Think about Such Things.

I'm making apple butter in my crock pot right now and when I lift the lid to stir it the smell of fall (okay, ground cloves and cinnamon) fills the apartment. I love the smell of fall (and the season in general...). Tonight I'll make fried okra with our first crop of okra from our garden. Luke's pretty excited.

Last week we were house-sitting for some people in our church. Living in quiet Northwest for a week with air conditioning and a dish washer was like taking a vacation to a different world. Today we're back in Northeast with the constant backdrop of sirens, fan noise and loud neighbors. But this is our home for sure.

We spent the week reading through an edition of Operation World and thinking about all the places we would like to go. Yesterday Luke found a little stress-relieving ball and we spent the morning laying on a bed and throwing it against the ceiling for each other to catch and laughing. Today we spend a good 30 minutes replicating the activity with a tennis ball. What a wonderful man I've married. I'm excited that we can dream of far away adventures but also live in the present, entertaining ourselves with a tennis ball and a ceiling.

I've been thoroughly enjoying the book Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. Yesterday I was reading about when Wilberforce became a Christian and how he mourned his lost time and had tremendous guilt. He thought about dropping out of politics altogether (apparently there was nobody in politics that was religious--and if you became a "methodist" you were expected to drop out of the world--especially politics--altogether). But instead this is what his good friend, and Prime Minister wrote to him--

...Surely the principles as well as the practice of Christianity are simple, and lead not to meditation only but to action...

Our small group has been reading a book called The Reason for God and discussing issues that turn people away from Christianity. The book is usually pretty good, and it brings up a lot of interesting discussion. This is especially true because our small group consists of extreme liberals and extreme conservatives--both religiously and politically. This is a story that I liked a lot from last week--

In the late twentieth century the Catholic church in eastern Europe refused to die under Communism. Through "patience, candles, and crosses" it began the chain of events the brought down all those totalitarian regimes. The Polish priest Jerzy Popieluszko, through his preaching and activism, led the movement for a free trade union in Communist Poland in the early 1980s. When he was murdered by the secret police, 250,000 people came to his funeral, including Lech Walesa, whose Solidarity movement would help bring down the Communist government. Many of those who went to his funeral marched past the secret police headquarters with a banner that read "We Forgive."

We've been talking a lot in small group about what it means to be Christian, especially in the world that we live in. When we have people yelling about how being Christian means being accepting of all, no matter how beliefs jive with the Bible and we have others yelling about how it doesn't matter if you call yourself a Christian if you vote for a Democrat you clearly are not how do we discern what is true and what is right?

I think that Christians today are known for all the wrong things. We are expected to be perfect and to have everything figured out, and if we do not then it means that we are hypocrites. I think that is in part our fault...I know that at least I act like I do have things figured out. But the very reason why I am a Christian is because I do not, and I should be able to confess that openly...instead I say "I'm not like those Christians..." when instead my answer should be "I'm excatly like those obnoxious, loud people, only I admit that I'm worse and Jesus makes me better by grace...because really, 'I am the chiefest of sinners'*..."

What if the thing that makes Christians different is not our morals or our beliefs, but our way to humbly admit that we are wrong in public, accept grace from God, and then give others the grace that God allows us to give. I think only then--when we are free to openly admit our mistakes and forgive those around us--can we truly move to action. Unafraid of what the world thinks, and knowing that when we make mistakes God will love us anyway.

I don't think it really matters how we vote or what we do as long as we are truly praising God. Because if we're praising God in all we do we will truly be dwelling on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable**. We will be moved to love because we will know that we are truly loved. We will be free to act out our passions endlessly and tirelessly because we will know we have the power of God behind us...

And doesn't that sound splendid?
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*"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life." (1 Timothy 1:15-16)

** "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." (Philippians 4:8)

Picture Project Post, June 26-July 19 (Woah!)

Hello friends. It has been a long, long time since I have done a picture post, and I'm sure you thought that I have forgotten about you. Really, though, it's just my computer. My computer goes crazy when I try to upload photos, which means I have to use Luke's computer and it just gets complicated. So I blame my computer. And myself, of course, for neglecting to upload.

I've also been fairly busy. It's amazing what you can find to occupy your mind while you're unemployed. My days are recently filled with gardening, housework and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (Netflix online...wonderful and horrible at the same time...). I've also recently interviewed for my dream job with DC Central Kitchen, which has given me a lot to think about. I recently met with the First Helping supervisor, who encouraged and challenged me in my ways of thinking about homelessness in general. I've been thinking a lot about what she said--most particularly how those who work with homeless populations are really just community building. When people are marginalized or rejected from mainstream community, the community is inherently weak. Instead of attaching the label of "homeless" to men, women and children who are in need of housing, we should say that they are members of a community whose needs include housing. This first, implies that all members of a community have different needs (but we all have needs...) and secondly, it steers away from attaching potentially detrimental labels to people who are already suffering. I really like this way of looking at things. I sincerely hope that I have the opportunity to work with and learn from the people at DC Central Kitchen in the future...either in a work or volunteer environment.

Well anyways, enough of the musings. I have a lot of pictures to post...

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June 26, 2009: In Texas for the second June wedding! Luke's cousin Erin. We found some cowboy hats and tried them on. It was fitting because we were in Texas.
June 27, 2009: The wedding. I decided I like taking wedding pictures. Especially of brides and grooms. I like to try to catch little moments. Anyways, this was during the toasts. To see more pictures you can click here.




June 28, 2009: Flying home we were flying away from the sunset (since we were flying East), but we did see some pretty sites. I really like this picture with the sun reflecting off the river, creating a golden glow.






June 29, 2009: As I've mentioned several times before, Monday's have been my primary garden day. I realized that I don't think I've included a picture of the whole garden in this blog, so here is a futile attempt. The garden is actually pretty big...which you can't tell here. And we learned on Saturday that the table in this picture is the gathering site for the potluck lunches on garden clean-up day. I really love being part of a community garden. And we have lots of things growing! Like beans and okra and tomatoes and watermelon (more pictures to come...)!
June 30, 2009: At the Franciscan Monastery everything was in bloom! And I thought the yard looked especially pretty in it's colors on this sunny Tuesday.
July 1, 2009: Luke and I decided to go hiking for our anniversary. Luke put up our tent on Wednesday to make sure everything would work right and so we wouldn't have to carry instructions with us. It was pretty hot (note: Luke wanted me to let you know that he is in shorts, not underwear)...due to no air conditioning in our little apartment. But the tent is pretty cool.
July 2, 2009: All packed up and ready to head out early in the morning...we packed on Thursday night because we were heading to Harper's Ferry before our hike on Friday.

July 3, 2009: We took off from Harper's Ferry and did the West Virginia portion of the Appalachian Trail. We went about 21 miles in two days...which apparently isn't a whole lot, but it was my first time hard-core backpacking (if you can call two days hard-core...I know Elizabeth and Rachel are laughing at me...). It was the perfect anniversary hike...for sure. This is a picture of Luke as we started out on the first day.
July 4, 2009: On the Fourth of July we were planning on taking it easy and only going about 8 miles, and then finishing up on Sunday. Instead, around 4:00 in the afternoon we decided to do the last 4 miles and make it to a hostel because there were threats of rain and we forgot a tarp to put under our tent. We were practically running up and down hills, and then we came to this beautiful overlook. It was a great place to take a breath and just look out. It was so pretty and so massive...I really love mountains...you can see my here, I'm the tiny speck standing on the rock.
July 5, 2009: Happy Anniversary to us! We took it easy and walked downhill to the site where we were getting picked up. Our ride was late, so we had a lot of time to waste taking pictures. Aren't we so cute? We've been married a year! =) For more backpacking pictures, you can click here.
July 6, 2009: Small group night. I love our small group. We went to small group with leftover wedding cake and came home with beautiful hydrangeas from Rachel. The picture doesn't really capture their beauty (as usual).
July 7, 2009: This little bird joined me for my quiet time on Tuesday. He was a friendly little creature.




July 8, 2009: Luke came home incredibly excited and said "We have a watermelon in our garden!". So we went and took a picture of it. It's grown much bigger by now (a little bigger than my fist), and we actually now have two watermelons. I'm pleasantly surprised that I was wrong.
July 9, 2009: Our small group was in charge of lunch on Sunday, July 12, so Rachel, Henry, Jane and I went to Costco and got a whole lot of food...it rested in our living room from Thursday until Sunday.




July 10, 2009: Our first weekend home for a while. Luke and I popped popcorn in a cool pan-like thing and watched Good Will Hunting.

July 11, 2009: We had a relaxing day on Saturday, we slept in, played some tennis and spent the rest of the day in a huge Borders Books.

July 12, 2009: On the way to church Luke made sure the watermelon stayed safe...we actually had a really busy day, babysitting and eating dinner with friends...unfortunately it was so busy that I forgot to take any pictures after this one!




July 13, 2009: Our Okra started budding this week and they have beautiful flowers. I had no idea. Luke and I should be eating fried Okra in no time!

July 14, 2009: It was a beautiful day on Tuesday, and I went to the Franciscan Monastery again. They have lots of little details there that I notice every time. Like on the top of their light posts is this little cross, which I think is a cool detail.
July 15, 2009: I had my job interview at DC Central Kitchen on Wednesday. I was pretty nervous (this IS my dream job, after-all). This is right before I left...ps. I think the interview went pretty well...at very least, I really enjoyed meeting the woman who interviewed me!
July 16, 2009: Jenny came! And we went to hear the aforementioned conspiracy theorist. They warned us that if we let the truth remain in us we were hindering liberty. I guess Lady Liberty would be very sad...
July 17, 2009: Jenny and I spent Friday going to different museums, the botanical gardens and picnicking on the mall. On Friday night we watched Capote and Luke and I introduced Jenny to Arrested Development. It was a good Friday.
July 18, 2009: In the morning we had a garden clean-up day. We worked hard. The Nationals game was a reward... unfortunately the Cubs had more fans than us there...and they won. It was a sad, sad game (we blew two opportunities for a grand slam...TWO!). Oh well, we still had fun at the game =)
July 19, 2009: Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end...and Jenny had to go home today. We look pretty depressed in this picture, and though I really miss my sisters I'm not THAT depressed...I'll see them again in two weeks! You can see more pictures from our weekend here.

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Phew...that was a whole lot...I don't think I will let that much time lapse again...

Conspiracy Theories.

Last night we went to hear the Architects and Engineers talk about the truth of what happened on 9/11. We were interested in seeing a bunch of organized conspiracy theorists talk about a conspiracy....and where else to go than Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC? Afterwards we came back here and listened to the Andrew Bird CD that Jenny brought me (the link is to his NPR sites, where I first heard of him. He gave a stellar interview there...) and talked about these conspiracies...and even though I've never smoked anything in my life, it felt like I should have been last night.

As I was sitting in the room with 100+ people listening to a presentation on how the government blew up the World Trade Centers I thought about how what I was doing was a privilege of the wealthy. And as they urged us to give money to their cause, forgive me, but the only thing I could think about was whether or not there were way better things to give my wealthy money to. The thing is, I bet there have never been conspiracy theory meetings in most countries that actually have conspiracies happening in them...and instead of getting together to discuss whether or not the United States Government killed some people in 9/11 why not get together and talk about how governments are killing people systematically in genocides elsewhere...or perhaps how Presidents steal elections and money from their citizens every day...those are some real live conspiracy theories...

The thing is that they didn't even tell us why this was necessarily important. If the government blew up the trade centers and orchestrated the whole thing in order to go to war, then let's protest the wars that emerged from the wreckage, rather than protest to get the government to launch a more thorough investigation into what really happened. (Besides...they went through an awful lot of trouble to link the catastrophe to Afghanistan when we actually went after Iraq in the end...if they did it, why not just link it to Iraq in the first place?). Instead it was a massive group of men and women who already believed in the conspiracy sitting around laughing about how the government was so inefficient and managed to set up the destruction of two (I mean three!) very important buildings without anyone knowing or leaving any concrete proof (haha!). But how they are both incredily ineffiecient and masterminds of a grand conspiracy continues to baffle me...

As I fought the urge to ask the man if he was paid by the Obama Administration to spread rumors to make people hate President Bush (just to get a reaction, of course...) I did briefly think about how judgemental I was being of this room of people; but mostly I realized how sad it made me...we have all this wealth and a relatively well-functioning government...and what we do with that is discuss how the government (which has never even come close to enacting violence against its own citizens...only those of different nationalities...) is wreaking massive destruction on its own people. And I decided if these people really wanted a conspiracy theory against its government maybe it should become citizens of Darfur or Zimbabwe (and numerous other countries).

All in all, I decided that I would much rather go downtown and sit with Reverend Mary and listen to her talk about how the Queen of England is financing the international drug trade through Epiphany Episcopal Church, or how the government has it out for the homeless because they categorize them as mentally ill or drug addicted...besides, those are more likely to be true...

Thoughts?

A poor man's field may produce abundant food,
but injustice sweeps it away.
-Proverbs 13:23

Love is a teacher

Her name is Angela. And she has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. I passed her on my way out of Target last week, and if I had been a little more with it (meaning not coming off of an overnight shift) I would have thought to ask her to go eat breakfast with me, rather than offering her the small amount of change in my wallet. I asked her what her name is and I reached out my hand, she looked at me with surprise and timidly extended her scarred hand towards mine. It looked as though she had been badly burnt. I thought about her again today as I ran into Target...I wanted to see her again, since my mind was a little bit clearer. I wanted to sit down with her and ask her what her story was. But she wasn't in her spot outside the door. Maybe (hopefully) someone else was treating her to breakfast.

I wonder what it would be like to not be seen. To stand day after day in the same spot and have people walk by in a hurry, pretending to be engrossed in the sidewalk or the sky...to be denied the basic right to exist to others. Isn't it sad that it is hardly even normal to make contact with strangers?

Though I've been making my way through the Old Testament history and proverbs books currently, yesterday I flipped through Isaiah--which is, by far, my favorite book of all time. I especially love the chapters in the 50's--specifically 55 and 58. It is here in beautiful poetry that Isaiah lavishes us with God's love for His people and for the poor. And it is in this chapter where answers are given. Where God proclaims that He will come to His people if they humble themselves and begin to provide for the poor. It is here where the trees of the fields will clap their hands as you go out with joy and are lead forth in peace. Where He comforts His people by providing them with spiritual food and His people care for each other by providing each other with physical food. Here is here, in Isaiah 55 and 58, where I believe God lays out His perfect plan for this world that He created.

As always, I've been thinking about love, and how I want to love people all the time. All people. I want to love the random person who walks down the street with their iPod, too involved in their own world to look up. I want to love the people it's more natural for me to love (but not easy, those should not get confused), like my family and friends, and the poor and down-hearted. I want to love people better...and always. It is my prayer that I would love better....that we all would love better. I want to see a time when true fasting that sets the oppressed free, shares food, clothes the naked and cares for others before outselves comes.

And while love is hard to acheive and it is won by long labor, I pray that we would be working towards it. Will you join me?

...love is a teacher; but one must know how to acquire it,
for it is hard to acquire, it is dearly bought,
it is won slowly by long labor.
For we must love not only occasionally,
for a moment, but forever.
Everyone can love occasionally, even the wicked can.
-Dostoyevsky