{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by Soule Mamma (and A Blithe Spirit).

In her words: "A single photo--no words--capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember." If you're inspired to do the same, head over toher blog and leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to see.

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair

This past Sunday, Jordan and I had a chance to take a trip to the Iowa State Fair with our other S and J friends, Scott and Janelle--along with 103,081 other people. If you have never been to the state fair, then you have missed out on an iconic Iowa tradition. The thing I love most about it is the great mix of people you will find milling about you: parents juggling energetic children; old couples walking hand-in-hand, while unknowingly slowing the flow of traffic; teenage girls trying their best to be "cool" while the hot sun is beating down on them; and families talking excitedly in the rapid flow of languages from many different countries.

We were so grateful for a precipitation-free, humidity-free, 70-something-degree day! I wore flip-flops and my calves grew sore by the end of the day, but I didn't care because we were just having a lazy day of fun. 

Of course, we looked at the tractors...

And we ate some food (that's a one-pound hamburger, by the way)...

We saw some animals (like the world's smallest cow--so cute!)...

And then we got thirsty...

As an added bonus, I got to see a friend's prize-winning entries...

And, of course, while at the fair, you can't forget the funnel cake...

All in all, we had a wonderful time. I am so thankful for good friends that not only encourage but are just plain fun to be around. I think this is going to be an annual tradition!

Calling For a Flood

If you live in Iowa, it would be hard not to realize we are now in the midst of what they are calling, "The Floods of 2010". Not very clever, I know, but, it seems as though giving a name to something makes it feel real. In July, when everyone kept expressing their fears of this summer mimicking "The Floods of '08", I was relaxed. "Oh, if it were going to happen, it would have happened already."

Wrong.

I tend to have a "come what may" attitude when it comes to natural disasters. I have no idea why, but in this one thing, I know that I cannot control it and find myself peaceful and calm when the time comes. My senior year of high school, we had 70 mph straight-line winds tear through our neighborhood, ripping up trees, cutting our power, moving a couple of mobile homes, and removing several roofs. I can vividly remember my parents and my brother crowded around our front door and windows, waiting for the sirens to go off to tell us we should move to the cellar. All I knew was that it was late, and I was tired, so I headed to bed and told them to wake me if they went down. 

When our apartment in Ames flooded (the complex, not our actual unit) and I had to wade out through waist-deep waters at times to get out, I just laughed and told my husband not to worry about it. Now, with the flooding in Ames and central Iowa and the water sanitation problems (Ames residents are under a "boil water advisory"), there is a lot going on--a lot of individual and community sorrow and heartache. Many people's homes and businesses have been damaged. My husband's cousin had a girl in their small group who passed away yesterday morning. Several cars got swept away when trying to drive through a flooded area, and she drowned. She was only sixteen. 

In comparison to all of that, it is rather crazy to see grocery stores completely sold out of bottled water because people are buying 42 crates of it to add to their stockpile. When people see trouble on the horizon, they often react in fear, expecting the worst. Yes, things can get bad, but I think the key is to keep things in perspective. God is in control. Do you really believe that?

God is in control. For some reason, when disaster comes, God has given me this gift of faith so far. I think what I need to learn is to have faith in him when the car breaks down. Or the deadline comes. Or unexpected guests are coming and my house is not clean. :) I need to let God be in control, too. Maybe the unexpected He brings into my life will be better than any expected thing I might want. At the very least, I will count the blessings He has given me:  another day of life, clean water to drink, a dry place to lay my head, and a Father who is always working things out for my good.

P.S. Here is some raw footage from whotv.com of the flooding in Ames, in case you haven't seen it already.

 

What to Say?

I have been remiss.

Almost every night I think about posting, but I just can't seem to because there's too much to post about. Isn't that ironic?

Since I last posted, I have spent a week counseling girls from our youth group at Sr. High camp, I pulled an all-nighter to finish the monthly newsletter for our church, I have coordinated the decorations for the wedding of two of my loveliest friends, and I have ignored my laundry for far too long. 

And honestly, I don't feel like I can go into all those details. 

Especially with camp, I never know what to say when people want you to summarize a whole week, month, summer, or even year in the 30 seconds they are willing to listen to you talk about it. :) Was it great? Yes! Did God work in people's lives? Double "Yes!" Was I excited to come home and sleep in my own bed and shower in my own shower? ...Um...YES.

One of the best things that I think has happened in the last few weeks has been God softening my heart. He has been showing me how easily I am "prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love". I grow far too comfortable with "the sin that so easily entangles us" and allowing distance to grow between me and the Lover of My Soul. Just like the relationship within a marriage, my relationship with God takes work. I cannot just say, "Jesus, You have all of me, now and forever more...the end!" 

When I stood before my husband on our wedding day and pledged my heart, my mind, and my body to him, in essence I said:  "Where you go, I will go. What your heart longs for, I will long for. When you sorrow, I will sorrow. When you rejoice, I will rejoice. When you fall down, I will pick you up. And when I fall down, I will look for your hand to guide me and protect me." In a similar way, I have said to my Father in Heaven:  "I will go where You want me to go. I want to desire what Your heart desires. I want to see sorrow and joy the way that You do. I trust that You will never fail me, and when I fail, I trust that You will always be there to guide me and protect me."

Just as I could choose to forget our wedding vows, I can easily forget my call as a disciple of Christ. Just as my marriage takes the work of daily deciding to love and respect my husband as God calls me to and as Jordan deserves, walking with God takes the work of daily deciding to spend time communicating with Him by reading His Word, coming to Him in prayer, and--my new favorite--being still and knowing that He is God. With all of the distractions around me, it is so easy to forget that "in Him we live and move and have our being". Daily I need to choose to serve Christ--or as Jonny Diaz says in his song, "Love Like You Loved":

Help me to love like You loved,

To serve like You served,

To speak only words of truth.

Help me to care like You cared,

For a world in despair,

Help me to love like You.

If We With Ink the Ocean Fill

Sometimes, you can talk to people, but never really with people. 

Today, I was conversing with someone who came into my workplace that I see on a fairly regular basis. Last time I talked with him, he had given me some advice on HDMI cables, and today he was asking me if I had followed up on it (which I still need to). Well, in the course of our conversation, he mentioned his children, and I asked him how many kids he had. He told me about his three children, two of whom were six-month-old twin boys. One of the brothers had been born with a rare form of dwarfism that had resulted from a genetic mutation. He is still in the hospital because his trachea did not form correctly, and he still cannot breathe on his own.

It made me realize that we can think that we know people or have a read on them, and not have a clue about what is going on in their lives. How can we pass judgment on others when we cannot see into their homes or their hearts? John 15:12 says, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." We are commanded to love people even when they don't seem lovable...and even when we don't feel very loving. We are commanded to love with the love of Christ:  "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). 

Lay down his life. What does that mean? I think, in some cases, we might be called to physically lay down our life for someone--a husband, a wife, a child, or even a stranger. But since that doesn't seem to be required from most of us, how can this still be applied to our lives? We can lay down our pride. We can lay down our rights. We can lay down our desires.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! 

I know that this passage from Philippians is kind of known as "the humility chapter", and many of you might say, "Yeah, yeah, I've heard this before...." But I know that I will never have it down. I can always be more loving, more unselfish, and a better reflection of Christ. And I need to pray that God would open my eyes to those who need His love and that I can learn to love like Christ.