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?

stacy lantz

there is much excitement buzzing around my house right now. my roommate and dear friend stacy lantz is officially on itunes today! so you can just click on this little link here and get your own copy of "patchwork plains". you won't regret it. her songs will take you through all stages of life and love, and will absolutely be sure to brighten your day.

welcome to beda

beda = blog every day august. i did this in 2009, and i loved it. the thing with forcing myself to blog every day is that, yeah, i get some stupid, pointless posts in there, but i also feel like i get more good posts than i do in a typical month. especially a month like july where i only blogged three times. i also think it's good exercise to force myself to write a little each day, even though i would never ever claim to be a writer (nor do i really want to claim to be a writer). i think it just helps me process things. i should probably apply the same discipline to my personal pen-on-paper journal as well.

so. welcome to august 2010. let's do this.

freecation

i recently experienced what i like to call a freecation. a vacation. full of free.

here's the deal. i left work wednesday afternoon, spent the night with a friend in indianapolis, then thursday i drove the rest of the way up to michigan and stayed at my mom's house until sunday morning, when i then drove the rest of the way back to nashville. the only cost to me for this trip was gas. everything else was built-in. free places to stay, free meals (except for the two meals i ate while on the road, but those were normal groceries i bought before my trip and packed with me - no extra expenses).

but that's not entirely what i mean when i say this was a freecation. what i also mean is that it was very free-ing.

i absolutely love nashville, and if you've read any of my previous blog entries, you probably already know that. but nashville is a city and sometimes you need some air to breath. so when i say this trip was freeing picture the following:

driving through the rock formations of kentucky.



driving through the corn and soybean fields of indiana with fog in the far distance.



driving through the vineyards of southwest michigan.



watching the sunset over lake michigan.



freedom. space. fresh air.



(i lost my camera on my trip to new york, so all i have are iphone photos. at least until i get my film developed. yeah, film.)

a lesson from the bachelorette

now. i feel like i need to start this blog out by defending myself: i am not a regular bachelorette watcher. a couple weeks ago, laura, our downstairs neighbor came up to our apartment to watch the show, since she no longer has a tv. and as a result, my roommates and i decided we had to watch the last few weeks of it. so. there's that.

anyway. moving on.

last night they showed a clip of her talking to one of the guys she kicked off and she said something that struck me as being not quite right. though, given the world we live in i can totally see why she said this. the guy asked her, “when it’s all said and done, what do you want from life?” and her response was “i want a family that will fill me with unconditional love.”

first of all… your family will not unconditionally love you. they can try and maybe you’ll be lucky and you will have a family who will love you as well as any human can love in a fallen world, but it won’t be purely unconditional. only god can love like that. which brings me to my next point.

we should only expect unconditional love from god, because only he can provide it. and we should be so full of his unconditional love that it pours out of our life into the lives of those we call family (and friends. and neighbors. and enemies.)

so instead of wanting a family who unconditional loves us, we should allow ourselves to receive the unconditional love that god offers, and out of that love we love others.

does this make sense? do you agree? disagree? thoughts?

one weekend, three creative minds, and a dozen q-tips

saturday night, my roommates (stacy and kirsten) and i were sitting around the house. stacy came up with this brilliant idea to make a music video using one of andrew belle's songs. so we cut out pictures of our friends (andrew's bandmates), colored q-tips with permanent marker, and three hours later created this little gem of a video. enjoy.