"To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives - the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections - that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see it in the guiding hand of a loving God."
Thanks Mr. Nouwen - I needed that reminder.
Sarah Holley and I did it. We both finished the Half-Marathon on Saturday…
And now, we both have the “We want to do a full marathon to prove to ourselves that we can do it” bug.
Watch out Memphis, we are coming to you in December.
On another note, my feet are aching today. I think that it’s because I need better arch support in my shoes… The jury’s still out on that one.
There are three more days until I go visit my parents. Minneapolis, here I come.
The book's official release date is tomorrow! To those of you who have pre-ordered it, thank you! We are soooo excited. Early feedback has been incredibly positive. The book is funny, thoughtful, faithful and just plain great. You don't have to have grown up in the church to appreciate this book. Matthew's writing has mass appeal, making it perfect for you and all your friends. :)
Okay, enough gushing from the proud wife.
Today I would like to bring you two things:
One- a giveaway! You know how I love a good giveaway. Simply leave a comment on this post and I will randomly select three people to receive autographed copies of churched. And, if there are more than 300 comments, I will probably give away more books (since I know the author.) One comment per person please.
Two - an excerpt. Just to give you a taste of Matthew's writing.
prelude
The man’s shoulder was inked with a tattoo of Jesus breathing fire out of his mouth, which I concluded to mean one of two things: the man was going to offer me the opportunity to be born again in the hot fumes of a firebreathing Messiah or he planned to kill me and make it necessary for me to be born again.
Like any “good” American, I had already been born again–since childhood I’d pretty much been on shuffle and repeat–but I still feared either scenario. I couldn’t stop looking at the man’s shoulder. His Jesus was green and faded, and because of a small mole, it appeared as though my Lord and Savior had a foreign object dangling from one nostril. Then the man looked at me from the opposite end of the sauna, tightened the towel around his waist, and said, “How are you, man? My name is Jim.”
I didn’t say anything at first. His question sort of paralyzed me. Would he pull a small Gideons Bible from somewhere underneath that towel, look up a bunch of frightful verses in Romans, and then ask me to get down on my hands and knees and repeat after him? I wouldn’t do it. Not in a sauna. Not just wearing a towel. Besides, I had sworn off being born again again in this decade.
“Hello.” I spoke carefully, still not ready to trust a person who had a flaming-tongue Messiah on an appendage. “My name is Matthew.”
“Good to meet you, Matthew. Man, I don’t know about you, but I have had the craziest day.” Jim stared at me as he talked. I think he was making sure I paid attention. “I didn’t even work out today. I just came right to the sauna.” He stretched his arms and then massaged his left shoulder, pinching Jesus’s face with his fingers.
to read more, click here.
Excerpted from Churched by Matthew Paul Turner. Copyright© 2008 by Matthew Paul Turner. Excerpted by permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago on the blog that I I had come to a new realization of “pride” in my life. The source of this pride was a desire to be “loved” at all cost.
I have a lot of friends in ministry that are addicted to this pride-swelling choice as well.
For most of my life and certainly all of my ministry, I’ve been addicted to pleasing everyone. It didn’t matter if it cost me my personality, my family, or even at times my vow to speak truth. I just wanted to be “loved”.
- I would ignore the sincere compliments of others to be obsessed with the few critics.
- I would abandon my boundaries and go above and beyond to “help” someone while ignoring my family.
- I would put off the tough leadership decisions trying to keep all sides content.
Why? Simple. I wanted to be “loved”.
But let me tell you something. Leading with a desire to be loved is dangerous. Parenting with a desire to be loved can be destructive. And if you spend your life trying to be loved instead of loving it’s going to lead you to all kinds of unhealthy extremes.
Part of learning humility for me is to understand I simply can’t please everyone. Not everyone is going to like me, love me, or think I’m great. They’re just not.
I feel like I’m growing in this area. I’m learning the freedom that comes along with seeking to “love” instead of always desiring to “be loved”. The first leads to meaning and significance while the latter was an emotional black hole that could never be filled.
I pray you will learn to live in the Kingdom and be freed from the sheer stupidity and vanity of going through life trying to make sure other people think the right things about you. I pray you’ll receive the fact that you are “loved” in the eyes of God in such a way that you can go out to lead and live, seeking to truly love the people around you.
Enough about me. What do you think? Are you desiring to be “loved” or seeking to be “loving”?
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It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these updates so here goes:
The Preggers:
Preggers is doing great! A week of vacation did her very well and she came back very well rested. Of course, last week’s back-to-the-grind schedule definitely wore her out but either way things are healthy and happy with Jonah. We had the monthly appointment with her doctor on Wednesday of last week and everything seems to be just fine. It looks like right now the doctor will induce labor on either December 18 or 23…without induction, the due date would be the 26th.
Right now we’re just trying to prepare everything as best as we can. Actually, we are kind of procrastinating getting things done…but soon friends, soon we shall begin painting and doing all that fun stuff. Either way, I know I can’t wait to see this little guy.
The Father:
Here’s the tricky one. During the first part of my Dad’s chemotherapy, Dad totally rocked it. I mean he would bounce back amazingly after every treatment. This past month has been different. Dad has felt much worse. In fact, his last treatment was in August but the side effects seem to have lasted the entire month of September.
Today Dad will take a pet-scan to identify cancerous activity and how it has spread. Tomorrow as a family we will go to see the results and where we go from here. If I were to say I weren’t a little nervous, I’d be lying. The important thing that I know is that God has got this thing under control…I just need to be smacked around sometimes to remind me.
So this is where you guys come in…please pray.
Pray that our family will be comforted…pray that Dad is doing well…pray that the doctors that are caring for Dad have the knowledge and wisdom to treat him in the best way….pray that we can see God’s plan through this…just pray.
Thanks for being a great community.
Today we’ll kick off the fall semester of one of my favorite groups…. a group of moms who get together for Bible study. This group started about 5 1/2 years ago when I was the young mother of an 18 month old. We met in my family room and quickly learned that being part of a group of moms meant we were each others’ support, encouragement, and sometimes lifeline to the outside world.
This group has morphed over the years. Some of the women have changed, the location has rotated, and the childcare usually baffles me. I used to be one of the youngest moms in the group and now…. well, in my head I’m still one of the youngest. But as I’ve grown with this group, I’ve also grown as a mother. Now I can give helpful advice and reassurance. I can be the one who promises they’ll survive the toddler years and cry with them when they send a child to kindergarten. We’ve completed many different studies together and grown as Christian women as well as each others’ confidants.
As I typed up an attendance sheet this weekend I took time to pray for these women. Pray they’ll be comfortable in this group, pray we’ll be sensitive to each others’ needs, and pray for them to truly feel community as God intended.
I love being part of a group who chooses to live life together.
Just curious how many of you are part of a community group of some form? What are you studying and how often do you meet? What’s your biggest benefit of living a life of community?
As a person who is responsible for creating systems and processes for an organization, I try to be gracious with other companies and organizations when they aren’t getting it quite right. But after my experience with US Airways last week and then hearing other similar stories I couldn’t help but share what I believe to just be a stupid business decision.
Decision: US Airways begins charging $20 per checked bag on all flights
Customer Response: Everyone opts to carry-on their luggage rather than checking their bags
Result: So many carry-on bags equals not enough overhead bin space. As a result some bags have to be checked anyway
Problem #1: Frustration; travelers who are trying to be frugal and efficient are now forced to check their bags anyway
Problem #2: Checking bags plane-side is not efficient, paperwork is sketchy and bags get losted
Result: US Airways now has to pay a courier service to deliver last bags to frustrated customers.
I’m pretty sure that the cost of courier delivery, not to mention loss of customer loyalty, is more than the $20 they were trying to make by charging for checked bags. Seems like a lose-lose to me. That’s stupid business!
Posted in business, random rants Tagged: checked baggage, flying, travel, US Airways
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its sunday afternoon and i am now going through a few photos from our shoot on friday. we had a great time and we love you guys!!! :) see you soon.... :)
Another great Sunday at Cross Point Nashville!
We had a little campus cross representation today with Dave Parker, our worship leader at the Dickson campus, leading at the Nashville campus and Jarrod Morris, our Nashville campus leader, leading at the Dickson campus.
It was also a bit of a family day for me. My husband sang the special “You Alone” - awesome song that he nailed (I’m know I’m a little biased!) Also, my sister, Jes was rockin’ it out in KidStuff! So fun to watch my family serve! Here are some pics:
Message wise it was another big baggage week: PRIDE
I think I’m getting a little exhausted from unpacking all my baggage, but I guess that’s better than continuing to carry it, right?
Here are some of the key points from Pete’s message today:
Proverbs 16:5 “The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished.
James 4:6 “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’.”
Pride is: the tendency to exalt self
Pete described three types of pride:
- Self-centeredness - looking at the world as if it all revolves around me.
- Self-reliance - we want to do everything on our own, without God
- Self-deception - you begin to think you’re above the rules
Conquering Pride is:
- Learning to acknowledge your pride
- Learning to LOVE instead of BEING LOVED
- Learning to LOVE instead of JUDGE
Hearing pride broken down into these three forms was really challenging for me. I can see more clearly the areas where pride has control in my life.
How about you? Which one of these three forms of pride is the most challenging for you?
I've experienced a first I didn't ever expect. There was actually one cupcake at Gigi's I didn't like! Linds and I hadn't had our cupcake Friday in quite a while, so when we finally went the special for the day was "Flower Power." You just can't go wrong with me when it comes to a brightly colored cupcake with a flower on it (fyi...it was way prettier than my camera on my phone shows!)!
I was worried though...the orange icing could be orange flavored, and I was not ok with that...so I asked. "Oh no," I was assured. "It's regular icing colored orange!" Um. Nope. It was definitely orange flavored and not so yummy. I was terribly bummed. My dear sweet Gigi had let me down.
However, I had this cupcake the next day at sweet little Hank's birthday party! How adorable? And how cute is he?!
As you know from my last 2 posts, I was gone the following 2 Fridays, so I didn't go back to Gigi's for a while (but not because she failed me with the orange...yuck!), but I did go this week. My delicious Scarlett's Velvet more than made up for Flower Power (once again, picture doesn't do it justice from my phone!).
