Some of my favorite things...

So I have this reputation for liking off-beat things that everyone else just goes, "Where did you ever find that?" But nevertheless thought I'd share the things that keep me entertained.

1. Top Gear: What can I say? It's a car show for people who like cars and people like me who like to pretend I know anything about cars. Anyway, it's just really funny. My favorite episode is the Caravaning Trip.

2. Once: The movie is okay (it's rated R for the language, but the story is actually realistic), still the music is what makes it worthwhile.

3. Persepolis: A French-language cartoon memoir of a young girl growing up in Iran? Does it get any better than this!

Flannelgraph Heroes

I don't remember the Bible saying anything about Jesus being a member of the Bee Gees.

Being a PK(pastor's kid) for 21 years, I heard all the major Bible stories and then some over and over and over again. An aura always seemed to surround Biblical characters as if they always knew what to do and if they didn't, they listened to what God said. My flannelgraph view of Moses, Jacob, Joseph and Abraham had been basically unchanged since elementary school when our church really did use cut out pieces of flannel to represent different Bible characters.

This is the first time in my life that I've actually read through the Bible instead of taking a little here, a little there, do a subject study on this, read a section of that, etc. And I've been stunned by my own naive view of these people I've known about my whole life. Here's what I've found:

• Flannelgraph Moses: A little scared at times, but basically a nice guy who did what God said and then messed it up in the desert.
  
• Reality: Moses was a pain in the behind! He argued and complained with God over stupid things ("What if they don't like me? What if they think I'm a liar? I don't like speaking in front of people."), doubted God's promises, got fed up as a leader and wanted to bail out. In fact, when you actually read the whole parting of the Red Sea account, Moses has very little to do with anything! It's God, God, God, God! Moses was just kind of standing there.


• Flannelgraph Abraham: Faithful, old guy who got a kid after a while, almost killed his kid, but didn't and has a song about him that's similar to the Hokey Pokey but you praise the Lord instead of "that's what it's all about".
• Reality: Abraham messed things up too! He lied about his relationship to his wife...twice! He gave in to his wife's poor idea about Hagar and then gave in to her again when Sarah complained about Hagar. Yes, he showed great faith, but at other times you wonder where his heart was.
• Flannelgraph Joseph: A nice kid, who had mean brothers. He got sold into slavery in Egypt, ran away from a horny woman, got put in prison anyway, interpreted a bunch of dreams and then became the (almost) King of Egypt. He forgave his brothers and gave them stuff.
• Reality: Joseph rocks my world! Of all the Patriachs (does he even count? I'm not sure why everyone leaves Joseph out), he's the one I'd want to be like the most. He shows constant integrity, faithfulness and passion amid struggle after struggle. When his brothers come to Egypt, he doesn't just give them a group hug and cry a lot. He tests their motives. He throws one brother in jail and demands that the rest bring Benjamin. Then he plants his own silver cup in Benjamin's bag as yet another test of his brothers' sincerity. It takes Judah sobbing at Joseph's feet, offering to take Benjamin's place before Joseph let's himself known.

So what did I learn from this?

1. You have to read the Bible. Let me say it another way. YOU have to read the Bible. Not the pastor who tells you what it says. Not the VeggieTales version with dancing cucumbers and singing grapes. YOU have to read it yourself. You have to read the BIBLE. Not a commentary. Not a Bible study. The BIBLE itself. Otherwise, you're just getting flannelgraph heroes, not the real deal.
2. God uses whomever He wants to bring Himself glory. Right about the second time Moses was complaining, I would have kicked him off the mountain and started looking elsewhere. It's interesting to think that sometimes God uses us in spite of us. I'd like to be the kind of person, like Joseph, who God works through.

The Good, the Odd and the Sexy...

Here's the amazing thing about reading the Bible through for yourself--you find a ton of cool things that no one ever preached on or did a Bible study on or even mentioned. Here are just a few that have stuck out to me in the past few days:

1. Exodus 4:24-26...this verse blew me away! It's so random and odd! So I did a little research and come to find out this is one, if not the most, contested verse in the Old Testament. It has something to do with pronouns (is the "him" Gershom or Moses?) and also with Zipporah (how did she know what to do?) and with Moses' lack of obedience (why had he not circumcised his own son?). If anything, we see that Moses' lack of obedience was dangerous not just to himself, but to his family as well.
2. Genesis 42-43: Joseph is often seen as the overly nice brother who willingly forgives his brothers immediately...unfortunately, that's not what the Bible says. Joseph tested his brothers mercilessly and even threw Simeon in jail! Although I have to say, I don't blame him. Simeon's reputation was not too hot (Genesis 34:24-26).
3. Proverbs 5 instructs you to have great sex with your spouse. It also warns you not to sleep around. I love the imagery here too. It's so over the top! "Why spill your springs in the streets/ your streams in the city squares?" Haha...that's great.
4. Matthew 17:24-27--Too bad H&R Block doesn't offer a guarantee like this one!
5. Matthew 18:21--Got to admit it...I can relate to Peter here. Ever try to impress someone with your own holiness and it totally backfires? Welcome to Peter's world! He tried so hard to be the goodie-two-shoe with this question and Jesus completely turned the tables on him. If I was Peter, I'd be feeling pretty dumb at that point.

Well, just a few interestering "ah-ha!" moments. How about you? What have you found that has stunned you?

Blessed by family

So thought I'd share some fun family photos that capture whole stories in them...

This picture basically tells you everything you'd ever need to know about the differences between my brother and I. I'm the squinting wallflower looking for direction while he's hamming it up for the camera, hip popped out with stylish sock/sandal combo. I could never pull that off. Grandpa...I miss him. But this is truly hilarious. If you look really closely at my brother's hand, you'll notice his finger in a splint because he almost cut it off when it was accidentally slammed in a door. The irony of the picture is that Grandpa is proudly holding the hedge clippers as my brother looks very warily at them.

Just too darn cute. Got to love the 80's short shorts. By the way, that was the coolest bubble mower ever!

Back in the saddle...

Hey, y'all. Sorry I've been so hit-and-miss for blogging. My internet has been weird so I may be ready to blog but my computer's may not be ready to cooperate.

I absolutely LOVED today's reading! Here are my thoughts and questions that came up for me:

Matthew 15--I love this encounter Jesus has with the Canaanite woman. First, he's just criticized the Pharisees for knowing all the Scripture and the law, but not applying it, not even realizing who He was!
And here comes a Gentile woman (gosh, Gentile and a woman, I bet the Pharisees would have had a field day with this one!) who not only understands who Jesus is, she has "great faith."
Sure enough the disciples were bothered by her, why? Because she was worshipping Him loudly! Isn't it always the people who don't get it, ones who honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce; aren't those the ones who try their hardest to put up barriers for true worshippers?
Quite frankly, my favorite part is the woman's response. It is darn funny! I just love the whole section.

Psalm 19--There is just something about this Psalm that resonates deeply with me. It's got everything, worship, descriptions of nature, love of Scripture, repentance and a request for holiness. I've seriously read this at least seven times today already and I just can't get enough of it! It really is like honey dripping from the comb. Or if you are like my mom who hates honey it is like chocolate dripping from the spoon.

Lord, may I always thirst for your righteousness. May I read and reread your commands until they shout in my mind and penetrate deep within my heart.

Eyeballs and service

Last night I truly understood the analogy that Paul gave us about the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. Yes, I put a link you could read it, so read it! You will be blessed no matter what. It really doesn't matter what I say in the next few sentences, but I do care if you read His Word.
Anyway, last night went to see the movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly with my dear friend Ida. The movie is the true story of a man named Jean-Dominque Bauby who was living the high life until he had a stroke that completely paralyzed him except for his left eye. The movie is mostly from Bauby's perspective, as in literally from his left eye. I loved the message of the movie, I loved the story line...unfortunately, the cinematography just about killed me. Because it follows the vision of one person's eye, the camera jerks this way and that, goes blurry at times or flickers. About an hour into the movie, Ida and I had to leave since we were so nauseated.

Wow! I need my eyeballs! And when they are out of whack, boy does it affect the rest of my body! The muscles around my eyes hurt, my jaw hurt, my stomach was doing somersaults, even my legs were wobbly. Not only that, my energy was simply drained from my body...and all because of artsy cinematography!

It made me reflect on how much each part of the Body of Christ is needed. Until last night, I didn't realize how important the muscles surrounding my eyes were until they didn't work properly. How many people are there who do all the behind the scenes work and you would never know they are there until they are missing. When one person is hurting, all others should respond to help and heal. Everyone is needed, everyone's unique giftedness is essential to bringing God glory and following the vision He's called us to do.

The flip side to this is how are you using your giftedness to bring glory to God? Are you a seat-warmer at your church who watches everyone else thinking, "Well, I just don't have time right now." I'm sorry to be so blunt, but if that's what you are thinking you're worse than my poor eyeballs because at least they got back in the game after a little while. Stop fooling yourself.

Action steps you can take with you:
1. If you aren't serving yet, just do it! No excuses, no whining, you WILL be blessed.
2. Find people in the Body of Christ who need to be encouraged, thanked and supported.

Speaking of which, some shout-outs to some people who make my day:
1. Art, thank you for your prayers and encouragement. I still have the email you sent me for my birthday. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever gotten. Know that I pray for you and Susie daily. Much love!
2. Pastor Mark, thanks for the encouragement today on the patio and for getting me started on my Financial Peace journey. Your leadership by example makes a difference.
3. Pastor Greg, thanks for being a vessel for Christ. Today is was very obvious that God was using you to speak truth into so many people's lives, including mine!
4. Hometeam gals, I love you and can't imagine what I'd do without you!

Giving your best...because you don't know any other way.

So for the last month and a half, I have been sick. Not terribly sick, just sick enough to be drained and tired and worn out. Everyone has told me to take some time off and relax or just scale back at school.
Well, today, sometime between singing our classroom "F.U.N. Fractions!" song with hand motions, strutting down an invisible catwalk wearing a 2 foot tall hat made of construction paper(I was FIERCE!), brainstorming Greek and Latin roots that mean "to write" and cutting out 150 fluency cards for a game I realized I can't "scale back". I don't know any other way to teach!
It never entered my head to cancel my "Eradicate the Misuse of 'Like' and 'You know'" campaign I had planned for this week or to hold off starting my fractions unit (THE unit for 5th grade!). I knew I had a job to do and I had the tools to do them (well, besides health, but anyway...).

It got me thinking...what would our lives be like if we worshipped God in everything we did simply because we didn't know any other way to live. Paul exhorts us to take hold of the life that is truly life in 1 Tim. 6:19 instead of "scaling back" to lean on wealth or earthly enjoyment. So how do we live in such a way to really take hold of this life that is truly life?
Paul says to:

• Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. (6:11)
• Fight the good fight of the faith. (6:12)
• Take hold of your eternal life; don't expect others to "feed" you everything (6:12)

While I can take a sick day to recuperate and leave my class with a substitute teacher, know there are no substitutes when it comes to personal, daily worship of Your Savior.

So what kind of worshipper are you? The one who when times get tough sits at the desk and checks email while the students run wild("After all God, it's been a hard week. I just need a break from serving You")? Or are you the one who still sang the National Anthem at the top of your lungs and juggled five different student writing conferences because you couldn't imagine doing any less? Can you really relate to David when he said...

How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of Heaven's Armies.

I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the LORD.

With my whole being, body and soul, I shout joyfully to the living God.

A single day in Your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!

Psalm 84:1-2, 10.