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COME VISIT ME!

on being conventional...

If God had wanted to be conventional, Jesus would have been born to parents already married so as to avoid any scandal. But he wasn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, Jesus would have been in the warmth and cleanliness of a bedroom with some sort of medical assistance. But he wasn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would have turned his back on us because we had turned ours on him. But he didn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would have sent his son to deal with us in a way that would strike fear into our hearts. But he didn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would have favoured those who looked good, did the right things and lived a decent life. But he didn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would have made our lives a misery because we owe him so much. But he doesn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, we would have had to pay for our mistakes. But we don’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would have kept the Trinity from being broken. But he didn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, Jesus would have rode into Jerusalem on the finest stallion. But he didn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, Jesus’ disciples would have been the cream of the Jewish society. But they weren’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, Jesus would have stayed in the synagogue with the Pharisees and the elite. But he didn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, Jesus’ life would have been a bed of roses. But it wasn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, Jesus’ death would have been quick and painless. But it wasn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would want us to stay safe and out of harm’s way. But he doesn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would want us to ignore the down-and-outs. But he doesn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would have given us a long list of rules to obey. But he doesn’t.
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would be too haughty to have a personal relationship with us. But he isn’t.
How has the Body of Christ, the Church, become so conventional?
If God had wanted to be conventional, he would have wanted us to be the same. But he doesn’t.

Don't sell-out... be unconventional

relationships are hard work...

Relationships are hard work. Let me tell you- relationships are hard work. I think anyone who has ever been married or really commited to making a relationship work for the long run understands this. Relationships may be easier for some than others, but they are never actually easy.
I'm quickly learning what it takes to make a marriage work- a lot of work. It's the most wonderful thing. I get to pour my time and energy and love into Mike Drews and amazing things will come out of that. I've heard that marriage is both the hardest and the most rewarding thing i will ever do, and I believe that. I know that the harder I work at marriage, the more I sacrifice, the greater I love and serve Mike, the better and more rewarding and wonderful my marriage will be.
My relationship with Mike and my marriage to him is the second major commitment I am making with my life after my commitment to follow Christ. The metaphors of Christ's relationship to the Church (the community of believers) as a marriage between a man and a woman are abundant in the bible. So my relationship to Christ and commitment to follow him can be compared to my relationship to Mike and my commitment to love and serve him forever. But what relationship is more important? My relationship to Christ is far more important than my relationship with Mike. And if it has first priority, my relationship with Christ will overflow into a more wonderful and loving relationship with Mike.
Which brings me back to relationships being a hard thing. I know that if I am lazy in my relationship with Mike and expect everything to work out on it's own, eventually things will start to go wrong. And the same goes for my relationship with God. But if I stop working on my relationship with Mike, things will start to go bad and it will end up being bad for me. It is in my personal interest to pour into my relationship with Mike. But something is different with my relationship with God. God will not stop loving me if I stop showing love to him. God will not become fed-up and give up on me if I give up on him. God keeps his end of the relationship no matter how much I quit on my end. So I can become lazy in my relationship with God and it won't automatically come back and hurt me. But in the long run, just like in my relationship with Mike, the harder I work at my relationship with God the deeper and more rewarding it will be.

ode to dave

dave is cool
i'm glad he is my friend
i wish he weren't moving so far
the end

the adventure continues

I finally feel settled back in Madison, and I have to say it, I don't really want to move back to Chicago at the end of this summer. It's so wonderful here! Madison is a great summer city- between the terrace and the lakes and everything else, this is a great place to be outside in the summer :)

I ran my first "FiftySix" on Thursday night, the summer ministry i am leading for fifth graders going into sixth grade in the fall. It was SO MUCH FUN! I am so excited to be going into Youth Ministry. It's just so fun to be interning this summer because I love it... I enjoy work! (Who would have thought that was possible?) But it makes me so excited for my future career... I think it is going to keep me alive. There is nothing like spending a night with fifth graders to remind you how to just have fun and play. How easy it is to forget how to have some crazy fun with a volleyball and a basketball hoop (we made up a new game called "vasketvoll" haha).

With only six weeks left until the wedding, I am spending a lot of my free-time planning. It's crazy how much you have to think about. I am also getting REALLY REALLY REALLY excited. I AM GETTING MARRIED! Wow, it's so great. Mike Drews just makes me MELT and it is so awesome to look at him and know that in six weeks we'll be MARRIED. There is so much that needs to happen between now and then, and I feel like I should be more prepared, but really, how can you ever be prepared for marriage? I am excited to get married and to celebrate with my friends and family. Yay! Mike and I are also going through pre-marital counseling now, which is great. It's really good to sit down and just talk about our relationship, plus Matt, the pastor who is marrying us, is awesome.



I'm also working at EVP this summer- a "madison original". The coffeeshop is amazing to me. Most of the customers that come in are regulars that visit a few times a week so I am starting to get to know them by name. The customers are awesome to us Baristas and tip really really well and I am having a great time getting to know my co-workers. Working at EVP is so wonderfully madison and it is so great to be tied to the community by serving everyone who comes in.

dissonance

dis·so·nance
Pronunciation: 'dis-&-n&n(t)s
Function: noun: inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and one's beliefs

So I have this belief. I believe that global warming is happening, that it can be completeldevastatingng to our planet, and that the way you and I live every day is causing it.

Now, to get rid of the harsh discord, my actions must match my beliefs. If I keep adding to the global carbon dioxide emissions, then I also must feel some responsibility for the devastation from global warming happening now and in the future. I cannot ignore it... either I change the way I live or I must take responsibility for what is happening. This is not simply an issue to leave up to tree-hugging-environmentalists or activist zealots, but for everyone who cares about doing the right thing.

Here is what is already going on in the world from global warming:
-The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
-Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
-The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
-At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.

And here is what is going to happen if we don't all do something:
-Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years -- to 300,000 people a year.
-Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.
-Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense.
-Droughts and wildfires will occur more often.
-The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
-More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.

So what can you and I do? Well, a WhOlE lot of simple and cheap things.
SO CHECK IT OUT.

www.climatecrisis.org
click on "take action" then "what you can do"
pllllllllllllllllllllllllease (that's right! i'm going to beg you!)

mAdIsOn

I made it back to madison and through finals. This past week has been a whirl-wind of activity... a wonderful one :). Last weekend I came back to Madison by bus and drove back down for Sunday and Monday night. I took my last in-class final monday morning, moved all my stuff out of my apartment, and got to my final class of the semester... i drove back to madison, moved into my old apartment, and made it to the final few hours of Blackhawk study day. One looooooooooong monday!
The rest of the week was spent on my take-home finals that i e-mailed in to my professors at North Park. This weekend Jillian (my old roommate) and lots of my roommates' families were visiting Madison. I saw two of my roommtes and best friends graduate. (It's a very sad end of an era.... and i can barely believe it.... After four years, it's hard to believe that our time as a family is coming to an end.) There were celebration dinners, ice-cream, graduation pictures, a giant homemade Mexican dinner and fiesta, and way too much speed-scrabble (best game ever). Sunday I spent mother's day with Mike's family... soon to be my second family.
And today? Well, to round-out the week, I started a new job here in Madison at EVP coffee. I have to say that it is well on its way of being my favorite job yet (and I've had about 16 now... maybe 17). Loving people over a cup of coffee- you can't really get better than that. I'm working on getting wedding invitations done and hopefully mailed out by the end of the week. And I'm enjoying the fact that I get to see my beloved fiance every day.

Life is good.