life update.

from an e-mail i wrote to a friend:

"i am good - i am currently sitting on the king size bed that has recently inhabited my old room in st. louis, taking a break from reading gone with the wind, and listening to rain drops pelt my window. it is glorious. i've been on a much needed retreat home since saturday night and it has been so restful! some castlewood time, some Y time, some family time, and lots of reading.

this past semester was really tough, hopefully the toughest one i will ever have school-wise, but looking back on it, i've learned so much about myself that it's incredible. first, i changed my major this semester, from english education to just english. my heart just wasn't in it anymore and i should have realized it a while ago.
...
i've been shown my sin to an infinite degree this semester, and i've been shown just how much i rely on myself instead of trusting in the Lord and his promises, which has really been a huge blessing. it's true: one of the greatest acts of love that the Lord can do for us is to show us our sin and to make it blatantly clear, and it is always for the best. i fall short in loving people and loving them the way they need to be loved, how they are best loved; i fall short in spending my time sacrificially, much less even desiring to do that; i continually blame others and other things for my sin, whether it's "oh, that's just how my personality is" or "i don't have the time, money, resources, mindset, etc." i love with conditions, not unconditionally, and i've lost sight of the importance of Scripture in my life. i've forgotten that i myself am loved unconditionally, in the image of God, a glorious ruin but glorious nonetheless.

but i'm being rebuilt and continually being reminded of how great my Creator is. remember that book authentic beauty (this makes me think of it--not that i want to date jesus--ha.)? well all cheesiness aside, i truly am his beloved and i can rest in that. i'm somehow becoming more aware of the sin that has blinded me for the past couple months and i'm realizing how hard my heart has become. and it sucks. it makes me want to just say ok that's it, i give up, i'm retreating to where i am content and comfortable, but i can no longer do that without a pull on my heart. and for that i am so grateful.

other things new (and for sure lighter):

i'm staying in columbia again this summer and interning for veritas, the crossing's college ministry. i'll be leading a summer girls bible study and i guess doing some of the event planing. not too sure what else. i'm excited about the people who will be here, old friends and new, and i'm excited to spend another summer in columbia--a city that is becoming my home. i'm also nannying for a family with two older girls part-time (aka i'm swimming, cooking, and going on hikes--and getting paid for it!).

some of my friends and i formed a co-ed softball team in a wednesday night league, which has been a huge highlight. we're 4-1 right now and it is a BLAST! so good to be back on the field and getting dirty again! i forgot how much i missed softball.

i also started watching LOST with a couple people. we just finished season one, and it is incredible, let me tell you. i hope that you watch it, but if you don't, you may want to think about starting :)"

Scripture

John Willison, an 18th century pastor from Scotland, spoke of the importance of the Bible for the believer, as follows: "We should look upon it as a golden epistle, indited by the Spirit of God; we should receive it as a love-letter from heaven, opening up God's designs of love to our souls; we should go to it as for our daily food and substitence, and daily enquire in it for the will of God, and hereby consult with God about our duty in all cases . . . We should read with faith, reverence, and application to ourselves, as if we were particularly named in the precepts, reproofs, threatenings, and consolations of it . . . and in reading every part, we should still keep Christ in our eye, as the end, scope, and substance of the whole scriptures."

This reflects the Testimony of the Seceders (1736) that states, "the Word of God contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is not only a sufficient rule, or a principal rule, but it is the only rule to direct us how we ought to glorify God and enjoy him."

HT: John Currid

Introverts and Extroverts in the Church

Anthony Bradley posted a really interesting blog post mostly about introverts in the church.

I'm still in the process of thinking this through but Reformed theology draws introverts primarily and engages spirituality in a very introverted way some would say. Introverts do not typically live missional lives because they would rather read theology books than talk to non-Christians about the gospel or engage local culture with the Kingdom as some might argue.

Many would argue that introverts will want small churches (and will baulk at the suggesting that the church be otherwise), not care so much about being local missionaries, prefer "studying and teaching" over discipleship, see the church as a refuge and haven from the world, will be largely sectarian, will equivocate "kingdom" and "church," will do college ministry not directed at reaching non-Christians and/or bringing shalom to the campus, talk about being "missional" at not live that way at all, prefers blogging over talking to real people, etc.

the points he makes are really interesting, but i think he only hits on one side of the issue. someone commented:

Speaking as an introvert, I don't know that we can glean a whole lot from that one aspect of personality. True, I think it is fair to say that introverts tend to reflection and extroverts to action, but neither personality type does one or the other exclusively.

Many of the most missional pastors/thinkers around are introverts: Tim Keller, Greg Johnson, George Stulac, Nelson Jennings, just to name a few.

I think when you get into the extremes of each personality, you get problems with the kind of thing you are talking about. Like I said, I'm an introvert, but I also have a passion to live missionally. My introversion, though, makes me want to have a good theoretical base for my missional superstructure.

check out the whole thing, and be sure to read the comment discussion at the end.

another blog to check out.

i've just discovered a great blog by sean michael lucas, a professor at covenant seminary in st. louis. every post that i've read of his lately has been incredibly insightful, especially this last one on the need to preach the gospel to ourselves. here's an excerpt:

At the end of it all, the Spirit must use his word of gospel grace every day to confront my heart, to kill this sin of pride that manifests itself as self-pity and boasting, and to silence the voices. Only then, only then, will I hear the sweet voice of the Spirit say, "You are not a deserving servant; you are a beloved son. Rest in that and find in me the satisfaction, security, and significance for which your heart longs."

The Uneven Playing Field: Girls' Sports Injuries

After years of soccer and softball and hundreds of games, this article in the New York Times hits home. Here's an excerpt:

This divergence between the sexes occurs just at the moment when we increasingly ask more of young athletes, especially if they show talent: play longer, play harder, play faster, play for higher stakes. And we ask this of boys and girls equally — unmindful of physical differences. The pressure to concentrate on a “best” sport before even entering middle school — and to play it year-round — is bad for all kids. They wear down the same muscle groups day after day. They have no time to rejuvenate, let alone get stronger. By playing constantly, they multiply their risks and simply give themselves too many opportunities to get hurt.
...
PARENTS OF TEENAGE GIRLS who play sports have grown accustomed to what seems like entire teams battling injuries — and seeing those who do make it onto the field wrapped in Ace bandages or wearing braces on various body parts. Hannah Cooper, a star soccer player at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland, sat out several games early in the 2007 season with a severe ankle sprain, one of many she has suffered since her years in middle school. “The left one never fully recovers, so I play in a brace,” she told me not long ago. “I also have shinsplints, so that hurts all the time, but I’ve just learned to ignore it. I also tore my meniscus, or I think I did,” she said, referring to knee cartilage. “I’ve probably had concussions because I’ve had hard collisions where I was disoriented and had headaches afterward, but I’ve never missed a whole game because of one. If I have to sit out, I always come back in.”

"the table" -- karis sermon

check out this great sermon (it's the text) from last Sunday at Karis. it's all about hospitality and how that builds community. here's the intro:

"Two hit sit-coms of the 80s and 90s were Cheers in the 80s and Seinfeld in the 90s. Cheers, if you know the show, featured guys like Sam and Woody and Norm and Cliff sitting around a bar sharing life, having laughs. “Where everybody knows your name” was the theme song and the tag line. Seinfeld, which I’m sure most of you know, showed Jerry and Elaine and Kramer and George hanging out together, mainly either in Jerry’s apartment or in the local diner. It was the “show about nothing,” but it was really about everything—all the mundane, yet quirky details of life as experienced by four friends living life together. Well, both shows express a longing we all have as human beings. It’s a deep longing for community. But, of course, to experience community, there has to be a certain degree of hospitality. You had to have the Cheers bar, of course, for them to hang out. Jerry had to open up his place to his friends. Without a common place to share and converse with one another, these friendships wouldn’t have happened.

Today, in our individualistic, consumeristic world, we’re isolated people. I think we can watch reruns of those shows and long for what these people have together and experience none of it at all. But community takes hospitality; it takes us opening up our homes and lives with one another. Today, we’re taking a break from our study of Luke for the second part of a brief, three-part series. Today we’re looking at the table—not the Lord’s Supper, but rather the “tables” in our home. We’ll discuss the sphere of ministry found in the home. We’ll take a look at biblical hospitality. We’ll look at the importance of hospitality, the definition of hospitality, the practice of hospitality, the impact of hospitality, and the hindrances to hospitality. Let us pray."

Multiple Blessings -- Eight Kids!

Kate Gosselin is now writing a book! Check it out here.

Also check out all of these full interviews... listen to the Gosselins on marriage, family, how they deal, and a lot more.

P.S. this is one of my favorite families. :)

Books can Change our Destiny.

It's true. I really think the impressions that books make on us happen because we identify so strongly with a character. They lead us to change our wardrobe, appearance, or destiny. I have no doubt that my early days of spying on people with my black notebook and pencil was because I wanted to be just like Harriet the Spy. After we read it, my sister and I would sit on my top bunk bed (bunk beds were soo cool) and write in our notebooks about people in the neighborhood--who could be the neighbor that houses deadly weapons? Or who secretly has a crush on the mailman? Better yet, I bet Mrs. G has buried treasure under her flowerbeds. I was just trying to make sense of life's absurdities, right? But it was all so real. And I think that's why I really love books--because they hold a power over us that nothing else can, especially when real life just doesn't measure up.

A Meal Says More Than You Think

Check out this great article on a biblical theology of hospitality. It reminds me a lot of a lecture I went to at L'Abri which talked about how important and exciting practicing hospitality is in our lives.

Here's the closing remarks of the article:

So let’s return to my original quandary: Why is hospitality (1) a virtue Paul says is central to Christianity, (2) a qualification for elders of the church and older women, and (3) a practice to be cultivated as the end approaches?

Answer: With hospitality, we proclaim to the world the incarnation of Christ, God’s grace in salvation, the unity of the church, and a Christian’s participation in the life of Christ. And to Christ himself we say, "I love you, because you have identified yourself with the least of these brothers." We must preach the words of Christ’s gospel, otherwise we draw attention and glory only to ourselves. But we must also preach with our lives so that those both inside and outside the church see that the power of God for salvation begins today, as Christ’s people begin to image him from one degree of glory to the next.