Monday Must-Reads (and Watches) and Book GIVEAWAY!

[Photo: Linda Nylind for the Guardian]

I spoke at our LIFEchurch women’s event this past Friday on what was a combination of my journey and my thoughts on the pain in our lives and the hope and redemption that so often comes around the corner of all that pain. Sarah Bessey’s post, In Which I’m Learning to Obey the Sadness," and her video, “You Are Not Forgotten,” so beautifully dovetailed with all of my thoughts. And, she says it better than I ever could. So check her out.

Rachel Held Evans announced that she’ll be “Blogging the Lectionary” on Thursdays for the foreseeable future, and she’s invited other bloggers to do the same. I must say I’m intrigued. I grew up non-denominational and pentecostal, which means we didn’t do the lectionary, but I love the idea of systematically coming to the same portions of scripture with other ministers week after week, the community wrestling with the meaning and significance of these particular passages. Check out Rachel's site on Thursdays and look in the comments section for links from other bloggers to their own lectionary blogging.

And here's something for all you foodies: I found The Spunky Coconut blog by Kelly Brozyna last year and checked out a book of hers at the library. She's got a knack for perfecting the (often raw and vegan) kind of treats so many of us love (sans dairy, wheat, eggs and soy). Her pecan pie, sweetened with dates and prunes, rocked my world last summer...as well as her cashew milk for homemade frappucinos. Sigh. She's now releasing a compilation of ALL her cookbooks as a reasonably priced e-book: Real Food Recipes from The Spunky Coconut! I swear to you that I literally was checking prices on her individual cookbooks a week or so ago and was delighted to see this. FWIW, foodies.

And FINALLY, my big announcement. On June 23, I'll be announcing the winner of a FREE copy of Dear Boy,. Wanna be considered for the drawing? Here's how: Follow my blog by either signing up to have new posts delivered to your email inbox OR subscribe to the site posts by adding it to a blog reader that you use, such as Feedly. Sign up easily at the prompts on the right-hand side of the page here. Once you've done so, comment on any post letting me know you are following and how you are doing it. Your name will go into the drawing for a free book and the winner will be announced in June.

Happy Monday!

Must-Reads and Watches

It's been a week of inspiring, important, and simply moving video and blog posts around the internet. I wanted to share some of what moved me.

If you follow my Facebook updates (or anyone's FB updates), this will probably look familiar: Bloggers and tweeters everywhere are trying to get our attention about the kidnapping of almost 300 teenage girls in Nigeria. On Rage Against the Minivan, Kristen Howerton explains "Why Girls in Nigeria Should Matter to You." Sarah Bessey added a prayer to the conversation: "In Which We Pray: Bring Back Our Girls."

For you married readers, Glennon Melton offers a true-to-life portrait of what happily-ever-really means: "The Lie and Truth about Marriage."

And then, I happened upon this little gem of a happy ending--the sort of thing that sounds too good to be true, so good its's probably made up. But it wasn't. This was a real deal--a preemie twin born at 27 weeks, pronounced dead, but comes back to life over the two hours that his Australian mother practices Kangaroo care.

And for those of you who've been wondering at all the feminists springing up in your churches, this talk about the compatibility of faith with feminism, given by the so-smart twenty-something, Sarah Schwartz, from Biola University, is a wonderful place to start your investigation.

Notes #20 In Which I Stay Rooted

A few weeks back, I got a headache that grew louder than the voices of the four women who joined me in a women's retreat planning meeting. My eyes were aching and I just felt wiped out as we talked about themes and speakers and women's issues--and I didn’t know why.  I was juicing a lot that week for heaven’s sake. I was eating tons of greens, no sugar, no meat (...except for those two GF brownies I ate after a day of only juicing). But anyway, I was in this meeting feeling like my progesterone levels were taking a nosedive off a cliff into a rocky canyon, trying to keep up with the ideas, the different directions, which I couldn't do. So I wrote them down and thanked the ladies and prayed and said I needed time to process. 

I got in my car and drove to the preschool parking lot where I would pick up Tiny and I just sat, with my head on the steering wheel and I thought I can’t do a women’s retreat. We should scrap it all. This is too much work! And right there was my second clue (headache being the first) that I was Not Okay--because planning stuff is sort of what I live for. And then my head started spinning through the engagements and deadlines and speaking commitments and classes to schedule and I could feel the anxiety mount. But how did I get there? How does one go from walking at a brisk pace to running out of breath with no chance to stop? Because that’s what it felt like. And my body was boycotting, having it’s own little Revolution Against Over-Extension.

Of course, there’s no one but myself to overextend me. Everyone I work with is gracious and we are mutually protective of each other's energies and abilities. But I often feel this urgency, this urgency to get to the next thing, to build and keep building—a new class, a retreat, deeper levels, better curriculum, more supportive structures for particular areas of church life. There are so many things in the distance, so much possibility for the future. And I want to build it all right now. And yet, I can’t get to them until I set down these foundation stones in my hands, in place and in order, one at a time.

The headache worsened that night. My whole body ached. I had trouble explaining it to my husband, to my friend. I’m sick, I think. And I feel stressed and anxious too. But which caused what? Chicken or egg?

In periods of stress and on the days of Revolution Against Over-Extension, I often have to just bear the revolution out. I don’t always know how it got started or what my soul is trying to tell me or what message it is I need to hear. And so I just wait with my head on my pillow and a questioning eyebrow at God—what? What do I need to know?

Last time, after a day of that posture, there were two things that broke through my frenetic internal buzz. One, I played the audio of my YouVersion online Bible app. I love the NIV, read aloud by some William Branaugh sound-alike. So Shakespearean and poignant, he chided me (and I cried):

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

And…

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

I know that, if you’re not familiar with everything the writer of Hebrews wrote of up until chapter 12, that this sounds like a bunch of cultish gobbledygook. Spirits of the Righteous Made Perfect. Sprinkled Blood that Speaks a Better Word?

The writer is saying, in my plain Iowa English, that our God isn’t distant or untouchable. That we have access to a joyful, welcoming God and all of heaven supports his welcome of us.  We are welcomed by God the Judge who judges us as “right” simply because of our trust and faith in Jesus, who helps us continue on in our lives of faith.

Why did I cry upon hearing this? Oh the mystery of our own souls--maybe because it was a spirit-touching-heaven moment, a reminder that all the stuff of our lives—the bills to pay and forms to sign and the offspring’s favorite clothes to launder and the class curriculum to write and the marriage to maintain—is not the endgame, is not the reason, is not the why. 

He loves me. He just does. And that is Something.

And then, the second thing that broke through the noise in head:

I read two blog posts from two of my favorite bloggers, women negotiating writing and blogging and speaking and ministry and parenting. One wrote about reassessing her commitments. It was so helpful to know I’m not the only one asking these questions about what is and is not working and what I’m supposed to be doing in a particular season of life.

The other blogger wrote about criticism, a bad review, of her book.  It was a comfort to remember that I will fail--especially in other people's perceptions of my endeavors--and that this is Okay.

No matter how hard we try and no matter our whole-heartedness in trying, we won't please everyone and we won't always succeed. And so, we must stay rooted in What Has Been Revealed and What Is, and grounded in our purposes, our callings, and the intentions of our lives. 

Good Works and Confusing Packaging (About Church)

A few weeks ago, much of the evangelical world watched as World Vision, an organization that describes itself as a “Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice,” released a statement saying it had changed its hiring policy to be inclusive of Christians in same-sex marriage. What happened next was that many evangelicals canceled their sponsorships of WV children in protest of the new hiring policy.

I was hardly an expert on World Vision. The day before this debacle, I couldn’t have told you what WV’s hiring policies were, but I was so dismayed at the idea of so many children waking up one morning to the news that they no longer had access to their school, food, education and health care, that I put my stake in the ground (on Facebook, no less), announcing that I would be sponsoring a child through World Vision to make up the losses. 

Wouldn’t you know it, by the end of the week, World Vision had reversed it’s hiring policy change, declaring that they “stand firmly on the biblical view of marriage, [yet] strongly affirm that all people, regardless of sexual orientation, are created by God and are to be loved and treated with dignity and respect”?

I was baffled, and did not feel that they had accomplished their mission of “bear[ing] witness to the good news of the kingdom of God” that week.  If anything, I had little confidence in this board, which I felt lacked the courage of its convictions (wherever those stood). Also, what a way to alienate a group of people that the Church so desperately needs to love well and love better. Oh, hey, we’re going to include you. Oh, on second thought, we changed our minds.

I had just promised to support a WV child. But, now that sponsorships were being reinstated again by those who initially cancelled them; the critical need was not so critical. So, I decided to keep my eyes out for another organization doing similar work.

And it just so happened that Sarah Bessey (author of Jesus Feminist, a book I highly recommend) was traveling in Haiti last week for the sole purpose of documenting the work of Help One Now in remote places where children fall prey to trafficking and malnourishment. Help One Now is focused not only on orphans, but on vulnerable children whose families of origin remain somewhat in tact. They also work through the initiatives of local, native leaders who understand the needs and social dynamics of he culture.  

I chose to sponsor Clervoir, a 17 year old boy, and my hope is that he will be able to fulfill his dream of becoming a teacher by advancing his (fifth-grade level) education.

One thing Help One Now asks is for its sponsors to spread the word about what they're doing around the world. So here I am, spreading the word. If you're looking for a cause or just looking to sponsor a kiddo, this is as good a place as any to start.