Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Theological musings
I recently heard Bishop Robert Schnase, author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, share material for his work-in-progress next book, Five Practices of Fruitful Living. Here are some notes that I took…
Obstacles to us receiving/accepting God’s love:
What keeps us from God? We have a fast forward lifestyle. There are high tech sounds and sensations all around us. We live in a fast forward motion in our physical world. We invest time, passion, and energy in things that do not merit it. We surf the internet and change the channels on the TV remote without purpose. We must swim in our celebrity culture daily. Watching TV is good because it provides fantasy and relaxation, but where does a pattern of years of unreflective life lead us?
Think of someone that you admire. Do you admire that person because of all the things they purchase? The extra hours they spend at work? The hours they spend on the internet? The celebrity facts that they know? None of these leads to a rich life that satisfies. We are missing the sacred meaning to our lives because we are so busy working, making a living, keeping our home. Romans 12:2 in The Message translation says, “So here's what I want you to do: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what God wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Are we too in love with this present world? God is in the depth, but we only pay attention to the surface. God is in the silence, but we only pay attention to the noise. God is in contemplation, but we let distractions distract us. God is in the mystery, but we think that the only things that matter are the things that we can touch and can explain. God is in the love of others, but we only love ourselves. God is in the being still, but we run from one thing to another. We are squeezing God out, leaving the sacred behind. Our ancestors heard natural noise in their world, but we rarely hear the natural noise of our world. Instead, we hear artificial noise. In today’s world it is hard to develop the ability to listen for God, it is hard to hear God’s word and feel God’s love because hearing God requires hard soul work.
We live a superficial life, do you have something to live for?
Things that keep us from accepting God’s love and believing it:
1. External distractions of our lives and our world
2. Internal distractions inside ourselves
3. Upbringing – maybe we didn’t feel loved by our parents and we grew up feeling that we were not good enough to be loved. We don’t know what unconditional love looks like or feels like. Like the warning signs on your side mirrors in your car, God’s love is closer to us than it appears.
4. Afraid of silence. We fear light and how it might shine on us. We have complicity in cutting ourselves off from God. Luke 15 is a chapter of parables of lost things: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost (prodigal) son. The lost sheep parable reminds us of distractions. We are so distracted that we lose what is important to us (like the lost sheep). The lost coin parable reminds us how clutter can consume our lives. The woman couldn’t find what she valued because of the clutter in her home. The prodigal son is a parable about willful rebellion, internal attitudes and the choices that we make.
We can say yes to God’s yes to us!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Easter pictures
What a wonderful Easter! Here are some pictures from our Easter...
Pictures from the Smith gathering at Aunt Patty's in Denison. This is the pinata, youngest children get to swing first.
Everett and Lee egg hunting, the trick is to call them balls and then Everett gets them.
Lee with the kids
me and Madeleine
Pictures from the Smith gathering at Aunt Patty's in Denison. This is the pinata, youngest children get to swing first.
Everett and Lee egg hunting, the trick is to call them balls and then Everett gets them.
Lee with the kids
me and Madeleine
A Dish
I have had this dish for a long time. My grandpa Nicholls got it from the Chantal outlet in Houston. My grandpa died in the summer of 2002, but he had lived a mile away from me since I was in 7th grade. I used to go to his house after school, he would often pick me up from junior high. When I think about my grandpa Nicholls I think of his incredible cooking. He would make me chocolate chip cookies that were the most delicious, buttery filled goodness made from heaven. His mashed potatoes and swiss steak were melt in your mouth yum. Grandpa's secret for his mashed potatoes was "to beat the hell out of them" after they had boiled for 20 minutes. Grandpa's cooking abilities began out of necessity after his wife died when I was just 6 months old. My mom always told me that my grandma had said that she was going to live until she saw me, and she did.
My grandpa was instrumental in my life. Having him live so close to us helped me to get to know him better and he likewise. He was so supportive and encouraging of education. His years as teacher and then superintendent in Pennsylvania were who he was, an educator. He sponsored many scholarships to help folks financially in their college endeavors, including two in my own graduating class. Grandpa was nice to every single person that he met. I remember going to the Sears with him to pick up a microwave and he ended up giving the gentleman who carried the microwave to our car money for college! Grandpa drove 3,000 miles from Houston to Alaska when he was 90. He lived a rich life, always loving, always giving, always learning.
I believe that my mom gave me this dish after grandpa's death, he was 98 1/2 when he died. I have used it most recently in the last 3 years anytime I made brownies, cooked asparagus, salmon, chicken... this was my go to dish! And when I would take it out of the oven I would think of my grandpa. I would think about how much I missed him, how I wished we could have one more conversation, how I wished he were still alive.
This dish began cracking about a month ago, and last night the crack ran all the way up to the top of the dish. I realized that it had finished its course, that it would not be safe to cook in it any longer. I put it in the trash, and then took it out. This dish was more than just a dish. This dish had history, this dish had touched holy hands. This dish was bought by my grandpa! So, I took a picture, and then I lovingly placed it in the trash. I miss you grandpa; thank you for continuing to love me and to teach me.
My grandpa was instrumental in my life. Having him live so close to us helped me to get to know him better and he likewise. He was so supportive and encouraging of education. His years as teacher and then superintendent in Pennsylvania were who he was, an educator. He sponsored many scholarships to help folks financially in their college endeavors, including two in my own graduating class. Grandpa was nice to every single person that he met. I remember going to the Sears with him to pick up a microwave and he ended up giving the gentleman who carried the microwave to our car money for college! Grandpa drove 3,000 miles from Houston to Alaska when he was 90. He lived a rich life, always loving, always giving, always learning.
I believe that my mom gave me this dish after grandpa's death, he was 98 1/2 when he died. I have used it most recently in the last 3 years anytime I made brownies, cooked asparagus, salmon, chicken... this was my go to dish! And when I would take it out of the oven I would think of my grandpa. I would think about how much I missed him, how I wished we could have one more conversation, how I wished he were still alive.
This dish began cracking about a month ago, and last night the crack ran all the way up to the top of the dish. I realized that it had finished its course, that it would not be safe to cook in it any longer. I put it in the trash, and then took it out. This dish was more than just a dish. This dish had history, this dish had touched holy hands. This dish was bought by my grandpa! So, I took a picture, and then I lovingly placed it in the trash. I miss you grandpa; thank you for continuing to love me and to teach me.
Deion Sanders!
Last Thursday was Madeleine's monthly preschool art class at the Dallas Museum of Art and we ventured to the downtown branch of the Dallas Public Library. This 8 story building has a reputation of being populated with many of Dallas' homeless and we did observe a few folks outside of the library in makeshift beds. The library is huge and there is an entire floor dedicated to children's literature. Madeleine and I were the only non employees on the 2nd floor last Thursday when people started to congregate in the area reserved for storytime. Then the group of school children, then the news crews, then the mayor, then ... Deion Sanders! They were kicking off a reading effort (or something, it was hard to pay attention because Madeleine was not interested!) but Deion read The Little Engine that Could. I was amazed at how small Deion was, no huge muscles, no huge height, he seemed ... normal. Maybe he's the little engine that did!
Madeleine loved the entire shelf of Dora books and also got a great book that I would encourage all those whose children will wear glasses to add to your library, Princess Peepers. As we were checking out our books Madeleine needed to go to the bathroom, I asked the check out person where the bathroom was and they replied, "You should go back to the children's floor, you have to have a key to get into that bathroom. You do not want to go to any other bathroom." Umm, okay... why not? What is happening in the other bathrooms? I didn't investigate and instead went to the children's floor, got the key, and went about our way.
Then, to art class at the DMA. We had an outdoor art class on sculpture. The teachers explained sculpture as any art that you can walk all the way around. Here is a picture of the kids replicating the stones in this circle sculpture.
They then had an activity with a ziploc bag full of shells that they arranged themselves. Another activity was with legos after observing a sculpture that utilized different shapes.
Here is Madeleine pictured with her creation of a sculpture.
And Madeleine with the huge Tutankhamen advertisement outside of the museum.
Madeleine loved the entire shelf of Dora books and also got a great book that I would encourage all those whose children will wear glasses to add to your library, Princess Peepers. As we were checking out our books Madeleine needed to go to the bathroom, I asked the check out person where the bathroom was and they replied, "You should go back to the children's floor, you have to have a key to get into that bathroom. You do not want to go to any other bathroom." Umm, okay... why not? What is happening in the other bathrooms? I didn't investigate and instead went to the children's floor, got the key, and went about our way.
Then, to art class at the DMA. We had an outdoor art class on sculpture. The teachers explained sculpture as any art that you can walk all the way around. Here is a picture of the kids replicating the stones in this circle sculpture.
They then had an activity with a ziploc bag full of shells that they arranged themselves. Another activity was with legos after observing a sculpture that utilized different shapes.
Here is Madeleine pictured with her creation of a sculpture.
And Madeleine with the huge Tutankhamen advertisement outside of the museum.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Can eating out be a hobby?
Recently when Lee and I were on a date at a restaurant we decided that our hobby is eating out at different restaurants. I love to get my D Magazine or Texas Monthly and cut out articles about new restaurants in Dallas that they recommend. I also love the D Best reviews of restaurants and the Dallas Observer Best of Dallas. I had amassed a large pile of these cut out articles, so this past weekend I decided to write down in the computer all of the restaurants that I wanted to try. I included restaurants that I had been to before if the article recommended a certain dish that I wanted to try. I have 179 restaurants in Dallas and Fort Worth that I either 1) have not been to and want to try or 2) have been to and want to try a certain dish, dessert, or cocktail that was recommended. I do not know how I feel about the large number of restaurants that are on my list, but I do love to eat! (Thank God for Weight Watchers!)
Through this adventure I found a lot of parks that had been included in Best of articles that I had clipped out. I put them in the GPS in the car and also put in an ice cream place that sounded delish. Today we visited Mel's Ice Cream in Richardson. It was so good! Peanut butter ice cream with Reese's peanut butter cups... and the kids size was as big as a melon! Next time I want to try the shaved ice, there was a lady that came in and got two cups of just ice, no topping... she said the ice was good on its own...
Through this adventure I found a lot of parks that had been included in Best of articles that I had clipped out. I put them in the GPS in the car and also put in an ice cream place that sounded delish. Today we visited Mel's Ice Cream in Richardson. It was so good! Peanut butter ice cream with Reese's peanut butter cups... and the kids size was as big as a melon! Next time I want to try the shaved ice, there was a lady that came in and got two cups of just ice, no topping... she said the ice was good on its own...
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Trip to the Zoo
Last Thursday my brother-in-law Andy and I took the 4 kids to the zoo! They had a great time and I'm not sure if they enjoyed the zoo more (not many animals were out, it was cold and late in the afternoon) or playing with their cousins more... Here they are with the penguins.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)