from head to foot

check this out. my friend annie just released her first book today! it's called "from head to foot: all of you living all for him" and you can get it on amazon by clicking on that link. there's also a preview of the book available so you can know what you're getting yourself into. which, btw, you're getting yourself into awesome. this is a memoir/bible study directed towards teen and college-aged girls. so if you fit into that category, or know anyone who does, or if you're a youth leader or just a human, i highly recommend you check the book out. you should also become a regular reader of her blog. it's the perfect blend of humor, honesty, and general awesomeness.

look for me on the big screen

about six years ago, a group on my college campus was giving away copies of don miller's "blue like jazz". i thought hey, why not, and read the book. and it changed my life. this book helped me realize that it was okay for me to question my beliefs, to challenge the christian ideologies i had grown up with. this isn't to say i ever stopped being a christian, or doubted the existence of god. it was more of a "do i believe in god because that's what i was told to believe or do i believe in god because i see the evidence of his existence in my life and in the world" kind of doubting. and it was hard. and it was good. and from that, i grew. i don't think it's possible to grow without questioning.

and the thing that i liked about the book was this raw honesty. and don's writing is so conversational, it makes for a quick easy read. my friend and i always joked that it felt like we were sitting down with him over a cup of coffee and just having a conversation with an old friend.*

well, a few years ago, some filmmakers from here in nashville approached don about turning this book into a film. so they worked together and changed some aspects of the book to turn it into more of a storyline, and hired actors and a crew. and then about a month ago, they announced they no longer had the funding to go ahead with the filming. until two guys started up a kickstarter campaign on behalf of the film. they set the goal low - with as little as $125,000 they could scrape together what they needed to get rolling. but records were broken and at the end of the campaign (which was this past monday), they ended up raising almost $350,000. and they began filming yesterday. and i got to be an extra.

so really i spent all day yesterday sitting in a lecture hall pretending to be a student at reed college. we sat in that room for about 10 hours, which will translate to probably 10 minutes of film. and though it had it's boring moments, it was still exciting, especially knowing the story behind the whole thing. and the actors were all incredibly nice. marshall allman is playing the lead character, and as a huge fan of lost, i was totally geeking out over the fact that tania raymonde was brought in as well. and of course, don was around for the whole thing.

so when this movie comes out, keep your eyes peeled for yours truly. there's maybe an 80% chance my shoulder will be seen. if you're lucky, i might sign the dvd when it comes out.

*ever since then, having coffee with don has been on my bucket list. so if anyone reading this knows anybody or has any strings they can pull, please, hook a sister up. he'll be in town for about a month.

a quote. part two.

ultimately our gift to the world around us is hope. not blind hope that pretends everything is fine and refuses to acknowledge how things are. but the kind of hope that comes from staring pain and suffering right in the eyes and refusing to believe that this is all there is. it is what we all need - hope that comes not from going around suffering but from going through it. i am learning that the church has nothing to say to the world until it throws better parties. by this i don't necessarily mean balloons and confetti and clowns who paint faces. i mean backyards and basements and porches. it is in the flow of real life, in the places we live and move with the people we're on the journey with, that we are reminded it is god's world and we're going to be okay.

-rob bell, "velvet elvis"

five blogs you should be reading

chris - my youth pastor from junior high, the father of one of my good friends, and at times he was a second father to me.

annie - i found annie's blog via twitter last summer, and i was immediately hooked. funny and inspirational, her blog is always one of the first i check off my google reader.

dave - barnes. hilarity ensues.

erin - one of my good friends from nashville, erin moved to haiti after the earthquake earlier this year. she is capturing her experience there in some of the most beautiful photographs i have ever seen.

don - my favorite author. if you're new to don, i suggest you start with the entries written by his dog, lucy.

a quote.

two guys are talking to each other, and one of them says he has a question for god. he wants to ask why god allows all of this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. and his friend says, "well, why don't you ask?" the fellow shakes his head and says he is scared. when his friend asks why, he mutters "i'm scared god will ask me the same question." over and over, when i ask god why all of these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, i can feel his spirit whisper to me, "you tell me why we allow this to happen. you are my body, my hands, my feet."

-shane claiborne

books galore.

i have a pretty long, ever-growing reading list. i thought i’d share it with you. some of these i have already read but want to read again. others i have owned for quite some time but haven’t picked them up yet.

a cry for mercy - henri nouwen
letters to street christians - jack sparks
journey of desire - john eldridge
ps i love you - cecelia ahern
tom sawyer - mark twain
shadow of a doubt - william j coughlin
seizing your devine moment - erwin mcmanus
grapes of wrath - john steinbeck
ragamuffin gospel - brennan manning
wild at heart – john eldridge
captivating – john & staci eldridge
sacred romance – john elderidge
searching for god knows what – don miller
praise of folly - erasmus
unstoppable force - erwin mcmanus
mere christianity – c.s. lewis
to own a dragon – don miller
the inferno - dante
screwtape letters – c.s. lewis
the wounded healer – henri nouwen
watership down - richard adams
radical reformation – mark driscoll
hinds feet on high places - hannah hurnard
telling the truth the gospel as tragedy comedy and fairy tale – frederick buechner
redeeming love – francine rivers
glittering images – susan howatch
the divine consipriacy – dallas willard
a brief history of everything – ken wilber
engaging god’s workd – cornelius plantiga

i think that should last me awhile. what are you reading?

christmas with the temps.

i met libby when i was three. i don't remember not knowing her. we were inseperable in elementary school. when she moved to ohio in junior high, i was devastated. three years later, her family moved back to michigan. we have contintued to stay in touch throughout college and beyond. our moms are best friends and have been since about 1986. that's a long time.

so for the past who-knows-how-many years, libby, sue (libby's mom), my mom and i have gotten together at christmas to exchange gifts (this probably started that first year they were in ohio).

it's always good to catch up with people who have known you for so long. as has been the tradition for awhile now, we went out for a nice dinner and came back to the house for coffee, cookies, and gifts. (libby got me an adorable clutch, complete with a matching coin purse and a dollar. she owed me the dollar because i knew a quote from home alone.) anyway. i'm not going to tell you all about our christmas gathering. instead, i'm just going to refer you to libby's blog, because she always has words of wisdom and wit. i'm particularly fond of this post.

p.s. we already planned christmas 2010. it involves pizza, pajamas, and richard simmons.

my story, or, what i want.

several months ago i finally got around to joining a community group in my church. a few gatherings in, one person suggested that we each take turns, one person per meeting, telling our stories.

and then i panicked.

not because i didn't want to tell my story, but because i realized i didn't know what it was.

what is my story? what is any story?

last week i read "a million miles in a thousand years" by my favorite author, donald miller, and later that week i got to hear him speak on the book. the book talks about how to tell a better story with our lives. in it, don defines (well, actually, his roommate defines for him) what a story is: "a story is a character who overcomes conflict to get what he wants." don goes on to explain that the story is only good if what the character wants is interesting. for example, he says, no one wants to watch a 2-hour movie about a guy trying to buy a volvo. we don't care.

so. back to my story. if my story is a character (me) overcoming conflict (let's not get into that now) to get what i want.... wait. what do i want? i don't know. i don't know what i want, and perhaps that's why i don't know what my story is.

As promised, here's some stuff from Sacred Romance, let me say again, GREAT BOOK

"Indeed, if we listen, a Sacred Romance calls to us through our heart every moment of our lives. It whispers to us on the wind, invites us through the laughter of good friends, reaches out to us through the touch of someone we love....Something...rouses an inconsolable longing deep within our heart, wakening in us a yearning for intamacy, beauty, and adventure. This longing is the most powerful part of any human personality....Sadly most of us watch the oil level in our car more carefully than we watch over the life of our heart."

The subtitle of this book is "Drawing Closer to the Heart of God" and really that's what it's about. I'm so excited to keep reading in it. †

Currently Reading
The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God
By Brent Curtis, John Eldredge



So yeah, I'm only on chapter three, but everyone needs to go out and buy Sacred Romance and read it, it's FANTABULOUS! And I almost never use that word It's a great book and I can't wait to read more of it tomorrow afternoon. It's beautifully written, and already only after two chapters I can already see that it has life-changing abilities, that is of course if I actually apply the stuff. hehe. but yeah, I've underlined a bunch of stuff, it's just a GREAT book. Maybe tomorrow sometime I'll put in a little quote from it or somethin'. Yeah, definately more on that later...