A series of unfortunate events.

I am not a Halloween fanatic by any means but there are things about it that I look forward to.  But for the whole country and people back home this Halloween is different, very different.  

The beauty of Halloween is it brings about the opportunity to see how you can creatively search your closets ( and quite frankly your friends closets) in search of the perfect pieces.  It is the chance to get to dress up as someone, or something else.  For a few hours, you have the opportunity to (unrealistically) alter your reality.   

The past few mornings I have been able to see the TODAY show and the devastation hitting the East Coast.  In all honesty, Josh and I had no idea about the Super Storm- another side effect of not having television or internet in our apartment.  I watch it in disbelief and wonder how people even figure out where to start.  

Another storm hit back home in MN when we found out that a young Life Time trainer passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.    While I did not know him as well as Josh, my heart still aches at the loss.  I know he was a man who had come from a life of destruction to a life of hope.  He loved the Lord, which is a powerful statement in and of itself to be said about anyone.  He and his wife were a few weeks away from celebrating one year of marriage.  I know that anyone can grieve for her in that, but being a wife I not only grieve but am angry for her.  I am angry that she had to be the one to find her husband gone.  I am angry that she had to go to bed alone last night.  I am angry that she had to wake up alone this morning having to remind herself that all that happened yesterday was real.  I am angry that the life they pledged to live together is gone.  Yes, I would like to search some closets, find a costume and alter my reality, alter her reality, alter the easts coasts reality.

But it won't happen.  The storms have hit, have done their damage and now we face the aftermath.  But amongst it all there is hope.  I feel like I should bold, underline, italicize and make that word 100 point font so it is not missed...HOPE.  I have been so empowered lately by the fact that I serve a God who is for me.  Literally, God is the only one for us.  We are selfish, fragile, prideful humans who without Christ's indwelling will always pick ourselves.  But God decided to step in and give us a new reality.  One where we can grieve, mourn and wail all the while knowing that He will always be for us.  

We live in a world that isn't just a series but a lifetime of unfortunate events.  But those events cannot take away our identity or purpose, only our roles.  Your house may be destroyed taking away your role as homemaker.  Your job may go under taking away your role as employed worker.  Your child may pass taking away your role as mother or father.  Your spouse may suddenly be gone taking away your role as husband or wife.  Yet those of us who are in Christ have hope.  We have the continued hope to live FROM our identity in every situation, which fulfills our purpose.  The roles we lead do not give our life purpose- we were born with our purpose- to worship and bring glory to God.  That purpose can be lived out in any circumstance or situation that life brings.  Therefore, everything can be taken away but our purpose and our identity can never be stripped from us.  The image God has created us in and God himself cannot be taken away, hence, we have hope.        

Book Worm: My latest reads

"The Hunger Games Trilogy" by Suzanne Collins

I was fortunate enough to have a friend from church borrow me all three books.  Once they were in my hands I HAD to start reading them.  While I have always enjoyed reading and especially looked forward to reading in bed before sleep, I have never been so immersed within a series.  As a lot of you know I am quite fond of the Lemony Snicket, Series of Unfortunate Events- but when I read the Hunger Games it was with MUCH greater intensity.  It is true on what you hear that they will completely suck you in until you have finished them all.  The end of each chapter leaves you HUNGRY for more that it is impossible to set them down without thinking, "what could possibly happen next?!"  I know some may be turned off by the nature of the story- children killing each other to keep "order" among the districts- but really as you become more familiar with the storyline it doesn't seem that much different than the things we hear about in the news.  

Any moment I had throughout the day I would find myself picking up the book to read just a little bit more.  Granted I won't really discuss much of story because I would not want to be the one to give something away.  There was only one person I talked to about the books while I was reading the trilogy in fear that someone might spill the beans!  haha- I made it through and am eagerly awaiting the movies.

"7" by Jen Hatmaker    

I recently started reading the book “7” written by Jen Hatmaker.  I had heard about this book from my good friend Brittany and purchased it for my husband for his birthday this year.  The sub title and basic explanation of the book is, “an experimental mutiny against excess”.  For 7 months, Jen and her family tackle 7 different areas of excess in someway involving the number 7.  The months include: food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending and stress.  This book has been such an easy enjoyable read because of Jen’s witty writing ability and funny stories- but also for the concept of her experiment.  I think I am drawn to the idea of giving something up/not doing something/doing something etc. for a certain amount of time.  It’s a personal challenge to exercise self discipline, which is I feel is totally me.  Also if we are being honest here, the ability to say, “yeah I did that” has its appeal.  

After each month I wrote a reaction in my journal on how I would like to mimic some of the months.  Overall Jen’s experiment could be seen as a type of fast.  She speaks about fasting in the book and put a new light on it all for me.  She gave a message at a women’s conference on Isaiah 58

Jen puts it well in saying, “…God’s idea of a fast is less about what we’re against and more about what we are for…When we hear “fast,” we put on a yoke of self-denial.  When God said “fast,” He meant to take off the yoke of oppression.”  She urges us to read Isaiah 58 and see that we should fast from self-obsession, greed, apathy and elitism.  Not focusing on the things we have given up or even ourselves and how great we are with self-denial.  We should focus on the marginalized, the poor, the hungry, the hurting…the ones we have been charged to serve.      

"Radical" by David Platt

This book was given to Josh and I from a very dear friend, actually the same friend who introduced me to “7”...she has good taste in books!  The tag line for this book is “Taking back your faith from the American Dream.”  It was easy for me to get defensive at the start of reading this book.  I felt that everything was over generalized- therefore including myself in the mix of it all feeling condemned.  But really that is just me throwing myself into the book in such a way that I feel personally attacked.  Really, I should be doing that with this book so that I take it seriously in my own life.  So after I realized all that- I eased into the book and saw my defensiveness is from the fact there are areas I need to be transformed.  Platt addressed basic issues that American Christians tend to not take seriously, which can be detrimental to our faith.  It is a book that really makes you think about the kind of Christian Christ CALLED us to be- not what kind of Christian America says we CAN be.  The one thing that really stands out in my mind from the whole book is when Platt said something to the effect of that reading the book of Leviticus IS more beneficial and impact-ful than any Christian book because it is the Word of God.  Wow- let us not belittle the great relationship with have been given to have with the Creator.      

The Rainy Season is Approaching

It seems that most of the country is embracing the fall weather- changing leaves, cooler temperatures and layering up.  Seattle on the other hand has been holding onto the last bit of summer for as long as possible.  I can’t remember the last time it really rained here and it was only the other day that I began to see reds, oranges and yellows in the leaves.  But that is all about to change.  Seattle doesn’t so much have seasons as it has two forecasts, sun or rain.  As you might have guessed we have had the first forecast of sun for quite awhile, but the latter will inevitably arrive late in the week.  It is kind of funny because the weather is consistent in the fact that when they say summer begins July 5^th- it does and when there is a first sign of rain in the forecast it won’t go away until next July 5^th.

In other news, our laptop is back and better than ever!  The family I nanny for was gracious enough to give us one of their extra hard drives and install it.  Then we went back to the Apple store so that they could re-install the proper operating system.  They were able to put on a newer version than what we had before and it runs like a dream.  We are very grateful that what started out as an almost $200 repair became a free repair!

This past Sunday night Josh and I were able to go to a Sounders Soccer game.  We quickly learned that the Sounders are a big deal here and their fans are quite loyal/fanatic.  They play in the Seahawks stadium but there are only a few games each season that they open up the top level for cheap seat viewing.  We jumped on the opportunity knowing that we will never be able to go to a game again.  We decided to go an hour early because we learned in our first few weeks here that fans gather in Pioneer Square and march to the stadium together.  It was intense, and slightly scary but at the same time fun to watch.  The front of the pack of fans were leading the chants and all had scarves or bandanas covering all but their eyes.  As they marched forward they lit something that began filling the air with green and blue smoke (Sounders colors).  At the end of the pack was the band that stays outside the stadium playing until the games starts.  Our seats were at the very top, but it was still a great view and our row only had 4 seats in it- an added bonus for having more space!  The fans on the lower level never sat down the entire game and EVERYONE had something on representing Sounders- like I said die heart fans.  The game was 90 minutes and once the clock starts it never stops running.  Even if there is an injury or the ball goes out of bounds the clock keeps counting up.  The same players are on the field the entire time- only get a break at halftime.  Another thing that made the game interesting was that there are no announcers.  Because we were so high, and there were no announcers, it as though you were watching the game on “Mute”…kind of weird.  The Sounders won 3-0 and am super glad we made it to a game!

The views from the top side of the stadium- so cool!

The view from out seats

 This is also the time of year to see salmon migrating back to their place of birth.  There is a salmon hatchery located in the nearby town of Issaquah.  The Renzelman’s brought us out there last week to see the salmon jumping the ladder.  I was amazed at how big the salmon were and the determination they had to make it back home.      

The throw back Shell we encountered driving through town

              

This past Monday was our last CG at the Radford’s.  As I wrote in a previous blog our CG is “triplicating”- breaking off into different CG’s so that we aren’t one overly large group.  It was a chill evening that started with a feast of tacos and desserts- yum.  We then did something we should have done every time we met- sang worship songs together.  Dave, one of the leaders, has lead worship in the past at other campuses.  He busted out his guitar, printed off lyrics to a handful of songs and we worshiped Jesus together.  My heart will always melt to the simplistic worship of just a guitar and voices.  Though we did have an egg shaker, and an African drum- it still had a sense of rawness to it that reminds you of what worship is all about.  I was once again reminded of how great Jesus is and the body of Christ.  Josh and I were sitting in a home, in Seattle, with a room full of people we had only met 6 months ago… singing to Jesus together.  We will miss our Monday night group but are grateful for that the fact that we will continue to see all these people because we are all from one body of believers!

I thought I would include one of the songs we sang that night, which is a Mars Hill classic, written by one of their bands.  

“Oh!, Great is Our God”