October 2012
1 post
DEREK WEBB: how shall we then vote? (reposted from... →
i originally wrote this in 2008, just before the last presidential election. in case it’s helpful to you as you navigate the more than tricky waters of our current election season, i thought i might repost it.
how shall we then vote? (reposted from 2008)
d
Part 1: A Brief Statement On Matters Of Conscience
Depending on when you’re reading this, we could be on either side of one of the most...
December 2011
2 posts
November 2011
5 posts
8 tags
Day 157: Finish Strong
If you had asked me how I expected to feel on Day 157 back on Day 1 or 3 or Day 33 I would probably have told you something to the effect of: adjusted, strong, giddy with wedding plans. Here we are, 35 days until the wedding—17 until I see Mark. So close to the end. That’s really what this day-counting is about: days of being in Columbia without Mark, days of working a grownup job. I knew I was in...
The Mason Jar Manifesto →
This Mason Jar Manifesto is from here: http://jonaspeterson.com/wedding/a-manifesto-of-sorts/ I did not write it. In the midst of the ocean of details that comes with wedding planning (complete with a treacherous undertow that, if you lose your grounding, will certainly take you under), I find this manifesto a relief. There’s only one thing I would change: It is about the couple and the...
October 2011
6 posts
6 tags
Day 122: Counterfeit God
Chelsea Steyn described herself in her devotional article “Working for Contentment” as “one of those people who is perpetually busy.” She explains, “When not occupied with [my 15 month old son, teaching, and being a choral director], I created work. I can barely sit down and watch a movie with my husband without doing something else at the same time—sewing, returning emails,...
Day 109: Confession
As the title would imply, I have a confession to the blogging world. Who knows, maybe there is security in the immensity of such a public statement—that being so incredibly public (yelling in a crowded room, a drop in the ocean) I might find anonymity. This secret, this atrocity might go unnoticed. No replies. No likes. No hash tag mentions on twitter. Ok. Here goes.
[I really like...
September 2011
2 posts
Day 94: Go Get Yourself New Pants and a Tetnis...
The first 20 minutes of this workday was by far the most eventful 20 minutes I’ve had since I’ve been employed here.
I lazily clomp along the tiled office in my giant nude heels and favorite green pencil skirt—compensating outwardly for the dullness of my brain that is overcome with a head cold. Time card: stamp. Computer: on. Lunch: refrigerator. The gorgeous Nikon D90 is...
August 2011
10 posts
Day 66: Same Kind of Different As Me
This morning’s lack of togetherness was of movie quality, a blur of unwashed hair, frantic outfit changes, spilled coffee, high speed high heel tiptoeing, and stumbling out of my car in a 20-minutes-late rush to work. As the relief of finally touching home base (aka. stamping my time card at last) begins to run over me, Amy (we share an office) looks at my terrible blush job and remarks,...
Day 58: God Sends Mail
Today I received God’s provision in the mail. My wedding is paid for.
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him.” 1 John 5:14-15
“…de Sales talks about the occasionally ‘bitter nature’ of marriage’s...”
– From Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
Day 47: Make War
Well first let me begin by saying I am getting pretty dang buff from this tardy challenge. Today is FRIDAY (gotta get down on Friday) and I have provided myself with a nice 30 pushups to do tonight. Booooo. At least I get enormous guns (enormous, seriously, huge) when I’m late.
Ok, enough of that silliness.
Over the last two weeks I have faced a whole new struggle. It began with a video....
July 2011
10 posts
Day 40: Dig a Little Deeper?
Day 5 of the Tardy Challenge and I slept through my alarm, missed a work meeting and gave myself a lovely 36 pushups on top of yesterday’s 18 that I still haven’t done yet.
So that makes 54 pushups to be done today (I flexed for Mark on skype — I’m not sure he’s still digging this whole thing, haha).
There is something undeniably humiliating about being the...
Tardy Challenge: Update
Day 1, Arrival Time: 9:02 = 6 pushups
Day 2, Arrival Time: 9:06 = 18 pushups
(24 pushups later)
Day 3:
by Claire Teter
The following text comes from the weekly devotional, “The Redemptive Pursuit.” This bit speaks to the place I’ve been for the last month:
Scripture: “But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” -1 Peter 3:15 Reflection: There...
Day 33: How to be a Professional
Four years of college taught me infinitely more than I imagined it would. As I walked across the stage to collect my diploma on May 13th, I felt pretty confident I had the independence and maturity required to survive the adult world. After all, I had done my own laundry for four years and cooked my own food for three. I learned conversational German, how to write a captivating article in English...
Day 29: Free Face
Whether you immediately feel inferior or you pass hasty judgement, we’ve all seen the modern-day geishas that walk around with a full face of makeup on. I’m not talking about weddings or new years parties. I mean the girls who show up to the grocery store before 9am with an entire tube’s worth of mascara on their lashes.
Prone to feeling inferior in encounters with these types,...
It’s raining on this lovely Wednesday and...
June 2011
8 posts
Day 10: The Pleasure of Pain
Yesterday turned out great. Wow! Talk about fighting for joy and finding the little blessings from the Lord.
Day 10, though, was a little more difficult. I woke up feeling lonely and hopeless yet again. It has been a day of putting on my mental breaks over and over and over again, avoiding a plague of negative thinking. The girl I share an office with was gone all day, only intensifying it. I...
Day 9: How to Eat an Elephant
You may have seen this coming, but yesterday I kinda hit a low. After a hard day at work, I go home and give in to the “everything sucks” mindset. In the moment it feels like this mindset is going to be so fulfilling. If I can just get out that good cry, I’ll be fine. If I complain, someone will comfort me. Thoughts like that quietly whisper. Here’s the truth: giving into...
“I’m trying to stop looking out at my life as an overwhelming chasm of failures...”
–
Day 8: Not the best. As God is slicing the legs out from under everyone and thing I tend to idolize, it seems, I am breaking. God is taking me to a place where I have no one and nothing but Him.
Heavenly Father, I praise You in painful joy, knowing that this season I am in is one that tests my...
Day 4: Joy.
My prayer yesterday was that God would give me joy. Having forgotten my original request, I felt the Lord convicting me to be thankful (“…giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” Ephesians 5:20). So I started small, but with His help I started thanking Him for anything I could think of. I didn’t know what would pierce...
Day 3: Give Up
“Give thanks always and for everything.” Ephesians 5:30
Day 3: It’s been a very hard day. On a scale of 1-10, I’d rate today an emotional 9. If you get to know me, you will probably find that one of my positive (and sometimes negative) attributes is that I do not give up. Lately though, in several outlets, it’s all I’ve wanted to do. Give up training for my half marathon in this wretched heat,...
Day 1: There's a Bat in My Bathroom
June 20, 2011 — Today is day 1 of a grown up job (social media representative) and day 1 of long-distance dating my fiançe, Mark. He left yesterday morning, rendering me an emotional zombie. Fortunately, this wasn’t the type of flesh-eating zombie action that packs the cinemas, because I’m feeling much better today.
This morning I wake up late (bouts of zombie take it out of...
May 2011
6 posts
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also...”
– Hebrews 12:1
“I regret somewhat that I cannot be in closer touch with my mitochondria. If I...”
– Lewis Thomas (from “The Lives of a Cell”)
“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he...”
– Proverbs 24:17
A tragic kind of character
Studying for my history exam, I came across this in my notes:
“Leni Riefenstahl was a rising movie director who filmed the Nuremberg Rally for Hitler and packaged it into a feature film, Triumph of the Will. It was, for its time, very powerful. It played in theaters around the world at a time when most of the world was still mired in economic slump. Reifenstahl became a kind of tragic...
