Um, who's ready for Spring Break?

Hello my dearies!
We're closing in on Saturday which means, of course, CHARLESTON!!!! (Sorry to any adults/middle schoolers out there!) I know that you guys are excited about just getting away, but I hope that you're also thinking and praying about your experiences over the week. We'll be studying the ideas of oppression and injustice throughout the week and I want to give you guys a couple verses of scripture to begin looking at... call it homework-

Micah 6:8- "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Isaiah 1:17- "Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow."

What is God asking of us in these verses? Are we (the church) being successful?

See you Saturday :)

mean reds

My right contact won't stay still and it hurts. My hair is air drying and getting poofier by the second. I'm cold and tired and don't feel like doing the 836 things on my To-Do list. I'm too busy to read the book I borrowed from a friend and my thoughts are buzzing around my head like gnats.

And I'm wondering what happened to my Easter joy.

And feeling guilty about it.

What is it that causes us to go through the cycles of spiritual highs and lows?

Everyone does it, right? You know how it goes... the "mountain top" experience which tapers into a dry spell. Tonight isn't really a dry spell, but I'm just feeling whiny and sick of everything. I am wondering though, what is it about humans that we can't quite keep up our spiritual momentum. Thoughts?

P.S. If you don't know what the mean reds are, you should watch "Breakfast at Tiffany's." It's a classic!

Good Friday (on Saturday)

In answer to Patrick's question a couple days ago, the ironic-seeming title Good Friday probably originated from the ancient name for the day, God's Friday. And yet, it seems somehow fitting that we would call this day "good". Despite the injustice and the horror, it was and is our only chance for salvation. It is a day of bright sadness methinks.

Tie-dyed Fingers

So something has been on my mind lately. Something someone said a couple days ago.

we are an easter people.

I'm seeing Easter in a whole new way this year. Not as a child, not as a consumer. But as a woman of God who is defined by the events of a weekend. As a creation who was molded by hands that were nailed to a cross.

One of my professors told us yesterday of the Easter tradition of his church. The sanctuary is draped in black cloth from Maundy Thursday to Sunday morning and as the ministers process in, they rip down the cloth, singing "Victory in Jesus."

Easter isn't about chocolate bunnies, not about my multi-colored fingers from dyeing eggs, and not about new dresses and suits. It's about an empty tomb.

Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever,

He sought me and bought me

with His redeeming blood.

He loved me e're I knew Him

and all my love is due Him.

He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

dad.

So I'm thinking about families today. I have a great family, even if they're pretty insane a lot of the time. I'm guessing that you would probably say that your family is a little crazy too and if not, I'm going to think it anyway so I don't have to acknowledge that my family is kooky.

Anyway, moving on, I've always heard that when people hear that God is their Father, it makes them think of their biological father. And in many ways, people superimpose their idea of their biological father on God. Whether you have a great dad or not, he is not God. Don't limit God with the limits your own father has. God is 100% good, 100% loving. He is never grouchy or short-tempered or overbearing or anything else that your dad can be. A lot of people don't have a father. Or they hate the father they do have. There is another Father that wants desperately to care for you. He is comforting and kind. He will desire and pursue you. He loves you.

(* This entry seems kind of down on earthly fathers. It was certainly not intended to! I love my Daddy a lot. But I'm also pretty sure that he would agree with what I've written.)

citizen x

So we had a lecturer at school today who is very involved in the political and religious arena. My own politics were very much challenged by reading one of his books and just being around him made me reconsider the American political situation. In one of our conversations today, the question arose about our generation's politics. Obviously there is tremendous support for Barak Obama coming from our generation, but I wonder why? (I am not endorsing any candidate here, by the way, I just want some feedback!)

Where are you guys politically? Do you hate all political conversation? Are you a news fiend, checking for updates regularly? Another big question we had today was about the media. Do you trust the media to give you true accounts of the world's events? Do you care? Are you involved? Why or why not? I would really like to hear some ideas on this topic because it is one that I don't have answers to. How are we, as Christians, called to live out our citizenship?

a poem

by one of my favs, Gerard Manley Hopkins:

"Pied Beauty"

GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

I was out west for a couple days this week and I was reminded of this poem. The landscape was breathtaking. So much of what we praise is the obvious, glorious beauty of creation. I'm also glad for the trout. It's pretty wonderful God work too.