once upon a time.

we once had a bird feeder that was held by suction cups to our living room window. it was bright green and we were afraid that it would fall off, so we never kept it more than half full of bird seed at a time. birds never came to it. we waited and waited for months and they never came. then one day, after a very bad day, i came home to find it shattered on the drive outside our apartment building. i cried and luke gave me a hug and said that it would be okay.

last week i decided to put some birdseed on the ledge outside our window to see if the birds would come and eat. they did. and now, every once in a while, when the windows are open, i hear little chirps and cracking noises and i look up to see little sparrows sitting outside our window.

luke and i have been memorizing Bible verses recently. our first goal is to memorize philippians. i have a hard time with memorizing verses because as i read them, instead of memorizing them i think about what they mean to me, to the way i act, think and talk, to the way i go about my life. this happened when i came across philippians 1:7, which reads "being confident in this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." i realize that the significance this has on my life is twofold. first, that God DID start a good work in me (even though, especially recently, i have not felt as such) and that second He will carry it on to completion (an argument for patience, yes?).

i also must realize that this is not only a promise in me, but a promise for the world. luke showed me this article yesterday, and i haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. and when i think about it i cry.

my heart aches for His justice and for His mercy. for a time when they will reign together in perfect harmony. for His kingdom to come.

i know that i haven't written much recently. i have hardly written about our weekend with servants to asia's urban poor in oklahoma city. honestly, i think it was too good to put into words. but there we sang songs of justice to God. i've been singing one in my head recently, so i will close with that.

o, this night is dark indeed
while we're waiting for the light
for the nations to be judged
and the powers to be put to shame
o, Lord, spare Your poor,
save our soul
from our violence, oppression, fear and anxiety

although i am weeping
Lord help me keep sowing
seeds for the day when Your
peace will arise with the dawn.
when the bombs we are dropping
and the guns that keep firing
melts in the face of the just
as Your kingdom comes

now i sow in tears
that one day i might weep with joy
when the mountains will drip with wine
and we beat, beat, beat our swords into plowshares

name this guy...

...and i will most definitely consider you one of the coolest people ever. (luke! don't ruin it!)

i'm such a housing nerd (hint!). i got pretty giddy after this photo was taken...some people have movie stars, i have political figures (i'm making this way to easy...).

more to come about nlihc's 2010 conference!

cop out.

i have lots of thoughts, but not many words.

oklahoma city was wonderful. too wonderful. we talked about Jesus all weekend. about how He loves the poor. those on the outskirts of society. we talked about how we can best love them, too. and how Jesus has this plan for an upside-down kingdom, where the powerless are powerful and the powerful are powerless. and where both justice and mercy reign, because even though they seem like opposites, our God is great enough to encompass both of them perfectly. we sang songs together about this kingdom coming to earth. about justice and mercy. beautiful concepts of a beautiful God.

this morning i taught my 3rd-5th graders sunday school. one boy did not want to come with me, because "all the little kids do is get to watch movies and color, we have to learn bible verses". "okay," i told him. "we were going to go outside today, but if you want to color we can do that instead..." "no," he replied, "i want to go outside." "good," i said, "first we have to learn our memory verse."

i've learned that when things seem messed up or when i feel out of place a look at a sunrise or a sunset (depending on my mood...) can have the most calming effect. God gives us beautiful sunsets out of our windows...

cherry blossoms

the cherry blossoms have arrived in dc. that means warmer weather, pretty flowers and lots of tourists! but today we braved the tourists and went downtown. the beautiful flowers are too pretty for me not to share with those of you who can't make it to see them in person. plus, the green and white of the trees and the blue sky came together in a perfect burst of color. we have such an artistic God.

("hey, wifey, take a picture of me licking the jefferson memorial...")

one thing that is really cool about spring and summers in dc is that this city comes alive. and i don't mean the tourists. there are always lots and lots of tourists. i mean the citizens. suddenly there are people picnicking around the waterfront, bureaucrats and lobbyists playing kickball on the mall, and senators kayaking on the potomac (okay, so i don't know about that last one...). but today the green grass was filled with people just lounging, watching their children run around barefoot or climb trees. the city was alive.
yes, there are some days when i am happy to live in this place.

go on up to the mountain of mercy...

it was not a good day. it was one of those days where nothing really goes wrong, but even less goes right. frustration abounds until it bubbles up and makes you do and say things that just end up making you feel guilty and then more frustrated. but God is good. and for some reason, this morning i woke up with this song in my head. and i needed it in my head all day, because it reminds me of His grace.

go on up to the mountain of mercy
to the crimson perpetual tide
kneel down at the shore
be thirsty no more
go under, and be purified

follow Christ to the Holy mountain
sinner, sorry and wrecked by the fall
cleanse your heart and your soul
in the fountain that flows
for you and for me and for all

at the wonderful, tragic, mysterious tree
on that beautiful, scandalous night, you and me
were atoned by His blood and forever washed white
on that beautiful, scandalous night

on the hillside you will be delivered
at the foot of the cross, justified
and your spirit restored
by the river that pours
from our blessed Savior's side

at the wonderful, tragic, mysterious tree
on that beautiful, scandalous night, you and me
were atoned by His blood and forever washed white
on that beautiful, scandalous night

You carry the sin of mankind on Your back
and the sky went black
go on up to the mountain of mercy
to the crimson perpetual tide
kneel down on the shore
be thirsty no more
go under and be purified

at the wonderful, tragic, mysterious tree
on that beautiful, scandalous night, you and me
were atoned by His blood and forever washed white
on that beautiful, scandalous night
on that beautiful, scandalous night
beautiful, scandalous, miraculous night

thinking out.

i made 12 dozen cookies last night and one pan of brownies. we took them all to church today on the bus for the lunch fellowship we have every week after the service. we went to bed and woke up smelling the sweet aromas of baked goods. it was delightful.

the cherry blossoms and daffodils are blooming all across dc. it's beautiful, and it makes running and walking everywhere much nicer. it's also considerably warmer, which also helps.


it's wrestle-mania night tonight. we saw in the free metro paper that the undertaker is apparently making a big showing tonight. our neighbor is a big fan of the undertaker, and so are all of his friends. they like to cheer so loudly that we can often hear them all the way back in our bedroom.

we've been thinking about our situation lately. about the bus, about our neighbors, about our neighborhood. i think God is reminding us of our dependence on and interconnectedness with others. i think this will be key as we move on to the next step in our lives.

we're headed to oklahoma this weekend to hear about what God is doing in the slums and how we might join Him. we'll see.

some days are filled with life and laughter. others, not so much. most of the time, i have no idea what God is doing. but i feel like we're on the brink of something big here. and i'm ready to jump...if only i knew where...

lessons from saint patrick.

on wednesday, march 17, commonly known as "saint patrick's day", i saw these two men walking down the street towards the white house on my way to work.

saint patrick's day is incredibly bizarre to me. for some people, they intentionally do not wear green or celebrate the day. for others, it is an excellent reason to go get drunk. still others care nothing about the day and it passes without much consequence.

i think i fall somewhere in the middle, we wore green and ate corn beef and cabbage with friends. but most of all, we listened to and retold the story about saint patrick. i taught it to my kids in sunday school, i listened to it again on wednesday night at perspectives. it's such a cool story, and i wanted to share it here, though i'm sure many of you know it already.

___________________________

patrick was born in england around 387 ad to an english deacon father. his grandfather was a priest. when patrick was 16 years old he was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery to an irish man where he herded cows and pigs for six years.

one day, when patrick was out in the fields, he had a vision that told him to get up, his ship was ready. so patrick got up, ran away from his master, and headed to the nearest shore (which was about 200 miles away). when he got there he found a ship waiting, he asked if he could have passage back to england, and they took him home.

a few years later, patrick had another vision:

"i saw a man coming, as it were from ireland. his name was victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. i read the heading: 'the voice of the irish'. as i began the letter, i imagined in that moment that i heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: 'we appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.' "

so patrick went. and he is credited for bringing christianity to ireland.

_________________________

so when i celebrate st. patrick's day, i celebrate missions. the kind of missions that saves and redeems and brings complete and absolute glory to God. what a crazy way to follow God--back to a land where you were held as a slave, to a land that was barbaric. talk about turning the other cheek! he was free! back in england with his family, with whom he had no contact for 6 years. and he left to go back to the very people who had taken him away to begin with.

this week our perspectives lesson was on the task remaining. we talked about what unreached people groups are left. people who have no opportunity to hear of the love of Jesus because nobody around them has ever heard The Story either. 40% of the world lives among these people. 40% of the world has never heard. and only 10% of the missionaries are going.

as we were discussing this, the speaker (who just so happened to be our associate minister this week) told a story about two young moravians and their desire to reach people who had no opportunity to hear. they were drawn to an island where slaves were kept to be traded and sold. the island was owned by an atheist slave trainer, who proudly stated that no christian would ever set foot on his island. so these two young men, grieved by these men and women who would never hear of the love of Christ, sold themselves into slavery to the slave trader and used the money to buy their passage onto the island. as they were leaving their friends and family, hugging them goodbye for the last time ever, shedding, i'm sure many tears and climbing onto the boat, one of the young men turned, and as he waved goodbye for one last time he yelled "worthy is the Lamb who was slain...".

worthy is the Lamb. worthy of all glory and power and honor. worthy of all the praise of all the people on the earth. of every people group, ethnicity and nationality.

what would it look like if i lived like the Lamb is worthy?