Creeping Charlie

So I was thinking the other day about weeds. Yep, weeds.

Lydia and I go for a walk, nay, multiple walks everyday. I usually find myself getting lost in nature; looking at the various trees, flowers, and even the weeds. Now some of those weeds actually look like flowers. Creeping charlie, for example- those little purple flower are actually quite attractive. Maybe they are the charlie part, and the creeping part is the part that takes over your yard and kills all your grass, and your neighbor's grass, and their neighbor's grass.

Anyway, I was thinking about how pretty some of the flowered weeds are. I mean, from the time we are young most of us are attracted to weeds. How many of us gave our moms bouquets of dandelions on numerous occasions? And then when they turned, you can bet your bottom dollar all the kids were out blowing the little fuzzies off those things. Little did we know we were just spreading more weeds.

So yeah weeds. Their a lot like sin. Sometimes its really attractive and we get tied up in the beauty of it all. Before we know it, the sin is spreading like those little fuzzies; all-over-the place. Still there are those pretty flowers; and sometimes I wonder if those flowers are less like sin and more like redemption. That even in the weeds God is showing us a small taste of who He is. Even in the weeds He shows up, places a little purple flower, and says, "See even in this, I am redeeming. Even in this."

So Good

Beautiful Things

Gungor

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make me new, You are making me new

Jesus Made Mud

The gospel reading for this week is John 9:1-41. After reading it multiple times this week, I am incredibly struck by the reality of this story. Jesus tells a man, born blind, to go wash in the pool and be healed. Picking it up in verse 10,

But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?"

9:11 He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight."

Just like that. The man washed and received his sight. Can you imagine what it would be like to see life for the first time? Your own hands; the water washing over them. Suddenly you are open to the entire world. Experiencing everything new.

No one believed that he had actually been blind from birth. They called his parents in and they acknowledged the man was their son and that he had been born blind. The Jews were still in disbelief. They continued to ask the man what had happened.

9:24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner."

9:25 He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."

The only thing the formally blind man knows for sure is that he was once blind, and now he sees. After the unbelievers are driven out, Jesus approaches the man again.

9:35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

9:36 He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him."

9:37 Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he."

9:38 He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him.

I wonder what it was like to see Jesus for the very first time; having never seen anything at all. I wonder how I would have reacted had I been one of the Jews seeing this miracle take place.

As we see Jesus in our everyday lives, I hope we would be reminded of our past blindness and the blindness that may still exist. Lord, I pray you open my eyes. For I know that once I was blind, and now I see.

A little doting...

It's been quite the last couple of months. We started off the year with Lydia's first ear infection. Andy went on to get a cold, another cold, and then pneumonia. Then, last week, I went in for an appendectomy! Needless to say we are glad that we have good health insurance.

Amongst the craziness of being sick and getting healthy again, I have really treasured my sweet little girl. Truly, I didn't realize how much I missed the little things until I had to spend an overnight in the hospital and then not lift her for a whole week. Lydia has such a great personality. She is happy almost all the time, grinning from ear to ear, and laughing at the antics of her mama and daddy. We will do almost ANYTHING to make her laugh.

It is so fun to watch her explore her world. She is so observant; takes everything and everyone in. You can just see the wheels spinning in her head, trying to figure things out. When she plays with toys she usually picks one up, looks at it, turns it around a couple times, and then it goes straight into the mouth for a little tasteful exploration.

I also love meal and snack time. Lydia has now mastered the pincer grip and actually prefers it to me putting finger foods in her mouth for her. And she loves her sippy cup. I love watching her drink from a sippy cup; so grown-up. :)

I could go on and on, but this will suffice for now. My sweet Lydia is growing and learning so quickly. I am so in love with her and can't get enough!

That Time of Year

It's that time of year again. Every grocery store and mall has them. Heck, I've even been one of them. It's that time of year again. It's bell-ringer season.

Does anyone else try to avoid eye contact and hurry into the store without having to interact with these saints of people? Do you try to pretend you are absolutely freezing and bury your face into your scarf so you can just get past them? Do you talk to your children and make them a false distraction? Do you just plain pretend they don't exist?

I am definitely guilty of doing most, if not all of these things. And I don't know why. The other day I pulled into the grocery store parking lot and thought, "Oh I'm just going to dig some change out of the console so I don't feel so bad walking past this poor man who I swear has been ringing this bell straight for the last oh, 10 days." I was stopped from digging out my nickels with this thought, "You know what? I am not going to give money out of guilt. I'm just not." It ended there. I did manage to ask the man on the way out if he was staying warm, like that really mattered.

So what is the answer? Even if I don't give money, is it still appropriate to strike up a short conversation with these faithful servants of the Salvation Army? Should I bring them a cup of coffee or hot cocoa? Should I just continue to walk past them and give the standard, "Sorry I don't have any change. ?"

When do we give and how do we give and what do we give? Any thoughts?

Good to the Last Drop?

Anyone else out there never completely finish their cup of coffee? Almost never do I drink every last bit of coffee in my cup. I attribute it mostly to the fact that by the time I get towards the bottom, the beverage is already to cool for my liking. ALSO, I hate it when I am at a restaurant drinking coffee and they keep filling my cup. I drink like two sips and they are already coming around for a warm up. One would think I would enjoy this, but after two sips, who is ready for a warm up? Not me. In a perfect world, the waitress would know at the precisely correct moment when my coffee has become too cool for consumption, thus giving me the much needed warm up. Of course I know that this perfect world will never exist, though I think Starbucks could make a valiant attempt at such a system. Thoughts anyone?

Ready or Not, Westmont here we come.

I finally feel like I am in a place where I can read something intelligent (I thought that day might never come again). I decided to start reading Frost and Hirsch's, Shaping of Things to Come. The sub-title is "innovation and mission for the 21st-century church." The line that I just read was something to the effect of "we don't want to provide another model for church, but rather a mode." I must say that I agree with what they are saying thus far. Churches can't all look the same. They have to be shaped by the cultural context of which they are a part. This has got me wondering, what on Earth is the cultural context of Westmont? We have only been a part of this community since the end of June (and I probably feel like less of a part just because I have been consumed by trying to figure out what the heck it means to be a mommy). But I have really started to wonder what our church will look like, in light of the Gospel and our cultural context. The group of us that are down here is somewhat homogeneous. A lot of us like art and coffee, are parents of young children, care about the environment (in varying degrees), love Jesus, and want to meet our community members where they are at instead of making them come to us. But do the people in Westmont like art and coffee? I know there are a lot of parents with young children, so that must be an interest of some sort :) A lot of people recycle. Ha. These are clearly just a few of the surface observations that I have made thus far. I know we are here for a purpose and that God has called us here for this specific season of our lives. I just don't quite know what that looks like yet. But I am okay with it. I know God will show us in His perfect time. Reading on to see just what else I can learn!!!