Friday, December 28, 2007

An Unlikely Christmas Newsletter

Ahhhhhh… 2007. Thank you Jesus for being the only reason we made it! This year we managed not to kill each other, we found a dog that loves us better than we’ll ever love anyone, we have managed to only mow our lawn twice in 6 months, and watch every episode of 24 on DVD…. But that's just the beginning.
Well, this was a big year for Meg. Literally. She finally reached her highest weight ever of 160 pounds. To top it off, she found this out at the doctor’s office scale, which is pretty reliable, so there’s no denying this. She really enjoys it, however, and hopes that the rest of the world will start to realize that 160 is a great weight.
Brett reached his highest potential at Duke by shielding himself from people and burying his nose in books all semester. All for some good grades. We both agree this is the best training for ministry ever. Ummmmm--NO. It does make us look good that he goes to Duke, though, so he’s going to stick with it so people will be impressed with us.
As you all know, we’ve had a drought this year and so Meg has been pro-active about doing something about it: she only showers every 3 days or so. She does manage to pluck her eyebrows approximately every month & chip the paint off of her toenails about that often, too. She finally has a dermatologist appointment that she’ll go to in January and is hopeful that this time he’ll actually be able to help clear up her adult acne that has plagued her for years.
One of Meg’s biggest accomplishments for this year has been her ability to stop answering her phone as much and let people become more acquainted with her voicemail. However, she still managed to leave her phone on the top of her car and drive 60 miles an hour down the highway, breaking the phone into pieces. She salvaged it for another month until it finally died and she had to spend $100 to replace it. This didn’t make Brett very happy. As a result, he is now compulsively cutting coupons and doing the grocery shopping to save money.
As you all know, the Lybrands moved this year. It’s been great because now we actually have a normal sized house & we can spend time in our house away from each other. The most exciting part of this move has been correcting our address for our credit card company and everyone else in the world who likes to send us mail. The peak of the excitement came when our credit card companies tried to screw us out of our money and so Brett called them and let them have it.
Sam, our yellow lab--who isn’t really ours, but someone else’s who lost their dog and never found him—is a great dog. He pees on his front right arm every morning when Meg lets him out to pee. He sheds & so one of Meg’s new hobbies is constantly picking up dog hair. Meg & Brett don’t wear dark colors anymore. Sam is an inventive dog—always finding new ways to show Meg & Brett that he doesn’t like it when they leave: digging through the trash, eating the blinds, eating a whole plate of cupcakes… He especially enjoys sleeping on Meg’s side of the bed, which pushes her over to Brett’s side of the bed, which, as you can imagine, makes for a tight fit for a 6’5 guy on a queen sized bed.
Good news, though, this might be the winning argument for Meg to convince Brett to get a king sized bed. :) In all seriousness--I am so grateful for the ability to be honest about our lives and our year and who we are--imperfections and all! Here has been my prayer for this year:

Colossians 1:19-22
19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

Holy in His sight... wonderful words to end on. :) Love you.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Seeking+Waiting=Surrender

Surrender is in seeking and waiting.

Now: it's Christmas. And at Christmas we do a lot of seeking. For presents, cheap plane tickets, different families to visit (haha)....

And we DON'T do much waiting. We order online, drive over the speed limit, get mad when it takes more than 5 minutes to go through the Biscuitville drive-through (that was me this morning).

Here's where God's got me this Christmas:

Seek HIM. Howard Baker quote: "Seek the One, and the many will be taken care of."

WAIT. Advent, is afterall, the season of waiting for the birth of the Messiah. The One who RESCUES US.

Praying that surrendering will be a joy as much a challenge for y'all as it has been for me this Christmas!!!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

It's Thanksgiving and...

Last week we had College Life we read the last half of John 6 where Jesus said:

"I am the bread of life."

I bet we all ate really tasty bread today. And turkey. And ham, maybe, if you like ham. (I love it :)) And sweet potato pie and all sorts of other delicious food. AND WE ARE FULL.

But what I am realizing with my full and (temporarily) satisfied stomach, is that I AM DESPERATE. I am full of food, but that's not what I'm most desperate for.

More than a delicious Thanksgiving meal, I'd really rather gorge myself on something that offers me permanent satisfaction--don't you?

If you read that chapter: John 6, you see Jesus feed 5,000 men at the begining part of it. Then the people follow Jesus to the other side of the sea because they are amazed by His ability to feed all these people with so much food ("until they were satisfied"). And here's the fabulous dialogue afterwards:

People: "Rabbi, when did you get here?" (lame question for the Messiah)
Jesus: "You want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned with perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you."
(John 6:25-27 NLV)

Here's my point: we'd rather eat a feast (a free one for the folks in this story and many of us whose families fed us today) than spending our energy SEEKING eternal life that ONLY Jesus can give. It's true. I do it. You do it.

And He loves us anyway. Dang THAT'S good stuff.

Friday, November 2, 2007

God being obvious

I talk about resting a lot--but mostly--I'm really good at not doing it very well. It alludes me.

And lately, God's being ridiculously obvious about how seriously we need to take rest. He rested--we all know that--but apparently--it's not a big enough deal for us to stop doing so dang much and breathe.

So here are all the things He's put in my face about the Sabbath:

"Blessed are those who honor my Sabbath days of rest." Isaiah 56:2

"The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of the people, and not the people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath." Mark 2:27-28

"Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord's holy day." Isaiah 58:13

Blessed--when God says someone will be blessed--I WANT IN ON THAT.

Made to meet the needs of the people--God cares about my needs and I'm not even taking it!

Holy--set apart. SET APART.

Good stuff.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Kierkegard & Suffering

My friend, Laura Parker, sent me this quote and I LOVE IT:

"Comfortable, cozy Christianity was the order of the day in nineteenth-century Denmark, much as it is in twenty-first century North America. In contrast, our Christian Scriptures were written out of the crucible of suffering. There is much talk about a "Christian worldview," but I have yet to hear expectation of suffering as part of the discussion. Yet for most followers of Jesus for most centuries, suffering was an expected reality, an acknoledged aspect of their worldview. Kierkegaard observed, "Little by little, I noticed increasinglly that all those whom God really loved... had to suffer in this world. Furthermore, that that is the teaching of Christianity: to be loved by God and to love God is to suffer." Little more needs to be said in support of his observation than that we follow a crucified lord. To live in this fallen world is to experience pain--if not our own, then our neighbors; if not our neighbors', then Jesus', as we fill up what is lacking in His suffering (see Colossians 1:24). So Kierkegaard rightly said, "The nearer to Thee, the more pain." The closer we are to Jesus, the more His heart becomes our heart and His pain our pain over lost and broken people. He also knew the reality of 1 Peter 4:13: "To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation." So he wrote, "I know that in Thy love Thou sufferest with me more than I, Infinite Love." Throughout Kierkegaard's Journals, suffering is not portrayed as a pain to be endured, but as the way to joy. In the midst of the suffering, prayer is the consolation, the source of strength, and the means of transformation. As God worked in Kierkegaard through his prayers, joy emerged."

Sunday, August 19, 2007

"I wanna blog!!!" Yep, that's what created this blog. My inner five year old saying, "I wanna blog!" :) So, who knows what this will become, but my hope is that it will be a constant reminder that every day we're a part of a GREATER RESCUE of God redeeming us to Himself.

Just started my grad program for Christian Counseling at Gordon-Conwell in Charlotte and it made me realize that I'm desperate for His healing and His rescue every stinkin' day. The busy-ness of Young Life is about to start back--and so you can pray that every dang day that I'll hear God's voice calling me away from the world and TO Him daily.

"The enemy RUNS at the sound of Your voice." Isaiah 33:3