It hit and possibly passed 100 degrees in Portland today. To quote a co-worker, "We're not equipped to deal with this heat." Nestle is responding by begging for ice cubes and trying to move as little as possible.
Hopefully, this means that the beach will be clear & warm next weekend...
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
The Journey
This morning at church, the message was about Abraham's journey and his up's and down's with God. I realized that I haven't cut Abraham enough slack in the past.
Yes, on two separate occasions he claimed that his wife was his sister and allowed her to become the mistress of two separate kings. One of these instances was when she had to be over 80, Sarah must have been HOT.
However, this morning, it struck home with me that Abraham was waiting for God to fulfill his promise 30 years after it had originally been made!!! I don't know of anyone today would could walk in faith without stumbling on just a promise for 30 years. If God spoke directly to me tomorrow with a promise for my future, and then waited 30 years to make it come to pass... I can't even fathom how many times I would lose faith and disappoint him just like Abraham did.
Thank heaven that my God is a God who values the process. It is indescribably beautiful to me that while he longs for my continual constancy, he also willingly forgives my perpetually falling short. I have enough self-awareness to recognize that I am a dramatically different person than I was ten years ago, or even three years ago. But I stand in wonder at what may be in store for me over the next 10, 30, or 50 years.
Our speaker Dallas said that we frequently don't understand the value of our own stories. That got me thinking about my personal story and I realized that, over and over, seemingly above all, I leap.
I left home at 18 to attend college half-way across the country where I didn't know anyone.
After college, I moved to a new city where I knew only 6 people on the promise of only a part-time job.
I married a man my parents didn't meet until 3 weeks before our wedding.
2 years after marrying that man, we picked up everything and moved. With no jobs, no place to live, no friends.
Six months after starting over in that new city, my husband re-enrolled in school to enter full-time ministry (a livelihood I'd promised myself I'd never again be dependent on).
Every month, we wait to see how God will sustain us.
Increasingly over the last few months, Proverbs 31:25 (the profile of a Godly woman) has become my inspiration: "Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come." I know I'm a long way from being able to laugh at the time to come, and I can only hope that someday I am worthy of being equated with concepts like strength and honor. I aspire to that kind of confidence, surety, grace.
I'd been a dancer all through high school and college, and only now do I realize that I've not only been launching my body through thin air, I've been doing the same thing with my life. With only faith and a promise that I am not leaping alone. I'm also coming to terms with the concept that I will fall, he will let me fall, but I'll have help to get back up.
Yes, on two separate occasions he claimed that his wife was his sister and allowed her to become the mistress of two separate kings. One of these instances was when she had to be over 80, Sarah must have been HOT.
However, this morning, it struck home with me that Abraham was waiting for God to fulfill his promise 30 years after it had originally been made!!! I don't know of anyone today would could walk in faith without stumbling on just a promise for 30 years. If God spoke directly to me tomorrow with a promise for my future, and then waited 30 years to make it come to pass... I can't even fathom how many times I would lose faith and disappoint him just like Abraham did.
Thank heaven that my God is a God who values the process. It is indescribably beautiful to me that while he longs for my continual constancy, he also willingly forgives my perpetually falling short. I have enough self-awareness to recognize that I am a dramatically different person than I was ten years ago, or even three years ago. But I stand in wonder at what may be in store for me over the next 10, 30, or 50 years.
Our speaker Dallas said that we frequently don't understand the value of our own stories. That got me thinking about my personal story and I realized that, over and over, seemingly above all, I leap.
I left home at 18 to attend college half-way across the country where I didn't know anyone.
After college, I moved to a new city where I knew only 6 people on the promise of only a part-time job.
I married a man my parents didn't meet until 3 weeks before our wedding.
2 years after marrying that man, we picked up everything and moved. With no jobs, no place to live, no friends.
Six months after starting over in that new city, my husband re-enrolled in school to enter full-time ministry (a livelihood I'd promised myself I'd never again be dependent on).
Every month, we wait to see how God will sustain us.
Increasingly over the last few months, Proverbs 31:25 (the profile of a Godly woman) has become my inspiration: "Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come." I know I'm a long way from being able to laugh at the time to come, and I can only hope that someday I am worthy of being equated with concepts like strength and honor. I aspire to that kind of confidence, surety, grace.
I'd been a dancer all through high school and college, and only now do I realize that I've not only been launching my body through thin air, I've been doing the same thing with my life. With only faith and a promise that I am not leaping alone. I'm also coming to terms with the concept that I will fall, he will let me fall, but I'll have help to get back up.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
We're still here!
Ok, I've been feeling recently that it's time I got serious about this blog again. There are too many of you who we love that are too far away to not keep in touch.
Here are some basic updates!
After 14 years, 5 schools in 3 states, Adam finally received his bachelor's degree!
The best part is that he's also simultaneously a year into his first master's degree (first of two in the program he's attending at Western Seminary here in Portland). Overall, Adam loves his school and the curriculum. There are some incredible teachers at Western and he's doing everything he can to soak them up. He also gets extremely frustrated by some of the "old school" methodologies and professors. In plain English, Greek is not Adam's friend (even more specifically, Professor DeJong is not Adam's friend).
Adam is also a week away from finishing his two-and-a-half-year internship at our church, Village Baptist. He had started the internship as a way to test whether full-time pastoral ministry was where God is calling him. He's since discovered that it's not, he's more passionate about working in the academic realm, as a teaching pastor or professor.
He's also been heavily involved in the training/continuing education of musicians within our service. This has been an awesome outlet for him, challenging his current skills and helping him develop new ones. He has recently taken up the mandolin and is contemplating a ukulele.
Together we lead/host a lifegroup (small group, home group, whatever each church likes to call them) at our home on Monday nights. There are four other couples besides us. We are right in the middle age-wise, but have been married the longest. One couple has a 9 month-old boy and another one due in October. These couples are truly a blessing to us, the church family that we've longed to find and put down roots with. Ironically, over half of our lifegroup are also involved in the mid-week band practices and rotate through playing on the nights we serve at the Portland Rescue Mission. We've become the Band Geek Lifegroup, and Adam thrives on it (I love being able to claim that my husband is a rock star!).
I'm still working at Charlotte's Weddings. For about a year now, I've been working as an assistant manager, helping run the store, do some of the ordering and problem solving. I've even helped with hiring/training. The position has it's ups and downs, but I still love working with 14 women and having almost no inter-personal drama. These girls are truly a family (including the owners taking us out for pedicures & brunch):
I'm also still working on the board of Lunacy Stageworks. I help keep the meetings on track, take notes, and lead the team that finds new scripts/plays for us to do. When able, I act in our shows. In fact, doing "A Company of Wayward Saints" last February was a dream since college for me (the great reviews and attendance by the playwrite didn't hurt either!). I'm hoping to be in another show this fall, "Clean House" by Sarah Ruhl.
When not working, I read voraciously, watch too much tv on my computer, have become completely addicted to Pinterest, and learned to be a halfway decent baker.
I think that's a decent wrap-up. Oh, Nestle is huge, bouncy, and always excited to go running or to bed.
Here are some basic updates!
After 14 years, 5 schools in 3 states, Adam finally received his bachelor's degree!
The best part is that he's also simultaneously a year into his first master's degree (first of two in the program he's attending at Western Seminary here in Portland). Overall, Adam loves his school and the curriculum. There are some incredible teachers at Western and he's doing everything he can to soak them up. He also gets extremely frustrated by some of the "old school" methodologies and professors. In plain English, Greek is not Adam's friend (even more specifically, Professor DeJong is not Adam's friend).
Adam is also a week away from finishing his two-and-a-half-year internship at our church, Village Baptist. He had started the internship as a way to test whether full-time pastoral ministry was where God is calling him. He's since discovered that it's not, he's more passionate about working in the academic realm, as a teaching pastor or professor.
He's also been heavily involved in the training/continuing education of musicians within our service. This has been an awesome outlet for him, challenging his current skills and helping him develop new ones. He has recently taken up the mandolin and is contemplating a ukulele.
Together we lead/host a lifegroup (small group, home group, whatever each church likes to call them) at our home on Monday nights. There are four other couples besides us. We are right in the middle age-wise, but have been married the longest. One couple has a 9 month-old boy and another one due in October. These couples are truly a blessing to us, the church family that we've longed to find and put down roots with. Ironically, over half of our lifegroup are also involved in the mid-week band practices and rotate through playing on the nights we serve at the Portland Rescue Mission. We've become the Band Geek Lifegroup, and Adam thrives on it (I love being able to claim that my husband is a rock star!).
I'm still working at Charlotte's Weddings. For about a year now, I've been working as an assistant manager, helping run the store, do some of the ordering and problem solving. I've even helped with hiring/training. The position has it's ups and downs, but I still love working with 14 women and having almost no inter-personal drama. These girls are truly a family (including the owners taking us out for pedicures & brunch):
I'm also still working on the board of Lunacy Stageworks. I help keep the meetings on track, take notes, and lead the team that finds new scripts/plays for us to do. When able, I act in our shows. In fact, doing "A Company of Wayward Saints" last February was a dream since college for me (the great reviews and attendance by the playwrite didn't hurt either!). I'm hoping to be in another show this fall, "Clean House" by Sarah Ruhl.
When not working, I read voraciously, watch too much tv on my computer, have become completely addicted to Pinterest, and learned to be a halfway decent baker.
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