Summer brings a rush of relief from a busy Fall and Winter (which is soon to be around the corner). Summer also brings us more margin, allowing us to engage in activities that Fall or Winter kept us from. But summer can also be a time when we fill those margins so full with activities, desiring to experience all that we could before fall arrives. Ironically this leaves us feeling exhausted and surprised at how “fast” the summer went by. As I wrote in the previous blog What our souls need more than beachsides and margaritas this summer is that our summers can also be a time to feed our souls.
You had asked me “How do you do it?” while sitting in a busy car with a crying baby.
It wasn’t a question pertaining to my accomplishments but about how I continue to be apart of a church, or the church I should say. With all its flaws and failures, you were looking for an answer as to how I keep being apart of the church. We never got to finish our conversation, so this is my answer to you and to anyone else wondering how I keep going to church.
Ahhh summer… It’s so magical even when it’s ridiculously hot outside like it is now, here in Portland. Our bodies awaken from a winter slumber, our energy spikes, we start planning trips and hikes, and watch our gardens grow. We move at a different pace during these months and much of it is focused on rest and play. And yet, even with a new, slower pace I still find myself saying, “It’s mid-July!! Where did my summer go?!”
Summers can be a great season to start new habits as well especially when it comes to our health. We are more active in the summer, eating more fresh produce especially here in Portland where the Farmers Markets are plentiful! But summer can also be a time where we start to let other habits slip.
It’s been one full month since I have been out of school for the summer. I rushed into summer with a load of expectations:
Have a garage sale, check!
Workout more, check!
Build in time for writing…kind-of check!
Publish two blogs a month…uh…
Create a new Summer Memory Plan…memory, what?!
As I am sitting here trying to figure out what to write for my readers, I am simply just writing to myself and asking, “How can I continue to show up for this when I feel like I have nothing to show for?”.
Hello Friends, It has been so long since I have written a post that I feel like a complete stranger on my own blog! So much has happened these past 5 months and I am way overdue for an update/re-introduce myself.
“You worship what you ultimately find most beautiful.” (Dr. Paul Metzger)
This Advent season I have found myself more distracted than ever. It could be a combination of starting a new job, then starting my Masters, and planning a trip to Europe for In-vitro. All of it seemed to come crashing onto my shores at one this fall and I found myself looking for high ground. Especially in media and TV once again: My “go-to” escape.
Our theology is more important that we think it is. It may be because we somehow came to the conclusion that we “get it”. Especially those of us who have been raised in the church, we learned about Jesus from a young age on colorful Sunday School felt boards, asked Him to come into our hearts and now all is well. We feel like we “get” who Jesus is which allows us to move onto other things like serving in the church and being nice to our neighbor. Not that any of those things are bad within themselves but if we have moved past Jesus than we have completely missed the point. If our theology (especially our Christology) simply motivations us to have better quiet times then it certainly won’t ask us to lay our life down.
So many things in this life feel haphazard, unexpected, lacking purpose, and are often terribly painful. Much of what we experience we didn’t even choose and there’s nothing we can do about it. Living with infertility for the past 4 years has taught me this. This isn’t, however, a blog about infertility, but about the paths we find ourselves on, the hand of cards we hold, and how we are able to continue to trust God despite it
This last week I experienced what I like to call “Email PTSD”. Now I don’t want to diminish the real affects of PTSD but many of us have the same experiences just on a smaller scale. Last week was my first week as my church’s administrator. They just hired me and I was so excited to start. It has been a dream of mine to be a paid leader in a church and now God has created a role that fits me perfectly! Then I received my first email…
