The Hey You Lady

Tonight is the Christmas party at the Bible college where I am taking classes. I have volunteered to get the ham for the dinner. Yes, me - the only person I know who can have a toaster oven catch fire without even trying to cook something; she whose insurance company requires a fire hydrant in the front yard before underwriting a homeowner's policy - is cooking. I have the day off, and am happy to do so. I've planned my strategy, have the timing set in my mind, even canceled a lunch date with my mom to cook this hunk of pig. No problem. Until last night. The kitchen sink wouldn't drain. Mr. from-the-Prairie tries Drain-O. Doesn't do anything (duh). OK, I'll get up early to take care of it - as if I know what I'm doing. So, this morning I end up taking the drain apart. The sink drains - all over the floor. Well, at least there's no standing water in the basin ... it's now all over the floor ... "Daddeeeee ... can you come over and fix my sink?...

When I received my copy of PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity by Mark Batterson, I felt like a child on Christmas morning! I had read his previous book Wild Goose Chase and remember hanging on every word he wrote. Primal did not disappoint.  In his newest book, Batterson takes a fresh look at the Greatest Commandment that Jesus gives us --  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength -- and dares you and me to start a 21st century reformation by becoming great at living out the Greatest Commandment. What did I like about this book? Batterson breaks down the four parts of the Greatest Commandment - heart, soul, mind, and strength - and challenges us to take action when our hearts break for the same things that God's heart breaks for, to rediscover the wonder of the intricacies of creation and the world around us, to be life-long learners, and to break a sweat for our God-given visions...

Every Sunday morning at our church we have a custom of spending a couple of minutes at a particular point in the service to get out of our pews and greet each other, to shake hands or hug (depending on your level of familiarity). For the most part, everyone you encounter has a smile on their face, is glad to see you this morning, and may even take a moment to give a word of blessing or encouragement.  This morning the custom went not much differently than most weeks. Except ... I lied to almost everyone there.  I only pretended to be "fine."  Probably only one or two people could tell something was amiss.  The rest of the people I encountered probably didn't have a clue. And I'm sure I wasn't the only liar in God's house this morning either. Church isn't the only place where we blindly ask the "How are you?" question. We use that greeting literally everywhere we go. But when people answer, it seems no one really likes to admit to others that...

There will always be rivalry between brothers and sisters. It does not stop, even when they are in their late teens. The latest debate between my sister's 20 year-old son and 18 year-old daughter has to do with which book series is more popular: Harry Potter (my nephew Tom's choice) or the Twilight saga (my niece Anna's latest passion. I am not particularly a fan of either one. Not because of the witchcraft oging on at Hogwarts in the Potter series, or the forbidden love between a young girl and a vampire in Twilight . I am not a fan because the stories don't hold my interest. They were not necessarily written with Tom and Anna's gray-haired aunt Mary as their target audience.  Or were they? I noticed that many of the women at my office have been reading the Twilight series . Maybe there is more to this mortal/vampire love story than what meets the eye. So when I was given the opportunity to review Touched by a Vampire: Discovering the hidden messages in ...

Life is full of times of waiting. Sometimes it can be fun - waiting in line for a midnight showing of a movie; waiting for Christmas; waiting to give a special gift to a special someone. Sometimes it can be full of anxious excitement - waiting to walk down the aisle to say "I Do"; waiting for the birth of a child. And sometimes waiting can be torturous, such as waiting for your husband's reaction when you tell him you wrecked his new Lexus (just an example, honey - the car is fine!). But I think the most difficult wait is when we are waiting for God to answer our prayers when we are at the end of our rope and feel as though we can hold on no longer; when our prayers are nothing more than sighs and sobs. How can we continue to pray if we can't even put words to our despair? Does God even hear us any more? Yes, He does! We serve a God who is faithful to those who love him. If God hears even one of our prayers, he hears all of them. Like any good father, though, He...

I have to admit, I've been lax about moderating the Topical Blog group over the past couple of weeks. We take turns choosing topics, and all write based on that. So, to get back on track, at least for myself, I'm using this week's topic from Logan's Blog : How am I doing today? That question is so ... I don't know ... begging for honesty. So, I'll answer with honesty. Today, I am filled with joy BECAUSE I am filled with disappointment. Over the past ten days or so, life has been happening. I wrote in my journal about a specific desire that I have in my heart of hearts, having to do with a situation at home having to do with a conflict between his values and mine. Psalm 37:4 tells us, "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Well, this desire, which is something very, very important to me, is something that Jim really wants no part of. Not in the past, not now, and not in the future. (No, it has nothing to ...

Image by sniggy via Flickr Today is Blog Action Day 2009, also referred to as "BAD09". You're probably asking, "What the heck is Blog Action Day?" Since I just found out about  BAD09 only two days ago, I was asking that very same question. In a nutshell, BAD is a day when bloggers all over the world post a blog on the same topic.  (You can read more about it here .) The topic for BAD09 is "Climate Change."  Just think - I get to participate in a worldwide Topical Blog! The downside of this topic is that it is not one that I have followed with much interest. I don't know the facts concerning global warming, except that there are some scientists who say that it is a myth. I don't know if we are in a current long-term era of climate change, or what the direct causes would be, if we are. I suppose that the only "climate change" issue I can speak of would be the short-term ones, specifically the short-term one that California has seen...

I usually do not go into my garage, and for a couple of reasons. First, Jim and I have agreed that since on-street parking may be limited when he gets home he should have the option of parking his car in the garage. And secondly, my garage looks like this: OK, maybe not exactly like this, but you get the idea. There will be a day in the future when, with the help of a fairy godmother - aka FGM - (Bibbity, Bobbity Boo), my garage will be transformed to something that more resembles this: But until my FGM answers my desperate pleas, I have some work to do on my own. Out of all the piles of boxes, books, knicknacks, games, spiders and webs, yard tools, furniture, mementos, documents, and just stuff, I must make some decisions: What is worthless and, therefore, must be discarded? What is of value to me? What could be of more value to someone else? What of this overwhelming collection of stuff is nothing more than sentimental rot? I am aware of some of the across-the-board me...

You may be wondering why I am starting my post with "The End". That's because the topic chosen for the week by Topical Blogger bvaliant4him is "The end of my story." For many, talking about the end of their story equates to pondering when and how they might die. It's a common topic of discussion, really. No one knows for sure the hour of his or her final breath, but for many, there is a defining moment when life changed. You became a new person, so to speak, and you vowed never to return to what you used to be. Although the event at "the end of my story" was over 20 years ago, I remember it very clearly. I won't go into detail, except that I felt much like the Eleanor in my previous post - insignificant and invisible.  But what I will share is that the course my life was on could have had some very serious repercussions, had I continued in that dirction. But my course changed. The end of my story ushered in a new beginning in my life. ...

What is it like to live in the absence of love? To go through life without even a glimmer of hope for anything? A life where you do nothing more than exist? More than 40 years ago The Beatles sang of a woman who seems to have fit that profile - Eleanor Rigby. The repercussions of Eleanor's life of intensely cruel loneliness were that no one noticed her. Late in the song we hear the poignant words, "Eleanor Rigby, died in the church and was buried along with her name. Nobody came." Funerals are nearly always sad occasions. A funeral attended by no one but the clergyman and the funeral director has its own distinct sadness about it. Imagine, a memorial service for someone who was so estranged from the world that not a single person's life was impacted. A graveside service for woman who died long before her body ceased to function. Her existence was nothing more than that - Existence. When we think of the forgotten people of the world, we often think of the po...

This week our group's blog topic is "If the world was somehow sucked into a blackhole and entered an alternate universe, what would your ideal vision of that universe be?" To me, any "ideal alternate universe" would be heaven. A s Chris said in a blog post once, "This life here (on earth) is really just the starting point; a training ground for when we get to heaven."  Every now and then I can't help but wonder what heaven will be like ... Here are some random questions on that topic. I'm sure that the answers to many of these questions will be quite serendipitous. Is there an "express lane" for Christians to enter heaven? When we are “clothed in our heavenly dwelling” what will we look like? (Seeds often look nothing like the mature plant ... will our "heavenly dwelling" look anything like our earthly human form?) What will be along the streets of gold? Street vendors? Mansions? Will there be cars? Will the stree...

This week's Topical Blog is on the subject of always learning. To learn is "to gain knowledge or skill from study, instruction or experience." Experience - that's a good one! It's been said that experience is the best teacher. Who hasn't had an experience that he hasn't learned something from? Simple things, such as don't wear shorts going down a metal slide in the heat of summer. That you should put enough postage on the envelope when you mail your bills two days before the due date. That changing the oil in your car is important. That you should be very cautious when asking for "spicy" food at a Chinese food restaurant. That you can't get a sealed bottle of water past security at the airport, unless it is three ounces or less. Beware of the train robbers at Knott's Berry Farm (that's how I met my husband)! Just as effective as learning from our own experience is learning from the experiences of someone else. For example, I lear...

My husband would never say this to my face, but I make a terrible housewife. I run kicking and screaming from anything related to the field of "domestic engineering." I don't like to do housework. As for cooking? You might say that when I cook, it doesn't matter if it comes from a box or not - it's usually Old Testament cuisine. "Burnt Offerings." So much so, that when when we were buying our house ten years ago, our insurance agent would not sell us a homeowner's policy unless we had a fire hydrant in our front yard. (OK, not true. But we really do have a fire hydrant about 30 feet from my kitchen window!) One of my most memorable creative cuisinery attempts was home made soup. As I remember, it was vegetable soup. I was reheating some leftovers, and decided to have a chat with someone on the computer. It wasn't long before my leftover soup burned and became one with the pan. A Burnt offering. A Burnt Soup Offering. Retelling the incident ...

I want to be a "retreat junkie" when I grow up. That's what I've been telling people lately. I want to go to retreats and speak to groups. Not necessarily a high-profile or highly sought-after speaker for major arena-sized confernces. And not that I have done anything profound with my life that everyone must know about. I'd be perfectly content with the smaller scale groups, sharing with them how God has impacted my life, and hopefully inspiring them to take a step or two forward in their faith journey. And I almost had a chance to do that. I almost was invited to be a speaker at a retreat in October. How did it come about? Well, I recently filled in for my vacationing pastor as "guest preacher" at my church. And the domino effect started from there. A Facebook friend saw my status update that I would be preaching, and she asked me if I would consider speaking at their upcoming retreat. Knowing this person the way that I do, when she asks a question li...

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." – Matthew 9:35-38 It’s no secret that many people believe that prayer has a positive impact in their lives. After all, it's how we communicate with God, how we make our requests known to the Divine. We seem to pray for everything: for blessings over our meals, for our favorite baseball team to have a winning season, for green lights in traffic, healing of ourselves or others, for business deals to go through, even for world peace and safe return for our men and women serving in the military. While there is nothing wrong with p...

When I think of beauty, I think of flowers, nature, attractive people, things that bring to mind the goodness of God. I often have nice, warm-fuzzy feelings come over me. I mean, who doesn't like to be in the presence of beauty? But ugliness? Well, that's another story. We often react to ugliness with mockery or disgust. Thinking of ugliness reminds me of a woman who was particularly unattractive physically. She had the frizzy hair, two or three front teeth missing, eyes that resemble a chimp's, the face that only a mother could love. Well, maybe not even mom ... Wow! That's a sore for sighted eyes! As my granddad would say, "DAAAYNNG!! This girl was dragged through the Ugly Forest ... and her face hit every tree!!" (And he meant it, too!) Or another remark would be, "Beauty may be skin deep, but ugliness goes all the way to the bone!" Or, "She's the kind of girl that no one would share secrets with ... not even beauty secrets!" Ugli...

Everybody goes through hardships in life. Whether it's losing your job at the same time your spouse faces a pay reduction, or a serious illness in the family, or kids not wanting to go to school, or whatever the circumstances, life can bring us down. But it's not a healthy thing for you or me to stay down when we get there. So I'm sharing a list that my cousin Sue forwarded to me. It's a list of 39 little things we can do or mottos to live by, to turn our frowns upside down: Health: 1. Drink plenty of water 2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar 3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants, and eat less food that is manufactured in plants 4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy 5. Make time for prayer 6. Play more games 7. Read more books than you did in 2008 8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day 9. Sleep for 7 hours 10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day ---...

(DISCLAIMER: The subject of the week for the Topical Bloggers group is "What must I do to be saved?" The following is purely fictional. It is NOT based on my life . Any similarity to any person, real or imagined, is unintentional. ) __________________________________________________ Forty-six years old. I'm at the peak of my game, so to speak. I've done it all - kids (two daughters), marriage (times three) . Having done it all, is there anything left? Is there really nothing more to life? Am I stuck in this hell that I have created? If I'm done living, why am I still here? Why do I still have a heartbeat? Why do I still breathe? I'm "alive," but I feel so ... ... I don't feel. Anything. I'd pour myself a drink, but I'm not supposed to have alcohol with these antidepressants. I don't even know why I take them. They don't seem to do anything for me ... I remember during my college days groups on campus with signs that said "A...

I recently attended an event that was hosted by a local neighborhood group. The event itself was no big deal - just some neighbors getting to know each other in an informal setting. At one point a "regular" in the group said something offensive about another member, right to his face. When I voiced my opinion about what was said, this individual dismissed me by turning to his friend and saying, "That's ----'s daughter." His friend's view of me was tainted, based on something that I could not have any control over. I had just been judged. It hurt to be judged harshly, especially when the one judging hardly knows me . I felt as though this man had no intention of connecting with me or learning anything about me as an individual. I was "guilty by association." Guilty of what, I don't even know. Yes, I am quietly judging you. Judgment based on outward appearances or isolated events can skew what you believe a person can or cannot do. A recen...

Most people in America believe in prayer, that prayer has a positive impact in their lives. Prayer is how we communicate with God, how we make our requests known to the Divine. We seem to pray for everything. Blessing over our meals. For our favorite baseball team to win the World Series. For green lights in traffic. For guidance of our leaders. For loved ones to be healed. For our churches to be strengthened. For our children and loved ones to be protected. For world peace and a safe return of our men and women in the military. While these are all important prayers, they can be somewhat safe prayers. What I mean by that is that we have a specific answer in mind when we present the prayer to God. Safe, in that the prayer doesn't request a whole lot of change in ourselves. If our prayers are too safe, then what is a "dangerous" prayer? For some people, it could be simply, "Lord, give me patience." I'm telling you, God has a good time in answering that one! ...