Travel

In three days my cousin and I are heading across the ocean, London bound! I'm getting way too excited! Now that I'm graduated and have an iPad (much thanks to my parents and grandparents) I'm feeling pretty ready to jump on a plane for some adventure. Have fun Seattle while we are gone!

Women empowerment...

The more I read, learn, think about gender discrimination in our world the more feminist I want to become.  Not because I want women to rise above men but because we continue to perpetuate such a limited picture that denies women the ability to live into fullness, as people of gifting and incredible significance.  We as the body of Christ are recreated in Christ and richly gifted by God’s Spirit.  We must not limit this gifting on the basis of gender.  Scripture advocates that we live liberally into these areas of giftedness regardless of gender and we greatly limit a full experience of the body without doing so.  We need to continue intentionally seek out ways to empower women locally and globally.

We have to get corrective in a way that chooses to challenge the categories and labels society continues to promote; in a way that works within our context to radically oppose while avoiding the temptation to be overly corrective.  I love what Michelle Bachelet said in the video for International Women’s Day last week... “The neglect of women’s rights means lack of progress on gender equality.  But also means that that enormous social and economic potential of half of the populations is so underutilized.  Women rights are human rights.”

It seems far too often we think that we have made so much progress in the US, that the bigger problem resides in other countries around the world that don’t have equal opportunity.  The sobering truth is, in the United States we have one of the highest rates of rape, 17 times higher than many other countries around the globe.  Domestic violence is also the leading cause of injury for women.    And our media hyped perception of women seems to be extremely warped.  While only 27% of people in commercial media are women, 83% of those women are sexualized.  We are among the worst. 

I feel very fortunate as a women.  I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity I’ve been given for education and the ways that I’m encouraged as a person of leadership within the church.  But my heart is weighs heavy for the woman who was raped and robbed at gunpoint on Saturday night in her driveway two streets down from where I work.  I’m so infuriated.  As I drove into work early this morning I had several moments of feeling very threatened myself.  I get to work so many days in the dark and early hours of the morning or lock up long after dark.  Who’s to say it couldn’t have been me?  I’ve never felt threatened like this before.  And it makes me even more livid that women around the world live day to day in constant fear of violation. 

We have to move out of categories.  Not only to value women more fully but because it’s a liberating experience for everyone.  Watch this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3exzMPT4nGI. 

 

“I am convinced that women are the greatest untapped resource in the world.  We have talents, skills, education, and financial resources that women didn’t dream of in the past.  Beyond all this, we have the tremendous power of compassion. How different the world could be if we each responded compassionately to the needs of our sisters—whether they work at the desk next to us or live half way across the world.” –Lynne Hybels 

Today has been legen...wait for it...dary.

Today has just been great.  This morning I got to lead worship for the quiz meet with some of my favorite people, the SFMC youth band!  It's always such an awesome time of holy surrender to such an astounding Creator God.  I also got to spend a lot of time with one of my youth group friends, Mikayla.  We went on a coffee run for a couple people, painted nails in the church parking lot, talked about the history of the church, personal faith journeys, and asked big questions.  Its so encouraging hearing about the amazing ways God is working in her life, her heart for service and her desire to know Jesus deeply!  This afternoon I've been barista-ing but it hardly feels like work.  The sun was blazing through the windows and for a few minutes, as I sat with my boss and her family, it felt like summer again.  Working for a family run business can be horrible or the best.  In my case it has been the best.  I was visited by Erynn and her friend Darin.  Later, a new lady came in and started talking about her godmother who is dying of cancer.  She asked if I had any experience with death.  What a privilege it was to chat with her.  We are so eager to avoid the reality of death, it seems.  She started crying while we were talking about how to better be present with people in the midst of such a hard reality of loosing someone.  My job at Cafe Aroma never ceases to heap blessings into my life!  As for the mouse picture, I told Kyle to put a picture of "the cutest animal" on the welcome sign for the quiz meet and since he didn't (sheesh) I'll feature it here. This has been a good day.

This weekend I discovered what my life has been missing....

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The Ultimate Comfort Beverage: Peaches & Cream Tea

Cabin time!

The cabin is incredible! I just can't even handle it. No agendas lead to days like these. Fell asleep to David Crowders new album Rest while riding over the blizzard frenzied pass. Slept in til noon this morning (afternoon). Spent the rest of the afternoon crocheting a scarf. Surprise run into old friends at dinner. Delicious gelato. Met by Tim, Annie, and the girls. Snuggled with a little sleeping Ari while watching a movie. Excited for tomorrow! Excited to be joined by Heather and the boys!

Another vocation day. Crunch time.

I feel like God just keeps asking, "what do you want?" and all I can say back is "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!" 

"A day of vocational discernment"

The ball is finally rolling on my vocational narrative.  This is a taste of the story that I plan to lace throughout...

This is the chronicle of a pilgrimage of discovery,
in hindsight, realities known more deeply through encounters of greater understanding,
and passions grasped through experience,
roused to action.

My six member family lived in one of the homely cottages amidst a forest, recognized by all as Ayah’s territory, richly full of depth that I had not yet the sensibility to fathom.  I stepped out among the cottages along the level path whose curve, several steps before me, hid what was beyond.  I thought about nothing, the kind of ‘nothing’ that begs no questions or has no inquiry into what little was visible.  For scarcely clear was my vision as the shade of the trees left dim patches over all my surroundings.  All I could see was the reality of things directly in view.  So far I knew this terrain well.  Yet, a sense of something more, momentarily revealed by flickers of light through the tree’s foliage, beckoned me on.  I took a few more steps and rounded the bend continuing past a small family of crickets, chirping quietly among several stones at my feet.  I’d grown so accustomed to their sound that it hardly found way into my consciousness and I quickly moved on.  Yet their sound followed me.  

John Piper, this is so frustrating!

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/the-frank-and-manly-mr-ryle-the-value-of-a-masculine-ministry

"Settling" -Denise Levertov

This poem was shared with me a week or two ago and I can't stop thinking about it! Seattle is an amazing place! "Grey is the price of neighboring with eagles, of knowing a mountain's vast presence, seen or unseen." Love it!

I was welcomed here—clear gold
of late summer, of opening autumn,
the dawn eagle sunning himself on the highest tree,
the mountain revealing herself unclouded, her snow
tinted apricot as she looked west,
tolerant, in her steadfastness, of the restless sun
forever rising and setting.
Now I am given
a taste of the grey foretold by all and sundry,
a grey both heavy and chill. I've boasted I would not care,
I'm London-born. And I won't. I'll dig in,
into my days, having come here to live, not to visit. 
Grey is the price 
of neighboring with eagles, of knowing
a mountain's vast presence, seen or unseen.

Crown Hill: Bob Ross Party

Loved being little artists with the cousins!

Crown Hill: Bob Ross Party: Yesterday I went to a Bob Ross painting party with a bunch of cousins, and some aunts and an uncle. It was fun! We followed along with a B...