on the death of osama bin laden

many are celebrating today after the news last night from our president that osama bin laden has been killed. while i understand their relief, that his deceptive ways and murderous plots have died with him, i am confused by their celebration.

it has taken me some contemplation to find the words, so be patient with me while i try to explain. whenever i'm unsure as to how i feel about any given issue, i go back to scripture - i start with "what i know"...

• Romans 5:8 says: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
• John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

i have seen just a glimpse of the expanse of God's love in the way he has redeemed my own life. it is not a stretch for me to know that he loved bin laden too. some will struggle with this - but God does not love selectively. God loves us all, but he is displeased by our sinfulness.

so now that i've gone back to "what i know", "how i feel" is this: the Gospel is that Jesus, the perfect Son of God, died to save us from the death penalty for our sins, and not just mine and yours, but everyone's: hitler, hussein, bin laden. so, without knowing what occurred in bin laden's last few hours, what went through his mind and his heart in those last few moments, i can't say for sure where he'll end up... but unless he genuinely sought forgiveness from Jesus, then it's true that he will spend an eternity in hell. some would argue that he deserves it, because they see him as a "bad person" in comparison to themselves, the "good people" that they are. but that is not God's standard. God's standard is "that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

some might say he did it to himself. this would be true. it is only by our own rejection of the Gospel that we spend eternity in hell. but would Jesus be so flippant? i don't think so. Jesus is the epitome of compassionate - it's the only way that he could have died for our sins when he, himself had done nothing wrong.

and so today, i am saddened for bin laden. and instead of focusing on his death, i am choosing to pray for the safety of our troops in the middle east, praying that there will not be a successor to follow bin laden, but instead that his organization will disband. please pray with me.

March AND April in review

behind, as always.

march, in review:

• adopted a dog! he's SUCH a doll. also kinda crazy. we've actually decided the right term for him is "enthusiastic".
  
• photographed the classical concert for Choir of the Sound
  
• started dog training because he's a maniac.
  
• made some serious progress on the quarterly goals i set in january at creekside.
  
• decided to start memorizing scripture along with our breakfast club kids to earn points for the big summer "b.c. bash". loving this challenge!
  
• reading: diana gabaldon's "voyager", blackaby's "experiencing God", maxwell's "developing leaders around you", "spiritual leadership" by oswald sanders, and "leading at the highest level" by ken blanchard. (a few of those have been in progress for a few months)
  

april, in review:

• it's official! i finished my last class! the 3 year program that has taken me 10 years to complete is done.
  
• my application for ordination is complete, and will be in the mail soon (followed by a big exam this Summer and an interview this fall).
  
• went to my favorite ministry conference a few weeks ago, getting to meet a leader in the kidmin field who has impacted my ministry the most. love coming away with new ideas and feeling recharged.
  
• repo'd a pool table - bet you'd never guess "repo agent" was part of my job description. (neither did i.)
  
• went rollerskating for an all-church skate night. bad idea. the last time i rollerskated, i was 5. i'm pretty sure i was awesome at it then. i'm not now. one lap around the rink, i'd fallen twice and i was done!
  
• had our first Good Friday service at church - such a beautiful remembrance.
  
• celebrated our 3rd Easter at the new campus, with a record attendance of nearly 600. such an exciting day!
  
• finishing up dog training (or "doggy brainwashing" as we've called it). wish i thought it was helping. selective obedience only, dontchya know.
• finally got rid of all the (s)crap we've had leftover from tearing down the patio "awning" and taking out the "fireplace" and chimney. two ambitious dump runs made possible by a good friend with some spare time on his hands.
• matt is patching up the hole in the wall from the fireplace, now that we've decided we don't need to install a new one.
  
• heading tonight to jet city improv to celebrate a friend's birthday.
  
• reading: gabaldon's "drums of autumn", "leading on empty" by wayne cordiero, blackaby's "experiencing God" and "spiritual leadership" by oswald sanders (yes, still)
  

Hey look! I'm posting from my iPhone. I *heart* technology!

the newest member of our family...

isn't he cute!? he's about 14 months old, some kind of lab mix (we think he could be boxer or pit or even greyhound), and he's a little spastic - but an absolute doll. hopefully, some dog training will do us all good.

February in Review

(This 3x per week thing is not working out so well.)

• Matt gave up "screens" for the month, and within 5 days, because God is just that amazing, he had a new job. Related? Hard to say, but choosing to believe so.
• Celebrated Valentine's Day simply - dinner out the weekend before, and then babysitting for friends so they could enjoy the night.
• Won an ipod touch at a meeting i didn't even want to go to...
• Matt started his new job, and is working 6 days a week for a season.
• Launched a third service at Creekside.
  
• Decided to adopt a dog... adoption pending.
• Went to Leavenworth with mom & family. They rented a cabin for the weekend and we played hard - sledding and snow-shoeing.

Judging by the length of the list, one might think it wasn't much of a month, but boy was it! More later...

30 things before i turn 30

Just before I turned 25, I made a list of 25 things to do in my 25th year.

(For the nitpicky and detail-oriented, it would've technically been my 26th year, since you turn an age at the end of a year of life, not the other way around, but whatever.)

I was marginally successful. There were a few things that lost priority for various reasons (like, instead of a new camera, we bought a house), and others that just became impossible, and still others that I lost interest in. And that's okay. By the end of the year, I'd accomplished about 14 of them, and made very good attempts at 3-4 others. Not bad, especially considering some of them were mighty ambitious and even expensive.

Now, I'm quickly approaching 30 - two years away - and instead of waiting until next year to tackle a list of 30 things, I thought to myself, "Self, why not spread that list out over the course of two years?"

The list is not yet complete - and I'm giving myself permission to not complete it now. Part of what killed enthusiasm on my 25 Things list was that some of those things were hair-brained ideas, and if I have 100 ideas a minute, only 3 of them will last more than 5 minutes...

Without further ado, here it is - my list of 11 (going on 30) things to do before I turn 30:

1. Grow tomatoes. Successfully.
   
2. Pay off our debt.
   
3. Go on a road trip.
   
4. Finish a quilt!
   
5. Go on a cruise.
   
6. Make a dress for "Dress A Girl Around the World"
   
7. Finish Bible school. (Heh. This was on my list of 25 Things as well.)
   
8. Be ordained.
   
9. Learn to crochet.
   
10. Host a tea party.
    
11. Take my nieces to the Imagine Children's Museum (I know that this sounds like I'm doing it for them, but really, I've wanted to go there forever, and they're my excuse!)
    

Will add more later, for sure.

birthday musings (or, holy cow, i'm 28!?)

1. lisa cut my hair yesterday and was kind enough to point out a gray hair.
2. allie and i had brunch with my mom, then shopped, and finished off the day with afternoon tea at the Queen Mary.
3. matt and i saw Grease at the Paramount last night, preceded by dinner at Cheesecake Factory. faaaantastic all around.
4. it hasn't arrived yet, but last night at dinner, matt told me what my gift was: a new wedding ring. YAY!!! so wasn't expecting that. he did good.
5. showed up at mom's this morning before brunch to find a big, assuming box, freshly wrapped with my name on it. she insisted i open it. i was not expecting a new sewing machine. WOW! just when i thought i couldn't be more spoiled this birthday!
6. i've had about 50 comments to my facebook wall. what lovely people i know!
7. i keep thinking "when my mom turned 28, she had a 6 year old." not really sure how i feel about that.
8. there's still more celebrating to come.
9. technically, it's the "end" of my 28th year - i've been alive for 28 whole years. which means this is the start of my 29th year. oh my. let's not linger on that.
10. this might be the first year i actually have felt a little older... more grown up at least. ;)

saturday's child works hard for a living...

"Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child born on the Sabbath Day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay."
-Mother Goose

observations:

1. only one in seven children must work hard for a living!? hmph. good timing, mom.
2. i was born on a saturday, and this year, my birthday falls on a saturday.
2a. i was born exactly 1,456 weeks ago, to the DAY.
2b. this seems worthy of special celebration.
2b, i. when i told my mother this, she just rolled her eyes.
2b, ii. i'm not sure what this special celebration would entail, but i'm sure i'll think of something.

two weeks

i'm reflecting today on how suddenly life can change. more than once, in a period of, let's say, two weeks, my life has changed completely.

january 1st brought my 4-year anniversary at Creekside Church. i remember the day i was told i was being considered for the position. just two weeks before, i was wondering where life was going, when we'd have a family, when i could "move on" to the next stage of life. and two weeks after that conversation, i was being offered a ministry position and entering completely new territory. it happened again 15 months later, when i was brought on staff full time. a year after that, we moved into our new campus, and again, over what seemed like a period of two weeks, life shifted.

it makes me wonder what might change completely in the next two weeks, and it certainly reminds me to savor now my place, because it could all be very different, very soon.

2011 - One little word...

(Read more about the "One Little Word" movement here.)

Content.

This is my one little word, my focus, for 2011.

As long as I can remember, I have been in a hurry for progress. As a child, I was in a hurry to grow up. As a teenager, I was in a hurry to move out on my own (so much so that I skipped the typical college experience in order to work full time to support myself.) As a young adult, I was in a hurry to get married. As a young married, I was in a hurry to buy a house, have children, etc. Newly into part-time ministry, I was in a hurry for a full-time position. Having purchased a fixer-upper home, I was in a hurry to fix it up. In fall, I'm ready for winter. In winter, I'm ready for spring. In spring, I'm ready for summer. In summer, I'm ready for fall... I've always desired the next stage of life, rarely stopping to enjoy my current season.

Thankfully, circumstances have often prevented me from moving at my desired pace. If we had children early on, our marriage might not have survived it. If we had gotten married on our own time-line, instead of waiting another year when our parents asked us to, we might not have survived that. This, to me, is evidence of God's grace and God's hand in my life - ushering that which needs to be ushered, and holding back those things that I think I want, but for which I am not prepared to handle.

So in 2011, I will focus on simply being content.

Do I want to begin our family? Oh sure. That's a given. But instead of feeling discontent with my place in life, I will choose to be content with the season in which God has placed me, and I will use it to bless others.

When ministry gets challenging, do I sometimes dream about being a housewife? Yes. But let's face it, I'd go crazy, and so instead of being restless, I will thank God that He has wired me to need some busyness in my life and to function well under stress.

Do I wish that my house was perfect, finished (and perhaps 400 sq. ft. larger)? Often... But instead of feeling dissatisfied, I will choose to see that we can even own a house on our modest income as a blessing and will do my best to make it a haven for my husband and those we love.

Contentment.

"A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." Proverbs 14:30

"Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it." 1 Timothy 6:6

Happy New Year! May you find contentment in your own season.