Pleased

How is God pleased with us? Can God be pleased with us?

That was the topic du jour last night at House Church.

I found this to be a surprisingly difficult subject, which brought up the question, do I think that God is pleased with me?

Given my Lutheran roots, I think that I have been taught and taught and taught that if God finds anything good in us, it is what the Holy Spirit is working in us. That the good we do is Jesus' good work in us.

That, because of sin, God cannot be pleased with us. That's why we need Jesus, so that He can wash away those things and God can take pleasure in us. Because of Jesus.

Maybe that is the Sunday School answer. I don't know. I'd welcome your thoughts and comments.

*For Clarification* I've ordered The Weight of Glory by CS Lewis and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. I think that I need to add some clarification. I know, that as God's creation, He is pleased with me, because he created me. I know that He loves me and that He finds value in me. I know that am His child. The bigger question with is God pleased about what I am doing? Isn't the good I do God working in me?

Congratulations

Congratulations to my cousin Lynn and her fiance Neil who just got engaged!

(I'd like to point out that Lynn will round out the wedding tour of 08-09 in Novebmer of 2009, hers being the 6th wedding in 15 months that I'll have the opportunity to attend)

What color is my hair?

A couple months ago, I changed wallets and threw out old business cards, cut up unused credit cards, etc. I also got rid of miscellaneous papers that have been tagging around for a long time.

Well, I had been keeping my savings account customer number stored in my wallet on a post-it note. Today, I needed my number to sign in and found that I had thrown it away.

However, on the same type of post-it note, I did have a recipe for thai chicken safely stored in my new wallet.

Way to go Hannah

Vulnerability (Part Three?)

The other night at House Church, we were talking about what it meant to be a part of true community, what it meant to truly be a part of each other's lives.

One of the things that I have been thinking about and that was brought up in conversation was the fact that true community (I'm thinking about the disciples community with Jesus, maybe), is a scary place to be. As Americans, we're taught that we're strongest on our own, to not rely on others. For me, I know that me by myself is an ok thing. I know my own gifts and abilities, I know the things that can be perceived as weaknesses and know when I hit that point of truly comfortable in my own self with those around me. I could go on forever just relying on being an "ok" me.

But, if we are in true community, we can't rely on just ourselves. We bring all our collective strengths and weaknesses to the table and say, "here, you'll see all of this in me. I don't necessarily like all of this, but treat it carefully." We take the risk of being "ok" mes and seeing what me "plus" looks like.

So, here's to becoming me plus.

Overload

Perhaps it's because I just looked at my calendar and realized that small groups start up in 2 weeks, or because I realized that in 4 weekends, we'll be going to camp, or that I have several big events in between then.

Maybe it's because I'm listening to Fall Out Boy Thnks Fr Th Mmrs that is setting me on edge.

Whatever it is, I'm feeling some stress. Ugh.

The second half of colorado...

Here's the remaining highlights from my trip to Colorado...

1)Sing Sing. How I love Sing Sing. Pianos, cute waiters and big buckets with straws for all. Also, I enjoyed the nineteen bajillion bachelorettes joining us that evening.
2)Not going to church. Is that bad for a churchworker to say? I enjoyed my day off. So, so much.
3)Denver Library and downtown
4)Mamma Mia and Pierce Brosnan's non singing voice (to which sarah and I would cringe). I also enjoyed the comments of the ladies sitting next to me ("If Colin Firth said hi to me, I'd do him right then and there!"... nice)
5)Hiking plans that changed due to lightning.
6)Lunch with the busdriver, the spanish teacher, Sarah and I at Qdoba (that sounds like the beginning of some sort of joke)
7)PF Changs for under $10.00.
8)Super straight hair from the kiosk at the mall.
9)One Tree Hill Marathon
10)Rockies Game
11)Panda Express
12)Good conversations with Sarah, hanging out in the neighbors hammock and avoiding the sprinklers
13)Elitch Gardens and "pick the person over 20"
14)The goodbye playlist.

Tour of Closure '08

I'm back from Colorado, which was momentous to me in ways that I'm still discovering.

I think that I have always had a long-distance love affair with Denver and the many things it has come to represent to me, being the place where I wanted to live, the place where my friends are, the place where love was waiting for me, the place that was home away from home in college. I felt like I was holding my breath, waiting for Denver to welcome me into its' arms into the place where I made sense.

Plus, it had mountains in its' backyard. Win-Win, right?

The last couple of times I've been to Denver to visit Sarah, there have been a lot of other forces in play and it's taken several visits for me to finally put those things to rest.

I don't know what this all means, and it may just sound like all rambling, but perhaps, in a few days, I'll have more to share about these discoveries.

Punk'd...

Seriously...

Where's Ashton and the camera crew?

I'm ready to confess that "I got punk'd"

Colorado So Far...

How I love Colorful Colorado (even though it is bragging record high temperatures)...

Here's what I've been up to so far:

1)$23.00 pants and a $19.00 shirt from Banana. Thanks Bethany for the inside tip!
2)Tubing Boulder Creek with Crazy Tall Matt, Marcus, Sarah and all the Boulder hippies. I also received some AWESOME inner tube rashes and bruises from the rocks. The best part of the day were all the drunken hippies... (more stories later).
3)"Working" a wedding with Sarah and Colleen and receiving payment in the form of free fish tacos from racines. Oh yes.
4)Getting Punk'd.
5)Enjoying a bottle of wine with Sarah and playing catch phrase with Sarah and her roommates. Catch Phrase + Wine = best catch phrase game ever.
6)Using the Chi Hair Straightener.
7)Enjoying the view of the mountains.

More updates and pictures later!