City Photos!

This blog is the perfect spot to park on a snowy afternoon. Tim hails from Chicago and takes beautiful photographs of everyday life there. They all have that delightful city feel that does something to me. Take a peek.

A Plea. Where's the light at the end of the tunnel?

Job searching is the pits. Er, I love considering the endless possibilities that speckle the horizon!!

I lost track of when I started this major hunt. Granted, there are many souls who have been looking far longer than I, and blessings be upon them, but seriously. We need jobs.

I'm not going to say this isn't a rant, because it is. But it's short. We try to put our best foot forward, yes? Yes. I don't believe I can do this online, simply by pasting my resume, typing out my work history 389157468 times and clicking 'submit.' I'm happy to do all those things, to the moon and back, but let me shake your hand and look you in the eye and then hand you the nitty-gritty details on paper. By looking at someone's resume, you can't usually tell if they're bright and promising or if you'd be better off hiring a dead fish. Trust me, I've been on the hiring side of the job search.

I decided to defy this online limitation and walk in with my resume and cover letter in hand. At one particular locale, I had quite an adventure getting past the front desk to HR. When I did, I was told how to apply online. Good. I walked out, still clutching my resume and cover letter, and drove straight back home to the opportunity awaiting me online.

Someone's potential is not found on paper. Can I get an AMEN?

It's time for a breakthrough.

Known

Omniscience. If you're anything like me, you've thought about omniscience, marveled, but concluded you couldn't comprehend it, so logged it away in the mental archives for later. I don't know that I've ever thought about how God's all-knowledge affects me personally besides the uncomfortable understanding that He knows all my deepest, darkest secrets even better than I do. He knows the past, present, and future of the whole world. And that's about the extent of my comprehension of the matter.

That is, until I read A.W. Tozer's thoughts. "... no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us." I still don't know why this overwhelmed me like it did. As I type, it seems like such a fundamental pillar of Christianity. The moment I read it, I realized that somewhere inside me, I believe I can test God's unconditional love and perhaps shock or disappoint Him out of His decision to call me to Himself. There is no shock factor, no element of surprise, when He already knew your whole plan. Foiled. I suppose one of my greatest fears is believing that I hold His rich love forever only to find in the end that I believed a lie. That terrifies me, and my reaction is to test it. Wrong move (Courage and Faith, enter stage right). 

All glory be to Him who chose us and called us to Himself when we were dead in our transgressions. I'm not cool enough, nerdy enough, pretty or ugly enough to get His attention. He wasn't looking at that. When He looked, He saw death in us. But because of His great love with which He loved us, we have redemption through the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. Why this is so hard for bird-brain to grasp, I don't know, but my little moment of revelation seriously helped, so I had to share.

A Courageous Spirit

The Girls just left after a long night of talking through our long-awaited look at the "gentle and quiet spirit." There are about as many ideas on what this means and how it looks as there are women to ponder it. Some explanations I've heard are subtler versions of, "if you must speak, sugar-coat it." Because 1 Peter 3:4 allows for only one kind of spirit, and the spirit and the personality can be hard to differentiate in our minds, I was curious about tonight's discussion.

I have never beheld a close group of friends so diverse as The Girls. Elyze is the older sister, type-A, athletic paramedic who is also one of the most giving people I know. I like to say ridiculous things around her only to see her roll her eyes and drop her forehead into her hand. She keeps us on track. Dawn is the goal-oriented public-policy Analyst who is most likely to be the CEO of a major corporation. I've never seen her cry although she swears she does. She also keeps us on track. Em is the color-lovin' gypsy who would drop almost anything to come to the aid of a friend...or for a good adventure. She is the most graceful blend of feminine tomboy I have ever met. Lauren is the animated artist with a wild imagination. You would travel for miles to watch her tell a story. You would also travel for miles to cry on her shoulder. She feels other people's emotions as if they were her own.

Back to the topic at hand. I gave the group bio to show that we are not generally taciturn. But we do sincerely want to know what is important to the Lord, which is why we so badly wanted to find out what Scripture means by the gentle, quiet spirit. I mentioned in an earlier post that my chosen tangent was courage and how it relates to the quiet spirit. In 1 Peter 3, you'll notice that just beyond the gentle and quiet spirit is verse 6 which speaks of Sarah and says, "...and you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening." Anything that is frightening? You're sure? I dug deeper and found that almost every reference to fear or courage is coupled with a reference to the Lord's presence or character.

Courageous acts in battle are all over the Old Testament. Surely they had superior weaponry? Or an immense amount of stuff on the other side of the wall waiting to be pillaged? No. Their courage came from an invisible yet undeniable source. Ezra 7:28 -- "I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me." Isaiah 35:4 -- "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God...will come and save you." Haggai 2:4-5 -- "Be strong, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not." Exodus 14:13-14 -- "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today...The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."

I noticed a common thread: our courage comes not from what we conjure up, but from an inexhaustible source that is ever reliable and will do what He promised. Our strength fails, our bravery runs out. But when our courage is in the Lord, in the knowledge of His character, we will see battles fought and won for us. We will behold the salvation of the Lord right in the midst of what we fear the most.

So women (and men), I believe a huge step toward quieting your spirit is simply trust. It is casting all your cares at His feet and wholly believing that He picked them up from where you laid them and is working a victory. When we do that, courage naturally follows. Whether your personality is analytical, emotional, funny, serious, black, white, wet, dry or something in between, you can have a quiet spirit because it's the attitude of your heart before the One who knows it perfectly.

Whew! The End.

A Day in Denver

At the risk of boring you with my Denver love, I write with caution.

{I LOVE DENVER}

Because I am currently working very part-time and on the hunt for a job, I enjoy the luxury of a little spare time. Jonny lives in Denver and so happened to have some free time at the same time I did, so I visited. My friend Lauren, the artist, recently introduced me to Stella's coffeehouse on Pearl Street and my heart fluttered a bit, so I had to take Jonny. After all, they have an entire basket of treats devoted to Gluten Free People, of which Jonny is one.

This is a hot-spot for students during the day, so it felt more like a library than a coffeehouse. We ended up on the patio outside, sipping our coffee and trying to play tricks on the brazen squirrels. The air was crisp but just right, and several hours passed before I even blinked.

Jonny is a delight. Period. I could be wind-burned and chapped, stranded in the middle of the Sahara, but if Jonny was there, I'd be happy as a clam. He told me all about life at college, and the adventure of leaving a world of being just another Christian in a Christian parade to a world where...where... you're wind-burned and chapped, stranded in the middle of the Sahara and would give anything for a drop of water. Morality used to be admirable. Now you feel like a one-eyed Cyclops if you stick to your guns and live a pure, consistent life devoted to Christ.

Long after my hazelnut Americano dried up, we meandered down the street to a funny little shop that had all sorts of outrageous things. Our favorites: A peacock butter dish for $42, a blue and yellow seahorse attached to a bungee, and a mini sock monkey keychain! We walked out empty-handed. On our way back to campus, we went googly-eyed in front of several houses. Wood, rock, a smidge contemporary and utterly Colorado.

Yes, it was divine.

Things I'm Curious About

Four-year-olds are not the only ones who ask 'why'. These questions run through my head all the time, so I figured it was time to get them out. Please enlighten me if you know the answers.

I would like to know...

why the gender assigned to wear makeup is the same gender most likely to cry on any given day, requiring a makeup re-do.

why people assume you never eat if you weigh less than 150 pounds and slightly resemble a toothpick.

if Emeril ever tires of cooking, or Oprah of talking.

why residential architects, after about 1960 (with few exceptions), stopped using their imaginations to design tract homes.

what I have to say to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

why we forget dreams.

why finding "balance" is so tricky.

why I'm embarrassed about my part-time job.

why chocolate is that good.

how Creation is so readily denied. My thumb could be as long as my leg, your eyebrow hair could grow an inch an hour, and grass could be razor sharp. But it all fits together perfectly.

in what ways we would be different if we'd been born in another era, another culture.

That's all for now. I'm off to explore.

100

one hundred posts!

throw a little confetti. 

and please come back for 101.

thanks for stopping by this little corner of the world.

nothing in particular

O-mi-garsh! It's been so long. The write side of my brain has been dead the last while, which is a baaad sign. Or a good one, because maybe it means it's time for an inspiration trip -- Denver Art Museum, a drive through the mountains, cooking a good meal (which is happening tomorrow night), or something to stir the creative juices. Would love to hear your inspiring ideas.

The girls and I have been doing a fascinating study the last two weeks that is yet unfinished, and I can't wait to give you the skinny when we've thought it all through! My assignment is to study courage. Yes! I love that topic, because I am quite lacking in this quality so essential to the life of faith.

Brother Jonny informed me that he doesn't read my blog unless he's in it, so here he is, in the blog: Jonny.  :)  p.s. I get to see him this weekend!

Well friends, my next post will be my 100th! until then, xo.