Africa...

I know this video has already been going around, but in case a few of you haven't seen it yet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdP6PqsbJY

It stirs the desire deep inside again to work with these beautiful people. I am not sure yet what the desire means or where it will take me, but it's there...

A Tribute to Captain

Some of you know, and some of you may not, that our Newfoundland "Captain Lewis" (the little bear walking with me on the beach in the pic above) recently found his way to a new home. He had gotten to be more than we wanted to handle with his whole 150 lbs of hair and drool. I felt like a sorry excuse for a person giving him up for these reasons, but can't tell you how much I have enjoyed feeling like I have our house back again! Honestly, I think he might have a better life with his new owners than he did with us since they:

1) Are retired and thus have a lot of time to spend with him at home
2) Have a great family friend who is a professional dog groomer and offered to do his grooming for them for free
3) Specifically wanted an older Newfoundland--hair, drool, lethargy, and all

It felt like God provided by connecting us with this couple who seems to be such a great fit for him.

Despite the hair & drool, Captain really was a great dog. Here are just a few highlights from our year with him:

• Finding out that he was smarter than he looked--skilled enough to open our refrigerator, pull out the meat drawer, and clean us out on a regular basis until we installed a child lock
• Seeing his adorable eyes looking up at you as he put his paw on your lap "Don't stop loving me!"
  
• Dressing him up as a pirate and having him chill on the porch with us while we handed out halloween candy to 400 kids
• Finding out that bathtime literally scared the s**t out of him
• Watching him run (yes, believe it or not, he was capable)--his gait was flowing and beautiful

Captain, I hope you're very happy in your new home...

Some of the thoughts that have been running through my head

• Man, I should be watching the presidential debates so I can make a more informed decision--maybe I'll look for them online tomorrow
• I wonder if the economy really is going to collapse
• But, selfishly, I'm hoping for another sweet tax rebate from the bailout plan
  
• Will my to do list always be never-ending?
• Maybe Matt & I could adopt a kid from Somalia who lost their family to the famine
• I'm excited about taking more of the opportunities to engage the relationships God has put in my life
• Ooooo--I haven't watched the Amazing Race episode from Sunday yet!
  

Gracelessness

God really does have his fingerprints all over everything doesn’t he? And when he speaks to us, like Margarget Feinberg talks about in Sacred Echoes, it isn’t just a one time writing in the sky revelation. He has an amazing way of speaking in many ways all around us, affirming the same thing, so that we can’t help but notice.

He’s been doing this in my life lately. Pressing in on a deep-seated gracelessness woven deep within me. I didn’t realize how much I am unable to extend grace to myself and how profoundly this affects my ability to then extend that grace to those around me. For whatever reason, a deathly fear of failure has woven through my life for a long time. But His fingers have gently been pushing the soil away to reveal roots, pulling them out one by one, and replanting them in his streams of living water.

The other day I started reading Free of Charge: Giving and Receiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace by Miroslav Volf (how can this not be a cool book with a name like that!?). In it, he quotes from a story by Antoine de Saint-Exupery titled Little Prince. I’m not going to try to explain the story—you need to read the book if you want to hear more—but at one point Volf summarizes and quotes from The Prince: “His mysterious affair with the rose began when he responded to the rose’s simple request, ‘Would you be so kind as to tend to me?’ The gift of care made it his rose, the only one in the whole world. ‘It’s the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important,’ the wise fox told him.” (Volf 16)

For some reason this has stuck with me as just one of the many ways God has been drawing me into encounters with him, encounters with his radical grace. This idea that we must be able to give, not sell, to the people around us. To care for them without requiring things in return. This idea that when we are able to do this, we find that person becomes very dear to us.

Gracelessness, I have been realizing, leads to the opposite: when all our relational transactions are “buying and selling” as Volf describes it (14), we actually tear those relationships down and are left with bitterness where there once was love.

This blog is already getting long, so I’ll spare you, but there’s a glimpse into what God has his hands on in my life right now…

Almond Joy's & Computers

Here’s a peek into my new job @ Hershey Foods:

1. Almond Joy—just one example of why people gain “The Hershey 10” during their first year working here—can anyone say free chocolate all day?
2. The BBC news podcast makes me feel smarter on my 45 min commute in
3. Between spreadsheets, emails, and meetings about things for the spreadsheets and emails, you have a pretty complete picture of a typical day
4. A thermal mug has become a fixture in my hand each morning
5. I’m learning things like what 1394 and HDMI ports are for—who would have thought?

Back in blogosphere!

Yes, I have been neglecting my blog--my apologies, but I am officially up and running again with a few goals:

1) Blog for the benefit of my own reflection and to share my life with others, not to increase my number of readers

2) Create some rhythms with my blogging--types of blogs, or frequency or something. Any suggestions?

Jobs, jobs, jobs!

I only have the energy for a quick post since we put in a 13 hr day working on a fence job today, but just wanted to post a quick update on our job searches for anyone who hasn't heard the latest yet. We both officially have jobs! It's been so cool to see how God has provided in both large and small ways all along the way, and this is just another example.

Matt will be working for Apple, starting training this Friday for the new retail store they are opening @ our local mall (no, we don't know when it's opening yet, but hopefully you'll be able to come see Matt soon for all your Mac needs :)

I was offered and accepted a temporary position with Hershey Foods where I'll be managing the administrative end of their periodic company-wide laptop replacements until the end of next June. The team I'll be working with seems like a really cool group of people, and I'm excited about the challenges and experience I think I'll have during these next few months there. After next June, who knows. Maybe I can find something in project mgmt or church relations with World Vision. That would be amazing...