New year, new blog

My new blog is up and running, at least somewhat. Thus, I'll be posting on there from now on. You can check it out here.

A Long December

Here we are at the last day of the month for the last month of the year. December was a hard month for me. It brought back some unpleasant memories, and as joyful as the holiday season is supposed to be, it can also be a hard time of the year for a lot of people.

This past week or so was pretty good, though, comparatively…granted, I’ve been sick for the majority of the past couple of weeks with the stomach flu, followed by the chest cold, but other than that it was good. At least I didn’t have to go into work last week. And on the days I wasn’t feeling completely lousy and contagious, I got to spend quality time with friends and family.

The weekend before Christmas I took care of my youngest nephew, David, and it was fun to spend time with him. He actually said to me, “I hardly ever get to spend time with just you, so I would like for you to (spend time with just me).”

He’s so stinkin’ cute, and already quite the sweet-talker at the age of six. He had a point, though – as the youngest of my four nephews, I rarely get to spend any one-on-one time with him, thus it was good to do that. We played games and went out for lunch one day, and he fell asleep in my lap as we watched a movie. The next day we decorated Hanukkah cookies for him to take home, even though Hanukkah was already over by then, but that’s okay.

We also decorated some cookies for my mom to put out for everyone on Christmas Eve, which is when my family gets together to go to Christmas-Eve church service (for those of us that are Christians), and then everyone—Jewish and Christian—is at my parents’ house for dinner, gift-exchanging, and games. And that night my oldest nephew, Jake, beat me at Guitar Hero again. However, I still had flu-like symptoms that night (it was on-again, off-again for several days), so it was an unfair victory on his part. Even so, it’s probably as it should be that my 15-year-old nephew is better at video games than am I.

I also got to spend time with my “sister” Christy and her family while they were in town for Christmas. They drove in from Golden, Colorado, and were here in KC for an entire week, so that was awesome. Biologically speaking, she and I are not sisters, but we’ve known each other and have been best friends all of our lives. Both of us are the youngest and only girls in our families, so growing up we saved each other from the world of older brothers.

She’s married and has two adorable little girls (Haley, 3, and Sabrina [my God-daughter], 19 months), and they all came over to help decorate cookies with me and David, although I personally ended up taking pictures instead of decorating. The photos in this post are from that afternoon of cookie-decorating entertainment.

A friend of the family, Sue, was also in town and stayed here at my parents’ house for a couple of days after Christmas. She and I had lots of theological conversations, and I helped her set up her own blog while she was here, so that was fun.

Thus, although December was a hard month in some aspects, it was great to spend time with friends and family over the holidays, and to celebrate Christmas together.

And tomorrow is the start of a new year! I don’t tend to make New Year’s resolutions, but this year I kind of am: My goal, or resolution, is to focus on living more simply. This goal of simplicity entails several aspects, which I’ll probably be exploring in my future blog postings.

That reminds me – I’ve been lured into the world of WordPress for blogging (it does offer better features), so I’m putting together a new blog with that and will be posting on there instead of this blog once I get it all set up. I should have it ready to go pretty soon here, so I’ll provide a link to that sometime in the next week or so.

Until then, have a happy new year!

Christmas on crack

This slightly over-decorated house is in the city I live in, and I'm thinking I just might have to go visit it. Note the creepy Rudolph and Santa alongside the animated Nativity scene with the squirmy baby-Jesus doll. It doesn't get much better--or crazier--than this:

Brrr

I got the day off of work earlier this week when we had an ice storm, so I decided to entertain myself by putting my camera to use outside. I took these photos in my backyard. And now it's supposed to snow this weekend. A lot. Enough winter already...

Faithful companions

The church service at Resurrection this weekend was about Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. For some reason, this is one of the very few times I’ve ever heard an Advent sermon that talked about Elizabeth. However, I’ve probably only noticed this lack of shout-outs to her because she is my namesake, and sometimes I can be self-absorbed like that . . . okay, a lot of the time.

With that admitted, let’s talk about me for a while, shall we? I went by the name of Elizabeth when I was a child, but sometime during the high-school years, I think, I decided to go by the nickname Liz, although I can’t quite recall why. Perhaps I thought “Liz” sounded cooler, or maybe I was just being lazy and didn’t want to have to write out so many letters every time I had to sign something. My brothers, being the sweethearts that they are, used to come up with their own variations of my name, such as “Elizabutt” or “Elizablah” or “Lizard Breath,” so maybe I was trying to circumvent their teasing. I don’t know for sure, but it was probably some combination of these things that prompted me to eschew my full name, and most people now know me as Liz.

I recently decided to go back to my real name, however, and a few weeks ago I started making the transition back to Elizabeth. The main reason for this is because I like the significance of the name, which means “God’s promise” or “God’s oath” in Hebrew. Also, I like what the biblical Elizabeth represents, even though it kind of sucks for her that she had to wait so long to have a child. . . . Come to think of it, I’d rather not have to be that patient (not that I want children anytime soon--I'm in no rush for that--but just having to be that patient about anything), so maybe I should just stick with my nickname. Seriously, though, Elizabeth’s patience is a model for trusting in God’s timing and remaining faithful, even when it may seem too late or rather hopeless. So, I know it’s just a name, but it serves as a good reminder to me. Patience is a virtue, after all (and one that I’m not always so good at).

Anyhow, as fascinating a subject as I am (please note: sarcasm), let’s get back to Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, as told here in Luke 1:39-56 (NLT):

³⁹ A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town ⁴⁰ where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

⁴² Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. ⁴³ Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? ⁴⁴ When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. ⁴⁵ You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

⁴⁶ Mary responded,

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
⁴⁷ How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
⁴⁸ For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
⁴⁹ For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
⁵⁰ He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
⁵¹ His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
⁵² He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
⁵⁵ For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.”

⁵⁶ Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.

Several things stand out to me from this part of the narrative, but for this post I'm going to touch on the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth. . .

Mary was only a few days pregnant when she set out to visit Elizabeth. At this very early stage in her pregnancy, Mary couldn’t actually verify that she was, indeed, pregnant; she wouldn’t have put on any significant amount of weight or be showing at this time, and it was too early for there to be any movement or anything like that from her womb. And it’s not like she just could go down to the drugstore and discreetly buy a home pregnancy test to make sure that she, a virgin, had truly conceived, verifying for her that her visit from Gabriel wasn’t just some strange dream or figment of her imagination. Thus, at this point, from outside appearances, she hadn’t changed, even though much was changing from within her as the incarnation of Christ developed in her womb.

She was probably feeling scared and uncertain about her future as she headed off to see Elizabeth. Can you imagine the swarm of emotions she must have been experiencing? She was just told that the Holy Spirit impregnated her with the Son of God. Try to imagine what that must have felt like. I mean, no pressure or anything, so just chillax, Mary.

Sure.

And if that little tidbit of news weren’t unnerving enough, eventually she would have to explain why she was pregnant to her fiancée, not to mention everyone else in town. Would they think she was crazy, as well as immoral?

But before Mary even had a chance to tell her she was pregnant, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and greeted Mary with unabashed praise, proclaiming her to be the blessed mother of God. This probably gave Mary a sense of assurance that she was bearing the Incarnation, and that it was God’s good and perfect will for her (and all of humanity). Those words of encouragement from Elizabeth procured the Magnificat.

In the sermon from this weekend, Elizabeth was shown as an example for the importance of companionship, mentors, and giving words of praise and kindness to others. Elizabeth was whom Mary trusted to go to after becoming impregnated. Somehow she must have known that Elizabeth was a safe person for her.

Like Mary, we all need these kinds of people in our lives -- those trusted companions we can go to in our most challenging times. Someone with whom we can let down our guards and just be “real” about whatever is going on in our lives, and vice versa. Pastor Adam described these as intentional friendships where you grow in Christ together. God-centered friendships. These are the kind of friends who want what’s best for you, even if it inconveniences them. These friends are delighted to see you grow in Christ, and will be there for you with words of encouragement and kindness whenever you’re scared or struggling.

These are what I call true friendships, and these invaluable friends are a gift from God. And they are rare. I have a lot of people I call “friends,” but very few people in my life who fit the true-friend description above. When it comes down to it, most people are friends by name, but just acquaintances by actions: people I can go out and be social with and keep things on a fairly superficial level. And that’s okay, because not everyone can realistically be a trusted-companion type of friend to everyone else.

True friends that encourage each other to grow in Christ are rare, indeed. But when you find one, it’s truly a blessing. And, though I wish more of my friendships could be like this, I consider myself incredibly blessed to know that I do have a couple of people in my life who are these kinds of friends. They are my Elizabeths.

Redefining romance?

Of the books I've read in the past few months, I was surprised by one that, before I started reading it, I thought would be a waste of time. I think I was prejudging it by its title: The Sacred Romance. I thought if it was based on the idea of "romance," it would be full of fluff and false promises, like the typical movie in the romantic-comedy genre. However, I was pleasantly surprised by much of what I read from it. Here are some excerpts, related to each other, that stood out to me and got me thinking (and recognizing my own errors, such as the "survivor" role I tend to play):

Desperate for something larger to give our lives transcendence, we try to lose ourselves in the smallest kind of stories. Some of us choose the “Why does everything go wrong for me?” story. The plot of life is a tragedy, and we are playing the role of the victim of cruel circumstances. Our Arrows (the things that have hurt us) are our identity. This is an immensely popular story line because it relieves us of having to take any real responsibility for our lives. Victims demand to be understood, but don’t you dare require anything of them.

And then there is the survivor, living in a life where the plot is a siege. The world is a dangerous and unpredictable place, so I will hunker down and survive, taking little risk, doing what I can to protect myself even if it means cutting myself off from others and from my own dreams. These stories focus on the Arrows at the expense of the Romance.

On the other hand, some of us are trying to live out a story line that preserves the Romance in some way. . . . The most popular option is romantic love, the idea that somewhere out there is that special someone who will sweep you off your feet, take your breath away, with whom life would be one idyllic adventure and sex an unending ecstasy. It is the theme of popular music, the false transcendence of our day. . . . It’s not so much that lovers cannot live with each other as that they cannot live without the Haunting, which they mistook for romantic love. So they move to the next partner, trying to capture that evasive feeling again. . . .

Christians can opt for one of these, or choose a more “spiritual” version. The Religious Man or Woman is a popular story option in which we try to reduce the wildness of life by constructing a system of promises and rewards, a contract that will obligate God to grant us exemption from the Arrows. It really doesn’t matter what the particular group bargain is-–doctrinal adherence, moral living, or some sort of spiritual experience-–the desire is the same: taming God in order to tame life. Never mind those deep yearnings of the soul; never mind the nagging awareness that God is not cooperating. If the system isn’t working, it’s because we’re not doing it right. There’s always something to work on, with the promise of abundant life just around the corner. Plenty of churches and leaders are ready to show you how to cut a deal.

. . . There comes a place on our spiritual journey where renewed religious activity is of no use whatsoever. It is the place where God holds out his hand and asks us to give up our lovers and come and live with Him in a much more personal way. It is the place of relational intimacy that Satan lured Adam and Eve away from so long ago in the Garden of Eden. We are both drawn to it and fear it. Part of us would rather return to Scripture memorization, or Bible study, or service – anything that would save us from the unknowns of walking with God. We are partly convinced our life is elsewhere. We are deceived.

. . . So much of the journey forward involves a letting go of all that once brought us life. We turn away from the familiar abiding places of the heart, the false selves we have lived out, the strengths we have used to make a place for ourselves and all our false loves, and we venture forth in our hearts to trace the steps of the One who said, “Follow me.” In a way, it means that we stop pretending: that life is better than it is, that we are happier than we are, that the false selves we present to the world are really us. We respond to the Haunting, the wooing, the longing for another life. . . . Pretending that life is easier and more blessed than it really is hinders our ability to walk with God and share him with others. Faith is not the same thing as denial.

Reading is sexy

I have a few stickers that, for some reason beyond explanation, I felt compelled to put on the top of my laptop a few months ago. Yes, stickers (kind of like bumper stickers). No, I'm not a kindergartner, although some days I wish I could be. So, thanks to my wouldn't-it-be-fun-to-put-these-on-my-laptop whim, I now have a few colorful bits of reading for anyone who happens to be in the room with me while I'm on my computer (such as right now, although I don't think my dog can actually read). These stickers say a variety of things: Agape; truthiness; Sarcasm - it's what's for breakfast. But my favorite is the one that says "Reading is Sexy."

Heck yeah it is!

Thus, being the (sexy?) bibliophile that I am, I've added to my sidebar (<-----) a sexy list of sexy books from my sexy library on LibraryThing. The list should change with each blog visit to show a few randomly-picked books that I'm reading, or have read already. I tend to read quickly, and several books at a time, so I'll try to update it as often as possible. Let me know if you've read any of them or if you have any other reading recommendations.

Also, as you may have noticed, I like posting quotes from various sources. A lot of these quotes come from books I'm currently reading. As I read, I highlight sentences and dog-ear pages with quotes that really stand out to me or generate writing ideas. Yes, I'm a fool with a highlighter when I'm reading a quotable book (and inadvertently sniffing too much highlighter in the process, which may explain why, later on, I can't figure out my reasoning for highlighting certain things...maybe that's what happened when I got sticker-happy). Even the passages in my bibles are covered with highlights from the special bible-highlighters that won't bleed through the page. Those are a great invention, I say, and they don't even put out any special fumes.