It is almost midnight and I'm sitting on my computer "unwinding" for a few minutes. After a busy day with a pretty sick kid I need a few minutes to myself before I can go to sleep. But as I sit here my mind reels with the thoughts of so many people I know who are going through a lot of transition in life, big and small... Only it seems to me that there are more big transitions than small and a lot of these people are leaders among their peers and so it seems that the support for some has been pulled out from under them... After all, who supports the legs of the table when they get tired? 

I don't know... I can't help but wonder what God has in store for all of these people when there are so many attacks from Satan that are so evident and seem to be happening all at the same time. I have never really known a situation that seemed so individually collective. I know that sounds contradictory but I can't list out everyone's situations because that would be bad form, I think. But I can tell you that out of 10 families I know in Portland alone, all of them are facing serious personal transition let alone the transition that most churches are going through and the transition in some of their jobs, which affects half of those families. I'm talking about serious illness, economic insecurity, emotional turmoil, loss of loved ones, spiritual starvation and overwhelming depression. 

At first I didn't know why I was writing about this, but it just occurred to me. Please be in prayer for people around you, for yourself, for your ministers and leaders. Please be on your knees for your family: your parents, your husband or wife, your kids, your friends. Please ask the Lord for guidance and security in your faith, your relationships, your health and your job. And think of those around you, that they too can benefit from the power of the Almighty God.

Psalm 3

A psalm of David, regarding the time David fled from his son Absalom.

 1 O Lord, I have so many enemies;

      so many are against me.

 2 So many are saying,

      “God will never rescue him!”

                         

 3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;

      you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.

 4 I cried out to the Lord,

      and he answered me from his holy mountain.

                       

 5 I lay down and slept,

      yet I woke up in safety,

      for the Lord was watching over me.

 6 I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies

      who surround me on every side.

 7 Arise, O Lord!

      Rescue me, my God!

   Slap all my enemies in the face!

      Shatter the teeth of the wicked!

 8 Victory comes from you, O Lord.

      May you bless your people.

Writing it on my heart...

"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, 

who loved us and by his grace 

gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, 

comfort you and strengthen you 

in every good thing you do and say."

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

There are a lot of my people around me who are going through some tough stuff in life. This is not abnormal... everyone deals with something... but it seems to me that when someone or a group of people are on the verge of GREATNESS, Satan strikes the hardest.

Please know that I as I pray for those I know are having a tough time, I think of you as I remember this verse. 

Mac is back!

Every once in a while something happens that you don't expect and you're not quite sure how to respond. The sequence of events seems logical and plans are made and pennies are saved and you expect that what you get is equally as logical. And those stricken with the worst luck on the planet add one variable... the BIG X. That's the one thing that you know is going to go wrong, so you plan on the one wrong thing. 

In September I dropped my Mac. This was predictable on my part. Not a surprise, I should say. And after six months of learning a lesson, planning, penny saving and careful consideration I took my Macbook to the Apple Store to be shipped and fixed. This was also predictable. Who buys a laptop, brakes it and says, "Oh well, better luck next time,"? So three days into the "7-10 day waiting period" I get a call that says, "We must replace the main logic board. It will cost $755.00. Please call us and authorize the repair." (Again, predictable.) "Sure," I say, and they commence repair. Then today I get a phone call, "Your Macbook is ready to be picked up." And as you can imagine, I was sort of delighted in the idea of tap, tap tapping on my little keyboard again and so we got dinner, gathered ourselves and our pennies (by this time converted to dollars) and headed to the Apple Store. Predictability is written all over this scenario, right? 

I walk into the store, wait the general 5 minutes for a store employee to ask what they can do for me and I hand them my little slip and ask for my computer. "Will that be cash or credit?" they ask and after my response the lady says, "Oh, well you come stand here please," and off she went. I talked RAM and operating system with a clerk like I knew what I was saying and after a few minutes the other clerk came out with my little Macbook. "This is the one," and "thank you so much," and we commenced the payment process. I took out my little envelope getting ready to pay and then it happened... the BIG X. You know you're in for a surprise when the clerk looks puzzled and asks for some help, while looking at a screen you can't see. "Why is this ringing out as zero?" was the whispered question. "Hmm... let me check," says the other guy and whisks away for a few minutes. After a few minutes he came back and said with a big smile on his face, "There is no mistake here. It looks like this repair will cost you nothing. You are free to walk out of here with all of your seven hundred fifty five dollars if you'd like." 

Yeah. I had to catch my breath. Then I had to gather my wits. Now I had the money for another "gig of RAM" and I picked a pretty pink cushioned case... Several of the clerks were as happy for me at this point as they were sad for me back in September when it was evident that it would be a costly repair. The store was a buzz of the good fortune of this young lady. And to top it off, the RAM rang up 100 dollars less than the sticker price. 

I don't know whether this nice surprise makes up for all of the other bad luck I have had in life, but it sure makes me think twice about having the worst luck... that it's not about luck at all. That is a topic for another blog. For now, I'm happy to have my computer back. The lesson learned is well deserved and remembered. 

Up And Running

Logan is amazing. He figured out how to get our computer back up and running. I don't know how he did it... I know nothing about computers except: where the power button is, more ram = more power, and "save often". Oh sure I can navigate excell with the best of 'em and where all the tricks are for editing in word, but I can't reboot anything except my children's feet and I know that reconfiguring is useful for lego construction. So Logan is my hero. I have email, Windows and internet. He worked long and hard on it and I am grateful.

Blue Screen of Death

For all of you out there who have experienced the blue screen of death I can say that I feel your pain. Logan sat down at the computer for a liesurly stroll on the world wide web to be met with the blasted blue screen. Several attempts to reformat this and reboot that have proven to be in vain and so I am sitting at his work computer sending any emails that may be pertinent to the next 24 hours and thinking to myself that, "...it's just a computer... it's just a computer".

There are pros and cons to the whole thing.

Good: I still have access to email that does not require a trip to the library or someone's home to check my email.
Bad: I cannot check email during nap time or do any work stuff as is usually the case during nap.
Good: I will not have the option of computerized distraction during the day.
Bad: I will not be able to play music from iTunes.
Good: My Mac should be in my hands by this time next week so I know that this is a temporary mality.
Bad: Now we have to decide if we need to buy a new computer... or not.
Good: I won't have to shop for the computer. Logan will take care of that... if we decide to get one.

See? There are more good things than bad things. I think we're doing pretty good.

The one thing that bites though is that we've lost all of our most recent pictures. Logan has the rest backed up, but there were some pretty cute ones on the computer that I can't get to now.

The lesson? I don't even know. Is there a lesson in this? I'm not worried about it. I just have to alter my time management so that I can fulfill my job duties. That's kind of inconvenient. The altering, not the job duties.

So, I'm signing off for now... I won't know if you comment until I can check my blog again... later. So thanks in advance if you comment... most of them will probably be encouraging and sympathetic, so thanks for that too.

And the waves begin to swell...

Is it really mid February?!

This is the time of the year when I go dark... The quiet before the storm is over. There are so many things to do I don't know if I'll get around to blogging again until April. So if you are the praying kind, please pray for our family to remain sane and healthy through the next month and a half. Between meetings and appointments (they are different, really), home schooling and babysitting/PreK, keeping the house up, PUMP stuff, water aerobics, housing (work) business and soccer I think I'll be able to sit down around March 23rd.

I'm not complaining, mind you, I chose the things that make me busy.

See you on the flip side!

Blue Like Jazz

I finished "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller just moments ago. Now, I'm not much for book reviews... I haven't written one since highschool and don't have witty words to convey the over all message of the thing. But I can give a short opinion, for the sake of posting and sharing a little bit of my thoughts on the book.

Honestly, I wanted to see what all of the hype was about. I remember hearing about this book in 2005 but being a non-reader at the time I didn't care to pick it up. I thought it would be some sort of life changing oracle by the sound of the buzz floating around. But Donald Miller seems to me to be a normal guy who by some magic of language can put on paper the collective thoughts of people walking the journey of life in search for Jesus. He mentions God a bit but it seems to me that he is in search of a friend whose name was a mystery and his face was not known to him. - I cannot speak for the general public or even for my friends but it seems like Mr. Miller gives voice to the struggle to find Jesus and true spirituality, which is different than Christianity according to him.

He talks several times about the difference between Christianity and spirituality and that churches frustrate him because of their politics and false love. I found myself agreeing with his thoughts which is what makes me think that he gives this voice to those searching for the true Jesus who calls us to love one another no matter what.

I was also struck at the end of the book by his realization about loving himself. Love your neighbor as yourself was a profound thought to him in understanding that he wouldn't say the things to his neighbor that he says to himself. This thought got me to ponder how I treat myself. And of course I read this at a time when I feel especially vulnerable spiritually.

One other thing that I kept thinking about was the fact that his provocative statements about Christianity and spirituality are rather bold. I don't buy into some of the things he said, though I couldn't quote them now, but other things I found myself secretly agreeing with. I think that is because of the traditional manner of Christianity from my childhood that I didn't really buy into either but didn't have the guts to challenge and don't know if I do now. ~ At any rate, I find myself grateful that I have a minister for a friend who I can say confidently speaks boldly in truth whether I am listening to him on Sunday or in conversation over dinner between our families.

There's my two cents.