talk to me!!!”

Personally I decided to go without my phone for the week, which I think must earn me brownie points somewhere in the universe because this is sacrificial, darn it!

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How Costco is Soul-shaping

July 18, 2012 /

Sunday I went to Costco for hamburgers and came home with a vacuum cleaner.

I’d like to think it was my reward for surviving the Costco parking lot without committing murder or at least swearing, but maybe not so much.

My experiences at Costco have gotten me to thinking about this post from last December that I needed to remember in July…

I was maneuvering laboriously, with stops and starts, through the parking lot at Costco yesterday, thinking for the millionth time that the Costco parking lot is either an outer ring of hell or a brilliant opportunity for spiritual formation.  

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